Marketing Rockstar Guides

An Etumos Company

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Services
    • Demand Generation Consulting
    • Marketing Automation Consulting
    • Data Quality Systems
    • Lead Nurturing and Engagement
    • Marketing Analytics
    • Content Marketing
  • Marketo Consulting
    • Marketo Implementation
    • Marketo System Audit
    • Marketo Training
    • Lead Scoring
    • Subscription Management Center
    • Email Reputation Management
    • Marketo Revenue Cycle Analytics
  • Blog
  • Tools
    • Marketing Technology Maturity Model
    • Build a Marketing Operations Center of Excellence
    • Marketo Expert’s Guide to Program Templates
    • Intelligent Lead Nurturing
    • The Marketo Guide (2013)
    • Sell Faster with Sales Insight Booklet
  • Speaking
    • News & Events
    • Past Presentations
  • Clients
  • About
  • Contact

Intent and Signals with TechTarget Priority Engine

January 17, 2018 By Josh Hill

techtarget-export-target-profiles

An area of martech that is returning to prominence is signal and intent information gleaned from off-site (or un-owned) behaviors of audience members. This resurgence is partially due to the growth of Account Based Marketing as well as applications of Adtech to demand generation needs. One of the leaders in this space is TechTarget, a top provider of technology product content and intent information.

Recently, I spoke with the team at there including John Steinert, CMO and his colleagues: Josh Garland, VP of Product Marketing and Ben Bradley, Director of Client Consulting. Our conversation included details of their Priority Engine™ service and their partnership with DiscoverOrg.

Josh: What are some of the ways your clients are leveraging high resolution behavior and driver data with Sales?

Ben Bradley (TT): There are a variety of ways sales teams can use high resolution data to enhance their outreach and drive faster paths to revenue. With TechTarget specifically, the Priority Engine™ tool gives direct and highly-flexible access to the information present in high resolution data.

The most common use of this data for sales is for reps to use the account RANKING ability built into to understand WHICH accounts to engage and WHEN – refreshed with new activity every week. The tool also provides contacts, so they know WHO to engage.

At the account level, the intent data shows exactly what the account is researching – the topics, the vendors, etc… — so Sales can understand specific pain points and entry points and personalize their outreach (from here it is easy to find the specific assets being consumed as well). Through our partnership with HG Data we also include install base information.

For example, in 90 seconds, I can find the account I want to call, identify what matters to them, and tailor my pitch to their needs and preferences. Further, our new DiscoverOrg partnership exposes relevant contacts to a specific deal that may not be exhibiting intent but are typically associated with such a purchase.

There are a number of other ways reps can use the data we provide. A core capability in the tool is the ability to load a Named Account List. This can be any list of accounts (territory, industry, closed/lost, customers, ABM lists, etc.). After a list is uploaded, the Priority Engine rankings will change to reflect only the accounts that match the list. This can be a huge value, because while named accounts offer more focus, at any given point and time, only a small set of your target accounts will actually be in market. Priority Engine will identify the accounts from your list that are in market right now.

Additionally, through our Qualified Sales Opportunities service, we provide full purchase intent insight about fully verified deals within specific technology segments. Every Qualified Sales Opportunity is a report detailing an upcoming technology purchase we have verified with someone on the buying team and includes the following sales intelligence:

  • Top drivers for the purchase
  • Product feature criteria
  • Vendors being considered
  • How the account plans to use the new technology
  • Current tech install
  • Project insider contact info
  • Reformatted reports give sales teams the keys to landing appointments
  • Suggested “icebreakers” and calling guidance

This service helps sales teams increase appointment rates by focusing on accounts with confirmed projects together with a “blueprint” of actual deal requirements and guidance (sales enablement) on how to engage in order to win the deal.

Josh: What are some of the ways your clients are leveraging high resolution behavior and driver data with Marketers?

Ben Bradley (TT): We generally see that there are five roles within in an organization who use the high-resolution behavior and purchase driver data from Priority Engine. Sales is one of those teams, which we just talked about, the other three generally fall into the broader Marketing organization. On the marketing side, we have the other four teams: Demand Generation, Marketing Ops, Field/Channel, and Product.

  • Demand Generation is the most common and fastest growing user group, and the most common use case is building content marketing lists to generate MQLs. Demand Marketers use the account data, ranking data, and contact level data to deploy nurture streams to these accounts/contacts and produce MQLs. In short, they pull the most active accounts/contacts researching a given topic each week and act on them in very specific ways according to the nurture stream.

There are many variations of how you can deploy the active contacts into nurture. Our data can be segmented using many variables and this sophisticated segmentation capability creates opportunities to pursue a host of use cases. Priority Engine subscriptions begin at a top-level segment of the enterprise tech space, e.g. Endpoint Security. You can then dig deeper into subtopics within endpoint security around what the desired accounts are researching most (IE Android Malware, Botnet, Intrusion Detection, etc.). With this very granular topical capability, an advanced marketer can deploy highly segmented nurture streams focused on continuous engagement or highly focused conversion drivers based on specific behaviors.Additional segmentation occurs around which vendors target accounts are researching, verticals, company sizes, install base, and what level of engagement they have with a customer’s brand. And these in turn spawn new opportunities around use case ideas/messaging ideas, from competitive conquesting, to vertical marketing plays.

