#315: How Marketing Teams Are Using AI to Drive Pipeline

315 | Jess Lytle (Head of Marketing at Exit Five) hosts a live roundtable with Morgan Cole (VP of Demand Gen at Red Canary), Lisa Cole (CMO at 2X), and Jean Cameron (Sr. Director of Field & Partner Marketing at Demandbase) on how B2B teams are using AI to drive pipeline and revenue. They share real examples of how marketers are identifying in-market buyers earlier, moving deals faster, replacing outdated lead scoring, and keeping marketing, sales, and ops aligned around revenue. The conversation goes deep on intent signals, buying groups, predictive analytics, brand vs demand, and what’s changing in the new era of pipeline accountability.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - AI hype vs real revenue impact
  
• (06:16) - Panel intros and GTM perspectives
  
• (08:46) - The real pipeline problem: growth without more headcount
  
• (11:16) - How teams use AI to identify in-market buyers earlier
  
• (16:46) - Buying groups, not leads: why account signals matter
  
• (20:46) - Predictive analytics, pipeline forecasting, and deal analysis
  
• (27:36) - Why traditional lead scoring is breaking
  
• (37:28) - How teams “swarm” accounts with marketing + sales
  
• (43:48) - Brand and demand together: building future pipeline

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Dave [0:00:00]: You're listening to B2b marketing with me, Dave Gerhardt.

Dave [0:00:17]: Hey, It's me Dave.

Dave [0:00:18]: Just quick intro before we get into this thing, I was still on the injured list with my hip, hip surgery told y'all about it, whatever.

Dave [0:00:24]: This is a live session that we did with our team here.

Dave [0:00:28]: And in this one, Jess Lytle, who runs our marketing team here.

Dave [0:00:32]: She was with Morgan Cole, Vp of Demand jen at Red Canary, Lisa Cole, Cmo from 2X and Jean Cameron senior, director field and partner marketing at Demandbase.

Dave [0:00:41]: And they had a great conversation about how they are actually using Ai to drive Revenue right now, our biggest thing with Exit Five is to help you separate the signal from the noise And so our goal is to give you real conversations with real marketers about how they're actually using Ai this conversation instead of it being traditionally focused on content or social, we try to really focus on revenue and pipeline generation and hear how teams are using Ai in that motion.

Dave [0:01:07]: So you're gonna enjoy this session if you care about demand gen marketing ops, revenue and finding new ways to drive growth with Ai, shout out to jess, doing a great job as the hosts holding it down.

Dave [0:01:17]: Here's this session.

Jess [0:01:19]: Welcome, everyone.

Jess [0:01:20]: If you...

Jess [0:01:20]: If you haven't been to one of the Exit Five live sessions before.

Jess [0:01:24]: We have these twice a month, and we like to keep the the conversation pretty real and tactical and helpful.

Jess [0:01:31]: So today we're talking about the future of pipeline, how marketing leaders are using Ai to drive revenue.

Jess [0:01:37]: And again, we like to call them live sessions, really not not webinars.

Jess [0:01:42]: I feel, like the word webinar kinda makes people wanna, like, do something else.

Jess [0:01:47]: So don't hold laundry, just be here, interact in the chat.

Jess [0:01:50]: There's usually a lot of, like, fun activity in the chat.

Jess [0:01:53]: I'll be pulling questions from Marathon Route and just hosting, and then we'll do a a q and a before we wrap.

Jess [0:01:59]: So, before I introduce the rest of the panel here who is waiting patiently backstage.

Jess [0:02:06]: I'm gonna do a quick ad read from our sponsor Demandbase who really makes this all possible.

Jess [0:02:11]: So thank you so much to our sponsor, who make these live sessions possible for us.

Jess [0:02:17]: So here we go.

Jess [0:02:18]: If you're in b2b marketing, you already know Demandbased they're really the only pipeline Ai platform that's built to help go to market teams drive revenue, not just activity.

Jess [0:02:27]: So they really give you kind of a unified zoomed out view of all of your data, all of your your insights, actions, your outcomes so that marketing and sales are kind of operating off the san playbook, which is ideal.

Jess [0:02:38]: Thousands of companies are using Demandbased.

Jess [0:02:41]: They're tightening up their Ic.

Jess [0:02:42]: They're understanding which accounts are truly in market, seeing what those accounts actually care about and then activating those across every channel without wasting spend.

Jess [0:02:52]: So it's great.

Jess [0:02:53]: You get all those intense signals account insights targeting all of that orchestration in one place.

Jess [0:02:58]: So your programs actually line up with revenue instead of vanity metrics.

Jess [0:03:01]: Great.

Jess [0:03:02]: Let's skip the rest of the panel to join.

Jess [0:03:04]: Like magic.

Jess [0:03:06]: Just say things.

Jess [0:03:07]: It happens.

Jess [0:03:08]: I'd I also like to include a quick poll at the end of anyone who thinks my background is fake or real.

Jess [0:03:14]: Let's see who gets that right.

Jess [0:03:16]: We have everyone here.

Jess [0:03:19]: So quick intro on myself, and then I'll pass it to to Jean Morgan Cole and Lisa Cole.

Jess [0:03:26]: Quick intro to me.

Jess [0:03:27]: I'm Jess Lytle.

Jess [0:03:28]: I am the head of marketing here at Exit Five.

Jess [0:03:30]: I've been in the B marketing world for about fourteen years.

Jess [0:03:33]: I was most recently director demand gen in a vertical Saas.

Jess [0:03:37]: So trust me, I feel I felt a pipeline pressure.

Jess [0:03:41]: It is not theoretical for me.

Jess [0:03:43]: So I'm excited about this conversation.

Jean [0:03:46]: Hi everyone.

Jean [0:03:47]: I'm Jean Cameron and senior director of partner and field marketing at Demandbase.

Jean [0:03:51]: Thanks everybody for joining.

Jean [0:03:52]: Twenty years of B b Saas marketing have lived through it all, has struggled through it all, loving that Ai is making my life easier.

Jean [0:04:01]: I'm excited to be here and talk to everybody today.

Morgan [0:04:05]: Hi, everyone.

Morgan [0:04:05]: I'm Morgan Cole.

Morgan [0:04:06]: I run demand generation at Red Canary, which is now part of Z scaler, and I own the go to Mark.

Morgan [0:04:15]: I really focus on aligning our go to at motion across sales and partner and product and marketing.

Morgan [0:04:23]: So my point of view is pretty simple.

Morgan [0:04:26]: I think the belief system that I operate from is that Ai isn't the answer on its own.

Morgan [0:04:32]: Alignment is.

Morgan [0:04:33]: And so I think Ai is accelerating whatever truth already exists in your go to market motion,

Jean [0:04:38]: so I'm excited to dig

Morgan [0:04:40]: into that with all of you here today.

Lisa [0:04:41]: Oh, hi, everyone.

Lisa [0:04:42]: I guess on I'm the other part of this cold world, part of are done here.

Lisa [0:04:46]: Lisa Cole, I'm the chief marketing product and Ai officer for 2X.

Lisa [0:04:50]: 2X is a global B b marketing subscription services firm that we focus on helping marketers scale, impact about cost.

Lisa [0:04:59]: My role is unique in the sense that when you think about, the marketing recourse paradox and trying to solve for that, I lead our own building awareness for this unique model.

Lisa [0:05:12]: But I'm also shaping the new service offerings that solve the emerging challenges that marketing leaders dealing with.

Lisa [0:05:19]: But, of course, we can't reimagine marketing or what the next generation of marketing needs to look like without Ai.

Lisa [0:05:27]: And so how do you accelerate Ai adoption in such a way that we're needing the rewrite of marketing rather than waiting for Ai to disrupt us.

Lisa [0:05:37]: So I have a super cool role.

Lisa [0:05:39]: Thought I I get to work with marketers all day?

Lisa [0:05:41]: And my background about twenty five years in marketing.

Lisa [0:05:46]: I'm a four times Cmo, the first time...

Lisa [0:05:49]: The first three times, I was on the hook for transforming marketing from these wildly underappreciated and overworked dis distorted marketing functions into growth engine.

Lisa [0:06:00]: That always meant, marketing was going on the hook for a number.

Lisa [0:06:04]: And so this topic around pipeline and driving alignment across the go to market function to accelerate pipeline growth and do so in a way it's sustainable is near and dear to my heart.

Jess [0:06:16]: Love it.

Jess [0:06:16]: I feel like, if you are a Cmo right now marketing leadership right now.

Jess [0:06:20]: You're really kind of facing what talking to somebody about, like, the the great kind of structural dilemma of modern marketing where we're being asked for measurable revenue growth, but the capacity that we have on our teams is stretched then, maybe you've got frozen fixed head count.

