Open season on CRMs?

From a savvy approach to marketing tech procurement to the mission of stomping out bad CRM data.



Marketing ops shouldn’t perform procurement


It would run counter to almost everything we’ve said on the subject at MarTech to propose that marketing ops professionals — the people who execute within the marketing tech stack — should not have a seat at the table when it comes to marketing tech procurement.


That’s not what Steve Petersen is arguing in his latest contribution. What he is saying is that, outside of an emergency, marketing ops shouldn’t be running procurement processes (not, at least, in organizations large enough to employ professional buyers).


The reasons? Marketing ops professionals don’t have the negotiating skills of procurement professionals; they have less ability to assess the overall health of the vendor they’re buying from; and they don’t necessarily have the view across procurements by all departments within an organization.


Do what you’re paid to do, is the message, and not someone else’s job.


What do marketing attribution and predictive analytics tools do?  


Marketing attribution and predictive analytics platforms employ sophisticated statistical modeling and machine learning to evaluate the impact of each marketing touch a buyer encounters along a purchase journey across all channels, with the goal of helping marketers allocate future spending. 


Platforms with predictive analytics capabilities also use data, statistical algorithms and machine learning to predict future outcomes based on historical data and scenario building. In this concise summary, learn what these platforms do, how vendors differentiate themselves and the specific benefits of using these types of platforms.


Gauging the relative success of each of your marketing tactics is important no matter which way the economic winds are currently blowing. But when budgets are tight, as they are now with the economic uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the prospect of eliminating waste is especially resonant.


Terminus acquires B2B CDP Zylotech   


ABM platform Terminus today announced the acquisition of independent CDP Zylotech, founded by Abhi Yadav and Iqbal Kaur in 2014. Zylotech is a purpose-built B2B CDP with a customer base including Google, Cisco and Dell. Zylotech will now operate as the Terminus Customer Data Platform.


In a release, David Raab, founder of the CDP Institute, said “CDP is becoming more widely adopted in B2B, as companies recognize their marketing automation and CRM systems are not enough to provide true data unification and sharing. By acquiring Zylotech, Terminus positions itself – and its clients – to take full advantage of the capabilities that a CDP provides.”


Yadav, who served as CTO at Zylotech, will join Terminus as Head of Platform Innovation.


Why we care. There are two things to pay attention to here. First, Terminus says the acquisition makes it the only ABM platform with a standalone CDP purpose-built for B2B. Competitor Demandbase might claim that its Sales Intelligence Cloud, built on the acquisition of InsideView, serves a similar function. But we don’t have to adjudicate that right now.


The second notable point is that Terminus frames the value of the acquisition very much in terms of the perpetual inaccuracy and incompleteness of CRM data. Following the recent Oracle news, it seems to be open season on CRMs.


Quote of the day


“Congrats to the entire Zylotech team and welcome to Terminus!! Honored and humbled to work together as we stomp out bad CRM data.” Matt Belkin, EVP, Data, Strategy, and Partnerships, Terminus


The post Open season on CRMs?: Friday’s Daily Brief appeared first on MarTech.

MarTech

About The Author










Kim Davis is the Editorial Director of MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for over two decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Prior to working in tech journalism, Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.

(65)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.