For this month’s blog, I snagged a few moments with one of the busiest people in Demandbase, Mark Walter, leader of the Demandbase Technical Consulting Team. After working with hundreds of clients across a myriad of industries, Mark and his team have some pretty unique capabilities. They’re able to paint a vision of how to solve a client’s business needs, through technical demonstration, analyzing client pain points, and creating a compelling strategy. In short, they have the technical chops to address even the most complex technical challenges for our clients.

Here’s what Mark has to say about Demandbase Technical Consulting Services…

What does a technical consulting team do?

Our mission is to surprise and delight customers by delivering technical content in a way that interests and excites our clients based on their role in their organization. Beyond that, our team plays three primary roles. First, we’re involved in the foundational service packages that bring us into contact with many of our clients on a quarterly or monthly basis — where we provide technical guidance on platform setup and optimization. Next, we support our enterprise customers through ongoing hours-based projects. We serve as a technical resource to guide our clients through best practice usage and platform utilization. And lastly, we support customers with technical integrations that occur after they’re out of the implementation phase to ensure the new integrations are set up correctly.

What backgrounds do they have?

All of our technical consultants (TC’s) come from technical backgrounds, of course, but each one also brings a unique ability to communicate and interact with customers — something that is rare in a technical persona.

What superpowers do they possess?

One of the things we have unique knowledge of, because we’ve seen so many client tenants, is the implications of decisions made in the platform. We have an insider view of so many customer configurations, and we’ve waded in the technical weeds with so many clients that it’s easier for us to identify problems quickly or head them off altogether. Easier than it would be for you to do it on your own. 

Compared to the implementation team that works with our clients for the first few months, overseeing the initial configuration of the platform, we come in a bit later and have the opportunity to see the more prolonged downstream impact of platform setup. This puts us in an excellent position to help refine and optimize for our clients, really taking their performance to the next level and aligning it with their business strategy.

Are there specialties within the team?

Each of us has found our niche inside of the platform. One of our team members focuses on journeys and scoring models, while another has expertise on intent and the new workspaces feature. For me, I focus on the analytics-how we present the data in charts and graphs, helping our clients learn from the data.

What value do you bring to customers?

We all enjoy our client interaction, and bringing the platform to life for customers is our specialty and passion. We help you get excited about Demandbase, not only because we help you build confidence in how the software is set up, but because we teach you how you can see results on your own through analytics, intent dashboards, reports, etc. 

What is something unique you do to engage clients in a virtual meeting?

One of the things we have brought to Demandbase is the way in which we conduct our technical sessions. We have the client log in and share their screen. In this way, we help the user learn the platform, with our guidance, and this really helps with knowledge transfer, and retention and keeps everyone engaged in our sessions.

What three words describe Demandbase Technical Consulting best?

• Confident :  I like the word confident because it’s essential for building credibility and rapport with our clients. And we’re confident in our skillset and technical competence for sure!
  
• Comprehensive : We need to know so much about the platform to be ready to answer any question on the spot. Good thing, we have a ton of knowledge that we pack into our brains that we’ve learned along the way as both users and technicians of the platform. This depth and breadth of knowledge helps us react and learn with our clients in any number of technical and business discussions.
• Analytical : Not only do we analyze from a technical perspective, but we’re also always gauging how deep we can go in the conversations with people we’ve just met. Are they execs who need us to explain things in a simple, non-technical way? Or are they technical individuals who want and need to dive deep into the platform details?
  

What’s your favorite part about leading the technical consulting team?

Our team is a wonderful group of people, with top-notch talent, and we all get along well. We get feedback regularly on our team members, and (not to boast) we’re all excelling in our roles. While we have a lot of work, we’re always hungry for more!

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In part one of this series, I talked about two coming sea changes that I believe will fundamentally alter our world as we know it. The first post focused on “Buying Groups: As big as the shift from leads to accounts.” In today’s post, let’s turn our attention to artificial intelligence (AI), which is emerging as the most transformative technology to hit the world since the internet. 

