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Jan. 14, 2020

#BestOf2019: A 2-Step Approach to Account Selection for ABM Campaigns w/ Brian Bell

In this episode we talk to , CMO at . No. 13 in our countdown of the Top 20 episodes of 2019. See why leading companies like Glint, Shopify, Spotify, Slack and more are using Guru for their knowledge management needs. Go to to start your 30-day free...

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B2B Growth

In this episode we talk to Brian Bell, CMO at Ping Identity.

No. 13 in our countdown of the Top 20 episodes of 2019.


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Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:08.310 Hey there, this is James Carberry, founder of sweet fish media and one 2 00:00:08.310 --> 00:00:11.189 of the cohosts of this show. For the last year and a half I've 3 00:00:11.189 --> 00:00:14.990 been working on my very first book. In the book I share the three 4 00:00:15.029 --> 00:00:18.910 part framework we've used as the foundation for our growth. Here is sweetfish. 5 00:00:19.350 --> 00:00:22.620 Now there are lots of companies that everased a bunch of money and have grown 6 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:25.579 insanely fast, and we featured a lot of them here on the show. 7 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:30.579 We've decided to bootstrap our business, which usually equates to pretty slow growth, 8 00:00:31.100 --> 00:00:34.700 but using the strategy outlined in the book, we are on pace to be 9 00:00:34.859 --> 00:00:38.649 one of inks fastest growing companies in two thousand and twenty. The book is 10 00:00:38.729 --> 00:00:42.729 called content based networking, how to instantly connect with anyone you want to know. 11 00:00:43.250 --> 00:00:45.329 If you're a fan of audio books like me, you can find the 12 00:00:45.369 --> 00:00:48.450 book on audible or if you like physical books, you can also find it 13 00:00:48.570 --> 00:00:54.359 on Amazon. Just search content based networking or James carberry CR be a ary 14 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:58.719 in audible or Amazon and it should pop right up. All right, let's 15 00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:03.439 get into the show. Hey, everybody, logan with sweet fish here. 16 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:07.629 It's a new year and at do decade and we're celebrating by rounding up the 17 00:01:07.750 --> 00:01:11.469 top twenty episodes as we look back on two thousand and nineteen. Will be 18 00:01:11.549 --> 00:01:15.950 sharing them here throughout the month of January in our Hashtag best of two thousand 19 00:01:15.989 --> 00:01:21.219 and nineteen series, and today's episode comes in and number thirteen in our countdown 20 00:01:21.260 --> 00:01:23.379 of the top twenty episodes of two thousand and nineteen. This one is a 21 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:29.340 flashback to my conversation with Brian Bell, CMO over at Ping identity. He 22 00:01:29.459 --> 00:01:33.810 talked about a two step approach to account selection for your ABM campaigns. I 23 00:01:33.930 --> 00:01:38.489 think very timely for folks if you're looking to up your ABM game going forward 24 00:01:38.569 --> 00:01:42.409 in two thousand and twenty. Welcome back to the BB gross show. I'm 25 00:01:42.409 --> 00:01:46.849 your host for today's episode, Logan Lyles, with sweet fish media. I'm 26 00:01:46.930 --> 00:01:51.079 here today with Brian Bell. He is the CMO at Ping identity. Brian, 27 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:53.200 how you doing today, sir? I'm doing great. Thanks for having 28 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:57.000 me. Thanks for joining us, Brian. been really excited to record this 29 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:02.469 interview with you. We're going to be talking about lessons learn from executing ABM 30 00:02:02.590 --> 00:02:07.629 campaigns. Before we jump into that today, I would love for you to 31 00:02:07.709 --> 00:02:12.150 share with listeners a little bit about your background your journey in marketing and also 32 00:02:12.270 --> 00:02:15.740 what you in the team at Ping identity you're up to these days. Sure 33 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:21.819 they had absolutely happy to do that. I'VE BEEN IN B Tob Enterprise software 34 00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:24.979 for a couple decades now in the variety of roles, visits, development, 35 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:30.330 general management roles and and very