Sales Pipeline Radio

In this episode, we talk to Category Leader, Peter Isaacson, CMO at Demandbase about How to Manage Influences, Analysts and More!  You can read the full transcription of this episode on the Heinz Marketing Blog starting Monday, 7/2/18.  

Here's just a taste of the converstation:

Matt: The easy thing to do on this conversation would be to talk about account based marketing. Demandbase is one of the leading providers of account based marketing technology to B2B companies. You guys do some amazing work in the space, but I've been particular impressed with the work you and your team have done with influencers and to create influence among third party experts in the market. So I wanted to spend a little time talking about that because I know a lot of our listeners on the sales and the marketing side, there's a lot you can do in terms of direct marketing, but every one of us we're marketing to people where there is a network of organizations, of individuals, of analysts, and others that are influencing their decision making as well. I think probably the best example of that for you guys more recently is the Forrester Wave that recently came out. Can you just kind of level set what was the wave about and how was Demandbase placed there?

Peter:  Sure. So this is a real milestone I think certainly for Demandbase but also for ABM as a category and certainly want to get into kind of category creation and the role influencers play in that. But this has been a multi-year journey for us, not just overall within ABM certainly but also with Forrester to really kind of work with them, to help them understand account based marketing, why it's getting so much traction, why customers are getting engaged in it, things like that. Really for a category to really stand as a true category, you need a lot of things to happen, but one of the key milestones certainly is Gartner doing a magic quadrant and/or Forrester doing one of their waves around the category. That's what happened. They just published it about three weeks ago. ABM platforms specifically and Demandbase thankfully was established as the clear leader up into the right for the ABM platform category. So very exciting.

Listen in for much more!

Brian Hansford, VP of Performance Management at Heinz Marketing hosted our guest, Jeffery K. Rohrs, CMO at Yext.  

Read the full transcript about Integrate Brand Experiences in B2B Marketing on our blog starting Mon. 6/25/18.  

A bit about Jeffrey and Yext:

I serve as our Global Chief Marketing Officer and we are the leading digital knowledge management platform with a mission to give companies control over their brand experience across the entire digital universe of maps, apps, search engines, voice assistance, and other intelligence services that are driving consumer-discovery decision and actions a day, so in practice, that means that a customer of ours like Arby's manages their brick-and-mortar location information, store hours, menus, other types of information that consumers are looking for on mobile devices and other services insures that that is correct. Not just across the third-party ecosystem, but also across their own website. 

Jeffrey will speak to what are some of the biggest challenges he sees in B2B marketing and sales from an integrated brand experience and from his own experience working with clients or even as a consumer or a B2B customer himself.  Brian asks "What do you see out there and what are some of your ideas and how do you approach that?"  Listen in to hear great insights.  

Another great episode!  The full transcription will be on our blog starting 6/18/18.  

I asked Patrick what are some of the keys you find to building really high performance marketing teams that can deliver results?

He said... "It's an interesting question because I think everybody comes to the notion of team a little bit differently. But I would say, particularly in marketing that, marketing is fundamentally a team sport. And not just on your team, but the extension of marketing into sales. So, there's a few different things I would call out in terms of focus on teams that I have found to be successful over time." 

"One is as a general rule when you're trying to put together a team, I would have a strong bias for athletes versus experts. Because, the pace of change across every business and across every market is so quick now, that there are a lot of people who may be an expert in a particular sub-discipline, who can't transfer those skills and can't help other members of the team. So one, I'd look for athletes not experts and people who can really work to solve the problem." 

"The second thing, when you're thinking about marketing is really having an understanding and a focus on learning to try to understand the customer in the market. And a lot of that comes out of my heritage in product marketing, but also I think there's a lot of bias that people, particularly on the sales sides of this discussion have, that marketing does a lot of hand waving, doesn't really actually understand what's going on. And so you need people across the entirety of the team to really be focused on, not just the mission of the company and trying to produce a result, but really understanding the customer in the market."

