On this podcast, Jarod Greene, Highspot’s VP of Product Marketing, shared with Eric Gruber (CEO of Personal ABM) the lessons he learned from being a math teacher on connecting with the disconnected. As a math teacher, he needed to re-engage with students who “checked out” and give students who did not “care” about math a reason to get excited. Jarod needed to create an environment where the students would want to learn. He learned that it’s all about the experience and the interactions you have – and that is what Jarod believes that many sales and marketing teams are forgetting as they are thinking about scaling to reach more people.
The ABM Done Right Podcast Conversation Above Is About How Sales and Marketing Needs to Elevate Their Conversations to Make a Connection
Too many sales and marketing teams focus on scaling and reaching more people and having more conversations that they are not focused on the interactions they are having and the experiences they are delivering. If we focused less on scaling and more on our interactions, sales and marketing teams could do less activity because they’d move accounts that can have the greatest impact on the bottom line toward revenue.
“You Don’t Need Everything in the Pipeline, Especially Since There Is Too Many False Positives and Sand in the Pipeline.” Jarod Greene
Jarod Greene mentioned that if we went deeper and really understood account dynamics, their strategic priorities, their specific challenges, and the human beings behind the email, phone call, or Zoom conversation, we’d see greater stage progression and win rates. We’d be able to co-develop use cases and create the buying vision for bigger deals. We would get more revenue growth with tailored content and messaging vs. taking an approach for critical mass.
Eric and Jarrod Also Discuss:
- Where the disconnect is happening after the signed deal – and why account management and customer success teams are challenged to protect and expand key accounts. It’s essential to fill this gap as 82% of accounts are indifferent, disengaged, or actively looking to replace a vendor.
- Why “ABM” is being owned by the wrong “team” is leading to disconnects throughout the buyer’s journey. See why demand gen teams should not own or drive ABM. They play an important role, but demand gen should be one piece of the puzzle. Kristina Jaramillo’s article below on the CMO Council shows how teams confuse ABM with demand gen.
- How sales and marketing should be changing their positioning, messaging, stories, and approaches with tier 1 ICP accounts that once showed intent but stopped engaging. Kristina Jaramillo’s article on the Intentsify blog shows how you can get maximum returns from your intent data technology investment.
- Why accounts are lost – it’s not because sales and marketing failed to show the right features, and it’s not because buyers disagreed with the value that can be delivered.
- How can you influence the “internal” conversations and facilitate discussions that connect the disconnected within key accounts to get a buying consensus?
- How can you meet your buyers where they are right now and serve the right level of content and messaging that communicates the right differentiation beyond the product?