Jess [0:06:36]: So I think, especially enterprise marketing teams have, like, historically how they historically organized themselves in that traditional model just, like not really fitting this purpose anymore.

Jess [0:06:46]: I think, like, right in a mark...

Jess [0:06:48]: Not not in a market where speed, agility is everything, and it it is really kind of a profound challenge, and it really forces us to ask a little bit how we're how do we scale output without scaling fixed cost.

Jess [0:07:01]: So that additional capital.

Jess [0:07:02]: And the title of the session in the future of pipeline.

Jess [0:07:06]: And the reason why we framed it that way is because, like, you just said, like, we the the game has changed.

Jess [0:07:11]: Right?

Jess [0:07:11]: Marketing leaders are struggling to to generate leads anymore that that old kind of traditional Sql model.

Jess [0:07:18]: The real pressure is moving into pipeline and revenue and and doing it fast and doing it without more head count or more capital investment.

Jess [0:07:25]: So it is kind of really forcing marketing to what I've experienced you in the past is kinda spend money first diagnose problems later when marketing can only explain performance after the quarter is over, it it is really kind of forcing us to be in a defensive position all of this So so you know, I think that's where the the future is changing, you know?

Jess [0:07:44]: So...

Jess [0:07:45]: Yeah know, Thanks butt.

Lisa [0:07:47]: But, you know, that's interesting, like, the constraints that we've been dealing with, Those absolutely can turn those can be the very things that free us of, like, traditional operating models and actually might enable us to become the growth drivers again.

Lisa [0:08:02]: Like, rather than be making, you know, doers of things for the organization that just never keep up with all the stuff that get done, I think those pressures that various things that are gonna free us.

Jess [0:08:14]: Yeah.

Jess [0:08:14]: I I totally agree.

Jess [0:08:15]: I feel like when you when you zoom out a little bit, a lot of this comes down to timing.

Jess [0:08:21]: To a part of this.

Jess [0:08:22]: Right?

Jess [0:08:22]: And we we can't afford to wait until end of quarter or or post mortem to really find out who was actually ready to buy.

Jess [0:08:29]: And Ai gives us that ability to kinda spot that and spot that intent earlier, like, hey, this, you know, this count, we're seeing these signals or waking up.

Jess [0:08:38]: They're signaling intent.

Jess [0:08:38]: And we know there's only a very small percentage of buyers with a five percent or less so that who are actually in market ready to buy.

Jess [0:08:45]: So if if we were to start there, I'd love to hear from from the panel here and folks in the chat too would love to to get your questions connected to this.

Jess [0:08:54]: But...

Jess [0:08:55]: And I think this is pretty top of mind for a lot of folks, but how are you guys using or seeing marketing leaders kind of using Ai and data to identify those in market buyers?

Jess [0:09:07]: Earlier.

Morgan [0:09:09]: Yeah.

Morgan [0:09:09]: I don't think that this process is new.

Morgan [0:09:11]: Actually, I think this evolution has been happening

Jean [0:09:14]: for a long time.

Morgan [0:09:15]: Ai has be accelerating it.

Morgan [0:09:16]: But the age old, you have twenty percent less budget.

Morgan [0:09:20]: No additional head count in a twenty percent growth target, it has been happening for many, many years at this point.

Morgan [0:09:26]: And so when you're a leader that has an organization that you wanna motivate, that's not an easy thing to do behind that, especially knowing that.

Morgan [0:09:35]: You have that line of diminishing on their output.

Morgan [0:09:38]: So I think Ai has come in to help.

Morgan [0:09:41]: And and, again, back to the alignment piece.

Morgan [0:09:44]: The first place that I think you have that greatest impact is to act actually find alignment with your go to market team on your Ic and accounts.

Morgan [0:09:56]: And this is tried and true and it works.

Morgan [0:09:57]: I promise you.

Morgan [0:09:58]: If you can find the right accounts that convert at a higher rate that convert faster through your funnel based on intelligence and signals, there are platforms and tools out there that can help you do this.

Morgan [0:10:11]: So if you need help identifying your Ic, especially a dynamic one, if your product changes quickly ours doesn't, so it's pretty stagnant we're okay to leave our Ic loan for a while.

Morgan [0:10:22]: But having that dynamic feature, and then aligning your go to market team behind it is maybe one of these single best cases to drive the needle, and here's the magic of it.

Morgan [0:10:34]: If you can get alignment with your team with your sales, leaders, your marketing leaders and your product leaders behind a finite list of accounts, we target all of our marketing spend, all of our sales attention to those accounts, and we use our product to under understand what problems we're solving there.

Morgan [0:10:53]: Vastly changes the game in your Roi and how you can get that return.

Morgan [0:10:57]: So that would be where I would start if we're giving various distinct examples of how are utilizing it today from our perspective.

Lisa [0:11:05]: I'd love to piggyback on that.

Lisa [0:11:06]: So you hit on the problem piece, we look for three layers of signal, but the very first layer is around some sort of business change or catalyst or problem that would likely drive an organization or a team to actually start looking for solution a problem to solve.

Lisa [0:11:22]: And so for us, at to exit, that looks like new leadership changes.

Lisa [0:11:27]: It could be strategy announcements, you know, strategy shift.

Lisa [0:11:30]: So an acquisition that somebody makes, invest in a product launch.

Lisa [0:11:35]: Like, anything that would prompt a purchasing, Like, I need to find a a solve a problem.

Lisa [0:11:41]: The second, and this is where tools like Demandbase and sense, and others.

Lisa [0:11:46]: That's where the Ai driven intent comes in at least, it helps us, like, find out or which five percent...

Lisa [0:11:53]: In the market searching for solutions.

Lisa [0:11:56]: And what are they searching for solutions around?

Lisa [0:11:58]: Like, what are the themes that they're searching for.

Lisa [0:12:01]: And then...

Lisa [0:12:02]: And this is one thing we really kinda had to figure out was...

Lisa [0:12:07]: Alright.

Lisa [0:12:07]: We've got business change and you can use Ai to track major changes like that that would prompt of, you know, a need.

Lisa [0:12:14]: The second, you've got a platforms that can do this this in intent.

Lisa [0:12:18]: But the third is our own first party behavior.

Lisa [0:12:21]: Right?

Lisa [0:12:21]: The stuff that we used to call, like the clicking, what content are they consuming, how are they engaging with us and events like this or in communities or how do you take those three, and what we have figured out is that when you've got the...

Lisa [0:12:36]: Those three together, that's our version of in market alert we're we likely would have a greater chance of winning.

Lisa [0:12:43]: So it's not just any signals.

Lisa [0:12:44]: It's like the the presence of all three.

Lisa [0:12:47]: You've got those three double down on that, and that's likely going to get you to them before they pick their preferred vendor.

Lisa [0:12:55]: Yeah.

Jess [0:12:57]: So are are you saying teams kind of acting on those early signals and that that Ai is surfacing kind of before a buyer even kinda comes in declares themselves as high intent?

Jess [0:13:06]: Like, before they come in inbound essentially?

Lisa [0:13:09]: If he get those three types of signals together related to an account.

Lisa [0:13:13]: Know, you can then make a decision on whether it's marketing is engaging in a more meaningful way an Sdr str, and Ai sdr or even your field sales, but, like, you are...

Lisa [0:13:23]: You looking for the Almost, like the alignment of those three layers of signals is an indication of you need to act on this.

Lisa [0:13:31]: So this is kind of like the the the three signals work together almost like the old way we used to think about M sql.

Lisa [0:13:37]: When's is a time to have they a human or someone engaged in a meaningful way.

Jean [0:13:43]: I'll kinda chime in with, I get to be spoiled because at Demandbase, we obviously have the tool that does it.

Jean [0:13:48]: So I get to talk to our customers and prospects all the time around.

Jean [0:13:51]: What you could be doing or what you are doing.

Jean [0:13:54]: So not just detecting, like, declared intent because we've been...

Jean [0:13:59]: I mean, that was kind of ten years ago is saying like, oh, they are a pumping of this size in this industry with your demographic, your techno demographic data.

Jean [0:14:07]: That's gonna be likely to buy because that's what our customers look like.

Jean [0:14:10]: But now we get to measure behavioral data and emerging intent by seeing, like, product usage.

Jean [0:14:16]: We get to see competitive competitive intent.

Jean [0:14:19]: We get to see engagement in your emails, your ads, your content...

Jean [0:14:23]: I mean, obviously, first party with your website, third party activity, go a level deeper where we, especially with our customers talk about the buying group activity and buying group engagement.

Jean [0:14:33]: Because that's one of the biggest things is one person can click and be in your...

