Keys to Sales and Marketing Alignment Success

KEYS TO SALES AND MARKETING
ALIGNMENT SUCCESS
HIGH PERFORMANCE ABM
Lisa Ames
VP Demand Generation | Demandbase
Geoff Kahler
Director, Global B2B Digital & Media | CenturyLink

FRI Metrics, Measurements and KPIs
Keys to Sales & Marketing Alignment SuccessTUES
WED
THURS
Building Your Target Account List
ABM Across the Funnel
MON ABM Fundamentals
@Demandbase #ABMwebseries
HIGH PERFORMANCE ABM WEBINAR SERIES
EVERYDAY 10 AM PT

© 2016 Copyright Demandbase
GEOFF KAHLER
Director, Global B2B Digital & Media
CenturyLink
@geoffkahler
TODAY’S PRESENTERS
LISA AMES
VP Demand Generation
Demandbase
@lisa_m_ames

• The basics
• Identifying stakeholders
• Establishing alignment
• Institutionalizing alignment
• Achieving that alignment
• Q&A
AGENDA

Marketing is integral to the Sales process
- SiriusDecisions, 2013
67%
of the buyers journey is
now done digitally.

Metrics and Goals
Alignment
Operational
Alignment
Philosophical
Alignment
SALES & MARKETING
ALIGNMENT
TARGET
ACCOUNTS
MARKETING
PROGRAMS
MEASUREMENT
Positioning/Attribute
Targeting
Company Size or
Industry Targeting
Sales Cycle Targeting
Analog and Digital
Full Funnel
Bottom of the Funnel
/Lead Generation
Full Funnel Digital
Business Outcomes
Campaign
Performance
Revenue Performance
TIER1TIER2TIER3
Alignment is the Cornerstone for ABM
ABM Maturity Model
MATURITY

Getting to That Alignment
Institutionalizing
Alignment
Establishing
Alignment
Identifying
Stakeholders
Metrics and Goals Alignment
► shared across teams
► connected to business impact
Operational Alignment
► target account selection
► planning and execution cadence
Philosophical Alignment
► shared belief in account-based
approach
► commitment to collaboration
MATURITY

B2B Marketer

• Less time wasted sifting through
unqualified leads
• Focused pipeline generation and
acceleration
• Visibility into Marketing’s impact
MARKETING
Benefits of Sales & Marketing Alignment
SALES
• Efficient use of resources
• Collaborative relationship with Sales
• Direct impact to the company’s
revenue goals

Marketing OperationsSales
Senior Leaders in…
Build Your ABM Leadership Team

ABM Leadership Team: Responsibilities
 Staff to New ABM Focus
 Communicate Objectives
 Reset Expectations
 Ensure Compliance
 Collaborate Regularly
 Reinforce the Target Account List

Build & Brand Your Target Account List
These are the companies
that are most likely to buy
from you, due to
characteristics that set
them up for success.
Shares Focus
Aligns Resources
Facilitates Compliance
Role of the List:

Approaches to Target Account List Building
How You
Build the
List TARGET MOST
SUCCESSFUL SEGMENT(S)
USE AN ACCOUNT
IDENTIFICATION TOOL
ITERATIVE/
COMBINATION
List Focus:
By Geo
By Product Target
Type
By Industry
By Company Size
1
2
3
4
5

Segment your target account list
Segments you select must
have discrete business
objectives that
marketing can build
programs to support

Target Account List
It’s a collaborative process
Build and brand an initial list
Secure agreement from ABM Leadership Team
Verify and iterate with field sales and inside sales
Update at regular intervals
1
2
3
4

Aligning Metrics and Goals
Creates the right behaviors
 Encourages open lines of communications
 Necessitates collaboration
Sets expectations and accountability
 Marketing production
 Sales executions
Connects Marketing to business outcomes
 Use campaign metrics as leading indicators for
Pipeline, Revenue, ACV, Velocity, Close Rate

Look Backward to Move Forward
Set benchmarks based on past performance
 Campaign/Event Evaluation
 Target vs. Non-Target
 MQL Pipeline  Close
 Velocity, ACV, Close Rate
Understand your sales cycle
 Determine pipeline goals
based on revenue projections and
historical conversion metrics
 Build goals at each level within the
organization to support these numbers

Supply your Teams with Useful Data
Base reporting and dashboard
on Target Account List
 Unique Target Accounts touched
 Inquiries from Target Accounts
 Target Accounts on Website
Review pipeline
 Pipeline goal & achievement
 Pipeline & won by campaign type
 Pipeline & won by sales rep
 Pipeline available to close
 Pipeline trends

ABM – Top 10 Practical Lessons
1. Have A Reason (Why ABM?)
2. Build Believers
3. Find Pockets Of Opportunity
4. Get Your Technology In Place
5. Make Ops Your Best Friend
6. Dig In On Account Planning
7. Evaluate Your Content
8. Prep Your Sellers
9. Share Success
10. Be Nimble And Evolve

 What’s the problem you’re trying
to solve?
 Where is there pain?
 Where is the opportunity?
 Be sure you can state it simply,
and directly.
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

 Identify your lead evangelist.
 ABM is an organizational philosophy,
not a marketing or sales strategy.
 Take every opportunity to sell the ABM
story internally.
 Customize your story (Sales,
Marketing, Ops, Execs, Field
Marketing).
 What’s in it for them? What’s your ask?
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

 Stack the deck in your favor and find
places to pilot and win.
 Where do you have a distinct
advantage? (customer segments,
verticals)
 Is there a core team in your org that
gets it?
 In what accounts do you have the best
sales relationships?
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

 Carve out a team to get your ABM
technology stack in order.
 Get the core components in place to
support your ABM pilot…
 …but be sure you have your bigger
integration points on radar.
Define the reports you want and get your
tagging in place. (We are still working on
this. It’s a process.)
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

 We are a Salesforce.com company.
 It was critical that our Sales Ops team
understood what we were doing.
 They worked with us to make
exceptions, pass data, created custom
dashboards and reports.
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

 See point #3.
 Don’t over engineer account selection
at this stage.
 DO NOT let Marketing select accounts
without Sales alignment.
 Plan. Execute. Learn. Modify.
 Get more granular on account
selection based on learning.
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

 See point #3 again.
 Where do you have the best story to
tell and the content to tell it?
 Be sure you have content to support
the entire buyer journey – top of
funnel through sales engagement
 Anticipate the dialogue that will take
place at each step.
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

 ABM with Demandbase offers sellers
new insights and capabilities.
 Tell ‘em what they’ll get, where to find
it and how to use it.
 Be sure they are ready. Data starts
flowing immediately.
 Jump on it.
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

2. Build Believers
9. Share Success
 The true impact of ABM takes place
over time – the first year.
 Talk to sellers, find use cases, and
wins. Start sharing small victories. It
will build momentum.
 If you have done #6 right, it’s mutual
ownership and success!

 ABM is a journey. It’s not without its
bumps and some bruises.
 Don’t be surprised if you say, “I wish
I’d thought of that before…”
 Just get going. Learn. Keep pushing.
2. Build Believers
9. Share Success

ABM – Practical Lesson #11
ABM is a Catalyst
Real Sales and Marketing Alignment
Shared Accountability
New Energy!

THANK YOU
#ABMwebseries
@Demandbase

Keys to Sales and Marketing Alignment Success

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