Let me start by saying what this blog is not going to cover. We’re not going to explore whether AI is good or bad, whether it’s going to take your job or take over the world. I firmly believe that AI has the potential to do much good, to usher in unprecedented innovation and help us find solutions to the biggest, hairiest challenges we face, like finding remedies to “incurable” diseases, and a path forward in our battle with climate change. 

But not all applications of artificial intelligence will be useful or even real. Just as the early days of the dot-com era saw big winners and epic failures, the AI industry will experience a similar boom and bust driven by a host of visionary and me-too companies. Our job is to sift out the bad ideas and champion the truly transformative applications.

So how do we separate the promise from the hype? We need to ask ourselves these three questions.  

Is it real?

Seemingly overnight everyone is talking about AI. It’s as if we went to bed one night not thinking about AI and woke up the next morning to a world demanding that we use it. In knee-jerk fashion, companies are scrambling to figure out how to add AI to their product mix, while Investors are asking, “What are you doing about AI?”

This will result in companies building AI apps just to say they’re doing AI, or worse, simply claiming to use AI for its marketing value. Most of these use cases will lead nowhere.  

If you want to know whether an ‘AI app’ is real, dig behind the marketing claims to see if there’s any differentiation. Is the technology really powered by AI? Was the AI necessary? Did it make the offering better? Or is it marketing fluff or something that will be free in Gmail or Outlook?

If it’s more than an empty claim, then consider whether the AI offering fits into the company’s long-term strategy. If yes, it’s probably real. If not, it’s likely a frivolous one-off tactic that’s doomed to go the way of internet victims, Pets.com and WebVan.com. Remember them? Exactly!

Does AI empower humans?

This is the question of utmost importance. Because robots talking to robots will not lead to better businesses or a better world. AI’s value is not in replacing humans, or even having humans “in the loop” to prompt and direct the AI, it’s in empowering humans with new tools to do more and greater things, as every other technology advance has done. People have to be at the center of AI use cases to unleash its greatest potential.

We know that artificial intelligence excels at processing and analyzing data and it can handle repetitive tasks, freeing up humans to focus on what only they can do best. But here’s the rub. There are, and will be more, AI apps that will save us time — help us write emails, create written and graphic content, wade through massive amounts of data in an instant — and these are all good. Yet the real promise of AI, the promise that gets me fired up, is that AI has the power to help us achieve our goals, dreams, and aspirations more effectively, in ways that wouldn’t have been possible without AI.

Let’s embrace AI to save us time and expose wondrous insights, but then let’s also resolve to use that freed up time and the new insights we gain to solve crushing human challenges and take humanity to new heights. Therein lies the promise of AI. 

Can it be trusted?

I would be remiss if I left this out. If AI is going to transform the world, as I believe it will — or rather, the humans using it will — it’s essential that the AI can be trusted. 

We’re all familiar with the saying, ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ Well it’s doubly true for artificial intelligence. We cannot blindly trust every output or recommendation presented by an AI app. The output is only as reliable as the data it relies upon. So if you’re relying on AI to accomplish a task, to point you in the right direction, or give you insights to power your vision, make sure you understand and trust the data behind the scenes. 

If it’s a black box that prevents you from seeing the data and logic used by the AI models, beware! 

If you’re building your own AI models and apps, consider whether you trust the quality of your data, and make sure you have enough of the right kinds of data. Deep learning models require enormous volumes and variety of data to train and hone them over time. Check out this post by our CMO Jon Miller to learn more about that. 

If you’re unsure about the quality of your data or need to augment it with more types of data, Demandbase can help. We offer rich, AI-validated B2B company and people data, including firmographics, contact data, intent, technographics, engagement data, and more. Companies use our data every day to inform their go-to-market decisions, to feed their data lakes, and fuel their AI models. We’d be happy to connect with you and talk about your data needs. 

Data quality has always been important to drive sound decisions, and it’s also been notoriously hard to maintain. Partner with a trusted data provider. It’s more critical now than ever.

