For years, B2B marketing teams have tried to solve pipeline problems with a simple formula: generate more leads.
But for most organizations, that approach doesn’t improve outcomes. It just creates more noise for Sales to sort through.
What’s missing isn’t lead quantity. It’s coverage.
The Lead Quality Problem Isn’t What It Looks Like
Craig Abramson (now at Workday) learned this firsthand while leading demand generation at Zimit.
At the time, marketing was contributing roughly 5% of the pipeline. Within less than a year, that number grew to over 50%.
The shift didn’t come from doubling the budget or launching ten new campaigns. It came from a fundamental pivot in targeting.
From Leads to Buying Groups
Early on, Craig’s team was driving massive top-of-funnel activity. The content was performing, the leads were coming in, but the pipeline wasn’t moving.
Craig highlighted that they were bringing in a lot of manager titles, but that those managers weren’t having conversations with their SDRs.
When they looked at the data, the reality was clear: Director-level and above stakeholders were the ones who actually engaged with sales, moved into discovery, and contributed to closed-won revenue.
So, they made a choice. They removed lower-value roles from their targeting and focused exclusively on the “Power Center” of the buying group.
The result wasn’t just “better leads” – it was better pipeline.
Why This Matters: The Individual vs. The Committee
Most teams still think about leads at the individual level. But in modern B2B, buying doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
It happens across multiple functions, varying seniority levels, and shifting internal priorities.
When marketing focuses on individuals instead of buying groups, it creates engagement without progression.
The Real Shift: From MQLs to Marketing-Qualified Accounts (MQAs)
This is where the thinking changes. Instead of asking: “How many leads did we generate?” The better question is: “How many relevant stakeholders are we engaging within the account?”
Craig describes this as the shift toward Marketing-Qualified Accounts. In this model, success looks like:
- Multiple stakeholders engaged
- Coverage across key decision-making roles
- Coordinated interest signals
- Readiness for a sales conversation
This is a very different model than traditional lead generation – not about volume, but about intent and influence.
Alignment = Trust
This shift also changes the dynamic with Sales. We’ve all seen the old cycle where marketing generates leads, sales questions the quality, and both teams ultimately defend their silos.
What changed for Craig wasn’t a new “process.” It was trust.
When Marketing and Sales agree on who the buying group is and what a qualified account looks like, the friction disappears. That way, you aren’t just handing over names; you’re handing
Closing Thought
The lesson here is how you define quality. If you define quality as volume, then you will optimize for activity. But if you define quality as buying group engagement then you will optimize for movement.
Until you focus on who actually influences the decision and how those stakeholders move together, more leads will not fix your pipeline.
