e tion dina oor art 10 c f P The importanco Marketing's role in account research Marketing doesn’t just help in the WHERE part of ABE, they also help in the WHO and WHAT stages: sourcing account data, finding contacts within accounts and researching accounts to generate the commercial insight that’s so important. For many B2B companies, Marketing owns this “Marketing and Sales Development are the two departments tasked important function (working closely with Sales with having the first conversation with future customers. They’re the and SDRs). It makes sense: Marketing should always have an eye on the wider market, the big two friends in the group who need to be on the same page when they trends, the pressing issues and the emerging approach two strangers at the bar and ask for phone numbers. pain points. Harnessing this perspective to build richer, better-informed account profiles and personas will always empower the SDRs to Specifically, marketing needs to coach Sales Dev on the language and have better conversations with the right people. product positioning that they’re after, and Sales Dev needs to coach Marketing may also see contacts within a target marketing on the effectiveness and feedback from customers engaged account before they appear on the Sales radar with these campaigns.” screens. Web, email or content consumption activity within an account can give a valuable Robby Allen heads-up to SDRs that something is going on. Director of Sales Development, Again: an integrated effort from a tightly aligned Zenefits team is what works. 87