"And then the third thing I would say... specifically that helps inform teams, is look for people who have sales DNA. Because more often than not, the ... Having lived the life of somebody in sales and you had a great example, Elissa Fink was on with you a couple weeks ago from Tableau. She is a great example that proves the pieces in my mind, which is people who started early in their career or who have had experience in selling, have a lot more empathy for the realities of what it takes to generate an opportunity to get a deal done. But, also what results look like as measured by revenue, and I think all those things are important."

Listen in to hear more!

More from Patrick:   I am a growth-driven marketing, sales and business development executive in high technology focused on building high performing teams, building lasting relationships and delivering results. I am also an advisor to innovative start up companies. I run marketing, alliances and channels at Altify. We focus on making the lives of sales people better by delivering great software that help strategic sellers win the deals that matter.

Today, in the absence of our scheduled guest, our producer Paul Roberts and I talk about B2B pet peeves. We have a great time.  JOIN US!

Just one example:  There have been books written about a predictable, repeatable, scalable engine of growth. A lot of venture capitalists have read those books and have then told their early stage companies, “If you just hire enough sales people and make enough phone calls, the math works out.” You have to start somewhere, so you start with the math and you start with the plan, but sales is never that easy. One of my pet peeves is someone who has never done sales, and never managed a pipeline, and never even carried a number say, “I read a book. Therefore, this is the way that we're going to sell,” right? I think that: A. books are great and books are important, but I think you've got to try new things. If everybody in the world just follows that book, then all of a sudden it becomes a little tough.

Listen in to hear about other B2B pet peeves....  What are yours?  Find the full transcription on our blog starting 6am PST on Monday, 6/11 and beyond.  

In this episode, listen in to Samuel Sunderaraj, VP of Sales at Skilljar.  Check out the full transcription on our blog starting Mon. 6/4.  

Samuel will answer some great questions:

What's the state of SAS sales?

What does it look like today? And for folks that are either at the front lines or managing an SAS organization, what are the keys to making SAS sales work today?

He'll also talk about how good sellers can actually be still at the forefront of the buying process, at the top of the buying process to provide that value.

He'll share about the people side of growing a sales organization. It's one thing to put numbers in a spreadsheet and say, "Well, if we call this many people, convert this many deals, we'll hit our number," but you still have people that you're managing as part of that.

Hear about the importance and some of the keys to building a sales organization, a high performing sales organization that also prioritizes the people within it.

What about managing expectations? What about the boards objectives? What about the investor objectives? How do you manage that when you're in the middle and you're leading the sales organization, having to motivate the team, but also sort of set expectations from above?

All this and a lot more!

MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST:  

Samuel Sunderaraj has the following experience in sales management:

Driving and initiating contact with senior decision-makers at Small To Enterprise Accounts (C-level)
Scaling revenue from $0m to $30Million+ in ARR
Revenue retention ($30M+)
Building sales teams from 1 to 30+
Experience in building a successful sales organization from scratch, including recruiting, hiring, and developing compensation plans.
Leading sales teams that are metrics driven & efficient
Start-up advisor 

- Building high performance sales teams that are metrics focused and scaling for growth 
- Focus on customer & company success ("customers pay the bills") 
- Sales metrics execution - managing cost of opportunity acquisition while driving top line revenue
- Territory and Market Optimization – executing to high conversions on the active funnel.
- Creating Value = sales multiple
- BOD Metrics & Analysis
- Funding (Seed, Series A-C,)

Learn more at Skilljar.com

On this episode, Brian Hansford, VP of Client Services at Heinz Marketing hosts Sam Melnick, VP of Marketing at Allocadia.  Look for the full transcription on our blog starting Monday, 5/28/18.  

In this episode we're talking about a mid-year review.  As Sam says, "It all starts with the plan. So whether you're planning for next year or whether you're looking at what's going on in real time, measuring performance in real time or if you're doing that kinda half year look back, to me, it all starts with the plan. That's your roadmap. You set out your intentions. You set out where do we wanna spend time and money. What do we expect to get out of our time and money? And now you get that chance to compare results and hopefully adjust and improve.

Brian asks Sam several great questions!  Listen in to hear Sam's replies!

