What Worked Yesterday Doesn't Work Today (Or Does It?) [Papirfly]

Gavin Dimmock · June 2023

Hi, I’m @Gavin Dimmock, CRO at Papirfly Group. Here’s a whistle-stop overview of my talk at Inspire UK, covering Papirfly’s journey to embracing data-driven decision making.

What Worked Yesterday Doesn't Work Today (Or Does It?).pdf

Key Data Questions at Papirfly

We faced a longtime challenge: Considering that 5% of our ICP was always ready to buy, how should we…?

Achieve brand salience so they know who we are and what we do
Identify and prioritise time with them
Engage the other 95% who aren’t ready to buy

The challenges making it difficult to answer these questions included…

Sales had no visibility of prospect journey until someone requested a demo
Making sure marketing spend is going in the right place, attributing the spend, and targeting our true ICP.
We had inconsistent and / or lack of process, methodology and tools.

Despite all this, we were achieving double-digit growth. So why was I worried?

“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure. That just ain't so.” — Mark Twain

What I mean by this quote, is that I could see a lot of data and statistics, and a decision-making process based on the data. But my 30 years’ experience in enterprise sales and leadership meant I didn’t quite believe it – why was this?

Back to the 90s

Imagine a B2B world with no Linkedin, intent data, outreach sequences or ChatGPT. You’d rely on strong relationships, networking and referrals, face to face meetings, direct mail and offline marketing, thought leadership and expertise, partnerships, exceptional customer service.

Sounds like the 90s (when I started out in sales)!

I still believe many of these elements are important to selling today. But if we take data out of the equation, what would we be missing out on?

Harnessing the Power of Data in Business and Marketing Efforts

Today, we have data transparency throughout the entire customer lifecycle that tells us exactly how we’re doing.

Our GTM stack including 6sense brings clear visibility so I can now:

Confidently gather accurate and qualified data from the prospect experience all the way through to a renewal experience. Helps allocate limited resources
Measure brand awareness and correlation between rep activity and brand engagement
Be precise with ABM mapping to engage buyer across their journey
Ultimately, deliver a better experience for customers

In Summary: Putting Data to Use

Recognise the importance of data to make informed decisions and allocate our resources strategically.
BUT don’t over-obsess. Data shouldn’t overshadow our intuition. I firmly believe that data-driven decision-making isn't meant to replace instincts and experience, but rather to complement them. Use data to validate – or challenge – your ideas and arrive at a more comprehensive answer.
Make data easy to consume and be clear about what's important. Everyone processes information differently.
Amplify and communicate wins, get people excited about data
Be mindful of culture. We talk about improvements, not change.

**** To view all Inspire UK sessions, click here.

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