B2B Fusion

Unifying Sales and Marketing: The Power of Collaboration Joining us again this coming Friday is Terry Flaherty, Vice President and Principal Analyst from Forrester. In our previous conversation, he discussed how organizations can transform their culture by viewing themselves as a cohesive go-to-market team. Together with Jon Russo and Megan Heuer, they’ll continue that discussion and dive deeper into the strategies that can drive meaningful change. Here’s an excerpt from last time: “So often still, you know, their silo functions, marketing produces, leads, throws or the BDR and they qualify. BDR throws it over to the sales and they sell. And there's like no collaboration, no communication that's going on between those functions on what's happening right now. And how do we make it better? Right? And then the last piece, I think it's the biggest piece actually, is change the culture. And we wind up with this ingrained sort of view and culture I will sales does this marketing does this. It's separate functions. But one of the things that we're seeing I think is brilliant is in a lot of our clients, now, they're not even calling themselves sales and marketing, right?  They're calling themselves go-to-market. And yet they have different roles within that function, but they're part of the go to market team, not the sales team or the marketing team. Right? So I think those three things are. Changing focus, change the work, change the culture, and when I do that, that's how I really mean. If I don't, it's really nothing more than a cafeteria poster.” Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/ep9RKef9 ___________ 👏 Follow B2B Fusion on Go To Market best practice strategies. 👍 Like and subscribe to B2B Fusion YouTube channel of 200+ GTM videos. 🤙🏽 Struggling with faster, more efficient growth? Let's talk.

❓ This week's question, "How does Marketing work with GTM teams?' ⛳ Marketing works closely with the go-to-market (GTM) teams to drive efficient and profitable growth for the company. 7️⃣ ways marketing collaborates with GTM teams based on our experience: 1. Aligning on target markets, ideal customer profiles, and account prioritization through shared data and insights. This is where technology helps a Marketer - be armed with data! 2. Developing targeted content and messaging to address specific pain points and challenges of the accounts being pursued. No excuse not to get here with recorded calls and AI. 3. Executing multi-threaded campaigns across multiple channels (email, events, direct mail, etc.) to engage buying committees at target accounts. This is a VERY hot topic right now and correlates to closed won revenue. 4. Providing sales with quality leads and insights into prospect engagement and intent signals from marketing interactions . Tablestakes - yet challenging to pull off operationally. 5. Measuring full-funnel impact of marketing activities on pipeline and revenue through unified attribution models. Full disclosure, this is an area we consult in - it is amazing how many companies fall short here in describing Marketing's impact or any BDR or partner impact to the business. 6. Collaborating on account-based marketing (ABM) programs to deliver personalized messaging and experiences to high-value accounts 7. Sharing customer data, feedback and insights to optimize the end-to-end experience across marketing, sales and customer success motions. This is where running a Pipeline Council or standing cross-functional tiger team helps. Effective alignment between marketing and GTM teams is critical, as marketing's ability to generate demand and provide a seamless experience directly impacts the productivity and success of the entire revenue engine. This requires consistent communication, shared goals, and an integrated tech stack to enable data sharing across the full customer lifecycle. #GTM

Data drives conversions & revenue, it doesn't matter what the GTM motion is. 3 𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: 1. Duplicate and inconsistent data across systems 2. Lack of proper integration between marketing and sales tools 3. Inadequate processes and governance around data quality A deeper dive - 1. Companies often have multiple systems that don't "talk" to each other well. This leads to duplicate records, inconsistent data formats, and an overall lack of a single source of truth for customer data. All these are conversion blockers. 2. Even when companies invest in tools like marketing automation, CRM, and account-based marketing platforms, the integrations between these systems are frequently not set up properly. This prevents seamless data flow and makes it difficult to get a complete picture of the customer journey across marketing and sales touchpoints. 3. Maintaining clean, accurate data requires well-defined processes, clear ownership, and robust governance. Many companies lack these foundational elements, resulting in poor data hygiene that undermines the effectiveness of their marketing and sales efforts, as well as their reporting and analytics capabilities. How to help solve this: Appoint a data steward - not someone who's butt gets kicked but someone who can kick butts. What does a data steward do? Prioritize data quality by implementing master data management practices, establishing integration standards, and fostering cross-functional collaboration between marketing, sales, and IT teams responsible for managing customer data assets. How are you solving your data issues?