  • Priority Engine gives Field/Channel users the ability to segment the audience based on location to help support event recruitment and related highly-geographic efforts. This use case has been a particularly strong asset for teams in EMEA, where regional events remain very popular. With the named account feature we have seen teams load a list of booth visitors post-event to help prioritize follow up efforts. Alternatively, you can support geo-specific field marketing efforts with this feature. Another common use case of this group is to help support channel partner efforts by providing them target lists of accounts to focus on based on active demand. If you have a channel partner focused on a vertical (or geo), you can pull (or automatically push) weekly lists of top ranked accounts to supply them.
  • Marketing Operations is another user group that has seen success with Priority Engine. The use cases here are a bit less intuitive, but when applied it can be really powerful. Perhaps the most common use case is loading a named or active account list. In this case, loading a list of accounts that have visited your website for appending with actionable prospects. With Priority Engine, you can add to the depth of insight you have on your website visitors and you can augment a visiting account with more prospects that may not have come inbound to you. You can see the entire buying team and also rank the accounts visiting by their activity on the TechTarget network to get better insight into who to prioritize. Marketing Operations teams are also realizing that their scoring methodology can be much more productive when 3rd party insights are layered in (see the related webcast we did with SiriusDecisions). Many marketers use Priority Engine to augment or even override the scoring that is occurring within their own inbound or outbound activities.
  • Product marketers use all three of TechTarget’s IT Deal Alert intent-based offerings – our buyer pre- and post research (also used by other strategic players in the org), Priority Engine for targeting, content effectiveness, competitive insight, messaging/positioning and our Qualified Sales Opportunities for deep insight into consideration rates, win/loss, more buyer’s journey analysis, etc.

These are just some of the ways different teams or users from inside an organization can use the high-resolution behavior and data from Priority Engine and the ITDA family as a whole. There are more, which we can discuss in more detail and even customize based on a sales/marketing needs. 

Josh: A few weeks ago, DiscoverOrg and RainKing anncounced a partnership, and then TechTarget made them a core component of PriorityEngine™. Help me understand more about the new partnership.

John Steinert (TT): Priority Engine already delivers direct, real-time access to the most active accounts and named prospects conducting purchase research. We do this across hundreds of market segments and within key geographies.  With the integration of DiscoverOrg’s trusted contact data, we are able to expand coverage of key stakeholders and buyers who are involved in the final purchase decision at target accounts. The combination of TechTarget’s insights into account purchase intent and active prospect activity and DiscoverOrg’s deep reach into an account’s extended buying team in one unified solution is very powerful for our customers because it provides the opportunity to make large productivity gains by reducing the number of accounts and contacts to those who really matter.

These new enhancements to Priority Engine accelerate sales conversions by providing more of the essential information that B2B sales people need to penetrate and drive engagement with accounts that are truly in an active buyer’s journey. The platform provides direct access to buyers at the right time by ranking accounts based on various purchase intent intensity attributes within their very specific technology segment. It helps the sales team focus on the accounts that matter most and, critical to effectiveness, it helps them identify and reach the essential Target Buying Team involved in the purchase, including active researchers and relevant stakeholders. With enhanced title coverage inside the account and rich behavioral insight to personalize outreach, sales teams are able to convert prospects into customers at a higher rate.

As part of this partnership, TechTarget-only customers (those without a DiscoverOrg license already) will be able to access up to 10 Recommended Contacts from DiscoverOrg per account, selected according to title/role relevance and seniority at no additional cost. TechTarget customers who already subscribe to DiscoverOrg will have unlimited access to DiscoverOrg’s entire database of contacts at the accounts Priority Engine identifies as being in-market. With improved audience targeting, deeper sales intelligence and new insights, our customers can achieve vastly improved ROI for ABM, demand generation and sales enablement.

Josh: How do you help potential clients understand how TechTarget is different than Paid content? Why not invest in Owned content promotion?

John Steinert (TT): TechTarget is the leading content provider for enterprise technology buyers. It is the behavior of the registered users on our 140+ independent editorial sites that generate our exclusive intent data.  The usefulness of this content for purchase decisions is what continues to build our membership and helps us identify when and where technology projects are happening. Our enterprise tech vendor customers understand that it’s our independent content and the trust we’ve built with over 19M technology buyers that helps them reach the right people and expand their influence in the markets that matter to them.

Many customers today still leverage the TechTarget network to host and promote their own content to generate leads. While we’ve never allowed vendors to pay for editorial coverage, we do offer many exclusive editorial alignment opportunities to boost their brand recognition across extremely targeted technology topics.

We also have a large custom content division that can develop custom white papers, sites, display and native advertising sponsorships for our customers. All this content is clearly labeled as sponsored as to not confuse our members.

Tech marketers need to continue investing in a lot of owned content, but to make sure they reach as much of the active demand in their market as they possibly can, the need to “take that content on the road” by syndicating it to where their audience is when it is not interacting with them or doesn’t even realize that it should be.

