B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange

Terminus CRO Talks About Shifting Trends Across Both Sides Of The Revenue Operation

The B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange event, taking place August 12-13 in Boston, will focus on aligning revenue strategies across sales and marketing teams. This objective will be highlighted in several of the sessions that will feature joint presentations from the heads of marketing and sales from different organizations.

One of the speakers representing the sales point of view will be Todd McCormick, CRO of Terminus. We recently caught up with McCormick to get his perspective on the tightening relationship between sales and marketing teams, as well as the emerging role of revenue operations.

 

B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange: Your session at our event is one of a few where heads of marketing and sales are co-presenting. Why do you think it’s important for chief revenue officers and chief sales officers to get involved in events that bridge both sides of the revenue operation?

McCormick: At the end of the day, more organizations are holding both marketing and sales teams to the revenue number and goals. If we’re not educated and going to conferences like B2BSMX and aren’t aware of the different programs and things that we can be doing collectively, we’re missing out on looking at trends through both a sales lens and a marketing lens.

The more we can promote getting CROs and CMOS from the same organizations aligned, the better. I spend quite a bit of time in our sales process with our customers, my peers and the VP of sales to help them understand how an account-based initiative or program is really going to benefit their teams. This includes what they need to be aware of and what changes they might need to make, whether that’s mindset, process, tools or technology. So, I’m really pushing more and more revenue owners to be part of this conversation and this journey.

 

B2BSMX: Can you talk about how you’ve seen modern organizations change their revenue approach from a team structure standpoint and from a process standpoint, in terms of where there are handoff alignments with marketing?

McCormick: There’s a lot more planning between the two organizations. And historically, I’ve seen that the planning in the heyday of marketing automation was more focused on what the qualifying questions were. There weren’t plans around going after 15 accounts and the program. Marketing would cast a wide net to drive leads and would agree on SLAs and those types of things. In that world, you just really needed a telephone and email for your SDRs to execute.

But in today’s world, you have to have conversations about whether you have the right TAM and are aligned on going after a smaller subset of accounts, so that marketing can spend their money more efficiently and effectively. I’m seeing organizations have more sales and marketing meetings than they’ve had in the past and I’m seeing organizations where the wall is being broken down and there’s less finger-pointing. It’s more about working to optimize what we’ve learned. It’s just a different motion than it has been for the last 10 years or so.

I would say that the companies that are still struggling with this are the ones that have a low ACV. It’s a high-volume, low-transactional sale sort of process. Those companies are going to exist forever, and that’s why ABM isn’t for everybody.

 

B2BSMX: We’re seeing more conversations around RevOps as an emerging focus and role. Is that something that you’re seeing, as well? Do you see some of the team or functions of operations getting more synchronized? What’s driving that?

McCormick: Yes, it is. I think some of it is that figuring out new tech or a different workflow with the current technology is something that shouldn’t be owned solely by a marketing or sales leader. You need somebody in an operations role to really work with both of your teams to figure that out. The other thing is that RevOps owns the technology and the systems, but is becoming more strategic with all the different data and signals that are coming into an organization and all the tech that people are using. I personally need a partner in RevOps to bring me insights around what’s working and to have that analytical mindset of thinking  more strategically than just, ‘Hey, I spin up the tech, I give people logins.’ It’s evolving that function to be more strategic in the organization.

 

B2BSMX: Are you seeing the data and metrics change as sales and marketing start to get more on the same page?

McCormick: Absolutely. Our Ops team is looking at conversion rates by segment. They’re looking at deal sizes per segment. We’re trying to break down what’s happening in a certain industry or vertical within B2B that’s more successful. There’s a lot to start looking at when you’re hyper targeted on sets of accounts and in the activities you’re putting towards those accounts. We’re doing so many different things from a campaigning perspective that you need somebody to really analyze that on a weekly basis. [They should analyze how] marketing teams are running the programs and how all the sellers and sales teams are running their plays. You need somebody sitting between them to analyze what’s going on and where you can take advantage of different things. That’s why as we look at our team, we’re looking for people that can put on that strategic hat.

 

B2BSMX: What about technology’s role in all of this? Are you seeing different applications and platforms that are more relevant to both marketing and sales now?

McCormick: Absolutely. I mean, over the last 12 months, I’ve been really pushing our team to engage sales leaders alongside the marketing leaders in that buying process. There’s overlap in the technology that both of those teams are using. They fuel one another. Even with Terminus, sales leaders are logging into our tool, just as marketers are, to gain insights into what’s happening. So, there’s just a whole new set of tools that are really helping both marketing and sales teams optimize what they’re doing. The tools that can now showcase marketing and sales activities in one place, as well as provide reporting that has that information rolled up in one place make it a lot easier for the sales leader and the marketing leader to spend time assessing that information together.

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