TRANSCRIPCIÓN 🔗
WEBVTT
00:01:10.513 --> 00:01:14.033
All right. Today, I am sitting down with Leanne.
00:01:14.353 --> 00:01:18.973
She is the Marketing Director at Demandbase. She's a proactive B2B marketer
00:01:18.973 --> 00:01:22.733
who has led both traditional and digital marketing campaigns.
00:01:22.973 --> 00:01:28.713
She is extremely effective in developing ABM strategies, lead generation channel
00:01:28.713 --> 00:01:31.513
partnerships, and other promotion strategies.
00:01:31.873 --> 00:01:37.633
And she has 15 years of B2B SaaS marketing experience. In 2018,
00:01:37.793 --> 00:01:43.073
she actually created the Women in B2B Network, which is a vibrant community
00:01:43.073 --> 00:01:46.413
for senior professional women to connect, contribute, and grow.
00:01:46.673 --> 00:01:50.633
The mission of the network is actually to create a platform that connects women
00:01:50.633 --> 00:01:55.313
to opportunities, networks, businesses, and expertise that empowers them.
00:01:55.413 --> 00:01:57.993
And her network actually has over 400 members today.
00:01:58.373 --> 00:02:04.933
So Leanne, I'm super excited to chat with you and get to know more about your background. ground.
00:02:05.373 --> 00:02:07.633
Yeah, so excited to be here. Thanks for having me, Kira.
00:02:08.213 --> 00:02:14.613
Absolutely. So tell me a little bit about how and why you got into your current
00:02:14.613 --> 00:02:20.193
role and how you got into like the Women in B2B Network because that sounds pretty cool.
00:02:20.853 --> 00:02:24.453
Yeah, so I've been a career-long marketer. I always want to say lifelong,
00:02:24.573 --> 00:02:27.733
but I obviously haven't been doing this since like career-long.
00:02:28.453 --> 00:02:31.353
So always been in marketing it was something that
00:02:31.353 --> 00:02:34.653
I did that was part of my university degree
00:02:34.653 --> 00:02:37.393
and I did marketing as part of that in my
00:02:37.393 --> 00:02:41.233
last year and thought oh I really should have done a marketing degree because
00:02:41.233 --> 00:02:44.393
this is something that really interests me so then after university
00:02:44.393 --> 00:02:48.033
I went on and did another degree in my marketing diploma
00:02:48.033 --> 00:02:55.593
and I just love the different like disciplines and having uh learning lots of
00:02:55.593 --> 00:02:59.553
different skill sets and really understanding just like all of the different
00:02:59.553 --> 00:03:04.853
kind of aspects of marketing and then over the last nine years I've really developed.
00:03:05.778 --> 00:03:09.718
My skills in the areas of account-based marketing as we're starting to really
00:03:09.718 --> 00:03:15.238
focus on those accounts that have the highest propensity to buy and really having
00:03:15.238 --> 00:03:21.118
this focus on a target account list as being just a smarter way to go to market.
00:03:21.558 --> 00:03:24.998
That's where I've really got into it. And then I found myself at Demandbase.
00:03:25.078 --> 00:03:30.038
I've been here seven years this year and I'm in a really unique position where
00:03:30.038 --> 00:03:35.518
I use our own technology to help with my own account-based strategy.
00:03:36.038 --> 00:03:41.678
So I'm getting to use the product on a daily basis and give feedback and some
00:03:41.678 --> 00:03:45.018
product suggestions in terms of where we want to develop it.
00:03:45.238 --> 00:03:50.258
I get really involved in the sales cycle, pre and post sales to help our customers
00:03:50.258 --> 00:03:55.558
really learn how to leverage our technology and really get to practice what
00:03:55.558 --> 00:03:57.918
we preach around account-based marketing as well.
00:03:57.918 --> 00:04:00.898
So yeah it's a really sort of unique position
00:04:00.898 --> 00:04:03.658
to be marketing to marketers hence why i've been
00:04:03.658 --> 00:04:06.798
here for so long that's fun
00:04:06.798 --> 00:04:10.318
that's fun and i would assume you know a ton about your audience like way before
00:04:10.318 --> 00:04:15.078
going into it so that's that's also pretty unique yeah it's great having those
00:04:15.078 --> 00:04:18.798
peer to peer conversations as well so you're adding value in that sales cycle
00:04:18.798 --> 00:04:23.218
as well but it's great just to chat to other colleagues and you're bringing
00:04:23.218 --> 00:04:25.298
that kind of extra value to the to the
00:04:25.318 --> 00:04:28.218
sales team throughout those sales cycles. So yeah, it's pretty unique.
