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Oliver Forder
Managing Director, International Sales at Extreme Reach
about
Oliver Forder
Oliver Forder is a consultant specialising in driving business growth in challenging economic conditions, with equal focus on sales and marketing. He has just completed an interim role at XR, Extreme Reach as Managing Director, International Sales which began in January 2024 - his second role at the company. In this most recent capacity, he has been responsible for driving revenue across the business in all markets except North America; previously Oliver served as interim Chief Marketing Officer for 8 months in 2021. Additionally, Oliver serves as a Non-Executive Director at SHAREIGHT, helping the founder with company strategy and coaching the sales team, and is the Founder & CEO of CONJRE Ltd., an AI-powered software solution that creates video advertising content in real time. His expertise in driving growth is based on a career that spans advertising, marketing, sales, production, and ad tech. Oliver is known for his strategic approach, client management skills and inspirational leadership.
Would you describe your company’s revenue generation as more sales-led or marketing-led? What factors influence this balance?
At XR, Extreme Reach, I’d say our revenue generation is quite balanced between sales and marketing, though it depends on the customer segment. Our enterprise clients receive dedicated sales attention because of their significant contribution to revenue. On the other hand, the smaller customers, while collectively important, are too numerous for direct sales engagement. Marketing, combined with operations, takes the lead with scalable, one-to-many interactions.
We’ve segmented our customer base into three tiers: large enterprise clients, mid-tier, and smaller accounts. Our key account teams manage enterprise, the mid-tier gets personal attention on a quarterly basis, and the long tail relies on marketing efforts. So, depending on the segment, the process can be either more sales-led or marketing-led.
What are your thoughts on the evolving relationship between sales and marketing in B2B, and how can marketing support sales more effectively?
I believe the distinction between sales and marketing in B2B is somewhat artificial. This separation often stems from a B2C background, where sales typically happen through a channel, making the roles of marketing and sales more distinct. In B2B, though, both teams should act as one, unified by shared KPIs aligned to the customer journey.
The motivations of marketing and sales people are fundamentally different. Marketers get a kick out of the demonstrable daily progress of driving a project forward, whereas salespeople, especially those working with enterprise accounts, are driven purely by outcome - even though, as every salesperson knows, won't always come with the regularity we might like. Recognising these differences in psychological makeup is the first step to improving collaboration.
For sales and marketing to work effectively together, we must further acknowledge that, alongside different motivations, they also tend to have different strengths. Typically marketing is better at crafting the overarching messages and landing the "higher-order benefits" that resonate with leadership in customer organisations, such as CFOs or CEOs. Sales can then tailor these messages to individual accounts, focusing on the specific, practical benefits that matter to their contact. This kind of collaborative approach, where each team plays to its strengths and feels appropriately rewarded and motivated, is the key to effective B2B operations.
How do you see the increasing complexity of B2B buying groups impacting your sales process, and what role should marketing play in addressing this?
As buying groups have grown more complex, involving decision-makers from different departments with varying priorities, the challenge for sales has increased. For instance, in many cases, the person making the decision isn’t the one who will use the product. At XR, we often face situations where decision-makers are far removed from the product’s end users. This disconnect can slow down the sales process and make it harder to demonstrate the product’s value.
This is where marketing can help. They can move beyond selling the practical benefits of our solutions and focus on higher-level advantages. A good marketer will know how to tie the product’s value to the overarching goals of the company. For example, while sales might focus on how a solution improves efficiency, marketing can show how it drives broader business effectiveness, which appeals to executives and other decision-makers.
Marketing’s role should also involve helping us build what I call a “matched competitive agenda.” This concept refers to aligning the objectives of the buying organisation with our goals as the selling organisation. The closer these two agendas overlap, the more successful the sale will be. Marketing excels at gathering insights on these organisational goals, allowing sales to present the solution in a way that resonates with the entire buying group.
With the proliferation of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), how effective are they in your sales process? What alternatives might work better?
The challenge with MQLs is that their quality can vary greatly from company to company. What’s critical is that everyone in the organisation, not just marketing and sales, understands their role in supporting the sales effort. MQLs need to be part of a broader customer journey that is coherent and mirrors the actual buying process.
In an ideal world, there would be no clear handoff between marketing and sales; instead, it would be a fluid process where marketing builds awareness and understanding, and then sales deepens that relationship with more specific, personalised conversations. Marketing should focus on creating engagement through inspiration, while sales moves towards information and practicalities once the customer is further along the journey.
One alternative I favour is to track intent signals more closely. Rather than focusing on volume-based lead generation, we should be identifying prospects earlier in their buying journey by understanding what they’re searching for, which products they’re engaging with, and what signals they’re sending. Marketing can play a huge role in interpreting these signals and helping sales engage earlier and more meaningfully.
How do you approach personalising your outreach at scale, and how can marketing support this effort more effectively?
Personalisation at scale is challenging, but it’s achievable if you focus on relevance. The key is to segment your audience effectively. One-to-one marketing is ideal but rarely feasible, so you need to find commonalities within groups of targets and craft messaging that feels personal, even if it’s not entirely individualised.
Marketing can support this by providing deep, account-specific insights. They need to understand the pain points, goals, and challenges of each segment, allowing sales to tailor outreach accordingly. This might involve understanding industry-specific trends or tapping into unique business challenges that certain segments face.
Technology plays a big role in making this process more effective. CRM systems and marketing automation platforms can help us manage data and create more personalised experiences. However, at the heart of it, it’s about understanding the customer’s world and ensuring that every piece of communication, from marketing or sales, is relevant and resonates with their needs.
about
XR (Extreme Reach)
XR, Extreme Reach is a company that specialises in powering storytelling for brands. They operate in the advertising technology and creative logistics space, providing solutions for the creation, management, and distribution of advertising content across various media channels. XR, Extreme Reach offers a comprehensive platform that streamlines the workflow for brands and agencies, helping them deliver their marketing messages efficiently and effectively. The company's services likely include digital asset management, talent and rights management, and ad delivery across television, digital, and emerging platforms. As a global player in the ad tech industry, XR, Extreme Reach aims to simplify and enhance the advertising process for businesses worldwide.
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.