1137: Is the Death of ABM Really the Future of B2B Marketing? w/ Meredith Fuller

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.519 Are you struggling to come up with original content weekend and week out? Start 2 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:09.189 a podcast, interview your ideal clients, let them talk about what they care 3 00:00:09.230 --> 00:00:14.830 about most and never run out of content ideas again. Learn more at sweetphish 4 00:00:14.910 --> 00:00:24.420 MEDIACOM. You're listening to be tob growth, a daily podcast for BB leaders. 5 00:00:25.019 --> 00:00:28.500 We've interviewed names you've probably heard before, like Gary Vannerd truck and Simon 6 00:00:28.579 --> 00:00:32.899 Senek, but you've probably never heard from the majority of our guests. That's 7 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:37.530 because the bulk of our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors. Most of 8 00:00:37.609 --> 00:00:42.130 our guests are in the trenches leading sales and marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, 9 00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:46.729 they're experimenting with tactics, they're building the fastest growing BB companies in the 10 00:00:46.770 --> 00:00:50.240 world. My name is James Carberry. I'm the founder of sweet fish media, 11 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:53.640 a podcast agency for BB brands, and I'm also one of the CO 12 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:57.840 hosts of the show. When we're not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, you'll 13 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:00.560 hear stories from behind the scenes of our own business. Will share the ups 14 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:04.230 and downs of our journey as we attempt to take over the world. Just 15 00:01:04.430 --> 00:01:15.950 getting well, maybe let's get into the show. Welcome back to BEDB growth. 16 00:01:15.030 --> 00:01:19.900 I am your host for today's episode. Nikki Ivy was sweetfish media. 17 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:23.620 Guys, I've got with me today Meredith Fuller, who is managing director of 18 00:01:23.700 --> 00:01:27.739 buy our engagement at coary Merritt with. How you doing today? I'm doing 19 00:01:27.819 --> 00:01:32.890 very well. Thank you very much for the opportunity, Nick. AM thrilled 20 00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:36.090 to be here. Yeah, I'm thrilled as well. Guys, we're going 21 00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:40.170 to be talking about the death of ABM or the future of all be to 22 00:01:40.209 --> 00:01:44.370 be marketing and how those overlap. But before we get to all of that, 23 00:01:44.450 --> 00:01:47.519 before we really dig in, Meredith, I would love it if you 24 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:49.760 just give us a little bit of background on yourself and when you in the 25 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:53.920 folks at for you have been up to these days. Sure be happy to 26 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:59.560 so. Cory is a top ranking be tob demand marketing firm and we focus 27 00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:05.030 on text their clients. We've been in this business for well over forty years 28 00:02:05.510 --> 00:02:07.469 and I think one of the things that we've always been able to do as 29 00:02:07.469 --> 00:02:13.349 an organization is really beyond the leading edge of best practices be to be marketing 30 00:02:13.430 --> 00:02:19.979 and understanding. What are those approaches? Technologies? You know optimal ways to 31 00:02:20.139 --> 00:02:27.460 help our clients be successful meeting all their revenue and organizational imperatives from a marketing 32 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:32.610 support perspective. Myself Specifically, I've been with quary for over nineteen years and 33 00:02:32.930 --> 00:02:38.449 the team that I lead really does focus on that strategy development for those demand 34 00:02:38.569 --> 00:02:44.960 marketing campaigns and programs, helping our clients set marketing strategy. Over all, 35 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:50.080 that ladders up to business imperatives and we have within by our engagement all the 36 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:53.400 channels available to reach our clients customers. So that's our in bound on channel. 