Dreamforce Interview with Jon Miller, CEO and Co-Founder at Engagio

What comes to mind when you think of Dreamforce?

Dreamforce can be overwhelming. It’s a very large and noisy event, where you can reach a thousand people with your message and still hit less than 1% of the whole show. So, it’s really important to figure out an effective strategy to reach as many of the RIGHT people as possible (that’s what ABM is all about!).

Which sections and speakers are you keenly waiting to attend and interact with? And, why?

I’m most looking forward to meeting our customers at the Engagio Pit Stop Lounge where you can kick your feet up, meet with our B2B Marketing experts, and enjoy coffee and snacks on Tuesday (11/19) and Wednesday (11/20) from 9:00am – 5:00pm at Chronicle Books located directly across the street from Moscone West at 165 Fourth Street. Sign up here: https://www.engagio.com/dreamforce/

I’m also excited about delivering the OpsStars Keynote, “The Future of Account Based Marketing,” on Wednesday, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. You’ll get insights into what’s working and what’s not when it comes to ABM. I’m really providing a deep dive into some of the top lessons we’ve learned in the last four years, and look at what the future holds for ABM.

You have co-started two MarTech companies and today you are rated as one of the leading names in MarTech space for ABM. What has been the most challenging moment of your career as a MarTech CEO and CMO?

In the early days with Marketo, the challenge was convincing people, especially investors, that Marketing Technology was even a category, something that people really needed. Historically, before Marketo, MarTech was seen as a huge capital investment, and that’s not how marketers buy things. They bought with program dollars. The key thing we did at Marketo was help to convince people that Marketing COULD be supported by Technology, but the key was delivering the technology in a way that they could buy in the same way they purchase other things…like google ads, etc..

Today, the challenge is “too much MarTech” with 7,000 MarTech companies. As a vendor, it’s hard to stand out, and as a buyer, it’s overwhelming. I’m hearing from customers that they are looking for ways to simplify their MarTech stacks. That’s why Engagio is building the next generation Marketing platform – to help simplify this process for marketers!

No two MarTech CMO seem to agree on one-true definition of Customer Experience and its result on Sales growth, and yet agree ‘It’s important”. What is your benchmark for CX in B2B Marketing and Sales and how Engagio delivers on this?

The world has changed. The buying process is no longer linear. A Sales and Marketing model of a “baton handoff” no longer works, and that is increasingly causing companies to suffer from missed pipeline goals, poor Sales/Marketing alignment, and difficulties in moving up market. So what companies need to focus on today is a coordinated customer experience – where Sales and Marketing work as a team at every stage of the account journey.

Engagio helps deliver on this by making sure both departments are looking at the same data for each account, that they are proactively sharing info with each other, and collaborating all their actions via orchestrated plays.

What has been your observation on the growth of CX and its impact on Subscription economy?

In the subscription economy, the vast majority of revenue happens after the initial sale, in the post-sale phase. However, there’s a disconnect where too many Marketing departments are focused only on generating new business for the pipeline. What needs to change? Modern B2B marketers need to adjust to focus on every stage of the account journey, creating pipeline BUT ALSO accelerating deals and expanding and accelerating accounts. It requires marketers to have a more account centric view and an understanding how different buying centers move through their unique journeys.

We have heard about the extensive applications of AI and Machine learning in Customer Experience tools. How did you leverage AI at Engagio for your CX platforms?

Across all the different channels and touchpoints and ways companies can interact with their buyers, there’s an overwhelming amount of data, so it’s important to be able to focus a sales person on the data that matters most to help them sell more effectively. With Engagio Selectors, marketers create very precise segments and alert sales on which key opps to target and work.

What would be the most powerful technology development of the decade for you?

Engagio is trying to create a world where we deliver on “Meaningful Marketing,” which is when every interaction between a company and a customer is relevant, personalized and valuable – and also makes an impact for the company. This requires the ability to deliver personalization at scale. We’ve seen the emergence of better personalization via techniques such as Account Based Marketing (ABM), but when tech evolves to deliver true, personalized 1-to-1 interactions at industrial era scale, that will have a profound impact on a company’s ability to create Meaningful Marketing.

Thank you, Jon! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.