The language, metrics, and reports you use matter. Choose the wrong ones, and you diminish marketing’s credibility across the organization. Choose the right ones that speak to revenue and profitability, and you strengthen the perception of marketing as a strategic driver of growth.

Let’s explore this, beginning with how the wrong reports and metrics can hurt marketing credibility.

The post Nailing the Numbers: The Reports Your CMO Wants to See appeared first on Demandbase.

In this post, as promised, we’ll look at what a transformed GTM looks like.

1. It’s account-based…first.

This is stating the obvious, but I’ll do so to make a point. Business-to-business (B2B) is about companies marketing and selling to other companies, not individual consumers. And within those companies you need to sway entire groups of decision-makers and influencers — the buying committee. Depending on your source, you’ll hear anywhere from 7 – 20 people can be involved. So it makes no sense to focus your GTM around attracting, engaging, and measuring activity on individual leads. 

Don’t get me wrong. There’s still a place for leads in B2B GTM, as you’re sure to attract some inbound. But leads shouldn’t be your focus because they’re only valuable if they’re tied to an account you want to target and if they’re on the buying committee. 

The more efficient way to go to market is to start by targeting accounts — the ones you want and who are most likely to buy from you. Engage the buying committee members at those accounts. And measure engagement and progress at the account level. Are you reaching the accounts you want? Are they engaging with you? Are they moving through the funnel, converting to pipeline, and closed-won deals. That’s what matters. Not loads of random lead activity.

2. Marketing and sales agree on account tiers and resourcing.

At a minimum, sales and marketing need to agree on which accounts to target. But in a transformed GTM, these teams also align on account tiers and how much resource to allocate to each, based on their strategic value. For example, Tier 1 accounts get 1:1 messaging, high-value offers and invitations, executive engagement, and so forth. At Demandbase, we have three tiers of target accounts that we engage 1:1, 1:few, and 1:many, respectively — followed by the rest of our ICP (tier 4) and the balance of our TAM (tier 5).  

3. Data silos are a thing of the past.

Sales and marketing alignment is a must in B2B, where both teams are touching members of the buying committee throughout the entire buyer journey. Remember the analogy of the soccer game from the previous post? For sales and marketing to play as one team, they need a shared view of their accounts. In addition to the basic account data in CRM, they all need to see engagement activity, website behavior, intent data, technographics, and more. More data equals more insights. As long as they’re all seeing the same thing. 

4. Marketing and sales work toward the same goals.

In a transformed GTM, sales and marketing share a common set of goals that are aligned with overall business objectives. I recommend focusing on pipeline generation, bookings, and revenue rather than individual metrics such as website traffic or lead volume, or even the popular metric of marketing-sourced/influenced pipeline. Focusing on the latter, as many marketing teams do, fosters division and competition that gets in the way of team play. 

5. It’s built on a modern GTM tech stack.

None of the above is possible without a modern, data-driven tech stack that streamlines processes and provides rich insights. That means using tools such as marketing automation, CRM, an ABM / GTM platform, sales engagement, chat bots, and analytics platforms. And truly transformed GTM teams not only choose the right technology, they fully integrate it and know how to make it sing. 

6. Marketing gives as much attention to customers as to new logos.

Finally, in a transformed GTM, your marketing team no longer puts customers in the rearview mirror when a deal closes. You play an active role in the customer lifecycle pre- and post sale, focusing equally on them, while also courting new logos to drive business acquisition.

Transformed marketers treat upselling and cross-sales as a funnel, using the same tactics you use to drive new business. For example, using advertising, content and email marketing, gifting, and so forth based on website activity, engagement, journey stage, and intent signals. To rely on relationship building by the account team alone is to miss significant opportunities.

What’s more, in a transformed GTM, marketing also owns responsibility for case studies, customer reference programs, community, and advocacy. These customer marketing functions not only build loyalty and retention, the validation they provide feeds back into the traditional funnel, driving new business acquisition. This type of customer validation is more important than ever, as companies are having to justify every dollar spent.

There you have it.

A transformed GTM is account-based, data-driven, and tech optimized, with all revenue-generating teams working in concert to drive revenue throughout the ongoing customer lifecycle. 

Sound too good to be true? We can help you get there. Just reach out to me at GabeGTM@demandbase.com or visit demandbase.com.

The post A CEO’s Take on What GTM Transformation Looks Like — Part 2 appeared first on Demandbase.

1. Strategy

When thinking about ABM strategy, it’s important to first understand your objectives for the year. Are you introducing a new product or service? Are you integrating an acquired company? Are you primarily focusing on growth within your existing customers or are you going after new logos? Whatever objectives you choose, your ABM strategy and customer journey should:

• reflect your business focus, 
• include a commitment to a targeted account strategy, and
• have the attention of an ABM Leadership team committed to your success.

