IMB + EightBar Customer Story

TechnologyAdvice has had a long and productive relationship as an approved lead provider for IBM, through their agency with EightBar.

The Associate Director of Integrated Planning with EightBar spoke to us about their ABM programs with TechnologyAdvice.

THE GOAL
Growing existing accounts, breaking new ground

IBM’s sales team has a number of initiatives that are supported through third-party lead generation. Traditionally focused on a purely high-end enterprise market, their sales activity is moving into mid-to-large size opportunities, offering products on a monthly subscription model.

As well as expanding their audience, they are also looking to cross-sell and upsell within existing accounts, and ensure that current customers remain engaged and have the best mix of IBM products in place.

There is also an increasing focus on advocacy within existing customer accounts and ABM is a key component of these initiatives. The Associate Director of Integrated Planning with EightBar says: "we're using the ABM focus to segment our different buying strategies and ensure that our messaging is appropriate for each audience."

"Our program with TechnologyAdvice is one of our top performing channels in terms of conversion to opportunity."

THE RESULTS
High-performing program

By making the most of TechnologyAdvice’s proprietary database of 40m+ business professionals, IBM and EightBar are able to drill down to the right people at each account, and focus their nurturing resource effectively. And that insight is helping to drive revenue opportunities.

"Our analytics department track the performance of each program based on conversion to revenue opportunity. Our program with TechnologyAdvice is among our top performing channels."

What is making the difference? "We run similar ABM programs with a variety of third-party providers. So with TechnologyAdvice standing out in terms of performance, I attribute that to the quality of the data they are sourcing from, and the qualifying process they follow."

Collaboration and account support

"From a customer service perspective, the interaction with TechnologyAdvice is pretty seamless. The team have a good understanding of what we are looking for, so most conversations are related to setting up new ABM lists, or tweaking targeting parameters."

"With other partners, we’ll encounter issues like providers putting the wrong lists in market. We’ve never had issues like that with TA."

"In general, there's a 'no news is good news' situation about how our programs perform. If it's going well, you have a happy sales team, you don't spend time going back and forth with your account manager, and you can spend your time more effectively. With the seamless setup we have with TechnologyAdvice, it's nice to be working with a reliable partner."

The Associate Director of Integrated Planning with EightBar's team have also begun to include their account managers at TechnologyAdvice in conversations with their direct clients. "Based on the performance of the leads, we find that our clients are more open to hearing from the provider directly. Building the trust to have that happen makes communication faster and smoother, because everyone is on the same page."

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