Sangram Vajre from Terminus: ABM and LinkedIn – A Dynamic Marketing Duo

Hey there, it’s me, Sangram Vajre from Terminus, and today I want to talk to you about Account-Based Marketing (ABM) and how it relates to LinkedIn. Strap in, because we’re about to dive into the exciting world of B2B marketing!

Let’s start with ABM – a super cool strategy that puts businesses on the path to success. With ABM, companies focus their marketing efforts on specific target accounts, tailoring their messages and campaigns to suit their exact needs. It’s like a personal concierge service, but for marketing!

Now, let’s bring LinkedIn into the mix. We all know LinkedIn as the go-to platform for professionals to connect, learn, and share ideas. But guess what? It’s also a powerhouse tool for B2B marketers like you and me!

LinkedIn allows us to tap into its vast network of professionals, gaining access to valuable insights and data that help us identify and target the right people within our target accounts. It’s like having a secret weapon in our marketing arsenal!

Imagine this – you’re sitting there, sipping your morning coffee, and scrolling through your LinkedIn feed. Suddenly, you come across a post from a decision-maker at one of your top target accounts. Bingo! With that information, you can create a highly personalized message, specifically tailored to address their pain points and goals.

But wait, there’s even more! LinkedIn also lets you deliver ads directly to your target accounts, ensuring your message reaches the right people at the right time. It’s like having a megaphone that speaks directly to your dream customers, making sure they hear what you have to say!

So, my friend, if you’re ready to take your B2B marketing game to the next level, combining the power of ABM with LinkedIn is the way to go. Focus on those key accounts, leverage the insights and connections LinkedIn provides, and watch your marketing efforts soar!

Remember, it’s all about making those personal connections and delivering tailored messages that resonate with your target accounts. By using ABM and LinkedIn together, you’ll become a marketing force to be reckoned with!

Thanks for joining me on this marketing adventure. Until next time, keep rocking that B2B world!

It’s been around five years since Account Based Marketing (ABM) burst onto the scene in B2B business. But there are still many people who don’t really know what it is or how it fits in with other acronyms like CRM and SFA. So, I had the chance to catch up with Sangram Vajre, co-founder and chief evangelist for Terminus, a leading provider of ABM platforms. Sangram has also written a couple of books on ABM, including his latest one called ABM is B2B.

The Latest Trends in B2B

Sangram shared some insights on where we stand today with ABM. He discussed how it has transformed the relationship between sales and marketing, as well as the impact of AI on ABM. He also talked about his new daily newsletter on LinkedIn called Becoming Intentional, and how he has managed to reach over five thousand people every day with his thought-provoking observations.

Let me share with you a modified version of our chat. If you want to watch the full conversation, just click on the video or play the embedded SoundCloud player below.

So, what’s the deal with Account Based Marketing?

USamerica.US: What exactly is ABM?

Sangram Vajre: Oh boy, ABM is like revealing the title of my latest or maybe my second book, which is all about ABM in B2B. To put it simply, if you’re in B2B and you’re still hoping that someone will stumble upon you on Google or some other search engine when they type in the right keywords, you’re losing money. It’s like having a leaky bucket!

I gotta tell you, you’re just spinning your wheels and all that jazz. If you’re doin’ business-to-business stuff, you should already know this, but if you’re not quite sure, it’s time to do some digging. Find out what your whole potential market is and what your ideal customers would look like. Take some time to come up with a list of the top 50 companies that you can serve the absolute best.

Picking the Best Businesses to Serve

Now, when I have the list of 50 companies and if I ask my sales team, they will tell me because they have a pipeline for it. But if I come up with those 50 accounts and then start creating marketing channels, like putting advertising in front of them wherever they go or sending direct mail to them or engaging with them or writing content about those companies or reaching out to them in a way where they understand that I understand their problem, their challenges, and concerns, then I actually close more of those 50 accounts, because I’m not creating content for everybody.

And that’s what account-based marketing is. It’s a way to do better marketing and sales, but only for the companies that I can serve the best.

The Growing Popularity of ABM

USamerica.US: You know, it feels like you’ve been doing this for a while. I remember when people really started talking about it, maybe around four or five years ago. When did it all start to become a big focus for you?

Sangram Vajre: Yeah, it was actually back in the late nineties or early 2000s when IDSMA first came up with the term account-based marketing in one of their articles. So credit goes to them for that. But to be honest, it’s really been the past five years that it has taken off. That’s why I wrote my first book, Account-Based Marketing, in 2015, 2016. I wanted to understand what all the buzz was about. But let me tell you, in just those five years, so much has changed. So much!

