The Engagio PlayBookinfo.engagio.com/Rs/356-AXE-401/Images/The-Engagio-PlayBook-2-17-2017.pdfChapter...

How to Design and Orchestrate the Best Account Based Everything Plays

The Engagio PlayBook

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Contents

Introduction 3

Types of Plays 4Chapter 1 5

Getting the Right Players Involved 6

The Right Number of Touches 9

Diversifying Your Channels 10

Optimal Timing 12

The Most Relevant and Valuable Content 13

Putting the Pieces Together 18

Types of Coordinated Plays 19Chapter 2 20

Sales and Sales Development 21

Marketing 24

Customer Success 25

Chapter 3 The Engagio PlayBook 27Chapter 3 27

How to Read Our Playbook 29

Sales and Sales Development Plays 30Core Prospecting Play 31

Mutual Connection Play 36

Trigger Event: Hiring Play 40

Marketing Qualified Account Play 43

ADR to AE Handoff Play 46

Deal Acceleration Play 48

Executive Alignment Play 51

“Shake the Tree” Play 53

Marketing Plays 57Live 58

Event Play 58

Upsell/Cross-Sell Play 61

Advocacy/Customer Marketing Play 64

Customer Success 66AE to CSM + Onboarding Play 67

Customer Renewal Play 70

Churn or Detractor/Churn Play 73

Conclusion 76About Engagio 77

2

Just want to jump to the Plays?

Start on page 30

3I N T R O D U C T I O N

As much as people are embracing the idea of Account Based Everything, there is a lot of waiting around to see what this actually looks like. What does it mean to be account based? What does a coordinated Play actually look like? Who on my team needs to get involved? What technology is needed?

The key asset we all need is an account Playbook that illustrates the Plays companies can use the achieve their objectives.

We need more than theory. We need concrete plans that we can execute. That’s what this ebook sets out to tackle.

We’re going to reveal the critical elements of any good Account Based Everything Play. Then we’re going to drill one level deeper and explain the types of Plays your sales, marketing and customer success teams can and should be running. And lastly, we’re going to reveal specific Plays that you can run, step by step. We’ll show you some of our best Plays and show you exactly how to execute them to get immediate results.

Let’s dive in!

Introduction

1

C H A P T E R 1 : T Y P E S O F P L AY S

Types of Plays

A Play is a series of steps that orchestrates

interactions across departments and channels

to achieve a business purpose for one or more

buying centers at target accounts.

C H A P T E R 1 : T Y P E S O F P L AY S 5

T Y P E S O F P L AY S

Plays can go way beyond basic prospecting into target accounts to include every step of the buying journey – even Customer Success – as well as customer-facing interactions from any department. If it matters to your business, there’s a Play that can help you achieve that goal.

Before we dive into each element, I want to let you in on a little secret. Everyone wants the magic formula that will have responses flooding their inboxes, prospects replying to their tweets, and decision-makers picking up their calls. The secret is… there is no secret, no magic formula. That’s why you need multiple follow ups. That’s why it’s important to leverage different channels. That’s why you must get your entire team involved. That’s why you need the best technology to support your efforts.

Furthermore, what works for one person in one industry at one point in time may not (and probably will not) work for you. That’s why you must continue to test and refine your Playbook and your individual Plays. Only then can you begin to lock in the right combination of the elements and find what works.

Chapter 1Here are the essential elements of well-designed Plays:

PlayersWho should you involve?

TouchesHow many?

ChannelsWhich ones?

TimingWhat’s the right flow?

ContentWhat should you say?


G E T T I N G T H E R I G H T P L AY E R S I N V O LV E D

Before you think about how many touches should go into your Play, the channels you’ll use, or any other aspect, start with getting the right people involved. This asks the questions, “who should be doing what?” In sports, it takes a team to navigate all the opposing players and get the ball from one end of the field to the other and across the goal line. There’s no “I” in Account Based Sales Development.

That’s why we call it “team selling.” Approach deals as company sourced deals. When you have team alignment, marketing doesn’t have lead commits, and sales doesn’t have daily dial numbers. An entire company sources the deal and closes the account.

Getting the Right

Players Involved

http://engagio.com/team-selling/



You don’t need every email and every call to come from just one Sales Development Rep (SDR). Assign tasks to team members, including sales, SDRs, marketing, senior executives, industry experts at your company, etc. Heck, even get your CEO involved. Do you think an executive from your target company is more likely to read and reply to an email from an SDR or another executive? But that doesn’t mean your executive needs to do the work to research the account and customize the email. Have an SDR do that, and then the exec just needs to approve it!