Josh: My readers care a lot about operationalization of tools like TechTarget. Can you share more about how your customers plug PriorityEngine™ into their martech stacks?

Josh Garland (TT): There are really two ways our customers currently plug Priority Engine™ into their stacks and it really comes down to inputs and outputs.

Inputs: Priority Engine™ allows users to upload custom account lists directly into the tool and prioritizes them based on what TechTarget knows about their recent purchase behavior. For example, let’s say a customer is using a predictive solution to identify a target account or look-alike list.

Customers can upload the list directly into Priority Engine™ and the tool can tell them which accounts they should focus on right now based on if TechTarget sees the account is currently active in their market. Critically important is the fact that Priority Engine can identify the actual people they should focus on at these accounts based on their individual research behaviors.

Output: This is extremely powerful because one of the most common issues our customers experience with both predictive and ABM lists is they don’t know whom to focus on at their target accounts. This leads to “carpet-bomb” advertising approaches and can cause exhaustive BDR call-downs, which causes a bad customer experience: bad for their brand and not efficient at all.  Priority Engine will take the list, re-rank it based on what we see and then identify the best prospects to email and call. This makes it easier for sales to focus their attention on the right people and break through.

We see a lot of customers leverage the Priority Engine custom list upload feature across many areas of their stack. They’ll upload Salesforce opportunity or territory lists, lists from events they’ve attended, site visitor lists, lead lists etc. The bottom line is Priority Engine can take what you’re doing with other tools and make it better by helping you identify the right accounts to focus on and providing the names, contact information and behavioral data of the right people at those accounts.

The other way we plug into the stack is via direct integrations with the leading marketing automation systems and salesforce. All prospects that Priority Engine discovers can be easily exported directly into marketing automation systems on a weekly basis. This includes TechTarget members and additional contacts from DiscoverOrg.

All a customer needs to do is set up a Target Profile once, which is basically a segmented audience list, and Priority Engine will export those prospects directly into their systems every Sunday. This makes it extremely easy for marketing teams to take this data and action on it for nurture campaigns, event promotion, lead generation etc. Even if they just add these prospects to their standard nurture tracks they will immediately see higher conversion rates and increased pipeline.

As a user, you will see a screen like this, which allows you to select subscribed topics, regions and target specific audiences.

target-profile-creation

Finally, Priority Engine™ account data can integrate directly into Salesforce (see image below). Salespeople can access TechTarget’s exclusive account intent data, TechTarget prospects, DiscoverOrg contacts and HG Data installed technology information right from their Salesforce account views. This makes it easier for salespeople to leverage this data within their current workflow. This data will only populate for accounts where Priority Engine is seeing pre-purchase activity, so it helps sales people quickly determine if there is a potential opportunity arising from one their accounts.

insight-screen-tech-target

Josh: Demand generation marketers probably think of TechTarget as a lead generation channel, not an ABM player. How, and why, has TechTarget shifted to ABM?

Josh Garland (TT): I would not say TechTarget has shifted to ABM, I’d suggest that we have always focused on helping our customers target the accounts that matter. What has shifted is the market. In the past, marketers were heavily focused on generating massive amounts of leads from specific buyer personas, even though the sales organization was typically focused on accounts and territories.

What’s changed is that marketing teams are starting to align closer to Sales as more and more KPIs shifted away from front end metrics (CTR, open rate, downloads, leads) and moved to revenue focused KPIs (meetings, pipeline, opportunities, closed deals, upsell). This is a pretty significant change for marketing organizations that in the past were goaled on scale and now are judged by the individual deals they influence. I think this is why we are now all talking about ABM.

What’s interesting is that while we are hearing a lot of customers talk about testing ABM, many are struggling with the implementation of it. Some tools are helping them identify accounts they should go after, but not telling them whom to target. Other tools can give them every contact in the world, but don’t help them figure out where to start and who to focus on. In the worst cases, they lean on the sales team to generate an ABM list and find out months into a campaign that there are no opportunities at any of the accounts they’ve invested in.  While not advertised as such, we believe Priority Engine is a full end-to-end ABM platform that addresses these key challenges.

First, marketers can use Priority Engine to create ABM lists. Every week it will tell you who are the top 200 accounts most likely to purchase solutions in your market. You also can upload a custom ABM list into the tool and it will rank those accounts for you as well. To do this, you can use pre-set identifiers or ask your TechTarget service representative to assist. The screen looks like this:

techtarget-how-to-upload-list

Next, it will tell you whom to contact at ABM accounts. Because Priority Engine uses user-level data to determine account ranking, we always know who the key researchers are at target accounts. Priority Engine ranks accounts by looking at individual buyer behavior and rolls that up to team behavior and finally to account behavior. This is very different than other intent providers who use account-level IP data to determine rankings. The IP approach makes it extremely hard to understand who to target at key accounts. We believe our bottom-up methodology provides a cleaner intent signal with the added benefit of always being able to track intent back to the individual researcher.

