In the new episode of Fullfunnel Live we'll share a sales' perspective in a live, step-by-step case study of an ABM program to create enterprise opportunities in a highly competitive corporate learning market.
We invited our client, Magali Finet-Perdu, a sales rep at CrossKnowlege to share:
RESOURCES:
On-Demand B2B Marketing Courses: https://fullfunnel.io/b2b-marketing-courses/
Full-Funnel Insider - A Marketing Newsletter For B2B Marketers: https://fullfunnel.io/marketing-newsletter/
Join our community for B2B marketers - The Trenches: https://trenches.community/
Upcoming events: https://lu.ma/fullfunnel/events Full-Funnel Marketing Content Hub: https://fullfunnel.io/blog
Vladimir on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimirblagojevic/
Andrei on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azinkevich/
Magali Finet-Perdu on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/the-skills-you-need-to-succeed-magali-finet-perdu
We invited our client, Magali Finet-Perdu, a sales rep at CrossKnowlege to share:
- Examples of how to use different channels and collaboration with marketing to introduce multiple meaningful touchpoints and book more calls with prospects
- How can sales reps attract attention and create awareness in the buying committee of target accounts
- How to educate stakeholders and time it correctly, within global organizations that don't rethink their processes, tools, and approaches every year— and where it takes time to find the right opportunity
- How to scale from a pilot program and involve more salespeople in a new way of working
RESOURCES:
On-Demand B2B Marketing Courses: https://fullfunnel.io/b2b-marketing-courses/
Full-Funnel Insider - A Marketing Newsletter For B2B Marketers: https://fullfunnel.io/marketing-newsletter/
Join our community for B2B marketers - The Trenches: https://trenches.community/
Upcoming events: https://lu.ma/fullfunnel/events Full-Funnel Marketing Content Hub: https://fullfunnel.io/blog
Vladimir on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimirblagojevic/
Andrei on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azinkevich/
Magali Finet-Perdu on Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/the-skills-you-need-to-succeed-magali-finet-perdu
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is the Full Funnel B to B marketing podcast,
brought to you by Full Funnel Dot Yo, let's starve.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Even this time we have our client joining us. And
it's a special treat because it is only life case study,
as you're already used to hearing from our clients their stories.
But why do I say this is a special treat
is because today we're joined by somebody from sales. We
(00:36):
usually hear from marketers, and in fact, in an earlier
episode we heard from Agali's colleague, and today we are
going to hear from Agali about account based journeys how
enterprise sales reps such as Magali can create multi channel
and multi touch journeys to book more sales calls. Yeh.
(01:01):
Like I said, it's very special because we're going to
hear from the sales perspective. It's going to be like
always a live step by steake, step by step case
study as you used to, sharing as much practical information
as possible, but also giving the idea about, let's say
more the strategic decisions that we had to make. And
(01:23):
without further ado, I'd like to introduce Magali. Magali. Do
you I hope I'm pronouncing this right. Yes, her introduced herself.
It was a project that we ran it let's say
the end of last year, the second half of last
year together for about six months. I believe we worked
(01:44):
together maybe a little bit longer six seven months and
without further ado, please Magali welcome, Thank you for coming
and let us know a little bit more about cross
Knowledge and you're all there.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yes, thank you ever for Matt. It's a pleasure to
be here and it was great working with you. So
I'm really completely I'm really happy to be in your podcast.
Maybe what I can say is a cross knowledge what
we're doing. We are a pioneer in digital learning industry,
(02:19):
created twenty years ago, and we target large organizations globally,
so cross Knowledge employees over one hundred and fifty people,
primarily based in Europe and reoperate globally through a vast
network of partners. We also sell five hundred clients and
we reach twelve million learners. So that's to give you
(02:43):
a context, a global view, an id card about cross Knowledge.
We build impactful learning programs throughout content library developed with
thought leaders, services rule out by our internal experts, and
also learning experiences through our platform, so you asked me
(03:05):
a few other questions that, yeah, I have led to continue.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Now, I think what would be interesting to know are
here again from your perspective as somebody who is selling
to global enterprises in a market that is I believe
like very competitive, especially when it comes to the kind
of companies that you're trying to sell to. I wonder like,
can you reflect on what are the main sales challenges
(03:35):
in such an environment that you're in.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yes, definitely, So it's clearly saturated, a mature, unsaturated market,
and the goal of the leadership team and the marketing
leadership team comes from a strategy strategic decision too. There
were three goals. First, accelerate sales, generate leads, and also
(04:03):
increase the signature rate. So yes, it's definitely a match.
And we've been working in this market for the past
twenty years, so it's a market we know well.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And if I'm a sales representative and I'm working let's
say in a SaaS company selling maybe let's say a
product that costs I don't know, like one hundred dollars
per month or two hundred dollars per month, versus being
in an environment like you where you have to sell
(04:39):
not only products that are much more expensive, but also
you're selling into enterprises. These are global organizations with different
buying groups, with different people involved from different departments. Could
you highlight how is it different for you? Then, let's say,
for be somebody who is in a more transactional sales
(05:03):
how would you describe that? What would be Maybe the
main challenge is that you face as an enterprise sales wrap.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yes, maybe the main challenge would be that it's complex.
So because we have many people to speak to, there
are many decision makers, it's a long process. We know
that the budget are decided, they don't decide, they don't
(05:31):
buy immediately, so we know they decide for a budget
for long either annually or maybe sometimes three year period,
so three year period. So that's part of the of
the challenge we have to cope with.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We have to answer, yeah, it doesn't sound like an
easy job, but I know you're doing an amazing job,
so I want to then dive into that. But before
we do, I just I was just like wondering because again,
like we usually speak to marketers, and we started this
project with your colleague from marketing that had marketing at
(06:11):
the time, and we were basically looking to how did
he call it? I think internally the project was called
the GTM re Energized, so we were re energizing or
reinventing our goal to market strategy. It was an initiative
that started with marketing, but you decided to join our
(06:33):
pilots team at the time from sales, and I just wondered, like,
what motivated you to join? And I think, like, from
your personal perspective, it would be nice to hear, but
also because like a lot of our listeners are marketers
who are struggling to get the buying sales. So I think, like,
think about that and think about like what's your experience
(06:56):
being what motivated you? And maybe you have some advice
about out how we can think about motivating our sales
people to join programs.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, when I heard about the pilot, I was one
hundred percent convinced that it was something I wanted to join.
And because initially I've always been inside sales. I've always
worked in sales team with the strong understanding of marketing.
(07:27):
But what I saw, what the interest I saw was
to have an account based approach. Because I used to
work mainly on inbound leads coming from different sources, from events,
from downloads, from really a large variety of leads. But
(07:48):
I wanted to. I thought it's very important to collect
data and to add intelligence to this, to this, to this,
to this targeting of accounts, so that that enabled me
my goal with the team, and also to have really
(08:10):
a close collaboration with with marketing. It would enable me
to be more proactive and to act earlier on in
the sales process so as to make of course, the
great benefit of it is to reduce the length of
the sales cycle.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Okay, so I think the advice for everybody is find
somebody who has like Magali or higher magazine. Now joking aside,
I think what I hear you say is that it
was very important for you to be more strategical about
how we are targeting the accounts, especially because of what
(08:52):
you explained. You explain how it's a decision that is
made once maybe in three years at best, it means
once years. So the timing is so important. So how
we prioritize those accounts is important. But at the same time,
also because of such long sales cycles and complexity, it
wasn't enough just to try to knock on many doors,
(09:14):
and then what if it's not the right time, what
do you do? So, working in marketing, I assume was
also a way for you to help have more meaningful
touch points and organizations with those buyers so that you
can be there on the right time and then also hopefully,
like you said, like when we are at the right
(09:36):
time shortened sales cycle. Now, we mentioned this several times
and it was in the title. We mentioned multiple touch points,
and we use this complicated title. I now realize account
based journeys, multi channel, multi touch. I get a lot
of jargon there. But to forget about the jargon, I
(09:57):
think the best way would be if you could brink
us an example from all the way from you know,
how you have identified the account, without of course giving
names or any conditional information, to give an example of
maybe one journey, or maybe you can go one several
into one, and just give us an example of how
(10:17):
you identified starting to engage, engaged and then eventually move
the prospect all the way to sale. So I would
really be curious to hear more. Yeah, example, really.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, it's a very good thing to start from an example,
because otherwise I would be very generic, you know, So,
so I picked up an example about a large global
industrial account with headquarters in France, because one of the
questions you asked me was how do you select the accounts.
(10:54):
We select the accounts because they match crossing a ledge
priorities such as headquartered in Europe, they have large transformation,
they are multi lingual and a global company. We don't
know them that much. And also, of course we think
(11:15):
that this company can benefit from our products. I would
add also that we see that the HR director and
the learning and development teams, who are the people with
whom we speak, have a real vision. So those are
the few criteria that make us select those specific accounts
(11:41):
because we have to make choices. So with this large
industrial and global account, I collaborated very strongly with the
account executive to identify the key stakes. So the key
stakes that are talent, mobility, retention and enencing, middle manager
(12:03):
and leadership skills. Middle manager leadership skills. Sorry, so those
are the stakes because I don't I have to to
have this binoma, this team work with the can't executive.
Of course, once we've done that, we I start with
identifying the buyers, the potential buiyers. So using a tool
(12:27):
such as sales navigator, which you certainly know well, and
starting with both a wide target audience and a more
narrow narrow target audients. Okay, so I have two circles,
a wide one and a smaller core target of decision
(12:50):
makers interly, if you want just to let.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
So, I'm enjoying and just taking the notes because I
will have to for up on some of these things.
