Gaetano Nino DiNardi 🇺🇦

Marketing Advice

I’ve helped 50+ B2B SaaS companies with growth marketing 🔥

Need help? 🤔 Join the waitlist: https://marketingadvice.io/work-with-me/
Follow me ➡️ Substack: https://marketingadvice.substack.com/about

Principle Consultant

Semrush

Working on a special project for Third Door Media digital properties.

Technical SEO

Limble CMMS

Growth Advisor

Jellyfish

HockeyStack

Demandbase

ConductorOne

Teramind

UserGems 💎

Kustomer

Growth Advisor 🚀

I’ve been in B2B marketing for 10+ years now, and I have helped over 50 SaaS companies with growth and demand generation. None of them were easy assignments—no layups, and no cushy strategic roles. I’ve battled in some of the most competitive trenches out there. 

I'm talking about categories like identity theft, business VoIP, employee monitoring, insider threat detection, LMS software, CX platforms, AI GTM software, engineering efficiency tools, etc. 

Maybe I just enjoy being the underdog? Who knows, but I have learned how to thrive in tough environments. 

If you want to work with a scrappy hustler who knows how to get sh*t done, that's me. 

I specialize in AI search and Google Ads for B2B SaaS. 
Need help? Join the waitlist: https://marketingadvice.io/work-with-me/

Just wanna follow along for the ride? 
Subscribe to my substack: https://marketingadvice.substack.com/about

Gaetano Nino DiNardi

Andrei Zinkevich

Fullfunnel.io

I live and breathe B2B marketing since 2006. 

Before launching Fullfunnel.io, I spent 8 years in the enterprise segment working for Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation.

What makes Fullfunnel.io different?

1. Ins and outs of selling to enterprise

Coming from the mid-market and enterprise world, I know all the ins and outs of selling to these segments: the research and evaluation processes, decision-making procedures inside the buying committee and the approval workflows. 

We’ve been there, done that, and know how to generate opportunities with these segments and influence the decision-making processes.

2. Niche experience

While we could help many B2B business, since 2007 we focus exclusively on two verticals: high-value B2B tech (enterprise SaaS, blockchain technology, hardware) and service-based companies (software development, consulting, cybersecurity, DevOps as a service, etc). 

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge. 

3. Knowledge transfer and in-house operations

We believe that the real growth can only be driven in-house. You need to have people who are in the trenches every day, talking to customers, experiencing the sales hurdles, refining the messages and positioning.

We join your team as external marketing advisors, provide consistent support and training including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack and process maps.

As a result, you get an evergreen in-house growth engine.

Co-founder

Trenches - B2B marketing community

Trenches — a community created by B2B marketers for B2B marketers who are in the trenches every day getting their hands dirty in growing B2B companies with high ACV and long sales cycles. 

We talk about ABM (account-based marketing), marketing-sourced pipeline, demand generation, lead nurturing, GTM strategy, buyer’s journey, and all other hot topics that are ignored in the sales communities. 

Community is FOREVER FREE.

Founder

Split Tech City

Split Tech City is a community for tech companies that operate, live, plan to launch a business or simply love the Mediterranean seaside. 

Whether you want to find a local tech partner, access the tech talent pool, relocate to Split, or find a job in the tech space, Split Tech City is for you. 

Learn more and sign up for upcoming events here: https://en.split-techcity.com

Strategic Advisor

Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Podcast

The System B2B Marketing Show is a weekly podcast hosted by Andrei Zinkevich. 

Every week with B2B marketing professionals we dive deeply into topics as a B2B marketing strategy, full-funnel marketing, inbound lead generation, lead nurturing, sales and marketing alignment, sales and marketing automation, content marketing and account-based marketing (ABM). 

Our goal is to help B2B marketers, founders, CMO, and head of growth teams implement system B2B marketing and increase their sales pipeline, scale revenue, and customer growth.

Visit our podcast page: https://getleado.com/the-system-b2b-marketing-show/ and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes (for iOS users) or on Stitcher (for Android).

Host

ROIplan

ROIPlan's mission is to empower B2B marketing teams and help them to create revenue-driven marketing plans. 

