Why B2B Marketing And Sales Is Broken And How To Fix It

Modern Marketing Engine podcast hosted by Bernie Borges

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B2B marketing and sales have always been close cousins, but Bernie’s guest on this episode of Modern Marketing Engine says that the advent of Account Based Marketing has made them even closer than that - and he says that when they get together as part of the same team, bottom-line growth of the company is the result.

Sangram Vajre is co-founder and Evangelist of Terminus, an account based marketing platform that helps B2B marketers run efficient ABM programs at scale. His experience at Terminus - and previously as part of the Salesforce team - has enabled him to see that ABM is simply the way B2B should function overall. Sangram’s new book, “ABM is B2B” explains how an account based approach that unites marketing, sales, and customer success teams as #OneTeam empowers the entire company to focus on target accounts and generate real revenue outcomes rather than vanity metrics such as “leads generated.”

This episode is brought to you by Gong.io, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, skyrocket rep performance and gain critical market intelligence. Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong. Head to www.gong.io to get started.

The Problem: Less Than 1% Of Leads Become Customers

One of the points Sagram highlights in the beginning section of his book is that less than 1% of leads generated by the average marketing team ever become customers. That’s an appalling statistic, one that Sagram says would cause many marketers to lose jobs if the CEOs knew it was the case. It’s a statistic that proves that the common “get leads into the funnel” mentality of marketing teams simply isn’t working - and isn’t the right way to approach the B2B marketing role.

Sangram believes that every marketer should be asking, “What is the total addressable market we can actually sell to?” If they are unable to answer that question, it reveals that they are not clear enough on who their future customers should be. He contends that if your company is only going to close a finite number of deals this year, then as a marketer you should be going after THOSE accounts - and there’s plenty of data to help you determine which accounts they are. Join Bernie and Sangram for this compelling conversation about how marketing and sales should work together to create an unstoppable team.

The Value Of Marketing Is Defined By Sales

Many marketers have bristled at Sangram’s comment that “The value of marketing is defined by sales.” They point to brand building as one example of a valuable activity that can’t be so easily quantified. But Sangram points out that branding ultimately does have a measurable goal - growth of the company (sales). To drive the point home, he points out that there are no B2B companies that have big marketing teams and no sales teams - but there are many companies with large sales teams and no marketing team.

Sangram makes it ultra-clear when he says, “Our job as marketers is to either incrementally or exponentially grow the business. We are an extension of the sales team to help them close more deals.”

He believes that marketers have a bigger opportunity to drive revenue than ever before - they have access to information, know the target accounts, and have the technology that can tell them how to engage with them - so there is no reason they should sit back. In his mind, it’s time for marketers to earn their place on the team by pursuing the right kind of leads - the ones that have the greatest potential to convert to customers.

Why Your Company Needs A T.E.A.M. Instead of Separate Teams

One of the strengths that Sangram and the team at Terminus bring to ABM is a clear and simple focus on the things that truly drive account based marketing success. He refers to it as T.E.A.M. - Target, Engage, Activate, Measure.

TARGET - the right accounts

ENGAGE - those accounts where they are

ACTIVATE - the sales team

MEASURE - in a way that shows the entire customer journey and combines attribution and influence reporting

Sangram believes that these four areas of focus allow marketing and sales teams to have intelligent conversations with CEOs and CFOs that create a compelling case for the tech needed to generate the right kind of leads. It also puts the marketing and sales teams on the same page, enabling them to work together in an integrated way that puts customer needs and customer success first.

How One B2B Marketing And Sales Team Attained A 95% Close Rate

To point out how much of a difference these principles make when applied company-wide, Sangram points to Thomson Reuters. This massive company applied ABM principles to their expansion deals, and their win rate increased to an astounding 95%. Compare that to the 1% statistic at the beginning of this conversation. It’s mind blowing but a testimony to the power of good execution on ABM practices.

This is the kind of metrics B2B marketing and sales teams need to be able to show to executive teams or boards to explain what needs to be done and the kind of results that should be expected. These are the conversations that give credibility to marketers much more than how many events were run last quarter, how many banner ads were clicked, how many MQLs and SQLs got delivered to the funnel. If the leads marketing generates are not from the best-fit target accounts, marketers will never come close to the accomplishment of Thomson Reuters.

Featured on This Episode

• Terminus - The company where Sangram serves as Chief Evangelist
• Sangram Vajre on LinkedIn
• Sangram on Twitter: @SangramVajre
• Sangram’s new book: “ABM is B2B”
• Sangram’s daily podcast: Flip My Funnel

Outline of This Episode

• [1:36] Sangram’s story, his role at Terminus, and his daily podcast
• [7:28] The problem: Less than 1% of leads actually become a customer
• [10:27] Trends in marketing and sales Sangram has seen from 2016 through 2018
• [13:35] How is the value of marketing defined by sales?
• [19:11] T.E.A.M. and #OneTeam :
• [22:11] Why the CEO needs to understand this approach first
• [25:46] How some companies are seeing bigger deals, and 95% closing rates
• [31:07] Why it’s important to ask yourself, “What matters to me?”

Resources & People Mentioned

This episode is brought to you by Gong.io, the number one conversation intelligence platform for sales. Gong helps you achieve revenue success, skyrocket rep performance and gain critical market intelligence. Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong. Head to www.gong.io to get started.

• Katie Bullard
• Scott Brinker’s Martech Conference
• Thomson Reuters
• Salesforce
• The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr

Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine

• https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/
• https://twitter.com/bernieborges
• https://instagram.com/bernieborges
• https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast

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