much in in the world of marketing, going 36 00:02:30.449 --> 00:02:38.050 back to years ago remedy software and peregrine where I ran marketing organizations. Prior 37 00:02:38.129 --> 00:02:44.599 to to Ping identity, I was at PA technology is running product and solutions 38 00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:50.000 marketing, and then spend some time at Zora, which is a cloud based 39 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:54.199 description management platform, where I ran marketing in alliances as well. And now 40 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:58.120 a thing I deentinity to. The last three and a half years or so 41 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.710 I've been running marketing in alliances here at at things. I love it. 42 00:03:02.110 --> 00:03:07.909 Scott Vaughan from integrate and I were just talking about that best sales deck ever 43 00:03:07.069 --> 00:03:12.469 that's been circulating for a while from the folks Overad Zora. Yes, that 44 00:03:12.669 --> 00:03:16.539 would great to see. Actually it was a really phenomenal posting. I think 45 00:03:16.580 --> 00:03:22.340 it was on Linkedin that talked about that's that fell deck and it was quite 46 00:03:22.340 --> 00:03:27.020 a journey and it was interesting about Dora was that we were definding a category 47 00:03:27.250 --> 00:03:30.330 and to define that category we had to really go out there and talk about 48 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:35.370 why. kind of the old way of running a business as a product based, 49 00:03:35.449 --> 00:03:38.930 you know, onetime license base business, wasn't relevant anymore and that everything 50 00:03:38.009 --> 00:03:42.319 was moving to this new world, and that became the context in which we 51 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:46.960 told that story's great to see that you've seen it. Yeah, yeah, 52 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:51.759 absolutely. It's something I've tried to model in other collateral. We've put together 53 00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:55.389 those sorts of things. I think there's a lot of storytelling power in going 54 00:03:55.590 --> 00:04:02.069 broader than just the problem to solution the here's the shift that's coming whether you 55 00:04:02.189 --> 00:04:05.830 like it or not, and here are the winners and losers. What are 56 00:04:05.870 --> 00:04:10.500 you going to do about it? It's less of do you want my solution 57 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:14.979 versus here's what we see, what do you think about it, and and 58 00:04:15.419 --> 00:04:18.220 ask for someone's kind of reaction. So there are a lot of things to 59 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:23.180 break down there. I think there's several conversations we could jump into there as 60 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:26.089 well. We have a whole we have a whole series here on this show 61 00:04:26.209 --> 00:04:30.209 dedicated to this topic of category design and category creation. May Be great to 62 00:04:30.569 --> 00:04:34.129 have you back on for for that series at some point as well, Brian, 63 00:04:34.170 --> 00:04:40.040 given your experience. They're there at Sorah, so happy to do that 64 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:44.879 and storytelling is so critical to that category creation, so would be more than 65 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:48.160 happy to participate. Yeah, absolutely. Well, the topic today, since 66 00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:54.110 we are in a week full of account based marketing episodes, I am very 67 00:04:54.149 --> 00:04:59.350 excited to learn from your experience in the ABM space, Brian. It seems 68 00:04:59.389 --> 00:05:03.110 like everybody's talking about ABM, but there can really be some different definitions. 69 00:05:03.230 --> 00:05:08.060 So let's back up there. We've talked to other folks about about execution, 70 00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:11.379 about what they see moving forward in ABM, but I would love for you 71 00:05:11.459 --> 00:05:15.579 to take a second and tell listeners, at least from your perspective being a 72 00:05:15.939 --> 00:05:20.180 season marketer, how do you define a bum? Great question and it was 73 00:05:20.259 --> 00:05:26.329 one that actually we when we started down this journey at at paying we're asking 74 00:05:26.410 --> 00:05:30.449 ourselves because everyone had a slightly different definition of it. To some folks it 75 00:05:30.649 --> 00:05:33.930 was one to one marketing into others it was really just some more generic, 76 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:39.720 personalized approach to marketing. And you know I take a fairly broad definition to 77 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:43.720 it. I think you know it's help based marketing, is a strategic approach. 