This idea becomes even more important when you’re selling to people who are not used to taking calls. When was the last time an engineer or your head of HR was excited to jump on the phone with a sales rep? Those are the hardest people to get on a call. But they will react much differently to another engineer or head of HR reaching out,

“Who should be doing what? In sports, it takes a team to navigate all the opposing players and get the ball from one end of the field to the other and across the goal line. There’s no ‘I’ in Account Based Sales Development.”



When designing your playbook and deciding who to include on your roster don’t forget about the following players and the roles they play:

Our team

• Executive Management provides the vision and contributes at key points to connect with high-level contacts.

• Marketing finds and nurtures the accounts, uncovers insights, and creates tailored content

• Account Development sets the stage and starts conversations

• Pre-Sales and Sales Engineers give a great demo

• Account Executives negotiate and close the business

• Customer Success onboards and trains accounts

Their team

Now, let’s take a look at the other side of the field. We all know that complex, B2B sales have many influencers, stakeholders, and decision-makers involved in a purchasing decision. You’re not going to send all of your players after just one contact at a target account. You must line up each player on your team with the appropriate player on the buying team.

One rule of thumb that has served us well at Engagio is that communication should come from the same title level or higher of the recipient.

Before launching your Play, carefully think about which players should be involved on both teams.


T H E R I G H T N U M B E R O F T O U C H E S

There are “sales experts” that proclaim you must have 7 follow ups, while others say 12. I’ve even heard one self-proclaimed guru preach 17 is the right number. What’s the right number?

From my years in sales, there are a few things I’ve learned.

The first lesson is persistence wins. You can’t send just one or two emails, then give up and move on to the next prospect. You must follow up! That said, there’s a right way to be persistent and provide value at every touch (which we will dive into later). This is the difference between being an annoying pest and a respected, welcomed guest.

The Right Number

of Touches

When you’re using the right ABSD platform, building in multiple touches and remembering to do those touches at the right time becomes easy. Often times, I hear SDRs say they simply forgot to send more than 2 or 3 touches. It’s not a matter of whether it’s good for their prospecting efforts or not – it’s about making it easy and convenient.

The second lesson is not all touches are created equal. We’ll talk about channel diversification in a little bit, but to illustrate the point, let’s take two scenarios. Rep A sends four emails and makes four phone calls over a one week period. Reps B sends two emails, makes two calls, but also has brand-awareness ads running in the background, visits your LinkedIn profile, likes and shares a tweet, and finally makes a smart comment on a blog post you wrote.

Whose approach do you think is more effective? Rep A had fewer touches, but Rep B had more channel diversification. Which rep would be more likely to interact with?

Pro tip: Use the right technology. When your reps are prospecting into an account, if someone replies to a Play, that Play must auto-pause. Otherwise, the next touch will go automatically but erroneously. That’s the sound of trust being shattered. That’s why having the right tools and technology is critical.

C H A P T E R 1 : T Y P E S O F P L AY S 1 0

Diversifying Your

Channels

Phone and email are the most common types of touches, but in today’s complex B2B sales environment, having those in your toolbox are table-stakes. Prospecting must be multi-channel.

If you take nothing else away from this section, let it be this: a mix of channels will always out-perform any single channel.

Here are the big three channels that an ABSD discipline is built on:

• Human email – as opposed to automated templates or marketing automation campaigns

• The phone – including voice mail and live calls

• Social media – including industry community sites

After you have those in place, it’s time to architect a Playbook on top of that foundation. More determined SDRs will go beyond those channels, finding the most creative channels for prospecting. Here is a list of other possible channels to diversify outbound efforts:

• Text messages

• Personal video

• Google Hangout

• Door to door

• Personal podcast

• Slideshare

• Personal website

• Direct mail

• Fax

• Display and retargeting ads

• Free standing inserts in newspapers

• AngelList profile

• Meetup.com profile

• Etc.

Of course, you can’t use all of these, and it probably doesn’t make sense to either. You must know your buyers. There are still plenty of companies that use fax machines, and the chances are if they’re still using faxes, they’re probably not on on Snapchat. In the same vein, CFOs buy differently than VPs of marketing.

D I V E R S I F Y I N G Y O U R C H A N N E L S


D I V E R S I F Y I N G Y O U R C H A N N E L S

Not all touches are created equal. A LinkedIn profile view and a direct mail piece are both “touches” but have a dramatically different impact on the prospect. The former is a very soft touch, while the latter is one of the most direct. When you begin to mix soft touches with direct touches, it’s much easier to stay top of mind without being obnoxious.