USamerica.US: So, what are the biggest changes you’ve noticed in the past five years when it comes to this stuff?

Creating Content that Speaks to Your Most Valued Customers

Sangram Vajre: When I first wrote my book, I realized that I had been thinking in a limited way. I had been focused on a small portion of my work, and it made me wonder why I was creating content for everyone instead of targeting my best customers. Instead of trying to reach every company out there, I decided to narrow my focus and concentrate on the 50 accounts that mattered most to me.

If you’re going after manufacturing companies, it just makes sense to create exceptional manufacturing content. Tailoring your ebook to address manufacturing topics and designing a dedicated learning page for manufacturing will attract those specific companies you’re targeting. By providing content that speaks directly to their needs, you will greatly increase the chances of converting them into customers. It’s a simple yet effective strategy.

I used to be completely focused on acquiring new things. That’s what I was always thinking about and talking about. But in the past four years, I’ve noticed a major change in the way things are done. Now, it’s all about moving quickly and expanding campaigns.

Let me explain what I mean. If you already have potential customers in your pipeline right now, those are the ones you shouldn’t be doing targeted marketing for. Why? Because they’ve already shown interest in buying from you or your competitor.

Customers Who Are Already Looking

So, here’s the deal. You’ve got these potential buyers out there, right? They’re ready to make a purchase, they’re in the market. It’s a great opportunity, but there’s a catch. Just because they’re interested doesn’t mean they have everything they need to seal the deal – like the money, the power to make decisions, and the time. So, here’s where your pipeline comes into play. Your salespeople have vetted these prospects and determined they’re likely to buy from you or your competitors. Now, it’s time for you to step up your game. Your marketing team needs to provide some extra support, like advertising through direct mail, to really give these prospects a push in your direction.

Let me share a little story with you. We talked to a bunch of different companies, and one of them was Thomson Reuters – a pretty big player in the game. It’s interesting because even they had to get their legal team’s approval for what I’m telling you. It just goes to show how important this whole pipeline velocity thing is.

When I was working on our expansion campaign, we decided to focus on a select group of 250 accounts. This meant that if you had more than one product, we would try to convince you to buy other products from us. We used account-based marketing principles to do this, and it worked really well. Our success rate was an impressive 95%.

USamerica.US: Wow, that’s amazing!

Speeding Up Sales

I’m Sangram Vajre: Before putting this in the book, I made sure to get approval from the legal team. I knew that just writing about it wouldn’t be enough for anyone to believe me, so I needed you to give it your stamp of approval. Fortunately, they gave it their blessing, which really shows how powerful this idea is. What has changed for me is not just focusing on acquiring new deals and securing better offers, but also on how to speed up the process of closing deals that are already in the pipeline. Additionally, I’m figuring out how to sell more to my existing customers who have already put their trust in me. That’s why I titled my second book simply B2B – it’s all about improving marketing and sales throughout the entire customer journey.

Let’s talk about a big challenge people face when trying to understand where ABM fits into the traditional landscape of other acronyms, like CRM. We’ve got SFA, marketing automation, customer service, and a bunch of other things that have been closely related to CRM for a long time. Now, where exactly does ABM fit into all of this?

The Flow of Marketing Automation

Sangram Vajre: Hey, did you know that before I joined Salesforce, I used to handle marketing at Pardot? It was all about embedding and integrating different things. When I heard about it, I was actually involved in the whole marketing automation process. I was the one who went out there ten years ago, talking about how amazing marketing automation is and why it’s so important. But you know what? ABM (Account-Based Marketing) is even bigger than all of those things. It’s the reason why it has gained so much attention in the past five years. Just think about it – we have email marketing, marketing automation, CRM, predictive technologies, all designed to help you improve. But ABM, it’s not just a technology, it’s a whole strategy. Even Terminus, our company, can’t claim to have it all figured out for ABM.

I couldn’t possibly say that because ABM is a strategy. It’s like, if your customers are in Boston right now and you want to target them, you might organize a dinner event for them there. That’s an ABM strategy, rather than just creating content that they’ll never see. If your customers prefer traditional methods like direct mail, then send them direct mail. And if you’re targeting hospitals and similar organizations, that’s also ABM. So ABM is a strategy that depends on the specific segments you’re going after. One of the biggest challenges people face is not knowing where to start or not having a clear action plan.