78 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:50.029 So it's not a tactical campaign. It's a strategic approach that coordinates personalized 79 00:05:50.110 --> 00:05:58.509 marketing and sales effort seals motion to essentially open doors and deepen engagement within within 80 00:05:58.629 --> 00:06:01.870 the count and there's a few things in that definition that I think are important. 81 00:06:01.910 --> 00:06:06.100 One is it's strategic right, so it's not a campaign, it's actually 82 00:06:06.100 --> 00:06:12.500 an approach to how they're going to tack all the market and engage with accounts. 83 00:06:13.060 --> 00:06:18.649 It is secondly, personalized rights of content message, content based messaging for 84 00:06:18.850 --> 00:06:25.209 maximum relevancy and residents within the accounts is very important. It is marketing and 85 00:06:25.329 --> 00:06:29.329 sales together, and this is probably one of the most important dimensions of account 86 00:06:29.329 --> 00:06:32.439 based marketing. You cannot be successful if you do not have sales and marketing 87 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:38.639 fully aligned along this journey of ABM. And then, finally, it's about 88 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:45.079 engagement, because ultimately it is about driving and building engagement. It's it's an 89 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:50.230 account centric approach versus a lead centric approach. That becomes important to that engagement 90 00:06:50.269 --> 00:06:56.709 as well. Yeah, given your experience in Business Development as well as marketing, 91 00:06:57.069 --> 00:07:00.389 I've heard some sales leaders kind of speak to you know account based marketing 92 00:07:00.660 --> 00:07:04.259 and kind of going off of what you said there of that sales and marketing 93 00:07:04.459 --> 00:07:08.660 have to work together for an account based approach to make sense. Is that 94 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:14.100 sales has pretty much always been account based. In it really makes sense that 95 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:18.009 sales and marketing are coming together because they're seeing things through a similar lens. 96 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:21.689 Do you agree with that or do you think that's an oversimplification there? No, 97 00:07:21.889 --> 00:07:26.569 I think that is true and I think they're they're probably is also true 98 00:07:26.610 --> 00:07:30.160 to the fact that often sales is a step ahead of marketing. In many 99 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:36.120 cases that sales teams I've seen, particularly an enterprise BBB marketing, are very 100 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:40.360 more, you know, account targeted. They tend to define a set of 101 00:07:40.360 --> 00:07:43.439 accounts they want to go after and yet you have throw marketing up to the 102 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:47.509 side, still taking this more traditional, you know, inbound approach to generating 103 00:07:47.550 --> 00:07:51.069 leads, and inbound can be great, but then you don't have that control 104 00:07:51.149 --> 00:07:56.750 over the the quantity and the quality of engagement account level. So getting that 105 00:07:56.829 --> 00:08:01.139 alignment is critical and I have seen organizations in the part of organizations where sales 106 00:08:01.220 --> 00:08:05.819 is very focused on specific accounts and marketing and still doing doing inbound. Yeah, 107 00:08:07.540 --> 00:08:11.259 I love what you just said there. You mention inbound as being traditional 108 00:08:11.899 --> 00:08:15.649 and that just goes to show the power of category creation as well, because, 109 00:08:15.930 --> 00:08:20.410 you know, ten years ago the the category of inbound was was still 110 00:08:20.490 --> 00:08:24.769 being developed right. So anyhow, I just love the way that things are 111 00:08:24.850 --> 00:08:28.079 consistently changing. So on that note of you know, consistent change, where 112 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:31.639 things are heading, shifts in the market, what do you see as being 113 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:35.559 