Alignment Under Construction, with Lisa Smith

WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:18.120 Conversations from the front lines of marketing. This is be tob growth. Welcome 2 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:22.039 back to be tob growth. Today I am joined by Lisa Smith. She 3 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:27.160 is the VP of integrated marketing at demand base. Lisa, were thrilled to 4 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:30.760 have you here on B Tob Growth. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, 5 00:00:30.920 --> 00:00:34.600 thanks, I'm glad to be here too. So it's fun to have you 6 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:38.840 in this season here on the show, because demand base actually has hit quite 7 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:43.320 a growth spurt, I would say, as of late. Maybe give us 8 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:47.759 a run down for those that are unfamiliar with the expansion you guys are experiencing. 9 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:52.520 Tell us some of the season you find yourself in. Yeah, absolutely 10 00:00:53.399 --> 00:00:59.200 so, in the space of just just under a year, from summer of 11 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:03.200 two thousand and twenty two summer of two thousand and twenty one, and demand 12 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:08.359 base made three acquisitions. One was engage Oh, founded by John Miller, 13 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:14.599 the cofounder of Marquetto one was inside view, the company that I work for, 14 00:01:14.760 --> 00:01:19.680 and the third one was called demand Matrix, and so we have had 15 00:01:19.719 --> 00:01:25.799 a lot of rapid growth in terms of products, capabilities, team people, 16 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:30.359 you know, and really finding the synergies between those, you know kind of 17 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:34.799 all the entities come together. That's where we find ourselves right now. Okay, 18 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:38.239 so, I mean it's fantastic from an acquisition standpoint, but that also 19 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:45.560 means you're navigating team growth, your navigating all processes. Everything internal sort of 20 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:49.280 get thrown not one curveball but three. So what are the main sort of 21 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:53.719 growing pains or obstacles that this season has has brought? With great growth, 22 00:01:53.799 --> 00:02:00.120 right, comes some things that become challenges as well. So one aspect I 23 00:02:00.120 --> 00:02:04.359 would say that happened kind of in the latter half of two thousand and twenty 24 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:09.199 one was trying to just merge all the systems, primary one as a marketer 25 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:17.599 being the CRM and the marketing automation systems, and so that was big because 26 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:21.560 and and for sales people as well. Right, how do you how are 27 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:25.240 you tracking your revenue? How are you measuring against the your goals, all 28 00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:29.960 of that? What's your data look like? Your data says this, but 29 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.879 my data says that. Whose data is right? So the latter half of 30 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:37.960 two thousand and twenty one, that was a massive project that we focused on, 31 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:42.280 and then in this year the focus. Well, first of all we 32 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:46.960 had a rebranding effort. So on February eight we launched a whole new brand, 33 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:52.439 a new tone of voice, new website, a lot of different efforts 34 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:57.759 related to that. But be big launch, there's also the teams coming together 35 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:02.599 and and processes and rapid growth in that arena. HMM. So with that 36 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:10.039 comes all sorts of alignment conversations and changes. Give us an understanding a little 37 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:14.439 bit of from a marketing vantage point, like what did marketing look like a 38 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:20.280 year ago versus what marketing looks like now? Sure, yeah, well, 39 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:23.840 John Miller, the guy from engageo and formerly Marquetto, is our chief marketing 40 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:30.599 officer and as we had our first marketing team meeting in January of this year, 41 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:34.840 he took a pause and he said, do you know, a year 42 00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:39.039 ago, January two thousand and twenty one, there were ten people on the 43 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:46.960 team and now we are more than fifty people on the team. And in 44 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:53.879 the course of the acquisitions that I mentioned before from engage, you know, 45 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:58.000 there were a variety of people. But then from the two time frames that 46 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:03.080 he was mentioning, only three of US joined the marketing team through the acquisitions. 47 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.560 So the red through inorganic growth. You know, some some folks will 48 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:12.840 say right. So everybody else was hired new. So just a massive difference 49 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:18.439 in people, a massive build out of the marketing organization, which really gave 50 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:24.639 rise to to somebody like me to even have a position called integrated marketing. 