NexGen Alignment: ABM’s Role in Uniting Marketing and Sales

Copyright © 2024 Demandbase
Nora Conklin
Principal Analyst
Kelly Hopping
Chief Marketing Officer
Demandbase
NexGen Alignment:
ABM's Role in Uniting Marketing and Sales

Do we really have to get along?
2

Subtitle
3
Source: Sales & Marketing Misalignment Impacts the Bottom Line, Marketsource

Subtitle
What’s most critical to driving growth?
Source: DGR 2023 C-Suite Go-To-Market Benchmark Survey
Improving sales and marketing alignment
66%
Increasing win rates
63%
Improving marketing investments
56%
61%
(2022)
30%
49%
4

Subtitle
48%are struggling with sales
and marketing alignment
Source: DGR 2023 C-Suite Go-To-Market Benchmark Survey
5

Subtitle
Mis-aligned
metrics
Scattered
workforce
Personality
differences:
Sales is from Mars;
Marketing is from
Venus
Siloed technology
& data
Contributors to misalignment

Why is it so hard?
7

© Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.
What does the
buyer’s journey of
today look like?
Average number of meaningful self-
guided and personal information
sources used during each phase of
the buyer’s journey are evenly split
Base: 15,767 B2B buyers
Source: Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2022 8
Self-guided interaction types
Personal interaction types
2.9 2.8 2.7
Discover Evaluate Commit
3.2 2.9 2.8
Personal and self-guided interaction types throughout the
buyer’s journey

Buying group
dynamics
Nearly half of B2B buying group
members don’t work for the buyer’s
company.
Base: 13,998 respondents
Source: Forrester’s Buyers’ Journey Survey, 2022 9
3 vendors considered
4 people involved inside the company
4 people involved outside the company
4 departments involved
The average B2B purchase involves three vendors,
four departments, and eight people

Buying group engagement by buying cycle phase
Not all buying group members are “fully involved” throughout the process.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Champion
Decision-maker
Influencer
User
Ratifier
Discover Evaluate Commit

Base: 1,114 B2B marketing decision-makers
Source: Forrester’s Marketing Survey, 2024 (B2B)
of B2B marketers say buyers are taking
longer to commit to a purchase than last year
75%

— Gemma Davies, head of global ABM strategy, ServiceNow

What is Account-Based Marketing?
A strategic approach that aligns demand creation programs and
messaging against a set of defined accounts and goals in a way that
is relevant and valuable to those accounts and to the business.

Marketing To Accounts Or Account-Based Marketing?
• Pursue accounts based on
business and product strategy,
firmographics and what sales
wants
• Contacts in accounts get tactics
and offers focused on what you
want to tell or sell based upon
known buyers journey stage
• Success based on delivering
new leads to sales or partners
• Insight-based account selection,
prioritization
• Account plans linked to buying
groups and specific goals
• Tactics chosen based on account
insights, preferences and
needs
• Success based on account
influence, growth, relationship
status, sales/partner
productivity
Marketing to Accounts Account-Based Marketing

What Changes In An Account-Based Model?
Account Data and
Insights
Forecasting and
Planning
Demand
Management
Account
Management
General, market-based
Sales and marketing share little
Sales creates plans
Marketing is reactive and not scalable
on an account level
Short or mid-term focus
Generic SLAs
Broad demand gen: MQLs
Sales rep owned
Little marketing support
1
4
2
3
Account and contact-specific
Sales and marketing collaborate on
account needs
FROM TO
Shared so that account marketing
plans have proactive, scalable focus
Long-term focus
Account-level SLAs
Focused on specific accts/opps
Pipeline Influence
Marketing-assisted partnering
Maintains communication with
sales account leads

99%
report higher ROI in ABM versus traditional
marketing programs
Base: 433 Demand & ABM decision makers whose organization has an ABM team
Source: Forrester’s Demand, ABM, and Customer Marketing Survey, 2023

