Episode Summary:

Travis and Kevin talk with Co-Founder and SVP Data Sales at Bombora, Mike Burton, about a model used at Bombora where everybody wins, how the tools in front of you can optimize what you already have, how sales prioritization can drive success, and more.

Mike Burton Short Bio:

Mike has been working with AdTech startups since 2002. Currently, he is responsible for driving adoption of Bombora’s offerings across email marketing, analytics, programmatic display, predictive analytics and lead scoring, and countless other applications. Mike helped build B2B’s first Intent data co-operative, helping Bombora to consolidate over 9.3 billion monthly B2B behavioral interactions, fueling massive efficiencies across B2B marketing and publishing. Prior to Bombora, Burton worked with Madison Logic as Head of Platform Sales. He was also Madison Logic’s first VP of Sales, helping the company in its earliest stages to grow revenue and gain a foothold in B2B’s competitive lead generation space. Mike also worked at Collective, and was one of the first employees at IndustryBrains, an innovative direct marketing firm that helped shape B2B’s early online migration.

Episode Highlights:

1. Asset- behavioral data from lead gen advertising and display advertising programs
2. Through the process- realized the value in behavioral data
3. Saw that using this data provided lift for all types of marketing
4. Used to prioritize outbound and to accelerate leads
5. Most SDR work is keyed off of intent data, marketing team uses it for linked in/advertising/top of funnel
6. Things that are driving success
7. Keep it simple, start with prioritization
8. If intelligence jumps out, use it
9. “There’s diminishing returns in trying to extract every bit of value, but there’s really strong returns in prioritization.”
10. Freemium model- important part of mix, sometimes we wonder if we’re putting our best foot forward
11. Data in email once a week, but deep believers in automated workflow
12. Made a decision to just be a data company, and to specialize in intent data
13. Be the best/leader in this one thing
14. Have to be good at integrating the data into workflow
15. “There’s challenges to being a data specialist”
16. Not al one-stop-shop like competitors
17. Approach for differentiating Bombora
18. Market in three categories
19. How are people using G2 crowd data
20. “I think there are flaws in all data, it’s just about seeing what’s giving you the highest percentage shot that’s meaningfully moving the needle.”
21. The vendor sphere in general oversells
22. “Some companies are just scared to tell customers it’s actually not that complicated.”
23. Leveraging the voice of the customer
24. Seeing what works and what became sticky- “Our philosophy is to start with sales prioritization and then let the data expand into lots of other used cases from that platform.”
25. How to do attribution
26. Needed way more data
27. “If we want this to be impactful for the market, we need lots of data from all these other companies who also have valuable data.”
28. “A good humbleness gave him the vision to build the business.”
29. Effectiveness of overlaying data 
30. Rewriting the book
31. Lots of partnerships, but no resellers
32. Current model- Bombora embedded in other platforms, full Bombora through direct sales team
33. “Our partners get great intent data and we get to enjoy the better economics and scalability of having a direct sales organization.”
34. Create partnerships with people who already have the customers
35. “Everybody wins with our model. The user gets something valuable, the partner controlling the end user gets something valuable, and the data company can still enjoy the better economics of having a direct sales team.”
36. “There’s so much cool stuff in front of our face that we aren’t using yet, so I can’t really think about what’s next because we haven’t fulfilled what we have.”
37. “The whole market could use some time to adopt what’s out there.”
38. Alignment, orchestration, and automation
39. “If everyone could hunker down into what’s available now, we would be able to innovate better later.”
40. Incubated inside other company, then spun the business out
41. “We are playing more of an infinite game, not a finite game.”
42. It gets easier the longer you do it because you see the cycle

Favorite Points:

1. Rewriting the book/the model 
2. “Everybody wins with our model. The user gets something valuable, the partner controlling the end user gets something valuable, and the data company can still enjoy the better economics of having a direct sales team.”
3. Focusing on using available tools and what’s in front of them before thinking about the future
4. “There’s so much cool stuff in front of our face that we aren’t using yet, so I can’t really think about what’s next because we haven’t fulfilled what we have.”
5. “If everyone could hunker down into what’s available now, we would be able to innovate better later.”
6. The concept Bombora was built off of
7. “If we want this to be impactful for the market, we need lots of data from all these other companies who also have valuable data.”
8. “A good humbleness gave him the vision to build the business.”

Tweetable Quotes:

1. “There’s diminishing returns in trying to extract every bit of value, but there’s really strong returns in prioritization.”
2. “I think there are flaws in all data, it’s just about seeing what’s giving you the highest percentage shot that’s meaningfully moving the needle.”
3. “Our partners get great intent data and we get to enjoy the better economics and scalability of having a direct sales organization.”
4. “Everybody wins with our model. The user gets something valuable, the partner controlling the end user gets something valuable, and the data company can still enjoy the better economics of having a direct sales team.”
5. “There’s so much cool stuff in front of our face that we haven’t used yet, so I can’t really think about what’s next because we haven’t fulfilled what we have.”
6. “If everyone could hunker down into what’s available now, we would be able to innovate better later.”

Links:

Travis King: LinkedIn

Kevin Mulrane: LinkedIn

Mike Burton LinkedIn

Mike Burton Email