37 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:59.270 The channels are marketing operations and tech channels, our measurement teams, data 38 00:02:59.310 --> 00:03:05.110 scientists, etc. So, yeah, ABM really is as an exciting opportunity 39 00:03:05.270 --> 00:03:08.469 for us as an organization, just given our area of focus. Yeah, 40 00:03:08.509 --> 00:03:12.669 it sounds like it in and I had there's a question in there that I 41 00:03:12.789 --> 00:03:15.819 have for something you just said, but we'll come back to it. First, 42 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:20.259 let's just sort of frame this up, like talk about the the overview 43 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:24.620 of why we would be, you know, exploring the death of ABM and 44 00:03:25.259 --> 00:03:30.449 sort of the the rebirth of be to be marketing, a future of BTB 45 00:03:30.610 --> 00:03:35.569 marketing. In the same conversation, how are those two related? Sure a 46 00:03:35.689 --> 00:03:38.770 great question. So the death that BBM is near is perhaps a little bit 47 00:03:38.810 --> 00:03:43.919 of a provocative title and given really we're still a little bit at the naissance 48 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.319 of account based. Overall. I would say it's much more pervasive now, 49 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:51.759 of course, and it was even five years ago, so it already be 50 00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:55.909 talking about the death seems probably, you know, provocative, but I really 51 00:03:57.469 --> 00:04:00.789 what I mean by that is that all those tenants, those best practices that 52 00:04:00.990 --> 00:04:06.710 really underpan account base, what really makes account based a differentiated marketing approach than 53 00:04:06.789 --> 00:04:12.180 perhaps what we've done traditionally from a demand Gen perspective within the B Tob Sector, 54 00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:16.379 is that all those best practices really are just smart be to be marketing. 55 00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:20.500 It's about being focused, it's about being integrated, it's a about using 56 00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:27.250 technology to help be as efficient as possible but also deliver as much sort of 57 00:04:27.370 --> 00:04:32.970 meaningful value, valuable engagements as possible. It's about bringing sales and marketing together, 58 00:04:33.050 --> 00:04:36.649 which of course makes emminent sense. So at the heart of it it's 59 00:04:36.730 --> 00:04:42.839 that those those underpinnings really of what's brought account base to the for and be 60 00:04:42.959 --> 00:04:46.480 to be marketers minds. Are Things that I think are going to endure forever 61 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:50.639 and ever in terms of great be to be marketing overall, for sure. 62 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:54.870 And it's like I think, I think the folks before we started calling it 63 00:04:54.949 --> 00:04:58.230 or talking about a BM, before some of the software that we're going to 64 00:04:58.269 --> 00:05:00.829 talk about, all the technology that we're going to talk about here in a 65 00:05:00.910 --> 00:05:05.589 minute arrived, I think folks understood this concept that you know that there's this 66 00:05:05.750 --> 00:05:13.980 relationship here, but are our processes didn't recognize that. Right you you have 67 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:19.139 this this you know, tradition of literally in our systems that we work in, 68 00:05:19.259 --> 00:05:23.209 right markets and sales people not being on the same page. Right, 69 00:05:23.610 --> 00:05:27.370 you're going for the same goal, we're talking about the same accounts, but 70 00:05:27.649 --> 00:05:30.730 one of us is looking at it, you know, in a totally different 71 00:05:30.769 --> 00:05:33.970 view, as I said, a different page literally in your crm then the 72 00:05:34.009 --> 00:05:36.600 marketing team or than the other team. And and that's sort of, I 73 00:05:36.680 --> 00:05:42.240 think, what what made it slower to to come around, even though we've 74 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:46.800 understood that these things are related. What are some other reasons you think that? 75 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:49.790 You know, we're only just now starting to or in the last five 76 00:05:49.790 --> 00:05:54.389 years started to talk about this. Sure, so I actually I think you 77 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:57.829 touched on it when you talked about gold and alignment around goals, and I 78 00:05:57.910 --> 00:06:01.670 actually think that's been the biggest driver of account base. And then what's happened 79 00:06:01.829 --> 00:06:06.980 is that that's been that ground swell sort of been underpin now by terrific technologies 80 00:06:08.100 --> 00:06:13.500 and processes to your point that perhaps we didn't have previously. So having alignment 81 00:06:13.699 --> 00:06:18.129 on goals between marketing and sales and getting everybody rolling around the fact that hey, 82 00:06:18.569 --> 00:06:24.889 we are looking to drive pipeline, we're looking to drive conversations and engagement 83 00:06:24.970 --> 00:06:30.089 with high quality accounts. You know, moving away from that, particularly marketing 84 00:06:30.209 --> 00:06:33.600 bent focus on quantity of accounts or quantity of leads previously. I think that 85 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:41.959 goal alignment with sales really has been sort of the the North Star that then 86 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:46.990 all these workflows, processes and technologies have now actually been developed to support. 