• When marketers are at both the strategic levels, CMO level and even operational level, are reviewing that data, what are some of the best practices that you see with your clients and even that you recommend in how they manage their budgets against the plan and make decisions on where to invest their resources?
• What should they look at in terms of reviewing their plan? How can they look at the data that they've been collecting and analyze that performance up to this point and use that to make plan adjustments and moving forward?
• Do you feel that marketers are getting better at measuring their performance against revenue? The revenue attainment and what they're actually doing to drive results.
• What are your thoughts on that and how should marketers consider using that when adjusting for a strong second half?
• Should marketers wait for a mid-year point to measure what's working?
• How often should they analyze what's working with a marketing performance management approach and solution and make those go, no go, or any sort of adjustment decisions, pulling investments, adding investments?

More from Sam:

I am an analytically driven marketing professional who has experience as a marketing leader, industry analyst, and customer success manager at a marketing technology company. My special talent is the ability to focus on details or specifics to execute, but also step back and distill this information at a higher, more strategic level. 

I am a student of marketing and will never stop learning about and discussing marketing. Some of my favorite topics are: Marketing technology, marketing benchmarks, change management within marketing, and building high performing teams. Feel free to reach out if you want to connect around interesting ideas, projects, companies, and/or tools!

Outside of work I love skiing, basketball, and cooking. Additionally, I am a barbecue and craft beer aficionado.

A shorter episode this time (due to some technical issues) but a good one!  Read the full transcript on the Heinz Marketing Blog starting Mon. 5/14/18 

We talk about the importance of:

• Hiring the right people and enabling them
• Staying focussed on the mission
• Respecting the past, respecting the future
• Continoius measurable improvement
• Chasing things that excite you and get you up in the morning

More about Elissa @elissafink

Driven by data. Leading by example. Building authentic brands and communities. And most importantly, creating customers for life. Having joined Tableau Software in 2007, Elissa Fink has served as CMO through its rise from start-up to a billion dollar enterprise. Tableau is now widely recognized as the leader in data analytics, one of the hottest technology sectors. Prior to Tableau, Elissa was EVP Marketing at IXI Corporation, a firm specializing in marketing technology and now owned by Equifax. She has also served in marketing, product management and product engineering executive positions at Tele Atlas, a multi-national map data company now owned by Tom-Tom, TopTier Software (now SAP), and Claritas (now Nielsen). She began her career selling advertising for the Wall Street Journal. Elissa holds a BA from Santa Clara University and a MBA in Marketing and Decision Systems from the University of Southern California.

Mike will touch on:

• Current focus: Cross channel orchestration is a focus for us (usermind, lytics)
• Current focus: Marketing data story from impression to closed deals
• Current focus: Refreshing our approach on predictive lead scoring with 6Sense
• Product promotion and operational tips: We will talk about how Tableau uses a product day-to-day as a marketing operations team
• Tips and advice: Learnings from the last year of building out center of excellence
  • Process, cross department accountability, how I’d prepare if I were starting today with the experience I now have
  • Thoughts on centralized approach vs decentralized
• Marketing technology and teams like marketing operations teams have allowed marketing departments to transition from the perceived “cost center” to being able to paint an end to end story of all measurable engagements throughout the buyer's journey and what sources those engagements.

More about our Guest:  Mike Braund Director, Marketing Operations at Tableau. I’ve worked at Tableau for six years. I’m newly engaged, and getting married out in Chelan this summer. I proposed on top of Table Mountain in Cape Town last September while visiting my Dad’s side of the family. I’m a huge Seahawks fan and golf addict (though I’m not good at golf yet).

If data visualization is new to you or you have interest in learning more about Tableau check out Tableau.com. Also check out Tableau's annual conference-- a one of kind experience bringing together over 15,000 data enthusiasts worldwide every year.

Our guest, Byron Matthews is the President & CEO of Milller Heiman Group.  

Check out Byron's new book, Sales Enablement:  A Master Framework to Engage, Equip and Empower a World-Class Sales Force

Highlights from this Episode:  

• Companies investing in sales enablement is up 26% from last year, with 59% of organizations that now have a sales enablement function. Yet, only 34% of organizations are achieving their sales enablement goals. (CSOi Report)
• B2B companies can assess their sales teams’ gaps and opportunities in relation to each component of sales enablement and look for the alignment (per the Clarity Model).
• Sales enablement cannot be put in a box like other functions. It is cross-functional, and orchestrates all enablement efforts across all “boxes,” including its alignment with the customer journey.
• Defining sales enablement: Sales force enablement is a strategic, collaborative discipline designed to increase predictable sales results by providing consistent, scalable enablement services that allow customer-facing professionals and their managers to add value in every customer interaction.