the biggest reasons why ABM is so relevant? Why? Why are we still 114 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:41.240 talking about seems like there's still buzz several years after this movement to this shift, 115 00:08:41.549 --> 00:08:45.190 whatever you want to call it, towards ABM, or at least integrating 116 00:08:45.230 --> 00:08:50.309 abm with your inbounded demansion efforts. What's the big push for, or what 117 00:08:50.509 --> 00:08:54.429 is the big reason for the continued relevancy of ABM in your opinion, bran 118 00:08:56.139 --> 00:09:00.539 well, I think it's largely just because it's a more effective but also efficient 119 00:09:00.580 --> 00:09:03.500 way to go to market. I mean it, and it does depend on 120 00:09:03.259 --> 00:09:07.779 the market you're going after. You know, in the case of thing identity, 121 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:13.929 we very much sell our identity and exercagement solution to larger enterprise, is 122 00:09:13.970 --> 00:09:18.250 large global enterprises. That's a defined set of company that we are targeting, 123 00:09:18.289 --> 00:09:24.169 enterprises that we're targeting, and when you have that define set and you you 124 00:09:24.360 --> 00:09:28.440 embrace some of these tactical components of account's marketing. We've seen. It's just 125 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:33.000 a more efficient way to do it. You have more control over the quantity 126 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:37.399 of opportunities are going after in the quality. The benefits of ABM, though, 127 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:41.029 I think you can probably group into a few things that are reflection of 128 00:09:41.110 --> 00:09:46.190 that efficiency. One is closed rate. Right, just by taking a more 129 00:09:46.309 --> 00:09:52.860 personalized approach to marketing, you tend to have higher conversions for things like online, 130 00:09:52.899 --> 00:09:58.539 digital email and other things. So that that drives more efficiency and should 131 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:03.220 lead to a better close rate as well, I think deal side. But 132 00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:09.929 we've seen is as you've engaged with specific accounts, with more personalized messaging and 133 00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:15.490 an understanding of what those accounts are and you're really measuring engagement across the account, 134 00:10:15.769 --> 00:10:20.809 you're able to drive bigger deals, larger transactions within those accounts. And 135 00:10:20.009 --> 00:10:24.879 then finally, account expansion. I think is is another benefit. You know 136 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:30.879 you have an opportunity to because your understanding that account better know how you might 137 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:35.080 land in the account and then expand. So you can kind of map out 138 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.909 a journey of how you're going to approach an account based on your understanding of 139 00:10:37.990 --> 00:10:41.669 that account, so close rate, deal size, account expanser. All these 140 00:10:41.710 --> 00:10:46.350 are just some of the benefits of a BM Andy. I think it's relevant 141 00:10:46.350 --> 00:10:54.500 today. Imagine it a spreadsheet filled with rows and rows of your sales enablement 142 00:10:54.539 --> 00:10:58.340 assets. You've devoted two years organizing this masterpiece, only for it to stop 143 00:10:58.460 --> 00:11:03.220 making sense. This was Chad tribuccos reality. As the head of sales enablement 144 00:11:03.289 --> 00:11:07.809 at glint, a linkedin company, he's responsible for installing confidence in his sales 145 00:11:07.850 --> 00:11:13.009 reps and arming them with the information they need to do their jobs. However, 146 00:11:13.210 --> 00:11:16.250 when his glory is spreadsheet became too complex, he realized he needed a 147 00:11:16.330 --> 00:11:20.559 new system. That's when Chad turned to guru. With Guru, the knowledge 148 00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:26.120 you need to do your job finds you. Between Guru's Web interface, slack 149 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:31.879 integration, mobile APP and browser extension. Teams can easily search for verified knowledge 150 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:37.149 without leaving their workflow. No more siload or staled information. Guru acts as 151 00:11:37.190 --> 00:11:41.070 your single source of truth. For Chad, this meant glent sales reps were 152 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:46.110 left feeling more confident doing their jobs. See why leading companies like glint, 153 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:52.220 shopify, spotify, slack and more are using guru for their knowledge management needs. 