Fuze CMO Brian Kardon Reveals his Secret to B2B Sales Success

B2B sale is a complex area, equal parts art, and science. Brian Kardon, Chief Marketing Officer at Fuze, tells Ziff Davis B2B how his company finds new prospects, connects with them, and finally closes a sale, by employing a mix of technology and human strategy. This was a four-part interview; here, we share a brief excerpt and key takeaways.

SALES ENABLEMENT IN THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY: STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR B2B ENTERPRISES

Seismic is the recognized leader in sales and marketing enablement, equipping global sales teams with the knowledge, messaging, and automatically personalized content proven to be the most effective for any buyer interaction.

Register

The modern B2B sales function is rapidly changing, and in a few years, automation and smart bots are poised to take over the majority of B2B sales tasks. What will remain unchanged, is the need for strategic human intervention and judgment to build a genuine connection with business customers. Jeff Leroux and Shastri Purushotma from Ziff Davis B2B spoke to Brian Kardon, CMO at a unified communications company, Fuze. Spread across four parts, the interview covered diverse areas – from how his father influenced his affinity for change to customer profiling and ABM for B2B sales. Readers can view the full transcript of Part 1, 2, 3, and 4.

The Future of B2B Sales?

We started Part 1 with a candid conversation on how Brian’s father, a surgeon, led him into a career in marketing. “I learned from my father that medical techniques are changing all the time, and he was a big believer in staying up to date with these changes. The analogy with marketing is very strong with all the new marketing technologies and techniques.” Reaffirming a fear many Sales & Marketing professional have today, Brian said that salespeople are likely to be soon replaced by bots, both in B2C and B2B sales scenarios. The ones with the technical skills to write these bots, on the other hand, would gain an edge. Would you agree?

Types of Marketers and Types of Customers

Part 2 dealt with analog and digital marketers, with Brian clearly distinguishing between the two. With real-world examples and colorful illustrations, it was an enriching discussion on the different approaches to B2B sales. Within this paradigm, here’s how Brian positions himself: “I am like a marketing archeologist; I like to examine all the artifacts and approaches.”

Next up, we looked at customer profiling and what made Brian join Fuze; a compelling product narrative was the factor that stood out. Brian shed light on how advanced data science and analytics were making a difference at Fuze – technologies that are probably on every marketer’s mind.

In Part 3, Brian spoke at length on his experience at Fuze and the methodologies used to connect with B2B sales prospects, and C-level executives specifically. Here’s what he had to say about ABM in B2B sales: “We are not buying ads in the Super Bowl, putting up freeway billboards, etc., because we only focus on these 20,000 accounts around the world, so we are very laser-like in how we do our marketing.” This was a major takeaway from the interview.

He also mentioned exactly why it was so important for a client’s CEO to be familiar with a product company, otherwise “we are in trouble”.

Technology Meets Human Strategy

Finally, in Part 4, Brian unveiled in full detail the technology stack employed at Fuze – Eloqua, Full Circle Insights, and Engagio were at the top of the list comprising 23 marketing and 20 sales tools. Training salespeople, he said, occurs via roleplay and simulation; according to him “classrooms and Powerpoints don’t work very well”. Brian also broke down the entire B2B sales process at Fuze, sharing telling insights around BVA (Business Value Analysis) and why they never leave a salesperson alone with a CIO!

If you found this interesting, please click to read the full interview from Part 1 onwards: Aligning Marketing & Sales At Fuze Part 1: Adapting To Rapid Change.