I started my career as a sales rep and, after five years in sales, switched to marketing. Another eight years, I worked as a CMO and B2B marketing consultant with 50+ B2B Companies from Europe and North America.

Every company I joined, I saw the same problem: 

Stakeholders and B2B sales teams didn't believe marketing and didn't believe in marketing. They didn't see the marketing impact on revenue.

One of the biggest problems is that marketers don't know how to present a marketing plan for executives and sales teams. Board members don't see a direct positive impact on revenue and decline plan and budget.

Besides this, there are lots of challenges that marketers face when working on marketing plans:

- Find history and the reports of the experiments in the past
- Allocate marketing budget in the most efficient way
- Prepare executive reports that show the ROI of the campaigns
- Orchestrate and align marketing campaigns with the sales team
- Prioritize experiments and focus on those that might generate the highest possible ROI
- Align non-lead generation campaigns with business goals and evaluate success criteria
- Managing lots of Google Sheets and project management tools to plan, present and execute a marketing plan

All this led to the idea of creating a marketing planning software that will simplify marketers preparing revenue-driving plans and get executive approval.

-> Create revenue-driving marketing plans and get executive approval in ROIplan:
-> Identify the top priority campaigns and experiments
-> Allocate your marketing budget most efficiently by channels and experiments
-> See what experiments generated the highest ROI in the past and what performed poorly
-> Get your campaigns and budget approved by the supervisor or your client 

Try ROIplan for free by clicking the image below.

Co-Founder

B2B Marketers & Founders

Are you skilled B2B marketer or Founder? Do you agree with 2 principles

1) Quality over quantity
2) Strategy and process before tactics and growth hacks?

If you've answered "Yes" to all 2 questions, you’ve got into the right place. 

WHOM YOU'LL GET ACQUAINTED WITH?

You'll get acquainted with other awesome and skilled B2B Marketers & Founders from the whole world who love to learn, share and grow. 

Amongst them Sujan Patel, Ben lee, Gilles De Clerck, Stapho Thienpont, Guillaume Moubeche, Juraj Zamborsky, and many others.

There are no "internet marketing" and "funnel gurus" who teach you about "money making machine" or "get rich quick" schemes. Only real business.

Ad.Wize

I help middle&enterprise businesses to launch my flagship consulting methodology called "Integrated marketing system". This system consists of 7 phases, creates steady streams of target leads and helps to retain existing customers. 

As well I help FMCG manufacturers with distribution development, entering new markets and increasing sales.

My background:

+ 11 years in marketing&sales 
+ Working with customers from 13 countries
+ My consulting methodology is working in 19 different markets
+ I've worked and helped with distribution development 12 FMCG manufacturers from whole Europe 

My Specialities:

• Integrated Marketing
• Business Growth
• Lead Generation
• Inbound marketing
• Distribution development

Want to work with me? Shoot me an email at andrei@getleado.com.

Founder & CEO

Biosphere Corporation

In 2012 I became a national key account manager and was responsible for increasing sales and customer growth.

Key Account Manager (National Chains)

Via GmbH

I became a marketing director of VIA GmbH company and was responsible for account-based marketing and acquiring big distributors and the biggest supermarket chains of Ukraine. As well, I was responsible for helping European manufacturers to enter the Ukrainian market and increase sales there.

Marketing Director

Kimberly-Clark

I’ve started my marketing career in 2006 as a sales rep at Kimberly Clark Corporation. I was promoted to area sales manager, regional sales manager, and regional trade marketing coordinator and then switched to marketing in 2011

Area Sales Manager and trade marketing coordinator

Co-founder @Fullfunnel.io| ABM & full-funnel marketing for B2B tech companies with high ACV and long sales cycle

We transform B2B Tech and Service-based companies from siloed sales and marketing to full-funnel account-based marketing and demand generation. 

We help your team develop an ABM strategy, launch pilot programs, operationalize and scale the programs without ramping up budget or depending on external agencies.

Here is how.