ABM is a driving force for alignment
Eighty-five percent of ABM marketers report sales and marketing alignment.
“Within the context of account-based marketing, please indicate the level
of alignment of sales and marketing.”
Base: 433 demand and ABM decision-makers whose organization has an ABM team
Source: Forrester’s Demand, ABM, And Customer Marketing Survey, 2023
Aligned
85%
Middle
13%
Not aligned
2%

ABM is insights-driven marketing
ABM platforms are now table stakes — 86% plan to maintain or increase investment.
Base: 882 B2B marketing decision-makers who are marketing executives or marketing operations leaders
Nearly all Demand & ABM decision makers report
stronger ROI
10% 24% 62% 3%
ABM platforms
Chart Title
Decrease About the same
“Do you plan to increase, decrease, or maintain spend of the marketing technology budget in
each of the following technologies/tools in 2024?”

ABM supports a wider view of marketing’s value
Account health, relationship strength, and influence are taking hold in CMO dashboards.
Note: Not all answer categories are shown; only the top three response options shown.
Base: 882 B2B marketing decision-makers who are marketing executives or marketing operations leaders
37%
36%
35%
Marketing-
influenced
revenue/bookings
Buyer satisfaction
Customer
satisfaction
“Which of the following metrics are regularly included on your organization’s CMO dashboard?”

Revenue teams
must work
together
throughout the
opportunity
lifecycle

Sales and marketing are engaged together in all stages
Sales, customer success, and marketing lead, influence, and support across the pipeline.
Lead: Coordinate the buying group engagement efforts
Influence: Engage with the buying group to support the leads’
efforts
(e.g., digital campaigns) or RDR buying group identification
Support: Provide insights and engage where needed (e.g., sharing
signals)
Roles change depending on the type of deal and where the buyer is in the pipeline.

Sales and marketing are engaged together in all stages
Sales, RDRs, and marketing lead, influence, and support across the pipeline.
Pipeline stages Marketing RDR Sales
Customer
success
B2B Revenue
Waterfall
(targeted to engaged)
Lead Support Influence Support
B2B Revenue
Waterfall
(prioritized to
qualified)
Influence Lead Support Support
B2B Revenue
Waterfall
(pipeline to won)
Influence Support Lead Influence
Postsale lifecycle Support Support Influence Lead

Unify with ABM
How does Demandbase do it?
23

Alignment
starts at the
top.
With us.

Align on Metrics
Total Pipeline
Creation
Conversion
rates
CAC
payback
&
LTV/CAC
ratio
Average
Sales
cycle
Revenue

Say goodbye to the old marketing to sales handoff
Source: TOPO is now Gartner
Old : The Hand-Off New : Exquisite
Orchestration
#1 indicator of account-based success
is the coordination between marketing and sales

Unify with ABM

Account Scoring to Account Tiers
Attribute Max Score Weight
MAS 5 10%
CRM 5 15%
Data Provider 5 5%
Engagement Mins 5 10%
Qualification Score 5 25%
Pipeline Predict 5 15%
Industry 5 20%

Powering ABM Across Digital Channels
1 2 3
Linkedin / Display Google Ads Email Nurture
Dynamic Lists mean
audiences will
automatically update as
accounts move through
journey stages
Ability to better target
contacts means no
wasted spend
Before DB1, paid search
was a bit of a spray and
pray because you didn’t
have a good way to target
specific people
Prioritize key contacts
without jeopardizing
your reach
Personalize nurture tracks
based on journey stage,
persona, engagement, intent,
etc.
Capitalize on ‘magic
moments’ to increase
engagement / progression

ABX Sample Plays
Mapped to strategy/stage If this… …then that
Awareness
(All)
ICP accounts that are not yet engaging with our
website and campaigns
Advertise to build awareness and attract them to our website
Awareness
(All)
Target accounts that are aware but not in-market Send a personalised or fun gift to build brand affinity
Awareness
(Qualified)
Qualified accounts are good fit for personal invites
to an upcoming webinar
Orchestrate direct mail and human outreach
Conversion
(Engaged)
Lower-level contact from key account attends an
online demo
Lift the conversation by inviting a C-level exec to meet with
one of our top execs
Conversion
(MQA)
New Marketing Qualified Accounts (qualified and
in market)
Reach out to multiple people at the account
Sales Pursuit Open opportunity
Help the full buying committee drive validation and consensus
with broader advertising and exec alignment