Bringing Marketing and Sales Together

So here’s the thing: people have been taught to expect everything handed to them on a silver platter. But let me tell you, if you ask those who have been practicing real ABM, like companies such as Snowflakes, Thomson Reuters, or Six Star, they’ll all say the same thing. They had to gather around a table with sales and marketing, really sit down, and map out a plan. They said, Alright folks, here’s our game plan. Here’s how we’ll win over this specific customer, not just any customer.

USamerica.US: Now, where does AI fit into all of this? And how does it change the game for ABM?

Sangram Vajre: Yeah, it definitely plays a big role, especially when you’re trying to understand what these companies are aiming for, right? There are several crucial elements that I need to consider, like figuring out how to serve a specific type of customer better and finding more customers who are similar to them. This is where AI and predictive technology come into play. They provide valuable information about the intentions of these companies. On the other hand, when it comes to evaluating the effectiveness of our efforts, AI is also very helpful. For instance, we acquired a company called Brightfunnel two years ago with the specific purpose of analyzing what strategies actually worked. That’s how we can answer that question.

ABM: Delivering Your Message to the Right Customers

Many of our customers think Terminus is amazing because it helps us reach people right away through our digital advertising platform. But I’m unsure about what really works. I don’t know which parts actually make a difference. So, we bought Brightfunnel to help us solve some of these problems. Not everything, just some of them.

Now, let me show you your ABM dashboard and what happened with the top 10 accounts. Not everything, just the accounts that really matter to you. The interesting thing about this brand is that if you talk to any salesperson today, you can feel the excitement in the air. It’s the beginning of the quarter, everyone is back in the office, and they know exactly which 10 accounts they need to close this month to finish strong.

If you’re a marketer and you have your own campaign framework, you might ask me, Hey Joey and Sally, which accounts do you want to close this month? And I’ll tell you the accounts I want to close because I know them well. Then you’ll say, Great! Let me see how I can use my marketing resources to support those 10 accounts. We’ll become best friends with the sales team, make them happy, and help them win deals, which will lead to promotions.

Improving the Connection Between Sales and Marketing

USamerica.US: How does Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strengthen the relationship between marketing and sales teams?

Sangram Vajre: Let me share something funny with you. I came up with seven different truths about marketing and sales. And one of the first truths is quite interesting. I even included a LinkedIn screenshot to emphasize it. Truth number one is this: the value of marketing is determined by sales. That’s it.

USamerica.US: And there’s another important point.

Sangram Vajre: Yes, it took me a decade of therapy to realize this. My hope is that others won’t have to endure the same costly and painful journey. If you’re in the B2B world, your role as a marketer is to help sales grow. It doesn’t matter how you do it – whether through events, branding, or something else. The bottom line is that if your sales numbers aren’t going up, you’re risking your job.

Exploring the ABM Strategy

USamerica.US: How does the ABM strategy and methodology affect the relationship between marketing and sales?

When it comes to the ABM (Account-Based Marketing) strategy, there’s a lot to consider. You might be wondering how it impacts the connection between marketing and sales. Well, let’s delve into it!

ABM is all about focusing on specific accounts and tailoring your marketing efforts to their needs. It’s like customizing your approach for each individual account, rather than casting a wide net. This approach brings marketing and sales closer together, like peanut butter and jelly!

With traditional marketing, the marketing team would generate leads and pass them on to the sales team to seal the deal. But ABM flips the script. It brings sales and marketing together right from the start. It’s a tag team effort! Marketing and sales work hand in hand to identify target accounts, understand their pain points, and create personalized messaging.

By working together, marketing and sales can align their goals and strategies. They can have open conversations, share insights, and collaborate on campaigns. This synergy enhances the relationship between the two departments and boosts efficiency and effectiveness.

ABM is like a secret weapon that makes marketing and sales superheroes. Instead of working as separate entities, they join forces to achieve their shared objectives. Marketing becomes more targeted and impactful, while sales benefits from a steady stream of qualified leads.

So, with the ABM strategy, marketing and sales become best buddies, supporting each other every step of the way. It’s a win-win situation, my friend!

Sangram Vajre: I’ve written down seven different truths about marketing and sales. And one of the very first truths I included is what I call truth number one. To help illustrate this, I even included a screenshot of LinkedIn. So, here’s the deal with truth number one: the value of marketing is defined by its impact on sales. It took me a whole 10 years of therapy to truly understand this. My hope is that by sharing this truth, I can spare others the cost and pain that I went through. If you’re in the B2B world, as a marketer, your primary responsibility is to drive sales growth. Now, it doesn’t matter how you achieve that – whether it’s through events, branding efforts, or any other means. The key is that your sales numbers need to be going up. If they’re not, you might find yourself being shown the door.