2. Technology

While 1:1 ABM can be accomplished without enabling technologies, when moving to 1:few or 1:many ABM, the appropriate tech stack is critical to success. We recommend that our customers have a minimum tech stack of a CRM platform, Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) like Marketo or Pardot, and an account-based management platform like Demandbase. Best-in-class companies will use a Business Intelligence (BI) platform such as PowerBI or Tableau, a sales engagement platform such as Salesloft or Outreach, a chat platform such as Drift, a gifting platform such as Sendoso, PFL, or Alyce, and many other technologies to accomplish ABM at scale. But having these technologies isn’t enough. Your teams must also be fully enabled in order to reap the benefits of ABM.

3. Execution

Execution is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Companies with the strongest strategy and fully aligned techstack can fall down on execution –– especially if sales and marketing aren’t properly aligned. Here we look for a strong lead process, territory alignment around business goals, an agreed upon targeted account list, well-organized ‘always on’ campaigns, standard campaign naming architectures and use of UTM parameters, use of AI for uncovering intent and engagement, a shared content calendar, and much more.

4. Measurement

Without established objectives, KPI’s and high level scorecards, it will be difficult to understand the success of your ABM program. Traditional metrics like CTR, page views, and MQLs are leading indicators of ABM success. But more important metrics include targeted accounts on site, targeted account conversion rates, # of MQA’s, pipeline, and funnel velocity. Sharing a dashboard with your organization on a monthly basis is a great way to bring visibility to your program, achieve alignment, and encourage discipline from your teams.

A final tip: If you’re still unsure of your ABM program’s maturity, read Jon Miller’s Blog on the Three Levels of Sales and Marketing Maturity and Alignment ortake our simple Online ABM Maturity Assessment to see how your program stacks-up. For a more detailed review, ask your account team how you can get a full assessment with one of our ABM Strategists. 

Don’t just take our word for it. Visit the ABM Leadership Alliance for a different perspective and to review their ABM Maturity benchmark reports.

The post How Mature is your ABM Program? 4 Key Indicators to Assess appeared first on Demandbase.

So while everyone — myself included — is eager to leap into the new year, with all the hope it represents, I took some time to reflect on this past year, as well, to consider what I would have done differently, if I could.

My top 3 mulligans (or do-overs, for the non-golfers in the crowd)

1. Don’t forget the basics when you’re growing fast

Over the last couple years, we’ve grown a lot at Demandbase. We acquired three companies, expanded our product portfolio, and more than doubled our number of employees. It’s pretty heady stuff with a huge upside, but it came with a lot of complexity and potential distraction.

What would I do differently? Or as I like to think of it, what’s the lesson learned?

I would have worked harder at sticking to the basics in our go-to-market (GTM) and not let us get distracted by all the change and newness. 

And by GTM basics, I mean…

1. Focus on our bread and butter metrics — qualified meetings, pipeline, and conversion rates. Sales and marketing teams thrive on activity and these are the areas where they should be directing that energy. 
2. Treat the sales and marketing relationship like a marriage that needs to continually renew its vows. (Guess there’s some personal learning in there, as well.)
   
   Alignment is not a one-and-done thing. We need to regularly reassess and agree on priorities, messaging, and key metrics. We need to do the same things we tell our customers every day. 
3. Stay focused on profitability, even when tempted to spend more on growing faster. That’s a hard one for a CEO to swallow, but it’s always important. And even more so in times like we’re living in today.

2. When you can’t get together often, make the time count when you do 

We’re not moving back to an in-office environment any time soon. At least not like we used to know. You can probably relate.

Yet we crave being together, face-to-face, in a way virtual meetings can never replace.

Like many of you, we’ve turned remote working into a positive for both the company and our employees. It opened up new hiring pools for us and gave our team members the personal flexibility they wanted. But one outcome is that it’s more challenging, both logistically and cost-wise, to bring everyone together. 

My lesson learned? Keep making those times happen as often as we can, even if in smaller groups. And when we do, we need to be fully present — to make time for socializing, true team building, and having fun. I need to remind myself, it’s not a frivolous use of time and resources. It’s a wise and rewarding investment. 

3. Don’t take teenagers’ moods too personally

I can’t look back without taking some lessons from having two teenage children. I’d remind myself…frequently…not to take their moods too personally. 

They’re going through an evolution that can be slow and bumpy along the way. Like the epic story of Musashi, whose journey from rebellious youth to famed Samurai, was a long and arduous one. I’d gain perspective from that.