Jean [0:14:39]: Like, looking at your ads and consuming your content, but if you've got three or more people from the same company doing that, that's like, massive engagement and a massive signal of, like, they're likely to buy.

Jean [0:14:50]: They're looking at something.

Jean [0:14:51]: And so I think when we can put all that together with the techno demographic with the demographic data.

Jean [0:14:57]: Vc customers being like, Here's our finite list, like, what you said just, and we're gonna put all of our marketing power into that and all of our sales power into that and Roi is explosive with these customers that can do this.

Lisa [0:15:10]: Love that you brought that up.

Lisa [0:15:10]: This is where Sql can get super dangerous.

Lisa [0:15:13]: Right?

Lisa [0:15:13]: Because if an Sql is based on a person a person has done a thing.

Lisa [0:15:18]: We send it across the sales.

Lisa [0:15:19]: I've actually been...

Lisa [0:15:21]: I've surfaced an account where I think it was twenty seven different influencers had all been engaging with our content on a theme.

Lisa [0:15:29]: This was before two sent it across to our sales...

Lisa [0:15:32]: Of course, they went across this twenty seven M mt because the sales reps are like, oh, this all the same account.

Lisa [0:15:38]: I'm gonna reject, like, all these Mt.

Lisa [0:15:40]: I'll keep one, it created this infrastructure that rendered that amazing buying committee engagement around the same topic invisible.

Lisa [0:15:49]: And it was, like, disqualified.

Lisa [0:15:52]: You're like, wait.

Lisa [0:15:52]: This should've have been the thing that you doubled down on.

Lisa [0:15:55]: Twenty seven all all on a similar topic from the same account.

Lisa [0:15:59]: That's gold like that.

Jess [0:16:02]: Yeah.

Jess [0:16:02]: So...

Jess [0:16:02]: Yeah.

Lisa [0:16:03]: It's signal.

Lisa [0:16:04]: Jerome model made it, like...

Lisa [0:16:06]: Yeah bad.

Lisa [0:16:07]: It it was crazy dynamics.

Lisa [0:16:09]: But, yeah.

Lisa [0:16:10]: You're Yeah.

Lisa [0:16:11]: Gold.

Morgan [0:16:12]: Using this decision, we we surface this at the...

Morgan [0:16:15]: That level now too use our field marketers to actually do account level insights that say, look at this buying committee interaction.

Morgan [0:16:21]: And what I love about it is whenever we do have that event run or a webinar or what live event, just call it.

Morgan [0:16:31]: But whenever you have that engagement for multiple people within an account, it's actually how we do our disposition across real human led versus Ai.

Morgan [0:16:40]: So if there's a group of conglomerate within our list of accounts, that's right for our follow up of our sales team to actually go to that multitude of people within A ava buying account.

Morgan [0:16:51]: So we actually use that as an indicator say, okay.

Morgan [0:16:54]: This is where we're gonna do human first outreach versus Ai first outreach, b other tech and tools.

Morgan [0:17:01]: And the other point I wanted to also mention because it's just...

Morgan [0:17:04]: I think the signal piece that you both touched on it is so critical.

Morgan [0:17:07]: The other thing that I think also helps grease the wheels is you have this brand build that's happening too before some of these intense signals even occur when you do have spend to get the finite list.

Morgan [0:17:20]: So often there's these accounts that are not in any signal or not in any anywhere.

Morgan [0:17:26]: And any type of buying motion today, but you can choose to spend dollars in a finite capacity against accounts that you know are a high connection or a high propensity to convert with your business for future pipeline build.

Morgan [0:17:41]: I'm talking, like, two plus quarters out, and that is magical predictor of pipeline growth is if you can get your leadership team on board with the right metrics and that, it is a a pipeline, a predictable pipeline growth engine for

Jess [0:17:56]: you from.

Lisa [0:17:57]: I love that.

Jess [0:17:58]: Is that, like, we're talking about predictive analytics now.

Jess [0:18:02]: Right?

Jess [0:18:02]: Where you could kinda tell which accounts that you said are just are showing that engagement week over week.

Jess [0:18:07]: Maybe they're all researching multiple folks from from the same account.

Jess [0:18:11]: So the one that's giving us the predictability.

Jess [0:18:13]: Are you guys then taking that to your leadership team to say, hey, like statistically, these folks are three times more likely to become opportunities.

Jess [0:18:24]: Are you connecting it not and attributing it through having this model?

Jess [0:18:28]: Is it is it easier I guess to sell the value of that because of those those analytics kind of showing that predictability so your forecast is more accurate?

Morgan [0:18:37]: Yeah.

Morgan [0:18:37]: Definitely.

Morgan [0:18:37]: Well, I'll touch on it really quick.

Morgan [0:18:39]: We do dissection of a deal.

Morgan [0:18:41]: So we apply the analytics on three folds of the business.

Morgan [0:18:45]: One is dissection of a closed loss deal.

Morgan [0:18:47]: So why are we losing deals?

Morgan [0:18:48]: Dissection of a closed one deal.

Morgan [0:18:51]: So I'm not talking about attribution here.

Morgan [0:18:52]: I'm talking about signals throughout the progression of an account and an opportunity.

Morgan [0:18:57]: Like, top awareness all the way down to closed one or closed loss.

Morgan [0:19:01]: What does that look like?

Morgan [0:19:02]: Where the points of engagement, what does that tell us about our signaling across the board and leveling that data up, I think is a huge predictor of saying, okay.

Morgan [0:19:12]: Here's where we can have influence when we work together and have alignment on messaging and how we're selling.

Morgan [0:19:17]: Versus not the other thing we do is a dissection of a return deal.

Morgan [0:19:22]: So why are we losing them.

Morgan [0:19:23]: And we do that on a quarterly basis, again, using...

Morgan [0:19:26]: We're...

Morgan [0:19:26]: We are working hard to use Ai to unlock this at a higher level?

Morgan [0:19:30]: It's pretty manual and at this point.

Morgan [0:19:32]: Anything that's manual is the bane of my existence.

Morgan [0:19:34]: Feels like we can just fix it somehow.

Morgan [0:19:36]: So it's, like, why don't use our people to actually help elevate the strategy, distribute the strategy do it better, but then take some of the heavy lifting of all of this data, like, con off of our plates and make it really automated.

Morgan [0:19:51]: So...

Morgan [0:19:51]: That's that's

Lisa [0:19:52]: some real value of Ai.

Lisa [0:19:53]: Right?

Lisa [0:19:53]: Ai is great with unstructured data.

Lisa [0:19:56]: And in the context that you would just talking about a lot of the secret sauce so to speak is lies in that unstructured data.

Lisa [0:20:03]: Like, the sales call if you're gong or you have Apollo and you get unstructured data that might be the transcripts from the different selling interactions that they might have had across that whole buying journey.

Lisa [0:20:16]: What we have found within that is that, for us, where we win deals.

Lisa [0:20:21]: It's not just the presence of multiple influencers within that organization that have been engaging.

Lisa [0:20:28]: It's also...

Lisa [0:20:29]: We we see a presence of I heard about you from so and so and this community.

Lisa [0:20:34]: Oh, this analyst happened to mention you, oh, and I I went to Gemini or I did a quick chat T search and it referenced to you in the context it cited you in the context.

Lisa [0:20:46]: And so we actually see a presence of multiple mentions and references in the unstructured data that we wouldn't as marketers seen without Ai actually reviewing all of this gold that's just sitting around us now.

Lisa [0:21:02]: Which is amazing.

Jess [0:21:04]: Jean, did you have something to to add to that?

Jess [0:21:06]: I thought

Jean [0:21:06]: I saw you saying something, But yeah.

Jean [0:21:08]: I I mean I can...

Jean [0:21:10]: Know.

Jean [0:21:10]: I second what we're gonna links are saying as well.

Jean [0:21:13]: And I think, you know, we do a lot of look alike.

Jean [0:21:16]: So we take our closed one deals.

Jean [0:21:18]: We take our current customer base.

Jean [0:21:20]: We see what companies are very similar we score them, so they get a zero to a hundred, and if they're higher in our prediction scores of, like, this is most likely gonna convert, and this is outside of intent.

Jean [0:21:32]: This is outside of activity that they've been doing, this is just any cold company that just hasn't heard of us.

Jean [0:21:38]: So we score them from one or zero to a hundred and if they're in the top, we put money into it.

Jean [0:21:44]: If they're in, like, a middle layer, we'll put some funding, but not much.

Jean [0:21:46]: They're a lower level, we just don't really care because they don't look like anything that's gonna buy.

Jean [0:21:51]: And so we do try to go after cold accounts for future pipeline could be nine months from now could be twelve months from now, but they're gonna eventually hear...

