The demand unit waterfall emerged from our realisation that the traditional lead-based approach was fundamentally flawed. In B2B, the buyer isn't an individual—it's a group of people. When we analysed client data, we saw that multiple leads often came from the same account, representing different members of a buying group. This insight led us to shift focus from individual leads to buying groups and the opportunities they represent.

The waterfall consists of stages that align with the buying process: identifying your ideal customer profile, understanding which buying groups are in-market, tracking their engagement, and measuring how they progress through the funnel. This approach provides a more accurate picture of potential revenue opportunities and helps organisations allocate resources more effectively.

What's crucial to understand is that this isn't just a slight adjustment to existing processes. It's a complete rethinking of how we view and measure B2B demand. By focusing on buying groups rather than individual leads, we're aligning our marketing and sales efforts with how businesses actually make purchase decisions.

Intent data and AI have significantly altered our ability to identify and understand in-market buyers. At 6sense, we aggregate signals from various sources—our platform, third-party intent providers, and anonymous website traffic—to build a comprehensive picture of buying behaviour.

AI allows us to analyse these massive datasets and identify patterns that indicate when an organisation is in-market and at what stage of the buying journey they're in. This insight enables marketers to time their outreach more effectively and tailor their messaging to the buyer's specific needs and stage in the process.

But it's not just about timing and targeting. The real power of AI in this context is its ability to uncover insights that humans might miss. For example, it can identify correlations between certain types of content consumption and likelihood to purchase, or spot early indicators of buying intent that might not be obvious to the naked eye.

This level of insight allows for a much more nuanced and effective approach to marketing. Instead of broad-based campaigns, we can create highly targeted, personalised outreach that speaks directly to the needs and interests of each buying group member.

The key is understanding the modern B2B buying journey. Our research consistently shows that buyers don't engage with sellers until they're about 70% through their journey. By that point, they've usually already chosen a favourite vendor. This means that marketing owns that crucial first 70% of the journey where preferences are formed.

Cutting marketing budgets essentially means accepting less influence over buyers during this critical decision-making phase. CMOs need to articulate this to their leadership teams. They should emphasise that with the right tools and strategies, marketing can more effectively identify and engage in-market buyers, ultimately driving more efficient spend and better sales outcomes.

It's not just about defending budgets, though. It's about using those budgets more effectively. Many organisations aren't fully leveraging intent data or analysing their anonymous traffic. By adopting these practices, marketing teams can often achieve better results even with constrained resources.

Moreover, CMOs should focus on demonstrating the direct link between marketing activities and revenue outcomes. With the right technology and approach, it's possible to show how marketing efforts are influencing buying group behaviour and ultimately contributing to won deals. This kind of concrete, revenue-focused reporting can be very persuasive when making the case for marketing investment.