I’d also reflect on what experts tell us about our children deeply feeling the effects of the pandemic, economic and other global uncertainty, and that’s reason enough to cut them some slack. 

Finally, I would remind myself that they will come around. We were all teenagers once. And look at us now!

The post My 2022 Mulligans appeared first on Demandbase.

Businesses need the right combination of talent, technology, and smart budgeting to succeed.  Data-informed strategies help marketers determine which processes, technologies, or positions drive the most ROI. 

How do top-performing revenue leaders structure budgets for growth?

• They define the organizational vision and identify cascading priorities
• They communicate what each department is expected to focus on and achieve
• They clearly articulate department goals, metrics and KPIs

What are some pitfalls marketers should avoid?

• Focusing on too many competing priorities and projects, which can lessen their impact and hinders alignment with the overarching vision 
• Neglecting to adequately track data and either lacking a destination for data or having it trapped in silos

How is an information-driven marketing journey successfully designed?

1. Support and enact the vision with informed, data-driven metrics
2. Ensure a process that defines, organizes, analyzes, and utilizes metrics, and use that to guide priorities, goals, and projects
3. Routinely refer to the metrics to track progress against business and department goals, course-correcting as needed

 “Ask: what are we trying to accomplish as a company? How does marketing, or your department,  contribute to the growth of the business? Define what’s important, then create KPIs.” – Tracy Kraft, Vice President of Revenue Marketing, Demandbase

Want the winning formula for optimizing your budget and team for sustainable growth? Watch our 5-minute webinar with Frost & Sullivan Partner and VP, Roberta Gamble and Tracy Kraft, VP of Revenue Marketing, Demandbase, How to Structure Your Budgets and Team for Success here.

Not all superheroes wear capes. Still, extraordinary B2B revenue teams share one superpower: they know how to align, optimize and mobilize their people, processes, and systems to dominate in the face of adversity. This is part one of our four-part series hosted by Frost & Sullivan,  Build an Invincible B2B Revenue Engine. 

You can watch the full webinar here to learn how to get your revenue organization firing on all cylinders to increase your pipeline generation and skyrocket your win rates.

The post Purposeful Planning: Tech, Talent, or Programs? How to Structure Budgets and Teams for Long-Term Growth appeared first on Demandbase.

Marketing operations trends move quickly and can leave the unprepared in the dust. That’s why we’ve compiled three key trends, based on the results of our 2022 State of Marketing Operations Talent report, a project we undertook with Highway Education, that every marketing leader should have on their radar.

1. Rising Demand for New Talent

You’re not the only one on the hunt for new members of your MOPs team. In just the last two years, the average marketing operations team grew by two-thirds, from 7-11 people, with teams in companies of 10,000 people or fewer seeing their MOPs headcount double.

As expectations mount on marketing organizations to drive revenue, we can expect this demand to continue to grow. “It’s very competitive,” says Crissy Saunders, CEO and co-founder of marketing operations consultancy CS2. “It feels like we’re all swimming in a very small pool going after the same talent.”

2. A Widening Talent Gap

As marketing operations teams have expanded, a problem has emerged: There simply aren’t enough junior-level marketing operations professionals entering the market to keep up with the number of open positions.

One of the biggest culprits behind the dearth of talent is the fact that there is no obvious pipeline producing qualified job-seekers. “Marketing ops isn’t taught in schools; it’s not something that people even know about until they’re in a marketing entry-level job,” says Saunders.

Without a steady stream of new MOPs pros, it can take several months—and a substantial number of resources—to successfully recruit and hire a new team member.

3. Higher Salary Expectations

As with anything in high demand and low supply, a dollar won’t go as far as it used to when it comes to securing a new MOPs hire. The price of talent has risen steadily over the last several years, jumping by an average of more than $10,000 since 2020 according to an ongoing survey of marketing ops professionals.

In 2020, the average salary of someone working in marketing operations was $108k. Today, that number has risen above the $120k mark.

“The best marketing ops people have their pick of jobs,” explains Amazon marketing operations leader Darrell Alfonso. “They can switch every year for increases in salary. It’s a candidate’s market right now when it comes to marketing ops.”

Takeaways: Staying Ahead of the Trends

As long as the amount of new marketing ops talent continues to lag behind demand, marketing leaders will be up against a challenging labor market—all while expectations around marketing operations success continue to grow.

To stay effective in the face of these constraints, leaders should consider:

• Sourcing new talent from non-traditional educational programs that prepare students to hit the ground running as entry-level members of marketing operations teams.
• Defending against burnout and turnover by ensuring higher-level strategic team members are adequately supported.
• Building training into team culture to develop in-house talent and stay agile.