Jean [0:21:59]: They're gonna eventually become a customer because we can be built the model where it can predict who's most likely going to

Jess [0:22:05]: buy us.

Jess [0:22:06]: Are there, specific signals?

Jess [0:22:09]: I'm and, you we might have touched on this, but I just wanna highlight it again.

Jess [0:22:13]: Like, anything specific, like, signals or behaviors that have turned out to be the most effective for predicting?

Jess [0:22:18]: Like, that you're saying?

Jean [0:22:21]: Oh, that's the question.

Jean [0:22:21]: I mean, big...

Jean [0:22:22]: A big one is competitive intelligence.

Jean [0:22:25]: Right?

Jean [0:22:26]: So they're going to...

Jean [0:22:27]: Searching saying.

Jean [0:22:28]: Let, yeah, Like, a g two or they're looking at, like, comparison pages.

Jean [0:22:32]: You're just, like, okay.

Jean [0:22:33]: Got some major intent to purchase, but you may not know about us.

Jean [0:22:37]: You may know about our competitors.

Jean [0:22:38]: And so that's a brand issue that we may have.

Jean [0:22:42]: And so how do we get out to those groups of folks.

Jean [0:22:44]: So we've got entire orchestration and automation for anyone that falls into that category.

Jean [0:22:49]: So I think for us, it's, you know, big thing is looking at our competitors and what they're doing.

Lisa [0:22:55]: Yeah.

Lisa [0:22:55]: And for us, it's the combination of the...

Lisa [0:22:57]: Like, you see alignment between those three different types of signals.

Lisa [0:23:01]: For sure.

Lisa [0:23:02]: It's almost likely to gives you, what is the context for their search, and it also likely surfaces whatever mandate that committee is that's doing the searching.

Lisa [0:23:11]: It's it's likely surfacing that too as well.

Lisa [0:23:14]: So you know the things you might use to shape, you know, your Ic and identify those accounts that look for like accounts, for us, it oftentimes, you know, is the presence of some of those mandates.

Lisa [0:23:27]: You know, you'd see companies that it's experiencing certain performance or or pressure points.

Lisa [0:23:32]: Or are they're at a certain size ready to scale up to the next level and you'd see that and that data too is predictor.

Lisa [0:23:38]: But it's the presence citizen for us.

Jess [0:23:42]: Yeah.

Jess [0:23:42]: I'm sure once you kinda bring that the tools and that predictive analytics into the mix.

Jess [0:23:47]: You start to kinda see also that not all of the engagement is important to look at it it's thought created equally.

Jess [0:23:54]: Right?

Jess [0:23:54]: The the Ai can probably sift through thousands of journeys and kind of start to identify the exact pattern of behaviors that is really consistent, which kind of would give us those signals that really us as humans could not be able to detect like that that quickly in real time.

Jess [0:24:08]: And I think that that's where really marketing starts to shift from being more reactive, in our reporting and in our decision making to more proactive because we're really focusing on the signals that matter.

Jess [0:24:19]: We can we can predict those.

Jess [0:24:20]: We could forecast more accurately and then we could deploy our sales team or Bd teams or resources more strategically in real time versus trying to, like, readjust for the next quarter based on the learnings, you could kind of stop it in real time and make adjustments, mid quarter, make changes.

Lisa [0:24:38]: El used to have this amazing, book called digital body language.

Lisa [0:24:42]: I'm not sure if you.

Lisa [0:24:43]: I think it's digital body language, and it would...

Lisa [0:24:45]: It was training marketers had a look for these digital bread crumbs.

Lisa [0:24:48]: The challenge was there were so many up, that we only use them after something has happened as a way to justify our attribution.

Lisa [0:24:56]: Like, you know, it just happened to...

Lisa [0:24:59]: We went...

Lisa [0:24:59]: We could go backwards and saying, look, the, you know, the presence of these digital bread breadcrumbs this body...

Lisa [0:25:04]: This digital body language that's why they bought from us and it justifies all the spend.

Lisa [0:25:09]: Now with Ai, we can use it to be more predictive and we can use it to direct where our investments are versus and after the fact confirmation.

Lisa [0:25:18]: Like, oh, yeah.

Lisa [0:25:18]: I totally have that right.

Jess [0:25:20]: Like, no.

Jess [0:25:21]: That's right.

Jess [0:25:21]: Right.

Jess [0:25:21]: Great.

Jess [0:25:22]: So...

Jess [0:25:23]: Yeah.

Jess [0:25:23]: I think it also positions us better in our conversations with our Ceos and Cfo for for budgeting and and requesting capital and justifying that that spend too because we have, like, real clarity on...

Jess [0:25:37]: The...

Jess [0:25:37]: We're speaking their language, and then they understand that.

Jess [0:25:40]: So maybe the...

Jess [0:25:41]: Maybe it's not as hard to defend.

Morgan [0:25:43]: I think that's a huge jung lock.

Morgan [0:25:45]: I I think that we're on the press of this.

Morgan [0:25:47]: That's, like, pattern intelligence where...

Morgan [0:25:49]: We're not talking about pipeline generation tactics and channels anymore, but our ability to look at those bread breadcrumbs or the patterns across the life cycle and remove the latency of, like, here's what impacted this mute in the future.

Morgan [0:26:04]: It's more you know, how are we unlocking this today, How are we experimenting and failing faster, Like, using Ai to actually understand what's not working and then implementing that I think is a huge element.

Morgan [0:26:15]: And I don't know if you're feeling this to, lisa gene, but a lot of I'm already seeing this collapse of tech and tools.

Morgan [0:26:25]: Like, now with the introduction of Ai, there's so many tools that that used to have independence in our tech act.

Morgan [0:26:33]: They serve a very specific purpose.

Morgan [0:26:34]: And all of them are starting to introduce some of the same things.

Morgan [0:26:37]: So how are we consolidating that to get to intelligence faster is something that's hugely top of mind for me and my team right now.

Lisa [0:26:46]: Well, one of the things that used to keep in a real payback on our tech.

Lisa [0:26:50]: Right?

Lisa [0:26:50]: So, look, I used to have tech acts that rival the budget of my Cio in past fives.

Lisa [0:26:56]: Right?

Lisa [0:26:56]: But what was...

Lisa [0:26:58]: Like, kept us from actually realizing the full potential of that stuff was a swivel care syndrome.

Lisa [0:27:03]: You know, data as it moves from one tech to another and and being able to have that holistic picture to make smarter decisions rather than just justify our existence after, well Ai in and of itself could be the glue between this technology, eliminating that disposal chair so we can get there faster.

Lisa [0:27:20]: What that looks like in three to five years relates to the number of tech that we have in our tech Acts.

Lisa [0:27:26]: I don't...

Lisa [0:27:27]: I I suspect we're not gonna have fewer technologies.

Lisa [0:27:29]: Anyone that's got multiple Ai licenses for all their preferences.

Lisa [0:27:33]: Know that that's not gonna be true.

Lisa [0:27:35]: But at the end of the day, I do see that consolidation like, much stronger blue in between if you learn about how you use it.

Lisa [0:27:43]: So might be...

Lisa [0:27:44]: We might actually be able to get a payback on the stuff that we've been investing in now because of Ai.

Lisa [0:27:49]: Mh.

Lisa [0:27:50]: You know?

Lisa [0:27:51]: Yeah.

Lisa [0:27:51]: I I really...

Jess [0:27:52]: I was talking about this in the newsletter, literally this week where there's really no department, quite like marketing, quite like ours where we're using so many tech tools on a daily basis.

Jess [0:28:03]: And and also just, like, learning new ones and new Ais every day.

Jess [0:28:07]: It it just...

Jess [0:28:08]: It is really it's impressive.

Jess [0:28:10]: I've got some good questions here too in the chat.

Jess [0:28:13]: I wanna kinda weave in the ones that are relevant to the topic we're on right now.

Jess [0:28:17]: There's some good ones.

Jess [0:28:18]: But kinda connected to this, Lindsay, are you still using lead or account scoring methodologies.

Jess [0:28:25]: Right?

Jess [0:28:25]: So we're seeing these intent signals these patterns.

Jess [0:28:27]: Or using it for predictive, you know, analytics forecasting, but also quick action, you know, across our teams.

Jess [0:28:35]: So do...

Jess [0:28:36]: How do we use those and those in signals and and score them or structure the accounts in a way where folks can act on them immediately or have we replaced that lead scoring account scoring with something else.

Jean [0:28:50]: We don't use it at all.

Jean [0:28:51]: So it's definitely old school model, like Mp is honestly, like, out in maybe a year from now.

Jean [0:28:59]: I see it can be completely dead.

