Nektar.ai Blog From MQL's to Buying Groups: Reltio's Success Story

Welcome to The Revenue Lounge From MQLs to Buying Groups: How Reltio Transformed Its GTM Strategy A conversation with Eric Cross, CRO at Reltio. For years, revenue teams have leaned heavily on the MQL. It was the industry-standard metric for marketing success-and the lifeblood of pipeline generation for B2B companies. But in today's world of complex buying decisions, anonymous research, and multi-threaded stakeholder involvement, the MQL is failing. The old playbooks simply don't map to how enterprise buyers actually operate today. Eric Cross, Chief Revenue Officer at Reltio, saw this firsthand. And rather than trying to force-fit modern buyers into outdated systems, he and his team made a bold move: they rebuilt their entire go-to-market motion around buying groups. This wasn't a pilot. It wasn't a small A/B test. It was a company-wide transformation executed in just 60 days. And the results were staggering: 60% reduction in pipeline attrition 22-23% improvement in average time to close 20% increase in average deal size Best-in-class competitive win rates In this blog, we'll walk you through exactly how Reltio made this shift-from early warning signs to full implementation, change management, technology, and metrics. If you're a RevOps, Marketing, or Sales leader evaluating your next GTM evolution, this is the playbook. Facebook Twitter Youtube Spotting the Cracks: Why the MQL Model Wasn't Enough Eric joined Reltio in 2020 and began evaluating the revenue engine. The data told a troubling story. "We had a legacy demand gen model: leads to MQLs, then into pipeline, and hopefully into opportunities. But once deals entered the pipeline, we were evaporating 35-40% of them in the first two stages. That was alarming." The consequence? The pipeline looked deceptively healthy on paper, but in reality, a significant chunk was never going to close. "We were creating a false sense of security about how healthy our pipeline was. That was the catalyst for change." Realignment Begins: "Sales Owns Marketing, and Marketing Owns Sales" The first step wasn't tactical-it was cultural. "Most companies operate in silos. Sales blames marketing. Marketing blames sales. I had to rewire that thinking completely. We stopped talking about 'sales' and 'marketing.' We became one GTM team. Sales owns marketing. Marketing owns sales." To build consensus, Eric organized a two-day offsite with cross-functional leaders from Sales, Marketing, Product, Customer Success, and Ops. "It wasn't just a marketing and sales decision. This had to be a company decision. We locked the team in a room and said, 'We're walking out of here aligned.'" The team was instructed to prepare: A brief problem statement Recommended actions A vision for a new GTM model And they debated-openly and intensely. "You get highs and lows during a session like that. But we made a rule: we don't have to agree, but we do have to commit. We were either all in or not doing it at all." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKosC5cYEpU&t=430s Burning the Boats: Why Reltio Didn't Pilot the Buying Group Model One of the boldest decisions Reltio made was to roll the new model out across the company-not as a pilot. "Pilot programs signal you're not committed. People think: 'This is an exercise, I don't have to change.' I've never seen a pet project like that succeed. So we said: all in, or not at all." That decision came with high stakes. "I told our CEO, Manisha, 'This will either be a game-changer-or you'll be looking for a new CRO.'" But conviction won out. The team moved forward with full executive and board-level awareness and support. Why Buying Groups? Understanding the Strategic Shift Eric's rationale for abandoning MQLs in favor of buying groups was rooted in today's B2B buying behavior. "Enterprise buyers don't raise their hand right away. They stay anonymous for 60-70% of the buying journey. By the time they engage, they've already formed a direction." This made traditional lead generation-like cold calls and webinar follow-ups-ineffective. "We're in the era of the great ignore. Buyers get 30 spammy emails a day. They can see automation a mile away. We needed to earn attention earlier, smarter." The solution? Use intent data to identify surging accounts Personalize outreach for each persona within a buying group Focus on qualified engagement from multiple stakeholders, not just one lead "It's no longer about how many people we reach. It's about reaching the right people-the ones who matter to the deal." The 60-Day GTM Overhaul: From Planning to Execution Eric broke the transformation into three phases: 1. Design and Planning Finalize buying group motion Align teams on definitions, personas, and ICP Redefine opportunity entry/exit criteria Introduce Forrester to validate and refine the strategy "We brought in Forrester to spend half a day with us. They stress-tested our approach and made some great suggestions we incorporated." 2. Development and Testing Align tech stack: Salesforce, 6sense, Salesloft, Outreach Build ABX dashboards for AEs and BDRs Re-architect sales stages and qualification frameworks (BANT, MedPIC) "We created dashboards where reps could see all their accounts and intent signals. The lightbulb went off-they'd never had visibility like that before." 3. Production Launch and Measurement Rolled out company-wide in 60 days Quietly tested with one regional team for early signals Measured success using pipeline quality, velocity, and conversion benchmarks Overcoming Resistance: How Reltio Won Buy-in from the Frontlines The biggest challenge? Change management among AEs. "The top objection? 'Just get me meetings. I'll take it from there.' That mindset doesn't work anymore." To drive adoption, Eric: Ran listening pods with small AE groups Invited feedback to poke holes in the strategy Used individual performance data to show why change was needed "We showed them their personal conversion rates. Some were below 20%. Even if they were hitting quota, it was clear the system was broken." While 80% of reps leaned in, 20% resisted. In a few cases, Eric made the hard call. "If you can't get on board, we'll reassign your accounts. This isn't optional." Redefining Metrics: What Success Looks Like in a Buying Group World Reltio stopped measuring MQLs and switched to twoThe post From MQL's to Buying Groups: Reltio's Success Story appeared first on Nektar.ai.