Brandon Redlinger on Creating Alignment and Incentivizing Success

Summary

In this episode of Real ABM our guest is Brandon Redlinger, Senior Director of Product Marketing at ringDNA. When joining the company in early 2021, Brandon describes how ringDNA was in the early stages of its account-based marketing strategy. Brandon covers the activities involved when setting up the company’s ABM strategy.

At this point, the ringDNA team consists of eleven resources segmented into three main areas: 1) Product marketing and content, 2) Growth and 3) Corporate Communications.

During this episode, Brandon focuses on the importance of alignment across all segments of marketing and sales. According to Brandon, alignment between marketing and sales resources is a core piece to ensuring your account- based marketing strategy has success.

So how do you get alignment? Brandon mentions that compensation drives alignment and most organizations have a major disparity in compensation and incentives. In order for ABM to work well within an organization, compensation and overall incentives must be aligned properly. After incentives are aligned and there’s buy-in from leadership, the other key aspect of ABM is clarifying the target audience. Based on Brandon’s experience, it’s crucial to establish an account list that’s not too overwhelming at first.

“If I know one thing about managing people, it’s that people respond to incentives. And the biggest incentive out there is your paycheck. The further away your sales number is from your marketing number, then the further away you are going to be for alignment.”

– Brandon Redlinger

Key Insights

What's a good working definition for ABM? According to Brandon, ABM is a go-to-market strategy that coordinates personalized sales and marketing efforts to land and expand your target accounts. It isn’t just a marketing strategy, ABM has a deep connection with sales.
The ABM motion can be difficult to manage, especially because it requires alignment across so many different segments of the organization. In order to get started, it's important to get a solid foundation in place and add layers of complexity as you experience the small wins.
Direct Mail and gifting doesn’t have to break the bank. When building out your ABM campaign, it doesn’t always make financial sense to distribute flashy and expensive gifts. According to Brandon, a less expensive but more thoughtful gift can work much better within the overarching ABM motion. When you integrate personal gifts as touch points, it requires more research but provides a much better experience for the customer.

Major Takeaways

Nick Bennett

Co-host

Brandon gave wonderful insight into how ABM changes over time. There is so much that goes into making an ABM strategy work, and to be able to see the changes that come over time and to see how those changes affect the relationship between marketing and sales is key. It is a reminder you have to constantly keep in alignment, and keep a check on what is best for the customer.

Pete Lorenco

Co-host

Brandon was a wealth of insight in tactics and events. He gave some very practical examples of what was working for him and the level of care and insight that goes into making those tactics and events a success. It really does show that creating an environment that builds trust and grows a relationship is a key part of a sale with a customer.

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Real ABM is a video podcast series for B2B marketing professionals who are looking to use ABM strategies to drive revenue. In each episode, we cover specific ABM plays and remove the b.s., fluff, and vendor subliminal messages. By tuning into the ABM Series, you’ll learn how to develop a custom ABM strategy, implement specific ABM tactics and standout as a marketer by generating revenue for your company.

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