51 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:28.720 We, I'm sure enough, need integrated marketing. And so, yes, 52 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:31.439 a lot of questions are on alignment. Who's doing what to whom, and 53 00:04:31.480 --> 00:04:34.160 didn't you use to do that? And how come you're doing this over here? 54 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:39.040 And what legacy thing still sits over there that we ought to, you 55 00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:44.040 know, rationalize within the organization or at least make sure we're all singing from 56 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:46.040 the same song book, so to speak. That's a good way to put 57 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:54.800 it. What is it look like to intentionally change some of those internal communication 58 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:58.279 strategies? I'm sure there's a lot of shifts that you're alluding to, but 59 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:00.000 I wonder if you could let us like behind the curtain in a sense, 60 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:05.519 maybe some of those strategic conversations that are happening or actual shifts that occurred. 61 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:12.600 Yeah, so we realized fairly quickly this year that some of the old structures 62 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:17.120 were no longer working in terms of us all, even at a basic point, 63 00:05:17.160 --> 00:05:23.279 remaining aware of what everybody was doing, and so we did start a 64 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:29.399 new meeting that happens every week called the campaign information meeting, and all the 65 00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:33.519 great title Ram Program Owners Come On. They look ahead at it. We 66 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:38.279 keep a common calendar. It's just an excel spreadchee. It is not, 67 00:05:38.439 --> 00:05:41.879 you know, no fancy tools or anything like that. We get on the 68 00:05:41.879 --> 00:05:45.319 call together, there's probably about twenty of us on the call, and just 69 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:49.639 say what's coming up in the next two to four weeks that we want to 70 00:05:49.639 --> 00:05:56.360 make sure other people know about, where we ask for help, cross functionally, 71 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:02.519 raise blockers or issues you know, that we may have and just sort 72 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:06.920 of make people aware. And so the within that framework, the organic thing 73 00:06:06.959 --> 00:06:12.839 that happens within the framework is somebody to say, oh, that would be 74 00:06:12.839 --> 00:06:15.439 awesome to include in my thing. That's happening two weeks later. So could 75 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:19.160 I take the on demand version of that Webinar and then put it into my 76 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:24.560 nurture email flow that I'm putting together to reach such and such an audience, 77 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:29.319 because there's a great overlap between this and that. And so that's the that's 78 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:33.319 this sort of organic thing that happens when you set up that structure for information 79 00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:38.839 sharing. I like that. Who always involved in that? That meeting. 80 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:46.519 So primarily it's the revenue marketing team and they are the campaign program owners. 81 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:53.519 But our corporate marketing colleagues are there too, our content marketing colleagues are there 82 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:58.399 too, our social media colleagues are there too. Write, and our product 83 00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:03.240 marketing colleagues are there as well, right, because they the product releases that 84 00:07:03.279 --> 00:07:08.920 they're sort of managing. Those go on to the calendar. The big content 85 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:13.319 pieces go on to the calendar, the big social initiatives go on to the 86 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:16.160 social media initiatives go on to the calendar. Right, so everybody sort of 87 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:21.519 has a chance to say a little bit about what they're doing really across the 88 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:27.040 whole marketing team. Not all, not all the members of the team are 89 00:07:27.040 --> 00:07:30.639 on the meeting, but more of the people who are, who are driving 90 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:34.000 programs. Okay, I'm adding. A meeting can be helpful. Also can 91 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:36.920 be like, Oh man, another thing on our calendar. But I love 92 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:42.079 that as a starting place because I think just going through campaigns and keeping in 93 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:46.519 front of people, the faster your organization is moving, we all know, 94 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:49.680 like, the more complex and we're trying all these different things and people have 95 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:55.079 all these ideas, and so I love that that was an easy in road 96 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:58.920 for better alignment. I wonder, are there any other systems, things that 97 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:01.360 you guys have implemented leasta that you're