These are goals, so please continue, please continue.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yes, yes, so I start with I start with wide
circle because it creates visibility, and then I will narrow.
I will have a focus two core decision makers. So
except approximately I target eleven people for instance, for this account,
(13:25):
eight of them connected with me on LinkedIn and one
two two, and then I had two specific targets targeted people.
So maybe what I haven't said is I use we
use a lot social networking for this to reach those people.
That's a condition, of course, it's too it's for them
(13:46):
to use in particular LinkedIn. So once we've identified those
two decision makers, why why have I selected these two people?
One is at headquarters, the other one is the subsidiary.
One of the subsidiary, and the goal is to attract
their attention in a smart way and related to our business.
(14:11):
So we have we have different techniques. We have playbooks,
so I will speak about it a bit later, but
we have playbooks, one about the podcast, another one about
the market research playbook. We have also thoughtful commenting, and
that's really important because this is what creates a direct
(14:34):
link and a direct relationship with the contacts. Of course,
it's about speaking about things that are relevant to us
and to them and and that have a personal a
personal link. You know, I'm not talking about who's suit,
which you certainly know as a way to publish posts,
(14:58):
but I'm really talking about thoughtful commenting onto posts.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And then there is a foundation, a very solid foundation,
which is about the post publishing. And the post publishing
is about five times a week, So I publish posts
five times three to five times a week. That that's
where the audience listens to me. And this, this is
(15:29):
what creates the visibility within the community, within the within
the account that I'm targetting. Once uh, Once, once I've
done this thoughtful commenting related to our expertise, related to
their to their posts, to their actuality, I will push
(15:54):
the podcast. I will publish the podcast that we've done
with with with my contact. And that's where it creates
another level of visibility because because I've done a podcast
with this person, because I'm a host of the podcast
of the cross Knowledge podcast, this person will push it
(16:15):
and it will generate likes within her community. So that's
that's that's the second step that creates that creates visibility
within their community. And okay, so so and then the
last I think it's the most important step is to
(16:39):
bridge the gap or maybe I would say to link
it to sales because of course I am not doing
the podcast and I'm not doing this thoughtful commenting just
for the sake of it. I mean, I'm doing it
because we want to push our expertise. We think that
it enters our customer is potential customers needs and and
(17:00):
I want to introduce the sales within the psycheola. That's
where I create the link with the sale and I
introduced the sales the sales account execive executive to my contact.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And yeah, yeah, do you do you want to add
something or oh.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I have plenty of things to add, so but I
let you ask your questions before.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Okay, I have many, I have many, but basically like
to very quickly summarize. So, first of all, how you
create how you select accounts strategic. You have a number
of creteriay that you have identified that are important for you.
You know from history your kind of accounts are a
better fit. You have formalized that those criteria and that's
(17:48):
what used priorities. That's very important. And then the collaboration
with the account executives. And I'd like to ask a
follow up question in a moment, but just to finish
the up. Starting to collaborate with the account executive actually
quite early. I'm quite surprised, like usually reps might start
this collaboration later, but it's really good in and like
(18:11):
to know why in a moment. Then the way that
you create awareness, so you first identify the buying group.
And I love the two circles and the way that
you have described. So when people think about channels and
how I can use channels to influence my decision makers,
they usually think about things like LinkedIn or I don't know,
(18:33):
like maybe webinars or you know, ads or email or whatever.
But what I hear from you is actually the best channel.
Are people like people that they connect to, So if
you create engagement with the wider circle, the people who
also influence the buying process or who are connected to
(18:54):
your core decision makers, You're much more likely to be
seen and noticed by them. And not only that, but
the same decision makers their trust, their peers, and their
colleagues much more than the trust unfortunately salespeople and unfortunately
vendors in general. So I think that's very smart. And
(19:16):
then the way that you attract attention, I thought that
was also really cool because it's not about reaching out
cold and hoping, Oh, I have identified eight people, so
let's just send eight cold emails and cross fingers. Maybe
one of them respond. You're actually using thoughtful commenting on
(19:38):
their posted they're posting. You're also posting yourself five times
a week. That's incredible and something to maybe unrap in
a moment. You're even like running and hosting a podcast
that allows you to So there's like all these different
things that you're doing to create attention and meaningful when.
I also love how you describe it. It's not just
(19:59):
about commenting, it's not just about posting. It is about
finding this inter section between your solution and their world,
their challenges, their priorities. So I thought that was also
very smart, and then with the podcast, I understood you
connect much more deeply. You have the opportunity to learn
(20:20):
much much more about the target account, their priorities, their challenges,
et cetera, which then allows you to go to the
next step and working with the which kind of brings
the whole circle back to the AE. And that was
my first question I wanted to fall up with, which
was you said at the beginning, Well, like, maybe you
(20:41):
can describe how you collaborate with the AE, and specifically
I'm also interested when you mentioned like together you identify
their key stakes, like their key priorities and challenges. How
do you do that and how does that collaboration look like,
I'm really curious.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Well, for me, it's natural to work with AE because
I've always been in sales teams. So it's it's quite
it's very concrete. We they have to gather information, Okay,
so they have to do their job of collecting data
about the stakes, going to the annual report, going in
the CRM, see what is the existing real whether there
(21:23):
was existing contact with them, So they have to do
their job. There is some responsibility on the on the
side too. Even so then I take I take the
continue the action. So yeah, that's that's the the contact
and the relationship with the AE. And then what I introduced,
(21:49):
and that's really that's really important, is to to introduce
them earlier in the process because because because they have
so much to say, okay, so and and I want
them to to be there during my first meetings with
(22:12):
the contact with the prospect. We we work together. And
it's not just me, it's it's also the ie to
be there right at the beginning. Even so I am
the one who is leading the discussion, whether it is
for the podcast or whether it is for the market research.
(22:34):
They will be there and they will get a lot
of information and it will be much easier afterwards once
they're on their own without me two to have this
trustful relationship and discussion.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I can honestly see how that works. But sometimes it
has been it has been my experience with the account
executives that they're like more interested in engaging with the
target accounts only when there is an actual sales qualified opportunity,
when they're sure that, you know, they can do their
demo and they can start engaging the decision makers and
(23:16):
making a deal. So I think it's also maybe goes
to to to kind of testimony to the kind of
team that you have and the relationship. But do you
have any tips about how we should approach if somebody
has that question, how they should approach the account executive
in the right way so that they can engage them earlier,
(23:40):
although there may not yet be that buying intent.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yes, it's true that it was undone by a magic wound.
You know, they see the benefit of it because it
took us a months while it was it was it.
It's a change management process. They have to see the
benefit from ABM themselves, and it took time to to
(24:07):
show them. So maybe I'm going to jump a little
bit quicker to another question, but it's really it's really interesting,
you know, the change management. You have to show them
the benefit from LinkedIn profile education. Okay, so they have
(24:27):
to fit to the they have to improve their LinkedIn profile,
We have to share best practices with them as well,
template messages, et cetera, et cetera. But I will speak
about it later. But yeah, it's it doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Just like that, clearly, Okay, Okay, so there are some
secrets to the trade. Then I wanted to highlight one
of the things that you mentioned. You mentioned that you're
posting five times a week on LinkedIn. How do you
manage to do that? Like a lot of salespeople that
I know, A don't say they don't have the time,
and B they say they're not really they don't feel
(25:07):
like they have enough expertise to be able to actually
create LinkedIn content and posts. So how did how do
you deal with that?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yes, with post publishing. Well, first of all, what I
wanted to say is one of the strengths of course
knowledge is we have a lot of internal expertise because
we provide because we build programs, learning programs, with storytelling,
with content, different sources of content, et cetera. We have
(25:39):
the expertise internally. We have learning design with that, we
have marketing, learner marketing, we have service services, so it's
part of it is internally so we can rely on
subject matter experts internally to produce our content. So some
(26:04):
of my I do produce my own content. It happens
that I produce my own content relying on subject matter experts,
and then we have also the marketing team producing the
content with the seme with the subject matter experts, and
(26:26):
also with all the meetings I have, with the quiz
that people feeling, the mini researchers, the podcast, I gather
information so in from the data I collect from the market,
immediately we use it for our posts. So that's why
(26:50):
our posts, they're not something that are not linked to
the market.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
That's why we really managed to break the silos between
marketing and sales. This is where the marketing gets very quickly.
I mean one day after the meeting, they get my
data about the meetings and they can build really relevant
content that matches that that speak to people, that speak
(27:20):
to to our audience.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Okay, I love it. So it's it's basically ensuring that
the content topics and the content itself resonates with buyers
in the most simple way. You use the insights from
those conversations to dry your content strategy, topics, planning, et cetera.
So this is this is wonderful. And I also wanted
(27:47):
to highlight one more thing that you mentioned as we're
reviewing your journey right you mentioned a podcast. You mentioned
how this allows you to connect to the target buyer
and and get more insight. But you also mentioned something
that I really liked the visibility within their community. That
is maybe another way to say it. I like to
(28:09):
think about it as micro networking. So you are not connecting.
You're not like publishing a podcast that is like I
don't know, like Tim Ferries reaches millions of people. And
this is how you're creating this visibility. You're publishing a
very niche podcast. There may not be like thousands or
(28:32):
millions of people listening to it. But what is one
hundred percent sure is that because you interviewing their colleague,
that colleague of that person that you have interviewed are
going to see that when you share it, and it's
a very easy way for you to connect to them.
And maybe I don't know if that happens, but I
have noticed that I don't know if it happens with you.