For example, if we see five people from Bank of America in a Boston office doing research on Flash Storage, it’s a signal that in that location, for that account, something is happening. This is exactly the same methodology we’ve used for over 10 years to deliver thousands of leads a day for our customers. This is why I believe TechTarget has always done ABM, we just didn’t call it that.

TechTarget Prospect Types include:

  • Leads: opt-in members who interacted with a customer’s sponsored content.
  • Active Prospects: opt-in members who have downloaded relevant content in the target technology market segment in the past 90 days.
  • Suspects: opt-in members who have downloaded content that’s related to the target technology market segment.

Our new partnership with DiscoverOrg helps us fill out the target buying team even more. Now we can identify not only the active researchers at ABM accounts, but we can provide additional senior decision makers who may not be conducting the research, but will most likely have influence over the final purchase.  These DiscoverOrg types can include:

  • Recommended Contacts:
    • DiscoverOrg contacts Priority Engine identified as related to the technology topic based on job title and seniority.
      • Non DiscoverOrg customers will receive up to 10 DiscoverOrg recommended contacts for all ranked accounts
      • DiscoverOrg customers will see all the recommended contacts at ranking accounts based on their DiscoverOrg subscription.
    • Contacts: if you are also a DiscoverOrg subscriber, Priority Engine will deliver all additional non-recommended account contacts available based on a customer’s DiscoverOrg subscription. The added benefit of this is you’ll see all TechTarget and DiscoverOrg contacts in a single screen.

Finally, we make it very easy for both sales and marketing teams to break into ABM accounts. All prospects can be easily exported into marketing automation systems to run targeted ABM email or programmatic display campaigns.

techtarget-export-target-profiles

The export profile will include 37 unique fields that should be carefully mapped to your Marketing Automation Platform and CRM to ensure proper signals reach Sales. Signals in the fields will include other Vendors the Lead looked at; Core Research Topics; Buying Team; and contact details.

Marketo users can expect standard contact fields will map easily. The integration is through an API rule and API User to create a custom service. Once the field mapping is complete, you can setup related smart lists and workflows. Other MAPs work similarly, including Integrate. [JDH: normally I link you to the documentation, however, it isn’t available to non-subscribers].

Account details, including install data from HG Data can be found in a single Web dashboard or can be integrated into Salesforce. Through our own studies, we’ve learned that sales people who leverage our intent data to have better conversions with ABM prospects generate more appointments, which leads to more closed opportunities. Priority Engine’s all-in-one account dashboards make it easy for sales people to have those intelligence driven sales conversations.

Many of our Priority Engine customers also still leverage our lead generation and display services in addition to their Priority Engine subscription. These tactics are proven to help warm up the accounts and open doors before marketing and sales engages them directly. Customers who run fully integrated ABM programs that include targeted lead generation, display, and Priority Engine see more success and faster conversions.

Josh: Let’s talk about the last mile – getting the signal and intent information into a salesperson’s hands. Once the data is flowing from Priority Engine through the MAP to a CRM, what should the Salesperson do? I’ve been on a lot of cold calls where the salesperson opened with, “So, I see you downloaded our whitepaper…” That’s really off putting. Is there a better way you recommend to your clients?

Josh Garland (TT): I agree. The information from Priority Engine is intended to help Sales prioritize contacts and Accounts. It’s also intended for salespeople to spend time reading and understand the signals to prepare the right questions for a call. This information collected helps accelerate the conversation rather than asking basic questions that will irritate most buyers. We recommend these steps:

  • Train the team on what each signal means. TechTarget can also provide these training sessions for you.
  • Have a script or preparation sheet to explain how a conversation could go if the interest is confirmed.
  • Have an initial script that inserts the topics the prospect appears to care about, but avoid mentioning specific papers downloaded or other things we already know.

Here’s an example of how Priority Engine intent data appears to the salesperson in the dashboard. All of these data points, including installed technologies, can be leveraged to have better conversations with prospects.

 

techtarget-sales-dashboard

Josh: I see. Essentially, the Salesperson can look at this screen and prepare for a conversation that addresses competitive issues that focus on Ransomware and Cyberattack instead of things the Prospect isn’t interested in. (I wrote about this recently). Thank you again for the interview and deep explanation of PriorityEngine™ and the DiscoverOrg partnership. I know I learned a lot about how to use the signals and integrate it into a martech stack effectively.

Interested in more product discussions like this? Let me know in the comments below.

Filed Under: Marketing Technology

Marketo Feature Updates in Winter 2017

January 9, 2018 By Josh Hill

Marketo has been busy in late 2017 adding new features and enhancements. Here are the ones I believe all MOPS pros should pay attention to as you build your martech stack in 2018.

Recipient Time Zone

One of the most requested features since 2010 (and one which many competitors have already), we are finally able to send an email at the correct time in that Lead’s Time Zone. Instead of sending that email at 4am PST to hope it lands in the New York box at 7am EST (ideal commuting time), we can just say “Send the email at 7am for that person’s time zone.”

Of course, it’s not quite that simple. Please be sure to read the docs carefully. Marketo hasn’t enabled this feature on all instances yet and is rolling it out over several weeks.