1. ABM STRATEGY.

We go together through a 3-week initial strategy sprint that includes: 

- Deep assessment of current marketing and sales processes
- Challenges both teams face and the root reasons behind them
- Revenue and channel analysis to identify focus markets and ICP for the ABM campaigns
- Custom ABM strategy development including detailed:
- Marketing and sales alignment with ICP, strategy and playbooks

2. LAUNCH PILOT ABM PROGRAM.

Within a single quarter, we’ll work with a pilot team to implement a minimal viable full-funnel program, without pausing existing processes. The pilot team usually consists of one marketer and one sales development rep.  

When we hit the target KPIs, we move to the operationalization and scaling stage.

3.DEVELOPING FULL-FUNNEL ABM FUNCTION.

At this stage we combine ABM with demand generation function to create a holistic model that creates awareness, generates demand and activates accounts that are already engaged across the full funnel.

SPRINTS INCLUDE:

-> Account-Based Marketing

-> LinkedIn demand generation and social selling

-> GTM strategy

-> Sales enablement

-> Demand generation and accounts warm-up

Why Work With FullFunnel.io?

1. 30+ years of niche experience

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge.

2. Knowledge transfer.

Your team gets consistent support and training, including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack, and process maps.

3. Revenue alignment.

We align marketing and sales teams around revenue, ideal customer profile, target accounts and lead scoring criteria which helps to consistently hit your revenue quota and operate as one Revenue Operations team.

OUR CASE STUDIES INCLUDE

- $300k from a pilot ABM campaign with a software development company

- 9 qualified sales opportunities and 3 new contracts, 10x ACV from an account-based demand generation campaign with AdTech development company

- 7 sales-qualified opportunities from a pilot ABM campaign in the Nordics region with a cloud solutions vendor

- 76% response rate, 36% accounts engaged, 5 opportunities from a pilot ABM campaign

At Fullfunnel.io we are growing B2B companies with long and complex sales cycles since 2006.

We were and still are “in trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, and bring to the table our 30+ years of combined experience and knowledge. 

I live and breathe B2B marketing since 2006. 

Before launching Fullfunnel.io, I spent 8 years in the enterprise segment working for Kimberly Clark and Biosphere Corporation.

What makes Fullfunnel.io different?

1. Ins and outs of selling to enterprise

Coming from the mid-market and enterprise world, I know all the ins and outs of selling to these segments: the research and evaluation processes, decision-making procedures inside the buying committee and the approval workflows. 

We’ve been there, done that, and know how to generate opportunities with these segments and influence the decision-making processes.

2. Niche experience

While we could help many B2B business, since 2007 we focus exclusively on two verticals: high-value B2B tech (enterprise SaaS, blockchain technology, hardware) and service-based companies (software development, consulting, cybersecurity, DevOps as a service, etc). 

We were and still are “in the trenches”, know the lowdown of these businesses, so you’ll get access to 30+ years of our combined experience and knowledge. 

3. Knowledge transfer and in-house operations

We believe that the real growth can only be driven in-house. You need to have people who are in the trenches every day, talking to customers, experiencing the sales hurdles, refining the messages and positioning.

We join your team as external marketing advisors, provide consistent support and training including step-by-step playbooks, templates, marketing and sales dashboards, tech stack and process maps.

As a result, you get an evergreen in-house growth engine.

The old SDR model is DEAD:


- Building a large list of accounts that fit broad firmographic criteria
- Find decision-makers' emails
- Set up automated outbound cadence
- Follow-up with cold calls
- Rinse and repeat every quarter

This model prioritizes volume over quality, but its performance is going down every year.

Account-to-pipeline ratio (in SaaS): 0.03% (according to Focus Digital report: https://lnkd.in/dhw6BBgx)

That's why, according to Emergence Capital Beyond Benchmarks report (https://lnkd.in/d8Z3Yn2G), 36% of 560 tech companies decreased their SDR/BDR headcount in the last year—the highest percentage among all sales roles.

2 reasons I see:

a) To run this playbook, you don't need humans anymore. AI can do it 24/7, but that doesn't mean the results are getting better.

b) The problem is that everybody has access to the same AI tools and sends the same "personalized" emails everybody ignores.