going in? This has been really helpful 98 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:07.879 and strategic for our team to continue to foster alignment. So we're using a 99 00:08:07.959 --> 00:08:13.360 sauna right now as today kind of workflow, you know, workflow process, 100 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:18.040 and that's been very helpful. The creative team uses a sauna, the marketing 101 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:24.639 operations team uses a sauna, the content team uses a sauna and I was 102 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:28.279 just on a call today where the customer marketing group is also now using a 103 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:33.879 sauna. So that's been very helpful, particularly when we have a major launch 104 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:37.399 going out. We recently won a gardener magic quadrant award, or, sorry, 105 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:41.360 we were named a leader. That's the that's the official language for any 106 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:46.080 any other there's who have been through it in the leader in a gardener magic 107 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:52.559 quadrant for account base marketing. But there was a lot of creative requests that 108 00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:56.840 had to be, you know, completed at the same time so that we 109 00:08:56.879 --> 00:09:01.679 could launch on a particular day and as sauna was really helpful in terms of 110 00:09:01.360 --> 00:09:05.120 grouping all of those, understanding the flows, you know, understanding of the 111 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:11.519 project process and things like that. Where we are now is that we may 112 00:09:11.559 --> 00:09:18.960 need an umbrella layer above all those siload, a sauna pieces, right. 113 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:24.840 Cause, for example, if we take the Gartner thing again, it's not 114 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:30.879 only creative but there's also ops, marketing ops, there's also content, somebody's 115 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:33.840 going to write a blog about it and there's a customer marketing component. And 116 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:39.799 right, so we almost need the umbrella that says, here's the thing, 117 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:43.200 and if you do this piece of content, do you also need display ads 118 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:46.720 to promote that piece of content? You need a social caution me, an 119 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:50.480 email header, right, like, okay, you did the thing, but 120 00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:52.600 how's anybody going to know about it if you don't have all the other you 121 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:56.960 know, then you need the mops one to kick off the email campaign associated 122 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:01.519 with it. So that's a little where my brain is now is thinking about 123 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:07.600 how we make sure that we connect the dots across those as sauna silos as 124 00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:13.720 as they exist today. And really it's a part of a broader conversation around 125 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:18.360 how do we stitch together the efforts across the different not silos, but who 126 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:22.440 called them pillars, the pillars of the market team, you know, to 127 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:28.799 make sure that we are getting the most bang for the buck for everybody's effort, 128 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:31.399 because everybody's working really, really hard. That's what creates silo's, right 129 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:35.320 is it's not that you want to end up in one, it's that you 130 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:39.559 work hard with your head down. Like I find a lot of passionate people, 131 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:43.840 without realizing it, end up in a silo because they love their work 132 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:46.080 and then they look up and they go, oh shoot, where's everybody else? 133 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:50.480 So that's a great point. Well, you had mentioned to me. 134 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:54.159 I think it's an email as well, and I could be wrong on this, 135 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:56.360 so correct me if I'm wrong, but like a way of sharing resources 136 00:10:56.360 --> 00:11:00.720 that are important right now. Is that something you guys are still doing? 137 00:11:00.759 --> 00:11:03.679 And maybe explain that as well, because I loved that idea. Yeah, 138 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:09.639 sure, so that one is going from the marketing team out primarily to the 139 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:18.519 whole revenue team. So the same folks who attend that campaign information sharing meeting, 140 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:22.279 m the the people who are the program owners, the campaign owners, 141 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:28.799 they get together and aggregate the list of the most important things for the coming 142 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:33.080 week and we send out that email. We get aggregate it on Monday and 143 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:37.200 send it out on Tuesday mornings. It has the most recent events that you 144 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:41.200 could follow up on. It has the juiciest pieces of content that have just 145 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:46.639 been produced. It has if there's a direct mail offer that