Q&A with Erik Charles, Vice President and Solutions Evangelist at Xactly Corporation

MEDIA 7 | October 7, 2019

Erik Charles, Vice President and Solutions Evangelist at Xactly Corporation is an accomplished professional with over two decades of experience in Marketing, Consulting, and Product Evangelization. Erik focuses on helping companies drive expansion and growth by better aligning positions, responsibilities, and incentives.

Erik serves as a subject matter expert in the area of Sales Performance Management to ensure that Xactly’s marketing, sales and product teams have the necessary strategic input for industry leading messaging, positioning, and future direction.

MEDIA 7: When did you start working and what was it?
ERIK CHARLES:
  In early 1980s, I wrote software on TRS-80 model II coded in BASIC to enable for computerized quotes for a life insurance agency. I was in middle school at the time, that was a contract work. My next job was at a software store back when software used to be bundled up into a cardboard box with inserted floppy disks and then it went on from there.

M7: You have an astounding experience of over two decades with industry pioneers like Apple, Sun Microsystems, Canon and recently Xactly Corporation. What has been the driving force behind your remarkable career?
EC: 
There are two things: as a marketer, I don’t believe in mistakes, I only believe in experiments and what we can learn from them, that has kept me moving forward. I keep on trying new things and seeing what works. I assume that just because it worked last week doesn’t mean it’s going to work tomorrow. So, I’ve never allowed myself to get into a rut. I have always been more than willing to find people who can provide excellent advice at critical moments, even on a specific direction. Finding someone that I can speak with, that can give me a few tips, tricks, hints, ideas, direction or path on moving on. So, I have never been afraid to ask just how could I do this better.


"Sales and marketing have to be best friends, they have to be fully aligned with each other, and they have to know what each other is doing at all times so they can partner. Companies that don’t do that cause themselves a lot of heartache."

M7: As the Vice President and Solutions Evangelist at Xactly Corporation, what are some of the challenges that you face and what has helped you in overcoming them?
EC:
The biggest challenge I face – it is a changing marketplace out there. As we know, from a pure marketing perspective, there’s plenty of data sources out there. 60-70% of the buyer’s journey occurs without ever talking to the sales organization which puts more pressure on the marketing team.

Over the course of this interview I’ve already received two inbound phone calls that are unmarked/unlicensed or I don’t have in my directory. I just reject them automatically, they go straight to voice mail, I later read the transcribed voicemail and decide if I want to talk to them. So, cold-calling is not necessarily dead but it does take more work. I wake up every morning and delete approximately 50 cold emails, oftentimes from people who haven’t done any research on what my company does. They’ll hunt my name and my company but they don’t even realize what we do. So, I flip that to my own role in supporting Xactly and make sure that our voice is heard in an appropriate fashion.

The biggest challenge that I work on the most is in the area of thought leadership in terms of not ‘the same old all over again’ but actually being able to talk about what is going on in any given industry/market. I provide that advice backwards and set up Xactly and myself as the thought leaders and experts in the space, so customers have someone to turn to, to know where you should be going next.


"From a pure marketing perspective, there’s plenty of data sources out there. 60-70% of the buyer’s journey occurs without ever talking to the sales organization which puts more pressure on the marketing team."

M7: You’ve been in leadership roles for both sales and marketing functions, how do you think this alliance has evolved over the years and how significant is it for upcoming organizations to align both the departments?
EC:
If you don’t have sales and marketing aligned, all you’re going to do is go through a revolving door of firing your CMO or firing your CRO every 18 or so months. Sales and marketing have to be best friends, they have to be fully aligned with each other, and they have to know what each other is doing at all times so they can partner. Companies that don’t do that cause themselves a lot of heartache. I believe that everybody should work in sales at some point in their lives. Even if it’s retail sales at the shopping mall, dealing with the general public, dealing with the challenges of a sales organization at minimum just doing ride-alongs with the sales organization to see what their life is like.

How on earth can you create a presentation deck for sales to use if you’ve never delivered it yourself or at least heard it being delivered in a customer or prospect facing situation. If you haven’t done that you get yourself into trouble very fast in my opinion. In smart organizations, the CMO and the CRO should be going out for coffee and cocktails whenever possible and talking about what’s working or not working in a non-threatening, not a senior staff offsite situation but more of a “Huh, we have this challenge how can we work together better?” But too often I’ve seen companies where marketing and sales are not in partnership. One of my advantages has been because I’ve been in sales, because I’ve carried a bag, because I’ve had a quota it has helped me significantly. So, when I’m talking to sales I can say, “Here’s a different way I might present this information, see if it works for you and if it does please let me know and we can share it out with the other members of the team”.