You must choose your channels wisely. If you respect the prospect and the channel, your efforts will go far. I love the advice of Gary Vaynerchuck: “If content is king, then context is God.” Neglecting to first take the context into consideration can have the opposite effect, relegating you to the blacklist for good. For example, in the eye of certain prospects, personal channels like Facebook or Snapchat aren’t appropriate in a business setting.

“Multi-channel cadences simulate the richness of face-to-face relationships

while keeping the costs down.”

–Ken Krogue, InsideSales.com


O P T I M A L T I M I N G

Optimal Timing There have been studies and posts about the best day of the week or best time of the day to send emails. Personally, I think those are BS. They always conflict with each other. Furthermore, once the report comes out say that 10am on a Tuesday is the best time to send emails, guess when everyone starts sending emails? Guess what becomes the worst time to send emails?

Just like the other elements, there’s no secret sauce.

Here’s another lesson that you can apply for immediate results. Be a little more persistent early on, then begin tapering off if the account isn’t responding. We’ve seen great results sending the 2nd touch one day or even 12 hours after sending the first. Studies have shown that emails that receive replies do so within 24 hours of the email being opened. That means the difference between waiting, for example, six days or seven days between touches has very little impact.

Another factor to consider when designing the timing of your Plays is the target persona – who are you trying to reach? Emails sent to associates on nights and weekends get terrible response rates because they don’t check their email during non-working house. On the other hand, C-Suite executives check their emails day or night, holidays and weekends.

An old mentor of mine use to say, “The difference between lettuce and garbage is timing.” How does this apply to sales? The right message to the right person but delivered at the wrong time is a wasted opportunity.


T H E M O S T R E L E V A N T A N D V A L U A B L E C O N T E N T

The Most Relevant

and Valuable ContentInitial Cold Outreach Content

Let’s first take a look at the content of your initial cold outreach emails before we dive into the content of your follow up emails. We’re talking about the first touch – the reason you’re reaching out. Your follow up emails are the subsequent emails after that.

The most effective way to break into a new account and get a conversation started is to leverage a trigger event. Simply put, this is any event that gives you a good reason to reach out.

For example, job changes are powerful trigger events. I was recently chatting with Craig Elias, author of a great sales book titled SHiFT. He explained that depending on industry and geography, data suggests that a change in vendors is triggered by changing account managers 28% of the time. Combining this knowledge with a technology that monitors changes in job titles can be a powerful one-two-punch.

http://shiftselling.com/


There are two types of trigger event: organizational trigger events, and personal trigger event. As the name suggests, organizational trigger events are generated by changes at the organizational level, while personal trigger events are at the contact level. Some of our reps have found that personal trigger events tend to be more powerful and effective, so they like to prioritize them first.

Here is a list of trigger events that would prompt your team to launch an appropriate Play to capitalize on the event:

Organizational Trigger Event

• Job postings

• Funding announcements

• 10-K filing

• New product announcements

• Technology (i.e., they’re using a competitive or complementary product)

• Usage (e.g., if someone hasn’t logged in for 10 days)

Personal Triggers Events

• Promotion or new role

• Published content

• Attended event

• Behavioral triggers

• Content interaction (e.g., watched webinar, downloaded ebook, etc.)

• Company engagement (e.g., visited five marketing webpages)

• Social engagement (e.g., tweeted about a keyword)

If you’re prospecting into an account and don’t see any trigger events to leverage, it’s time to start looking for other door openers, like points of affinity or mutual connections. Shared interest (same college, sports team) used properly can be a powerful way to build trust and rapport.




Follow-up Content

The content of your outbound efforts is a critical determining factor whether you come across as an annoying pest or a persistent, respected guest. Follow up messages that say “just checking in” or “just following up” will get your forever condemned to the spam folder.

John Barrows, a well-known sales trainer and author states, “The phrases ‘touching base’ and ‘checking in’ are two of the most meaningless phrases in sales. It means there’s no reason for your call, so therefore there’s no reason for me to talk to you.”

How do you fix this grievous error? Offer value at every touch. Barrows suggests leading with, “The reason for my call is…” Can’t finish that sentence? Then don’t reach out!

Here are four reasonable and justifiable reasons for following up with a target prospect:

• Reemphasize business value – What can you do for the prospect? You must find a way to provide value. Speak to their fears and frustration or wants and aspirations.

• Provide commercial insights – Studies by the ITSMA prove that “75% of executives will read unsolicited marketing materials that contain ideas that might be relevant to their business.” Share a different way to approach their problems or a novel idea for how they can reach their business goals.