Unlocking Team Synergy: Blueprint for Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success Alignment We were delighted to have Jen Shapiro with us, Vice President of Strategy & Client Solutions at UnboundB2B, and a renowned expert in sales and marketing alignment. On this episode with Jon Russo and Megan Heuer, Jen shared her insights on how sales, marketing, product development, and customer success teams can effectively collaborate to achieve their goals, retain and grow their customer base, and win back lost customers. Let's dive into the conversation and learn from Jen's expertise: “I'm finding sales and marketing teams who can align on the priority on what do we need to do in the next six months to get to our goals and how are we gonna prioritize our focus And sales marketing, product and customer success partnering together to retain the install base and grow them And then also seeing a focus on winning back the customers that were lost over the last couple years But it's hard to see and sad to see, but I have seen it a little bit about the deterioration I think if the teams can come together and align on the focus, I think that will help the relationship a little bit better” Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/e6swGtCp ___________ 👏 Follow B2B Fusion on Go To Market best practice strategies. 👍 Like and subscribe to B2B Fusion YouTube channel of 200+ GTM videos. 🤙🏽 Struggling with faster, more efficient growth? Let's talk.

HubSpot is the last remaining independent major MAP player, someone else will pick them up. They are also the only MAP that is truly innovating.

How LinkedIn's Sales Navigator is Changing the Game Super excited to have Mandy McEwen, Founder & CEO of Mod Girl Marketing, join us recently to share all things LinkedIn Sales Navigator and all things LinkedIn. In the world of digital sales, being efficient and hitting the right targets is super important. Sales Navigator, LinkedIn’s premium tool for prospecting, has changed the game for sales teams everywhere. Here's an excerpt from her conversation with Jon Russo and Megan Heuer: "So, Sales Navigator is, in my opinion, the best prospecting tool out there. It's LinkedIn’s premium version of, you know, sales prospecting. So what most people are using it for is research. So they use something like Zoom Info, and they're going and they’re getting the information from that data. They're finding the person on LinkedIn, and they're just kind of like pairing up information to get their email address, their phone number, etc. They're not really taking it to the next level. So what works great is if you can build out your buyer personas and Sales Nav, you know who you're targeting. You have all of these strategic lists, and then you have people and listen, you're paying attention to what's going on. So I'm sure you both know, Meg and Jon, like when you log into LinkedIn.com, are there some days when you log in and you're like, good lord, my feed is a dumpster fire. What is happening? I mean, you guys noticed that right? Like on Sundays, you're like, none of this content is relevant to me like, what is happening on LinkedIn? The difference with Sales Nav is you control everything." Watch the full episode here:https://lnkd.in/e3suRfqx ___________ 👏 Follow B2B Fusion on Go To Market best practice strategies. 👍 Like and subscribe to B2B Fusion YouTube channel of 200+ GTM videos. 🤙🏽 Struggling with faster, more efficient growth? Let's talk.