The alternative?

Account-Based Sales Reps (ABSRs).

ABSRs work closely with marketing and SME on account list building, qualification, scoring and prioritisation.

They evaluate ICP fit and revenue potential, and subsegment all qualified accounts into two lists:

Active Focus and Future pipeline.

For the «Active Focus List», ABSR do:

- Account research and buying committee mapping
- Multithreading
- Posting cluster-based (aligned with the account challenge) nurturing content and distribute it to target accounts
- 1:1 account plans

Their KPI: sales opportunities and pipeline creaited.

We have implemented this model with several clients last year, and saw account-to-pipeline 5-15%.

For the «Future pipeline», ABSR do:

- Run account research and define blind spots:

Who belongs to the buying committee?

What they must know about the target account to create a relevant content and a personalised offer?

How can they get this information?

- Connect and engage with the buying committee 
- Progressive profiling

On a company level, everybody accepts that these accounts are not sales-ready. Hence the main KPI is account engagement and relationship with the buying committee. 

ABSRs actively work on account awareness and create a future pipeline for themselves.

—-
This Wed we're co-hosting a webinar with 👨‍🍳 Elric Legloire to reveal the account-based sales playbook and the role of ASBRs.

Save your spot here: https://lnkd.in/dDSgYBAR

Here is the framework we use to create full-funnel b2b marketing motion aligned with the buyer journey:

1. GTM FUNDAMENTALS.

Involve leadership, marketing, sales, product and client success to define:

- Business objectives
- Existing challenges
- Revenue targets
- Target use cases, markets and segments
- ICP: account qualification & prioritization criteria
- Primary buyer persona and it's role (Champion, Decision-maker, etc)
- Messaging and value proposition

2. BUYING COMMITTEE JOURNEY.

Define top accounts (we usually look at highest and fastest 5-10 deals) and run a detailed deal analysis & customer research (ideally, book a call with your Champion).

Ask about:

-How did they become aware of you and how many times did they hear about your product before buying? Ask about channels and programs.
-What alternatives did they have in mind?
-Did they review any competitors and talked to references? What channels did they use?
-Who was involved in the purchasing decision? At what stage? What questions did they ask?
-What influenced their decision to go with you?

Based on your analysis, create a visual flow highlighting the typical steps your primary buyer persona takes.

Then, visualize when other buying committee members join the buying process.

3. MAP OUT CORE MARKETING AND SALES PROGRAMS.

Define how you can increase your visibility in the channels from the analysis:

-What activities marketing and sales can take?
-What content is needed at every stage?
-Are there any friction points that can influence negatively or slow down the buyer journey?

4. MAP OUT METRICS, ATTRIBUTION AND REPORTS.

If your buyer journey is >6 months, you need to nail down attribution problem first, making sure all sales opportunities with marketing touchpoints are attributed as "ALLBOUND" or "MARKETING-INFLUENCED.

Agree with your leadership on:

-Leading indicators 
-Lagging indicators
-Revenue metrics (revenue breakdown, sales pipeline velocity, pipeline coverage)

5. MAP OUT YOUR TEAM MEMBERS TO THE PROGRAMS.

To set up real cross-functional collaboration, map out who does what, and how each role supports each other to achieve the goals.

This will give also a perfect overview of:

-What roles you might consider hiring?
-Which operations/programs you can outsource?
-Who do you need to upskill? 
- - -
One important point:

The B2B buyer journey is not linear. Your buyers might not take all the steps, or might return to previous steps multiple times.

I just wanted to share how to align marketing function with different buyer journey stages.

The key points:

Understand how and why your customers are buying.

Define the key activities to create awareness, attract attention, generate demand, and activate target accounts.

Define the skillset and roles.

This is how you go from "random acts of marketing" to cross-functional full-funnel marketing that generates revenue.

---
About which of these stages you'd like to read more?