So, let’s talk about salespeople in most B2B companies. What title do they usually go by?

USamerica.US: They’re called sales reps.

Sangram Vajre: Yep, or sometimes they’re called accounting execs.

USamerica.US: Got it.

Knowing Which Accounts to Focus On

Sangram Vajre: So, I understand the concept of account-based marketing. It’s pretty self-explanatory. The problem is that marketers haven’t been providing them with leads. There’s a clear disconnect here. But now, when a marketer decides to target specific accounts, they know exactly which ones to go after and can provide leads tailored to those accounts. And let me tell you, they will jump at the opportunity. Over the past five years, I’ve spoken with countless companies, assisting them or simply having conversations about this process. And let me tell you, I haven’t seen a single successful company that didn’t have sales and marketing working together as one team.

So it seems like you’re pretty active on social media, especially on LinkedIn. I’ve heard that you’ve recently started doing some live videos on there, which is pretty cool. But what really caught my attention is that you also started something new – a daily newsletter. Now that might sound a bit old-fashioned, but trust me, it’s not. In fact, it’s a fresh idea from LinkedIn. Let’s dive into that for a moment, shall we?

Tackling a Genuine Issue with an Innovative Approach

Hi there, it’s me, Sangram Vajre: I didn’t want this to be just about me. I wanted it to be a real conversation about a real problem and a real solution. So, I came up with these made-up characters. Let me introduce you to Joey and Sally. They meet at a coffee shop every morning before going to work, and they have some interesting talks. Sometimes, Sally is like, Hey, I have to give a presentation but I don’t know what to do. And Joey, being a good friend and mentor, gives her advice, recommends a book, or refers to something helpful. Just like any good mentor would do, right? And other times, Joey has his own issues, like not knowing how to connect with millennials. And Sally, being the smart cookie she is, has some great insights to share with him.

So, let’s talk about something that happens to all of us every day, but instead of boring statistics, let’s have a conversation. I started a newsletter called Becoming Intentional, and it’s really interesting. If you go to my feed, you can see it, and if you subscribe, you’ll get it in your email. It’s like an old-school newsletter, but with a modern twist.

Using LinkedIn for Business Marketing

USamerica.US: The really cool thing about this is that it looks like it’s making the most of what LinkedIn has to offer. When I started making videos, I would share some on Facebook or on YouTube, and I would get a decent amount of views. But when I started sharing them on LinkedIn, which has a built-in audience of business people, they really caught people’s attention. It’s like you’re using the power of LinkedIn through a traditional method like newsletters. I can’t think of many places where you can start a newsletter and naturally gain 5,000, or even 5,500, subscribers in just a month. As a marketer, it seems like marketing and LinkedIn are really starting to succeed together.

Sangram Vajre: Yeah. I gotta tell you, I’ve been learning something really interesting lately. Unlike a lot of people, I’m not into all those popular social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. For the past few years, I’ve been doing this thing where I write or share something every day, and then just move on. But you know what? Ever since I started focusing on LinkedIn, something amazing has happened. I’ve realized that when you really put your energy into one thing, you can actually become really good at it. And you know what’s even more interesting? LinkedIn has given me so much more than any other platform ever has. I’ve gained more access, more voice, more information, and I’ve been able to reach more people than ever before and it didn’t cost me a fortune, believe it or not.

The Power of Voice in B2B

So, let’s talk about something I find really cool – LinkedIn. It’s a place where professionals like you and me can learn a lot from each other. But you know what? I want to bring a different vibe to the platform. I don’t want to just be another voice in the crowd, using hashtags and all that jazz.

No, my goal is to be like your friend Joey or Sally. Just regular folks who want to be the best they can be. We’re all about professional growth, personal development, and living life to the fullest. I’m here to create something special and help you be intentional about your life. And along the way, I’ll share all kinds of experiences and conversations from the outside world, but in a way that feels like it’s coming from you. Let’s see where this journey takes us!

The ABM Methodology Is Taking Things to the Next Level

So, it looks like LinkedIn and Account-Based Marketing (ABM) are both emerging to support and empower sales and marketing professionals in the B2B world. It’s pretty amazing how these two things have come together to create new opportunities, especially considering that just a few years ago, this kind of collaboration wouldn’t have been a possibility.