Time Zone Selection

The Lead’s time zone is based on the geographic fields listed and is recalculated if those fields are modified. This is unlike Mailchimp, which attempts to determine timezone based on Open and Click activity timing. Either option is a valid method. Marketo uses these fields, I believe in this order based on the documentation:

  • Country [countries with 3 or more time zones may choose the “middle one”.]
  • State
  • Zip Code
  • Inferred fields
  • Default: Instance’s chosen time zone.

Email Send Program

You must schedule this at least 25 hours ahead of the intended time. This is to ensure that Marketo can calculate the person’s time zone and send at each hour based on the earliest time (UTC+14). There’s a nice diagram of how this works in various scenarios.

Because the time zone send may have already passed by the time you press Approve, you should be flexible on the actual date of send. What can happen is that European Leads will effectively get the email one day later than you intended.

  • Intended Time for All: Tuesday at 9am
    • You schedule this at 8am Tuesday PST, so many Leads have already passed 9am in their time zone.
    • Marketo can either send those people the email at 9am PST, OR
    • Marketo can wait until the next day at 9am for that lead.

Using Headstart with Email Send works in a similar way where you should add 12 hours to your schedule, meaning you may need to approve a program 34 or more hours ahead of your intended launch time.

Unsubscribe Issues

Marketo notes that since the Time Zone will queue up people to get the email well ahead of their real send time, they will get an email even if they unsubscribed during the 25+ window. They suggest updating any privacy notices to reflect a 1-2 day processing time. I believe most privacy and unsubscribe notices have a 1-10 day statement, but you may have to make this more explicit if you use Time Zone.

Using Time Zone with Engagements

To enable this on Casts, you must edit the Stream Cadence. Keep in mind that you should do this more than 25 hours ahead of your next Cast.

Marketo only supports Time Zone with Weekly Cadence timings.

Here’s some additional detail.

Sample Emails by Segmentation

If you are using Dynamic Content, you can more easily send a sample by Segment to see the full email sample. Previously, this was difficult to accomplish.

Custom Questions for LinkedIn Lead Gen

While the doc doesn’t show this yet, you can now add up to three custom questions for your LinkedIn forms. You can map those back to any field for:

  • Single Text (String)
  • Multiple Choice (Text box, perhaps boolean?)

This is a big win for heavy users of social media advertising and SEM.

API and Platform Extensions

There are a lot of new API options that should excite developers and people with a DevOps team.

  • Email Preview API to remotely view a Marketo email outside of Marketo. This may improve viewing widgets in platforms like Kapost.
  • Replace HTML in Emails enables Email 2.0 to have code inserted from another tool. This is a big change for those who want to integrate with HTML editors or create a special workflow tool to handle code approvals.
  • Activity Record changes in Q2 2018. Developers should pay attention.
  • Custom Object API is enhanced which may make stack building and special record creation easier.
  • System Reliability – Backend improvements took place a little earlier in Q4. While I haven’t personally noticed the changes, Marketo has updated:
    • SFDC Sync speed and queuing changes to avoid the dreaded backlog.
    • Munchkin stability and processing.
    • Analytics uptime improvements.

There are many other updates, especially to Account Based Marketing and Predictive Content (RTP). Marketo will continue to evolve and I look forward to 2018’s improvements.

Filed Under: Marketo User Guide

Marketo, Privacy Regulations, and GDPR

January 3, 2018 By Josh Hill

The day is fast approaching: May 25, 2018, the first day of GDPR enforcement.

The day of reckoning for marketers who didn’t build a subscription center.

The day of reckoning for marketers who haven’t opted in people from the start.

The day your hard work needs to be done.

The good news is that this is the right time to make the pitch for Permission Marketing where everyone is opted in and expecting your message, rather than foisting it upon them. It’s the best time to allocate resources to making marketing treat your audience the way you want to be treated. It’s the right time to Operationalize what you know is the right thing to do.

This is an Opportunity to go from something you know your Marketing team should do, to one that you must do.

I want to share a few of the resources I’ve come across for Operationalizing many of the GDPR rules. Please keep in mind this is not legal advice. Please review the resources and work with your Legal Counsel to properly setup your system for Consent Management.

Overviews of GDPR

  • Understanding GDPR [Marketo webinar]
  • GDPR Summary for Marketo Customers
  • Sirius Decisions Privacy Compliance Model
  • Perkuto’s GDPR Resource Center

Operationalization of GDPR and Privacy

  • Building a Full Subscription Center – one of the key parts is to be explicit about the kinds of communication the Lead can opt in to. It is no longer enough to have a generic “opt in”.
  • GDPR and The Marketer: A Practical Guide [Marketo] – this is a pretty good guide that describes a number of key things to build inside Marketo to manage consent.