M7: You are a regular speaker at summits. Could you share some insights into being an industry thought leader?
EC:
Yeah, don’t sell your product, provide information. Provide interesting, current, actionable information that is backed by both data but entertained with anecdotes. You have to remember things like the Ebbinghaus curve which gets into the fact that within 20 minutes how much people have forgotten and within 2 weeks how much more they have forgotten. I want people to walk out of my sessions and if somebody asks, “What did you learn in there?”, they should be able to list off almost bulletized format, three to five total things that they learned that they’re going to take away and act upon. And if they do that two weeks later, if they didn’t write it down, they’re still left with three of them and they’ll actually be able to get value out of my talk. I work very hard so that when people walk out they don’t think they’ve been sold to.


"In smart organizations, the CMO and the CRO should be going out for coffee and cocktails whenever possible and talking about what’s working or not working."

M7: According to you, what are the key marketing areas that industries will need to focus on in the coming 5 years?
EC:
From a marketing perspective, one is to make sure you are adjusting your channels of communication to meet the next generation of employees. Millennials and the follow-on generation are taking over the workforce, and personally I welcome them. I think it’s magnificent, but note how they are communicating – people text as opposed to calling, they are using tools like Whatsapp to communicate. That is slowly shifting the communication medium and how people wish to absorb information on the business side as well. So, that’s going to be critical.

The other is people have gotten very good at detecting false narratives being used solely to sell product. People are looking to learn – constant learning is important for professionals but if you treat your outbound conversations also as constant learning people will respond positively. I had a customer at Xactly ask me, “Look, I’m a customer now, but can I still come to some of the talks and webinars and learn something?” And the answer is, “Of course!” That’s how they became a customer, they were interested in the education that we provided and that actually raised our profile as a company within the marketplace and it makes people want to do business with us.

M7: What have you learned from your experiences?
EC:
You’re going to stumble and fall a lot, mistakes will be made, mistakes will happen. You will butt heads with opposing personality and you’ll have to learn to work with people with a variety of different interaction, styles, and skills, introverts and extroverts, people that go on the attack very quickly, etc. Understanding the personal side of the professional world is very important. People can claim that they can turn it off, I don’t think that’s true, especially now that it’s a 24/7 world.

I do international business so it’s always work time someplace on the globe for someplace that my company does business and I just have to accept that. So at the same time, I need to be able to accept that for my employees and for the people I’m talking to. They do have a personal life; unfortunately, personal life is blended into their professional life. Recognize it, accept it, work around it.

ABOUT XACTLY CORPORATION

Xactly delivers a scalable, enterprise platform for planning and incenting sales organizations, including sales quota and territory planning, incentive compensation management, and predictive analytics. Using this powerful sales performance management (SPM) portfolio, customers mitigate risk, accelerate sales performance, and increase business agility. Combined with Xactly Insights™-- the industry’s only empirical big data platform, Xactly empowers companies with real-time compensation insights and benchmarking data that maximize the bottom line. With an open, standards-based architecture, Xactly seamlessly integrates within an enterprise’s existing infrastructure, with the ability to work with any ERP, CRM, or HCM application, while meeting the highest enterprise standards in security, reliability, and privacy.

More THOUGHT LEADERS

'Businesses need to understand what 'customer-centric’ means to them' says Barry Richards, VP Global Strategy at Transmission.

Media7 | July 28, 2022

Barry Richards is the VP Global Strategist at Transmission, London. With over 25 years’ experience in the B2B Marketing industry, Barry is a seasoned strategist with a specialism in Account Based Marketing programmes. As part of the leadership team Barry has helped establish and develop the ABM planning, research and insight functions at the agency (including an Insight's Centre of Excellence). He has worked across all accounts and regions helping clients create the right ABM strategy and programmes to meet their goals. ...

Read More

'Don’t just sell a product - use content to establish yourself as an authentic thought leader,' advises AdDaptive Intelligence's Laura Goldstone

Media 7 | March 2, 2022

Laura Goldstone, Director, Communications and Branding Strategy at AdDaptive Intelligence, and an MBA graduate is an accomplished, creative, and strategic marketing leader with a proven ability to develop and implement integrated marketing and communication strategies. We had the opportunity to explore her expertise in elevating brand identities through correct messaging that addresses the customers' pain points. Read on to find out how she leverages analytics and sales communication when creating marketing campaigns that work for AdDaptive Intelligence....

