Beyond ABM and into Account-Based Experience (ABX) with Jon Miller of Demandbase

The Business Of Marketing

If you’ve followed me long enough, you know that I tend to talk about two things - Content Marketing and Sales/Marketing Alignment.

The best part for me, is that I am a bit of a Marketing Technology geek, which allows me to tie all of those things together.

From Creative, to Sales, to Marketing - No matter which business team you’re on - your end goal is to figure out who to sell to, how to engage with them, how to get them to buy, and if you’re smart, how to get them to buy again.

To do that today, you need to give careful consideration of your Sales and Marketing Technology. And today’s guest is an entrepreneur behind several of the leading technologies.

My guest today is a marketing entrepreneur and thought leader. He is currently the Chief Marketing and Product Officer at Demandbase, the leading account-based marketing platform.

Previously, he was the CEO and founder of Engagio (which was acquired by Demandbase) and he was a co-founder at Marketo, a leader in marketing automation which was acquired by Adobe.

He is a frequent speaker at conferences including Dreamforce, MarketingProfs B2B, and the Marketing Nation Summit.

He has written the “Complete and Clear Guide to Account Based Marketing” and the “Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.”

Therefore it is my absolute honor to welcome to the podcast Jon Miller!

Conversation points:
Jon, I have studied, short listed, purchased, and used so many of the platforms that you’ve been a part of creating… that I almost don’t even know where to start.

• So can you give us a quick journey through some of the companies that you’ve helped develop?
• What’s your backstory? Is this a path that you set out on (to develop software) or did this path evolve?
• Jon, I noticed that you are not shy about interviews, podcasts, and creating video content. And I think that is working very well for you. What would you say to other executives about creating content?

As mentioned, currently, you’re the CMO and Product Officer at DemandBase.

Any way you Google it or research it, you will find a list that says DemandBase is at the top of the list as a top ABM platform. You may also see Engagio on that list, which is now also a part of DemandBase.

• Can you tell us how that marriage of technologies between Engagio and DemandBase happened and what the synergies are?

I recently heard you describe Account Based Marketing as “fishing with spears rather than fishing with nets”. I love that visualization.

A company that I founded, Content Monsta, is based on helping companies fish with nets through inbound content, but recently (especially with the growth of our podcast services,) we see more opportunities to help clients create more targeted outbound content towards the accounts that they want to work with.

• What are some of the other creative ways that you have seen companies step into ABM?
• Where does content fit into an Account Based strategy?
• As a content producer, how do we help clients decide how wide or narrow their content should be when targeting a specific audience?
• By the way, I love the DemandBase TV section of your website. I am going to absolutely use that as an example for my customers as to how content can be leveraged. I love it. - How did that initiative come about and how is it working so far?

Even considering your position Jon, you would be hard pressed to find anyone who loves to evangelize Sales and Marketing alignment than me. And as a company steps into Account Based Marketing, the need for this alignment typically becomes more apparent.

• What are your thoughts on Sales and Marketing alignment as it concerns ABM?
• Is this where the Account Based Experience concept comes in? Please give some insight on how we’ve evolved to Account Based Experience?

Jon, Let me ask you a question about something that I think is a part of the wedge between Sales and Marketing.

Marketers, in my opinion, are not realizing the shifts in where a company’s revenue is coming from. We are often so focused on (and measured by) the top of the funnel, that we miss the opportunity to market to existing customers. And as a result, these organizations have the notion that these existing customers belong more to Sales than to Marketing.

• How can we resolve some of these outdated thoughts on what marketing owns and should be measured by?
• Jon, I’d like to ask you one “Get it Off Your Chest” Question: If there was one thing that you wish Marketers or Sales would grow to understand that would help them today, what would it be?

Before we go Jon, please share anything else that you have coming up - that the audience needs to know or where can we find you online?

Thanks to the listeners. If you’re listening to the podcast and want to also “see” Jon and I, - video of this podcast and OTHERS are available in the podcast section of ContentMonsta.com.

This podcast is produced by Content Monsta - A leading producer of B2B Content.