(28:54):
Is that they are peers. So obviously they didn't like
work their whole life only in that com company. They
worked in our companies who may be similar, who maybe
your target accounts, right, So they are connected to their
peers and industries. They had this like network around themselves
that you create awareness with it. This how did you
call the visibility within the community. I love it. I
(29:15):
love that. I just wanted to highlight this or everybody
to understand. And then one last question that I had
about the last step, which was about introducing the account executive.
We really went into that, but I wanted to link
back to this idea of now we know their challenges,
now we know their stakes and what's important to them.
(29:36):
Their priority is what they need, So how do you
bridge like all these touch points, nice conversations and everything
to say basically, Okay, now let's go and have a
conversation about how we might be able to help you.
Like it's really a bridge. I don't think it's you
just say, oh, thank you for the podcast. Do you
(29:56):
want to buy our solution? But there is something that
happen and in the meantime, and how do you bridge
that and how do you yeah, maybe maybe start Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot about sharing best practices.
So because we've done because we've done what we do
for the past twenty years, more than twenty years, they
know that we have knowledge about what we do. We
have a lot of projects. Okay, we can talk about
(30:29):
so many projects. And also so we value the client
cases of course, and we value their knowledge. So I
think that's where we bridge the gap. It's about so
we if I don't know answered the question. But but
(30:52):
if I understand correctly, it's during this process of the
meeting that I will do with the with the account executive.
How does this happen? Is it? Is it the question?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
No? No, you have with the buyer. So with the buyers,
so you've spoken to your prospect for example during the
podcast that interview or in another way, right, so you
mentioned you have other ways like research, market research, et cetera. Right,
So these are all non commercial activities. These are all
(31:25):
relationship building activities. You're co creating content, you're getting you're
definitely getting the insights, but they are not commercials. So
so nobody wants So nobody wants to be invited to
the podcast and then pitched Like nobody wants this. What
if they call in the United States they call it
bait and switch, Right, So you and then you switch
(31:48):
and then you pitch them. Right, You're not. I'm sure
you're not doing that. So this is what I'm wondering, Like,
from the perspective of the buyers, how do you bridge
from like having this conversation, this relationship and then going
into a more commercial conversation about how you might be
able to help them.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, it's all about asking and interesting ourselves into what
they what they say, you see, So it's really about
asking questions.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
If they know.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
That we interest ourselves into what they say, first of all,
they will listen to us more carefully, carefully because they
know that we pay attention to them. So it's human psychology,
you see. We pay attention to what they say. We
(32:40):
value their expertise, we want to make it known to
the community, to a larger community, and naturally we will
be able to match what they say. What they said
about the stakes, about their challenges, about what they have
the existing system. We will be able to match it
(33:04):
to what has happened at our clients because there are
two things that interest them is speaking about their experience
is interesting, okay, and then listening to what others are doing.
I think that's really human beings are curious, and in
(33:25):
particular in business world, you want to know what either
your competitor or your neighbor is doing in the same field.
So that's where I think we manage to make this
transition to what we can bring them and the benefit
they can gain from our product. Solution of expertise.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Okay, I love it. So it's like the buyers trust
their peers. They want to know what the other people
are doing. The reason why we have here people listening
to this podcast is not because they want to and
for me, they came to learn from you. Yourself, you
are their peer. They came here to learn from you.
They're more interested to hear from somebody who is like them.
(34:10):
How do you struggle with the challenges that I also have? Right,
and you use that by basically sharing client stories case studies,
so you recognize, Okay, you guys are struggling with this challenge.
We saw this challenge with this client. I can share
more information about how they have solved it. Again, it's
(34:30):
not about you, it is about the other client who
is their peer. So this is perfect. Absolutely love it. Now,
we got a question, and I'll get to this question
in a moment, but I think it's just to keep
a kind of a logical order. So I understand that you,
basically with this approach, you have changed and I haven't
heard a lot of sales people honestly talking about their
(34:52):
sales process in the way that you're talking. And I
think it is a big change, right, And I just wonder, like,
from purely KPI metrics perspective, what has been the results
of implementing this program? What has been results of the
chain of the way, sorry, of the new version of
the process of the change process of what you have
(35:14):
described with us, Is there something that you could share
with us to understand in.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Terms of results you mean the rest from the abmppeerage metrics. Yeah, okay, okay,
So what I can say is over six month period,
out of one hundred and thirty target accounts, we managed
to engage them, we managed to engage thirty five accounts,
(35:43):
the involving multiple meetings and project discussions. So that's more
than by emailing, of course, and it's much more qualitative.
So yeah, and behind that, behind the curtains a lot
of benefits and qualitative benefits.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Two. Okay, can you share so.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yes, of course. So there is a stronger perception as
that we are pairs to our clients, that we are
part of the community. So directly from that, what we
get is we receive more strategic and early of the
(36:29):
record information, so we we get earlier information, relevant information
we speak. Also another benefit is we speak directly to
directors and top executives. Okay, we we directly, we are
at the right level, and we know earlier if there
(36:49):
is a budget or not so about buying intentions.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Mm hm.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So that's the main, the main benefit from it.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
So essentially, out of your one hundred and thirty target accounts,
you're thirty two. You were able to engage, not engage,
but actually have multiple conversations with twenty six percent, which
is twenty seven almost twenty six point nine something, which
is just amazing. I think this is really amazing. People
don't get these kind of reply rates, let alone meeting rates,
(37:25):
so that's just a a mind blown result. But you
also mentioned being perceived more as a trusted advisor, like
you said, like peer part of the community, so trust
is higher, and then they open up earlier to you
learn earlier, you learn better. And of course the fact
that you're able to not just engage let's say lower
(37:47):
maybe individual contributors and mid managers, but actual directors and executives,
gives you the right type of insight about buying intent budgets, etc.
So I love it now. I think Lena asked a
really good question and I'll I'll try to share yes,
(38:09):
how do they measure top of the funnel activity and
know they're on the right track? So especially, I think
like a lot of people are asking themselves, Okay, if
you're starting with this program, we know with long sale cycles,
we are not going to see media media revenue results.
And I'm sure this was the case with you. Like
you start something, it's different, it takes time. So how
(38:32):
do you measure So what Lena is referring to the
top of funnel activity, like early signals or that you're
going in the right direction, do you have any maybe
formal or informal, how do you know that you're going
in the right direction?
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Okay, So my answer is as a say, okay, so
I will say my campaign lasts two months. I have
I rotate the accounts. I have main target off seven
to ten accounts per two months period. So that's my
(39:12):
goal is to generate interest and meetings. At the end
of this two months period, if there is no result,
I'm not going to give up completely the account completely
the account. I will keep them at a lower level
of engagement, but I keep them in my radar. Okay,
(39:33):
I want them to still want them still to see me,
So maybe it's not a direct answer to what Lina's asked,
but that's what I see. If at the end of
the two months, I don't get any response, no meeting,
or I get a response but it doesn't lead to
(39:54):
a real meeting with the AE, then I will switch
and I will come back four months later.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Okay, Okay, So here's what I took out to translate
it into marketing speak, and I try so. First of all,
I think we know that kind of the ultimate leading
indicator or the early measure not so early, but it
(40:23):
can be leading. Is being able to have sales convers
to have conversations with the buyers already is like a
big achievement for a lot of people. And I think
when you're even talking to sales, everybody will accept, Okay,
if I'm able to talk to the right people more people,
and as we see, like twenty six percent is amazing numbers,
(40:44):
So I am able to talk to more of the
right people is an amazing signal that everybody is going
to approve as an early indicator. But we also know
from experience that people don't just agree to talk to
you on on the first touch point, like they don't
just reach out to them and say hey, can we
(41:06):
have a meeting? So you see that they are maybe
engaging with the content that you're sharing, maybe you're having
some conversation in the comments, maybe a first having some
conversation in LinkedIn or in email, et cetera, which are
not yet the meeting. So I assume this would be
another metric that I think lean no people can use,
teams can use. This is for example, out of the
(41:28):
target accounts that we're going after, how many of them
end up in you know, back and forth online conversation
and engagement, right, so engagement, social email, conversation, meetings, opportunities,
pipeline sales like in that order. And I think I
(41:48):
spoke to a lot of teams, and a lot of
teams say okay, if you're able to engage more of
the right type of accounts and end up with more conversations,
it's already a great leading indicator. So with that out
of the way, let's let's go to the next point.
And I think you answer this so in the beginning
(42:15):
you said something about how difficult it is to get
there on the right time. They don't change their approach
every month or every six months, maybe sometimes not even
a year, but every three years. So then the question becomes, okay,
how they stay top of their mind? And I think
you just explained it right. It's like you have multiple
(42:36):
touch points, but also your rotate the accounts. Okay, I
try different ways to engage these accounts during two months.
It didn't work. Okay, let's let's leave them cool down
a little bit. It wasn't relevant. I'll try at a
later moment. Is that what you do?
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yes, because there is a need for intensity. Okay. So
if it's too delui, you know, I don't know how
you say it in English, but I need if I
want to raise awareness, if I want to make myself
visible among the contacts and the prospects and the community,
(43:17):
I need to make the post being seen and et cetera.