This post is part of the State of MOPs Talent study jointly sponsored by Highway. Demandbase, smarter GTM for B2B brands, helps marketing and sales teams spot the juiciest opportunities earlier and progress them faster. Highway helps MOPs leaders overcome the industry talent crisis by providing job-ready junior MOPs talent for leaders to hire. 

The post 3 Marketing Operations Trends Every Leader Should Be Planning For appeared first on Demandbase.

Faced with a unique set of challenges, marketing operations hiring managers need to be strategic in their approach to finding, wooing, and landing new talent for their teams. Here are six things to keep in mind:

1. Your Senior MOPs Pros Need Support

The ideal marketing operations team, like most any other, functions best when it’s shaped like a pyramid: a small number of strategic, senior leaders on top, supported by mid-level managers who are in turn assisted by a wide base of junior specialists. But in our 2022 State of Marketing Operations Talent report, conducted in partnership with Highway Education, we found that the average MOPs team is, in reality, shaped more like a blob.

In fact, we found that junior folks made up the smallest percentage of the average team, leaving more experienced veterans stranded to pick up the slack of day-to-day tasks. A full one-third of marketing operations professionals told us that they felt that the work they were left stuck with was too easy, which is a perfect recipe for turnover.

“Without enough junior recruits, senior people get stuck in triage,” explains Sara McNamara, a marketing operations leader at Salesforce. “They want to do strategic work and progress in their careers, but instead, they continue to get hit with requests while being under-resourced. It’s very demoralizing in the long-term.”

2. There’s No Reliable Supply for Junior MOPs Talent

Marketing operations teams are growing like crazy, with the average team size increasing by 66% between 2020 and 2022, and doubling in companies of ten thousand employees or fewer. But as more and more businesses look to grow their marketing operations departments, they’re finding themselves increasingly up against a supply problem. 

“Marketing ops isn’t taught in schools,” says Crissy Saunders, co-founder and CEO of marketing operations consulting agency CS2. “It’s not something that people even know about until they’re in a marketing entry-level job.”

With fewer qualified recruits than open positions, finding and attracting the right talent can feel like a job in and of itself.

3. Salary Expectations are on the Rise

With the mismatch of talent supply and demand, marketing operations pros—especially the most desirable ones—are commanding higher salaries every year. 

According to data collected by Sara McNamara, the average salary for MOPs pros has jumped more than $10,000 since 2020. 

“The best marketing ops people have their pick of jobs,” says Darrel Alfonso, a marketing operations leader at Amazon. “They can switch every year for increases in salary, and I don’t blame them. It’s a candidate’s market right now when it comes to marketing ops.”

4. Hiring Doesn’t Happen Overnight

If you think you’ll be able to fill an open MOPs position within a month or two, you may need to think again. Our survey found that most teams spend four or more months on the hiring process, and invest an average of more than $22,500 in the process. 

Your current staff will feel the crunch as well. 60% of hiring teams devote at least five hours to the process every week, and 96% spend at least three.  

5. Your Job Requirements Impact Your Talent Pool

With a limited supply of new talent and long hiring times, it’s crucial to design a job description that will maximize the number of qualified applicants you can consider. 

Pierce Ujjainwalla, co-founder and CEO of Knak, argues that companies can accidentally exclude many great candidates by requiring unnecessary qualifications. “When I look at the marketing operations job boards, so many listings require candidates to know HTML and CSS,” he says. “Why are we still expecting people to know these skills in 2022? If you eliminate unnecessary requirements, you can open up the job to so many more people.”

6. Most Junior Hires Need Training

With few sources for trained junior talent, most companies will need to expect to include a ramp-up period for any new junior hire. Our study found that more than 80% of new hires aren’t fully ramped for at least six months and that nearly 70% of teams put at least five hours per week of existing employee time toward training. 

Takeaways

Hiring in the midst of the talent crisis facing MOPs isn’t easy, but doing so is essential for every marketing team. As you approach your next hiring initiative, consider how you can best serve your strategic thinkers, broaden your talent pool, and build a plan to ramp your new hires so they can make an impact ASAP. 

This post is part of the State of MOPs Talent study jointly sponsored by Demandbase and Highway. Demandbase, smarter GTM for B2B brands, helps marketing and sales teams spot the juiciest opportunities earlier and progress them faster. Highway helps MOPs leaders overcome the industry talent crisis by providing job-ready junior MOPs talent for leaders to hire. 

The post 6 Things to Consider When Hiring a MOPs Pro appeared first on Demandbase.