we'd love for 146 00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:50.399 the, you know, customer and prospect facing teams to take advantage of. 147 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:56.799 You know, we highlight that. If there are some special bespoke invitations for 148 00:11:56.519 --> 00:12:03.120 accounts in our top thirty five tier, you know, then we'll highlight that 149 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:09.000 those folks get invited to cool basketball games. So that makes me want to 150 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:13.519 be a field event marketer right there. But but say so, we package 151 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:18.399 that all up in a weekly email and send it out to the whole revenue 152 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:22.480 team, which includes, obviously, you know, sales marketing and the related 153 00:12:22.519 --> 00:12:24.879 OPS team, sales, sales ops and marketing ops, right, so that 154 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.799 everybody hasn't has a say in it. Also CSM. Sorry, don't mean 155 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:33.279 to leave them out, but anybody who's customer facing. So where does that 156 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:37.279 information like? WHO's gathering that? Like is it? I would love to 157 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:41.279 know like the behind the scenes just it's such a practical system, but like 158 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:45.279 where does that sit for you guys? So so, somebody who works for 159 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:50.320 me named Jodes NUSS. She she puts it together and she shows slack. 160 00:12:50.360 --> 00:12:52.519 So we have a slack channel for all the program owners of people who, 161 00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:56.240 you know, put their things into this email. She set up an automated 162 00:12:56.279 --> 00:13:01.799 slack reminder that goes out on Friday's at three o'clock or Friday's at ten am, 163 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:05.159 right to ten am Pacific, to account for all the time zones, 164 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:07.240 right. But it goes out and it kings everybody and it says hey, 165 00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:13.919 channel, provide your inputs to this link and it goes into a WORKDOC and 166 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:18.440 everybody pressed in the word doc and we just kind of add the new section 167 00:13:18.559 --> 00:13:24.360 for each next week, copy paste, put it into an email. Now 168 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:28.279 I am way over simplifying it and Joe Does a little Jos and that does 169 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:33.600 a little bit of of rallying the troops here and there, little nudge nudge, 170 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:37.360 you know, like context gathering, like just to help figure out what 171 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:41.759 are the top three things we should be talking about. So it's not it's 172 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:46.759 not all automated, but it's Google docs and a slack channel and, you 173 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:52.519 know, a regular process and having the automated thing, the automated reminder, 174 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:58.320 really helps keep people on task. Without Joe Having to do that with the 175 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:01.960 without her having to go she can then just go sort of figure out the 176 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:07.279 extra what makes it special, what makes it important, how to how do 177 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:11.039 we order these things for our team? I think the communication there. This 178 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:16.120 is something I think a lot about because so much of our breakdowns internally in 179 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:20.879 teams is really just really simple lack of communication. But exactly what you're alluding 180 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:24.120 to right there, Lisa, where it's like if it was just even a 181 00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:28.600 simple automated for me it's a sawn or reminders where I just make sure weekly, 182 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:33.399 especially on Fridays, like what do I want to highlight to our team? 183 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:37.320 Maybe it's a win, maybe it's updating our progress doc or our goals 184 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:41.080 or our rocks right for the quarter, but some of those quick things. 185 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:45.399 And then, from a communication standpoint, what you're alluding to there is it 186 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:48.720 triggers something that then is becoming a resource that you guys can go back to 187 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:54.799 consistently, and those are a lot of times for newcomer specifically as you're scaling 188 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:56.960 right, where do I go to find out what I need to know right 189 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:01.159 now? And that's what I think. I it really stood out to me 190 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:05.840 about that example is it's something anyone could do. It's quick, it's easy 191 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:09.799 to access and we want to highlight those types of resources here. So anybody 192 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:13.960 can do that. Bar is kind of low. But yet he still need 193 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.559 somebody to do the follow up. There's still parts to it that it. 194 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:20.600 