87 00:06:47.550 --> 00:06:51.350 So you know, now, thanks to technology, things as like, things 88 00:06:51.389 --> 00:06:58.189 like intense technologies, predictive technologies, our ability to personalize, our ability to 89 00:06:58.189 --> 00:07:02.459 track engagement and behaviors really all the way through the funnel like we never were 90 00:07:02.579 --> 00:07:05.699 before. All these things, I think, really have sort of just come 91 00:07:05.860 --> 00:07:13.060 together to bring what previously maybe of maybe had been some account targeted marketing, 92 00:07:13.500 --> 00:07:15.850 lots of to be organizations. Have, you know, key accounts or premier 93 00:07:15.930 --> 00:07:20.050 accounts or those accounts that sales is most focused on? That marketing has helped 94 00:07:20.089 --> 00:07:24.449 support it, but now we're able to do it in such a smarter, 95 00:07:24.850 --> 00:07:29.930 more effective and more efficient manner. Yeah, exactly that right. So what 96 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:32.639 we thought we wanted as salespeople. I come from assass sales back or we 97 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:35.560 what we wanted as sales people and what we were, you know, asking 98 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:39.279 for a lot of time was, you know, especially in sales leadership, 99 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:41.680 right, more leads, more leads, more leaves. But what we wanted 100 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:46.509 was for targeted leads, right, and the difference, they're right, exactly, 101 00:07:46.750 --> 00:07:50.829 the shift from, especially in what marketing was asked to do in the 102 00:07:50.910 --> 00:07:56.230 first place, right from by sales people, to shift from quantity to quality. 103 00:07:56.269 --> 00:07:59.899 I think you're right. is at the the heart of why, you 104 00:08:00.019 --> 00:08:03.660 know, we're good as continue to see more adoption here, and you know, 105 00:08:03.779 --> 00:08:05.100 that's the next thing I want to talk to you about. There are 106 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:09.980 some businesses who firmly believe right like this isn't for us, Samium, is 107 00:08:09.980 --> 00:08:11.779 it for us. We're going to keep doing things the same way that we've 108 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:16.449 been doing them. But but you and I were talking offline about the fact 109 00:08:16.449 --> 00:08:20.329 that, because it essentially just is be the be well executed, you know, 110 00:08:20.490 --> 00:08:24.449 more people executed. It's kind of for everybody. Talk about that a 111 00:08:24.529 --> 00:08:28.319 little bit for us. Yeah, absolutely. So we I have heartedly believe 112 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:31.519 it is for everybody because again, it comes back to it's just it's smart 113 00:08:31.639 --> 00:08:37.559 marketing. It's about being really thoughtful and considerate about the accounts you're targeting and 114 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:41.429 why you're targeting them. It's about being very mindful about regard and who you're 115 00:08:41.429 --> 00:08:46.590 actually reaching at those accounts. So not just looking at a single individual decisionmaker, 116 00:08:46.710 --> 00:08:50.870 but really trying to, you know, provide coverage across those accounts in 117 00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:54.350 terms of that be to be buying decision group or be to be sort of 118 00:08:54.429 --> 00:08:58.659 buying syndicate, if you will. So, you know, to me the 119 00:09:00.059 --> 00:09:05.139 opportunity for every be to be business absolutely is there and you can certainly dip 120 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:09.409 your toe into account base without having, you know, every marketing technology either 121 00:09:09.610 --> 00:09:13.529 is available, and that's something we've certainly worked with our clients on. Is 122 00:09:13.610 --> 00:09:16.450 that crawl, walk, run a pope approach. So, you know, 123 00:09:16.809 --> 00:09:22.370 marketing folks, what we're often seeing in the industry are really excited about account 124 00:09:22.409 --> 00:09:26.039 based but perhaps they don't have the budgets quite yet, for example, or 125 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:30.360 perhaps even they don't have the you know, the bandwidth to adopt full scale 126 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:33.159 account base. There are a small marketing team. There's still lots of things. 