154 00:11:52.259 --> 00:11:58.700 Visit BB growth dot get gurucom to start your thirty day free trial and 155 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:07.169 discover how knowledge management can empower your revenue teams. Yeah, so those are 156 00:12:07.210 --> 00:12:09.769 some of the benefits and you mentioned it does depend a little bit on on 157 00:12:11.169 --> 00:12:13.649 your market, your product, your sales cycle. What are some of the 158 00:12:13.730 --> 00:12:20.240 criteria besides those, or maybe give us a little bit more thinking on those 159 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:26.559 specific criteria? On Wide Marketing team should think critically about ABM and whether it 160 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:30.269 is the right fit for them or the right fit for half of their efforts, 161 00:12:30.590 --> 00:12:33.629 for they, you know, dive head first in. Sure, I 162 00:12:33.750 --> 00:12:37.389 think the criteria to considered before just jumping into a BM is is it has 163 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:45.220 to start with a strategic conversation between sales and marketing and and often operations as 164 00:12:45.259 --> 00:12:48.379 well. Out Right, which is okay. Why what are we trying to 165 00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:50.980 achieve it are go to market strategy? What are the segments that we're going 166 00:12:50.980 --> 00:12:54.899 to focus on? And make sure that there is executive alignment, because without 167 00:12:54.899 --> 00:13:01.690 that alignment from the top, I think it can be a fairly unproductive journey 168 00:13:01.049 --> 00:13:05.809 for folks that I've seen that before too. You have some great intentions with 169 00:13:05.889 --> 00:13:09.210 a campaign manager and maybe sills leader who want to take more of an account 170 00:13:09.210 --> 00:13:16.240 based marketing approach, but without that top down executive support across the organization it 171 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:20.879 doesn't go very far. And what I've seen is they'll start down this path 172 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:24.799 of ABM and then other things get thrown on their plate, other tactics of 173 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:30.830 push back towards in bound tactics, for example. So having the executive linement 174 00:13:30.909 --> 00:13:35.070 is absolute critical as a starting point for Acount base marketing. I think also 175 00:13:35.190 --> 00:13:37.950 this definition, you know, what we the way we started the conversation today, 176 00:13:39.470 --> 00:13:41.019 is an important one to have. You know, does does the Count 177 00:13:41.059 --> 00:13:45.980 Bas marketing mean one to one or does it mean, you know, sort 178 00:13:46.019 --> 00:13:48.419 of a more strategic approach where it's, you know, one one too few 179 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:52.620 or even one too many in terms of how personalized are going to get in 180 00:13:52.860 --> 00:13:56.809 that execution? And often that's the journey. You know. We started, 181 00:13:56.850 --> 00:14:01.970 for example, Ping identity with a, you know, one too few approach 182 00:14:01.570 --> 00:14:07.529 and we're now sort of exploring how to go towards a one to one approach 183 00:14:07.809 --> 00:14:11.320 at some point in certain geographies. So that clarity of definition of what is 184 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:16.399 a bum is important. And then really, really important too is just understanding 185 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:18.240 the targets that you're going to go after, you know, and how you're 186 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:22.960 going to define those targeted accounts and look criteria to use. That's a one 187 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:28.149 of the most important parts, I think, of building a really strong foundation 188 00:14:28.350 --> 00:14:33.750 for Accoup base marketing. Yeah, absolutely. What's your recommendations, Brian, 189 00:14:33.909 --> 00:14:37.830 for folks who are just looking to get started there? They don't even have 190 00:14:37.149 --> 00:14:41.580 this. Hey, we're