Account Management is Where Marketing Starts, with Bryony Thomas

In this episode…

Sales and Marketing are like stealing your neighbour’s cat…

…and in this episode, I talk to Bryony Thomas at Watertight Marketing to find out why.

Bryony is the creator of the Watertight Marketing methodology, captured in her best-selling book of the same name which acts as the hub to a suite of thinking tools that have been designed and refined over two decades and across over 2000 organisations.

Highlights from this episode:

In our conversation we covered points like:

• What the definitions are of sales and marketing and why it all starts with account management
• How the language we use acts as a pre-cursor to how we behave
• Why the idea of the traditional sales funnel doesn’t work
• Profit vs Purpose. How energy at a brand level and an individual level can be monitored and managed for the best results
• Why thinking about ‘how you would steal your neighbour’s cat’ – can focus your customer growth strategy with your most important accounts

We end on the thinking point that:

If account management is where marketing starts, and marketing is can support account management then we, as leaders in business, have to close that gap and bring the talents of our ‘go to market’ resources together to work on the common goal.

Killer Question Segment:

In each episode, we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success.

In this episode, we asked Bryony to give us her killer question. However, she said that instead – you should be asking a set of good questions in a particular sequence in order to have the best kinds of conversations and make better decisions. (She shares a suggested range of questions in her book).

Reflections from this episode

I’d be interested to know what you have taken away from today’s conversation? What questions do you find yourself reflecting on the most?

Are you humanising your customers in your process and indeed your language? Or are you running the risk of dehumanising behaviour becoming a downstream result of the language choices you are making in the business?

Do you have a sales funnel? A set of filters? A sieve?

Or as Bryony prescribes, a bucket with taps – carefully managed and intentionally crafted to maximise output that is win:win and focusses your attention on the right things at the right time?

And how energetic are you and your team across the different products/service and customer profiles? What can you do to align profit and purpose together?

If the role of marketing is to lay the path and provide the tools for attracting customers and salespeople are there to invite them forward to make a decision with which they remain happy… then how harmoniously and collaboratively are your sales and marketing functions working together?

You may feel like this a drum that I keep banging…and it is! (Be sure to also listen to the episode I did with Drew Davis on this too).

Quick ref to resources or links we mentioned

In this episode, Bryony shares her Power v Passion (PP) Matrix. Here is the diagrammatical representation to guide you while you listen:

If you click the image or click here you can go and check out Bryony’s free book as a gift for listening.

Find out more about my guest: Bryony Thomas

Bryony is an award-winning speaker, author, marketing strategist and the creator of the proven Watertight Marketing Methodology. She stops people wasting money on marketing.

In 2008, she left her corporate role as Director of Marketing for Experian, a FTSE100 company, and set up her own consultancy. She believes that small businesses are a real lever of meaningful and sustainable change in the world, and she has built a proven methodology to help them to do just that.

Through her 12-month marketing transformation programme, book and speaking she reaches audiences far and wide, and today also has a team of licensed Watertight Marketing Practitioners.

Bryony is also a committed campaigner and advocate for Pancreatic Cancer UK. She is a pancreatic cancer survivor and lives in the Cotswolds with her husband and daughter.

You can find out more about her on her website, connect with her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.