More about and from Byron:  Anyone familiar with Miller Heiman Group (brands include: Miller Heiman, Huthwaite, AchieveGlobal, Impact Learning, Channel Enablers, and CSO Insights) knows that championing the customer experience is a main tenet of their mission—and also one that I happen to share.As President and CEO of Miller Heiman Group, I bring a broad depth of experience in growing, leading and providing guidance to the best organizations globally surrounding their sales processes, as well as the leading operations that support the mission of a great sales organization.

Throughout my career, I have sought out challenges and answered demands that call for singular vision, energy and creativity. I have consulted and collaborated with industry leaders throughout the world and crafted new funnel-management solutions, compensation plans, sales methodologies, and sales-management processes, as well as developed and implemented sales-operations capabilities, sales structure, and territory design, for such Fortune 500 companies as Microsoft, AT&T, Sprint, and Aflac.

Personally, I am passionate about the education of sales as a discipline. In collaboration with university faculty and administrators, I am working to drive a nationwide effort to incorporate the study of sales into graduate and undergraduate academic environments. I teach and volunteer my time as a guest lecturer for universities including Cornell and Harvard Business School and contribute to published academic and industry research on sales strategy and concepts. I also run sales boot camps and coach, train, and judge students at university sales competitions across the U.S. and participate regularly as a featured speaker at industry wide events.

Listen in for another great episode, this time with Raviv Turner, CEO at CaliberMind.  In addition to being the Co-Founder & CEO of CaliberMind, Raviv is also an angel investor and mentor at Techstars and a regular speaker at marketing & AI events.

We're talking about how he sees a disconnect between Demand (buyers) & Ops (users) of data & analytics platform.  For a full transcript, go to the Heinz Marketing blog starting 4/30/18.  

Some highlights:

• Your data strategy is your B2B growth strategy (quick overview of the paper)
• Without a clear and concise data-driven marketing strategy, B2B marketers lack the ability to effectively acquire, organize, analyze and translate customer information into actionable insights. But what does an effective B2B data-driven marketing strategy look like?
• Understanding what needs to be accomplished is the first step in developing an effective data-driven marketing strategy. For B2B data-driven marketers, a top priority is basing more decisions on data analysis.
• Most Critical Challenges? Integrating data across platforms and enriching data quality and completeness are the most critical challenges to achieving data-driven marketing success 
• Marketing data is a marketing problem! Not devs, not IT - 100% marketing
• But data is hard, data is not sexy - so marketing is pushing it out - over 90% of B2B marketers outsourcing all or part of data tasks (Ascend2)
• But high performing marketers are doing the opposite, they license data and analytics tools and train their team to bring data capabilities in house
• Most of the reasons why marketing can't prove value and impact are data related, yet we prefer to outsource this - lead qualification, ICP score, account scoring, lead routing are all data problems before they are marketing problems.
• To be successful with ABM you need - Data, Account Planning, Content, Execution and Measurement - yes ABM is a data challenge not a media challenge..
• No wonder that marketing and sales ops are spending more than 80% of their time in spreadsheet hell on marketing data wrangling, exporting/ importing, vlookups in Excel what not
• There is a disconnect between the C/VPs and Ops inside the marketing org - Demand looks at pipeline sourced/ influenced/ ops created - but Ops don't give a hoot about it, they care about operational efficiency, workflow automation, the data integrity - they want to get out of spreadsheet, but guess what? - most ops don't have the budget to solve this problem, the biggest budget is demand and that budget mostly goes to programs not to data and analytics - but guess what? Without data and analytics you can't measure programs, you can't multi-touch attribution, you can't track engagement and orchestrate demand between channels..so that's changing, according to Gartner for the first time in 2018 analytics is the biggest spend in Marketing, more than social, more than content - why? Because without data and analytic we are going to see marketers continue to lose their jobs and go home