Interview with James Miller

hi this is Bob Samuels founder of tech
connector tech connector is a
marketplace and campaign management
platform of Best of Breed account based
marketing lead generation solutions in
association with the serious decision
summit we are happy to bring you wisdom
from leading account based marketing
thought leaders to that end I’m
delighted to present one of my favorite
people in our b2b account-based
marketing and lead generation space
James Miller from DW a media James it’s
always a pleasure to speak with you how
are you today I’m Bob um puts us a
couple yourself it’s a beautiful day I’m
doing great I’m outside and how sunny
Palo Alto enjoying the day it’s
wonderful lucky man lucky man so I get
to talk with one of my favorite people
in in our industry and to talk about one
of my favorite topics account based
marketing so you know you’ve been around
long enough to know that account based
marketing is it’s a new topic but you
know it’s been it’s an old philosophy
named accounts its target accounts
what’s your if you can give a little bit
of a background about where you’ve been
in the last several years and which
you’re been your relationship with ABMA
because all right yeah absolutely so
I’ve been in the b2b media marketing and
publishing space for the last 25 years
I was really formerly as Bob said you
know a B I wasn’t around for you know
for decades but I’ve been really exposed
to it probably around right talk it
doesn’t work forward to demand base and
then in 2013 I moved over to DD VA then
a forward partnership with the man base
so I’ve I’ve been in the in the official
ABM field for you know seven or so years
in fact myself and colleagues of my DBA
where the first eight need to be
certified by by demand base back in
twenty twenty sixteen so really proud of
that yeah that’s a wonderful thing I
remember remember that was happening so
that’s a great tool so what are some of
the cool things you’ve seen over the
years that people have done with ABM and
maybe what are some of the
misconceptions that you yeah I think I
mean there we playing people talking
about the tools and how they’re working
I think what I’d like to to share with
your audience is a beum is not a tool
it’s not a platform it’s not a you know
campaign it’s an overall a good of
market philosophy and so what you need
to really make it effective is a a go to
market strategy and I think many clients
jump right to a tool or a partner and
try to execute and they miss getting
buy-in for the organization they miss
looking at ABM holistically and either
the the a B initiative falls flat or
never really reaches its full potential
so I think that that we should be
cautious about our quota Batavian
programs and be very thoughtful about
our ABM strategies that makes that and
that’s that’s well said and I’m glad you
mention that so if that’s one thing that
that I’m hearing is that if you just
jump right into it and go okay I’m gonna
do this ABM thing or go buy this
software that’s going to change my world
it’s they’re gonna be disappointed yeah
exactly
right and with with thinning marketer
when the inter sales teams were involved
the finances were involved
if anyone’s making a bet on ABM I
wouldn’t bet on again one partner or
once or one one tactic I would really
try to get you know as I said that that
institutional buy-in across all the
credit particularly sales and finance of
those will be your best partners and
then elevate that to the executive
branch and show them why you didn’t get
it what will change right
so if you are a traditional phrase
phrase demanded marketer and usually
getting enough outlets month across a
wide variety of accounts you might only
get a hundred Li two spots across your
you know your top thousand is it worth
that is is is the organization ready for
that kind of change you can’t have bunch
of mediums running around screaming
where my leaves if they have been front
to the overall philosophy of what you’re
trying to achieve that makes sense so
you need to have the buy-in across the
company especially sales and accounting
maybe I teach and you have to really
think about about the whole process so
how do you see where and I guess you
need to figure out who who is your
target audience and or who your target
baby enlisted yeah but yeah exactly I
mean we we had DBA which is part of the
Merkel as part of Merkel group which is
part of did you a just network so we
ladder up to a one of the large the top
five holding companies and we think
about it would we think about your
building your list in a multitude of
ways so one obviously work with yourself
team and who that the top accounts they
want to go after obviously try to be a
big look like models but you know think
the secret sauce is rolling around
intent and sell who which accounts have
intent for your product in our solution
so let’s say you’ve got a thousand
accounts of yourself see want to go
after but you have another ten thousand
that could fit as a that could fit as a
customer think we’ve been diagram where
where is the overlap between a thousand
your team wants go after the ten
thousand that are available in the
marketplace and then the ones with in
both thing sets that are that had the
intent in this quarter or this year to
buy you station or service
Commission so and then the other thing
that I find is a very tricky thing is
content
finding the right messaging to and also
drawing the line between doing one to
one very specific messaging to ones and