going one too few and we're moving to one to 191 00:14:41.740 --> 00:14:45.700 one. They're really just add at the very beginning stages. What are some 192 00:14:45.779 --> 00:14:50.740 of the things that maybe you wish you'd known before getting started with ABM, 193 00:14:50.860 --> 00:14:54.370 with you and your team? Yeah, I think you know. We've I've 194 00:14:54.370 --> 00:14:56.250 learned kind of the hard way in some cases that you have to start with 195 00:14:56.370 --> 00:15:01.490 that foundation of account selection and understanding right. If you if you start with 196 00:15:03.129 --> 00:15:09.919 tactical execution at a campaign level or maybe implementing some sales or marketing motion to 197 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:13.919 go after accounts, without being clear on which accounts are going after, it's 198 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:20.440 not going to be a very productive outcome or journey and you won't have the 199 00:15:20.519 --> 00:15:24.629 outcome you expect. So start with those accounts, right. What are the 200 00:15:24.669 --> 00:15:26.190 accounts are going to go after? How you going to define those accounts. 201 00:15:26.629 --> 00:15:33.789 Important to this is having a good understanding of what a high propensity to buy 202 00:15:33.830 --> 00:15:37.019 account looks like. That's the term that use, you know, coming up 203 00:15:37.100 --> 00:15:43.659 with a set of criteria that essentially define an account that is more likely to 204 00:15:45.659 --> 00:15:50.129 want to engage with you and more likely to purchase from you based on set 205 00:15:50.169 --> 00:15:52.490 a criteria, and that usually take the cross functional team. You know, 206 00:15:52.570 --> 00:15:56.409 in the case of thing identity, and even when we did this when I 207 00:15:56.490 --> 00:16:00.649 was a Dora, it was very much around bringing sales marketing, but also 208 00:16:00.210 --> 00:16:06.559 folks from the product team in some cases, into the discussion and operations. 209 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:11.840 A lot of the data around your accounts might sit within the operations team and 210 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:15.919 you need to do an analysis understand what are the characteristics of those accounts that 211 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:26.029 are current customers and how do you define those criteria to identify future accounts or 212 00:16:26.110 --> 00:16:27.789 perspective, accounts that are going to be a high propensive to by. So 213 00:16:29.029 --> 00:16:34.419 count selection is probably the first thing on that journey to that has to be, 214 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:38.500 you know, done done right across the company and you need to stick 215 00:16:38.539 --> 00:16:42.340 to that right if you one of the the the other experiences I've had is 216 00:16:42.419 --> 00:16:48.570 that we were pursuing a set of account that we had defined and we found 217 00:16:48.610 --> 00:16:52.409 that we had account executive or sales folks that would keep their own sort of 218 00:16:52.450 --> 00:16:56.250 set of accounts off to the side and not part of that defined set that 219 00:16:56.330 --> 00:17:00.879 we were running our campaigns against. And you just can have that sort of 220 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:06.200 road behavior to really need a word on board and agreeing on what those accounts 221 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:10.480 are that you're going to target. That's really interesting. Can you share any 222 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:14.680 more about that specific situation? Obviously not, you know, names and accounts 223 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:18.509 and in pointing the finger in a specific sales rep, but what was kind 224 00:17:18.509 --> 00:17:21.829 of the the motivation? Did they feel like, Hey, I'm I'm doing 225 00:17:21.990 --> 00:17:23.869 what I need to with these accounts, I don't want marketing to kind of 226 00:17:23.910 --> 00:17:29.710 muck up and do things in my sandbox that that I don't really have control 227 00:17:29.869 --> 00:17:33.940 over? Or what was kind of the motivation or the factors that play there? 