Set Entitlements by Tier
Tier 3
Awareness
Engaged
MQA
Opportunity
Customer
Post-Sale
Qualified
Tier 4
Tier 2
Tier 1
TOFU Display Campaign $$$ TOFU Display Campaign $$ TOFU Display Campaign $
Intent-Based Nurture Track Intent-Based Nurture Track Intent-Based Nurture Track Intent-Based Nurture Track
Direct Mail ($$), LinkedIn
Campaign
Direct Mail($), LinkedIn
Campaign
LinkedIn Campaign LinkedIn Campaign
Exec Outreach, Retargeting
Campaign
Custom Outreach, Retargeting
Campaign
Outreach, Retargeting
Campaign, Light DM
Outreach, Retargeting
Campaign
Exec Strategy Session, 1:1
Campaign, DM
M2M Offer, DM, Advertising
Campaign
M2M Offer, Advertising
Campaign
Advertising Campaign
Welcome Basket DM, Custom
LI Convo Ad, Ad Campaign
DM (med), Custom LI Convo
Ad, Ad Campaign
DM (small), Ad Campaign Ad Campaign

ABM Standups with Sales
Weekly meetings with sales team(s) to identify which accounts might need some extra TLC
Just Getting Started
What marketing should bring:
● Journey stage data
● Top intent signals from target accounts
● Recent campaign engagement
● Website visits and top pages
Using insights, brainstorm with sales on:
● Which area to focus efforts on based
on journey stage distribution
● Personalized email copy incorporating
intent terms and web visits
● Direct mail offer that builds on prior
campaign engagement
Post meeting, share:
● Increase in web activity and key pages
● New names from focus accounts
● Increases in intent signals
Advancing in Process
What sales should bring:
● Recent news (funding, leadership change, etc.)
● Emerging pain points / industry trends
● Insights from own conversations
● Top 5 accounts and why
Using insights, work together on:
● Most helpful alerts to receive (frequency and channel)
● Outreach and DM plays based on company changes
● Messaging plan around pain points / trends
● Bespoke offerings / 1:1 campaigns for top 5 accounts
Post meeting:
● Open line of communication
● Shared reports on campaign performance
● Synced cadence of sales and marketing touches

Industry Specific Ads and Assets that Span Across the Journey Stages
Drive Engagement
Thought Leadership
Education
Guide Decisions
Credibility
Brand Awareness
Top of Funnel Blog Post
Middle of Funnel
Webinar
Bottom of Funnel Guide
Prioritizing a Top Vertical

Run
★ Align on strategy with
Demandbase, prioritize use cases,
retraining of the platform
★ Layer in people-based advertising
to reach known contacts
★ Personalize all advertising landing
pages
★ Personalize the business home
page to key segments (in
progress) to ensure companies get
to the right content
First we Crawl-Walk-Run…
Walk
● Refine core configurations -
customize Journey Stages and
Predictive Scores
● Use predictive scores to prioritize
target accounts and find new in-
market accounts (Dynamic TAL
build)
● Add multiple qual and predictive
scores to support multiple solutions
● Use Journey Stages to understand
where your accounts are in the
buyer’s journey and measure
progression QoQ
Crawl
● Understand on-site engagement
with deanonymization of account
level activity
● Understand competitive intent
● Install base activity (cross-sell/up-
sell signals)
● Launch first Ad Campaign
supporting top level journey stages
using what you have (First 30
Days)
● Expand advertising to additional
Journey Stages (use the data to
help prioritize programs)
● Enable Sales with account-based
intent and web engagement
insights
3
2
1

Nora Conklin
Principal Analyst
Kelly Hopping
Chief Marketing Officer
Demandbase
Q&A

NexGen Alignment: ABM’s Role in Uniting Marketing and Sales

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