many and where you draw the line cuz you
want to give the best relevance to
everybody reach out to it yeah of course
of course I would sort of these simple
is always the best way I think to get
started so if you go one one too many
it might be burglarizing it so there are
five vertical what you’re going after
you make sure your landing pages
I’ll have case studies and the relevant
language to that healthcare or
vegetation or media or that might be and
that’s your kind of maybe you want to
many strategy with content both on
landing pages well interesting people
content like white papers and then went
a few that might be you know now you’ve
gone from health care but now you going
after after just hospitals in this case
so then how can you tailor that a little
bit more it might be a bit more
challenging on the page but you can
build no contest eighty percent relevant
to the to that that sector hospitals but
can be tough and tailed by by the reps
or your CMS for for particular types of
hospitals and then the the one-to-one I
think marketing is there to get guidance
but that will it cover sales l statement
initiative where the the BD m or they
count account aleni
banana to tailor it to the individuals
within the account not just the personas
within the industry and talk to talk to
Jo or Mary or Frank about what their
challenges might be across it the
decision-making unit yep and and
different messaging to the different
personas or the different members of her
absolutely sorry there’s a one message
for the core messages
now we we have solutions that could help
your hospital your company but the the
IT folks need versus versus the the
accounting team needs versus the
marketing team needs could be very very
different than doing it for different
reasons even though it’s the same and
that’s where I think it’s hard to
hissing the scale it was about giving
the sales and sell Dame team some some
parameters and and guidance and really
let the the sell seem do when they do
best make those one-to-one connections
that make sense so what are some
examples you’ve seen as where companies
have done it right I think that we we
work with DXE which used to be it’s the
murder of CSC and HP services and so the
team at DXE has been doing this for many
many years their war winning team or so
we’re so thrilled to have them for last
now seven or eight years and I think
they’re just world-class at general ABM
no leveraging digital electing off the
omni-channel
as well as they do these amazing pursuit
campaigns which could be you know there
could be an RFP out there for technology
consulting solutions for MetLife and
that could be a hundred billion dollar
project and we’ve done things we
surround that is making it at MetLife
for with with with content it’s very
relevant to the pitch location-based and
going to excuses makers which it could
be the critical factor as they’re
shortlisted in movies your next age for
a pitch so I think Dixie doesn’t does
the best going from you know you’re
wouldn’t want call you standard but
you’re your standard you know well-known
trodden path of you know ABM all the way
down to very specific campaigns per
sales opportunity and everything in
between and I believe will look to them
too
we thought leaders and we always are
looking to support them throughout their
their journey on 180 of excellence and I
suspect that the that the tricky part
and maybe the longest part is the
upfront planning and strategizing ya
know I think it’s why we find that
exciting that’s what you know that’s
that’s essential I think every phase has
its own challenges and rewards so
wouldn’t want to bucket it as you know
one spirit the other it says hit earlier
looking at the holistic piece of what
you’re trying to achieve the ABM program
what’s your overall strategy and do you
have you know buy-in and the will for
change for change management what are
some of the cool technologies that
you’ve seen along the way again I don’t
want to get the individual technologies
work a lotta different different
partners I think that that’s a
well-trodden path and then I would
always just Scott is that six seven
years ago
lay the story to me what he was at cmp
and he was looking to evaluate vendors
and partners to help them accelerated
his his platforms and so he went through
a process of just thinking how is this
the same different I already have how’s
it any better that what I already have
or and how can i integrate this into my
current stack and again I think
marketers today so much pressure to
chase it the next shiny object but if
you’re not thoughtfully asking some of
the key questions of is it going to
integrate with my overall mark Takai
tech stack is another out light
technologies now I’ve got to have
another dashboard for another report for
another rep for
it’s gonna be a waste of time playing it
silent it and not be built into what
you’re trying to achieve which is think
of you the customer and you know
personalized experiences and real true
valued engagements a marketing and
advertising so I think it’s those that’s
what we that we have to be considerate
of is it’s not looking at one technology
or one vendor but thinking through what
you’re choosing while you choose them
and are they gonna be additive to to
your empty a platform or to your
strategy yeah I mean that’s one of the
things I’m hearing loud and clear is
that too many companies are putting too
much into figuring that if they get if
they buy this technology then all of a
sudden their problems will be solved and
