As B2B revenue teams adapt to a digital-first marketplace, Oracle is quietly transforming the company's GTM by reinventing and empowering its frontline marketing teams
Our recent Folloze Executive Forum featured Ben Matheson, SVP of Global Marketing at Oracle. The discussion with Ben and other senior marketing leaders focused on the accelerated pace of change and digital transformation for today’s B2B marketing teams — especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
How is Oracle embracing buyer-centricity and retooling its marketing and GTM teams for a digital-first marketplace?
Ben begins our discussion by giving a shout out to the rise of the frontline marketer. “It’s a brilliant term,'' said Ben. “It fits exactly with the approach and strategy we are shooting for at Oracle.”
Their frontline marketers are focused on direct engagement with strategic clients, or about 250 of their largest accounts that represent billions of dollars in revenue. They embarked on a big transition to adopt a more modern approach to marketing and build skill sets within their marketing teams to drive better customer engagement.
A single global strategic client marketing organization was created and is fully aligned with and partners with the sales group. Ben detailed the four key skill sets that comprise Oracle’s frontline marketing teams.
#1: Becoming More Data Driven
A “data-driven” model means more than just knowing how much pipeline each team is touching. Rather, it comes down to understanding and using the predictive intelligence they have on each account or customer segment. In the old days, sales told the field marketers what solutions the customer was interested in, and the marketing team would just set up a corresponding event or hospitality activity.
Now, the frontline marketers leverage what they know about each account, such as content they’ve downloaded, webinars they’ve attended, syndicated content they’ve viewed, email outreaches, and how they’re engaging with Folloze boards. From there, frontline teams can see where the relevant digital touch points are and drive deeper, more informed account engagement based on that intelligence.
#2: Creating Personalized Content and Programs
Ben’s second focus is ensuring that his frontline marketers are adept at creating personalized, modular content and solutions that directly address what their customers want to consume online. But he doesn’t want the frontline marketers creating messaging and content on their own. \"That’s what product marketers do,\" said Ben.
Rather, frontline marketers should focus on crafting a way for customers to engage with Oracle at their own pace and interact with the content and industry solutions they are most interested in. Folloze makes it easy for them to build out those skill sets and roll out highly relevant, personalized campaigns to each account.
In our next blog in this series, we will discuss the other top skill sets of Oracle’s frontline marketing team.
Join Folloze on November 10 for our next Executive Roundtable
From Martech to Revtech: How Should CMOs Evolve their Tech Stack for a Digital-First and Buyer-Centric Marketplace?
Our November 10 session will include Stacy Greiner, CMO of Dun & Bradstreet, and the Folloze executive team alongside with senior leaders from Oracle, Autodesk, ZS Associates, and others. The Folloze Marketing Executive Roundtable is exclusively for CMOs and senior marketing and revenue leaders. This B2B industry peer group is where marketing leaders connect to exchange ideas and network in a trusted environment.
Click here to request your invite to this exclusive event
