Achieve Account-Based Selling Goals Solving the Alignment Dilemma

1. Achieve Account-Based Selling Goals Solving the Alignment Dilemma Barbara Giamanco, Social Centered Selling

2. Barbara Giamanco is CEO of Social Centered Selling and host of the Conversations with Women in Sales podcast. Barb and her team can help your company and sales organization adapt to today’s modern buyer, amplify your brand and message, improve demand and lead generation and increase revenue. Committed to excellence in selling, Barb contributes her expertise and content to the Sales Experts Channel, Top Sales World, Women Sales Pros and through her blog and podcasts. Barb was recognized by Tenfold as one of the world's Top 65 Women Business Influencers alongside leaders like Arianna Huffington, Sheryl Sandberg, and Melinda Gates. Visit www.scs-connect.com www.barbaragiamanco.com www.twitter.com/barbaragiamanco www.linkedin.com/in/barbaragiamanco

3. The Sales Experts’ Sales Summit August 7: Sales and Marketing Alignment Barbara Giamanco: Achieve Account-Based Selling Goals Barbara Weaver Smith: Grow an Enterprise Account Lisa Dennis: Pulling A Value Prop into Sales Messaging Don’t miss this series—live or on demand!

4. Today’s conversation • Why experience matters • The why of alignment • Current challenges • Opportunities • Actions to take now

5. Misalignment between sales and marketing is an age old problem… And solving the problem has never been more important!

6. Experience matters

7. The sales experience begins with the very first interaction with a buyer and continues throughout the decision-making process and beyond.

8. By 2020 customer experience will overtake price & product as the key brand differentiator according to the Walker 2020 Customers Report.

9. ROI is the alignment why

10. Alignment drives revenue and performance. Aligning sales and marketing also leads to 38% higher sales win rates (source: MarketingProfs). Sales and marketing alignment can help your company become 67% better at closing deals (source: Marketo). Companies with “dynamic, adaptable sales and marketing processes” report an average of 10% more sales people on-quota compared to other companies (source: CSO Insights).

11. The bad news? There is still a disconnect. Companies with poor sales and marketing alignment have a 4% revenue decline (source: Aberdeen Research Group) Only 8% of companies have strong alignment between their sales and marketing departments (source: Forrester Research). B2B companies’ inability to align sales and marketing teams around the right processes and technologies costs 10% or more of revenue per year (source: IDC).

12. Account based strategies are popular but cannot work without interdepartmental alignment.

13. Account-based selling is a multi-channel sales strategy which targets high value companies based on an ideal customer profile. An Account- based model predicts the organizations who have the highest propensity to buy. A successful strategy requires that sales, marketing and customer success align to allocate resources to highly targeted accounts. Account-based marketing (ABM), also known as key account marketing, is a strategic approach to business marketing based on account awareness in which an organization considers and communicates with individual prospect or customer accounts as markets of one.

14. Recent Research on the State of Alignment

15. Biggest challenges • Lack of accurate/shared data on target customer • Communication • Misaligned metrics and measurement • Processes broken or not working • Lack of accountability on both sides • Reporting

16. Lack of accurate data • Jointly clarify the ideal customer profile • Create and implement a data strategy agreed on by marketing/sales • Current • Complete • Actionable • Strive for consistent data collection versus manual or ad hoc

17. Communication Sales Wants • More & better quality leads • Stronger brand awareness • Sales collateral that’s relevant • Alignment on targeted prospects Marketing Wants • Use systems consistently • Follow up leads provided • Campaign feedback • Alignment on prospect targets • Use tools and messaging provided

18. Improvement opportunities • Be proactive and communicate early and often • Insist on transparency from both camps • Suggest solutions rather than questioning or criticizing • Solicit feedback from all team members • Seek first to understand… always listen first • Hold regular brainstorming sessions with both sales and marketing

19. Misaligned metrics and measurement Sales is focused on quota attainment Moving opportunities through the pipeline more quickly Closing deals Marketing is focused on top of funnel to nurture/generate leads Brand building activities Campaigns

20. Improvement opportunities Sales and marketing measured on similar activities • Revenue impact • Pipeline • Lead quality and quantity • Renewals and retention • New business • Product upsell • Customer experience

21. Broken processes Sales and marketing do not meet together enough to… • Discuss pipeline • Define qualified/quality lead criteria • Clearly define ideal customer profile • Discuss/adapt/implement content and collateral hand-off strategies • Brand and customer experience

22. Lack of accountability 28% of sellers say they can do marketing’s job better 23% of marketers say they can do a better job selling Marketing complains that sellers only chase deals Sales thinks marketing just does events Marketing thinks sales bullies them and doesn’t listen Sales think marketing is not in touch with reality and measures nothing important Oh really? See the problem?

23. Improve reporting • Meet regularly • Agree on most relevant reporting • Use reporting provided to make better decisions • Adapt reporting as needed – don’t just report to report

24. Summing it up… • One team isn’t more important than the other • Sales and marketing need each other to succeed • Working together means meeting often • Gather feedback often • Listen before criticizing • Agree on customer profile, lead definitions, reporting needed and more • Proactively communicate, communicate, communicate

25. Questions?

26. Don’t miss these summit presentations today! • Grow an Enterprise Account: 10 Steps to Collaborate on a Campaign • 1:00 PM Eastern or on-demand later • Speaker: Barbara Weaver Smith, CEO The Whale Hunters • Pulling a Value Prop into Sales Messaging • 5:00 PM Eastern or on-demand later • Speaker: Lisa Dennis, President Knowledgence Associates Find the sessions here: https://www.brighttalk.com/summit/4107-building-an- account-based-sales-strategy/sales-marketing- alignment/

27. Barbara Giamanco, Podcast Host CEO Social Centered Selling +1-404-647-4925 barbara.giamanco@scs-connect.com www.linkedin.com/in/barbaragiamanco www.twitter.com/barbaragiamanco www.scs-connect.com www.womeninsaleshub.com Blog: www.barbaragiamanco.com Conversations with Women in Sales Podcast - on iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, Google Play and on the blog ©Copyright 2018 – Barbara Giamanco Images licensed through iStock Photo, Adobe Stock and Deposit Photos.