You know, they're strategic thinking, they're so it's good any success stories you've 195 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:24.440 seen from the things we've highlighted so far, what you've implemented, ways you've 196 00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:30.840 seen it really create alignment in your team. So a funny one is again 197 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:35.399 I'll use this gardner M Q as a as an example. It was it, 198 00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:43.720 let's say, a protracted process to get to the actual publication of the 199 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:46.799 report. And the report initially had been supposed to come out in two thousand 200 00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:52.320 and twenty one and we then caught wind, you know, there were delay, 201 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:54.759 delay, delay, and then they said well, we're actually going to 202 00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:58.759 produce it and publish it in January of twenty two. And so we had 203 00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:03.200 asked like, okay, is it going to be called the two thousand and 204 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:07.279 twenty one gartener magic quadant report for account based platforms, or is it going 205 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:11.679 to be two thousand and twenty two? And we had asked the explicit question 206 00:16:11.080 --> 00:16:15.000 and they said two thousand and twenty one because it was research was done, 207 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.960 and then two thousand and twenty one and Blah, blah, blah, two 208 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:23.399 hours, two hours before the go live date. I kid you not, 209 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:27.720 some of those people wrote to us and said, actually, we would prefer 210 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:32.200 that you use two thousand and two, empty two for them, of course 211 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:38.159 right. Can't be easy. We had sent eighty four pages of assets, 212 00:16:38.200 --> 00:16:47.000 emails, landing pages, auto responder emails, Social Media Post all this to 213 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:51.320 their citations team for approval. Eighty four pages of stuff, just to give 214 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:56.080 you a sense of like assets and things. Two hours before they're like, 215 00:16:56.200 --> 00:17:04.440 could you change the date on everything please? And it's truly a hair on 216 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:11.720 fire moment. But because we had the assauna tasks, we had spreadsheets where 217 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:18.440 we listed everything that we were working on because, you know, the team 218 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:23.880 was tightly coordinated, because I have awesome partners in our design team and our 219 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:30.200 social media team and like across the board, right in our MOPS team. 220 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:33.119 Like the email was about to go out to several hundredzero people, you know 221 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:38.480 goodness, and everybody said, okay, we're on it. We were using 222 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:44.960 a live slack channel and, you know, just firing messages people from literally 223 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:51.160 around the world and across many different time zones were engaged and we got it 224 00:17:51.200 --> 00:17:55.359 done. We published on time with the new day, you know. So 225 00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:59.880 I think all of those processes and developing the communication muscle, as we've been 226 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:03.839 off about, really paid off that we we had the slack channel where we 227 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:07.640 could talk in real time to each other and and just say like Oh, 228 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:12.000 like a buckle up, everybody, change it to two thousand and twenty two, 229 00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:18.839 you know. Yeah, that's a good example of communication. And let's 230 00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:22.519 let's hit on one more example. I am a sucker for shark week, 231 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:25.720 so when you mentioned this example to me, I was like, well, 232 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:29.039 we got to throw it in there. It's another great way of forcing alignment. 233 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:32.559 Will Make Lisa expand on this one in the podcast to but you guys 234 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:34.960 do something once a quarter. Is that right, to really kind of rally 235 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.839 the team and also drives business as well. Explain Shark Shark Week to us, 236 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:45.799 Lisa. Sure thing. So it's a really focused week between marketing and 237 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:51.680 the STR team and this time we got the account exacts, who are new 238 00:18:51.720 --> 00:19:00.599 logo hunters, involved as well, and marketing puts together a just a rallying 239 00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:04.799 slide deck with all kinds of goodness in it. So if you take that 240 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:11.119 campaign priorities email that we do on a weekly basis to send out to the 241 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:14.440 whole revenue team and say, you know, here's, here's all the great 242 00:19:14.440 --> 00:19:18.799 things you could talk about or promote or