00:04:28.898 --> 00:04:34.398
Okay, awesome. So what's the one thing or the one tip or one piece of advice
00:04:34.398 --> 00:04:38.918
you'd like to share with marketers, especially in the B2B SaaS space?
00:04:39.738 --> 00:04:43.278
Yeah, so I think, you know, I mentioned about having this account-based approach.
00:04:43.358 --> 00:04:48.378
And I think one of the most urgent strategies in B2B today is focusing your
00:04:48.378 --> 00:04:52.658
time and your budget on the accounts that are most likely to buy.
00:04:52.878 --> 00:04:56.878
And that's harder than ever. And I think just given the economic climate that
00:04:56.878 --> 00:05:00.978
we find ourselves in, people are taking longer to make decisions,
00:05:01.218 --> 00:05:03.958
particularly around new technologies that they're purchasing,
00:05:04.038 --> 00:05:06.998
or they're not making a decision. People are.
00:05:08.056 --> 00:05:11.296
Scared really there's that real sort of fear factor if if
00:05:11.296 --> 00:05:14.376
i'm making the wrong decision decision you know my job could be on the line
00:05:14.376 --> 00:05:19.396
here those that are in an active sales cycle a lot of that is actually done
00:05:19.396 --> 00:05:25.616
anonymously so something like 95 of the customer's time in the buyer journey
00:05:25.616 --> 00:05:30.436
is actually done without that sales rep so so much of it is done anonymously and outside of a,
00:05:31.216 --> 00:05:35.336
salesperson's view and
Load full transcript
sometimes a marketer's view to understand where are these
00:05:35.336 --> 00:05:36.576
companies is researching it.
00:05:36.596 --> 00:05:39.136
If they're not coming to our website, where else are they looking?
00:05:39.536 --> 00:05:44.456
So I think it's really key to be able to get that intent of what companies are
00:05:44.456 --> 00:05:48.576
searching for, particularly products that are related to what you sell,
00:05:48.636 --> 00:05:50.676
but also if they're researching your competitors,
00:05:50.976 --> 00:05:54.616
like companies should be having that insight because we just need to be so much
00:05:54.616 --> 00:06:00.636
more proactive with those people that are researching and being able to deliver
00:06:00.636 --> 00:06:02.516
that really good customer experience.
00:06:02.616 --> 00:06:08.036
And it also just helps us be super focused on, you know, the accounts that we
00:06:08.036 --> 00:06:11.216
need to prioritize and ones that are showing those in-market signals.
00:06:11.936 --> 00:06:15.756
And I think another kind of part to that is kind of having everything.
00:06:16.815 --> 00:06:21.755
Once you have sort of decided upon or agreed upon having this account-based approach,
00:06:22.135 --> 00:06:27.795
it's then having one system in place to be able to link all of your data,
00:06:28.075 --> 00:06:33.275
your account level data, your contact level data, all of your systems and channels
00:06:33.275 --> 00:06:35.095
and processes and aligning teams.
00:06:35.435 --> 00:06:40.015
Because another sort of key challenge is this go-to-market fragmentation where
00:06:40.015 --> 00:06:43.935
sales are using one system, marketing are using another to look at accounts,
00:06:43.995 --> 00:06:47.155
contacts, leads, and And there's not that kind of one shared view.
00:06:47.335 --> 00:06:51.535
So having that one shared view between those teams is just so key.
00:06:51.895 --> 00:06:55.855
So I was saying having something, a platform or something in place to be able
00:06:55.855 --> 00:06:58.555
to give you that one view is really key.
00:06:59.015 --> 00:07:03.975
And then being able to measure the engagement across the buyer journey.
00:07:04.115 --> 00:07:09.235
So you can see where an account or an individual is in your funnel at any given
00:07:09.235 --> 00:07:14.435
time so that you know as a marketer, I know exactly what kind of messaging that
00:07:14.435 --> 00:07:18.555
I need to deliver to these accounts at these various stages in the sales cycle,
00:07:18.615 --> 00:07:23.255
but also when that lead or account is then ready for sales follow-up.
00:07:23.295 --> 00:07:27.515
So then they also know when's the right time for me to follow up when there's
00:07:27.515 --> 00:07:29.675
a decent amount of engagement.
00:07:29.695 --> 00:07:33.675
It's not just one person downloading a white paper that wouldn't constitute
00:07:33.675 --> 00:07:35.235
something that's sales ready.
00:07:35.415 --> 00:07:38.595
And then they also know what to say when they're of doing that follow-up as well.
00:07:39.195 --> 00:07:44.595
Okay. Yeah, that is awesome. I like that that's a whole system that kind of
00:07:44.595 --> 00:07:48.175
takes you from, we need to do account-based marketing to like,
00:07:48.215 --> 00:07:51.035
how are we going to link this all together to like, how are we going to make
00:07:51.035 --> 00:07:56.195
this a systematic approach to actually making sure that we're following up with
00:07:56.195 --> 00:08:00.835
people at the right time because we have all the data in front of us and it's
00:08:00.835 --> 00:08:02.535
all combined in a shared view.