I’ll close with this. Demandbase has been harnessing the power of AI for years. We use it to score leads and accounts, identify intent and technographic data, manage advertising bids, validate data, and power our predictive models. We’ve recently introduced Buying Group AI, and we’re on a mission to deliver outcome-based advertising and a self-driving go-to-market (GTM) platform. All to make your lives simpler and more productive. None of this would be possible without seizing upon the power of AI. We’ve been poised for this moment, and we couldn’t be more thrilled about the future that lies ahead.

As always, I’m eager to hear your thoughts. Reach out to me at GabeGTM@demandbase.com and share your ideas on how AI will reshape our world.

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So it’s no surprise I was asked recently what I look for to justify the tech purchases we make at Demandbase. Here’s how I look at it. (Need the TL;DR version? Check out the 1-minute video clip.)

At Demandbase, there are three tests our tech purchases need to pass, and the first is the most important by far.

Test 1: Do the tech purchases help us achieve our KPIs?

Our exec team and I put a lot of thought and effort into developing our KPIs. After all, they’re the guiding stars that keep us focused on our mission. I work hard to drive alignment and consensus around them. Once in place, I trust our leadership team to deliver on them.

With KPIs being at the top of my priority list, it only makes sense that I would consider first and foremost how a tech investment helps drive our KPIs forward. If it doesn’t align with at least one KPI, you’re going to have to build a really strong case for it otherwise. Which leads to the other two things I consider.

Test 2: Does it save time?

Our people are our most precious resource. And they’re smart! If we can save them time…help them do routine things more quickly…that frees them up to work on higher gain activities that only they can do. That’s worth a lot. So I consider whose time we can save and how much time.

Test 3: Can we do the same thing for less money?

In other words, is this the most cost effective way to achieve the desired result? Is there a process change we could make that would accomplish the same thing for less? Are there other tech purchases that will work just as well, for less? Is this really the most efficient path to the goal?

Mind you, this doesn’t necessarily mean we choose the cheapest solution. It’s about carefully evaluating what we gain for the cost, and if all things are equal, we will go with the lowest cost solution.

Underlying all this is my deep trust of our leaders. I respect each one and trust they will only make smart recommendations, having considered these three things. By the time they bring something to me to approve, chances are I’ll say yes.

If you’re a CEO reading this, you’ll understand. Our most important job is to choose the right people to lead our teams and to set the course through our KPIs. Then approving your leaders’ recommendations is a piece of cake.

Not a CEO? Be prepared to pass these “tests” when seeking approval for your next tech purchases or renewals. You’ll save yourself a lot of heartache and gain your CEO’s approval and respect.

Anything I missed that you consider when evaluating your tech purchases? I’d love to hear. Please send your thoughts to gabeGTM@demandbase.com.

The post As a CEO, How I Justify a Tech Purchase appeared first on Demandbase.

Tell me about the implementation team at Demandbase: 

We have a talented and diverse group of people from various backgrounds working from multiple locations in the US and India to cover our customer’s varying time zones. They are an incredible group of professionals. In their past lives, our implementation managers were project managers; some worked in other SaaS companies doing consulting, and many developed deep expertise in various marketing automation platforms and CRM systems. I’ve had many clients remark on how energetic and positive their implementation manager is and how no question is ever a ‘dumb question’ to them. I think this makes a Demandbase implementation a positive experience for all involved.

In addition to our implementation managers, we have implementation engineers who specialize in web integrations. They have deep technical backgrounds so that they can code, help with Analytics or CMS integrations, review and turn on website customizations and forms, address tag-related challenges, and more. They round out our implementation team and manage many technical challenges in support of our customers. 

What can a customer expect from implementation? 

It varies based on the needs of each customer, and that’s by design. We believe “one size fits all fits no one,” so we strive for a tailored approach that addresses each customer’s specific requirements. We start by ensuring we are aligned on the course of action, goals, priorities, etc. We then work through a series of calls, each focused on a specific area of your solutions. In the case of the Demandbase Engagement Platform, this typically involves integrating with first-party data sources, setting up keyword sets, configuring Engagement Minutes and Journey Stages, and driving customer stakeholders’ understanding of how their new solution can work for them. As SaaS solutions, the products do not require development work for set up, and in fact, most configuration work is easily completed by the customer with guidance from the implementation team. Our goal is not to configure every bell and whistle and feature but to get them stood up so that they can begin to execute their programs and utilize the data provided by the platform.