So that's why I need to rotate, is to make
the algorithm work properly in my benefits.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Yeah, okay. I do remember, after having that initial pilot
and after seeing these results in terms of how many
meetings they are able to book compared to the previous result,
that your sales director reach out to us and said, Okay,
is there a way that we can involve more sales
people in the program and teach them more. So I
(43:55):
was just wondering what your experience was, Okay, going beyond
the pilot, because it's been a wow, it's been like
more than a year right now. And yeah, if you
have any advice for teams that maybe have done some
initial trials, et cetera, and they want to scale their
pilot and involve maybe more salespeople in these activities.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Mm hmmmm, yes, with teams. With sales teams, it's need
it's important to realize that of course they have they
have to answer tender bids, they have to answer II
FI IRFP, so there is a big pieks of activity
(44:39):
and then they get lower activity. So that's something to
be taken into into account. The second thing to be
taken into account with sales is some of them don't
want to be engaged publicly on LinkedIn. Some just don't
feel like publishing posts because it's two personal well they
(45:01):
want they don't want to produce podcasts either. Again it's
it's yeah, they don't feel like it is with with it,
so but that doesn't mean that they're not going to,
for instance, update their profile. So maybe the first foundation
is to make them understand that updating a good LinkedIn
(45:22):
profile is important and also you can start with so
doing a workshop around that. That's the first step. You
can also share best practices about what are good sequences.
If you have someone who does good sequences, then you
can share best practices to the whole team. That's that's
(45:46):
a benefit that they can see from your actions. Another
thing is to start with one account executive who is
open to a bm. So because starting with one account
executive who has five five, who has five large accounts,
(46:11):
and who.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Will be.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Engaging to do ABM over those five accounts, that's more possible. Okay,
So yeah, starting with one account exit executive, see developed
best practice with him or her, share it to the
(46:35):
community and at the same time create a foundation of
proof of good practices around the abm mm hm.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
So I think it's actually quite a logical framework, right.
So the first thing you need to do is do
it yourself. We can demonstrate the results that when they
will start to listen, there will be interested to know Okay,
how can you do this or what are you doing differently?
Then the second step is choose your champion. Choose somebody
(47:08):
who is more engaged, who is more likely to let's say, yeah,
champion in this this approach. It always makes me think
of this video that I saw about one guy starting
a dance party at the music festival. Right, so he's
like everybody's like listening to music, and then one guy
(47:29):
alone starts dancing crazy, like start dancing around and slowly
you see there is another person and another person not
at the end, there is a dance party. And I
think this is what you have described a little bit,
start with one and then and then go from there
and then of course, like the best way, like okay,
(47:49):
this is your perspective because you're part of the team,
but like maybe for somebody who is trying to help
the team is share the best practices of internal people
like yourself, like those colleagues that you work with, share
them with the rest of the team, like the peer
to peer learning rather than top down.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
So and may I add something? May I may I
add something? I am within the sales the sales team,
within the enterprise team, so we manage the larger account
at Chross know Ledge. But I am in two also
(48:30):
a transfer Celle team. Functional. I don't know how you
would say, but we are a team, but with two
other colleagues at marketing. You see, we work, the three
of us we work. It's an informal team, but it's
a real team. So I am from the sales team
(48:50):
and I work with two people from marketing, and so
that's where we are able to break the silos. Okay,
the three of us, we we show them we developed
the best practices and and yeah, we developed the best
practices within the marketing team and within the sales team.
(49:15):
So it doesn't rely just on one person.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Beautiful, beautiful cross functional team. Yes, I love it. I
love it, And I have to ask this question being
being working for full funnel, this being the life case
study from your just perspective, honestly, Like, how important was
having a consulting partner to help you implement this such
(49:41):
as you're working with us with a full funnel, Like,
was was this something it would recommend others to work
with the consulting partner? Like what would does this make
any difference for you? Oh?
Speaker 1 (49:53):
Yes, definitely, yeah, because I had the in the intuition
when I entered the being pilot, I had the intuition
that the direction was the one I wanted to take.
But then you have to in many times I had
the I was under the impression and I had the
(50:15):
feeling that I was going just outside of the of
my comfort zone, you see. So so of course then
you do it because you know that you can rely
on somebody who has the best practices, the best best practices,
and sometimes you be challenged each other, or maybe I
(50:38):
don't agree on something. I mean, I saw things maybe
that are a bit different because of our industry. But
basically it's really that it's it's being able to do
things that we know are going to improve tremendously our efficiency.
(50:59):
So uh, it's it's from the for instance, the management
of the of the of the touch point. Okay, so
the management of the touch point, to me, that was
really great. The way you helped us implement implementing it,
(51:21):
the way you advised us on communicating with with the
with the audience, with the target we have, with the
people we want to reach, how to position ourselves as
experts because we have this huge knowledge and case studies
(51:43):
and really at cross knowledge. It's tremendous the amount of
great content we have in terms of marketing, and but
how to to bring it towards the people we want
to speak. So that's the way you really helped us
to position ourselves. And yeah, that was very resourceful and
(52:10):
really valuable.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Thank you very much. I see that there are a
few questions by the audience before we go into that.
I know that some people maybe have to log off.
Let us know in the comments we heard from Payton.
I want to share this. It was so cool. I'm
taking notes so fast, not even worried about type. Just
(52:34):
keep on sharing with your sharing with us, your wisdom Magalive.
We really appreciate it. I felt the same, by the way.
Just wanted to share this piece of feedback, another one
from Andres down to earth, real world experiences that are
based on working backwards from what customers care about. Much appreciated.
Love the comments. So let us know in the chat
(52:54):
what you thought of the episode, your address the three
questions that I have here in the Q and A section.
If you still have a question, we still have a
few minutes that we can take them on. Otherwise, let
us know what you thought, whether maybe you can just
leave a tumbs up or thumbs down plus or minus
if that's easier for you. Always want to hear from
our audience, and while you're typing, I wanted to share
(53:17):
the questions. So questions. So Katie is asking the five
posts that you're publishing each week about is it about
your company or about the target accounts company?
Speaker 1 (53:33):
Very good question. Actually it's about learning and development field.
So it's about questions that our audience, our target audience
are asking themselves. So we are pushing our knowledge things
that we think they should do to be better at
(53:56):
the job. Basically, if I can say simply, so, we're
not pushing so we are not pushing our product in
a very advertising way. And yeah, we are pushing things
that can help our clients.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
I love it. I couldn't have said it better. I
think I love it. So I shared the next one.
Did you see the same leading indicators that we shared?
And my engagement with enterprise with multiple stakeholders and buyers?
(54:38):
I think everything you shared it is about enterprise with
multiple stakeholder buyers. So the one DRED and thirty two
accounts these are all enterprise accounts, correct.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
Yes, yes, definitely, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Okay, So that was an easy one. You wanted to
add something.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
No, that's that's exactly. It's a multiple touch points, multiple
ways of connecting to them within large organization above five
thousand employees.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Okay, about five thousand employees. And then the last question
that I have here, and like I said, anybody's welcome
to raise another one for social listening and assume it's
meant to also to collect the insights from your potential customers,
from your prospects to understand what the stakes are that
(55:33):
I think you already shared. But Peyton was asking, like,
what did you use the use tools? Maybe you have
some practical advice for people on how they can get
these insights to understand what's happening in the target accounts
companies in the maybe target buyers, what their priorities are,
(55:55):
what their challenges are, what their departments priorities are, whatever
is useful for you to know.
Speaker 1 (56:02):
Mm hmmm. We don't. We don't. We don't use tools
like factor.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
No.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Uh, we work we work about data analysis from based
on how could how could I say it? But it's yeah,
it's both mentioned annual report for instance. We we also
go to two events that are more specialized, so we
(56:30):
might collect data based on their vertical and then yeah,
we we also have a collaborative approach. So that doesn't
mean we that it will that that's the big change.
It's not going to be just the knowledge of the
network of a single account executive who will think how
by the way, this is an account because I know
(56:53):
one person there. It's always a collaborative decision making process
MM between sales and marketing.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Okay, so you you're talking about your team internally, right,
So it's the account executive who is the well, it's
yourself who are who are doing the research. It's also marketing.
It's people who are attending the events. So you're collaboratively
gathering this information to create a view into your target
accounts and audience.
Speaker 1 (57:25):
And it's important to have a routine, you know, it's
something that is within our agenda. It's it's something that
because you have to do it frequently on a regular basis.
That's that's also the key to the suxist.
Speaker 2 (57:42):
That's a good one. That's a good one. And one
last question I think before we wrap up. A new
question came from Augustina. She's asking about have you seen
a difference in the results obtained depending on the region
or a country. Are there some markets countries where people
are more likely to respond.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
That's a good question. I used to have a direct
approach of calling constance and a very sales and direct approach.
So that's where people told me, oh, you know, in
Germany they don't really like this direct approach. But with
regards to IBM's I didn't see much difference. You know,
(58:28):
I'm working in Germany, I'm working with I'm working with
German people, I'm working with people based in the UK,
in China as well, in the States. I work with
different countries and I haven't identified big differences. They react
(58:49):
very positively to podcast requests, they react very positively to
mini researchers or to market research. So yeah, that's my
conclusion for the feedback. I have personal feedback.
Speaker 2 (59:05):
Awesome, awesome, honestly, like I was reflecting as you were saying,
and I haven't. I mean, obviously there are cultural differences
in terms of the way that people may be communicate,
making decisions, et cetera, what kind of how open they
may be in the conversations, et cetera. But like, you're right,
(59:26):
my experience was similar. I don't really have like, oh,
these kind of countries is different from that perspective, from
the perspective of engaging, appreciating good content, appreciating with the
advice proper way of building relationships. I think we all
value that, and I think also in today's world, I
(59:49):
guess we crave that as well, a little bit like
something where we are treated with respect and get value
before and we are not like just cold pitched and
three as a list of prospects that somebody uploaded somewhere
and just trying to get our wallets. This was wonderful.
(01:00:11):
I have enjoyed it so much. I've learned although that
we work together. I was part of a project, maybe
not for the whole time at the beginning and at
some key moments, but I knew a lot about the project.
