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#FlipMyFunnel Atlanta – Account-Based Marketing Conference (Recap)

December 8, 2016
By Brad Beutler

#FlipMyFunnel is the next big thing in account-based marketing!

The most flipping awesome #ABM conference has been on the road in 2016, hitting Austin, Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston (twice!) with seven major events in 15 months! On December 8th, #FlipMyFunnel was back in Atlanta, our hometown and headquarters for Terminus. We were thrilled to host such an incredible event.

#FlipMyFunnel brought together the best and brightest B2B marketing innovators.

Throughout the day, we discussed the future of account-based marketing and delved into how marketers and sales professionals are winning with #ABM. You can see more of the action using #FlipMyFunnel on social media. While you’re at it, follow @Terminus.

So what went down at #FlipMyFunnel Atlanta?

8:30 a.m. – Welcome
Nikki Nixon, Director of #FlipMyFunnel, took the stage to welcome the hundreds of attendees who convened at the Marriott Marquis in Downtown Atlanta.

Nikki shared the story of how Sangram Vajre, CMO and Co-Founder at Terminus and Founder of #FlipMyFunnel, came up with the idea of how to flip the traditional B2B sales funnel on its head. In 2015, Sangram was on a plane home from the #MarTech conference in San Francisco. He was sitting in the middle seat between two rather intoxicated people.

Sangram Vajre #FlipMyFunnel Slide

Sangram was frustrated by the inefficiencies of lead generation and how “leaky” that traditional B2B funnel could be. So he flipped the funnel on its head.

#FlipMyFunnel Account-Based Marketing: Draw a traditional funnel and then flip it!

And that’s how the #FlipMyFunnel model for account-based marketing was born. Throughout the day, the funnel-flipping presenters discussed how marketing, sales, customer success, and every department in the organization can get aligned on ABM and provide an awesome customer experience.

After Nikki’s warm welcome, Sangram took the stage.

2016 has been the year of account-based marketing. Sangram authored the first-ever book on #ABM! In April, Account-Based Marketing for Dummies debuted!

You can download Chapter 1 of #ABM for Dummies here!

One of the coolest ideas Sangram had when he was writing the book was how B2B marketers need a “mix” of technology and personalization to do account-based marketing. He presented this scatter chart of high and low tech and touch on how to make the biggest impact in your accounts.

Sangram clearly had some fans in the audience, like Matt Benati, CEO of LeadGnome.

Account-Based Marketing Success

After Sangram’s presentation, our ABM Superhero Julia Stead, Director of Demand Generation at Invoca, took the stage to discuss Invoca’s ABM journey from implementation to optimization.

When it comes to taking ABM to the next level with content and account-based advertising, there was no better person to talk about this topic than Travis Wright, CMO and Chief Marketing Technologist at CCP.Digital and co-author of Digital Sense.

Ask Me Anything with the ABM University Professors

ABM University by #FlipMyFunnel logo
In 2017, #FlipMyFunnel will launch ABM University for educating B2B marketers on account-based tactics and strategies. The esteemed group of ABMU professors was available to meet & greet potential students. ABMU professors in attendance included:

The Alignment of Social Selling and ABM

Koka Sexton, the founder of Social Selling Labs, Inc., held a session about how sales can use social networks to support ABM strategies. Here are some of the key takeaways:

The Account-Based Marketing Technology Stack

Matt Senatore, Service Director of Account-Based Marketing at SiriusDecisions discussed his strategy for creating a successful account-based marketing technology stack, giving pointers on the steps he uses to decide exactly which technologies to use.

https://twitter.com/mandamandarose/status/806905276762820608

He emphasized the rapid growth of account-based marketing, noting that the use of technology must be operationalized and the technologies already in place at a company must be leveraged to support new ABM efforts.

Matt explained that creating your #MarTech stack is not a one-size-fits-all effort, and there’s not one single tool that’s going to solve all of your company’s needs. Sales and marketing must align — just like with all other ABM efforts — and discuss the needs from both sides to decide which choices will work best.