• Teach/educate – Offer a piece of valuable content, that your marketing team has provided you. It could be anything from a whitepaper or ebook to webinar or case study.

• Offer relevant news – Savvy business people love to stay up-to-date with the latest on what’s happening in their industry or market. They’ll thank you for it, and you’ll be positioned as a trusted expert and in-the-know.



Personalization

One of the most frequent questions we get about content is, “how much personalization is necessary?” The more personalization, the better. However, that’s not always scalable.

Here’s our rule of thumb for personalization: the more important the account or the contact, the more you want to personalize and the less you want to use a template. The degree of personalization will depend on the importance of the account and the person you’re targeting.

• Tier 1: Highly personalized, with little or no templating

• Tier 2: Personalized, perhaps using the 10/80/10 approach: Customize the first 10%; Use the template for the next 80% (with possible personal tweaks); Customize the last 10%

• Tier 3: Customized rather than personalized (e.g. targeted to their industry and persona, uses their name and company name)

Your goal is to make sure the prospect feels like the email really is written to him or her, as an individual. That’s not a trick, it’s the truth (if not, you’re doing it wrong). To do that you must show that you’ve been thinking about them.

Using the right technology can get you halfway there by providing intelligence and automation, which gives you the ability to create templates and send more outbound emails. But that’s only part of the puzzle. The other part is incorporating personalization, which gives it the human touch.

Technology and automation should enhance your efforts, not replace them.

Here’s the test I like to use: Can you replace the basic merge-tags/fields, such as [FIRST_NAME] or [COMPANY_NAME] with another name and company, and still send the email? If the answer is yes, then I’d contend that this is still a bad cold email. It may be customized, but it’s not truly personalized.



The content personalization spectrum

The bar is being raised, and buyers are becoming more sophisticated. They can spot an automated email from a mile away. But that doesn’t mean they won’t respond to a cold email. Craft the right message with personal,

relevant content, and you’ll be setting yourself up for a home run.


P U T T I N G T H E P I E C E S T O G E T H E R

Putting the Pieces

Together

Pre-designed Plays are a great way to ensure that all reps follow best practices throughout their account development work, from the first touch to the last. It’s also a great way to ensure that these touches are coordinated with Marketing and Account Execs.

There are different uses for each Play. Some will be triggered by an event, while others will have to be started manually. The types of touches will be determined by different factors each time. Different people and scenarios will call for a different number of touches.

That’s why there is no magic formula or place you must always start. But our advice is to just get started and the Play will come together.

“Companies are still struggling with their touch patterns. A few years ago, it was just ‘Do more touches!’ Now it’s more sophisticated: more about the mix and frequency.’”

Kristina McMillan, Sales Development Practice Leader, TOPO

Types of Coordinated Plays

Bringing the puzzle into focus.

C H A P T E R 2 : T Y P E S O F C O O R D I N A T E D P L AY S


T Y P E S O F C O O R D I N A T E D P L AY S

20

Chapter 2 In this chapter, the puzzle is starting to come together. Here, we’re going to begin looking at the types of Plays and examine when to use each. We’ve organized them by the department that primarily owns the Play. For example, if Sales decides, “We should run the Deal Acceleration Play at ACME,” then we’ve categorized the Play under Sales.

A few words about roles and responsibilities. First, it’s best practice to have a Play owner. This is the person who is ultimately responsible for calling, launching and executing of the Play. Think of this person as the “quarterback.” This is often the SDR, or as we like to call it, the Account Development Rep (ADR).

However, it’s important to note that this generally isn’t the person with the creative responsibility for drawing up and designing the Play. That’s the “coach.” The coach orchestrates and decides on the key elements we previously talked about.

Lastly, there are the players. These are the people on your team related to a Play. They’re responsible for complete the tasks within the Play (i.e., send the email, make the call, mail the package, etc.).

Let’s dive in!

C H A P T E R 2 : T Y P E S O F C O O R D I N A T E D P L AY S 21

S A L E S A N D S A L E S D E V E L O P M E N T

Mutual Connection Play

This is a door opener Play, which is one of the most common types of Plays your account development team will run. After you have your list of target accounts, it’s time to reach out and start conversations with key personas and decision-makers. LinkedIn is your best friend for finding out if any of your colleagues are connected to your targeted companies. A professional introduction to someone at the account or to someone who knows the decision maker could help you avoid cold outbound all together!

Marketing Qualified Account Play

This is a core Play for every revenue team. Marketing is working hard to drive top of funnel activity, and once an account reaches the right level of engagement with your company, you must be ready to reach out to the right people at the right time. We call this a Marketing Qualified Account. This is where your sales and marketing alignment is crucial. If you don’t have agreed upon definitions, service level agreements, and open lines of communication, you could be burning money. However, get this right, and you could be printing money at will.