127 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:37.830 Are Lots of ways that you can start to adopt an account based approach 128 00:09:39.389 --> 00:09:45.830 without having all the dollars at your disposal, without having a dedicated ABM marketing 129 00:09:46.029 --> 00:09:48.549 team. So, you know, I highly recommend folks, you know, 130 00:09:48.669 --> 00:09:52.139 get in touch with folks we've already been there and done a get in touch 131 00:09:52.419 --> 00:09:56.500 with marketing firms such as our just to understand how can you start to move 132 00:09:56.620 --> 00:10:00.700 down that account based path, because they do do think it is time and 133 00:10:00.779 --> 00:10:05.379 dollars very well spent, and a lot of the analysis done by third party 134 00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:09.450 analysts support the fact that be to be really or ABM, sorry, is 135 00:10:09.769 --> 00:10:16.610 is so effective. Today's growth story centers around exactly ASSASS company that helps enterprise 136 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:22.720 companies with their incentive compensation. They'd work with search marketing agencies in the past, 137 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:28.360 but they'd had issues with transparency and Roy. They wanted to improve net 138 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:31.840 new leads via their organic and paid search channels, so they reached out to 139 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:37.870 directive optimizing search engine market share for exactly what's the top priority? Directed did 140 00:10:37.950 --> 00:10:43.950 this by improving search engine visibility for target audiences at the bottom of the funnel. 141 00:10:43.309 --> 00:10:48.909 In order to generate qualified leads. They focused on value driven content on 142 00:10:48.149 --> 00:10:54.019 relevant, winnable terms, landing page testing on PPC platforms and a laser focus 143 00:10:54.220 --> 00:11:01.460 on third party directory optimization, specifically Cap Tera. Directive grew sales accepted lead 144 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:07.129 volume by one hundred percent, increased Cap Tera conversion volume by three hundred and 145 00:11:07.289 --> 00:11:13.169 thirty six percent and boosted pre qualified clicks to Cap Tera by thirty nine percent. 146 00:11:13.570 --> 00:11:18.210 If you're looking for results like this with your search engine marketing, there's 147 00:11:18.250 --> 00:11:24.080 a good chance directive can help. Visit Directive consultingcom and get a free customized 148 00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:30.600 proposal. All right, let's get back to the show. That's interesting. 149 00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:33.429 I want to make sure that I ask this question for our listeners, those 150 00:11:33.509 --> 00:11:39.029 folks who may be those small teams with, you know, more restrictive budgets 151 00:11:39.309 --> 00:11:41.750 but that want to, you know, kind of get the most of it. 152 00:11:41.830 --> 00:11:48.100 Can you talk about what a sort of lean, bare bows text and 153 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:50.700 looks like for folks wanting to try this out? Sure, great question. 154 00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:56.019 So I think that to sort of foundational and fundamental technologies really just support an 155 00:11:56.019 --> 00:12:01.059 account based proache are going to be what most be to be organizations would have, 156 00:12:01.220 --> 00:12:05.529 and that would be a crm and a marketing automation platform. You know, 157 00:12:05.649 --> 00:12:07.850 the CRM, of course, really is to be able to capture the 158 00:12:07.929 --> 00:12:13.529 data in the interactions with those folks at those key accounts and having an opportunity 159 00:12:13.649 --> 00:12:18.480 for marketing actually to have access to the crm and see what sales is capturing 160 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:22.720 and sales to really be capturing all their engagements with the crm. That's a 161 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:28.320 critical point of understanding your success within account base. And then a marketing automation 162 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:33.750 platform because very typically, you know, an e nurture element is going to 163 00:12:33.789 --> 00:12:39.990 be part of multitouch account based campaign. So those would be your foundational technologies. 