Jean [0:29:00]: Like I said earlier, we do, like, pipeline predicts scoring.

Jean [0:29:04]: So that space of all the signals, their behaviors, and so it'll predict what we think is going to become an opportunity to become pipeline.

Jean [0:29:14]: But, no.

Jean [0:29:16]: We don't do any lead scoring any account scoring right now or we we'll never do it.

Jean [0:29:22]: I feel like even my last organization, we didn't do it either.

Jean [0:29:24]: I think that's kinda how a giant thing.

Jess [0:29:28]: How do you bring those accounts to the top of the list?

Jess [0:29:32]: Just so if we're seeing those indication happening within an account?

Jess [0:29:35]: How would you surface that to someone?

Jean [0:29:39]: Yes.

Jean [0:29:39]: So, I mean, like, we score them based on their behavioral data techno graphic demographics.

Jean [0:29:44]: So everything every single and layer combined into one score.

Jean [0:29:49]: So it's not just, oh, they did.

Jean [0:29:51]: They downloaded white paper.

Jean [0:29:52]: They went to a webinar or they register for this event.

Jean [0:29:54]: They went here score score score score.

Jean [0:29:57]: They did twenty engagements they're ready to be followed up on.

Jean [0:29:59]: It's...

Jean [0:29:59]: They look like this.

Jean [0:30:01]: They have this technology stack.

Jean [0:30:03]: They're engaging here.

Jean [0:30:04]: This person, the Cmos is doing this, the Vp of marketing is doing this.

Jean [0:30:08]: It's the whole buyer group.

Jean [0:30:09]: So you've got multiple people in the buyer group and guy, Jane, so they get a higher score.

Jean [0:30:14]: And so it's the entire ecosystem in the world that they live in.

Jean [0:30:18]: And and then and then with this pipeline predict, we'll put them in a funnel stage.

Jean [0:30:24]: Just to say, you know, they're...

Jean [0:30:26]: They've got pretty low pipeline predicts.

Jean [0:30:27]: We're gonna say if they're still.

Jean [0:30:28]: The awareness phase or there's three of the people in the buyer group that's looking at it.

Jean [0:30:34]: They're still kind of determining.

Jean [0:30:35]: So can we surface that stuff with our eighties all the time.

Jean [0:30:39]: But we don't say, like, this person did many activities go follow up on them.

Jean [0:30:43]: It's this account is doing this.

Jean [0:30:45]: They're more likely to buy.

Jean [0:30:47]: We're predicting that they will.

Jean [0:30:48]: Marketing will swarm that account.

Jean [0:30:50]: Here's the context we know...

Jean [0:30:52]: Where they're located, so we know who to reach out to.

Jean [0:30:55]: So you guys start prospecting into it.

Lisa [0:30:58]: So it's scoring, but scoring in a traditional set.

Jean [0:31:00]: But it's scoring in an traditional way that's more...

Jean [0:31:02]: Because addictive.

Jean [0:31:04]: Yeah.

Jean [0:31:05]: Yeah.

Jean [0:31:05]: Yeah.

Jean [0:31:06]: Yeah.

Jean [0:31:06]: Modern Yeah

Jess [0:31:08]: keep system.

Lisa [0:31:09]: Yeah.

Lisa [0:31:09]: Gardner had...

Lisa [0:31:10]: Was it...

Lisa [0:31:11]: Their Cmo summit this summer.

Lisa [0:31:12]: They basically brought out and said, look, we care about the buying network versus the buying influencers because they've recognized there were a lot of people outside and an account or...

Lisa [0:31:22]: Org that are influencing the way that that buying committee is making decisions.

Lisa [0:31:27]: And so now you need to map that ecosystem and maybe scored in the context of whatever that that opportunity might look like, that particular need that needs to be solved.

Lisa [0:31:37]: But nonetheless, you're still scoring in the sense that you're you're treating things differently.

Lisa [0:31:42]: And so there's there's some presence of things that kind of you send it down the path.

Lisa [0:31:47]: Yeah.

Lisa [0:31:48]: It on the world.

Jess [0:31:49]: Yep.

Jess [0:31:49]: Some good question.

Morgan [0:31:50]: I was gonna say, we did a lot of engineering on the back end.

Morgan [0:31:52]: I don't know if this people will find this helpful.

Morgan [0:31:54]: But at a technical level, we we redefined that all of this scoring into one machine learning scoring.

Morgan [0:32:03]: So a lot of the same trends happening across the board.

Morgan [0:32:07]: I think what was powerful is that we aligned it to Salesforce on the life lifecycle object, and we actually applied earlier indicators at the top of the funnel in terms of how we're seeing that convert from early stage before it even becomes an opportunity.

Morgan [0:32:21]: To piggyback on Gene.

Morgan [0:32:23]: So you're still elevating people within accounts.

Morgan [0:32:26]: Mh.

Morgan [0:32:27]: It's buying committee.

Morgan [0:32:29]: You're still scoring it.

Morgan [0:32:30]: You're still adjusting the scoring hopefully with the committee, not just a single person that is constantly coming back to look at it and make sure that those are predictor and indicators of the right pipeline.

Morgan [0:32:38]: But there...

Morgan [0:32:40]: We've found a lot of synergies with our Sdr and a and Ae teams.

Morgan [0:32:45]: A lot of what we were hearing in the in the day and life of Was there's never enough.

Morgan [0:32:51]: We need more what what are you guys doing over there?

Morgan [0:32:54]: And the alignment of this one view of high top of funnel what we call before opportunities stage each did for us will say, oh, wow, there's a lot of activity happening And then what it's doing is it's actually consolidating the behavior scoring that activity, also the buying committee and the account activity into one score.

Morgan [0:33:15]: And they...

Morgan [0:33:17]: We can actually see, okay, Are these are the right accounts because they're converting to working, meaning our ad...

Morgan [0:33:22]: Our Sdr are actually doing active outreach.

Morgan [0:33:24]: And then they're converting to meetings.

Morgan [0:33:26]: So they're showing up.

Morgan [0:33:27]: And then is there an active opportunity in place.

Morgan [0:33:30]: So we've been able to build intelligence early in the funnel to show predictability of future pipeline based on who we're engaging with and what that, you know, predictive scoring looks like.

Morgan [0:33:40]: So that's been a huge unlock for us in terms of alignment.

Morgan [0:33:43]: We got out of the...

Morgan [0:33:44]: How do we get more of these things.

Morgan [0:33:46]: To, you know, I I know every salesperson wants more hand raise.

Morgan [0:33:50]: There's only so much you can do.

Morgan [0:33:51]: It got us out of that and into...

Morgan [0:33:54]: Okay.

Morgan [0:33:54]: How are we taking what we have actually driving it through top down through the funnel.

Morgan [0:33:58]: And and warming the accounts collectively marketing and sales together.

Jess [0:34:03]: Yeah.

Jess [0:34:03]: I think that's the key there.

Jess [0:34:04]: And there's a question in the chat from Diane.

Jess [0:34:07]: So just when you say marketing will swarm that account showing intent, are there specific marketing tactics you're executing, and I'd love to hear also the panel's thoughts on this.

Jess [0:34:16]: But think it also depends on your your Gt, and your motion, but I think there's a variety of of ways that both, like you said, Morgan marketing and sales are approaching these accounts.

Jess [0:34:27]: Obviously, there's, like, your your account base, your your Ab x account based experience where, again, this is not for every organization, but where you're able to kind of target those high value accounts with, like, hyper personalization through a variety of ways, but then there's also that, like, the simultaneous real time audience segmentation that's happening across fifty different micro segments with personalized messaging and and all of those segments across four different channels like social and email and and and display, and that happening also in real time.

Jess [0:35:00]: Are you guys seeing, like, a a marketing and sales kinda United approach in that way?

Lisa [0:35:05]: I think we're aligned.

Lisa [0:35:06]: Well, I don't know if you were directing that question one person, but marketing and sales knows it's hard to to, not only be visible at this point, but chosen.

Lisa [0:35:17]: And so there there is more willingness to work together to swarm accounts.

Lisa [0:35:22]: What I think when I...

Lisa [0:35:24]: You know, when I see the question of when you say marketing will swarm an account, other specific marketing tactics that we're executing.

Lisa [0:35:30]: I think the secret answer to that depends on your organization, but it comes down to two things.

Lisa [0:35:37]: Are you visible or find and chosen them wherever that your buyers questions are being asked.

Lisa [0:35:43]: And that should likely isolate what your tactic should be.

Lisa [0:35:47]: So for example, a Cmo might be asking someone in an Exit Five community for advice on who can help them solve a particular of a problem around account based marketing.

Lisa [0:35:57]: Are you visible and present?

