AMA: Pipeline360 Vice President of Marketing, Matt Hummel on Sales / Demand Gen Alignment

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 orga ...Read More

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 ...Read More

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 specific ...Read More

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 w ...Read More