Sales and Sales

Development

Core Prospecting ABE Plays

Though more involved, this true ABE Play pays off with bigger deals and more valuable accounts when executed correctly. This is a true multi-channel and multi-player Play where creativity and patience can have a major impact. Always be looking for and trying new and novel things that will get the attention of the people that matter. Don’t rush these Plays – remember, you must focus on quality over quantity.

Trigger Event Plays

Sometimes a trigger event in a target account is a defining moment and creates a short window of opportunity. Have a Play pre-scripted that can kick off the moment the trigger event is spotted. For example, the hiring of a new VP can kick off a ten-step Play that brings in SDRs, Marketing and the Account Exec.

http://www.engagio.com/what-is-a-marketing-qualified-account-mqa/

http://www.engagio.com/7-critical-elements-to-aligning-your-sales-and-marketing-teams/

C H A P T E R 2 : T Y P E S O F C O O R D I N A T E D P L AY S 2 2

Handoff Plays

Anytime a customer’s primary contact is changing from one owner to another, the last thing you want is to fumble the handoff. If a prospect agrees to a meeting with an account executive, a best-practice handoff can include an email introduction to the AE, followed a few minutes later by an email from the AE directly, and a series of follow-ups if the customer doesn’t respond for any reason. Similar, when the AE closes a deal, they can launch a best-practice Play to introduce the Customer Success Manager and start the onboarding process.

Deal Acceleration Plays

Sales Development and Marketing doesn’t stop when the account moves into the deal stage. Instead, they should support the AE to increase win rates, justify a higher selling price, and increase deal velocity. A Play that surrounds the account with broader awareness and touches influencers that the AE isn’t talking to works wonders for this. Targeted Account Based advertising and retargeting programs are a great tactic here.

Executive Alignment Plays

Design and run a Play to connect your executives with executives at customers and prospects. This will be built around highly-relevant emails that come directly from your executives. But it can also include direct mail and targeted ads in places like LinkedIn to raise your brand’s profile just as the executive approaches are being made.

TICKE

Tse

at 20




Sales and Sales

Development


“Shake the Tree” Plays

At Engagio, we have a Play that an Account Executive can use if an opportunity goes cold after showing initial interest. The first step is a personalized email from our Sales Executive to their main point of contact. If that doesn’t drive a response, the next email comes from Engagio’s CEO to the executive sponsor at the prospective account. Next is an email from our Customer Success VP. If that still doesn’t work, we try a very different email such one from an individual engineer or marketing manager. By switching personas, styles, and messages, we’re far more likely to reactivate the account than if the AE alone kept persisting.

Gone Dark Plays

This Play is borrowed from well-known sales trainer John Barrows. He recommends using this after a prospect has agreed to a call and committed to taking an action by a certain date, but then doesn’t hold their end of the bargain. Instead of following up multiple times, ending with a lousy “last attempt” email, John recommends a “professional courtesy” email. It’s a rather simple Play with subtle distinctions that, if done correctly, yields great results.

C H A P T E R 2 : T Y P E S O F C O O R D I N A T E D P L AY S 2 4

Marketing Conference Meeting and Live Event Plays

Events cost a lot of money to create or participate in. You can’t just wait for the key people in target accounts to show up at your event or at your booth. Running a coordinated Play around an event is a great way to maximize your return on investment. Depending on the situation, this could mean setting up meetings with the right people from the right accounts or sending exclusive invites to VIP events, like a formal dinner. An email/voicemail/social media blitz can fill your time slots with high-value conversations. And social media or banner advertising can reinforce the urgency and relevance.

Upsell/Cross-Sell Plays

Upsell Plays orchestrate interactions with customers you already know, helping them to get value from their solution so they buy more. Cross-Sell Plays are about introducing additional solutions, often to new users and buyers at the same company – ideally using your prior success as a starting point. Again, marketing has a role to Play here, keeping the new solutions top-of-mind during your upsell/cross-sell campaigns.

Advocacy/Customer Marketing Plays

Want to reach out to a customer asking for a reference, case study, or other for any other reason? Streamline the process with best practice emails. Orchestrate the ask across multiple customer personas from multiple players on your team and your chance of success goes way up.

M A R K E T I N G


C U S T O M E R S U C C E S S

Customer SuccessCustomer Onboarding Plays

Your customer experience starts with a professional, proactive onboarding experience. Instead of leaving that to chance, design a Play to orchestrate all interactions across channels and departments to bring a new customer on-board in the best possible way. You might send customers a welcome pack, send a letter from a senior executive and drop a ‘here to help’ email from the head of customer service. A great place to start with this Play is with the AE handing off the new customer to your CSM.