Lisa [0:35:59]: Are you you adding value into that community?

Lisa [0:36:02]: What if that same Cmo loves chat Gp, And Loves actually having conversations with Gp about how to solve this particular problem?

Lisa [0:36:11]: And would it expect that you get cited there?

Lisa [0:36:13]: Well, then you've gotta actually have some sort of Ai visibility strategy.

Lisa [0:36:16]: Maybe they are old school, and they...

Lisa [0:36:19]: Your audience believes that, you know, in person events are more important than anything and which events are...

Lisa [0:36:25]: So you're gonna have to make sure that you're find and chosen wherever they're to asking your questions.

Lisa [0:36:33]: So Talks about Ai answer engines, I'm...

Lisa [0:36:36]: My response to that is you've gotta be thinking about search everywhere.

Lisa [0:36:41]: Not search engines, not Engines.

Lisa [0:36:44]: And if people are thinking search everywhere, then the very next question is, well, who's answering your buyers questions.

Lisa [0:36:50]: And that's it.

Lisa [0:36:52]: And and from there, then it a matter of, okay.

Lisa [0:36:55]: Well, what tactics will work for me in the context of those two things.

Lisa [0:36:58]: For us, it is the presence of communities.

Lisa [0:37:01]: It is the presence of Pe firms and their value creation debt.

Lisa [0:37:06]: It's a and the tech partners.

Lisa [0:37:08]: Right?

Lisa [0:37:08]: Again, marketing, marketers love tech.

Lisa [0:37:10]: And so our tech partners that are in your tech tech, talking about us.

Lisa [0:37:15]: And if we don't have those three things, we're likely not gonna be visible before they, you know, select their preferred list.

Lisa [0:37:22]: So it's...

Lisa [0:37:23]: At those things.

Jean [0:37:25]: Mh.

Lisa [0:37:26]: You know?

Jean [0:37:28]: And I would say...

Jean [0:37:28]: From our standpoint, I mean, in using Ai to help with this and help scale it is we...

Jean [0:37:34]: I put in automations.

Jean [0:37:36]: In...

Jean [0:37:36]: I mean, into Demandbase, but we've put in automations that, when we know we have to swarm an account.

Jean [0:37:41]: They automatically go into an automation to say, okay, they're gonna get Fed advertising to all through all these different channels,

Morgan [0:37:49]: Right.

Jean [0:37:49]: We will then alert...

Jean [0:37:50]: It will alert on Slack our evangelist who then will go out to the communities, and they will start talking about it.

Jean [0:37:56]: It will alert our sales reps to go looked on Linkedin sales nav, who's connected, tell the marketers in our organization.

Jean [0:38:04]: So if for talking, like, a to a digital person or we need a Demandbase...

Jean [0:38:07]: Or a a demand gen person.

Jean [0:38:08]: Like, we...

Jean [0:38:09]: I will do active outreach on Linkedin to have conversations with people.

Jess [0:38:13]: Right.

Jean [0:38:14]: I will see, you know, what they're posting and where they're talking.

Jean [0:38:17]: And so I think it goes back to lisa's says, is go to where they are.

Jean [0:38:21]: So, like, it...

Jean [0:38:22]: Would...

Jean [0:38:22]: It's hard to say, like, oh, you've gotta put ads out.

Jean [0:38:24]: You've gotta do this.

Jean [0:38:25]: You've gotta host an event.

Jean [0:38:26]: You've got...

Jean [0:38:27]: Like, mh.

Jean [0:38:27]: Your tactics are really what's best for your org what you can afford to.

Jean [0:38:30]: Right.

Jean [0:38:31]: Right.

Jean [0:38:31]: Because I've been at...

Jean [0:38:32]: It's tiny little small startups ups and it was we're gonna grind this out and, like, put some ads and I'm gonna just do some outreach myself, but I think it's just...

Jean [0:38:41]: It's more around, like, it's using every race resource you have to get to where they are.

Jean [0:38:46]: Right?

Lisa [0:38:48]: Mh you can

Speaker_0 [0:38:48]: get to

Jean [0:38:48]: where they're talking.

Lisa [0:38:49]: And if you know where they're asking.

Lisa [0:38:51]: Because it it changes.

Lisa [0:38:52]: Right?

Lisa [0:38:52]: Well, think of all own buying behaviors.

Lisa [0:38:55]: I mean, the way I buy stuff today is wildly they different than I did three months ago.

Lisa [0:38:59]: A critical investment you make is making sure you have access to your buyers to ask some questions about, like, what's evolving about where you're doing your research and search and how are you selecting vendors today?

Lisa [0:39:12]: Like, just make that commitment.

Lisa [0:39:14]: And then at least you're always directional sound.

Jess [0:39:17]: Yeah.

Jess [0:39:17]: I think that's such a good point, Lisa so, I think if we keep the focus on the buyer versus always, you know, on us getting to the buyer, but more about putting ourselves in the position of buyers which we all are in our own way.

Jess [0:39:29]: You know, b2b b buyers are still human buyers, you know, how how is their buying journey changing and how are we showing up effectively through that.

Jess [0:39:37]: And I think that a big topic that I always hear.

Jess [0:39:41]: Anyone leading demand gen or Cmos marketing leaders is is under this pressure of, driving pipeline and revenue.

Jess [0:39:50]: How...

Jess [0:39:51]: And we, in the Exit Five Cmo council?

Jess [0:39:54]: This is the topic that comes up a lot, but how we're how are folks balancing the long term brand building with the short term pipeline pressure.

Jess [0:40:03]: How is Ai making that easier because we all know that that's something that has to be done.

Jess [0:40:09]: We've all seen the way the story goes if that's not happening, You know, that long term brand investment is not happening alongside of that short term pipeline execution.

Jess [0:40:17]: But how how is that?

Jess [0:40:19]: How how are you guys balancing that?

Morgan [0:40:21]: For me, this isn't a balance.

Morgan [0:40:22]: This is the must happening it's funny to me that the the pendulum consistently shifts from all brands to all demand to capture.

Morgan [0:40:32]: Mh And I I really think that we have to break this cycle.

Morgan [0:40:35]: If you are looking to build a predictable engine, you do not sacrifice one for the other.

Morgan [0:40:40]: And I'll give you a, I'm not talking, like, massive commercial ads or huge out of home buys.

Morgan [0:40:48]: That's not even what it needs to be, I think in the context of the last question that we just answered.

Morgan [0:40:53]: Yeah.

Morgan [0:40:54]: When it comes to your audience, how are you adding value?

Morgan [0:40:56]: So as a low cost, I guess this is a high cost from the people that you probably have to engage with a low cost in terms of actual dollars in marketer execution.

Morgan [0:41:07]: One thing that we instituted, you could take a spin...

Morgan [0:41:10]: You could spin this off and anything that you, particularly want.

Morgan [0:41:14]: But we do a thirty minute session with, out, we particular...

Morgan [0:41:19]: We try to talk...

Morgan [0:41:20]: To security operations leaders.

Morgan [0:41:22]: So Cis those.

Morgan [0:41:24]: And so what we do is we actually take our internal people.

Morgan [0:41:27]: And every week, they do what's something that you should know this week, why you should know about it and how it's thirty minutes.

Morgan [0:41:33]: We show up every week.

Morgan [0:41:35]: I pushed on this so hard internally because it's not easy to put an event like that on week over week over week.

Morgan [0:41:43]: It it does...

Morgan [0:41:44]: It has a cost.

Morgan [0:41:45]: It has an internal cost.

Morgan [0:41:46]: We are seeing massive build and current pipeline now, several quarters out from that because we added value early.

Morgan [0:41:55]: We built trust and connection early.

Morgan [0:41:57]: We got it out to the people that mattered early in cycle.

Morgan [0:42:00]: So this is very much a brand generation thing.

Morgan [0:42:03]: Like, when I think about it, it's brand gen, then you have this demand gen, how are you building that thought leadership connection and then true demand capture and move on.

Morgan [0:42:11]: But it's something like that that I think is such a huge predictor future pipeline for you.

Morgan [0:42:17]: And if you can set expectations early with your team on what how to measure it differently.

Morgan [0:42:23]: Why it looks differently than other tactics that you run, and then keep that clarity and an alignment throughout.

Morgan [0:42:30]: Eventually, it will come to terms and you will see that output.

Morgan [0:42:34]: But it takes time.

Morgan [0:42:35]: You know, I've had to battle with the biggest people that are trying to put this on, We can then we out to keep it.

Morgan [0:42:40]: But the consistency shows up and and we're all in now responding.

Morgan [0:42:44]: So

Lisa [0:42:46]: Yeah.

Lisa [0:42:46]: When view the first investor like brand building, I'm with you one hundred percent aligned, like, you...

