Jon Miller

In the old days, marketers chased leads, they gave it to sales and they went out and closed deals. This concept is dead, says Jon Miller, Co-founder of Engagio, an “all in one” platform for account based marketing.

According to Miller, marketing and sales were casting a wide net and looking for fish from everywhere. Today, we need to go together with a spear and catch the right fish. In short, account based marketing alone will not help us reach the right influencers in key organizations. He is advocating for an “all hands on deck,” approach that blurs the boundaries between marketing and sales.

Marketers should focus on what Miller terms as “account based everything.” This is accomplished by targeting specific named accounts in your portfolio, developing a strategy and by personalizing your messages. Focus on a set of people and be more relevant and effective to their needs.

Marketing can no longer focus on what, where and how. Instead, ask: who, what and where. Build tiers of prospects based on levels of personalization and involvement within your portfolio. The top tier will include folks with whom you have deep insight, the second tier will be  a lighter version and the third, a hybrid model.

Miller encouraged marketers at a recent Marketing Technology Summit in Phoenix to do things in harmony, to orchestrate their attempts so that they can reach the right people. This is being cleverly done in fundraising in successful Universities. Talented prospect researchers create tiered donor profiles enabling fundraisers to seek out folks who really want to give.

Long story short, the silos are dead.

Miller has written a clear guide on account based marketing and it is available here.

At your next team meeting, forget outcomes, meditate for a moment and ask one simple question: Are we building culture?

Steve Hall, President of Drivers Select, a used car dealer  in Dallas begins his management meetings asking: What act of kindness did we notice in our company today? Hall is thinking long-term, wants to treat people right and selling cars is secondary to his business model.

Drivers Select has grown from $30 million in 2008 and expects to touch $108 million in revenue in 2016 in an industry notoriously plagued by consumer complaints. Hall has built a culture that genuinely cares for its people and embraces four core values: transparency, taking ownership, consistent learning and celebrating small victories.

According to Hall, his employees want to work in a culture that recognizes them as individual human beings.

On a larger scale, Bob Chapman, CEO of the $1.7 billion manufacturing company, Barry-Wehmiller, is so people-centric that he treats every employee as a life entrusted to him. He does not tie the individual to a business function or process. Chapman measures success by  how his business touches peoples lives and not the next quarter.

“You will need a higher purpose and conscious leaders who will help build your business on love and care, not stress,” says Raj Sisodia, a co-founder of the Conscious Capitalism movement. “Profits cannot be pursued, instead they ensue. The more you pursue profits, the more you will cut corners.”

In 10 years, 75% of the U.S. workforce will be led by millennials, a generation that doubts that capitalism can be a force for good. This selfless generation might get detached from the pursuit of short term profits, think long-term and care more about people and purpose.

Will you be ready with a great culture or will you still be worrying about short term outcomes?