228 00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:37.460 Maybe, yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't quite quite that as the 229 00:17:37.539 --> 00:17:41.500 motivation. It was more just just disconnect, I think, a disconnect between 230 00:17:41.980 --> 00:17:47.769 this corporate tea and this cross functional team that was passed with identifying accounts that 231 00:17:47.849 --> 00:17:52.490 how to high propensity vie and then individual sales reps who maybe you know, 232 00:17:52.009 --> 00:17:56.130 they agreed with that list, but they also had other accounts that maybe they 233 00:17:56.130 --> 00:18:00.119 had relationships with or that they fell also based on their engagement. Those accounts 234 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:03.400 also look like, I h propensity by and the right answer was actually to 235 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:08.279 bring those accounts in and review them and then move them into this more central 236 00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:14.549 define set of accounts that we wanted to target. So it was really there 237 00:18:14.670 --> 00:18:18.150 was no sort of port intent involved in that. It was right as the 238 00:18:18.190 --> 00:18:21.710 fact that they weren't aligned in the process, right. Yeah, well, 239 00:18:21.910 --> 00:18:25.710 they didn't understand the process, and that's another important point, because when you 240 00:18:26.109 --> 00:18:30.019 define these accounts, that needs to be an organic thing. I mean you 241 00:18:30.180 --> 00:18:36.859 need to sort of dynamically be evaluating the criteria use to identify high propensity to 242 00:18:36.940 --> 00:18:41.890 buy accounts and periodically, you know quarterly or certainly once a year, every 243 00:18:41.970 --> 00:18:45.049 six months or so, go back look at the model that you've created and 244 00:18:45.130 --> 00:18:51.130 the criteria and modify and then redefine what those accounts look like, because the 245 00:18:51.250 --> 00:18:56.559 market changes and you know your your strength as a company and what what you 246 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:00.759 might look for within an account might change as well. So that needs to 247 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:04.119 be ongoing, otherwise it gets still. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I 248 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:07.920 love what you said about bringing product and operations in as well. If talked 249 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:14.230 to other marketers, who definitely agree with you. Know, take your model, 250 00:19:14.390 --> 00:19:18.150 take some maybe some intent data, things like that to determine the hyperpensity 251 00:19:18.190 --> 00:19:22.829 to buy accounts. Also look at sales. You know what accounts have you 252 00:19:22.349 --> 00:19:26.339 really not had luck getting into or which one's, based on your knowledge, 253 00:19:26.579 --> 00:19:30.420 have room for expansion. But I haven't heard many people talk about bringing in 254 00:19:30.779 --> 00:19:36.460 product and operations for the account selection. What was kind of the push for 255 00:19:36.539 --> 00:19:40.009 that or the the reasoning the what kind of brought that to the surface, 256 00:19:40.049 --> 00:19:41.849 as you guys looked at to an IT brain. Well, I think it 257 00:19:42.009 --> 00:19:47.410 was really where the data was residing. The operations team and and our systems 258 00:19:47.450 --> 00:19:49.650 team had access to that data and also was aware of what data we're able 259 00:19:49.650 --> 00:19:56.200 to access to, and so they become really important in actually the creation of 260 00:19:56.359 --> 00:20:00.279 that database. That cuts for database and helping to define the model of what 261 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.960 criteria we would use to identify those accounts that were more likely to buy. 262 00:20:07.430 --> 00:20:11.589 And you know, the product Medican team also understand the requirements in the market 263 00:20:11.789 --> 00:20:15.990 and the types of companies that they were building products for. So it was 264 00:20:17.190 --> 00:20:22.259 definitely a cross functional for has been a cross functional effort to get those criteria 265 00:20:22.339 --> 00:20:27.539 defind you know, you mentioned intent, which is a really great, an 266 00:20:27.579 --> 00:20:32.980 important part of account based marketing. The way we've done it is to separate 267 00:20:33.140 --> 00:20:37.769 this notion of a more static view, of hyperfensive by meaning you you define 268 00:20:37.849 --> 00:20:41.809 those criteria, define and then list out the accounts are going to go after 269 00:20:42.210 --> 00:20:48.369 and then look at intent as a way to trigger certain marketing and sales motion. 