Customer Renewal Plays

Renewals are the lifeblood of many B2B and SaaS companies. A well-designed Play can manage and automate the ideal 90-day, 60-day, 30-day, and 15-day interactions that lead to increased renewals. This is an all-hands Play with notes from Account Execs, Customer Service and senior executives – all singing from the “Stay with us!” hymn sheet.



26

Customer SuccessDeclined Usage Play

A great customer success team is proactive, but getting in front of churn isn’t always easy. One way to do that is to monitor product usage. Leveraging this type of behavioral data can give you insights into challenges the account is facing or the current satisfaction of users of your product. You can then use this data to automatically launch a multi-touch Play that ultimately results in a saved account and better customer experience.

Churn Plays / Detractor Plays

As much as we would like, not all customer are going to be in love with your product, so you have to be ready to minimize damage when you come across a detractor. However, similar to the previous Play, when you use this one intelligently, it can be a blessing-in-disguise. Harness it to build a better product and deliver a better experience. NPS surveys are a common practice, yet few companies leverage them to their full extent. Online review sites are other places to monitor. Give your CS team the tools to build a better future for you and your customers with this success Play.


Chapter 3 The Engagio PlayBookNow, for the content you’ve been waiting

for – Engagio’s Playbook. We’ve revealed

all and held nothing back. It’s complete

with players, content, touches, channels,

and timing.

C H A P T E R 3 : T H E E N G A G I O P L AY B O O K

C H A P T E R 3 : T H E E N G A G I O P L AY B O O K 28

We’ve done our best to capture all of our best Plays, from sales and marketing to support and success.

Most Plays are what we use, word for word, while a few have been modified to make it easier for you to plug-and-play with your team. For example, it wouldn’t help you to have a checklist of the three steps our CSMs take to step up a new tenant in Engagio, so we’ve omitted that.

We encourage you to use these as a starting point, then tweak and refine them to better fit your business and customers. After all, what works for us may not work for you. (Contact your Account Orchestration Consultant or Customer Success Manager or import these into your account.)

Before we go on, there’s one last tiny piece of the puzzle that makes a world of difference. It’s called Auto Pause. Here’s how it works.

Your multi-touch Plays are designed in a way to elicit replies, but not all recipients are going to reply on the first touch, thus the subsequent follow up touches. However, if a recipient does reply to an email and you set up a meeting, but the Play doesn’t stop, they’ll get the next “cold email” asking for the meeting.

E X E C U T I N G P L AY S

Do you see the problem here?

If ask for a meeting that you’ve already set, any trust and rapport that was built has instantly been destroyed, with only a slight chance of getting it back.

Those are the basics, and many sales email tools have this technology. But if you’re doing complex selling with multiple contacts at one account, you also want to be able to track interaction across all the contacts involved in a given Play, not just one individual contact at a time.

Simply put, using a powerful platform like Engagio, you’re able to decide if you want to pause a play if anyone in this Play from the account engages via email or phone. Automation is a powerful thing, but it must be used correctly and intelligently. Auto Pause avoids awkward or negative interactions with your target accounts.

Of course, you wouldn’t use Auto Pause for all Plays, that’s why it’s important to have the option to turn on and off. For example, you wouldn’t want to Auto Pause a customer onboarding Play.

C H A P T E R 3 : T H E E N G A G I O P L AY B O O K 2 9

How to Read

Our Playbook

Each Play below is, once again, organized by the department that primarily owns the Play. Underneath the title of the Play, you’ll find the settings, which states the number of touches and whether it’s a manually launched Play or triggered Play. Manually launched Plays are initiated at the discretion of the team. Triggered Plays rely on an external event to signify when to initiate the Play.

Lastly, you’ll find the players involved. Listed on the left are the players from your team, and on the right are the players on the target buying team.

Since these are Plays taken directly out of our Playbook, we have our key personas filled in for our target accounts. One of our key personas is Head or VP of Sales, and though you may not have the same key persona, that doesn’t mean the Play won’t work for you. All you have to do is substitute our key persona with one of yours. For example, if you’re in the HR space, every time we have VP of Sales as a player on their team, replace that with Head of Recruiting. Every time we say Sales/Account Development Manager, replace that with Hiring Manager.

H O W T O R E A D O U R P L AY B O O K

Sales and Sales Development Plays


Settings

This marketing-lead, sales-executed Play is one of our favorite ABE Plays to date. There are a lot of moving pieces across the 12-steps, but done correctly, it can yield some impressive results.