00:08:02.975 --> 00:08:06.555
So like, what were you guys doing before
00:08:06.555 --> 00:08:10.295
you you implemented like consolidated or
00:08:10.295 --> 00:08:13.275
overarching abm system and like how
00:08:13.275 --> 00:08:17.855
does that compare to what you guys are doing now yes i mean i'm in the unique
00:08:17.855 --> 00:08:22.615
position where i work for an abm technology company so we very much practice
00:08:22.615 --> 00:08:26.515
what we preach we we already have that agreement on we're going to use our own
00:08:26.515 --> 00:08:30.735
technology to help our own go-to-market strategy and really live and breathe
00:08:30.735 --> 00:08:31.715
with account-based marketing.
00:08:31.855 --> 00:08:37.275
We become experts and that helps solidify our position in the market as a thought
00:08:37.275 --> 00:08:41.635
leader and one of the best or the best technology provider in that space as well.
00:08:42.055 --> 00:08:46.075
Prior to demand-based, it was really, you know, a lot of these issues started
00:08:46.075 --> 00:08:50.355
because there wasn't that sales and marketing alignment and marketing were providing
00:08:50.355 --> 00:08:51.895
sales with bad fit leads.
00:08:52.255 --> 00:08:55.895
It was almost like that kind of baton pass of like, well, we've got the lead,
00:08:55.955 --> 00:08:58.495
here you go sales, marketing jobs done.
00:08:58.915 --> 00:09:01.615
And that's where we leave it. And that just doesn't happen anymore.
00:09:01.755 --> 00:09:04.115
Marketing are getting involved from that,
00:09:04.195 --> 00:09:07.875
you know, helping to kind of work those leads and scoring and keep that engagement
00:09:07.875 --> 00:09:12.295
from the time that that account or an individual becomes a lead through to them
00:09:12.295 --> 00:09:14.755
becoming closed one opportunity as well.
00:09:15.546 --> 00:09:18.906
I think other challenges that I've experienced is then when you don't align
00:09:18.906 --> 00:09:24.726
with sales on what a good lead looks like, and you're not working together to
00:09:24.726 --> 00:09:28.506
really understand and build what does your ideal customer profile look like.
00:09:28.666 --> 00:09:32.226
And that just results in, again, providing those bad fit leads.
00:09:32.726 --> 00:09:38.206
It's like kind of square peg in a round hole scenario
where the result is it's
00:09:38.206 --> 00:09:42.846
a longer sales cycle because you're trying to close those bad fit accounts.
00:09:43.066 --> 00:09:47.546
You get lower average order values because the account isn't a good fit for you.
00:09:47.566 --> 00:09:52.106
It takes longer for you to be able to demonstrate and prove the value of the
00:09:52.106 --> 00:09:54.086
solution that you're trying to sell to that account.
00:09:54.326 --> 00:09:58.706
And then it impacts things like renewal rates because those accounts are a bad fit.
00:09:58.966 --> 00:10:03.426
And in that scenario, nobody has a great experience from a customer standpoint.
00:10:04.006 --> 00:10:06.666
If they're not a good fit for the business, they're just not going to have a
00:10:06.666 --> 00:10:10.106
great customer experience because the product's really not going to be sufficient
00:10:10.106 --> 00:10:14.526
for their needs, or they might not be quite ready for that product in terms
00:10:14.526 --> 00:10:16.226
of their market maturity.
00:10:16.866 --> 00:10:19.946
And for a lot of SaaS companies, well, for all SaaS companies,
00:10:20.326 --> 00:10:24.786
those renewal rates are so critical because they're measuring things like ARR,
00:10:24.866 --> 00:10:28.586
and that obviously helps things like funding and valuations and M&A opportunities.
00:10:29.246 --> 00:10:33.186
So it really has a huge knock-on effect throughout the funnel.
00:10:33.326 --> 00:10:38.246
So it's really important to be able to align on those, what does a good customer
00:10:38.246 --> 00:10:41.626
look like? Like, let's build our ideal customer profile together.
00:10:42.046 --> 00:10:47.206
And then we're passing leads to sales that they're actually able to close.
00:10:47.306 --> 00:10:52.586
I think the other key thing is having some sort of feedback system in place
00:10:52.586 --> 00:10:57.306
to say, if it is a bad lead, tell us and tell us why so that marketing can learn
00:10:57.306 --> 00:10:59.986
from that. And then they can work on improving the quality as well.