Basics of GDPR

Here’s the quick run down from what I’ve seen so far:

  • Opt-in or Double Opt In systems will be mostly compliant if you built them already.
  • Record Consent for Email, Phone, and Website communications.
  • Encrypt all systems and all transfers between systems. [Update: transfers should be encrypted, however, disk level encryption may not be always required. Please review with your Legal and IT teams.]
  • Stop sharing Spreadsheets (Use a secure file service).
  • Work with Third Party Vendors to ensure proper opt in and transfer compliance.
  • Setup rules to handle data from each Country. Make sure Marketers know this.
  • Consider using Workspaces and Lead Partitions to reduce access to “need to know” staff.
  • If you’re CASL Compliant already, much of the work may already done.
  • Event Opt In Matters – record consent!
  • Consider calling your work “Consent Management”.
  • Securing your database – use Admin tools to lock down your system.

Again, please work with your Legal team to ensure your processes are fully GDPR compliant.

[Updated: Mar 17, 2018 with new content]

Filed Under: Marketing Operations

Using Information on People and Accounts as an SDR

December 5, 2017 By Josh Hill

The purpose of the data provided to SDRs and AEs is to help them prepare for the first call with a person within a buying center. The secondary purpose is help SDRs further connect the dots of potential buying centers within an organization. Whether that’s one center or twenty, the SDR must assist in gathering this data, going beyond what Marketing can reasonably provide through tracking and enrichment.

Once Marketing determines a Person, Account, or Buying Team may be ready for an initial Sales outreach, we send the record over to an SDR. The usual process is an Email Alert or maybe a CRM Task. Then the SDR clicks into the Record (a “read” lead) to prepare for the call. 

Back in the day, just 10 years ago, I had very little information about most of my leads. LinkedIn had not yet reached a saturation point and cross-channel data was far more difficult to obtain for B2B. Thus, I would contact my leads to learn more about what their needs were and schedule a meeting if possible.

The information given, of course, varied. Inbound emails might just say “Contact me about X.” Sometimes they were more specific about “I need GDP forecast data on the 30 top countries.” Regardless, I viewed it as my job to learn more about why they needed the information so I could direct them to the right product. My process included:

  • Is the email address corporate or personal? (Indicated commitment and possible priority)
  • Look up company’s website.
  • Open Hoover’s to learn about company hierarchy and setup if needed; verify key data to see if this was a real person or entity.
  • Think a bit about the person’s role and why they might need my services.
  • Do this as quickly as possible before my competitors call the person back.

I became a top salesperson for consulting because I asked about needs and knew what was off the shelf and what was not. I took the time to leverage tools like Hoover’s to connect dots and see which buying centers existed in a firm. Were the buyers in my territory, or another salesperson’s? Were there two or three potential groups or people who would be interested?

So if you’re an SDR who thinks your job is to ask only for a meeting with your AE, you are doing yourself, your firm, and the prospect a disservice.

Today, marketing operations and sales operations can deliver huge amounts of behavior and demographic information on a Person or Account. Lead to Account matching is increasingly automated. Theoretically, the SDR or AE should be freed from mundane data entry to focus on understanding the person and buying team. The SDR and AE should be able to prepare deeply for any call.

Yet, this isn’t what I see happening.

Today, if I were in sales, I might have all sorts of signals to sort through:

  • MQL – someone said this lead met a minimum threshold indicating a call may be likely to have a meaningful discussion.
  • Lead Score – way to sort today’s MQLs from high to low.
  • Enriched demographics – titles, address, industry, likely correct address and direct dial. (no extra research!).
  • Behaviors – might see recent website visits, clicked emails, sent emails, form fills, etc. With omni-channel tools I might see other sites they are using.
  • Enriched Signals – I might also know more about their company’s funding situation, new leases, news, latest leadership changes, hierarchies, connected records we already know about.
  • LinkedIn – direct URL or view into profile without leaving my browser tab. Who is this person? What’s their experience? Are they senior? Junior? Do they write/speak about these topics? Do they know people in common?
  • Product Interest – either from Trial, direct request, pages viewed.

Despite all this data, I still get feedback from Sales that

  • It’s not accurate
  • They didn’t close
  • They aren’t ready
  • They didn’t want to talk
  • Not enough detail to call
  • Etc…

So is more information necessarily better? Are salespeople that overworked they can’t read the records in front of them?

  • Read the information on the record.
  • Look at the behavioral history, whether that’s campaign, etc…
  • Think hard. What is the lead looking at? Is there a pattern? What line of questioning or conversation would make sense?
  • Never call and say “So I saw you downloaded our whitepaper on…” It’s creepy, off-putting, and doesn’t get the conversation going in the right direction.

