ABM TechBytes with Michael Kostow, SVP & GM at Salesforce Pardot

We recently covered the Salesforce ABM Launch Einstein Account-Based Marketing (ABM), a complete, end-to-end B2B marketing solution powered by artificial intelligence. The hype and buzz around ABM has never been hotter, we caught up with Mike Kostow, SVP Salesforce Pardot to get Salesforce’s perspective on the platform.

MTS: What does Salesforce ABM bring to the table that the mix of Salesforce Engage, Advertising Studio, and Lead Scoring have not already?

Earlier this month, Salesforce announced the availability of Einstein ABM, the first AI-powered solution in the market for B2B companies to better align sales and marketing around specific accounts, improve prospect targeting and close deals. No other solution offers the world’s #1 CRM, marketing automation, digital advertising, and analytics, all on one platform, empowering B2B companies to finally get ABM right.

MTS: Before the launch of Einstein ABM, you often asked, “What are you trying to do” when posed with questions about ABM around Salesforce Pardot. What finally opened the door on the formal ABM offering from Salesforce?

ABM has been around for a while, but current ABM solutions miss the mark because they’re unable to integrate their first party CRM data with their marketing efforts, including email nurturing, B2B digital advertising and analytics—creating data silos, internal misalignment, and inefficient prospect engagement. At Salesforce, we saw an opportunity to bridge that gap for B2B companies once and for all with Einstein ABM. Powered AI, Einstein ABM enables marketing and sales teams to precisely target the most valuable accounts, personalize campaigns and engage with prospects at scale—improving pipeline quality and turning the hottest leads into new deals.

MTS: How does it fare against established ABM offerings from vendors like Terminus, Marketo, and Engagio? What type of customer would buy Einstein ABM over any of these and why?

ABM solutions in market today are unable to successfully integrate their first party CRM data with their marketing efforts. As mentioned above, this results in a lot of problems for companies and more importantly in their ability to target and engage with leads—leading to poor ROI.

Salesforce facilitates more than 50 billion customer interactions a month for a global community of 150,000+ customers. No other company has this sort of scale and trust with its customers. With Einstein ABM, Salesforce brings together all of that first party data on the world’s #1 CRM, leading AI, as well as a range of sales and marketing capabilities, enabling B2B companies to create highly personalized marketing and sales journeys for their most valuable leads.

MTS: Does Einstein’s AI give Salesforce ABM the edge it needs to bring content, sales, and marketing together in a meaningful way that drives measurable outcomes for a business?

AI offers a layer of prediction to ABM activities for sales and marketing teams to be more efficient and effective in their prospect and lead engagement. Einstein Lead Scoring automatically identifies the leads most likely to convert based on factors such as relationship history and past purchases. Einstein Account Insights arms reps with the latest prospect news, such as M&A activity and financial results, to inform engagement strategies. And, Einstein Opportunity Insights analyzes customer sentiment, competitor involvement, and overall lead engagement to determine how deals are trending.

MTS: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us Mike. We look forward to having at MarTech Series again for more insights.

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