Read More

Customer Success upholds and revamps the value-driven from a product, says Folloze's Adi Aloni

Media 7 | February 14, 2022

We had an opportunity to explore the crossroad between marketing and customer success with Adi Aloni, VP of Customer Success at Folloze. Read and find out more about building a customer success team from the ground up....

Read More

'Businesses need to understand what 'customer-centric’ means to them' says Barry Richards, VP Global Strategy at Transmission.

Media7 | July 28, 2022

Barry Richards is the VP Global Strategist at Transmission, London. With over 25 years’ experience in the B2B Marketing industry, Barry is a seasoned strategist with a specialism in Account Based Marketing programmes. As part of the leadership team Barry has helped establish and develop the ABM planning, research and insight functions at the agency (including an Insight's Centre of Excellence). He has worked across all accounts and regions helping clients create the right ABM strategy and programmes to meet their goals. ...

Read More

'Don’t just sell a product - use content to establish yourself as an authentic thought leader,' advises AdDaptive Intelligence's Laura Goldstone

Media 7 | March 2, 2022

Laura Goldstone, Director, Communications and Branding Strategy at AdDaptive Intelligence, and an MBA graduate is an accomplished, creative, and strategic marketing leader with a proven ability to develop and implement integrated marketing and communication strategies. We had the opportunity to explore her expertise in elevating brand identities through correct messaging that addresses the customers' pain points. Read on to find out how she leverages analytics and sales communication when creating marketing campaigns that work for AdDaptive Intelligence....

Read More

Customer Success upholds and revamps the value-driven from a product, says Folloze's Adi Aloni

Media 7 | February 14, 2022

We had an opportunity to explore the crossroad between marketing and customer success with Adi Aloni, VP of Customer Success at Folloze. Read and find out more about building a customer success team from the ground up....

Read More

Related News

Account Management

Bestselling Author Launches 'The Integrated Marketing Handbook': Your Guide to a Game-Changing Marketing Strategy

Accesswire | September 29, 2023

Bestselling authors Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi and Priyanka AB Brahmbhatt illuminate the path to effective marketing in their latest book. Renowned for his transformative insights into marketing and growth, the bestselling author and co-founder of Zeebu, Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi, is set to captivate readers once again with a powerful new addition to the world of marketing literature. His new book, "The Integrated Marketing Handbook: Your Ultimate Guide to Building a Killer Marketing Strategy," promises to be a compelling resource for those seeking to revolutionize their marketing approach. The book is co-authored by Priyanka AB Brahmbhatt, a dynamic entrepreneur, visionary thinker, and accomplished author whose innovative ideas and strategic insights have been instrumental in shaping the narrative of this compelling work. Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi is a recognized expert in the fields of marketing and branding. His debut book, "Unleashing Growth: 15 Growth Marketing Hacks Every Entrepreneur Should Know," which provides invaluable insights into growth marketing, was hailed as a bestseller in 2020 in the business, management, and entrepreneurship categories. His expertise and innovative approach have made him a sought-after voice in the industry. In "The Integrated Marketing Handbook," Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi, along with co-author Priyanka Brahmbhatt, presents a comprehensive guide to maximizing marketing reach and effectiveness by integrating various strategies. The book is a treasure trove for marketers and entrepreneurs, offering an in-depth exploration of inbound, outbound, and account-based marketing techniques. Each strategy is explored in depth, from attracting customers through content creation in inbound marketing to reaching out to customers through various forms of advertising in outbound marketing and building relationships with key accounts in account-based marketing. Dr. Hunasgi's expertise in marketing and branding is evident as he provides practical advice on how to effectively integrate these strategies. The book serves as a practical guide, offering insights on aligning messaging, targeting the right audience, and measuring success to maximize results in today's competitive environment. As an author, my passion has always been to delve into the diverse aspects of marketing and growth strategies. My previous book, ‘Unleashing Growth,' provided readers with proven systems for growth marketing, and now with ‘The Integrated Marketing Handbook,' I invite readers to join me on a journey through the complex world of integrated marketing. It's an honor to share these insights and experiences with my readers, says Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi. Priyanka Brahmbhatt adds, "‘The Integrated Marketing Handbook' is designed to resonate with a broad audience, captivating both those familiar with our previous work and those encountering our writing for the first time. We believe that this book will serve as a valuable resource for anyone looking to enhance their marketing strategies." With these powerful insights from both authors, ‘The Integrated Marketing Handbook' is set to be a game-changer in the world of marketing literature. Those interested in securing a copy will find it readily available on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/flBGt0T. For media inquiries, interviews, and speaking opportunities, you can reach out to Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi on LinkedIn. About Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi is a globally recognized expert in marketing and branding. He is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Zeebu, a pioneering on-chain B2B invoice settlement platform. His strategic insights have been instrumental in guiding Fortune 500 companies to success through insight-driven marketing. A globally-renowned entrepreneur, published author, and in-demand speaker at TEDX and conferences around the globe. He is a 21st-century leader and influencer whose words and work in the field of marketing and branding are helping organizations leapfrog to the next level. He is ranked amongst the top 100 CMOs in the world. He speaks and writes enthusiastically about brand strategy, entrepreneurship, product innovation, growth marketing, and sales. His work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and more. About Priyanka Brahmbhatt Priyanka AB Brahmbhatt is a visionary corporate governor and thought leader currently working as the executive board member for the Bankai Group of Companies. She is also a UNSDG advocate, a Forbes U 30 nominee, a Forbes NY Council member, an author and philanthropist, and a motivational speaker. She has led several narratives, especially in the tech space on gender equality and equity. She is a Data-Driven Marketeer by education and passion, holding a gold medal from the National Marketing Honor Society.