Six full-funnel marketing fundamentals:


1.  STRONG GTM FUNDAMENTALS.

Without the strong foundation, you can't build an effective marketing function. GTM fundamentals include:

-Product
-Pricing
-Brand narrative
-Positioning, differentiation, and messaging
-Frictionless buying experience
-Processes and operations
-Use cases and ICP
-Technology, etc

Detailed guide: https://lnkd.in/dddQBH6g

2.  CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAMS.

To drive enterprise pipeline, you must stop silos between client-facing functions: planning, reporting, and incentives. Every unit should influence the buying process, pipeline generation, and expansion, not focus on vanity metrics.

Here is how we set them: https://lnkd.in/dxD7khrW

3.  INFLUENCING THE ENTIRE BUYER JOURNEY.

Understanding your ICP, its buyer journey, and how demand is created are the keys to driving B2B pipeline in 2026.

78% of buyers choose from brands they already know. Hence, instead of focusing on demand capturing and sales only, you need to:

- Constantly running brand awareness programs
- Nurturing the buying committees early
- Building presence in peer networks

See the real example: https://lnkd.in/dPFgQthA

4.  CHANGE ATTRIBUTION AND METRICS TO FULL-FUNNEL.

Marketing's ROI isn't lead volume. It's how efficiently we create awareness and convert pipeline with sales. 

When you have long sales cycles, you'll have multiple touchpoints: marketing, sales, product. The only right way to attribute is ALLBOUND revenue.

But you still need to measure marketing efficiency.

Do a decomposition of the buyer journey and show how marketing influences revenue from brand to closed-won.

Here is our dashboard: https://lnkd.in/dwEU9c-d

5.  GRADUALLY DEVELOP FULL-FUNNEL MARKETING FUNCTION WITH POS FRAMEWORK.

You can't make a revolution, blow everything up, and create a new marketing function. 

What works is small incremental change done every quarter with POS framework: Pilot -> Operationalization -> Scaling.

6.  BALANCE “ALWAYS ON” PROGRAMS WITH EXPERIMENTS AND SHORT-TERM ROI PROGRAMS.

Leadership will always demand the pipeline results now, which are...the outputs of long-term brand programs.

To move forward, you need to have a holistic motion of "always on" programs paired with short-term ROI programs. At the same time, you can't go all-in with it.

Always leave 20% for innovation and experimentation to avoid always being in the tail.
---

This Wed we'll go live with Vladimir Blagojević explaining the entire framework, and how to implement it in detail. Save your spot here: https://lnkd.in/dUzgU5JG

Most B2B teams suck at marketing to technical IT buyers. Here is why:


They try to replicate what works to sell to economical buyers:

Linkedin Ads → personalized outreach → semi-custom landing pages paired with content.

But what if your buyers aren't on LinkedIn?

What if they ignore every cold email?

What if they give exactly zero f*ck about your "streamlined solutions"?

We generated multiple enterprise deals with senior IT buyers, and I can say for sure - these audiences are notoriously skeptical of "traditional" marketing.

Here is what works based on our case studies:

Testrail: https://lnkd.in/dgmAxcuf
Postindustria: https://lnkd.in/dKMiy-DN
Glorium Tech: https://lnkd.in/dwJ6APG9

1. STOP SELLING. START PROVING.

Technical buyers don't respond to "here is your challenge - here is our solution" message . 

They research on their own, read documentation, and test products before talking to anyone.

Before launching any ABM program to IT buyers:

- Make sure your product documentation is crystal clear
- Offer a trial or sandbox environment
- Validate your messaging with actual technical users
- Ensure you have POC as a part of the sales process

2. LEVERAGE SPONTANEOUS ADVOCACY.

Engineers trust their peers 100x more than your case studies.

We found our customers already talking about the product in technical forums, YouTube, and niche communities. We amplified their voices instead of drowning them out with our own.

Result: peer-driven recommendations that actually moved deals forward.

3. USE INTERNAL SUBJECT-MATTER EXPERTS.

Your solution architects and technical leaders used to be your buyers. Put them front and center.