00:11:00.665 --> 00:11:04.985
Okay. I haven't heard of companies implementing a feedback system like that,
00:11:05.005 --> 00:11:10.765
but that sounds like such a good idea and something that a lot more people should be doing.
00:11:11.485 --> 00:11:18.505
Definitely. We have an amazing marketing operations team at Demandbase. We're really spoiled.
00:11:18.685 --> 00:11:21.845
And I always say they're the best in the business, but they
00:11:21.845 --> 00:11:25.405
introduced something thing that looks at mql
00:11:25.405 --> 00:11:28.465
eligible eligibility i always struggle to
00:11:28.465 --> 00:11:31.405
say that word and that's essentially gives the
00:11:31.405 --> 00:11:34.625
sdrs that follow up the leads for us they can
00:11:34.625 --> 00:11:38.385
say am i am i going to accept this and
00:11:38.385 --> 00:11:42.605
does it meet our idle customer profile then they they are able to give us feedback
00:11:42.605 --> 00:11:46.925
on why it's a bad fit so then we can make that improvement and that's like mandatory
00:11:46.925 --> 00:11:52.325
fields that we've built into our crm system to help with that feedback and that's
00:11:52.325 --> 00:11:55.905
something that we look at and we're actually gold on MQL acceptance rates.
00:11:56.305 --> 00:11:59.705
So it comes back to actually, once you do have these systems in place,
00:11:59.725 --> 00:12:03.125
it's being like accountable and standing by that to say,
00:12:03.165 --> 00:12:06.285
we're going to be gold on this and we're going to look at this and we want,
00:12:06.305 --> 00:12:10.405
you know, a certain percentage of all of the MQLs that come through to hit a
00:12:10.405 --> 00:12:11.845
certain acceptance rate.
00:12:12.165 --> 00:12:15.705
So that's as important as having that process in place as well.
00:12:17.205 --> 00:12:21.785
Okay. Yeah. I like setting that as kind of a metric upfront and then tracking
00:12:21.785 --> 00:12:23.445
that metric. That's really fun.
00:12:24.846 --> 00:12:30.206
And then another thing that you said is how important it is to link this data
00:12:30.206 --> 00:12:35.966
from different teams together and have like a shared dashboard or a shared view between teams.
00:12:36.906 --> 00:12:41.626
So do you have any like tips on setting that up?
00:12:41.706 --> 00:12:47.066
And like, well, first having this conversation with sales and aligning the ICP
00:12:47.066 --> 00:12:52.146
and then putting together this shared view.
00:12:52.146 --> 00:12:54.966
You like do you have any insight into like how to have those
00:12:54.966 --> 00:12:58.946
conversations or what would make like a really successful outcome yeah
00:12:58.946 --> 00:13:02.686
so this is where you build your abm team
00:13:02.686 --> 00:13:06.406
your abm leadership team and it needs to come from the top down so getting that
00:13:06.406 --> 00:13:10.706
organizational buy-in to say we're going to have this account-based approach
00:13:10.706 --> 00:13:14.406
to our go-to-market strategy we're really going to focus on getting the right
00:13:14.406 --> 00:13:17.946
accounts in our pipeline and trying to convert those into customers so So getting
00:13:17.946 --> 00:13:19.746
that agreement, firstly, is fundamental.
00:13:20.426 --> 00:13:24.526
And then secondly, it's that collaboration of that ABM leadership team.
00:13:24.746 --> 00:13:28.206
And that should be made up of sales, marketing, operations.
00:13:28.446 --> 00:13:32.346
Sometimes your finance team is also part of that as well, depending on the size
00:13:32.346 --> 00:13:37.426
of your organization, to really help you define and collaborate on what does
00:13:37.426 --> 00:13:39.066
that ideal customer profile look like.
00:13:39.146 --> 00:13:42.466
And you have all of that data that exists in your CRM system.
00:13:42.466 --> 00:13:48.046
So you look at your existing customer data to be like, what are our most
successful customers?
00:13:48.226 --> 00:13:52.346
Where do we have customers with the highest renewal rates, the ones that spend
00:13:52.346 --> 00:13:56.486
the most money with us, and look for commonalities between those.
00:13:56.526 --> 00:14:00.806
So are we seeing patterns in industries that those accounts are in certain revenue
00:14:00.806 --> 00:14:05.466
sizes, geographies, perhaps it's some other technology solutions that they're
00:14:05.466 --> 00:14:07.226
using that are complementary to yours.
00:14:07.226 --> 00:14:12.806
All of those things, revenue ranges, employee sizes, that could be another thing that comes into it.
00:14:13.106 --> 00:14:18.106
And then also looking at applying that same model to accounts that are in your
00:14:18.106 --> 00:14:22.046
current pipeline so that you're making sure that you're always...