The categories to explore when you decide what to put in your stack are:

  • Preparation
  • Prioritization
  • Planning
  • Execution
  • Measurement

Personalized Video Content: The Secret Weapon of Remarkable ABM Programs

Tyler Lessard, the master behind Vidyard’s account-based marketing strategy, let #FlipMyFunnel attendees in on some of his secrets to success — but not before winning over the audience with Starbucks gift cards.

https://twitter.com/GinaKawalek/status/806898842587299840

First, Tyler explained the importance of video in any marketing strategy.

But what about video in the context of ABM? Tyler explained how he fundamentally believes that ABM is about a joint, parallel track of marketing and sales engaging with accounts. Video helps facilitate account-based marketing because it’s:

  • Relevant and personal. Tyler recommends including personalized videos in sales emails and marketing campaigns like these examples from Act-On and Vidyard:

  • Creative and interesting. One creative way to engage decision-makers at your target accounts, Tyler points out, is by sending video campaigns — by mail. Vidyard’s clients have sent iPads loaded with incredible marketing videos to drive revenue. It costs a little extra upfront, Tyler admits, but the ROI his customers have seen has been unreal.
  • A great way for sales and marketing to work better together. Sales emails with one-to-one videos are incredibly effective, especially when they’re complemented by video marketing campaigns.

And the biggest takeaway from this session? Including creative video content in your ABM strategy can connect rates on outbound prospecting by more than 500%. Shameless plug, it’s how Terminus won a VMA from Vidyard in 2016 for Small Business, Big Bang!

What’s Working with ABM Content?

We also heard from Bill Kent, Senior Manager of Product Marketing at Act-On marketing automation. He talked about account-based marketing content; what’s working and what isn’t?

One of the most important lessons: don’t create content just for the heck of it. The business world is already oversaturated with content, so don’t contribute to it unless you have real value to add. And you do have real value to add — you just need to find it using Bill’s principles for irresistible content:

  • Less, but better
  • Market problems
  • Emotional drivers
  • Personalize after responses
  • Iterate, measure, optimize

ABM Isn’t New: How to Align Your MarTech Tools to Fuel Growth

Another favorite breakout session featured Aya Fawzy, Marketing Manager at Captora, and Kim Hajec, Head of Global Brand, Buyer and Supplier Marketing at Tungsten Network. These brilliant marketers explained why account-based marketing isn’t new — but ABM martech is.

ABM is not just about technology, though. It’s also about having the right mindset.

Sunshine Through the Clouds: ABM at Salesforce

After lunch, Jim Hopkins, Senior Manager of Product Marketing at Salesforce Data.com, was ready to drop some knowledge. He shared his experience implementing account-based advertising at Salesforce. The results his team has seen from Terminus are phenomenal:

Account-Based Marketing and Sales Development – ALIGNED

Next, Jon Miller, CEO and Co-Founder of Engagio, explored the relationship between account-based marketing and account-based sales development. Engagio is all about account-based everything (ABE), and Jon’s session reflected that.

One key takeaway: be yourself, and be valuable. If another brand could take your sales and marketing content and pass it off as their own, you’re doing it wrong.

Jon also explained what he sees as the number one mistake B2B companies make: treating ABM and lead-based marketing the same way. Not only is the ABM mindset different, the metrics you’ll want to track are different as well. Most importantly, it’s time to replace MQLs (marketing qualified leads) with MQAs (marketing qualified accounts).

Bonus: Jon got creative and made it super easy to share his insights, as you can see in this photo from Attack Digital Marketing. So tweet away!

https://twitter.com/attackdigitalm/status/806941281977036800

ABM Live: A Crowdsourced Session with Feedback from You!

The brilliant Maria Pergolino, SVP of Global Marketing at Apttus, presented an interactive presentation geared toward collecting the audience members’ thoughts about account-based marketing. Attendees were asked to text their answers to various questions into a poll, and then the session was run by audience participation.