Read More

Core ABM

StackAdapt Partners with Lead Forensics to Expand Its ABM Targeting and Measurement Capabilities in EMEA and Canada

Business Wire | October 04, 2023

StackAdapt (www.stackadapt.com), the leading self-serve programmatic advertising platform, has partnered with Lead Forensics, the world’s No. 1 B2B website visitor identification software, to expand StackAdapt’s latest ABM Targeting and Measurement solution. This integration empowers B2B marketers and ad agencies seeking to reach highly specific audiences within EMEA and Canada in addition to the company’s existing targeting capabilities for the US. Key Benefits for B2B Marketers and Advertisers: Expanded Market Reach: B2B marketers can now extend their reach beyond the US and tap into new markets in EMEA and Canada targeting a broader audience and potential customers. Relevant Targeting: This expansion ensures that ad campaigns are relevant and resonate with the right audience. Measurable Impact: With highly accurate measurement capabilities, B2B marketers can assess the performance of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize results, leading to higher ROI and more effective marketing efforts. Frictionless Campaign Management: The self-serve solution offers easy-to-use features for campaign creation and reporting, saving time and resources for B2B marketers and streamlining their advertising process. Low-Risk Testing: The solution allows for quick campaign activation without contractual minimums, giving B2B marketers the confidence to experiment and learn, leading to improved strategies and successful outcomes in the long run. “We’re delighted to partner with StackAdapt,” said Chris Murray, Vice President of Partnerships at Lead Forensics. “We know how powerful our data is and we look forward to working with StackAdapt to help businesses connect, engage, and succeed like never before.” Agent3 is a global ABM agency focused on delivering hyper-targeted campaigns for its clients. As a StackAdapt partner, it was one of the first to harness the power of Lead Forensics' IP data. This collaboration extends our ability to offer increased reliability, visibility and scale in EMEA and Canada, as well as complimenting and expanding the reach provided by many of our customers' existing pure-play ABM platforms across the US, explained Daniel Sands, Chief Innovation Officer and Partner at Agent3. “With precise audience targeting via StackAdapt, combined with the ability to measure campaign impact with pinpoint accuracy, our agency was able to achieve really great scale and performance metrics. We were particularly impressed from an account attribution perspective and the data we were able to capture about the companies we had reached. This partnership represents a significant milestone in our ability to deliver outstanding results for our clients." "The ability to provide ABM measurement in EMEA and North America is a unique delivery for our platform compared to competitors, and we are thrilled to provide this offering thanks to our partnership with Lead Forensics,” said Michael Shang, Vice President of Partnerships and Business Solutions at StackAdapt. "This collaboration allows us to provide a comprehensive self-serve solution that caters to the evolving needs of B2B marketers and advertisers seeking to make a measurable impact." StackAdapt provides easy access to its platform with no monthly minimum commitment, including for ABM targeting. For B2B marketers, StackAdapt utilizes programmatic to deliver an increase in leads and sales to meet growth requirements and build a long-term sustainable funnel. For more information, visit www.stackadapt.com. About Lead Forensics Lead Forensics is the world's #1 B2B website visitor identification software. Trusted by 60,000+ customers, Lead Forensics owns the world’s largest database of business IP addresses, enabling you to identify B2B website visitors, access contact information for key decision-makers, and get detailed website analytics. Lead Forensics has been named as one of the 100 Best Global Software companies and the software has also been named in the world’s Top 25 Best Software Products by G2. For further information, visit www.leadforensics.com About StackAdapt StackAdapt is a self-serve programmatic advertising platform used by hundreds of brands and agencies around the world. StackAdapt’s data-driven platform combines state-of-the-art machine learning with a clean and intuitive user interface to provide media buyers with an easy way to plan, execute and drive the best performance across all devices, inventory, and publishing partners. StackAdapt has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America, is rated the number 1 demand-side platform (DSP) on G2, and is the highest performing and easiest to use platform. For further information, visit www.stackadapt.com.