00:14:22.739 --> 00:14:28.219
Keeping that ICP relevant. And that ICP scoring is something that you should
00:14:28.219 --> 00:14:31.479
do every 12 months and then going back, reviewing that customer data.
00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:35.499
Reviewing your pipeline data to make sure that actually the industries that
00:14:35.499 --> 00:14:37.219
we're trying to sell into are still relevant.
00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:43.079
We're still closing business with them and you're getting agreement from teams as well.
00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:46.139
And it also can differ depending on the segment.
00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:51.239
So you might have a slightly different ICP criteria for your enterprise size
00:14:51.239 --> 00:14:53.539
accounts, for your mid-market size accounts.
00:14:53.739 --> 00:14:59.039
We have it differently for our EMEA accounts versus the ones that we sell into
00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:01.619
in the US. There's other criteria that we use.
00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:04.559
So you don't have to have one model for the whole company.
00:15:04.659 --> 00:15:08.979
You can adapt it to suit the key segments that you're selling into or the key
00:15:08.979 --> 00:15:10.519
markets that you're selling into.
00:15:10.519 --> 00:15:13.359
To okay awesome there is a lot to
00:15:13.359 --> 00:15:16.659
unpack there so can we
00:15:16.659 --> 00:15:19.679
get like more detailed with this
00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:22.919
like I want specifics like is somebody coming in with
00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:26.059
like a really detailed spreadsheet having like spent
00:15:26.059 --> 00:15:29.459
some hours combing through like all the companies databases
00:15:29.459 --> 00:15:32.119
and then bringing that into like I don't know like
00:15:32.119 --> 00:15:34.959
a one-hour conversation with the head of sales and
00:15:34.959 --> 00:15:38.399
head of marketing or like how is this conversation literally happening
00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:41.279
yeah so that's a that's um a good
00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:44.259
way of how it could be done definitely and that's how it looks
00:15:44.259 --> 00:15:47.979
at and how we sort of do that at demand bay so typically marketing operations
00:15:47.979 --> 00:15:52.699
or your sales operations team are pulling that data from your crm and then you're
00:15:52.699 --> 00:15:58.599
meeting with that abm leadership team to agree on what the icp criteria looks
00:15:58.599 --> 00:16:03.639
like so it's leaders across sales marketing and your operations team.
00:16:04.439 --> 00:16:09.239
To make sure that you have the right ICP for your key segments and key markets.
00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:12.839
And again, as I said, that's something that should be reviewed regularly.
00:16:13.611 --> 00:16:19.451
Every year and that will depend on that review time will depend on how long
00:16:19.451 --> 00:16:23.771
your sales cycles are if your sales cycles are like two years plus you're probably
00:16:23.771 --> 00:16:24.931
not going to review that data.
00:16:25.491 --> 00:16:29.871
Every year it might be slightly longer if they're sort of you know six to nine
00:16:29.871 --> 00:16:34.231
months you would probably do that you know annually for example but that's definitely
00:16:34.231 --> 00:16:37.871
something that you'd want to revisit towards the end of the year when you're
00:16:37.871 --> 00:16:40.331
in your planning cycle so like October October,
00:16:40.371 --> 00:16:42.651
early November timeframe,
00:16:42.831 --> 00:16:45.711
have that locked down for the year ahead.
00:16:46.011 --> 00:16:51.151
And so then you can start applying those account scoring models as those accounts
00:16:51.151 --> 00:16:54.091
are coming into your CRM or those ones that exist already.
00:16:54.511 --> 00:16:58.691
You've got that criteria in place. So we actually have it split out by industry.
00:16:58.931 --> 00:17:03.631
So each industry that we're targeting has a weighting criteria to it.
00:17:03.631 --> 00:17:08.411
We do the same across technologies, revenue ranges, employee sizes,
00:17:08.571 --> 00:17:13.171
even country for where we're targeting specific countries in EMEA will have
00:17:13.171 --> 00:17:16.631
certain countries that are a higher priority for us to target.
00:17:16.871 --> 00:17:19.831
So it can be as granular as you want.
00:17:19.911 --> 00:17:23.731
Depends on what's most important to you.
00:17:23.811 --> 00:17:29.211
So where you know those accounts that meet this criteria that make really good
00:17:29.211 --> 00:17:33.711
customers for us. So there's not a limit as to how much you can have in there.
00:17:33.791 --> 00:17:38.031
And then that scoring can be really helpful because when you come to your target
00:17:38.031 --> 00:17:42.691
account list selection, those accounts with the highest account scores should
00:17:42.691 --> 00:17:45.231
be considered to be a target account.