270 00:20:48.609 --> 00:20:51.559 So you might have a set of a hundred accounts you know you want 271 00:20:51.559 --> 00:20:55.519 to go after. They all have this high propensity to buy, sort of 272 00:20:55.599 --> 00:20:59.680 definition to them right, and then you start to monitor their behavior and if 273 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:03.799 you see you know, in our case we use, you know, Bumbora 274 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:08.390 to monitor their search behavior and intent and then when we would see that intent, 275 00:21:08.950 --> 00:21:14.910 it would trigger not only motions within our sales development rep team, but 276 00:21:15.029 --> 00:21:22.900 also digital and online and even, you know, personalized web motions to two 277 00:21:22.940 --> 00:21:26.220 more effectively engage with those accounts. So we use intent in that way as 278 00:21:26.259 --> 00:21:32.059 a way to trigger the campaign and the sale motion that follows. Yeah, 279 00:21:32.259 --> 00:21:36.329 yeah, I love that. Using the more static criteria to create your your 280 00:21:36.369 --> 00:21:41.049 larger list of accounts and then using that intent information then to to trigger specific 281 00:21:41.130 --> 00:21:47.160 action or timing as your person those accounts because, as we've been talking about 282 00:21:47.160 --> 00:21:52.680 and as everybody knows, you know, ABM implementing that for those sarget accounts. 283 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:56.559 It it takes time. So doing it, not only those actions toward 284 00:21:56.680 --> 00:22:00.160 the right accounts but at the right time, that's really where some magic can 285 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:04.109 happen. Absolutely, absolutely, and we've seen. You know, we've seen 286 00:22:04.190 --> 00:22:07.630 great results with that. You know you'll have set of accounts. You know, 287 00:22:07.750 --> 00:22:11.869 all know our right for the for what we provide, and it's just 288 00:22:12.029 --> 00:22:18.140 really a question of timing and when we see that that surge in search behavior, 289 00:22:18.180 --> 00:22:22.180 for example, being able to provide the SDR team of the script to 290 00:22:22.500 --> 00:22:26.900 go after that account and and engage with them right at that moment or to 291 00:22:26.019 --> 00:22:32.490 serve up digital display or paid search for those accounts really has shown to be 292 00:22:32.609 --> 00:22:37.369 more effective and a good Rli. Yeah, yeah, I love that, 293 00:22:37.809 --> 00:22:41.329 Brian. I love the way at the top of the interview you you Vari 294 00:22:41.410 --> 00:22:45.440 succinctly defined account base marketing and I feel like we rounded it out really well 295 00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:49.359 here in a part that is so key for folks in getting started in in 296 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:56.319 account selection, with this idea of static criteria for for their their whole list 297 00:22:56.440 --> 00:23:00.910 and then using intent data for the timing of specific activities towards specific accounts. 298 00:23:02.430 --> 00:23:07.150 This has been a great conversation. I thank you so much for sharing your 299 00:23:07.190 --> 00:23:11.710 lessons learned and and thoughts with folks. I definitely feel like listeners are going 300 00:23:11.710 --> 00:23:14.900 to get a ton of value from this episode. If anybody has any follow 301 00:23:14.940 --> 00:23:18.059 up questions for you or just would like to stay connected, pick your brain 302 00:23:18.180 --> 00:23:21.140 that at some point down the road. What's the best way for them to 303 00:23:21.180 --> 00:23:22.980 find you or reach out? Brian? Sure I you have to. For 304 00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:27.369 prequle to reach out, they can reach me via linthin or at be bell 305 00:23:27.529 --> 00:23:32.569 at King identitycom Brian, I can't say it enough. This has been a 306 00:23:32.609 --> 00:23:34.769 great conversation. Thank you so much for being on the show today. Great 307 00:23:34.809 --> 00:23:40.410 thank you, Logan. Thanks for done. We totally get it. We 308 00:23:40.569 --> 00:23:44.240 publish a ton of content on this podcast and it can be a lot to 309 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:48.440 keep up with. That's why we've started the BB growth big three, a 310 00:23:48.599 --> 00:23:52.039 no fluff email that boils down our three biggest takeaways from an entire week of 311 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:57.950 episodes. Sign up today at Sweet Fish Mediacom big three. That sweet PHISH 312 00:23:59.029 --> 00:24:00.589 MEDIACOM Big Three