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.