What worked for us:

- Educational webinars led by SMEs (not sales pitches)
- Community roundtables addressing real technical challenges
- Enabling technical experts to share lessons learned

4. FORGET LINKEDIN. GO WHERE THEY ACTUALLY ARE.

Senior IT buyers might not engage on LinkedIn, but they're active somewhere. 

We targeted them through:

→ Niche communities 
→ Direct mail with relevant, personalized research
→ Content collaborations with industry peers they already trust

5. INVOLVE THEM IN CONTENT CREATION.

The fastest way to build credibility with technical audiences? Make them the experts.

We invited target buyers to:

- Contribute to market research
- Participate in podcasts
- Co-create educational content

This gave us an excuse to reach out, built genuine relationships, and created peer-to-peer content that was 10x easier to distribute.

My honest take:

Most B2B teams will never run these playbooks. Too manual. Too much effort.
They'll keep blasting automated outreach at technical buyers who will continue ignoring them.

But that's good news for you.

It means there's a massive opportunity to stand out by actually doing the work of understanding your technical buyers and engaging them on their terms—not yours.

How are we going to create awareness and nurture accounts? - sales rep asked me during ABM onboarding. Me:

Here is the framework of constant value-added touchpoints we are going to deploy.

1. 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩.

Why: 

- Generating demand for your product. 
- Proving niche expertise. 
- Position yourself as a trusted advisor. 
- Nurturing target accounts.

2. 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠.

Why: 

- Create awareness & attract attention. 
- Show your expertise. 
- Repurpose comments into posts.

3. 𝐀𝐝𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭.

Why: Seep p.1

4. 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬 (𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦).

Why: 

- Regular appear in the newsfeed of the target accounts. 
- Build a strong brand & a real relationship with the target audience. 
- Generate and capture the demand. 
- Educate & nurture the target market

5. 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬.

Why:

- Higher acceptance rate
- Opportunity to build a real relationship

6. 𝐍𝐨𝐧-𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬.

Why:

- Stay top of their mind & nurture the audience.
- Capture demand.

7. 𝐀𝐝𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬/𝐁𝐎𝐅𝐔 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬.

Why:

- Generate demand.
- Generate inbound opportunities.

8. 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡.

Why:

- Higher response rate.
- Opportunity to get customer insights and see if there is a fit.
- Build a relationship.
- Capture the demand and generate a sales opportunity.

---
In 2025, you don't create account awareness and nurture accounts by sending "personalized" outbound emails.

You create it through constant value-added engagement with the entire buying committee aligned with their current needs.

Here is how we almost killed our first ABM program because of one "ghosted" deal.

Fall 2020, in the middle of Covid-19, Vladimir and I decided to validate if there would be enough demand for ABM consulting. We launched a simple ABM campaign with 21 accounts and a $300 budget.

The setup was simple:

- Identify accounts that engaged with us on LinkedIn and signed up to my newsletter

- Interview CEOs & CMOs about how they navigate growth during Covid
Identify their challenges

- Map out the right ABM strategy together and get their feedback if they'd like to implement it

Our goal was to win at least 3 deals (we set up a small price) for validation.

In 6 weeks we had 6 sales opportunities, and 2 closed-won.

We had one more hot prospect, to whom we sent a direct mail and got great feedback, but suddenly they went silent. No replies to emails, no LinkedIn engagement.

We were ready to shut down the entire thing after executing 3-months pilots with 2 closed-won, until we saw a signal from our digital content hub (we use Aligned) - somebody consumed the content and checked the embedded calendar.

Vlad immediately sent a follow-up email to the CEO, and we booked a call.

What's interesting is what was really happening during the "ghosting" period.

Our prospect went through rebranding that became the core executive and marketing focus. What we assumed as "lack of interest" was just the second-priority initiative.

And there was evidence that the interest was still there: regular content hub and website visits, 2 people from their team signed up for our newsletter and the webinar, but we didn't pay attention to it.

The "ghosted deal" became our first fantastic case study (published on our website).

The moral of the story: In enterprise B2B, "ghosting" often just means "not ready yet."

But without visibility into what's happening in the dark funnel, you'll kill programs that are actually working.

How many good marketing programs have been shut down because we couldn't see the buying activity happening behind the scenes?