share with prospects this week, we 243 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:25.680 really blow that out into, you know, a twenty page or twenty slide 244 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:32.480 deck and we have special promos on and swag to give away or coffee gift 245 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:36.920 cards, like they're things we we do, but we just we goose it 246 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:40.359 up a little bit, like we just make it bigger, better, more. 247 00:19:40.599 --> 00:19:45.160 The R team in the sales team, they get super excited. They 248 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:49.519 come on the shark week prep call in costume like this. We like the 249 00:19:49.559 --> 00:19:53.279 Sharkhead, you know, the whole thing, and so they get fired up. 250 00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:59.599 They have all kinds of different prizes and eve, I mean sales people 251 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:02.799 are competitive people, right. So you say you can be in a prize 252 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:06.799 if you do the most of this, of that, you know, the 253 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:11.400 most social media shares of you know something new. We have whoever uses the 254 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:18.880 swag off or the most whoever, obviously we're driving from meetings from the strs, 255 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:22.319 right, so whoever gets the most meetings or anyway. So there's all 256 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:27.880 these different contests and the sales team comes up with those, marketing team comes 257 00:20:27.960 --> 00:20:33.240 up with a ton of content and then for a solid week we just like 258 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:38.000 focus on the activities. Marketing is sitting on the slack channels like ready to 259 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:41.599 help with anything if any of the sales folks have questions or, you know, 260 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:45.400 hey, this isn't working or what was I supposed to do with this, 261 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:49.039 or needs more, and they just they're on the phones, on the 262 00:20:49.079 --> 00:20:56.400 email, they're just they're hammering it and really proud of the team. We 263 00:20:56.440 --> 00:21:00.720 had a hundred and nine percent of our goal. Yeah, it's recent shark 264 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.119 week that that we just had. It was on Valentine's Day, so there 265 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:06.880 was a lot of like fun, you know, themed kind of stuff around. 266 00:21:06.880 --> 00:21:10.799 It's the week starting Valentine's Day. So a lot of Thun Fun themed 267 00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:17.079 stuff around Valentine's Day and Shark Week and like putting Shark mashup of sharks and 268 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:21.480 hearts and all kinds of craziness, you know. But but it was fun 269 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:26.119 right in the end. To your point earlier, it drives business and was 270 00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:32.480 the spillover effect for the week after is also there because, you know, 271 00:21:32.519 --> 00:21:37.640 maybe somebody didn't respond to your outreach in the week of Shark Week, but 272 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:42.319 they did afterwards. And the other thing that I'll put in there is we 273 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:48.400 drink our own champagne, use our own product to get people focused on the 274 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:55.920 most engaged accounts, the marketing qualified accounts, the ones who were showing either 275 00:21:56.960 --> 00:22:00.519 multiple people, you know many, many people across a buying committee, who 276 00:22:00.559 --> 00:22:07.359 are really on our website engaging with this and in different ways, opening emails, 277 00:22:07.400 --> 00:22:11.000 you know, downloading content, or there are a few key people who 278 00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:15.960 are really going deep right. So we use the people's behavior plus the account 279 00:22:17.160 --> 00:22:22.440 characteristics to kind of bring that all together to put the list of not only 280 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:26.960 the best accounts but the right people within the accounts in front of our sales 281 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:33.160 team so that they know very clearly how to prioritize their work and go after 282 00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:37.480 the most engaged people who are the most likely to respond. So really a 283 00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:44.400 win win. It's one of my favorite things about working at this company relative 284 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:48.960 to other ones that I've worked for in the past, where sales and marketing 285 00:22:48.039 --> 00:22:56.880 alignment really is underpinned by this common set of data abroad, based awareness what 286 00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:02.559 different accounts are doing so it's not. It's not like just the old lead 287 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:06.279 scoring or stuff like that. Lead scoring and chuck it over the transom right. 