Read More

Account Based Data

Drift Introduces Drift Engage to Help Businesses Capitalize on Anonymous Website Traffic

PR Newswire | October 04, 2023

Drift, the buyer experience and Conversational AI company, today announced Drift Engage, a first-to-market product powered by Lift AI, that uses machine learning to score visitors' real-time site behavior, even for visitors who are 100% anonymous. This collaboration with Lift AI delivers on a strategic partnership to enhance customers' experiences, and reinforces Drift's commitment to delivering cutting-edge AI-driven results. With 98% of website traffic labeled as anonymous, companies struggle to generate pipeline from all of their website visitors, even after making significant investments to drive traffic to the site. ID Reveal tools help, but they can't identify all traffic, especially in a remote-working world. Until today, customers using these tools have been missing out on 70% of their website traffic, even with data enrichment tools in their tech stack. Drift Engage is the only solution that can automatically deliver relevant chat experiences based on real-time buyer intent scoring, which identifies and measures both known and anonymous visitors' site engagement in real time. It instantly provides the right chat experiences for customers that convert high-intent website visitors into loyal customers, ultimately increasing sales velocity and conversion rate. Since early 2020, top brands like Loopio and Intelex have used the Lift AI technology behind Drift Engage to generate a dramatic increase in conversions, pipeline, and revenue, and now all Drift customers can leverage this fully integrated technology. Today, we are deepening our strategic partnership with Lift AI to help every Drift customer turn first conversations into enduring relationships with AI-powered personalization, said Scott Ernst, CEO of Drift. Drift Engage is perfect for businesses that invest in bringing traffic to their site, but lack the visibility to convert visitors into leads. It helps capture buyers when they're already shopping, increasing conversions, sales velocity, and revenue by fast-tracking high-intent visitors to sales. Features of Drift Engage include: Real-time buyer intent scoring:Identify and measure each visitor's site engagement in real time via Live Chat or Prospector Real-time playbook targeting:Deliver the most relevant chat message/playbook based on a buyer's real-time engagement on your website CRM sync:Seamlessly add a contact's Drift Engage score to Drift leads within any CRM that Drift integrates with Audiences Summary Data:Sort site traffic by low, medium, and high intent to review playbook performance and optimize conversions Lift AI provides a proprietary cloud-based scoring AI model that integrates via a JavaScript snippet on business websites to measure real-time intent. Drift makes it possible to action these scores and surfaces intent data within its buyer engagement platform. "By joining forces with Drift, we're leveraging the power of our AI solutions to illuminate the full potential of conversational marketing on business' websites," said Don Simpson, CEO of Lift AI. "With our existing customers who are using Lift AI and Drift, we're seeing 9x conversations turn into pipeline with our real-time scoring technology. This is just the beginning—we're certain that solving for the gap of anonymous visitors will be a major unlock moment for B2B marketers and sales reps using Drift." Customers already using Drift Engage see 3x more ROI, 10.6x more pipeline and 2.1x more opportunities than the median Drift customer. To learn more, please visit www.drift.com. About Drift Drift®, the buyer experience and Conversational AI company, inspires businesses to create more engaging customer experiences, one conversation at a time. Drift helps thousands of customers across the globe translate conversational data and buyer behavior into deeper relationships, more pipeline and more revenue. A pioneer in Conversational Marketing, the company was founded in 2015 to help remove friction from the B2B buying process. As buyer expectations continue to increase and AI becomes central to empowering meaningful customer journeys at scale, Drift is disrupting the category it created. Its human-centric, AI-powered platform listens, understands and learns from buyers to deliver personalized experiences and recommendations at every touchpoint. Drift is creating a world where AI works for humans to turn conversations into relationships. About Lift AI Lift AI identifies the buying intent of every website visitor in real time, even those that are completely anonymous, enabling websites to trigger the most effective conversational marketing conversion tactics before the visitor leaves the site. The Lift AI proprietary machine-learning models are based on 18 years of experience, billions of data points, and real-time behavioral analytics, working out-of-the-box to deliver a dramatic increase in sales efficient pipeline from conversational marketing in just 90 days.

