Building a High-Performance Revenue Marketing Engine | Demandbase VP of Global Revenue Marketing

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to CESSR Build 2022. We're thrilled to have Tracy Kraft, Vice President, Global Revenue Marketing of Demandbase, join us for this session. She will be discussing secrets to building a high-performing revenue marketing engine. We have 30 minutes and there will be time for Q&A, so please make sure to drop your questions throughout the session using the Q&A button within your bottom menu bar. Please join me in welcoming Tracy Craft. Take it away, Tracy.

Thank you so much, Gabriella. Hello everyone, welcome to SaaStr Build. My name is Tracy Craft. I lead the global revenue marketing team at Demandbase, and I am super excited to be with you today. And share some of my secrets to building a high-performing revenue marketing engine. Let's dive in. So today we'll talk about those building blocks to high-performing revenue marketing and talk specifically about where the success comes from. So how 3 ingredients, which I'll share a little bit more about in a few moments, connect and interact, how knowing the makeup of the people and tools and data at your disposal really sets the foundation for your revenue marketing function and, and really sets you up for that success. And importantly, an understanding that the most accurate data, the best people, the best technology still need the confidence to use those things and move with action and intention to build a high-growth engine. A little bit about me before we dive in deeper. As I mentioned, I'm the Vice President of Global Revenue Marketing at Demandbase. And for us, that means my team's responsible for growth, demand integrated marketing, marketing operations, events, anything that is really meant to engage, inspire, and interact with our targeted audience and our target accounts. Prior to Demandbase, I led the account-based revenue marketing function and partner marketing function at New Relic and really scaled their go-to-market pipeline from a variety of sources. And I was very fortunate to start the marketing function at Marketta when they were going through a huge, huge, and tremendous amount of growth. Most importantly, or most consistently throughout my career, whether in a very large multinational company or in a small startup just sort of getting their marketing feet underneath them, I've been really, really fortunate to express and convey my passion for revenue marketing and how I truly believe that marketing is not just a cost center, but a growth needle mover for a company. What we're going to cover today, I'll give you my definition of revenue marketing. We'll talk about those key ingredients to revenue marketing success. And then we'll look at a couple of situations and I'll share my approach and my advice within those situations, as well as the, the impact and results that I've seen. So what is revenue marketing? In my words, revenue marketing really integrates multiple go-to-market initiatives across a variety of disciplines in alignment with the entire revenue organization to drive business growth. So lots of fancy words to say the marketing function tied to generating pipeline or revenue for the business has to work in concert with sales, with CS, with pre-sales, post-sales, and align on the things most important to the business in order to activate that growth. And what are those key ingredients? First, the right team. So whether you're hiring, building the function, or whether you're considering becoming a part of a revenue marketing team, being around the people with the culture that is growth-oriented in mind and partnering well across the go-to-market organization is key. Having the right toolkit, the data, the systems, and how to actively and effectively use them sets that foundation that I mentioned earlier. And then this notion of the right instinct, you could interchange instinct with boldness, you could interchange it with a growth mindset, but it's the notion that as revenue marketers, you have to be a little bit comfortable with risk and As you take those risks and place those bets, know how to action the results that you see. Let's get into each of these in a little bit more depth. But before we do, the spoiler— spoiler alert is that none of these ingredients alone is the plum line. None of these things working independently will allow for the same amount of success as when they interact and connect together. So the right team. Again, if you're hiring or if you're joining a team, really know the situation of your department, of your company. Understanding the goals, budget, the current technology stack really influences the decision on how to build out the team further in support of growth. Knowing where to build versus where to scale. Now, every company, every team, every situation is a little bit different. We all have our independent nuances that, you know, you have to take into consideration. But as a general rule of thumb, when you're in a company, when you've got a revenue marketing organization that has a foundation and a framework set, and you're looking to optimize and scale, my recommendation is that you look at subject matter experts to really go deep. Really blow out the channels and functions important to growth and try to find that ceiling and then disrupt from there. If you're just getting started with your revenue marketing function, then I recommend hiring specialists with extra skills. And I like to think of this as like having a major and a minor. So maybe you hire a demand gen marketer that also has some operations skills. Maybe you hire a field marketer that also is comfortable with ABM technology. Set and embrace the culture. So again, every team is different. Every leader is different. Here at Demandbase, we're a growing company. We've had some amazing announcements over the past year. We've made some amazing acquisitions over the past year, but we are still a nimble, agile team. And so my team, if they were joining today, they would tell you that our team ethos And the culture amongst our team is about accountability as a motivator, you know, winning together as a team, hitting those