OnBase: Smashing Sales and Marketing Misalignments

Mike Orr, Co-founder and COO of Grapevine6 (an enterprise social and digital sales engagement platform) speaks to us about the importance of a good end-to-end user experience while discussing innovative digital marketing and social media marketing trends within the B2B marketplace.  About Grapevine6: Grapevine6 serves to be a powerful, personalized content engagement platform that allows your sales force to start valuable conversations and build trusted relationships with the right buyers at the right time.  Grapevine6 was recently named a Leader in The Forrester New Wave™: Sales Social Engagement Tools, Q2 2019. Top ten takeaways from the episode: “There is a growing demand for social engagement tools. It’s really because the most influential relationship is between the salesperson and the buyer and this is slowly moving to social.” “Any tools that can help salespeople engage authentically with customers will always be very valuable.”  “Our customers build social selling programs using Grapevine6 to publish content and engage audiences on social globally.” “One of the things that work really well in this market is featuring employees that work on a project through various pieces of content.” “We use AI to analyze digital footprints to recommend content that is a best-fit for a specific account or specific contact. We tie content into personalisation basically.” “Creating a consistent customer experience across digital and self-serve channels is important throughout any Marketing or Sales campaign.” “We are seeing alot of video being used by both marketing and sales teams to create value.” “Whenever we see success in any content distribution program, marketing can’t keep up with creating personalized content at scale. That’s why outside tools that help you find relevant third-party content come handy.” “The industry is trying to get towards better attribution today. You can’t have a simple attribution model anymore.” “Understanding what the sales team needs is critical to content creation, in order to understand what the end customer needs to see.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

David Raab, Founder and CEO of The CDP Institute discusses the many benefits of Customer Data Platforms for B2B marketers and why there will always be a growing demand for technologies and platforms like CDPs.  About David Raab and The CDP Institute: David is founder and CEO of CDP Institute, which helps marketers make better use of their customer data.  David has been an industry consultant for many years, working with marketers to find and deploy the best technology of the period.  He denies having known Benjamin Franklin personally! Top ten takeaways from the episode: “About 3 weeks ago, we reacted to a great deal of confusion in the marketplace – that was the reason behind The Real CDP Program.” “You’ll be surprised to find many systems call themselves CDPs but don’t have all the capabilities to really be a CDP.” “The need for unified customer data will be with us for a long time.” “CDPs make it easier to deliver on Account-based Marketing/ABM. Specialized CDPs designed for B2B companies work at both levels to enable this.” “Sales and Marketing people need enough data to understand the current state of each target contact, that’s where CDPs are most useful.” “We used to define CDP as a marketer-controlled system, but its meant for Customer Success teams, Sales teams…many teams within a company can make use of the information in a CDP. CDP is focused on giving a product view of the data.” “What a CDP can do is give access to the same data to multiple teams within an organization so everyone has the same data to look at.” “Getting good data, knowing who to talk to, understanding what they’ve purchased in the past are some of the things that can be streamlined through CDPs.” “A good CDP, some of the more advanced ones will look at advanced messaging features, it will suggest who to talk to and when. There’s a lot of interesting work being done here that borders on predictive and prescriptive models.” “Many predictive modeling systems eventually morphed into CDPs.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

Nina Church-Adams, currently the SVP of Marketing at Act-On Software discusses B2B marketing tactics that global tech leaders and her team at Act-On Software uses to ensure consistent pipeline generation. In this episode she breaks down the upcoming trends in the technology marketing domain and talks about the various ways in which B2B marketing and sales will change in the future.  About Nina: Nina is a senior marketing leader with more than 15 years of experience building teams, products and brands. Nina has been successful in leading global cross-functional teams through product launches, go-to-market transformations, and organizational transitions. She is a marketer, and a storyteller who can align a diverse team around a shared vision by harnessing and focusing on a team’s creativity. About Act-On Software: Act-On Software is a leading marketing automation / SaaS product that helps sales and marketing teams increase and convert leads faster and more efficiently throughout the buying journey. Top ten takeaways from the episode: “From a marketing standpoint, my team is now trying to enable a more agile marketing process.” “So often people jump ahead into the measurement without any focus on ensuring they have the right kind of data.” “Paying attention to multiple data sets helps us optimize every campaign.” “Specifically coming from this space, I’ve seen people think about Demand Gen first when it comes to what they should their martech for. But they don’t think about leveraging marketing technology for activities beyond that and that is a big miss in itself. Often people don’t even think of marketing automation for a Sales use case!” “With subscription-models becoming more prevalent, it is crucial for Marketing and Sales to stay close to their customer!” “The role of the Salesperson according to me will continue to be important in the B2B space.” “Buyers have growing expectations now and this evolution is changing the industry, it is changing how we personalize campaigns.” “Its all about leveraging multiple technologies and data points to grab the best results today.” “Marketing and Sales alignment helps get better traction from every campaign and outreach.” “What our customers need is good technology plus the support to optimally use it.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