How long does a typical Demandbase implementation take? 

We have several product offerings, so implementation time varies by product complexity and the customer’s specific timeline. I always tell prospects that we will move at your pace. If you want to move quickly, we will be right there with you. If you need more time, we can do that too! It’s up to you and your organization. We recommend keeping up your momentum out of the gate, however, to ensure we’re making the most of our partnership and getting you to value quickly. 

What resources are available to my organization during implementation? 

We have more resources than you might imagine! We have done an excellent job at our company by surrounding our customers with a lot of options for support. First, all customers have an account team dedicated to their success. Available resources include the Customer Success Manager (CSM), Global Account Director (GAD), and our professional services teams. We also have a technical support staff with real people responding to your questions or resolving your issues. For a more self-service approach, we have an excellent knowledge base, the Demandbase Academy for in-depth learning, customer skill-builder office hours and instructor-led training, the Demandbase Community, events and webinars, and more. We believe that supporting our customers comes in many forms, so we work hard to make resources available when and where our customers need them.

How much work needs to be done on my side during implementation?

There are considerable differences between our solutions and how our customers prioritize implementation. We have some out-of-the-box configuration options that allow you to get up and running quickly, often within just a few days. We can also deeply customize many configurations if that’s desired. I generally recommend an approach of ‘moving the big rocks’ – setting up for the key factors you know about already, and then allowing yourself to learn and optimize as you go. This is simply because – when working in a new solution – you don’t know what you don’t know, and you need time to learn, or you’ll experience diminishing returns on your configuration efforts during onboarding. My best advice is to pace yourself, learn as you go, and take advantage of our available resources.

Once implementation is complete, what’s next? 

We typically will sign off the implementation with a solutions review, and use that as a jumping off point for focusing on how to unlock the value of your solutions to the broader customer team. This can take the form of planning a sales rollout, running campaigns, or working with our professional services team on other program priorities. For example, a common step is to pursue a strategic Account Based Marketing workshop delivered by one of our ABM Strategists. We offer a number of services in addition to the support from your CSM, account director, and the strategic guidance they provide. We strive to ensure you have the right resources available from our team to make you successful with Demandbase!

How is Demandbase implementation different from other SaaS implementations we may have been a part of in the past? 

First and foremost, we take a holistic approach to onboarding our customers. We work in parallel tracks during this phase to cover the technical setup and strategic goal setting and planning. The idea is that when you have the products configured, you already have a game plan for program execution laid out with your Customer Success Manager and are ready to rock. We also understand that every customer is different, so focusing the onboarding process to accommodate your priorities is important. This approach allows us to get you to value on key components of the solutions in a staggered manner and ensures that we are providing the right resources at the right time for your needs.

What advice would you give potential customers considering investing in Demandbase?

That’s an excellent question! I’d say that you should identify your key stakeholders and start socializing goals early. Definitely include champions from sales in that stakeholder group to increase buy-in across teams. Bringing this group together builds your “ABM Leadership Team”, which is a huge component of driving success with ABM.

Additionally, don’t seek perfection out of the gate. During onboarding – or when starting a new program – solve for the 80% and let yourself learn. And in terms of learning, we give you homework during the implementation phase. Our most successful customers do their homework and take the Demandbase Academy courses to establish a baseline understanding. Doing this makes our time spent together in meetings that much more productive If you don’t do these things, the implementation will take longer. 

Finally, always be thinking about how to drive adoption within your organization. Build it into the workflows of your sales and marketing teams and drive accountability through executive sponsorship.

If you are eager to get started with Demandbase but are concerned about implementation, set aside your worries and let our implementation team guide you. We have hundreds of happy customers who have utilized our implementation services to get a jump-start on their GTM goals. Take a look at our customer case studies page for examples of how Demandbase has helped our customers increase conversion rates, improve product lift, and grow revenue. We look forward to working with you soon!

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