The Key to Achieving Sales and Marketing Alignment in B2B

As the marketer of a software service product, Meagen Eisenberg isn’t just a CMO. She is also a salesperson, which is why her alignment with MongoDB’s sales team proves critical to the company’s rapid success. Through her influential roles at multiple B2C and B2B tech companies, Meagen can attest to the fact that any company, no matter its audience, can create a pattern of collaboration and success in creating a unified buying path.

From insights about demand generation, to Martech, to work-life balance, Meagen’s marketing insights apply to CMOs everywhere, whether you’re B2B, B2C, or even B2D. When reflecting on her career, Meagen shares that the alignment of sales and marketing teams has transformed companies that she has worked for, including MongoDB.

On this episode, you’ll hear Meagen’s top 5 ways to increase your company’s internal collaboration, as well as discover the engaging marketing strategies MongoDB uses to attract developers. She also explains why the marketing and sales funnel strategy isn’t dead, and how it can be used in innovative new ways. For more on B2B demand generation, check out our 6 tips in our special report, here.

Learn why collaboration is the future of marketing by listening here.

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What You’ll Learn

Meagen’s top 5 ways to increase your company’s sales and marketing alignment

Just like countless other companies, MongoDB has struggled with sales and marketing alignment, as well as collaboration between teams. As a tech company that offers a database as a service, Meagen has learned to overcome the challenges of managing teams made up of employees with varied skill sets. Developers, salespeople, marketers, and more all want MongoDB to succeed, but approach it in different ways.

From her years in both engineering and marketing, Meagen has learned how to create the ultimate environment of collaboration. Check out all the details behind her top 5 strategies for alignment on this episode.

Understand your sales funnel and how it converts leads into customers
Intentionally build all of your systems together
Focus on authentic communication
Identify the stopgaps in your sales system
Invest in your tech stack (but don’t add more tools until you’re ready)

MongoDB uses creative and engaging strategies to hook their audience

After Meagen and her team built a solid team, together they were able to develop creative marketing strategies. They hook interested followers through live events, energetic brand advocates, and a speedy website that always delivers to their followers. They fill their robust website platform with content that educates and inspires. This content is found in many forms, such as white papers, blogs, thought leadership pieces, product demonstrations, and compelling customer stories.

Marketing and sales are about putting the right information in front of the right people at the right time

Alignment between your marketing and sales departments doesn’t happen overnight. Meagen and Drew discuss how a business that sells directly to consumers as well as to other businesses can approach their content marketing strategies. For example, when a B2B prospect visits your website, they most likely need to be connected to an account manager and salesperson that can address their specific needs and questions. A B2C prospect, however, is much more likely to explore your website and fill out an inquiry form all on their own – without ever speaking to a salesperson. The key in content marketing and sales is to make it obvious to your followers who you are and what you do, that way you can address their questions before they even think of them.

Timeline

[0:30] MongoDB is a massive resource for CMOs
[2:04] Meagen’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
[12:16] Alignment between sales and marketing is critical – use these strategies to succeed
[16:03] Connecting with developers is key
[19:16] The sales funnel is not dead in today’s marketing world
[21:35] What’s the difference between MongoDB and a datalink system?
[23:11] MongoDB hooks their audience through a variety of creative marketing tactics
[30:32] Balancing B2B and B2C audiences for your business
[39:24] Meagen’s problem-solving thoughts for the challenges facing marketing

Connect With Meagen:

Meagen’s MongoDB profile
Connect with Meagen on LinkedIn
Follow Meagen on Twitter

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Meet the Guest

Meagen has spent over 20 years working in the high-tech industry. One of Top 50 most retweeted by mid-sized marketers according to AdWeek study, 2015 most influential martech leaders and one of the Top 25 B2B Marketing Influencers according to InsideView. In 2014 she won the Marketers that Matter award, in 2012 she received the SuperNova Award in Matrix Commerce from Constellation Research and in 2011 the Marketing Visionary Markie award within the marketing automation field. Before joining MongoDB, she was VP of Demand Generation and Customer Marketing at DocuSign. Before DocuSign, she was Director of WW Demand Generation at ArcSight, an HP Company, and prior to that she led worldwide programs and events at TRIRIGA (acquired by IBM) for integrated workplace management systems. Prior to TRIRIGA, she was at Postini (acquired by Google) and IBM, working in solutions and product marketing for security and compliance. Earlier she worked as an IT Engineer at Cisco Systems and Applied Materials. She has a Master of Business Administration with a focus on marketing and strategy from Yale School of Management, and a Bachelor of Science degree in MIS with a minor in CSC from Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo.

Quotes from Meagen Eisenberg

You really have to make sure that you're partnering with your sales team and their internal customer. It's no fun to work at a company where those two functions don't align.
Habitual communication with the sales team matters. It's not enough to say it upfront. You have to check in.
People want to see what others in their industry are doing, so by having compelling customer stories, you gain a lot of interest.
I think the core of any marketing team that moves fast is having good web development to change and move quickly.