Lisa [0:42:52]: It's not a decision between these.

Lisa [0:42:54]: If you do the first investment well, like, if you invest in your long term brand building, You don't find yourself in the second problem.

Lisa [0:43:01]: Like, you don't find yourself under short term pressure on pipeline because you've been find.

Lisa [0:43:08]: Right?

Lisa [0:43:09]: And chosen.

Lisa [0:43:09]: Exactly.

Lisa [0:43:10]: What I love about your example is that, I tend to think about brands as having gravity.

Lisa [0:43:17]: And the gravity, it's the stronger the brand, the stronger it's gravity, the grade of the the the influence of attracting buyers to you, when they launch into a search, and keeping them with you until they are ready to engage in a more direct way with your organization.

Lisa [0:43:35]: And that requires...

Lisa [0:43:37]: What does gravity require?

Lisa [0:43:39]: It requires mass.

Lisa [0:43:40]: So it requires digital mass.

Lisa [0:43:43]: And so you're example of having this thirty minute really valuable, what are the things you should know now, wherever you might be publishing that.

Lisa [0:43:52]: If that is find after that thirty minute conversation, and it's find online.

Lisa [0:43:58]: Right, where, you know, anonymous searching is happening.

Lisa [0:44:02]: Then my guess is is that you probably are building up so much digital mass that when buyers actually figure out they have a problem to solve.

Lisa [0:44:10]: They get pulled towards you, and they stay with you until they're ready to actually make it, you know, move forward and select their finalist list and have conversations with you.

Lisa [0:44:19]: But that that digital mass is critical to building that brand gravity.

Lisa [0:44:24]: An Ai, you know, Ai can be used a number of ways.

Lisa [0:44:28]: Right?

Lisa [0:44:28]: Can let us know when company launch to orbit to start their search.

Lisa [0:44:31]: But candidly, thankfully, as marketers, it can help us actually scale the production of that...

Lisa [0:44:37]: Those assets, that give us that footprint that give us that gravity.

Jess [0:44:42]: Mh.

Jess [0:44:42]: So it...

Jess [0:44:43]: So that...

Jess [0:44:43]: Really.

Jess [0:44:44]: That should be your your second book there.

Jess [0:44:47]: Ran grab.

Jess [0:44:47]: It's.

Jess [0:44:49]: Should Oh, good.

Jess [0:44:50]: Got it.

Jess [0:44:51]: There it is.

Jess [0:44:51]: I think might

Lisa [0:44:54]: struggle with getting alignment from your sales leaders to care brand building.

Lisa [0:44:59]: There were, like, four studies last fall.

Lisa [0:45:02]: What's interesting is they weren't related to each other at all.

Lisa [0:45:05]: But they were all on the buying journey.

Lisa [0:45:07]: Like, how did the buying journey change, and all four these when there was one.

Lisa [0:45:12]: There were there were a number of studies that came out.

Lisa [0:45:15]: All of them said the same thing.

Lisa [0:45:16]: This buying journey is much longer than you expected.

Lisa [0:45:19]: You don't control it in any way, shape or form, it requires nearly, like, a thousand interactions with your brand, and they make a decision as to when they're gonna reach out and talk to sales rep, and they're only doing it after they've already selected their preferred vendors.

Lisa [0:45:35]: And they likely already have a favorite and guess what eighty five percent of the time, they buy from that favorite before the...

Lisa [0:45:41]: And all sales job was to validate what they had found throughout that anonymous search.

Lisa [0:45:46]: And, like, that, If you need no sales rep thinks it's easy to sell today.

Lisa [0:45:52]: But that...

Lisa [0:45:53]: Any one of those four research reports go out, and get it, bring it and say, I need your help.

Lisa [0:45:58]: I need...

Lisa [0:45:59]: Like, we need to be find and shows before they reach out to talk to you.

Lisa [0:46:03]: And and need to be able to protect some investments in my brand.

Lisa [0:46:07]: Right.

Jess [0:46:09]: All the right conversations to be having.

Jess [0:46:10]: Are are you using Ai anyone on the panel using Ai to help to better attribute brand, which is historically always been difficult to attribute versus, like, demand capture channels, but using Ai to better attribute what you can with with brand to approve connection to revenue, like, this person interacting with our content x times.

Jess [0:46:34]: This person and engaged with Dave's Linkedin post and did this thing, and now, you know, we're also creating predictive analytics connected to that.

Jess [0:46:42]: But, does anyone using Ai to help prove that out.

Jean [0:46:46]: I don't know have help to prove it out.

Jean [0:46:48]: Definitely using Ai.

Jean [0:46:49]: So I guess, a little background of me.

Jean [0:46:51]: I have historically worked at very small startups.

Jean [0:46:54]: So you had lived everything that I've ever done in marketing.

Jean [0:46:58]: Every tactic had to have a dual purpose.

Jean [0:47:00]: It had to have a brand part and head of a demand part, because I just couldn't...

Jean [0:47:04]: I didn't...

Jean [0:47:05]: Couldn't afford it.

Jean [0:47:06]: I was by myself.

Jean [0:47:07]: I had ten thousand dollars for the quarter, and that's what I got.

Jean [0:47:10]: So I think where I'm using Ai, it's great.

Jean [0:47:14]: Demand has a brand, so we can escalate this even more is helping to develop the content and the assets that you need at a skill in a scalable way to put that, like, thought leadership, customer stories, customer videos, put all that out into the Ether and then being able to measure all of the interactions and engagement on it.

Jean [0:47:36]: But for me from that standpoint, Ai is just helping scale it massively.

Jess [0:47:42]: And we, we're coming up already on time.

Jess [0:47:44]: So I wanna make sure that we have time for Q and A and we've only got ten minutes left.

Jess [0:47:48]: So I'm in the q and A tab here.

Jess [0:47:50]: I just kinda scrolling through to make sure that there isn't anything connected to these.

Jess [0:47:54]: Topics that we're on right now.

Jess [0:47:56]: There's one follow up question in the chat.

Jess [0:47:58]: Follow question.

Jess [0:47:59]: What channel are you using to deliver the things that you should know now?

Jess [0:48:03]: Is it the the partner community or end users, morgan, how is an information builder to essential buyers that what you need to know why and how?

Jess [0:48:11]: Thanks, Julie.

Jess [0:48:13]: Great discussion.

Jess [0:48:14]: Appreciate that.

Jess [0:48:16]: Any thoughts on that on those questions, team?

Morgan [0:48:19]: Yeah.

Morgan [0:48:19]: I can...

Morgan [0:48:20]: I I think what I heard was how are we distributing the weekly topic.

Morgan [0:48:25]: So I heard the this notion from, a friend of mine that we work with.

Morgan [0:48:32]: It's called...

Morgan [0:48:32]: She calls it the content turkey, and it's because you can carve it up So you don't have to use, like, one meaty topic of content.

Morgan [0:48:40]: You can literally just cut it up and use it across channels.

Morgan [0:48:43]: So there's a few things that we that we use to do this when.

Morgan [0:48:49]: Again, to felicia point, how are we gonna make ourselves more find.

Morgan [0:48:54]: So how do we take snippets of this and deliver it where our audience would wanna find it.

Morgan [0:48:58]: We actually get a huge number?

Morgan [0:49:00]: I think it's on...

Morgan [0:49:01]: It's up level a couple of things.

Morgan [0:49:03]: One is it has indicated that our customers would also hyper value this content.

Morgan [0:49:08]: So when you talk about churn reduction, fifty percent of the people that show up week in a week out our current customers of ours.

Morgan [0:49:14]: That was a huge unlock.

Morgan [0:49:15]: So We're we're talking about brand build we're also talking about retention.

Morgan [0:49:20]: The other thing was our internal people show up for this.

Morgan [0:49:24]: They also want to know.

Morgan [0:49:25]: And so we actually use this content and others to highlight things that might make our sales team more, successful in their outreach when they're talking about adding value.

Morgan [0:49:37]: Lisa was talking about curiosity.

Morgan [0:49:39]: How do we come from a place of curiosity rather than solution selling.

Morgan [0:49:43]: So we use a lot of that.

Morgan [0:49:45]: Another engine that we have used again in Tandem with our sales team.

Morgan [0:49:49]: We call it pipeline Wednesdays, hyper creative by I now.

Morgan [0:49:53]: But this is a huge I believe that marketing is also an a c owner of enable it because enable it is, yes, onboarding of sales teams, but it's also how are we helping them, deliver the message that we're packaging and also making sure it is landing.

Morgan [0:50:10]: It doesn't end with here's this campaign thing output.

Morgan [0:50:14]: It's also...

Morgan [0:50:15]: Is it resonating what does this look like.