results. Empathy. We are human. We work better when we connect and interact well together, when we have each other's backs, when we understand where each other is coming from. Communication. Transparent, direct, honest communication so that when we're solving problems, we're all starting from the same place. And of course, fun, so that even on the hardest days, even when things don't go according to plan, we're still having fun with one another. And then finally, unlocking the cross-functional relationships and workstreams across the other parts of the go-to-market organization or the revenue organization. I said this at the beginning, and I sit firmly here in my seat today to tell you that marketing is not a service provider. Marketing is not a cost center. It is a true partner in the company's go-to-market strategy. And as revenue marketers, it is incumbent upon us to show up as partners, which means reaching across to our sales counterparts, reaching across to our customer success counterparts, and aligning on the goals that are going to support the growth of the company and what, what each department is going to be responsible for. So that as you build your strategy, so as your team builds their programs, programs and campaigns, you are still aligned with those counterparts on that, on those objectives. And there are no surprises. I always say that, you know, if you're a lead-based model or an account-based model, and you're engaging a bunch of accounts or generating a bunch of leads, if the pipeline doesn't show up or the revenue doesn't show up, you're not succeeding, right? So we win together in revenue marketing. The right toolkit. And I use toolkit here as sort of this umbrella term to denote the systems at your disposal, the data that you use to make your decisions, the processes you put in place to action that data and those systems. First, know your data. I like to believe that data is never going to be perfect. It's likely imperfect for you. But that's why I say here that trends matter most. And what I recommend as you're setting up or scaling your revenue marketing function is that you track everything, have the ability to see everything that you need to, but don't boil the ocean and what you look to as your key performance indicators. So focus on a few metrics that really are going to serve as growth indicators for the business. At Demandbase, we look at how we are creating opportunities, pipeline-oriented opportunities, and the value associated with them. We also look at the number of, uh, people within our targeted personas at our targeted accounts that are responding to our programs, and we ensure that those metrics are always healthy. Once you know what those business growth indicators are for the company, then you can extend that into your campaigns and channels. Again, knowing that you can track everything, but focusing on the metrics that matter most. Have a tech— have a technology strategy. So even if this image on this slide was bigger, it wouldn't be able to show you all of the various marketing technology providers out there on the market. I think at last count, there were over 8,000 technology providers out there, which is amazing to think about. I'm not recommending you go and buy every piece of marketing technology on the planet. What I am recommending you do is understand that situation that you find yourself in based on your company's situation. And build your technology roadmap for the future. So maybe today you're building that foundation and you have a CRM, you need to integrate a marketing automation platform, and that could be all that you handle right now. But you know where you're going as a business, you know where you want to go as a revenue marketing function. And so having a 12 to 18 month roadmap that you keep current and refresh as your business evolves is important. And then overcoming go-to-market fragmentation. So gone are the days when you can have your data in a silo, your, your systems in a silo, your processes in a silo. We know that when you link them together, whether through technological integrations or strategy and process interlocks, you have the ability to see your targets more clearly and engage with those targets more intelligently. So by having that clear perspective across those different vectors, data, systems, processes, et cetera, you can be more intelligent with your revenue marketing approach. And then finally, the right instinct, the right amount of boldness, the right amount of aptitude for being an agent of change, a growth mindset. However you frame this for yourself, the notion here is that as a revenue market, as a revenue marketing function, the company is relying on you to think big, think creatively, and really be comfortable with placing some big bets in the spirit of activating growth. I say here in this first notion, place big bets, but be okay with failure. And what I mean by that is, as long as your hypothesis is backed in data, as long as your execution is as close to flawless as possible, go and try it out. That thing out. And if it fails, can rest assured knowing that you gave it your all and you can learn from it and try something new. If you are successful, then you're ready to double down and invest and go bigger. If you set up that experiment a little bit haphazardly, you know, you don't think through what you're trying to accomplish, you're not executing with excellence, then you'll never know if that bet actually paid off. You'll never know if that failure if that failure was actually a failure, if that success was actually a success. So be very intentional about these risks that you take. When you are being bold, make sure that you're able to still forecast and have that outcomes orientation. I talked about the ethos on my team at Demandbase as being driven by accountability. My team, if they were on this call today, they would also say that I have an extreme outcomes orientation, and we know that every single thing we do has an intended outcome. So that if we are releasing something new, we have an expectation of the traffic that we're going to see on our website. If we are launching a new campaign, we have an expectation of how many accounts are going to