Why tailoring your sales approach to match your customer's preferences can be the key to unlocking greater success. Bethanie Nonami, Corporate Sales Trainer and AI Consultant from Marley Nonami Incorporated, dove into the importance of understanding different approaches to selling. She shares her experience with Humantic AI which integrates into your LinkedIn account. Discover how tools can help bridge the gap between your selling style and what your customers actually want with this excerpt from one of our recent weekly Account Based discussions on Adopting Sales Strategies with Jon Russo and Megan Heuer "So there's tools that you can use that increase that chance of building rapport in a meaningful way. And sometimes we just don't know how to do that. And then you could be selling to people that have very unique personalities. IT, incredibly smart, Finance, incredibly smart, and they just don't communicate the same way. They don't want to have these big long conversations. Jon and I were just talking about it. And some of the tools we use will say bullet points get to the point. They don't care about relationships. They don't care about niceties, get to the point, and that just might not naturally be Jon's personality. So if there are ways that tools can help me understand the way I sell might not be the way that everybody wants to buy. Then I'm better educated, at least I'm aware, because before I've had massive success, I'm like the way I sell is the best way to sell and it's not." Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/eHuZSX5Z ___________ 👏Follow B2B Fusion on Go To Market best practice strategies. 👍Like and subscribe to B2B Fusion YouTube channel of 200+ GTM videos. 🤙🏽Struggling with faster, more efficient growth? Let's talk.

Join us on Friday at 11 am ET to learn from the incredible 🪷Lynnice Wolf, Head of Demand Generation at Gem and host of the podcast ShePack. She'll share her steps to deliver a high performing account-based demand creation program through collaboration, buyer understanding, and shared goals. She'll also talk about the need for clear and simple reporting to share progress with other stakeholders A special bonus topic this week is Lynnice's own career journey, and how she turned a short break in her professional life into a win for both her career and her family. Join Megan Heuer and I this Friday, hope to see you there.

Here are the 𝐭𝐨𝐩 🔟 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲'𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 𝐁2𝐁 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 Benchmark Report and the future of B2B marketing: (discussion and link in comments) 1. B2B marketing organizations of the future need to be a "triple threat" - creative, fluent in the latest technologies like AI, and adept strategists with strong business acumen. 2. Investing in creativity is increasingly important for B2B brands to stand out, but it needs to be tied to distinct customer pain points and needs, not just creativity for its own sake. 3. Around 88-90% of CMOs said they are investing in bigger, bolder, more creative campaigns. Creativity can be a key growth driver when balanced with strategic insights. 4. B2B brands are making progress in creativity and around double the amount of B2B creative work is being entered into award shows compared to a few years ago. 5. Examples of B2B brands leveraging creativity well include Salesforce's ads with Matthew McConaughey and Intuit Mailchimp's visually engaging campaigns that also address marketer pain points. 6. AI presents both challenges and opportunities for B2B marketers. While there are concerns about AI replacing jobs, creatives who leverage AI tools may have an advantage. 7. B2B brands are starting to adopt AI in areas like work orchestration, hyper-personalization of ads, and early stage idea generation and concept testing. AI combined with human intelligence is key. 8. To get started with AI, B2B marketers should start small and use it as an assistant and thought-starter tool to aid the creative process, not a complete solution. 9. Human skills like creative thinking, problem-solving and adaptability will remain critical even as AI advances. 10. Key traits for future B2B marketing teams include being technology trailblazers, interpreting data with a strategic lens, and collaborating cross-functionally to communicate value to B2B buying groups. ___________ 👏 Follow B2B Fusion on Go To Market best practice strategies. 👍 Like and subscribe to B2B Fusion YT videos, 200+ GTM best practices! 🤙🏽 Struggling with faster, more efficient growth? Let's talk. #abm #GTM #ABX #unifiedfunneldashboard, #salesenablement

Too many vendor voices, not enough practitioner voices - until this session! In this first of a webinar series of talking with ABM Practitioners, you'll learn: 1️⃣ How to refine and align with sales 2️⃣ A strategy on how to gain executive buy in through 3️⃣ Practical tips for leveraging ABM tools and platforms to drive internal adoption for more effective customer engagement. We invite you to join Practitioners Leah Russo from Pantheon and Paul Hernandez from AffiniPay with Moderator B2B Fusion Jon Russo on June 18th at 2pET/11aPT to listen into a Practitioner pov on ABM. Both of these practitioners leverage a variety of MarTech tools including the 6sense Inc. platform as well as Adobe Marketo MAP.  An opportunity to learn what is working in this enviroment. Reg in comments. Join us!