Morgan [0:50:17]: So we use that time to also dis the weekly insights that we have from that topical virtual event.

Morgan [0:50:25]: We use that Wednesday with our sales team to say here's what we're hearing.

Morgan [0:50:29]: How can you use it in market and connect it to the signals that we were talking about at the beginning.

Morgan [0:50:34]: So if you're expecting that your sales team is gonna be able to go in and attach messaging to signals, They don't.

Morgan [0:50:41]: So help them.

Morgan [0:50:43]: Like, we literally show up every Wednesday and say here's something that you can attach to these types of signals.

Morgan [0:50:48]: Here's where they live.

Morgan [0:50:49]: How can we help you.

Morgan [0:50:50]: So that's been a huge off for us in terms of delivering that mass edge to our sales team and working in partnership with them, not in Silos it's, like, throwing things out into the ether.

Lisa [0:51:01]: I'd love them all of that.

Lisa [0:51:02]: One one little Ai.

Lisa [0:51:04]: I wouldn't say hack, but one little Ai tip here.

Lisa [0:51:07]: I created a custom Cpt.

Lisa [0:51:09]: Trained it on our positioning our messaging and all the signals, the three different types of signals that we track.

Lisa [0:51:17]: And I have it.

Lisa [0:51:18]: It's basically meant to be a sales enable coach.

Lisa [0:51:21]: If you've...

Lisa [0:51:22]: If we've identified an account that, you know, it showing these these presence of these signals, what would be an pre inappropriate approach and messaging an offer strategy.

Lisa [0:51:32]: And the offer is usually something of value and no ask, something of value it's attending at our our content library, basically.

Lisa [0:51:40]: But, I was struggling with sending across qualified accounts based on these signals and they're, like, what the hell do I do with that?

Lisa [0:51:47]: Like, I...

Lisa [0:51:48]: So I created a custom Gp that could at least provide them with guidance on key messages.

Lisa [0:51:54]: And an outreach strategy for them.

Lisa [0:51:56]: So...

Lisa [0:51:57]: And love that.

Lisa [0:51:58]: Pretty easy.

Lisa [0:51:59]: Right?

Lisa [0:51:59]: It's just context and instructions that you can give it give to.

Lisa [0:52:03]: Now.

Jess [0:52:04]: Yep.

Jess [0:52:04]: I...

Jess [0:52:05]: I love this comment in the...

Jess [0:52:06]: Chats.

Jess [0:52:07]: It absolutely must applaud the elbow grease to get the sales folks to tie messaging to signals.

Jess [0:52:12]: We had Pm sit on our, demand gen pipeline reviews.

Jess [0:52:16]: A good good call out.

Jess [0:52:18]: Yeah.

Jess [0:52:18]: I was

Jean [0:52:19]: absolutely say we we've got...

Jean [0:52:20]: We call them pod calls.

Jean [0:52:21]: So every other week we meet with every Ae slash sdr group.

Jean [0:52:26]: So it's one with their Sdr str and we go through what are their target accounts and what funnel stages is?

Jean [0:52:32]: What's the strategy we're gonna go after for the next two weeks?

Jean [0:52:34]: Here's the enable session.

Jean [0:52:36]: So my...

Jean [0:52:38]: I mean, my my field team is a team of two, and so they are taking a lot of time to sit down, but the payoff in the return is exponential.

Jean [0:52:45]: Is when you can get everybody aligned, on, this is the message to this signal or to this stage in the buyer, like, in

Morgan [0:52:53]: the funnel, they they real...

Jean [0:52:55]: And then they start getting it, and so then it's less of us telling them what to do and then being like...

Jean [0:52:59]: So I've got this account.

Jean [0:53:00]: It's not quite yet, But should I do this and should I do this?

Jean [0:53:02]: And invite them here and do this And you're like, yes.

Jean [0:53:04]: Like, you're getting it.

Jean [0:53:05]: You're getting and

Lisa [0:53:07]: That's awesome.

Jess [0:53:07]: Yeah.

Jess [0:53:07]: A great feeling.

Jess [0:53:08]: That's amazing.

Jess [0:53:09]: That's awesome.

Jess [0:53:10]: Well, just to to maybe quickly wrap us up, there's so many good questions in the chat or try to get get to, but kinda wanna have, like a zoomed out last.

Jess [0:53:20]: Thought or consideration for marketers I'm just, maybe skill, a mindset that's gonna become a non negotiable for today's marketers to have with this with this transition to how the feature is changing for the better for us as marketers in a lot of cases have used right with Ai.

Lisa [0:53:42]: Look, we are in the age of Ai.

Lisa [0:53:43]: I know that sounds cliche, but I I think, days of us being able to use our constraints.

Lisa [0:53:49]: As it excuses or why we can't do more or you know, grow pipeline or accelerate revenue growth because we don't have enough people time or budget.

Lisa [0:54:01]: I think those days are over.

Lisa [0:54:03]: And so if I have any invite for anyone, is it now it's time to actually think and use your constraints as ways to free yourself from all these unreasonable expectations.

Lisa [0:54:15]: And so that would be things like prioritization that is excel, like, invest and accelerating your adoption of Ai that is thinking instead of thinking about, I need more head count.

Lisa [0:54:26]: Think about...

Lisa [0:54:26]: Well, what are our other ways this work done.

Lisa [0:54:28]: And there are so many different operating models to do that, But, like, we're...

Lisa [0:54:33]: It's kind of over.

Lisa [0:54:35]: We have people that don't know marketing that are suggesting that we replace all humans with Ai.

Lisa [0:54:40]: Like, they they have no idea how complex this job is.

Lisa [0:54:43]: And if you're in that situation if you're in a boardroom room, most someone's is telling you, you should just have Ai do it without a human, that's because we keep showing up with all these excuses and constraints of all the things we can't do, start to actually think limitless.

Lisa [0:54:57]: It's probably this.

Lisa [0:54:58]: Mh.

Lisa [0:54:59]: That will give.

Lisa [0:55:00]: And Right.

Lisa [0:55:00]: Right.

Lisa [0:55:01]: Levers now that you gotta carve out some time and think through how to a flip the constraint into a a strategy to free yourself of it.

Jess [0:55:10]: Mh.

Jess [0:55:10]: Right.

Jess [0:55:11]: And more of the humans or the value of us is more strategic and the Ai is picking up all of the the grunt work and the manual work that would try and normally take days or weeks to to get the outcome, but the subject matter expert expertise is still required.

Jess [0:55:27]: Right?

Jess [0:55:28]: We have to know the outcome that we're driving towards.

Jess [0:55:31]: We gotta know the right questions to ask.

Jess [0:55:32]: We have to know the decisions that matter, and we have to know how to direct the Ai to do that manual work to guess to those.

Jess [0:55:40]: So we don't have to be in the the day to day of that grunt work anymore, which allows us to be more of the...

Jess [0:55:45]: We're moving up on the on the chain of of strategic focus, you know, the human side of it

Lisa [0:55:52]: I mean, if you get enjoyment, you clicking the button twenty one times to get not and Right.

Lisa [0:55:56]: Are you're so kinda over.

Lisa [0:55:57]: Yeah.

Jean [0:56:00]: But that in your career.

Jean [0:56:00]: Yeah.

Lisa [0:56:01]: Narrow Yeah.

Lisa [0:56:02]: Surfing use Ai like a super, like super superpower to do more impact full things, which is really fun stuff.

Lisa [0:56:09]: So exactly.

Lisa [0:56:10]: Exactly.

Jean [0:56:12]: Yeah.

Jess [0:56:12]: Awesome.

Jess [0:56:12]: Well, thank you guys so much for down to our last minute or two here.

Jess [0:56:16]: But, yes, for folks asking about the recording.

Jess [0:56:19]: It will be email to you later today, and for folks, who will be watching this later.

Jess [0:56:24]: It'll be...

Jess [0:56:25]: You'll be watching it because it was emailed to you as well.

Jess [0:56:26]: Even if you were not attending today.

Jess [0:56:28]: So thank you, everyone.

Jess [0:56:29]: Thanks, panel, really awesome, engaging discussion.

Jess [0:56:33]: And honest with a lot of tactical feedback and and use cases too.

Jess [0:56:37]: Thank you guys so much for joining.

Jess [0:56:38]: Thanks to Demandbased for our sponsor and have a great rest of your week.

Lisa [0:56:44]: Thanks for the opportunity.

Lisa [0:56:44]: You have a great week.

Lisa [0:56:45]: Everyone.

Lisa [0:56:45]: Thanks everyone.

Lisa [0:56:46]: Bye

Jess [0:56:47]: bye.

Jess [0:56:47]: Bye.

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