Read More

Account Management

Bestselling Author Launches 'The Integrated Marketing Handbook': Your Guide to a Game-Changing Marketing Strategy

Accesswire | September 29, 2023

Bestselling authors Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi and Priyanka AB Brahmbhatt illuminate the path to effective marketing in their latest book. Renowned for his transformative insights into marketing and growth, the bestselling author and co-founder of Zeebu, Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi, is set to captivate readers once again with a powerful new addition to the world of marketing literature. His new book, "The Integrated Marketing Handbook: Your Ultimate Guide to Building a Killer Marketing Strategy," promises to be a compelling resource for those seeking to revolutionize their marketing approach. The book is co-authored by Priyanka AB Brahmbhatt, a dynamic entrepreneur, visionary thinker, and accomplished author whose innovative ideas and strategic insights have been instrumental in shaping the narrative of this compelling work. Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi is a recognized expert in the fields of marketing and branding. His debut book, "Unleashing Growth: 15 Growth Marketing Hacks Every Entrepreneur Should Know," which provides invaluable insights into growth marketing, was hailed as a bestseller in 2020 in the business, management, and entrepreneurship categories. His expertise and innovative approach have made him a sought-after voice in the industry. In "The Integrated Marketing Handbook," Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi, along with co-author Priyanka Brahmbhatt, presents a comprehensive guide to maximizing marketing reach and effectiveness by integrating various strategies. The book is a treasure trove for marketers and entrepreneurs, offering an in-depth exploration of inbound, outbound, and account-based marketing techniques. Each strategy is explored in depth, from attracting customers through content creation in inbound marketing to reaching out to customers through various forms of advertising in outbound marketing and building relationships with key accounts in account-based marketing. Dr. Hunasgi's expertise in marketing and branding is evident as he provides practical advice on how to effectively integrate these strategies. The book serves as a practical guide, offering insights on aligning messaging, targeting the right audience, and measuring success to maximize results in today's competitive environment. As an author, my passion has always been to delve into the diverse aspects of marketing and growth strategies. My previous book, ‘Unleashing Growth,' provided readers with proven systems for growth marketing, and now with ‘The Integrated Marketing Handbook,' I invite readers to join me on a journey through the complex world of integrated marketing. It's an honor to share these insights and experiences with my readers, says Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi. Priyanka Brahmbhatt adds, "‘The Integrated Marketing Handbook' is designed to resonate with a broad audience, captivating both those familiar with our previous work and those encountering our writing for the first time. We believe that this book will serve as a valuable resource for anyone looking to enhance their marketing strategies." With these powerful insights from both authors, ‘The Integrated Marketing Handbook' is set to be a game-changer in the world of marketing literature. Those interested in securing a copy will find it readily available on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/flBGt0T. For media inquiries, interviews, and speaking opportunities, you can reach out to Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi on LinkedIn. About Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi Dr. Raghavendra Hunasgi is a globally recognized expert in marketing and branding. He is the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Zeebu, a pioneering on-chain B2B invoice settlement platform. His strategic insights have been instrumental in guiding Fortune 500 companies to success through insight-driven marketing. A globally-renowned entrepreneur, published author, and in-demand speaker at TEDX and conferences around the globe. He is a 21st-century leader and influencer whose words and work in the field of marketing and branding are helping organizations leapfrog to the next level. He is ranked amongst the top 100 CMOs in the world. He speaks and writes enthusiastically about brand strategy, entrepreneurship, product innovation, growth marketing, and sales. His work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and more. About Priyanka Brahmbhatt Priyanka AB Brahmbhatt is a visionary corporate governor and thought leader currently working as the executive board member for the Bankai Group of Companies. She is also a UNSDG advocate, a Forbes U 30 nominee, a Forbes NY Council member, an author and philanthropist, and a motivational speaker. She has led several narratives, especially in the tech space on gender equality and equity. She is a Data-Driven Marketeer by education and passion, holding a gold medal from the National Marketing Honor Society.