#AlignedPartner

Here's the 5-step process to fix "account blindness" and missed buying signals:


1. CREATE A STANDARD FOR ACCOUNT RESEARCH, ENRICHMENT AND QUALIFICATION.

In many B2B companies, there are simply no definitions of the "quality standards" and definitions of "done". 

How can you spot it:

- Different sales reps qualify/disqualify accounts using different criteria
- The account research varies from rep to rep
- No agreement on how many buying committee members must be researched and enriched
- Account insights and touchpoints are spread across marketing automation, CRM, Sales Navigator, and meeting notes.

The first step you take is creating a standard for the account research and enrichment, and deciding how to store this information in CRM (single source of truth).

2. DEFINE INTENT AND ENGAGEMENT SIGNALS WORTH TRACKING.

Think about both account-level and contact-level signals.

Account signals:

- High-intent page visits
- Multiple repeat visits to your website in the last 30 days
- Account penetration

Contact signals:

- Which buying committee members are engaging
- Email, content and social engagement
- Event sing-ups

3. DEFINE IMPORTANT BUYING PROCESS TRIGGERS/SIGNALS.

Analyze closed-won deals and define what signals usually trigger or associate with the start of the buying process:

- Money raised
- Hiring for specific positions
- Corporate press-releases
- Past Champion or Power User joined a target account
- Asking for a vendor recommendation in the communities
- Creating a new business unit/office

Next, define the sources for capturing these signals, saving to CRM and sending notifications to ABM team or dedicated sales reps.

4. DEFINE THE SIGNAL-TRACKING PROGRAM OWNER.

Often, B2B teams purchase the technology and expect everybody in sales and marketing to use it asynchronously. This never happens.

You need one person responsible for:

- Creating a unified process for capturing and sharing signals
- Managing the tech stack
- Ensuring data quality
- Sharing isnights with marketing and sales

Without ownership, signals tracking becomes another noise the teams ignore.

5. DEVELOP PLAYBOOKS ALIGNED WITH THE SIGNAL INTENT.

The biggest mistake: treating all signals the same way as "ready to buy."

A pricing page visit from an engaged account with a good relationship? High intent and a good reason for account owner to follow up with the Champion.

A first-time event sign up from a cold account? No intent. Reach out to connect, build relationship and understand the interest, not pitch your product.

---
Most B2B teams can't see 85% of the buying signals happening right in front of them.

Not because the data doesn't exist. 

But because it is stored in multiple platforms, and nobody's connecting the dots.

I call this "account blindness" - lack of a complete view of how strategic accounts interact with you across marketing, sales, and product touchpoints.

And this is the lowest hanging fruit to make marketing and sales working together.

Here is what I learned the hard way about telling my leadership that "we need to change how marketing works":


As a young marketing leader, I got into the trap most marketing leaders fall into today.

I pitched transformation. Requested new programs. Built decks about "strategic shifts."

And then watching it all die in a board meeting where leadership asked one simple question: "What's the ROI, and when can we see it?"

I wish somebody could tell me a simple truth:

You don't need permission. You need proof. 

And proof doesn't come from a 40-slide strategy deck.  It comes from proving that marketing can influence the pipeline, and sales can benefit from it. 

After trials and errors, I defined several components that later became key pillars of our consulting methodology.

1. CONNECT THE DOTS, DON'T ADD MORE DOTS.

You don't need new programs. You need to make existing activities more actionable for pipeline impact.

Stop launching. Start connecting.

2. RUN A SMALL-SCOPE PILOT TO TEST THE APPROACH , NOT IGNITE A REVOLUTION.

Don't walk into the next meeting saying "this is broken, that doesn't work."
That's how you lose your seat.

Instead, run a small experiment in parallel. Prove one thing works. Then expand.

3. LEAD WITH DATA, NOT FRUSTRATION.

Remember the viral posts on LinkedIn several years ago with the common them: "Don't work for companies where the CEO doesn't get marketing."

Sure, it felt good. Got some likes from peers.

But here's reality: that's 90% of B2B companies.