you help them exactly solution and that
they’re gonna be disappointed and
they’re gonna blame the vendor which is
not yeah so no no no silver bullet well
no no no sir but I think that we well I
kind of closed on innovation and at TDA
and we are very data-driven they were
strong heritage information and tech and
more attack and then DBA is really the
activation layer you just elaborate on
inside of it so before account based
marketing we think of a couple based
marketing as as a subset of people based
marketing and with that what I mean by
that is we’re targeting individual
people so humans and not proxies
I don’t worry I don’t need to target you
know and I bit of I said II need to
target you Bob
right and sell you to find you ever you
are and serve you relevant content so a
bee emerges is is one subset of our
overall people based marketing strategy
and so in that case you really need know
that the brand expression will be my
that is content and creative and
positioning has aligned with
the data first party third party data as
well as the technology to to automate as
much as possible so we see client should
be thinking about how to put the people
at the heart of their ABM strategy to
see accounts alright we move beyond just
you know targeting an account would say
advertising he charges individuals at a
personal level and the thing that I am
most excited by are a lot of the
innovations that are that are coming out
in the former’s media platform so
whether it’s Google or a Facebook where
you’re able to to target individual
people you’re able to to do that within
within ABM campaigns and so I think that
for for us we are I think really cutting
edge with regard to to paid search and
leveraging page search for people base
in account based marketing and we’re
seeing that really resonate with with
clients because it makes them their
dollars much more effective across the
full funnel and not just in nuts and
awareness we’re in a phase acceleration
phase but know up and down the funnel so
I think that’s a good point so we’re
you’re if you can bring out your crystal
balls what how do you think things are
changing
what’s gonna where we gonna be talking
about in any year from now what did we
talk about in five years from now as far
as yeah well I think we will be talking
about it
five years as we all know as far in my
mind far too long to make some
predictions in the in the marketing tech
space but I would start looking at what
are the do innovations that are coming
out on the back of five g 5g is gonna is
a game changer and we’re seeing clients
like Intel and AWS and another larger
scale is really innovating around that
technology and I don’t think we’ve
touched the surface of what that’s going
to do for for marketing with
the always on little bit the always on
on buyer
he always allow you know buyer access to
information at their fingertips at a
much faster rate than before
so I think that well a be imperfect it
and fit in as part of that I will II
consider 5g he’s gonna be a game-changer
for marketing measure all the data
you’ll be getting out of your system
right I was looking at one of our
clients and they self sensors now these
these in the world of IOT now imagine
that you’re your server has an alert
that says it needs to be upgraded all
right and that’s it sends that back to
the you know the home office make this
very simplest example and now that that
you know you’re not getting intentional
just remember searching they’re actually
searching on some some white papers that
are relevant to your station actually
getting alert from your product right
your practice telling you that needs to
be replacing in the next six months
well isn’t that account you want to call
on right away
so you’re started thinking about this
always-on world with 5g connectivity all
the centers within all these product
solutions that you’re selling and G have
a strategy that will allow your product
to tell your customer what it needs
uniformed your sales team in work
organization to make the client happy I
think I heard in there was there’s gonna
be more signals so you know what people
doing what their things do yes in there
and then also there’s lots of different
ways a lot more different ways you can
communicate with them and I think did
you also say your products can be
talking to the client as well yeah I
mean I mean the sumer super level your
first lady was me saying hey any more
milk well-liked
your days are taking more storage you
know I can’t see it’s that much
different and those signals will go back
to both the customer as well as the
manufacturer and so us as brands and
manufacturers at the highest level need
to be thinking of how to incorporate
that data stream that as you said so so
well Bob a signal into ourselves working
strategy yeah and like you said I I mean
I asked why throughout one year and five
years because five years is whatever
that is I don’t think I can conceive of
it yet yeah I so can anyone here I don’t
know so any any final thoughts or wisdom
that you can share well I just want to
thank you for taking the time to speak
with me I’ve always considered you
personally and the companies worked with
and work for leaders and in the b2b
marketing space in this case you know
ABM so keep deal with dealing you make
the big difference in the marketplace
and I’m grateful for your support thank
you James it’s a pleasure and it’s it’s
great to speak with you and I look
forward to seeing you soon yeah all of
us of us thank you Cheers