But I felt I learned so much today from you.
So thank you so much for sharing so openly. I
(01:00:32):
know this is kind of your philosophy, and that's what
he told me. So where can people if they want
to know more, if they want to keep on sharing
and learning from you, what is the best play for
them to please excuse me, for them to find you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Yes, of course they can contact me via LinkedIn, and
I'd be delighted to maybe to have more in depth
discussion about best practices, and of course they connect to
me to LinkedIn with pleasure.
Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Okay, what we're going to do is we're going to
definitely share if that's okay with you, Magali, to share
it in the podcast notes so that people can connect.
I'm going to also drop your profile here in the
chat for people who are attending Live. Well, with that said,
thank you so much. This was amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
And good luck many many more accounts result sales wished
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Thank you very much, plad, thank.
Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
You, thank you, thank you, Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Thank
This is the Full Funnel B to B marketing podcast,
brought to you by Full Funnel Dot Yo, let's starve.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Even this time we have our client joining us. And
it's a special treat because it is only life case study,
as you're already used to hearing from our clients their stories.
But why do I say this is a special treat
is because today we're joined by somebody from sales. We
(00:36):
usually hear from marketers, and in fact, in an earlier
episode we heard from Agali's colleague, and today we are
going to hear from Agali about account based journeys how
enterprise sales reps such as Magali can create multi channel
and multi touch journeys to book more sales calls. Yeh.
(01:01):
Like I said, it's very special because we're going to
hear from the sales perspective. It's going to be like
always a live step by steake, step by step case
study as you used to, sharing as much practical information
as possible, but also giving the idea about, let's say
more the strategic decisions that we had to make. And
(01:23):
without further ado, I'd like to introduce Magali. Magali. Do
you I hope I'm pronouncing this right. Yes, her introduced herself.
It was a project that we ran it let's say
the end of last year, the second half of last
year together for about six months. I believe we worked
(01:44):
together maybe a little bit longer six seven months and
without further ado, please Magali welcome, Thank you for coming
and let us know a little bit more about cross
Knowledge and you're all there.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yes, thank you ever for Matt. It's a pleasure to
be here and it was great working with you. So
I'm really completely I'm really happy to be in your podcast.
Maybe what I can say is a cross knowledge what
we're doing. We are a pioneer in digital learning industry,
(02:19):
created twenty years ago, and we target large organizations globally,
so cross Knowledge employees over one hundred and fifty people,
primarily based in Europe and reoperate globally through a vast
network of partners. We also sell five hundred clients and
we reach twelve million learners. So that's to give you
(02:43):
a context, a global view, an id card about cross Knowledge.
We build impactful learning programs throughout content library developed with
thought leaders, services rule out by our internal experts, and
also learning experiences through our platform, so you asked me
(03:05):
a few other questions that, yeah, I have led to continue.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Now, I think what would be interesting to know are
here again from your perspective as somebody who is selling
to global enterprises in a market that is I believe
like very competitive, especially when it comes to the kind
of companies that you're trying to sell to. I wonder like,
can you reflect on what are the main sales challenges
(03:35):
in such an environment that you're in.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yes, definitely, So it's clearly saturated, a mature, unsaturated market,
and the goal of the leadership team and the marketing
leadership team comes from a strategy strategic decision too. There
were three goals. First, accelerate sales, generate leads, and also
(04:03):
increase the signature rate. So yes, it's definitely a match.
And we've been working in this market for the past
twenty years, so it's a market we know well.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And if I'm a sales representative and I'm working let's
say in a SaaS company selling maybe let's say a
product that costs I don't know, like one hundred dollars
per month or two hundred dollars per month, versus being
in an environment like you where you have to sell
(04:39):
not only products that are much more expensive, but also
you're selling into enterprises. These are global organizations with different
buying groups, with different people involved from different departments. Could
you highlight how is it different for you? Then, let's say,
for be somebody who is in a more transactional sales
(05:03):
how would you describe that? What would be Maybe the
main challenge is that you face as an enterprise sales wrap.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yes, maybe the main challenge would be that it's complex.
So because we have many people to speak to, there
are many decision makers, it's a long process. We know
that the budget are decided, they don't decide, they don't
(05:31):
buy immediately, so we know they decide for a budget
for long either annually or maybe sometimes three year period,
so three year period. So that's part of the of
the challenge we have to cope with.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We have to answer, yeah, it doesn't sound like an
easy job, but I know you're doing an amazing job,
so I want to then dive into that. But before
we do, I just I was just like wondering because again,
like we usually speak to marketers, and we started this
project with your colleague from marketing that had marketing at
(06:11):
the time, and we were basically looking to how did
he call it? I think internally the project was called
the GTM re Energized, so we were re energizing or
reinventing our goal to market strategy. It was an initiative
that started with marketing, but you decided to join our
(06:33):
pilots team at the time from sales, and I just wondered, like,
what motivated you to join? And I think, like, from
your personal perspective, it would be nice to hear, but
also because like a lot of our listeners are marketers
who are struggling to get the buying sales. So I think, like,
think about that and think about like what's your experience
(06:56):
being what motivated you? And maybe you have some advice
about out how we can think about motivating our sales
people to join programs.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, when I heard about the pilot, I was one
hundred percent convinced that it was something I wanted to join.
And because initially I've always been inside sales. I've always
worked in sales team with the strong understanding of marketing.
(07:27):
But what I saw, what the interest I saw was
to have an account based approach. Because I used to
work mainly on inbound leads coming from different sources, from events,
from downloads, from really a large variety of leads. But
(07:48):
I wanted to. I thought it's very important to collect
data and to add intelligence to this, to this, to this,
to this targeting of accounts, so that that enabled me
my goal with the team, and also to have really
(08:10):
a close collaboration with with marketing. It would enable me
to be more proactive and to act earlier on in
the sales process so as to make of course, the
great benefit of it is to reduce the length of
the sales cycle.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Okay, so I think the advice for everybody is find
somebody who has like Magali or higher magazine. Now joking aside,
I think what I hear you say is that it
was very important for you to be more strategical about
how we are targeting the accounts, especially because of what
(08:52):
you explained. You explain how it's a decision that is
made once maybe in three years at best, it means
once years. So the timing is so important. So how
we prioritize those accounts is important. But at the same time,
also because of such long sales cycles and complexity, it
wasn't enough just to try to knock on many doors,
(09:14):
and then what if it's not the right time, what
do you do? So, working in marketing, I assume was
also a way for you to help have more meaningful
touch points and organizations with those buyers so that you
can be there on the right time and then also hopefully,
like you said, like when we are at the right
(09:36):
time shortened sales cycle. Now, we mentioned this several times
and it was in the title. We mentioned multiple touch points,
and we use this complicated title. I now realize account
based journeys, multi channel, multi touch. I get a lot
of jargon there. But to forget about the jargon, I
(09:57):
think the best way would be if you could brink
us an example from all the way from you know,
how you have identified the account, without of course giving
names or any conditional information, to give an example of
maybe one journey, or maybe you can go one several
into one, and just give us an example of how
(10:17):
you identified starting to engage, engaged and then eventually move
the prospect all the way to sale. So I would
really be curious to hear more. Yeah, example, really.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, it's a very good thing to start from an example,
because otherwise I would be very generic, you know, So,
so I picked up an example about a large global
industrial account with headquarters in France, because one of the
questions you asked me was how do you select the accounts.
(10:54):
We select the accounts because they match crossing a ledge
priorities such as headquartered in Europe, they have large transformation,
they are multi lingual and a global company. We don't
know them that much. And also, of course we think
(11:15):
that this company can benefit from our products. I would
add also that we see that the HR director and
the learning and development teams, who are the people with
whom we speak, have a real vision. So those are
the few criteria that make us select those specific accounts
(11:41):
because we have to make choices. So with this large
industrial and global account, I collaborated very strongly with the
account executive to identify the key stakes. So the key
stakes that are talent, mobility, retention and enencing, middle manager
(12:03):
and leadership skills. Middle manager leadership skills. Sorry, so those
are the stakes because I don't I have to to
have this binoma, this team work with the can't executive.
Of course, once we've done that, we I start with
identifying the buyers, the potential buiyers. So using a tool
(12:27):
such as sales navigator, which you certainly know well, and
starting with both a wide target audience and a more
narrow narrow target audients. Okay, so I have two circles,
a wide one and a smaller core target of decision
(12:50):
makers interly, if you want just to let.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
So, I'm enjoying and just taking the notes because I
will have to for up on some of these things.
These are goals, so please continue, please continue.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yes, yes, so I start with I start with wide
circle because it creates visibility, and then I will narrow.
I will have a focus two core decision makers. So
except approximately I target eleven people for instance, for this account,
(13:25):
eight of them connected with me on LinkedIn and one
two two, and then I had two specific targets targeted people.
So maybe what I haven't said is I use we
use a lot social networking for this to reach those people.
That's a condition, of course, it's too it's for them
(13:46):
to use in particular LinkedIn. So once we've identified those
two decision makers, why why have I selected these two people?
One is at headquarters, the other one is the subsidiary.
One of the subsidiary, and the goal is to attract
their attention in a smart way and related to our business.
