Hey Jeff - thanks for chiming in here. In our case, we have very long sales cycles (often > 6 months). We also have a complex opportunity process that consists of 5 stages. Someone could be in one of those early-mid stages and our role, as Marketing, is to help progress those leads to closed-won business. Let's say we have a digital transformation opportunity, which includes a complete website redesign using a new CMS (e.g., Sitecore) and integration with best-in-class marketing platforms like Marketo. We may choose to to invite them to the Marketo Summit and host them at a client workshop/dinner. These activities are very relevant to help move this customer of ours to later opportunity stages. This is actually very common with a lot of our deals. We are also very event-heavy - and not big conferences/tradeshows, but rather client intimacy events, full-day Innovation days, etc.
Look forward to connecting with you next week in Vegas!
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