Read More

Core ABM

StackAdapt Partners with Lead Forensics to Expand Its ABM Targeting and Measurement Capabilities in EMEA and Canada

Business Wire | October 04, 2023

StackAdapt (www.stackadapt.com), the leading self-serve programmatic advertising platform, has partnered with Lead Forensics, the world’s No. 1 B2B website visitor identification software, to expand StackAdapt’s latest ABM Targeting and Measurement solution. This integration empowers B2B marketers and ad agencies seeking to reach highly specific audiences within EMEA and Canada in addition to the company’s existing targeting capabilities for the US. Key Benefits for B2B Marketers and Advertisers: Expanded Market Reach: B2B marketers can now extend their reach beyond the US and tap into new markets in EMEA and Canada targeting a broader audience and potential customers. Relevant Targeting: This expansion ensures that ad campaigns are relevant and resonate with the right audience. Measurable Impact: With highly accurate measurement capabilities, B2B marketers can assess the performance of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize results, leading to higher ROI and more effective marketing efforts. Frictionless Campaign Management: The self-serve solution offers easy-to-use features for campaign creation and reporting, saving time and resources for B2B marketers and streamlining their advertising process. Low-Risk Testing: The solution allows for quick campaign activation without contractual minimums, giving B2B marketers the confidence to experiment and learn, leading to improved strategies and successful outcomes in the long run. “We’re delighted to partner with StackAdapt,” said Chris Murray, Vice President of Partnerships at Lead Forensics. “We know how powerful our data is and we look forward to working with StackAdapt to help businesses connect, engage, and succeed like never before.” Agent3 is a global ABM agency focused on delivering hyper-targeted campaigns for its clients. As a StackAdapt partner, it was one of the first to harness the power of Lead Forensics' IP data. This collaboration extends our ability to offer increased reliability, visibility and scale in EMEA and Canada, as well as complimenting and expanding the reach provided by many of our customers' existing pure-play ABM platforms across the US, explained Daniel Sands, Chief Innovation Officer and Partner at Agent3. “With precise audience targeting via StackAdapt, combined with the ability to measure campaign impact with pinpoint accuracy, our agency was able to achieve really great scale and performance metrics. We were particularly impressed from an account attribution perspective and the data we were able to capture about the companies we had reached. This partnership represents a significant milestone in our ability to deliver outstanding results for our clients." "The ability to provide ABM measurement in EMEA and North America is a unique delivery for our platform compared to competitors, and we are thrilled to provide this offering thanks to our partnership with Lead Forensics,” said Michael Shang, Vice President of Partnerships and Business Solutions at StackAdapt. "This collaboration allows us to provide a comprehensive self-serve solution that caters to the evolving needs of B2B marketers and advertisers seeking to make a measurable impact." StackAdapt provides easy access to its platform with no monthly minimum commitment, including for ABM targeting. For B2B marketers, StackAdapt utilizes programmatic to deliver an increase in leads and sales to meet growth requirements and build a long-term sustainable funnel. For more information, visit www.stackadapt.com. About Lead Forensics Lead Forensics is the world's #1 B2B website visitor identification software. Trusted by 60,000+ customers, Lead Forensics owns the world’s largest database of business IP addresses, enabling you to identify B2B website visitors, access contact information for key decision-makers, and get detailed website analytics. Lead Forensics has been named as one of the 100 Best Global Software companies and the software has also been named in the world’s Top 25 Best Software Products by G2. For further information, visit www.leadforensics.com About StackAdapt StackAdapt is a self-serve programmatic advertising platform used by hundreds of brands and agencies around the world. StackAdapt’s data-driven platform combines state-of-the-art machine learning with a clean and intuitive user interface to provide media buyers with an easy way to plan, execute and drive the best performance across all devices, inventory, and publishing partners. StackAdapt has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America, is rated the number 1 demand-side platform (DSP) on G2, and is the highest performing and easiest to use platform. For further information, visit www.stackadapt.com.