288 00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:11.640 It's really like no, across this whole account there there's various different things 289 00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:15.440 and you, sales can see it too and believe in it and if you 290 00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:18.279 don't like poke holes in it, tell us what is something wrong with how 291 00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:22.240 we're looking at it all, and so it's a very collaborative effort. Love 292 00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:26.559 the collaboration, love what you guys are doing, and I think Shark Week 293 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:33.640 is a good example of alignment meeting multiple goals in a sense, because sometimes 294 00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:38.039 I think alignment gets not that it should ever be looked over intentionally, but 295 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:41.319 it's like well, if we're driving key business results like that ends up being 296 00:23:41.319 --> 00:23:44.759 it. Shark Week, to me, goes okay. It creates a certain 297 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:49.440 level of alignment between marketing and sales, while also obviously focusing on the numbers 298 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:53.000 that are most important and what's driving the business, and so that's a great 299 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:59.079 way to sort of wrap this conversation and thank you so much, least for 300 00:23:59.119 --> 00:24:03.759 breaking this down. I think this episode will be called alignment under construction, 301 00:24:03.799 --> 00:24:08.440 because the truth is that it's this constant thing we're thinking about. It's alignment 302 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:14.160 becomes what a buzzword and the BEOB space. For sure, it's something we 303 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:17.720 know we need to talk about. I see linkedin post about it all the 304 00:24:17.720 --> 00:24:18.759 time. But how are we actually doing it? And so I think you're 305 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:22.640 giving us some practical advice to day as to how to do that. As 306 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:26.680 we wrap up, Lisa, tell us a little bit more about demand base 307 00:24:26.880 --> 00:24:32.359 and then we're people can connect with the business and with you online. Sure, 308 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:34.720 yeah, thanks now. I think you're absolutely right. Alignment is a 309 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:40.960 journey. It's not a destination and they're small steps that you take and and 310 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:45.960 motions that you make every day, every week to make it better. So 311 00:24:47.559 --> 00:24:53.200 demand base, in its most recent rebrand is really a go to market companies. 312 00:24:53.240 --> 00:25:00.079 So we can help you across your account based advertising. We can help 313 00:25:00.119 --> 00:25:06.559 you understand the engagement that accounts are having with you as a company. We 314 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:11.920 can provide you the data to help pick your target accounts and know the people 315 00:25:11.960 --> 00:25:15.960 who are in those accounts who are most important and most likely to be your 316 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:21.640 buyers. And then at one of the key things is we can connect our 317 00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:26.039 products to your crm and keep that data on both the companies and the people 318 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:32.039 continuously refreshed, and then this time of the e shuffle, the great resignation, 319 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:37.000 you know like that becomes even more crucial so that nobody spending their time 320 00:25:37.160 --> 00:25:41.960 reaching up somebody who's no longer at that company. So those are some of 321 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:45.079 the key things that we that demand base can do for and does do for 322 00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:49.759 our clients. You could find us at demand Bascom and you can find me 323 00:25:49.799 --> 00:25:53.519 on Linkedin. My name is Lisa Smith, so there are a few of 324 00:25:53.599 --> 00:25:57.039 us with this, as my father in law used to say, most popular 325 00:25:57.160 --> 00:26:00.240 name, but if you look up Lisa Smith and demand base, I think 326 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:03.400 you'd be able to find me on Linkedin. Benjing. Thanks so much. 327 00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:07.519 Yeah, for sure. We've loved having you on the show and love what 328 00:26:07.559 --> 00:26:11.720 demand base is doing. Excited for you guys in the growth that you're seeing 329 00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:17.640 through this season. Thanks for sharing your wisdom with us today on BB growth 330 00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:19.240 now. It's been really a pleasure. Thanks so much, Benjie. If 331 00:26:19.279 --> 00:26:23.720 you're listening to this and you've loved the conversation Lisa and I just had make 332 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:27.799 sure that you subscribe for future episodes. You can do that on any platform. 333 00:26:27.839 --> 00:26:32.119 You're listening to this on right now. If you want to connect with 334 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:34.079 me, you can do that over on Linkedin. Just Search Benjie Block. 335 00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:38.200 I'm talking marketing, business in life over there all the time and would love 336 00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:42.039 to hear from you and keep doing work that matters. Will be back real 337 00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:59.440 soon with another episode. Be Tob growth is brought to you by the team 338 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:02.640 at sweet fish media. Here at sweet fish, we produce podcasts for some 339 00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:06.640 of the most innovative brands in the world and we help them turn those podcasts 340 00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:11.039 into Microvideos, linkedin content, blog posts and more. We're on a mission 341 00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:19.440 to produce every leader's favorite show. 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