Joining Chip Rodgers today on this episode of Ecosystem Aces is Asher Matthew, Vice President Go-to-Market, Data & Sales Intelligence Cloud at Demandbase. Asher is also the Co-Founder of Partnership Leaders, a community of partnership ecosystem professionals.
Some of the topics discussed in the podcast include:
- Data Intelligence & Lead Routing
- Data Journey in the Partnering World
- Demandbase Sales Intelligence
- Using Data for Go-to-market
- Building Community in the Go-to-market
- Creating Value within Partnership Leaders
Data Intelligence & Lead Routing
Asher landed his job at Demandbase in his pursuit of solving lead routing problems. His past experience at Avalara made him curious about the lead supply chain – how to get the right lead to the right rep at the right time.
In the past, companies would receive lead lists from partners, but there were delays for partner managers to receive the data. The solution to lead routing optimization lies with the data. If the correct data is provided seamlessly, lead routing and other mechanical processes flow automatically.
Data Journey in the Partnering World
Asher described his career focus around data - going back to his time with LeanData. LeanData is a tool that is the manifestation of the rules of engagement for a sales organization. It helps CROs in getting enough “at bats” for their account execs through Intent Data. Intent Data contains information on what content people are searching for and consuming. This gives companies insights into the lead process and what partners need to do to get enough “at bats” for their AEs.
In line with this, companies within an ecosystem use LeanData in two ways: partnering use and deal registration.
Partnering use is completing data on a partner's lead list. It ensures that companies are not uploading incomplete lists into their CRM, and their partner managers can use complete data for co-selling.
Deal registration handles lead routing once the data is uploaded into the CRM. The company uses the information to inform its partners at every deal stage, especially when a deal is closed.
Demandbase Sales Intelligence
Demandbase mission is simple: "to transform the ways companies go to market."
They accomplish this through sales intelligence products: ABM-focused products, digital advertising, go-to-market data, and marketing intelligence. These units use data science to help their core personas – sales and marketing professionals.
An example that Asher shared is WorkSpan’s own AE Nick Reed Smith. He said that Nick's marketing strategy is focused on creating content and communicating with people – he is an inbound-focused AE. This strategy is far different from an outbound-focused SDR, dependent on data and leads analysis.
These two kinds of sales teams have different workflows, but an effective sales intelligence technology like Demandbase should be able to serve both of them.
Using Data for GTM Strategy
One of the major struggles in sales intelligence is the large amount of data teams need to process to make educated GTM decisions.
There are three different sources of data to consider:
- First party data: gathered by the company
- Second party data: from data exchange platforms
- Third party data: from web scrapers
With all data sources, the information still must be verified, completed, relevance checked, and tested. Ultimately, there's no perfect data - we have to work with what we have.
Asher explained that data helps partners when to co-sell, co-market, and co-innovate. The data flow within the Demandbase go-to-market partners is a flywheel. Demandbase will identify the data, find the best target account, load the data into a machine with some models, show ads to people based on their intent data, and attract the audience to the company and become customers.
Building Community in the GTM Strategy
Current go-to-market growth can be classified as: sales, market, product, or partner-led. Somewhere in the middle also lies community-led growth.
Because of COVID, the demand for asynchronous connections grew. B2B Slack channels, Reddit, and other online communities have exploded in the B2B market. These communities create a remarkable speed of connection among industry leaders by removing friction from the tools.
Creating Value within Partnership Leaders
Through Partnership Leaders, partner leaders receive value from connecting and conversing with each other, giving and gaining insights about the partnerships ecosystem and serving as a great directory of potential partners.
Partnership Leaders don't just focus on professional growth. The community also works to help its members achieve personal success, especially financial freedom. They have created a way to also educate their community members about investing, especially in tech.
"Let's take our skills together and build something for the benefit of the people, and by virtue of that, we will live a good life, too," Asher shared.
Wrapping Up
Asher said that his career ultimately boils down to creating connections and relationships in the industry.
These connections shouldn't be taken as mere business transactions but should come from your self-awareness and care for other people's needs.
"There's value in making sure you're always there for the people. Patience pays off, but your support to other people will eventually bring you to where you want to be," Asher added.
Follow Asher Mathew on LinkedIn to stay updated on his work with Demandbase.
Links & Resources
- Learn more about how WorkSpan helps customers accelerate their ecosystem flywheel through Co-selling, Co-innovating, Co-investing, and Co-marketing.
- Subscribe to the Ecosystem Aces Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcast.
- Join the WorkSpan Community to engage with other partner ecosystem leaders on best practices, news, events, jobs, and other tips to advance your career in partnering.
- Find insightful articles on leading and getting the most out of your partner ecosystem on the WorkSpan blog.
- Download the Best Practices Guide for Ecosystem Business Management
- Download the Ultimate Guide for Partner Incentives and Market Development Funds
- To contact the host, Chip Rodgers, with topic ideas, suggest a guest, or join the conversation about modern partnering, he can be reached on Twitter, LinkedIn, or send Chip an email at: chip@workspan.com