00:17:46.515 --> 00:17:52.975
Okay. So we're doing account scoring based on like what industry it's in and
00:17:52.975 --> 00:17:57.815
like how closely that kind of aligns with the, the ICP that you've created.
00:17:58.115 --> 00:18:05.495
Okay. And so do
you have any tips on like how to set up that lead scoring system
00:18:05.495 --> 00:18:06.695
so that it's successful?
00:18:06.855 --> 00:18:12.435
Like, how do you know if you're doing too much lead scoring versus like not enough,
00:18:12.455 --> 00:18:15.375
or like you're paying too much attention to just like numbers and metrics
00:18:15.375 --> 00:18:18.215
versus like when it's actually
00:18:18.215 --> 00:18:22.035
going to like work and be useful for sales leaders
00:18:22.035 --> 00:18:24.655
in the sales team yeah and i think it is
00:18:24.655 --> 00:18:27.415
again it's getting that feedback from those leaders in
00:18:27.415 --> 00:18:30.355
your abm in your abm team so they can again
00:18:30.355 --> 00:18:33.195
solicit that feedback from the sales leaders
00:18:33.195 --> 00:18:35.995
and regional managed managers to see like what's most
00:18:35.995 --> 00:18:38.895
important to you and typically the sales
00:18:38.895 --> 00:18:41.815
salesperson would be it might be like four or five
00:18:41.815 --> 00:18:44.495
key data points where you're like
00:18:44.495 --> 00:18:47.375
this is a really good fit for us an industry would always be one
00:18:47.375 --> 00:18:50.255
of those revenue range employee size would be another
00:18:50.255 --> 00:18:53.515
as well company HQ would be another one so it's
00:18:53.515 --> 00:18:57.735
not you know lots and lots of different data points so I think getting that
00:18:57.735 --> 00:19:01.935
feedback and agreement on like these are all the ones that we're going to agree
00:19:01.935 --> 00:19:07.995
on and then there's CRM systems and marketing automation systems out there and
00:19:07.995 --> 00:19:11.635
tools like Demandbase that can help with that scoring piece as well.
00:19:12.755 --> 00:19:19.775
Okay, awesome. So if we had to like quickly summarize, like step by step this
00:19:19.775 --> 00:19:22.295
process from beginning to end
00:19:22.295 --> 00:19:27.135
of like, creating an account based marketing strategy that's successful,
00:19:27.295 --> 00:19:32.735
like step by step, what would you have someone do if they were setting this up for the first time?
00:19:33.426 --> 00:19:39.146
So I think the first bit would be, so that sales and marketing alignment piece is key.
00:19:39.426 --> 00:19:44.286
So I think that the three kind of core things around that is aligning on the
00:19:44.286 --> 00:19:49.986
data, sharing insights once you have all of these systems in place where you're
00:19:49.986 --> 00:19:53.866
able to get things like account intelligence, where they're showing intent and engagement,
00:19:54.166 --> 00:19:58.506
and then coordinating those account interactions between sales and marketing,
00:19:58.766 --> 00:20:02.106
and then some steps to help align teams on that.
00:20:02.106 --> 00:20:07.446
So firstly, starting with that collaboration on what your idle customer profile
00:20:07.446 --> 00:20:09.366
looks like and those account scoring models.
00:20:09.866 --> 00:20:13.906
Then agree on your go-to-market style as well.
00:20:14.086 --> 00:20:19.546
So are we going to have a one-to-one or one-to-many approach?
00:20:20.866 --> 00:20:25.026
And then I think the other key part is actually picking those target accounts.
00:20:25.506 --> 00:20:30.666
And it should be something that is marketing driven. So based on the scoring
00:20:30.666 --> 00:20:34.606
that we're getting from those accounts, we can make recommendations to say these
00:20:34.606 --> 00:20:36.466
should be considered for target account list.
00:20:36.566 --> 00:20:41.746
But ultimately, that account selection process to determine whether an account
00:20:41.746 --> 00:20:45.106
should be a target account or not should be owned by sales.
00:20:45.626 --> 00:20:50.206
And then within that, we give them the freedom to tier their target accounts.
00:20:50.206 --> 00:20:57.186
And that tiering is really key because then it helps us, the kind of next step to that is saying,
00:20:57.306 --> 00:21:01.546
okay, we're going to then define what we call entitlements for each of those
00:21:01.546 --> 00:21:05.306
account tiers that is going to help support that target account engagement.
00:21:05.686 --> 00:21:11.286
So those accounts at tier one should be those ones that have the highest potential value.
00:21:11.286 --> 00:21:16.446
Value so if it's an existing customer where there's you know big upsell or cross-sell
00:21:16.446 --> 00:21:20.146
opportunities of new products or selling into new business units for example
00:21:20.146 --> 00:21:26.286
or it could be the size of the account if it's in an enterprise segment and it has you know a,
00:21:26.917 --> 00:21:31.317
it's going to be spending a lot of money or the opportunity to be spending a
00:21:31.317 --> 00:21:34.717
lot of money with your company, they should be considered those tier one accounts.