 Jeremey Donovan is SVP of Sales Strategy at SalesLoft, the world’s leading sales engagement platform. Over the past 20+ years, he has had an eclectic career spanning semiconductor engineering to product development/management to sales & marketing leadership at Xilinx, Gartner, AMA, GLG, and CB Insights. Jeremey is the author of five books including the international public speaking bestseller “How to Deliver a TED Talk” as well as “Predictable Prospecting.” He holds a BS and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  In this episode, Jeremey discusses key B2B sales strategies that help organizations like SalesLoft drive more results.  Top ten takeaways from the episode: “My days are highly varied. I try to have these ‘deep work’ periods were I tackle complex projects on some days.” “Predictive models are only as good as the data that comes in. And too many organizations don’t have super clean data.” “Picking the ‘right’ contacts or ‘right’ accounts will always remain elusive.” “Any sort of change in audience behavior requires alignment between people, process and technology to deal with it correctly.” “Today, we don’t have a technology problem…we have a problem with people and processes, process adherence more specifically.” “Email and phone remain dominant channels to reach prospects on…social is picking up too in this space. Today, Direct Mail is being used as a differentiator. Though few years ago, it was a dead channel. The one bad thing you can do in B2B Sales is use just a single channel.” “I follow a retrospective A/B testing, where I can test something on data and make the abstract more concrete.” “We’ve discovered that one-word subject lines have the best reply rates!” “The most common best word for prospecting is in fact just a company name!” “Tools that help you figure out what your next best action is will be big in demand, especially by salespeople.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

Peter Gillett, Founder and CEO of Zuant discusses his professional journey, from being a mechanical engineer to the CEO of a mobile lead data capture company. He talks about his experiences and what gave rise to the idea of Zuant.  Peter discusses various aspects related to B2B marketing and sales in this episode, with a key focus on lead data management. Key takeaway from Peter: GDPR isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the B2B marketplace. Its actually a good thing! Catch the whole episode to know why he said that. About Zuant: Zuant is a platform made for B2B marketing and sales teams with the aim of streamlining the process of mobile lead data capture.  Top ten takeaways from the episode: “Some of the basic things in B2B marketing and sales still remain the same despite rapidly changing trends.”  “Database marketing is especially useful in B2B marketing.” “Getting constant feedback from my clients is always valuable, I always try to join in on client or sales calls as a result.” “For salespeople, having an easy to use platform that can be used on-the-go is important. That’s what Zuant helps with!” “I don’t think many people talk about having easy to use platforms that can help when they are in the field or on-the-go.” “ABM is great obviously. In B2C its easier to apply. In B2B, it gets a little complicated. Knowing where to find data about your target’s preferences is important here.” “Large companies like Verizon have applied Zuant’s technology to pull data together in a consistent way.” “Technology if applied correctly can be a good approach to use to achieve marketing and sales goals.” “Process flow from web to inside sales is crucial for B2B marketing and sales.” “Build your customer journey based on how you would like to be treated.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

