How to Hire, Structure, and Train Your Revenue Team for ABM Success

Dayna Rothman, VP of Marketing and Sales Development at BrightFunnel

Dayna Rothman, VP of Marketing and Sales Development, BrightFunnel

It’s great that you are planning to go big with ABM this year…but have you

built a revenue team structure to support your efforts?

One of the biggest barriers to Account-Based

Marketing success is a siloed sales and marketing

team.

Top 4 Ways to Align Your Revenue Team for ABM

1. Create a revenue team structure that supports a full-funnel ABM strategy

2. Hire and train the right team

3. Deploy an integrated ABM plays across your revenue team

4. Define key ABM measurements to determine overall success

Create a Revenue Team Structure that Supports ABM Success.

Define Your Revenue Team Functions

Marketing: Door Opener

Account Development

Reps:

Accelerator

Account Executives: Closer

The Key to Successful ABM = ADRs

Owns the 1:1 relationship with contacts at target accounts

Supplements marketing’s broad-based approach

Engaged in personalized outreach

Creates multi-channel account-based plays

Accelerates key accounts to close

Schedules meetings for sales reps for closing

Account Development is More Than Just Calling

• Today’s reps need to do more than just call:

• Email marketing: Often facilitated by a sales automation tool

• Social media: Social selling on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook

• Content creation: Writing emails and blog posts, so prospects view the rep as a thought leader in the space

• Direct mail: Sending out physical mailers to stand out from the crowd

• Field events: Helps develop and staff local field events for target accounts

But wait…that sounds like a more targeted version of marketing!

And we agree.

At BrightFunnel, ADRs Reporting Into Marketing

• Why?• Today’s buyers demand multi-channel interactions

• Today’s buyers demand personalization

• ADR outreach should align with key marketing programs

• Marketing and ADRs can share the same goals

• ADRs can partner with marketing on developing warm leads and the AEs can focus on closing

The Revenue Team at BrightFunnel

End-to-end funnel ownership from marketing to customer success

Revenue Team

VP of Marketing

Core Marketing ABM ProgramsAccount

Development Reps

VP of Sales and Customer Success

Closing AEs OnboardingCustomer Success

Revenue Ops

Marketing ops Sales ops

BrightFunnel ADR Team Structure

• 1 ADR Team Lead

• 2 ADRs Tier 2 ENT and MM Accounts

• 2 ADRs Tier 1 and Tier 2 Growth Accounts

• 1 Hybrid ADR/Marketing Programs Manager: ABM

BrightFunnel Marketing Team Structure

• Demand gen programs manager/events

• Content marketing manager

• Social media and customer manager

• Graphic designer

• ABM programs manager

ADR ABM Marketing Programs Manager

• Tows the line between ADR and marketing

• Owns full Tier 1 Target Account program from lead acquisition to acceleration to opportunity

• Responsible for high touch programs including:• Email marketing• Email nurturing• Target field events• Direct mail• Content development• Account-based social

• Goaled on account engagement and meetings set

Hire and Train the Right Team.

Marketing Hiring Profile

Hire specialists who can be generalists.

1. Highly analytical

2. Biased towards action

3. Intellectual curiosity

4. Great communicators

5. Can market and sell

6. All hands on deck

At BrightFunnel, Everyone Knows How To:

• Write emails and blogs

• Use Marketo, SFDC, and sales automation tools

• Speak in front of an audience

• Do booth duty

• Get daily insights from analytics

• Get on a sales or customer call to evangelize

ADR Hiring Profile

Hire ADRs that think outside of the box.

1. Passion for sales and marketing

2. Track record of success—student athlete, worked during college, extra-curricular activities

3. Excellent communication skills

4. Highly creative

5. Intellectual curiosity

6. All hands on deck

Team Training and Integration

• Deep integration across the marketing and ADR teams:• Weekly team meetings

• Sales training for the marketing team

• ADR inclusion in marketing program and events meetings

• ADR training on multi-channel marketing methodology—direct mail campaigns, social selling, copywriting, blogging

• Marketing inclusion on ADR messaging, scripting, and ideation

The key to integration for your marketing and ADR team is a shared sense of skills and purpose.

Deploy an Integrated, Cross-Team ABM Strategy.

Everyone should have some skin in the game when it comes to ABM.

Door opener direct mail campaign

STEP 1

Personalized email linking to

relevant content

STEP 2

Reach-out on social media

STEP 3

X

STEP 4

X

STEP 1

Targeted Ads on social

STEP 2

Add to customized

nurture stream

STEP 3

Room drop at event

STEP 4

X

STEP 1

X

STEP 2

Call to connect

STEP 3

Invite to VIP experience at

event

STEP 4

X

STEP 5

Targeted account-based

webinar

STEP 5

Sales cycle and relationship

building

STEP 5

ADR Team

Marketing

AEs

Divide and Conquer with a Sample Integrated Play

Define Key ABM Measurements to Determine Success.

Another key way to align your revenue teams is through shared ABM success metrics.

ABM can be a slow play, especially for Enterprise accounts.

Make sure your marketing and ADR teams communicate

success to your sales team throughout the process.

Engagement Across All Target Accounts

• What percentage of accounts in your database or target accounts are engaged by marketing/ADRs?

• How much of your TAM have you developed relationships with?

• How engaged is your full database?

Full-Funnel View into Top Engaged Accounts

• Who are your top engaged accounts?

• How built out are these accounts?

• What is your mix of engagement by marketing and sales activity?

• How active are these accounts on your website?

Account Buyer Journey Breakdown

Marketing Engagement Over Time

• How engaged is the account?

• What are the peaks of account engagement?

Thank You!