Where are we all supposed to work?

Venting on LinkedIn doesn't change budgets. 

Data does. Stories do. Proof does.

4. SOLVE ATTRIBUTION BEFORE YOU SOLVE ANYTHING ELSE.

The "marketing-sourced vs sales-sourced" war with your CFO will kill every initiative you launch.

Fix that first. Or nothing else matters.

5. MAKE SALES CARE OR DON'T BOTHER.

If your marketing improvements don't visibly impact sales pipeline or their KPIs, it won't get support.

I've seen it dozens of times.

Great strategy. Zero adoption. Because sales didn't benefit.

Everything you do must connect to what sales is measured on. Full stop.

6. REPORT WINS BEFORE DEALS CLOSE.

With long sales cycles, you can't wait for closed revenue to prove success.
You'll be gone before the data proves you right.

Define leading indicators. 
Milestones you can report quarterly. 
Show directional proof that it's working.

That's how you buy time. That's how you earn trust.
---
The honest truth about marketing transformation:

It fails because we ask for too much, too soon.

Budgets. New tools. Complete overhauls.

And leadership says no. Because who has time for this?

What works instead?

Building proof with what you have. 

Showing sales how marketing programs help them. 

Reporting early wins.

Then scaling.

There is a huge difference between doing ABM and doing ABM WELL! Here is a checklist to evaluate your program (low vs high efficacy):

ACCOUNT LISTS

Low: Static list of 100s of accounts coming from sales. 
High: Accounts are sourced from intent and engagement data, prioritized and segmented into two lists:

Active Focus: 1-10 accounts, 1-1 account planning and engagement, 60% of sales rep focus (SDR + AE), updated weekly based on engagement insights. Goal: discovery calls.

Future pipeline: 20-50 accounts, 1:few playbooks, in-depth account research (Desk + 1-1), engagement with the entire buying committee. Goal: need validation.

ACCOUNT RESEARCH 

Low: Chatgpt / Clay. No defined structure (SDR decides). No defined # of buyers mapped. Not saved in CRM. Used primarily for automated outbound. 

High: web + AI + 1-1 engagement. Defined standard + # of buyers (min). Saved in CRM as fields and notes. Used for:
-Planning next engagement 
-Content distribution
-Personalized content and solutions

BUYER ENGAGEMENT.

Low: technology-led, optimized for volume: marketing - ads, sales - automated outbound.

High: manual engagement supported by account ads (if there is a budget).

Marketing - buyer enablement, personalized content, co-engagement with account marketing teams, industry thought leaders and partners, personalized direct mails for the engaged buyers.

Sales: regular commenting & non-sales touchpoints, content/news sharing, bridge activities, peer-to-peer connections, event invites, progressive profiling, multithreading.

TEAM EFFICIENCY

Low: measured just by MQLs or discovery calls booked. 
High: Measured by weekly leading (# of pieces of content created, # of content hubs/personalized offers created, # of accounts researched and engaged, # of non-sales touchpoints), lagging indicators (engaged accounts, account penetration, positive replies and playbook engagement, event sign ups) + pipeline metrics (discovery calls, sales oppportunities)

PLAYBOOK ORCHESTRATION.

Low: static playbooks executed in silos to joint list of accounts (marketing - ads, sales - outbound). No sync meeting and no joint planning. Signals/MQls transfer.

High: Cross-functional playbook orchestration. Weekly planning and review meetings. Weekly KPIs and targets are aligned with the playbook. Playbooks are built one on another to create compound engagement.

CONVERSION BENCHMARKS
Low: account to pipeline - <1%
High: account to pipeline - 5-15%
---
My favorite quote about ABM is by Jaleh Rezaie: ABM is the “Teenage Sex” of the last decade – Everyone’s talking about it. Few are actually doing it. And nobody is good at it.

Lots of B2B marketing teams say they do ABM, but between "just doing it" and driving enterprise revenue is a huge gap.

This Wed we'll present with Vladimir Blagojević practical examples of how to audit and refine your ABM program. Sign up here: 

https://lnkd.in/dakfZiTP

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