David Lewis, CEO of DemandGen  is known as an innovator in digital marketing technology and methodologies. He has overseen marketing strategies for some of Silicon Valley’s leading technology firms.  In this episode, David discusses key issues related to adoption of martech stacks and best practices to ensure maximum output from them besides sharing some interesting thoughts on B2B marketing, B2B sales and Demand Generation. About David and DemandGen International: David started DemandGen International, an Inc. 500 global consulting and services company that helps sales and marketing teams achieve alignment, define and operationalize their demand-generation processes to create maximum advantage from marketing technology and sales technology systems.  DemandGen has developed a reputation of being THE experts in MarTech and trusted advisor to the world’s most innovative and progressive companies including Apple, Dell, American Express, Concur, Siemens, SAP, Medtronic, Citrix, CenturyLink, Workday, and hundreds more.  Top ten takeaways from the episode: “As CEO of the company, there’s a pattern every week. But a typical day includes working on blogs, working on books, working on my podcast — I just did my 100th episode at DemandGen Radio!” “I’m also a bit of a Chief Innovation Officer and that’s important to the company! I spend alot of time researching the marketplace and that’s important too!” “My first book ‘Manufacturing Demand’ has done incredibly well. It explains the WHY of aligning Sales and Marketing and its the Number 1 book in the category. The working title of my new book is ‘Agents of Change’ and its a story, a tapestry of stories that our clients have gone through so I can share with everyone how to go about Sales and Marketing.”  “If Sales and Marketing doesn’t focus on Customer Experience, it doesn’t matter if you have the best products or processes.” “If Sales and Marketing view themselves as #oneteam with a common set of goals it optimizes results.” “To reduce friction between Sales and Marketing, I would say – walk in the shoes of your colleague!” “From a trend perspective, we are seeing Sales playing a different role in B2B buying. In every single industry where products and sellers meet, we are seeing less involvement by a person. Companies want less interaction with prospects in the buying process. I wouldn’t say Sales will be completely displaced. There needs to be representation from an individual. But in terms of skill sets and the role itself, it would shift towards more education – educating prospects on technologies and products. You got to be an excellent marketing person to be able to do good in Sales today.” “Unfortunately, a lot of companies do not align on vision and strategy. This affects the end outcome. It doesn’t align, its basically then random acts of marketing and random acts of selling.”  “ABM is really hard. Its way easier to buy lists and go the generic email route. Its harder to think of a specific audience and personas within. But is ABM worth it? Absolutely. If people want ABM to be successful, it might make sense to target them through their install base data.”  “Everything sounds practical and directional, but its hard. It takes the right team, it takes focus and it takes vision to succeed!” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

Martech Influencer Kelly J Waffle, currently the Head of Digital Strategy at Hinge Marketing took some time out to speak to us about upcoming B2B and Digital Marketing trends and how marketers can use them to boost ROI and conversions. What are some of the biggest challenges digital marketers face in the industry? Listen to Kelly’s thoughts in this crisp 19-minute episode! About Kelly: With more than 15 years of hands-on B2B and digital marketing experience, Kelly guides clients through the complex interplay of technology, processes, research/data, programs, creative and analytics. Over the years, he has built and led teams in the corporate marketing, marketing consulting, vendor and creative agency environments. He always brings an independent, 360-degree view of branding, demand generation and business growth to every engagement. Kelly is also a well-known practitioner and thought leader in Account-Based Marketing (ABM). Recognized by Onalytica as a Top 50 Martech Global Influencer, Kelly has also won awards with Eloqua (now Oracle) and Marketo (now Adobe) for his marketing automation expertise. About Hinge Marketing: Hinge is the world’s leading research-based branding and marketing firm for the professional services. We take a scientific approach to marketing, answering hard questions like: What do high-growth professional services firms do differently? How does a firm increase its marketplace visibility? How do a firm’s experts become industry stars? What tools and techniques deliver the best results? Top ten takeaways from the episode: “I now see more of a focus on branding, a few years it was swinging from branding to demand generation and now it’s back to branding.” “I see quite a big skills gap in digital marketing and B2B marketers are now realizing how much they need to focus on differentiating themselves.” “I see folks using video marketing in more creative ways and part of this is because it is becoming more search-friendly.” “I see a lot of B2B Sales people sending personalized videos as opposed to emailing and cold calling.” “A lot of the skills gap today comes because marketing has transitioned over the last few years. Folks have the traditional skills but may not be as up-to-date with the changing trends and demands.” “Processing data and turning it into relevant intelligence is a big miss today.” “When it comes to ABM, I see most people being cautious about it. Personalization has a high adoption rate. They use it for email and even website visits.” “Right now only 9% of B2B marketers have implemented hypersonalization as a strategy.” “Its important for B2B marketers to go beyond emailing and cold calling.” “B2B sales and marketing should tie back to prospect behavior to shorten sales cycles as much as they can.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

If you’re thinking of ways to improve your B2B sales effectiveness to drive profitable growth, grab these interesting insights by Mike Kunkle, VP of Sales Enablement Services at SPA and SPASIGMA. About Mike: Mike Kunkle is a respected sales transformation architect and internationally-recognized sales training and sales enablement expert. He’s spent 35 years in the sales profession and 25 years as a corporate leader or consultant, helping companies drive dramatic revenue growth through best-in-class learning strategies and his proven-effective sales transformation methodologies. Today, Mike is the Vice President of Sales Enablement Services for SPA and SPASIGMA, where he advises clients, writes, speaks, leads webinars, publishes sales training courses, and designs sales enablement systems that get results.  About SPA and SPASIGMA: SPA (sales analytics) and SPASIGMA (sales training & enablement) help clients improve sales effectiveness and drive profitable growth through the effective implementation of sales analytics, training, and tools. Top ten takeaways from the episode: “I think one of the current trends out there is thinking about sales stacks and sales enablement stacks.” “We are seeing a lot of collaboration happening so companies can increase their set of offerings and functionalities.” “What sales enablement leaders can do is think strategically think about sales enablement and support and find out what exactly their Sales reps need to close deals faster.” “Its important to identify whether sales reps need better contact info, training to close competency gaps, or additional skills to enable better conversations.” “It is important to find the right strategy and then support it with the right sales stacks and sales enablement tools.” “I still see a ton of product pitching and its all about them (the reps) and their product. People don’t want that anymore.” “We don’t demonstrate enough of a buyer-centric approach today, that’s the need of the hour.” “Sales reps have to be able to speak two different languages on the basis of the title they are speaking to, that doesn’t happen often enough.” “Buyer expectations are changing and modern buyers won’t tolerate direct product pitching much longer.” “Sales tools are meant to integrate with the role of a sales rep, to help them work better.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