00:21:35.357 --> 00:21:40.377
And then tier two, and just so just give you an idea of the numbers for our
00:21:40.377 --> 00:21:45.237
tiering, our sales reps have three accounts at tier one, 30 at tier two,
00:21:45.357 --> 00:21:50.177
and then the rest of their target accounts at tier three, which would be about 150 to 200.
00:21:50.657 --> 00:21:54.277
So we're not talking about thousands or hundreds and hundreds of accounts.
00:21:54.277 --> 00:21:56.277
It's quite a finite list.
00:21:56.877 --> 00:22:03.477
And then those entitlements are another great way of ensuring that sales and marketing are aligned.
00:22:03.797 --> 00:22:07.937
So the entitlements is almost like a contract between marketing and sales.
00:22:07.997 --> 00:22:11.457
So it's marketing saying to sales, for each of your account tiers,
00:22:11.637 --> 00:22:15.577
this is what we're going to deliver from a marketing program standpoint.
00:22:15.757 --> 00:22:18.417
This is how much we're going to spend on things like advertising,
00:22:18.917 --> 00:22:24.357
direct mail, executive events to try and
help drive engagement with those target accounts.
00:22:24.637 --> 00:22:29.137
And that's all agreed upon at the end of the year for the next coming year.
00:22:29.237 --> 00:22:33.017
So the entitlements will change year on year as well.
00:22:33.477 --> 00:22:38.017
So that's really important. And it really helps them buy into this idea of having
00:22:38.017 --> 00:22:41.337
an account-based approach because these target accounts are getting more of
00:22:41.337 --> 00:22:42.817
a white glove treatment.
00:22:42.977 --> 00:22:47.417
A lot of the messaging and outreach that you're doing to these accounts is a
00:22:47.417 --> 00:22:50.877
lot more personalized to those accounts because you're able to get all of that
00:22:50.877 --> 00:22:55.997
insight into those accounts with regards to intent and engagement where they
00:22:55.997 --> 00:22:56.897
are on the buyer journey.
00:22:57.257 --> 00:23:01.837
And then that can reflect in the messaging that you're putting in front of those
00:23:01.837 --> 00:23:04.737
accounts, whether it's through a marketing campaign or through sales outreach.
00:23:05.457 --> 00:23:08.557
And then another part is actually sharing that account intelligence.
00:23:09.097 --> 00:23:13.137
So again, any intent that you're seeing for that account, that's a target account,
00:23:13.317 --> 00:23:17.837
that salesperson should have insight into that as well, making it as easy as
00:23:17.837 --> 00:23:20.257
possible. So So sending them a weekly...
00:23:20.904 --> 00:23:23.644
Digest of like these are your target accounts and these are the top
00:23:23.644 --> 00:23:26.684
things that they're showing intent for whether that's product intent
00:23:26.684 --> 00:23:29.644
or competitors whether that's their
00:23:29.644 --> 00:23:33.904
you know in gate that we're seeing high engagement or a high spike of visitors
00:23:33.904 --> 00:23:38.044
to our website from this particular target account this is great insight and
00:23:38.044 --> 00:23:42.904
that should be shared very regularly with with your sales team and when we have
00:23:42.904 --> 00:23:47.124
slack alerts set up for when a target account comes to our
00:23:47.164 --> 00:23:49.824
website so their account owner and the SDR owner will get
00:23:49.824 --> 00:23:52.704
an alert to let them know so they can be really like
00:23:52.704 --> 00:23:55.584
reactive and then the final part to
00:23:55.584 --> 00:23:58.604
it is meeting regularly to check in on what's happening
00:23:58.604 --> 00:24:01.624
and one of the forums that we have for this and
00:24:01.624 --> 00:24:07.584
I recommend this to anybody we call it an ABX stand-up so it's a monthly meeting
00:24:07.584 --> 00:24:13.164
between myself the sales rep and their SDR and we look at their target account
00:24:13.164 --> 00:24:14.844
list so some of it might be looking
00:24:14.844 --> 00:24:19.984
at where are all your current target account sitting in the funnel?
00:24:20.144 --> 00:24:23.644
Are there too many accounts at the top of funnel that have been stuck at a certain
00:24:23.644 --> 00:24:27.004
journey stage for X amount of time?
00:24:27.104 --> 00:24:31.164
How can we try and drive more engagement and get them moving to a forward journey stage?
00:24:31.704 --> 00:24:38.224
It could be accounts where they're already in pipeline and we want to do some
00:24:38.224 --> 00:24:39.604
more like personalized outreach.