Core

Prospecting Play

Players


Step 1 Step 2

2 Weeks

Your players

• Marketing

• ADR

• CEO

Their players:• Head of Sales

• Head of Demand Gen

• Head of Marketing



Step 3

Step 4

C O R E P R O S P E C T I N G P L AY

Step 5

Step 6

Right Away Right Away Right Away3 Days



Step 7

Step 8


Step 9

Step 10

Right Away 2 Days 2 Days Right Away


Step 11

Step 12



Step 13

Right Away3 Days3 Days


Step 15

Step 14



Right Away4 Days



Settings: Manually launch this simple 12-step Play when your account development team is trying to get a conversation started with a target account. Leverage your team’s connections and doors will swing wide open.

Your players

• CEO

• ADR

• Head of Account Development

Their players:

• CMO/VP of Marketing


Mutual

Connection Play

Step 1 Step 2

1 Day



Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Right Away1 DayRight Away



Step 6 Step 8

Step 7 Step 9

3 Days 2 Days2 Days3 Days



Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Right Away1 Day3 Days



Settings: Run this seven-step Play when you see that a target account is hiring an open position that is directly relevant to your product or service. When paired with a technology that sends you alerts for new job postings, this will be an ADR favorite.

Your players

• ADR

• CEO

Their players:

• Hiring Manger

• CMO

Trigger Event:

Hiring Play

Step 1 Step 2

Right Away



Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

2 Days 3 Days1 Day



Step 7

Step 6

Right Away3 Days



Settings: Know this seven-step Play like the back of your hand, as it’s a core Play for your revenue team. Automatically triggered once an account reached MQA status, all hands are on deck!

Your players

• ADR

• VP of Sales Development

• VP of Sales

• CEO

Their players:

• Head of Marketing

• Head of Sales


Marketing

Qualified

Account Play

Step 1 Step 2

Right Away



Step 3

Step 4

1 DayRight Away

Step 5

2 Days


Step 6

Step 7


Right Away Right Away



Settings: This six-step Play is manually launched by the ADR when he or she has completed a qualification call and is handing the account over to the AE.

Your players

• ADR

• AE

Their players:

• Contact 1

ADR to AE

Handoff Play

Step 1 Step 2

Right Away



Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Right Away2 Days 1 Day10 Minutes



Settings: For deals past the discovery stage, this nine-step Play is great for shortening the sales cycle. Smart ABE companies manually launch this Play and leverage marketing to pull it off correctly.

Your players

• ADR

• Account Executive

• Marketing

Their players:

• Head of Sales

• Executive Sponsor

• New Contact

Deal

Acceleration Play

Step 1 Step 2

Right Away



Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

5 DaysRight Away 1 Week2 Days


Step 7

Step 8

Step 9


Right Away 7 DaysRight Away



Settings: An account owner can manually choose to run this simple four-step Play when he has an account where the relationship with their executive matters more than usual.

Your players

• Account Executive

• Marketing

• Executive

Their players:


Executive

Alignment Play

Step 1 Step 2

Right Away



Step 3

Step 4

5 DaysRight Away



Settings: This ten-step Play is a fun and creative one that gets your entire team involved. It’s another manually launched Play that you’ll occasionally run – once per account.

Your players

• ADR

• Sales Manager

• Head of Customer Success

• CEO

• Engineer

Their players:

• Main Point of Contact


“Shake the

Tree” Play

Step 1

Step 2

Right Away



Step 4

Step 3

Right Away 3 Days

Step 5

Right Away


Step 6


Right Away1 Week

Step 7

Step 8

1 Week


Step 10

Step 9


Right AwayRight Away

Marketing Plays


M A R K E T I N G

Settings: Whether is leading up to a conference, VIP dinner, or any other live event, select the accounts and players for this powerful marketing-supported, sales-approved seven-step Play.

Your players

• CEO

• ADR

• Marketing

Their players:

• Top Executive

Live

Event Play

Step 1 Step 2

14 Days


M A R K E T I N G

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Right Away Right Away7 Days


M A R K E T I N G

Step 7

Step 6

Right Away3 Days


M A R K E T I N G

Settings: This eight-step Play is used when you have a new product or an additional product to sell to an account. This high-impact Play gets some of your heavy hitters involved and knocks it out of the park.