(14:11):
So we have we have different techniques. We have playbooks,
so I will speak about it a bit later, but
we have playbooks, one about the podcast, another one about
the market research playbook. We have also thoughtful commenting, and
that's really important because this is what creates a direct
(14:34):
link and a direct relationship with the contacts. Of course,
it's about speaking about things that are relevant to us
and to them and and that have a personal a
personal link. You know, I'm not talking about who's suit,
which you certainly know as a way to publish posts,
(14:58):
but I'm really talking about thoughtful commenting onto posts.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And then there is a foundation, a very solid foundation,
which is about the post publishing. And the post publishing
is about five times a week, So I publish posts
five times three to five times a week. That that's
where the audience listens to me. And this, this is
(15:29):
what creates the visibility within the community, within the within
the account that I'm targetting. Once uh, Once, once I've
done this thoughtful commenting related to our expertise, related to
their to their posts, to their actuality, I will push
(15:54):
the podcast. I will publish the podcast that we've done
with with with my contact. And that's where it creates
another level of visibility because because I've done a podcast
with this person, because I'm a host of the podcast
of the cross Knowledge podcast, this person will push it
(16:15):
and it will generate likes within her community. So that's
that's that's the second step that creates that creates visibility
within their community. And okay, so so and then the
last I think it's the most important step is to
(16:39):
bridge the gap or maybe I would say to link
it to sales because of course I am not doing
the podcast and I'm not doing this thoughtful commenting just
for the sake of it. I mean, I'm doing it
because we want to push our expertise. We think that
it enters our customer is potential customers needs and and
(17:00):
I want to introduce the sales within the psycheola. That's
where I create the link with the sale and I
introduced the sales the sales account execive executive to my contact.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And yeah, yeah, do you do you want to add
something or oh.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
I have plenty of things to add, so but I
let you ask your questions before.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Okay, I have many, I have many, but basically like
to very quickly summarize. So, first of all, how you
create how you select accounts strategic. You have a number
of creteriay that you have identified that are important for you.
You know from history your kind of accounts are a
better fit. You have formalized that those criteria and that's
(17:48):
what used priorities. That's very important. And then the collaboration
with the account executives. And I'd like to ask a
follow up question in a moment, but just to finish
the up. Starting to collaborate with the account executive actually
quite early. I'm quite surprised, like usually reps might start
this collaboration later, but it's really good in and like
(18:11):
to know why in a moment. Then the way that
you create awareness, so you first identify the buying group.
And I love the two circles and the way that
you have described. So when people think about channels and
how I can use channels to influence my decision makers,
they usually think about things like LinkedIn or I don't know,
(18:33):
like maybe webinars or you know, ads or email or whatever.
But what I hear from you is actually the best channel.
Are people like people that they connect to, So if
you create engagement with the wider circle, the people who
also influence the buying process or who are connected to
(18:54):
your core decision makers, You're much more likely to be
seen and noticed by them. And not only that, but
the same decision makers their trust, their peers, and their
colleagues much more than the trust unfortunately salespeople and unfortunately
vendors in general. So I think that's very smart. And
(19:16):
then the way that you attract attention, I thought that
was also really cool because it's not about reaching out
cold and hoping, Oh, I have identified eight people, so
let's just send eight cold emails and cross fingers. Maybe
one of them respond. You're actually using thoughtful commenting on
(19:38):
their posted they're posting. You're also posting yourself five times
a week. That's incredible and something to maybe unrap in
a moment. You're even like running and hosting a podcast
that allows you to So there's like all these different
things that you're doing to create attention and meaningful when.
I also love how you describe it. It's not just
(19:59):
about commenting, it's not just about posting. It is about
finding this inter section between your solution and their world,
their challenges, their priorities. So I thought that was also
very smart, and then with the podcast, I understood you
connect much more deeply. You have the opportunity to learn
(20:20):
much much more about the target account, their priorities, their challenges,
et cetera, which then allows you to go to the
next step and working with the which kind of brings
the whole circle back to the AE. And that was
my first question I wanted to fall up with, which
was you said at the beginning, Well, like, maybe you
(20:41):
can describe how you collaborate with the AE, and specifically
I'm also interested when you mentioned like together you identify
their key stakes, like their key priorities and challenges. How
do you do that and how does that collaboration look like,
I'm really curious.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Well, for me, it's natural to work with AE because
I've always been in sales teams. So it's it's quite
it's very concrete. We they have to gather information, Okay,
so they have to do their job of collecting data
about the stakes, going to the annual report, going in
the CRM, see what is the existing real whether there
(21:23):
was existing contact with them, So they have to do
their job. There is some responsibility on the on the
side too. Even so then I take I take the
continue the action. So yeah, that's that's the the contact
and the relationship with the AE. And then what I introduced,
(21:49):
and that's really that's really important, is to to introduce
them earlier in the process because because because they have
so much to say, okay, so and and I want
them to to be there during my first meetings with
(22:12):
the contact with the prospect. We we work together. And
it's not just me, it's it's also the ie to
be there right at the beginning. Even so I am
the one who is leading the discussion, whether it is
for the podcast or whether it is for the market research.
(22:34):
They will be there and they will get a lot
of information and it will be much easier afterwards once
they're on their own without me two to have this
trustful relationship and discussion.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
I can honestly see how that works. But sometimes it
has been it has been my experience with the account
executives that they're like more interested in engaging with the
target accounts only when there is an actual sales qualified opportunity,
when they're sure that, you know, they can do their
demo and they can start engaging the decision makers and
(23:16):
making a deal. So I think it's also maybe goes
to to to kind of testimony to the kind of
team that you have and the relationship. But do you
have any tips about how we should approach if somebody
has that question, how they should approach the account executive
in the right way so that they can engage them earlier,
(23:40):
although there may not yet be that buying intent.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yes, it's true that it was undone by a magic wound.
You know, they see the benefit of it because it
took us a months while it was it was it.
It's a change management process. They have to see the
benefit from ABM themselves, and it took time to to
(24:07):
show them. So maybe I'm going to jump a little
bit quicker to another question, but it's really it's really interesting,
you know, the change management. You have to show them
the benefit from LinkedIn profile education. Okay, so they have
(24:27):
to fit to the they have to improve their LinkedIn profile,
We have to share best practices with them as well,
template messages, et cetera, et cetera. But I will speak
about it later. But yeah, it's it doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Just like that, clearly, Okay, Okay, so there are some
secrets to the trade. Then I wanted to highlight one
of the things that you mentioned. You mentioned that you're
posting five times a week on LinkedIn. How do you
manage to do that? Like a lot of salespeople that
I know, A don't say they don't have the time,
and B they say they're not really they don't feel
(25:07):
like they have enough expertise to be able to actually
create LinkedIn content and posts. So how did how do
you deal with that?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yes, with post publishing. Well, first of all, what I
wanted to say is one of the strengths of course
knowledge is we have a lot of internal expertise because
we provide because we build programs, learning programs, with storytelling,
with content, different sources of content, et cetera. We have
(25:39):
the expertise internally. We have learning design with that, we
have marketing, learner marketing, we have service services, so it's
part of it is internally so we can rely on
subject matter experts internally to produce our content. So some
(26:04):
of my I do produce my own content. It happens
that I produce my own content relying on subject matter experts,
and then we have also the marketing team producing the
content with the seme with the subject matter experts, and
(26:26):
also with all the meetings I have, with the quiz
that people feeling, the mini researchers, the podcast, I gather
information so in from the data I collect from the market,
immediately we use it for our posts. So that's why
(26:50):
our posts, they're not something that are not linked to
the market.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
That's why we really managed to break the silos between
marketing and sales. This is where the marketing gets very quickly.
I mean one day after the meeting, they get my
data about the meetings and they can build really relevant
content that matches that that speak to people, that speak
(27:20):
to to our audience.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Okay, I love it. So it's it's basically ensuring that
the content topics and the content itself resonates with buyers
in the most simple way. You use the insights from
those conversations to dry your content strategy, topics, planning, et cetera.
So this is this is wonderful. And I also wanted
(27:47):
to highlight one more thing that you mentioned as we're
reviewing your journey right you mentioned a podcast. You mentioned
how this allows you to connect to the target buyer
and and get more insight. But you also mentioned something
that I really liked the visibility within their community. That
is maybe another way to say it. I like to
(28:09):
think about it as micro networking. So you are not connecting.
You're not like publishing a podcast that is like I
don't know, like Tim Ferries reaches millions of people. And
this is how you're creating this visibility. You're publishing a
very niche podcast. There may not be like thousands or
(28:32):
millions of people listening to it. But what is one
hundred percent sure is that because you interviewing their colleague,
that colleague of that person that you have interviewed are
going to see that when you share it, and it's
a very easy way for you to connect to them.
And maybe I don't know if that happens, but I
have noticed that I don't know if it happens with you.
(28:54):
Is that they are peers. So obviously they didn't like
work their whole life only in that com company. They
worked in our companies who may be similar, who maybe
your target accounts, right, So they are connected to their
peers and industries. They had this like network around themselves
that you create awareness with it. This how did you
call the visibility within the community. I love it. I
(29:15):
love that. I just wanted to highlight this or everybody
to understand. And then one last question that I had
about the last step, which was about introducing the account executive.
We really went into that, but I wanted to link
back to this idea of now we know their challenges,
now we know their stakes and what's important to them.
(29:36):
Their priority is what they need, So how do you
bridge like all these touch points, nice conversations and everything
to say basically, Okay, now let's go and have a
conversation about how we might be able to help you.
Like it's really a bridge. I don't think it's you
just say, oh, thank you for the podcast. Do you
(29:56):
want to buy our solution? But there is something that
happen and in the meantime, and how do you bridge
that and how do you yeah, maybe maybe start Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot about sharing best practices.
