Episode 99: John Steinert

John Steinert is an increasingly rare form of CMO; someone who can truly leverage the Sales Development program. He brings deep experience and really understands how to get the most from the investment in the program.

As the marketing leader of TechTarget, he has organized his campaigns to support empowering his Sales Development team, and making their job as valuable as possible.

Listen to how he conceptualizes the program, supports their campaigns and uses intent data to drive performance. Excellent conversation.

The Sales Development Conference 2019 is coming up August 23rd in San Francisco. EARLY BIRD SOLD OUT, grab remaining tickets while available! http://tenbound.com/conference/

Big thanks to Darryl Praill of VanillaSoft for making this podcast possible. Check out their new Sales Engagement solutions here… https://www.vanillasoft.com/solutions/business-function/sales-engagement-platform/

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Notable Quotes:

“If you can establish right at the opening that your goals are in misalignment, you can’t have a productive conversation going forward.”

– John Steinert

“I’m talking now directly to marketing leaders to say, you’ve got to figure out a way to create cultural alignment in your organization that supports the SDR activity.”
– John Steinert

“When we fail energetic young people, it’s because we didn’t give them a clear enough reason—a big enough reason—to come to work. They didn’t understand where they fit in. They didn’t see the significance of their contribution. And when you can do that, when they feel a part of the bigger whole, you can retain them. So, I really think it’s horrible to separate your SDRs in a way that that blocks them from feeling like they’re part of the whole working organism.” – John Steinert

Brief Summary

When looking from a sales development-colored pair of lenses, you’d see that there’s an increasingly rare form of CMO—one who sees the importance of aligning sales development and marketing to be able truly get the best of any sales development program. Good thing John Steinert, TechTarget CMO, joins us in this episode to enlighten us on how to do just that.

Today’s Guest: John Steinert

John Steinert is the Chief Marketing Officer at TechTarget, where they take real purchase intent insights and turn them into solid business outcomes. He’s got a passion for alignment and making the best out of successful marketing operations and sales development programs.

The episode touches on the following key topics and ideas:

David introduces the episode’s guest, John Steinert (01:00)
John Steinert’s perspective on alignment and his recommendations (01:18)
- First establishing how you’re goaled (02:45)
- The potential for conflict between marketing and inside sales (05:05)
- Why marketing leaders should create cultural alignment between marketing and inside sales (06:00)
Why an SDR might find value in a marketing organization (06:47)
Holding everyone accountable for appointments, pipeline, and revenue (11:40)
- The barriers that keeps everyone from alignment (12:35)
What is TechTarget and what do they do? (15:48)
- Purchase intent and a gigantic content engine (16:35)
- Watching from the backend and the priority engine (18:35)
Providing relevant information to sales development (19:38)
Seeing actual account behaviors and activities (20:55)
- The challenge of how to position yourself (22:00)
How TechTarget uses TechTarget (23:23)
Publishing content that follows the buyer’s journey (25:04)
John Steinert’s advice for SDR managers spreading out their game plan to the higher ups (27:15)
- Gaining access to marketing’s data (29:17)
- Cosmic slingshot (30:52)
- The hidden funnel (32:20)
- Comparing and contrasting ABM and high-velocity inside sales teams (34:28)
Packaging the information in two ways (38:42)
- Taking care and retaining your young, energetic SDRs (42:10)
The SDR job doesn’t suck, it’s just really darn hard (44:35)
Success in using sales software with TechTarget (45:54)
- Don’t give up on an account doing business (51:50)
A potential pushback from SDRs and SDR managers (53:50)
Partnering up with accounts instead of prioritizing getting meetings (56:15)
Figure out if you’re high-velocity or if you’re ABM (57:06)
Don’t abandon an account where there’s a buyers journey happening (57:40)
The value of sales development grows as expense sensitivity grows (01:00:12)
Where to find out more about TechTarget and John Steinert (01:01:50)