164 00:12:41.269 --> 00:12:45.139 Then there are so many technologies that can be access you know, whether 165 00:12:45.299 --> 00:12:48.620 through it's through you know ourselves as a marketing firm we have technology partners that 166 00:12:48.860 --> 00:12:54.100 our clients can access, or whether it's directly with technology vendors at the front 167 00:12:54.139 --> 00:13:00.289 end, just being smart about which accounts your targeting by trying to employ either 168 00:13:00.409 --> 00:13:05.129 intend or predictive technologies. You Yeah, you don't have to invest hundreds of 169 00:13:05.250 --> 00:13:09.730 thousands to still get from some of that data and intelligence that really will allow 170 00:13:09.769 --> 00:13:13.679 you to be smarter about who you're targeting from an account perspective, account based 171 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:18.000 perspective, for sure. So glad that you laid that out of that, 172 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:20.399 because that was one of the things that I had sort of been been thinking 173 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:24.080 about as I was reading, reading about the subject and thinking about this this 174 00:13:24.519 --> 00:13:28.909 conversation. So thank you and married it. Now that I have successfully picked 175 00:13:28.909 --> 00:13:31.669 your break and see what I could get out of it, it is time 176 00:13:31.710 --> 00:13:33.950 for you to tell us about what you're putting in it. Talk to us 177 00:13:33.950 --> 00:13:37.350 about, you know, learning resource or something that you've been engaging with here 178 00:13:37.389 --> 00:13:41.100 recently that is, you know, informing your approach or just Gott you excited 179 00:13:41.179 --> 00:13:45.500 these days. Sure, so. I mean, I think anybody who follows 180 00:13:45.500 --> 00:13:50.299 a count based really is recognizes that Sangram vars as such a leader in this 181 00:13:50.539 --> 00:13:54.379 field and his flip my funnel podcast I would highly recommend as a great source 182 00:13:54.460 --> 00:14:01.129 of account based intelligence. You know, he has interviewed such a wide range 183 00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:05.090 of folks within the field, so you know practitioners sort of down and into 184 00:14:05.210 --> 00:14:09.799 sort of the nuts nitty gritty of account base to analysts who have sort of 185 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:15.840 that bigger sort of account based Serie Perspective, you know, client side, 186 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:18.440 agency side, you know. There's just such a wealth of information there, 187 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:24.200 and podcasts to me or such a terrific way to get your information because you 188 00:14:24.309 --> 00:14:28.190 can easily be listening to those you know during your every day, during your 189 00:14:28.230 --> 00:14:31.389 commune, while you're working on a the sayings. So that's probably one of 190 00:14:31.389 --> 00:14:35.230 the key resources I would recommend folks to to check out, whether they're really 191 00:14:35.350 --> 00:14:39.500 just new to camp based or whether they're longtime practitioners. There's always a wealth 192 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:43.220 of information there, for sure. Thank you so much. We love saying 193 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:46.940 or around here. So never mind, never mind to pull up plug on 194 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:48.980 that, put my funnel podcast for sure. I know that, Nredith, 195 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:52.929 folks just like me who's been listening to the way you talk about this and 196 00:14:52.049 --> 00:14:56.929 understanding, you know, the expertise in the knowledge that you have behind this, 197 00:14:56.970 --> 00:14:58.450 are going to want to keep up with you. Tell us how folks 198 00:14:58.450 --> 00:15:03.490 can connect with you? Sure, absolutely. I mean I am on linked 199 00:15:03.490 --> 00:15:07.279 den. So Meredith Feller at quarry that easy to find me on linked inch 200 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.919 and then if they want to reach out directly. My email is m fuller 201 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:16.600 at quarrycom. So that's MFU ller at Qu a rrycom. And Yeah, 202 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:20.830 I'd love to hear what people think the questions they have. I really appreciate 203 00:15:20.950 --> 00:15:24.710 this opportunity. Thanks so much, Meredith. Great have an I stay Nikki. 204 00:15:28.950 --> 00:15:31.990 We totally get it. We publish a ton of content on this podcast 205 00:15:33.110 --> 00:15:35.179 and it can be a lot to keep up with. That's why we've started 206 00:15:35.259 --> 00:15:39.820 the BB growth big three, a no fluff email that boils down our three 207 00:15:39.899 --> 00:15:45.580 biggest takeaways from an entire week of episodes. Sign up today at Sweet Phish 208 00:15:45.620 --> 00:15:50.330 Mediacom Big Three. That sweet fish Mediacom big three.