AMA: Pipeline360 Vice President of Marketing, Matt Hummel on Sales / Demand Gen Alignment
September 4 @ 10:00AM PST
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Pipeline360 Vice President of Marketing • September 4
Great question - such a true description of the tension so often experienced between sales and marketing. Fortunately, there's great news - you can do both. Good brand makes your demand easier. I repeat - good brand makes your demand easier. In practice, this means doing both together. You can drive forms of targeted (targeted being the key word here) brand awareness through channels like display advertising in tandem with your demand generation. This is honestly such a great tactic if your organization does not have an appetite for longer-term brand building. Do it in tandem with your demand efforts, targeting the same set of accounts with an integrated approach.
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Pipeline360 Vice President of Marketing • September 4
If done properly, integrating sales feedback should not only NOT compromise the broader marketing objectives, but it should actually make your marketing efforts more successful. Now keep in mind, not all sales feedback is created equal. But your sales reps should be your best friends - they should have their finger on the pulse of your customers. They should be able to validate your messaging and content and provide insights into your target accounts. Take all of that and build it in to what you are doing. Now if the sales feedback is something like - "hey, I think you should advertise on this random channel" - start by asking why. My experience is they see others doing it and often think it's the latest trend and so we should also be doing it. Don't fall into that trap. Always ask for the why. Maybe they will surprise you with feedback such as "because this account told me that's how they get their information!"
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Pipeline360 Vice President of Marketing • September 4
Too many to count! One key example was when I was launching a large scale evergreen content syndication program. If you know content syndication, you know it can take time to get those leads sales ready. Such a great channel to drive targeted engagement, and when done correctly, can be the underpinnning for a predictable stream of high quality engaged leads and ultimately opportunities and pipeline. However, it takes time. When I set this up earlier in my career Sales did not understand why we were investing in a channel that didn't give them immediate inbound opportunities. The reality we were - this wasn't the only channel / program we were running, but we were investing heavily into it. They started more or less demanding that we open it up and start passing them through - even understanding from a lead scoring perspective they weren't ready for sales. And guess what - the leads weren't ready to talk to sales! It comically led them to asking why we were sending the leads to them and wasting their time. However, the lessons learned here - over-communicate programs and channel expectations to your sales organization. Use your leadership to reinforce these key messages, but also plant these seeds within your reps. And then agree to keep an eye on ways (i.e., lead scoring enhancements) to optimize the flow of leads so sales feels like you share the same sense of urgency in getting them high-quality leads. Remember, it's important to share a sense of urgency - but it doesn't mean you have to do unnatural things with your programs because ultimately that will impact your reputation within these target accounts as well as within your own sales organization.
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Pipeline360 Vice President of Marketing • September 4
I once wrote a blog post called "When did MQL become a 4-letter word." And this remains such a hot-button topic. Are MQLs dead? Should we be focused on accounts? Qualified accounts? ABM? Engagement? The list goes on and on. There is no one-size fits all response to whether you should be using MQLs. But I would contend whatever your approach the intent (pun intended) of an MQL is to create meaningful engagement within your target accounts, which in turn will demonstrate intent to buy. To specifically answer your question though, go back to the intent of an MQL - which is that if done correctly, that lead should be (based on data) ready to talk to sales. Good lead scoring models should be reviewed and refreshed at least every 6 months. Don't wait any longer. And if possible, build a unique model based on your different ICPs. For example, what qualifies as an MQL for your enterprise accounts likely looks different than for your SMB accounts. To stay relevant and meet the needs, rely on your data. Set a baseline acceptable conversion rate (or success metric) and then continually optimize against that.
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