So because we've done because we've done what we do
for the past twenty years, more than twenty years, they
know that we have knowledge about what we do. We
have a lot of projects. Okay, we can talk about
(30:29):
so many projects. And also so we value the client
cases of course, and we value their knowledge. So I
think that's where we bridge the gap. It's about so
we if I don't know answered the question. But but
(30:52):
if I understand correctly, it's during this process of the
meeting that I will do with the with the account executive.
How does this happen? Is it? Is it the question?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
No? No, you have with the buyer. So with the buyers,
so you've spoken to your prospect for example during the
podcast that interview or in another way, right, so you
mentioned you have other ways like research, market research, et cetera. Right,
So these are all non commercial activities. These are all
(31:25):
relationship building activities. You're co creating content, you're getting you're
definitely getting the insights, but they are not commercials. So
so nobody wants So nobody wants to be invited to
the podcast and then pitched Like nobody wants this. What
if they call in the United States they call it
bait and switch, Right, So you and then you switch
(31:48):
and then you pitch them. Right, You're not. I'm sure
you're not doing that. So this is what I'm wondering, Like,
from the perspective of the buyers, how do you bridge
from like having this conversation, this relationship and then going
into a more commercial conversation about how you might be
able to help them.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah, it's all about asking and interesting ourselves into what
they what they say, you see, So it's really about
asking questions.
Speaker 2 (32:20):
If they know.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
That we interest ourselves into what they say, first of all,
they will listen to us more carefully, carefully because they
know that we pay attention to them. So it's human psychology,
you see. We pay attention to what they say. We
(32:40):
value their expertise, we want to make it known to
the community, to a larger community, and naturally we will
be able to match what they say. What they said
about the stakes, about their challenges, about what they have
the existing system. We will be able to match it
(33:04):
to what has happened at our clients because there are
two things that interest them is speaking about their experience
is interesting, okay, and then listening to what others are doing.
I think that's really human beings are curious, and in
(33:25):
particular in business world, you want to know what either
your competitor or your neighbor is doing in the same field.
So that's where I think we manage to make this
transition to what we can bring them and the benefit
they can gain from our product. Solution of expertise.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Okay, I love it. So it's like the buyers trust
their peers. They want to know what the other people
are doing. The reason why we have here people listening
to this podcast is not because they want to and
for me, they came to learn from you. Yourself, you
are their peer. They came here to learn from you.
They're more interested to hear from somebody who is like them.
(34:10):
How do you struggle with the challenges that I also have? Right,
and you use that by basically sharing client stories case studies,
so you recognize, Okay, you guys are struggling with this challenge.
We saw this challenge with this client. I can share
more information about how they have solved it. Again, it's
(34:30):
not about you, it is about the other client who
is their peer. So this is perfect. Absolutely love it. Now,
we got a question, and I'll get to this question
in a moment, but I think it's just to keep
a kind of a logical order. So I understand that you,
basically with this approach, you have changed and I haven't
heard a lot of sales people honestly talking about their
(34:52):
sales process in the way that you're talking. And I
think it is a big change, right, And I just wonder, like,
from purely KPI metrics perspective, what has been the results
of implementing this program? What has been results of the
chain of the way, sorry, of the new version of
the process of the change process of what you have
(35:14):
described with us, Is there something that you could share
with us to understand in.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Terms of results you mean the rest from the abmppeerage metrics. Yeah, okay, okay,
So what I can say is over six month period,
out of one hundred and thirty target accounts, we managed
to engage them, we managed to engage thirty five accounts,
(35:43):
the involving multiple meetings and project discussions. So that's more
than by emailing, of course, and it's much more qualitative.
So yeah, and behind that, behind the curtains a lot
of benefits and qualitative benefits.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Two. Okay, can you share so.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yes, of course. So there is a stronger perception as
that we are pairs to our clients, that we are
part of the community. So directly from that, what we
get is we receive more strategic and early of the
(36:29):
record information, so we we get earlier information, relevant information
we speak. Also another benefit is we speak directly to
directors and top executives. Okay, we we directly, we are
at the right level, and we know earlier if there
(36:49):
is a budget or not so about buying intentions.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
Mm hm.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
So that's the main, the main benefit from it.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
So essentially, out of your one hundred and thirty target accounts,
you're thirty two. You were able to engage, not engage,
but actually have multiple conversations with twenty six percent, which
is twenty seven almost twenty six point nine something, which
is just amazing. I think this is really amazing. People
don't get these kind of reply rates, let alone meeting rates,
(37:25):
so that's just a a mind blown result. But you
also mentioned being perceived more as a trusted advisor, like
you said, like peer part of the community, so trust
is higher, and then they open up earlier to you
learn earlier, you learn better. And of course the fact
that you're able to not just engage let's say lower
(37:47):
maybe individual contributors and mid managers, but actual directors and executives,
gives you the right type of insight about buying intent budgets, etc.
So I love it now. I think Lena asked a
really good question and I'll I'll try to share yes,
(38:09):
how do they measure top of the funnel activity and
know they're on the right track? So especially, I think
like a lot of people are asking themselves, Okay, if
you're starting with this program, we know with long sale cycles,
we are not going to see media media revenue results.
And I'm sure this was the case with you. Like
you start something, it's different, it takes time. So how
(38:32):
do you measure So what Lena is referring to the
top of funnel activity, like early signals or that you're
going in the right direction, do you have any maybe
formal or informal, how do you know that you're going
in the right direction?
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Okay, So my answer is as a say, okay, so
I will say my campaign lasts two months. I have
I rotate the accounts. I have main target off seven
to ten accounts per two months period. So that's my
(39:12):
goal is to generate interest and meetings. At the end
of this two months period, if there is no result,
I'm not going to give up completely the account completely
the account. I will keep them at a lower level
of engagement, but I keep them in my radar. Okay,
(39:33):
I want them to still want them still to see me,
So maybe it's not a direct answer to what Lina's asked,
but that's what I see. If at the end of
the two months, I don't get any response, no meeting,
or I get a response but it doesn't lead to
(39:54):
a real meeting with the AE, then I will switch
and I will come back four months later.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Okay, Okay, So here's what I took out to translate
it into marketing speak, and I try so. First of all,
I think we know that kind of the ultimate leading
indicator or the early measure not so early, but it
(40:23):
can be leading. Is being able to have sales convers
to have conversations with the buyers already is like a
big achievement for a lot of people. And I think
when you're even talking to sales, everybody will accept, Okay,
if I'm able to talk to the right people more people,
and as we see, like twenty six percent is amazing numbers,
(40:44):
So I am able to talk to more of the
right people is an amazing signal that everybody is going
to approve as an early indicator. But we also know
from experience that people don't just agree to talk to
you on on the first touch point, like they don't
just reach out to them and say hey, can we
(41:06):
have a meeting? So you see that they are maybe
engaging with the content that you're sharing, maybe you're having
some conversation in the comments, maybe a first having some
conversation in LinkedIn or in email, et cetera, which are
not yet the meeting. So I assume this would be
another metric that I think lean no people can use,
teams can use. This is for example, out of the
(41:28):
target accounts that we're going after, how many of them
end up in you know, back and forth online conversation
and engagement, right, so engagement, social email, conversation, meetings, opportunities,
pipeline sales like in that order. And I think I
(41:48):
spoke to a lot of teams, and a lot of
teams say okay, if you're able to engage more of
the right type of accounts and end up with more conversations,
it's already a great leading indicator. So with that out
of the way, let's let's go to the next point.
And I think you answer this so in the beginning
(42:15):
you said something about how difficult it is to get
there on the right time. They don't change their approach
every month or every six months, maybe sometimes not even
a year, but every three years. So then the question becomes, okay,
how they stay top of their mind? And I think
you just explained it right. It's like you have multiple
(42:36):
touch points, but also your rotate the accounts. Okay, I
try different ways to engage these accounts during two months.
It didn't work. Okay, let's let's leave them cool down
a little bit. It wasn't relevant. I'll try at a
later moment. Is that what you do?
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yes, because there is a need for intensity. Okay. So
if it's too delui, you know, I don't know how
you say it in English, but I need if I
want to raise awareness, if I want to make myself
visible among the contacts and the prospects and the community,
(43:17):
I need to make the post being seen and et cetera.
So that's why I need to rotate, is to make
the algorithm work properly in my benefits.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Yeah, okay. I do remember, after having that initial pilot
and after seeing these results in terms of how many
meetings they are able to book compared to the previous result,
that your sales director reach out to us and said, Okay,
is there a way that we can involve more sales
people in the program and teach them more. So I
(43:55):
was just wondering what your experience was, Okay, going beyond
the pilot, because it's been a wow, it's been like
more than a year right now. And yeah, if you
have any advice for teams that maybe have done some
initial trials, et cetera, and they want to scale their
pilot and involve maybe more salespeople in these activities.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Mm hmmmm, yes, with teams. With sales teams, it's need
it's important to realize that of course they have they
have to answer tender bids, they have to answer II
FI IRFP, so there is a big pieks of activity
(44:39):
and then they get lower activity. So that's something to
be taken into into account. The second thing to be
taken into account with sales is some of them don't
want to be engaged publicly on LinkedIn. Some just don't
feel like publishing posts because it's two personal well they
(45:01):
want they don't want to produce podcasts either. Again it's
it's yeah, they don't feel like it is with with it,
so but that doesn't mean that they're not going to,
for instance, update their profile. So maybe the first foundation
is to make them understand that updating a good LinkedIn
(45:22):
profile is important and also you can start with so
doing a workshop around that. That's the first step. You
can also share best practices about what are good sequences.