Gar Smyth, VP of Enterprise Marketing at Drift.com talks to us about the importance of conversational marketing in today’s B2B marketplace. Why is it becoming so crucial for marketers and sales people to integrate this into their strategy? Have a quick listen to find out! About Gar: Gar has a rich background in B2B branding, demand generation, product marketing, field and channel marketing, and sales enablement. He has built and led outstanding B2B marketing teams in the US and globally  Prior to Drift, he led Demand Generation, Field Marketing and Channel Marketing at Carbon Black which had a successful IPO in May 2018. About Drift: Drift is a leading conversational marketing platform that helps businesses turn their online traffic into meetings. Top ten takeaways from the episode: “I usually have 2500 accounts that I care about at a time, I use multiple types of activities to go after multiple personas within those accounts…” “The challenge with traditional tactics is that none of those methods work anymore.” “The biggest value prop at Drift is that we help buyers connect to sellers when its the right time to sell.” “We’ve seen that there is usually a 48 hour gap between a form fill on a website and a BDR reaching out. Its important to shorten that gap” “Bring live human experiences to your website to drive business from web traffic.” “With conversational marketing, sales reps can jump onto a call with leads without losing any time.” “We are seeing 30% to 40% conversions with conversational marketing.” “Most of the opportunities being generated today are coming via chat.” “With our intel, we can notify an Account Manager when a strategic account is on the website – that is the first core technology we use through reverse IP lookup to drive business.” “Always have context on the who the person is to get most value out of conversational marketing.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.

Jay Gaines, currently CMO at SiriusDecisions talks to us about the Demand Unit Waterfall (the newest, re-architectured version of the Demand Waterfall) changes in B2B marketing trends and the increased use of install tech data and technographics in this space.  Listen on for some interesting insights and takeaways! About Jay: Jay Gaines is passionate about marketing leadership that drives innovation, and measurable results. In his career that spans over 20 years, he has been in a variety of b-to-b industries.  His experience includes organizational design leadership, marketing strategy and planning, marketing budget, operations management, demand creation, sales and marketing alignment, digital strategy. Jay has held executive-level marketing and business development positions at well-established and startup b-to-b companies.  Prior to SiriusDecisions, Jay was Chief Marketing Officer at EDR, a b-to-b information company, where he led all marketing, communications, market research and events activities across the company’s six business divisions.  About SiriusDecisions: SiriusDecisions empowers the world’s leading marketing, sales and product professionals to make better decisions, execute with precision and accelerate growth. SiriusDecisions clients grow 12-15X faster than their peers, and are 34% more profitable.  Top ten takeaways from the episode: “I spend a lot of time with the Field Sales team, which I think is important to any CMO.” “The primary way I approach Sales and Marketing alignment is to create a common view of the customer.” “We do a lot of things in terms of structure to create alignment with Sales and Marketing too.” “The biggest challenge that CMOs can have is their own CEOs and CFOs!” “Really understanding the nature of your offering is key to driving revenue and planning strategies.” “Account-based Marketing has been and continues to be all the rage. Every client at SiriusDecisions focuses on it in one form or the other.” “ABM is best when you want to go after large accounts.” “In B2B marketing and ABM, engagement metrics are important at every stage.” “One of the big trends we’ve been tracking for a while now is increased consumption of install tech data, technographics.” “Technographic data helps create better Customer Experiences. Expectations are being defined by experiences in B2B marketing. Retaining customers is crictical and CX begins before anyone becomes a customer…technographics can help create that experience, to serve  better outcomes.” About the podcast Sunny Side Up is a series of 15-minute podcasts. Leaders and innovators share what they’ve learned in the B2B tech sector on topics related to marketing, product management, sales, and leadership.