Your players

• Account Owner

• Marketing

• Head of Product

Upsell/Cross-Sell

Play• CSM

• CEO

• VP of Sales

Their players:

• Main Champion


• Sales Development Leader

Step 1 Step 2

Right Away


M A R K E T I N G

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

2 Weeks 2 Days 2 Days 2 Days


Step 8

Step 7

2 Days 3 Days

M A R K E T I N G


M A R K E T I N G

Settings: This simple six-step Play is utilized when you’re reaching out to a customer that is getting some great results. Manually launch this Play when you want to highlight their success.

Your players

• CSM

• CEO

• Advocacy Manager

Their players:

• Primary Contact

• Power User

Advocacy/

Customer

Marketing Play

Step 1 Step 2

Right Away


M A R K E T I N G

Step 3

Step 4

10 Minutes 7 Days

Step 5

Step 6

Right Away 15 Minutes

Customer Success



Settings: Use this six-step Play when an AE brings a new company on board and needs to smoothly transition to the onboarding phase. Manually launch this Play with care.

Your players

• AE

• CSM

Their players:

• Primary Contact

AE to CSM +

Onboarding Play

Step 1 Step 2

15 Minutes



Step 3

Right Away

Step 4

4 Days


Step 5

Step 6

1 Day Right Away




Settings: This powerful ten-step Play should be part of everyone’s Playbook. This a triggered Play 90 days out from the expiration of the account’s contract.

Your players

• Assigned CSM

• Head of Customer Success

• CEO

Their players:

• Renewal Contact 1

• Renewal Contact 2

Customer

Renewal Play

Step 1 Step 2

30 Days



Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Right AwayRight AwayRight Away 3 Days



Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10

Right Away30 DaysRight Away7 Days



Settings: In this five-step Play, your customer success team must be ready to reach out to detractors with empathy and caution. Manually launch this Play when you spot a detractor online, or automatically trigger this Play from things like usage alerts or NPS surveys.

Your players

• CSM

• VP of Customer Success

• CEO

Their players:

• Detractor

Churn or

Detractor/

Churn Play

Step 1 Step 2

2 Days



Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

2 Days2 Days3 Days



Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Right Away 15 Minutes5 Days

C O N C L U S I O N 76

Conclusion Building a Playbook for your organization is one of the most important things you can do to help you achieve your objectives. This is how you can get your organization aligned and working like a well-oiled machine. More importantly, this is how you can deliver the best experience to your customers.

We encourage you to take what we’ve done here and apply it to your own Playbook. If you don’t have one, use ours as a baseline, and build on top of that. As the Chinese proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Don’t forget to keep your eye out for version 2, as we test, refine and analyze the impact of more Plays. The best way to do that is subscribe to our blog at Engagio.com/blog.

If you’re doing something really creative and want to be featured in our next playbook, email [email protected].

---

Written by: Brandon Redlinger Director of Growth, Engagio @Brandon_Lee_09

http://www.engagio.com/blog/

mailto:[email protected]

7 7A B O U T E N G A G I O

Engagio PlayMaker lets you design and orchestrate multi-step Plays that span channels (email + phone + social + demand gen) and departments (Marketing, Sales Development, Sales, and Customer Success)to engage target accounts with the human touch.

It supports multi-threaded, Account Based Plays, coordinating communications from everyone on your team to everyone at the target account.

Unlike other sales email tools, PlayMaker emails are personalized, reviewed, and sent by a human to drive more meaningful connections. So you don’t risk your relationships with key people at important accounts by sending them generic, automated emails.

PlayMaker assigns and tracks Tasks, making sure everyone is coordinated, Sales and Marketing stay aligned, and no one falls behind on their activities. What’s not to love about that?

About Engagio

Engagio Scout puts account insights (every email, meeting, an interaction and more) at the SDR’s fingertips when they’re reaching out to accounts so every interaction is more relevant.

The result: fully-orchestrated and streamlined Plays that take you deep into target accounts – and prove it.

Shouldn’t we be talking?

An Engagio screen – just to make you beg for that demo.

http://www.engagio.com/


101 S San Mateo Dr., Floor 4

San Mateo, CA 94401

engagio.com

[email protected]

Facebook

Google+

LinkedIn

Twitter

© 2017 Engagio Inc. All rights reserved.


mailto:info%40engagio.com?subject=

https://www.facebook.com/engagio

https://plus.google.com/+Engagio

https://www.linkedin.com/company/engagio

https://twitter.com/engagio

The Engagio PlayBookinfo.engagio.com/Rs/356-AXE-401/Images/The-Engagio-PlayBook-2-17-2017.pdfChapter...

Documents

Transcript of The Engagio PlayBookinfo.engagio.com/Rs/356-AXE-401/Images/The-Engagio-PlayBook-2-17-2017.pdfChapter...