Here’s my advice for reading the behavior and demographic information as a salesperson:

Information How to Use it
Emails Sent SDRs ask for this, yet how does this help? I’m not sure. But, at a minimum, you can tell quickly if Marketing has done outreach or invited the person to something. As an SDR, I usually want to see if another rep had a past conversation and what it was about.
Emails Clicked A possible indicator of interest. If it’s a Product email, that may be more meaningful than a generic solution whitepaper. After scanning this information, I would take a note of topics the Lead seemed interested in. remember, no one likes to get a call where the intro line is “So, I see you clicked on a few of our emails…”
Search Phrases Search will tend to reflect the most recent concerns of the Lead. If this data is available, it may be very helpful to frame the questions you plan to ask and what to consider offering during a call.
Whitepaper/Video Forms Form Fills are strong indicators of interest in the topic area. Again, I’m looking for a pattern in the possible topics to discuss and which questions to ask a Lead.
Event Registration Showing up to a webinar or live in person event is a big time investment, so a Registration is interesting. If the Event is soon, then weaving the Event topic into a conversation is a great method. Certainly this could be a way to start a conversation such as “I’m calling to confirm your attendance and to help if you need directions, etc…” I personally would avoid the “I’m calling before the event to see if you had questions about our product.” Because it’s better to do that in person and they haven’t yet been persuaded by the live event.
Event Attendance (or not) More helpful is Attendance. Of course, if they did show up, then Sales had a chance to do a live interaction which is more powerful. As a follow up note, this information helps us prioritize the Lead over others.
Papers viewed Whitepapers are typically about solution areas or topics. Martech abounds with How To styles and dubiously constructed surveys. Again, use Papers as a way to prepare good questions and topical paths to speed up the conversation. Don’t say “Hey, I saw you downloaded Paper X, do you have questions?” I hang up on any rep who says this by Phone or Email.
Videos Viewed Ditto
Website Pages Viewed Ditto.
Social Engagement In spite of the idea of Social Selling, the reality is most Sales reps aren’t on social other than to glean data from LinkedIn. Super reps are on there, discussing Sales as well as their solution area in a helpful way. Leads may be on Social to monitor or to share. If Social information is availale, it’s a good way to learn more about the Person and recent interests.  [Link to ways to engage].
Social Profiles Helpful for preparing for the call.
Title The MQL should only send you good Titles. Helpful to verify.
Role or Level Ditto.

Know whom you’re speaking with. Conversations with junior staff will be different than Executives.

Firm/Org Name Do you know this firm? Is it in your territory? Is it already a customer in another department?
Location In your territory? Is it a cross-territory effort? Did another location buy but now you have to sell this location?
Direct Dial (or not) A missing direct dial is not a reason to Recycle a Lead. Do additional research or just call the main line. Most phone trees or Operators will get you to the right person or department. I seriously disdain any SDR who believes they deserve a direct dial every time.
Email Address Is the email a corp address or generic? If generic, is the rest of the profile accurate enough for this to be a real person?

Sometimes, regional or international divisions use variations, so are you familiar with the domain and does it match the Firm?

Marketing Permissions SDRs need to be familiar with the local regulations on Calling and Emailing Leads with “promotional” messages. If the Lead hasn’t explicitly requested contact, many countries allow fines against the company. Notifying Sales about permissions should be part of the Lead Pane, along with Training. But if someone is an MQL and they are not permissioned, then other channels must be used.
Lead Scoring Whether predictive or indicative, SDRs should understand the Score and how to use it to prioritize today’s calls. Simple systems just say “high Score means call first.” Others might be more nuanced, where the Score indicates likelihood to do a Meeting or make the Salesperson money.
Email responses If you are able to post Email responses to the Lead’s record, that’s a great way to help an SDR contextualize the conversation.
Inbound Form/Free Trial Usually an instant MQL if the Lead meets basic ICP details. Which product did they request? Is there a message? Have they used the trial yet? It should be very easy for an SDR to start a conversation with a direct request or free trial. Very important to ask good questions and to skip BS on this type of call.
Existing Relationships Lead to Account Matching and a simple search can help an SDR see if the firm already buys in another region or department. While not always needed, this is one manual area that SDRs simply ignore at their peril. Invariably Marketing will message a different department only for the SDR to realize they are already a customer. Then the SDR and Client complain about poor workflows – “I’m already a Customer” or “They are already with Joe in Atlanta, why did you waste my time with this?”

True enough…but a few moments with the CRM and a search might have told you that too.

Goal of the SDR on a Phone Call

As Stephan Schiffman says, the only goal of a Cold Call is to Make an Appointment. Ideally, that Appointment includes a basic agenda and the people on the call have a clearer idea of the meeting’s purpose.

Preparing for the Call

This involved asking a series of questions, which ideally are on a sheet where you can write some notes. Other than the obvious ones above, it helps a lot to research the Organization itself. Do you understand the history of the firm? What is their business model? What might the person actually care about?

Pretty sure we’ve all read business books where someone takes credit for a brilliant deal that was helped by a simple insightful question.

Preparing Good Questions

  • SPIN Selling and other questioning tools.
  • Can only come from preparation and understanding the business, industry, and person.
  • Active research helps you understand more than getting spoon fed. Use the basics as a jumping off point.
  • Data is not the terrain – sales still has to find out the real skinny on what’s happening inside the Account.

When should an SDR Recycle a Lead or Account?

Recycled leads are never what a marketer wants to see, but it does happen. Does Sales enjoy it? Hard to say. Sometimes I wonder if Sales treats high volume leads like candidates for a job – any indication the candidate (or lead) isn’t right is an excuse to send them away. Salespeople often “just know” a Lead isn’t going to buy, or isn’t qualified. In MOPS, it’s important to listen to that data and intuition to operationalize it, not just debunk it. At the same time, sales should take seriously that any MQL has a reason for being that way and to make a real effort to contact the person in an appropriate way.