engage with us, whatever that may be. We're setting that up from the beginning so that we can understand what transpired in attempts to hit that goal and not trying to make sense of what happened retroactively. Additionally, I highly recommend that you are as decisive about what you are going to do as you are about what you will not do. So I'm a firm believer in having a stack rank of priorities. And when something comes out of left field, which inevitably happens in growth organizations, you can clearly look at your opportunities and your priorities in front of of you and know that if you displace something on that priority list, you may be sacrificing some outcomes. And maybe that risk is great enough to take based on what you've been presented with. But now you have some clarity around where you place those bets, where you tackle opportunities first, or what opportunities you tackle first. And then finally, when something works, Be ready to scale. When something works, don't be afraid to double down on that success and go really, really big and find the limit for that program, for that channel, for that discipline. But don't rely on that alone. Make sure you're ready with the next experiment, ready to get the next flywheel up and running. So when we put these things all together, what can we expect? I have a couple of situations that I'll present to you and give you my advice and guidance and what I've seen in terms of results in my experience. First, revenue marketing at a small startup, maybe $30 million in ARR, give or take. In this situation, this hypergrowth startup has zero formal marketing. It's extremely limited in data and technology and is looking to scale growth. So in this scenario, my approach is I'm going to hire first in areas directly tied to growth, meaning there are other marketing disciplines that will be important eventually, but as I'm trying to keep that growth engine moving and the company is now relying on me to scale growth via marketing versus human resources, I gotta, I have to start with those growth oriented functions. Align the revenue team on shared goals and the shared go-to-market strategy. You're going to see this as a theme throughout my 3 examples. Set the technology foundation with a plan to scale. Look at the data and make it usable. So in this situation, the data is limited, and it's limited from the ability to see and make sense of it. So make sure that whatever data you have at your disposal, you understand it. And then the kicker here, the it factor here is in this scenario, my recommendation from my experience was to focus on only certain verticals and only certain products. I knew that I could generate interest. I knew that I could generate sales conversations in these verticals and these products. And maybe as the machine gets humming, we expand that. But to generate that growth right now, I'm going to be really myopically focused here. The results and impact. Increasing that web traffic and qualified lead volume. In your situation, if you're an account-first organization, you could say generating additional qualified accounts. Establishing those KPIs and the lead-to-revenue model. So making that data again consumable and usable so that you can predict where you're going to end up with the data you have. Integrating technologies, marketing automation and CRM to start in this scenario, maybe ABM down the line. Publish that operational roadmap so that you know when you're ready to take on those additional technologies based on what you're seeing. And then importantly, from a revenue marketing perspective, demonstrating and growing that contribution to pipeline or revenue, depending on your situation and your scenario. So in this case, for me, I was able to demonstrate 20% contribution to new bookings quarter over quarter. Here's a sample team structure. Again, small, small scrappy startup just getting off the ground with regard to their revenue marketing practice. So you're not going to see tons and tons of bodies here. You see some really critical elements to the foundation, a marketing ops person that likely handles both technology and data at this state, an events and field marketing person that has some ground coverage, but an investment here on the, the marketing disciplines that are really tied to generating interest, generating the ability to engage a sales conversation, digital marketing, account-based marketing, outbound marketing programs, emails, webinars, etc. All right, our second scenario, revenue marketing at around $50 million, maybe $50 to $100 million in ARR. Midsize, fast-growing startup has a small marketing team, some data and technology, and is looking to expand growth. So my approach, my recommendation in this case was I expanded the team and growth areas, but maintain the cadence and other marketing functions so that there was always the drumbeat of activity happening while we were able to place some of these bets. Align the revenue team on that shared go-to-market strategy. And here, we were very intentional about applying an account-based marketing approach, optimizing scale data and tech, and then doubling down on key programs contributing to pipeline and saying no to others. In this case, in this scenario, the company had extreme affinity for in-person live events and conferences. And, and this time we weren't seeing the return. And so as hard as it was from an emotional perspective for people to get to wrap their brains around it, we slashed our investment in that function or in that channel by half and reinvested in things that we could see actually having a return. Our trial program, our digital program, our webinar program that were consistent pipeline and revenue generators for us. The results and impact, you know, operationally and organizationally developed that global demand center and integrated campaigns function for that horizontal activity, that drumbeat activity, rebuilt the lead-to-revenue models down to the program and channel level. So like I mentioned, there was some data, some tech, We could see in absolute terms where business, what business needed to be generated, what we needed to accomplish from a revenue marketing standpoint, but we evolved to