Read More

Account Based Data

Drift Introduces Drift Engage to Help Businesses Capitalize on Anonymous Website Traffic

PR Newswire | October 04, 2023

Drift, the buyer experience and Conversational AI company, today announced Drift Engage, a first-to-market product powered by Lift AI, that uses machine learning to score visitors' real-time site behavior, even for visitors who are 100% anonymous. This collaboration with Lift AI delivers on a strategic partnership to enhance customers' experiences, and reinforces Drift's commitment to delivering cutting-edge AI-driven results. With 98% of website traffic labeled as anonymous, companies struggle to generate pipeline from all of their website visitors, even after making significant investments to drive traffic to the site. ID Reveal tools help, but they can't identify all traffic, especially in a remote-working world. Until today, customers using these tools have been missing out on 70% of their website traffic, even with data enrichment tools in their tech stack. Drift Engage is the only solution that can automatically deliver relevant chat experiences based on real-time buyer intent scoring, which identifies and measures both known and anonymous visitors' site engagement in real time. It instantly provides the right chat experiences for customers that convert high-intent website visitors into loyal customers, ultimately increasing sales velocity and conversion rate. Since early 2020, top brands like Loopio and Intelex have used the Lift AI technology behind Drift Engage to generate a dramatic increase in conversions, pipeline, and revenue, and now all Drift customers can leverage this fully integrated technology. Today, we are deepening our strategic partnership with Lift AI to help every Drift customer turn first conversations into enduring relationships with AI-powered personalization, said Scott Ernst, CEO of Drift. Drift Engage is perfect for businesses that invest in bringing traffic to their site, but lack the visibility to convert visitors into leads. It helps capture buyers when they're already shopping, increasing conversions, sales velocity, and revenue by fast-tracking high-intent visitors to sales. Features of Drift Engage include: Real-time buyer intent scoring:Identify and measure each visitor's site engagement in real time via Live Chat or Prospector Real-time playbook targeting:Deliver the most relevant chat message/playbook based on a buyer's real-time engagement on your website CRM sync:Seamlessly add a contact's Drift Engage score to Drift leads within any CRM that Drift integrates with Audiences Summary Data:Sort site traffic by low, medium, and high intent to review playbook performance and optimize conversions Lift AI provides a proprietary cloud-based scoring AI model that integrates via a JavaScript snippet on business websites to measure real-time intent. Drift makes it possible to action these scores and surfaces intent data within its buyer engagement platform. "By joining forces with Drift, we're leveraging the power of our AI solutions to illuminate the full potential of conversational marketing on business' websites," said Don Simpson, CEO of Lift AI. "With our existing customers who are using Lift AI and Drift, we're seeing 9x conversations turn into pipeline with our real-time scoring technology. This is just the beginning—we're certain that solving for the gap of anonymous visitors will be a major unlock moment for B2B marketers and sales reps using Drift." Customers already using Drift Engage see 3x more ROI, 10.6x more pipeline and 2.1x more opportunities than the median Drift customer. To learn more, please visit www.drift.com. About Drift Drift®, the buyer experience and Conversational AI company, inspires businesses to create more engaging customer experiences, one conversation at a time. Drift helps thousands of customers across the globe translate conversational data and buyer behavior into deeper relationships, more pipeline and more revenue. A pioneer in Conversational Marketing, the company was founded in 2015 to help remove friction from the B2B buying process. As buyer expectations continue to increase and AI becomes central to empowering meaningful customer journeys at scale, Drift is disrupting the category it created. Its human-centric, AI-powered platform listens, understands and learns from buyers to deliver personalized experiences and recommendations at every touchpoint. Drift is creating a world where AI works for humans to turn conversations into relationships. About Lift AI Lift AI identifies the buying intent of every website visitor in real time, even those that are completely anonymous, enabling websites to trigger the most effective conversational marketing conversion tactics before the visitor leaves the site. The Lift AI proprietary machine-learning models are based on 18 years of experience, billions of data points, and real-time behavioral analytics, working out-of-the-box to deliver a dramatic increase in sales efficient pipeline from conversational marketing in just 90 days.

Read More

Spotlight

Xactly Corp

Xactly delivers a scalable, enterprise platform for planning and incenting sales organizations, including sales quota and territory planning, incentive compensation management, and predictive analytics. Using this powerful sales performance management (SPM) portfolio, customers mitigate risk, accele...

Events

Resources