If you have someone who does good sequences, then you
can share best practices to the whole team. That's that's
(45:46):
a benefit that they can see from your actions. Another
thing is to start with one account executive who is
open to a bm. So because starting with one account
executive who has five five, who has five large accounts,
(46:11):
and who.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Will be.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Engaging to do ABM over those five accounts, that's more possible. Okay,
So yeah, starting with one account exit executive, see developed
best practice with him or her, share it to the
(46:35):
community and at the same time create a foundation of
proof of good practices around the abm mm hm.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
So I think it's actually quite a logical framework, right.
So the first thing you need to do is do
it yourself. We can demonstrate the results that when they
will start to listen, there will be interested to know Okay,
how can you do this or what are you doing differently?
Then the second step is choose your champion. Choose somebody
(47:08):
who is more engaged, who is more likely to let's say, yeah,
champion in this this approach. It always makes me think
of this video that I saw about one guy starting
a dance party at the music festival. Right, so he's
like everybody's like listening to music, and then one guy
(47:29):
alone starts dancing crazy, like start dancing around and slowly
you see there is another person and another person not
at the end, there is a dance party. And I
think this is what you have described a little bit,
start with one and then and then go from there
and then of course, like the best way, like okay,
(47:49):
this is your perspective because you're part of the team,
but like maybe for somebody who is trying to help
the team is share the best practices of internal people
like yourself, like those colleagues that you work with, share
them with the rest of the team, like the peer
to peer learning rather than top down.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
So and may I add something? May I may I
add something? I am within the sales the sales team,
within the enterprise team, so we manage the larger account
at Chross know Ledge. But I am in two also
(48:30):
a transfer Celle team. Functional. I don't know how you
would say, but we are a team, but with two
other colleagues at marketing. You see, we work, the three
of us we work. It's an informal team, but it's
a real team. So I am from the sales team
(48:50):
and I work with two people from marketing, and so
that's where we are able to break the silos. Okay,
the three of us, we we show them we developed
the best practices and and yeah, we developed the best
practices within the marketing team and within the sales team.
(49:15):
So it doesn't rely just on one person.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Beautiful, beautiful cross functional team. Yes, I love it. I
love it, And I have to ask this question being
being working for full funnel, this being the life case
study from your just perspective, honestly, Like, how important was
having a consulting partner to help you implement this such
(49:41):
as you're working with us with a full funnel, Like,
was was this something it would recommend others to work
with the consulting partner? Like what would does this make
any difference for you? Oh?
Speaker 1 (49:53):
Yes, definitely, yeah, because I had the in the intuition
when I entered the being pilot, I had the intuition
that the direction was the one I wanted to take.
But then you have to in many times I had
the I was under the impression and I had the
(50:15):
feeling that I was going just outside of the of
my comfort zone, you see. So so of course then
you do it because you know that you can rely
on somebody who has the best practices, the best best practices,
and sometimes you be challenged each other, or maybe I
(50:38):
don't agree on something. I mean, I saw things maybe
that are a bit different because of our industry. But
basically it's really that it's it's being able to do
things that we know are going to improve tremendously our efficiency.
(50:59):
So uh, it's it's from the for instance, the management
of the of the of the touch point. Okay, so
the management of the touch point, to me, that was
really great. The way you helped us implement implementing it,
(51:21):
the way you advised us on communicating with with the
with the audience, with the target we have, with the
people we want to reach, how to position ourselves as
experts because we have this huge knowledge and case studies
(51:43):
and really at cross knowledge. It's tremendous the amount of
great content we have in terms of marketing, and but
how to to bring it towards the people we want
to speak. So that's the way you really helped us
to position ourselves. And yeah, that was very resourceful and
(52:10):
really valuable.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
Thank you very much. I see that there are a
few questions by the audience before we go into that.
I know that some people maybe have to log off.
Let us know in the comments we heard from Payton.
I want to share this. It was so cool. I'm
taking notes so fast, not even worried about type. Just
(52:34):
keep on sharing with your sharing with us, your wisdom Magalive.
We really appreciate it. I felt the same, by the way.
Just wanted to share this piece of feedback, another one
from Andres down to earth, real world experiences that are
based on working backwards from what customers care about. Much appreciated.
Love the comments. So let us know in the chat
(52:54):
what you thought of the episode, your address the three
questions that I have here in the Q and A section.
If you still have a question, we still have a
few minutes that we can take them on. Otherwise, let
us know what you thought, whether maybe you can just
leave a tumbs up or thumbs down plus or minus
if that's easier for you. Always want to hear from
our audience, and while you're typing, I wanted to share
(53:17):
the questions. So questions. So Katie is asking the five
posts that you're publishing each week about is it about
your company or about the target accounts company?
Speaker 1 (53:33):
Very good question. Actually it's about learning and development field.
So it's about questions that our audience, our target audience
are asking themselves. So we are pushing our knowledge things
that we think they should do to be better at
(53:56):
the job. Basically, if I can say simply, so, we're
not pushing so we are not pushing our product in
a very advertising way. And yeah, we are pushing things
that can help our clients.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
I love it. I couldn't have said it better. I
think I love it. So I shared the next one.
Did you see the same leading indicators that we shared?
And my engagement with enterprise with multiple stakeholders and buyers?
(54:38):
I think everything you shared it is about enterprise with
multiple stakeholder buyers. So the one DRED and thirty two
accounts these are all enterprise accounts, correct.
Speaker 1 (54:48):
Yes, yes, definitely, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (54:51):
Okay, So that was an easy one. You wanted to
add something.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
No, that's that's exactly. It's a multiple touch points, multiple
ways of connecting to them within large organization above five
thousand employees.
Speaker 2 (55:10):
Okay, about five thousand employees. And then the last question
that I have here, and like I said, anybody's welcome
to raise another one for social listening and assume it's
meant to also to collect the insights from your potential customers,
from your prospects to understand what the stakes are that
(55:33):
I think you already shared. But Peyton was asking, like,
what did you use the use tools? Maybe you have
some practical advice for people on how they can get
these insights to understand what's happening in the target accounts
companies in the maybe target buyers, what their priorities are,
(55:55):
what their challenges are, what their departments priorities are, whatever
is useful for you to know.
Speaker 1 (56:02):
Mm hmmm. We don't. We don't. We don't use tools
like factor.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
No.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Uh, we work we work about data analysis from based
on how could how could I say it? But it's yeah,
it's both mentioned annual report for instance. We we also
go to two events that are more specialized, so we
(56:30):
might collect data based on their vertical and then yeah,
we we also have a collaborative approach. So that doesn't
mean we that it will that that's the big change.
It's not going to be just the knowledge of the
network of a single account executive who will think how
by the way, this is an account because I know
(56:53):
one person there. It's always a collaborative decision making process
MM between sales and marketing.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
Okay, so you you're talking about your team internally, right,
So it's the account executive who is the well, it's
yourself who are who are doing the research. It's also marketing.
It's people who are attending the events. So you're collaboratively
gathering this information to create a view into your target
accounts and audience.
Speaker 1 (57:25):
And it's important to have a routine, you know, it's
something that is within our agenda. It's it's something that
because you have to do it frequently on a regular basis.
That's that's also the key to the suxist.
Speaker 2 (57:42):
That's a good one. That's a good one. And one
last question I think before we wrap up. A new
question came from Augustina. She's asking about have you seen
a difference in the results obtained depending on the region
or a country. Are there some markets countries where people
are more likely to respond.
Speaker 1 (58:02):
That's a good question. I used to have a direct
approach of calling constance and a very sales and direct approach.
So that's where people told me, oh, you know, in
Germany they don't really like this direct approach. But with
regards to IBM's I didn't see much difference. You know,
(58:28):
I'm working in Germany, I'm working with I'm working with
German people, I'm working with people based in the UK,
in China as well, in the States. I work with
different countries and I haven't identified big differences. They react
(58:49):
very positively to podcast requests, they react very positively to
mini researchers or to market research. So yeah, that's my
conclusion for the feedback. I have personal feedback.
Speaker 2 (59:05):
Awesome, awesome, honestly, like I was reflecting as you were saying,
and I haven't. I mean, obviously there are cultural differences
in terms of the way that people may be communicate,
making decisions, et cetera, what kind of how open they
may be in the conversations, et cetera. But like, you're right,
(59:26):
my experience was similar. I don't really have like, oh,
these kind of countries is different from that perspective, from
the perspective of engaging, appreciating good content, appreciating with the
advice proper way of building relationships. I think we all
value that, and I think also in today's world, I
(59:49):
guess we crave that as well, a little bit like
something where we are treated with respect and get value
before and we are not like just cold pitched and
three as a list of prospects that somebody uploaded somewhere
and just trying to get our wallets. This was wonderful.
(01:00:11):
I have enjoyed it so much. I've learned although that
we work together. I was part of a project, maybe
not for the whole time at the beginning and at
some key moments, but I knew a lot about the project.
But I felt I learned so much today from you.
So thank you so much for sharing so openly. I
(01:00:32):
know this is kind of your philosophy, and that's what
he told me. So where can people if they want
to know more, if they want to keep on sharing
and learning from you, what is the best play for
them to please excuse me, for them to find you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Yes, of course they can contact me via LinkedIn, and
I'd be delighted to maybe to have more in depth
discussion about best practices, and of course they connect to
me to LinkedIn with pleasure.
Speaker 2 (01:01:06):
Okay, what we're going to do is we're going to
definitely share if that's okay with you, Magali, to share
it in the podcast notes so that people can connect.
I'm going to also drop your profile here in the
chat for people who are attending Live. Well, with that said,
thank you so much. This was amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
And good luck many many more accounts result sales wished
in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Thank you very much, plad, thank.
Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
You, thank you, thank you, Bye bye.
Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Thank
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