get down to the channel and program level. So we knew what tactics we needed to employ to ratchet things up. Integrate technologies and processes. Here we were now building out our operational competency. Efficiencies. So scoring, data enrichment, intent, and then importantly, on the relationship standpoint, SLAs with our sales counterparts. And then finally, and the kicker here, predictable and growing contribution to revenue in this case, so that we, in this case, we showed that we were contributing to, again, new bookings at a rate of 30 to 40% quarter over quarter. Here's a sample team structure. In this scenario, you see here on the left, you've got the email, the global demand center email customer integrated partner, and then the growth-oriented functions, digital ABM, regional field marketing, really digging into the accounts and programs that are driving those sales conversations, that pipeline, and ultimately that revenue. Final scenario is revenue marking at $200 million plus in ARR. So in this situation, an established publicly traded company, wants to go upstream, wants to leverage the ecosystem, and wants to increase customer revenue. But unfortunately, data and systems are siloed. In this case, my recommendation: aligning marketers to the sales leadership, investing in account-based marketing, increasing the flywheel speed of rinse and repeat programs. We're an established company in this case. And so really making those things run in the background while you try, try some new activities. Audit your tech stack and data sources, build those relationships with the data and operations team. And the sort of it factor in this scenario was deliberately focusing on the installed base and specific customer profiles within that. The results you can expect to see, the results that I experienced were increasing pipeline per campaign. You could look at it for average opportunity value, increasing opportunity velocity, so how fast these opportunities are getting through the journey. And then ultimately, again, and in this scenario, growing contribution to pipeline. My experience here was we were able to grow it from 15% to 35%. Here's a sample team structure for this scenario. Assuming that some of the other traditional marketing functions exist elsewhere— PMM, PR, broad-based demand gen— you can see I would invest heavily in building out the partner marketing arm of the business, as well as the regional field marketing arm of the business for that sales and business development alignment. And then that digital ABM for that targeted account approach, specifically in this scenario with the installed base. My top takeaways— those are my 3 examples for you. I know I've been talking fast, but a few reminders or takeaways for you as we wrap things up, and then I would love your questions if there is time. Revenue marketing success, in my experience and in my humble opinion, comes from how these 3 ingredients interact and connect: your team, the tools at your disposal and your ability to place some big bets. I firmly believe that knowing the makeup of the people you're working with cross-functionally as well and understanding your toolset, your toolkits, really grounds your foundation and that you can just work from there. And then finally, I, I can't underscore enough that the most accurate data with the best technology with the deepest hard skills still need the people who are bold enough to confidently move on it. And regardless of your scenario, regardless of your situation, regardless of the type of company you're a part of, really small, really large, I just love this quote because it really expresses what we've talked about here today. Arthur Ashe says, "Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can." Thank you so much for being with me today. I am so fortunate to have been able to speak with you, and I will be happy to answer any questions. I'm just going to take a look at the chat. All right, one of the questions that I am seeing is, what questions should a revenue marketing leader be asking themselves when deliberately— when deciding, deliberating whether a decision is worth or not worth the risk? How do you personally navigate trusting your instinct? That is a wonderful question. I am one that really firmly believes in using data as your guide, but also knowing that data can't predict everything. So if the data is showing you that there is potential and you have a little bit of headroom or a little bit of unknown, but you see anecdotal trends with customers you've spoken with, you see qualitative feedback from your sales organization that's telling you to lean in, I think it's worth the risk. But again, making sure that you're rooting your experiment or taking that risk with thoughtful, thoughtful execution. What would you say is the most common mistake made by companies in terms of shifting, expanding team structure as they process or as they progress from a smaller size to a larger enterprise model. I would say that layering on people management too early is something that can hamstring a revenue marketing organization. As you're growing, as you're sort of building that team, being able to activate and execute programs with high velocity is going to be important. And if you layer too many people on too quick, then the sort of roles and responsibilities of who's doing what could get muddied. So I think that's one mistake to look out for. Additionally, if as you scale your team, you continue to hire people that are Jacks or Jills of all trades, then you're not going to get that deep expertise in those functions that maybe need to scale and get really, really big. So as I mentioned in my sort of team pillar, as you're optimizing and scaling, I would look to those really, really experienced subject matter experts. All right, I think we are coming up on time. I want to thank you all very much for your time and attention today. I wish you all a very great SASter Build, and if you ever want to connect, please feel free to find me on LinkedIn. Thank you again.

Thank you so much for that great session, Tracy. We have a lot of great more content today and look forward to seeing you all in the next sessions.

Have a great day.