Next April’s Oscars are going to be fun because only about a dozen movies came out in 2020. At the time of this writing, I believe Sonic the Hedgehog and Bad Boys for Life are the current frontrunners for Best Picture.
But you better believe awards will still be awarded and speeches will still be given the wrap-it-up music, because as they say, the show must go on.
So it is with marketing and sales!
Each year, in partnership with B2BSMX and FlipMyFunnel, we set out to award the best of the best ABM programs. This year may have been a unique one, but we continue to be amazed and inspired by the creativity, adaptability, and teamwork displayed by this year’s finalists.
Without further ado, here are our finalists and winners for Best Acquisition Program, Best Customer Program, Best #OneTeam, and ABM Innovator of the Year!
Best Acquisition Program
Driving net new pipeline continues to be a primary use case for ABM, which is even harder in a time of economic downturn and shrinking budgets. But these teams managed to get targeted, find new ways of engaging buyers, and deliver exceptional results.
Finalists
Alliance Safety Council
Sendoso
Winner
“The teams really went above and beyond in the middle of COVID to rapidly pivot our go-to-market strategy to an ABM approach. It really, truly involved tighter alignment with our sales team in optimizing our AGILE operating model into weekly sprints, utilizing FIRE (fit, intent, recency, engagement) dashboards to drive our daily ABM outreach through marketing, and especially our BDR team.”
— Leslie Renkens, Director of Demand Generation, TTEC
Best Customer Program
“Retention is the new acquisition” has been our constant refrain over the past several months, and it continues to bear out. But pivoting budget and energy away from net new acquisition to support customer retention and expansion isn’t as easy as flipping a switch. Our finalists this year all saw great results in customer engagement, and this focus will pay even more dividends down the line.
Finalists
Fujitsu Americas, Inc.
InVision
Winner
“When the pandemic hit, I knew that acquisition was going to be a lot tougher. One of the things our CEO discussed was making sure that we turn our attention to our customers. The most important thing for us was keeping churn low and putting our customers first. We worked with our account managers to identify those at-risk and those with a renewal for Q2/Q3 and enrolled them into a campaign with specific content and messaging.”
— Tyler Pleiss, Inbound Marketing Manager, Quantum Workplace
Best #OneTeam
No ABM success story ends with, “and our marketing and sales teams never talk to one another.” But plenty of stories start that way. The #OneTeam mentality is all about bringing go-to-market teams together as — you guessed it — one team to align on accounts, engagement, KPIs, and everything in between.
Finalists
Escher Group
Workiva
Winner
“The ABM world can be a lonely island in bringing on the strategy. It’s so much fun and so exciting to be a part of a team. This is a huge win for Degreed as a whole. We’re very fortunate to have significant support from the broader organization. It’s really an entire team play here encompassing the TEAM (target, engage, activate, measure) methodology, including the sales team being brought on board.”
— Amber Bogie, ABM Manager, Degreed
ABM Innovator of the Year
So you’re crushing pipeline goals, driving significant engagement at all the accounts your sales reps care about, retaining and expanding within your customer base, and have everyone at your organization bought into ABM. But are you doing it in a cool way? ABM innovators go above and beyond to deliver a unique ABM experience and solve complex problems in new ways.
Finalists
ExtraHop Networks
PrecisionHawk
Winner
“Jen has done so much to mobilize the Bazaarvoice team: Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, all together. We’re just really reaping the rewards of that now. We had the biggest Q1 we’ve ever seen, we’re on track to have the biggest Q2 that we’ve ever seen, and that’s from a marketing sourced perspective as well as overall for the business.”
— Kate Hahn, Director, Global Demand Generation and Retention, Bazaarvoice
Congratulations to all of our nominees, finalists, and winners on an exceptionally strong year in ABM! 2020 overall may be 🤮 but your ABM programs continue to be 🔥 .