A person (lead) may not be ready for a real conversation, however, within an Account, there could be 30 people related to your solution area. Spend some time connecting the dots with relationship tools, questions, and behaviors. Several people sniffing around your website indicates something is happening at that Account. An SDR or BDR should pay attention to these signals across multiple people.

Recycling or Downgrading an Account generally shouldn’t happen until there’s a hard “no” from the Buying Team, whether they deferred action, stuck with the status quo, or purchased a competitor. And the “no” just means taking that Account off the focus list for 6 months.

 

Filed Under: Marketing Operations

Preparing Sales Development Reps for the World

November 29, 2017 By Josh Hill

Over the past ten years, marketing operations has taken on, as one of its missions, to deliver high quality information about every Lead and Account that is passed to Sales. The perennial complaint from salespeople, especially Sales Development Reps (SDRs) is “There isn’t enough information on the lead record to make the call,” or “This person isn’t qualified” and no call is attempted.

As a former inside rep (SDR), BDR, and field sales manager, I think that’s BS.

As a marketing ops leader, I look for ways to improve the MQL experience by positioning key information at the top of the screen. Training on process and where to find information in Salesforce is also helpful. Of course, continual re-training is necessary for the habits to stick.

Good Sales Habits Start Early with Good Sales Leadership

A good Sales leader will find SDRs hungry to grow into full Account Executive, BDR, or Sales Manager roles. The trainable type, of course, tend to be fresh to the workforce or in their early 20s. We could argue a lot about ageism in SDR hiring, but this is a reality.

Young SDRs need a leader who understands habit development as well as which habits to instill

Many companies skimp on sales and inside/SDR training. Young SDRs are thrown into the pit and expected to either dial for dollars or help make appointments for your AEs. The smart SDRs read up on their job and learn how to do more than just make appointments. Perhaps you’ve noticed the SDRs who get promoted 1) meet their quotas and 2) close small deals, proving they are valuable staff.

More experienced SDRs need clear training and leadership

Whenever I encounter “resistance” from SDRs on process or information, I look to the managers to see if they are training or enforcing the agreed rules. Sometimes it’s just that Sales decided to modify the rules or try new scripts without discussing it with Marketing. Just as often I see Managers giving SDRs permission to recycle leads that “aren’t good enough.” If Sales allows Marketing to do more of the “farming” part of the role, then Sales should have an easier time finding the crops as they ripen. Ultimately this comes down to a very clear set of processes that both Marketing and Sales follow to deliver MQLs for SDR follow up.

TOPOHQ emphasizes training for SDRs because the follow up matters as much as the goal. Sales think MQLs aren’t good if they don’t close immediately, but that’s because quota carrying reps are speaking to MQLs. SDRs are meant to prepare and qualify people and Accounts. And just as Stephan Schiffman says the purpose of a cold call is to obtain a Meeting, an SQL has to be willing meet with a rep, according to TOPO.

Resources for Aspiring SDRs

  • TOPOHQ
  • HubSpot Sales Blog
  • SalesHacker on SDRs
  • Definition of SDR and another one.
  • Salesloft
  • How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger
  • Cold Calling Techniques That Really Work by Stephan Schiffman
  • SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
  • The Challenger Customer by Corporate Executive Board

These resources come down to two components of successful sales:

  1. Keep someone interested long enough to set a substantive meeting.
  2. Ask effective questions to learn about needs and match your solution to those needs.
  3. Don’t fit square pegs into round holes. Be willing to walk away from solution-need mismatch.

Many of the more advanced sales workflow systems attached to SFDC attempt to help Salespeople follow a process, especially on questioning techniques. While I like putting inexperienced people on “rails” when there’s a tight process, that’s not a long term career path for most people.

Next, we’ll discuss how to use all of the information given to salespeople.

Filed Under: Marketing Operations

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • …
  • 39
  • Next Page »

2019 Adobe / Marketo Summit Sessions

Adobe Marketo Summit 2019

Special Content

Learn Lead Lifecycles
Speaking the Same Language for Marketo Architecture & Best Practices
Expert Guide to Program Templates

Categories

  • Conference Reviews (6)
  • Demand Generation (16)
  • Market Strategy (2)
  • Marketing Automation (48)
  • Marketing Careers (4)
  • Marketing Operations (9)
  • Marketing Technology (21)
  • Marketo User Guide (87)

Topics for Marketing Technologists

  • Conference Reviews (6)
  • Demand Generation (16)
  • Market Strategy (2)
  • Marketing Automation (48)
  • Marketing Careers (4)
  • Marketing Operations (9)
  • Marketing Technology (21)
  • Marketo User Guide (87)

Services & Products

Marketing Technology Consulting
Marketo Consulting Services
Marketo Training
Marketo Health Audit
Revenue Stacks

 

Contact Me

Marketing Rockstar Guides
Contact Us

Copyright (c) 2022. Etumos. All Rights Reserved. Unless otherwise noted for that content only. Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · Enterprise Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.