Leveraging Customer Reviews for a #WINNING Marketing Program

This session was focused on customer success. It featured some great speakers:

Why Web Personalization is the Key to Effective Account-Based Marketing

This case study and discussion was a hit among marketers who are looking to personalize their marketing. Shout-out to Andy Zimmerman, CMO at Evergage, and Ben Alvord, Web Marketing Manager at Mendix, for their invaluable insights!

Marketing-SDR Orchestration: The Fast Track to Success

Craig Rosenberg — AKA the Funnelholic — is the chief analyst at TOPO, Inc., an analyst firm that helps B2B companies grow revenue in a scalable manner. In other words, he knows his stuff when it comes to sales and marketing. In this session, he explained that he prefers the term account-based everything because it makes it clear that it’s a strategy and not a marketing campaign, which is a common misconception about ABM.

“Orchestration is core to account-based everything,” Craig said. Here’s how he defines orchestration:

And here’s the thing, explained Craig: “Marketing-SDR collaboration is the fastest path to orchestration and results. 100% of organizations that are meeting or exceeding their objectives in less than a year are leveraging sales development.”

So how does this work? Here’s Craig’s process:

  1. Kill the MQL and focus on the SQL.
  2. Work on the same set of ICP accounts (and contacts).
  3. Transform your outbound SDR team to account-based SDRs.
  4. Design orchestration across SDRs and demand gen.

And it works. Craig explained that companies TOPO works with see significantly higher meeting set rates and increased pipeline when their marketing team and outbound sales team focus on account-based everything.

Finally, some key takeaways from Craig’s session:

Craig Rosenberg on SDR-marketing orchestration with account-based marketing

Grow Pipeline: A Proven Process to Implement ABM/ABS and Reach Decision-Makers

Steve Bryerton, VP of Sales at DiscoverOrg, talked about growing pipeline with account-based marketing and sales. The bottom line was something we heard echoed by many of today’s speakers: when implementing an account-based marketing and sales, ensure your sales, marketing, and customer success teams are closely aligned and are working toward the same goals.

Synthio Case Study

In this awesome case study, Joe Mckenna, Director of Enterprise Sales at Synthio, and Eileen Chow, Demand Generation Ops Manager at Evergage, explained why data doesn’t have to be difficult.

PFL Case Study

Another insightful case study came from NetGain Technologies, who discussed how they use bourbon, ABM, and PFL to close deals. PFL is a martech company that specializes in sales and marketing solutions, although they are probably best known for direct mail. NetGain’s Director of Digital Marketing, Megan Reed, and PFL’s CMO, Daniel Gaugler, explained NetGain’s boozy ABM campaign.

They followed three simple steps for their campaign:

  1. Set clear goals for your campaign upfront.
  2. Start small. Consider focusing on one industry or one channel at a time when you’re first getting started with ABM.
  3. Adjust your strategy as needed.

Then they went into more detail about the campaign. The NetGain team identified best-fit accounts that they wanted to target. Then they used PFL to confirm those accounts’ mailing addresses and send them bourbon-themed gift boxes with a call-to-action: schedule a meeting with NetGain and they’ll provide the bourbon!

To top off this awesome case study, PFL even gave out MQLs. And no, it’s not what you’re thinking. Check it out:

How cute is that tiny funnel that comes along with the flask? This is one funnel you might not want to flip! Thanks, PFL!

Personalize the B2B Customer Journey to Boost Demand

Jason Jue from Triblio switched up his session at the last minute and turned it into a roundtable discussion and encouraged audience participation. Our friend Matt Senatore from SiriusDecisions was in the session, and he stepped up and shared a ton of great ABM insights with the group.

A Funnel Flippin’ Happy Hour

The #FlipMyFunnel conference finished with a happy hour, complete with tapas and hand-crafted cocktails. It was a fantastic chance to network and decompress after a busy, learning-filled day.

And that’s a wrap!

If you missed #FlipMyFunnel and want to learn more about account-based marketing technology, check out the #ABMStack. It’s a useful way to build your ideal tech stack and see what technology your organization may be lacking — or where you have overlap. Click the banner below to check it out.

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