00:24:39.744 --> 00:24:42.124
It's going to help like close a deal. We can look at that.
00:24:42.364 --> 00:24:46.724
It could be that we see accounts that are actually, you have a lot of accounts
00:24:46.724 --> 00:24:51.884
in one particular industry, let's run a really specific or run an industry-specific
00:24:51.884 --> 00:24:55.144
campaign into those accounts to help drive that engagement as well.
00:24:55.304 --> 00:25:01.024
So that is something that's been really successful, key to that sales and marketing alignment piece.
00:25:01.144 --> 00:25:05.924
And it really helps you act as one team and really be that partner to sales.
00:25:06.764 --> 00:25:09.364
So yeah, the ABM stand-ups is something that I would highly recommend.
00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:17.100
Okay. Awesome. I really, really love this system. It's so clear and dreamlined.
00:25:17.300 --> 00:25:22.080
So sales and marketing alignment and figuring out the ICP and account scoring
00:25:22.080 --> 00:25:26.440
and the go-to-market style, picking the target accounts,
00:25:26.740 --> 00:25:32.000
and then marketing figures out for each of the accounts how much money they're
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.340
going to spend on things like advertising and what kind of messaging they're
00:25:36.340 --> 00:25:38.140
going to do to personalize to those accounts.
00:25:38.380 --> 00:25:42.880
And then you share the account intelligence to the salespeople through a weekly
00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:45.200
email or Slack alert or however you do it.
00:25:45.280 --> 00:25:51.640
And then you meet regularly through these ABX standups to figure out how each
00:25:51.640 --> 00:25:57.900
SDR can drive more or how you can help each SDR drive more engagement for their account,
00:25:58.020 --> 00:26:00.420
how you can help them create a better outreach plan,
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:02.820
get some deals unstuck, whatever it is.
00:26:03.040 --> 00:26:07.920
Yeah. And it's also, it's all about the accounts to prioritize as well so where
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:10.260
they're seeing the ones that have that highest engagement.
00:26:11.500 --> 00:26:14.380
Another digest we call it a weekly digest would be
00:26:14.380 --> 00:26:17.760
these are the accounts to focus on this this week so
00:26:17.760 --> 00:26:21.640
the sdrs have this kind of like um order of operations to be like okay this
00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:25.200
week i'm going to focus on these accounts that are showing high intent for our
00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:29.280
competitors for example like that could be really low hanging fruit because
00:26:29.280 --> 00:26:33.760
that would indicate somebody's in a researching researching and is in a kind
00:26:33.760 --> 00:26:35.660
of evaluation stage potentially.
00:26:35.900 --> 00:26:39.080
So you would want to start, you know, engaging with that account ASAP.
00:26:39.580 --> 00:26:44.700
So yeah, a huge part of it is about helping them prioritize what accounts to go after.
00:26:44.800 --> 00:26:48.980
So having that account intelligence that gives them all of that insight and
00:26:48.980 --> 00:26:52.960
it just helps focus their efforts for that upcoming week.
00:26:53.460 --> 00:26:57.280
Okay. Awesome. Well, I really, really appreciate this conversation,
00:26:57.480 --> 00:27:02.060
Leanne. And as we're wrapping the conversation up, do you have anything you'd
00:27:02.060 --> 00:27:06.680
like to share or promote with regards to your company or any projects that you're working on?
00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:12.100
So I think anybody that's out there considering an account-based approach looking
00:27:12.100 --> 00:27:15.240
or just looking like where to get started,
00:27:15.700 --> 00:27:24.060
demandbase.com has a whole host of resources for all different kinds of ABM maturity levels.
00:27:24.060 --> 00:27:27.280
One particular asset that's great
00:27:27.280 --> 00:27:29.960
is something called unspam your brand and it's this
00:27:29.960 --> 00:27:33.980
definitive guide to account-based marketing
00:27:33.980 --> 00:27:37.180
that's been written by our cmo john
00:27:37.180 --> 00:27:43.100
miller who is he's co-founder and cmo of marketo and engageo as well so he has
00:27:43.100 --> 00:27:48.060
a whole host of experience so that's a really comprehensive asset to to look
00:27:48.060 --> 00:27:51.700
at and then we also have a certification program so anybody Anybody that's looking
00:27:51.700 --> 00:27:55.460
to really get the basic understanding of an ABM strategy.
00:27:55.980 --> 00:28:00.700
We have foundation level right up to expert as well. That's available on our
00:28:00.700 --> 00:28:03.080
website. So go check both of those things out.
00:28:03.600 --> 00:28:05.460
Okay, awesome. Thank you so
00:28:05.460 --> 00:28:08.940
much for the conversation. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.