ModumUp - Social Selling for B2B

ModumUp - Social Selling for B2B Social Selling for B2B Lead Generation

What makes a good lead in B2B marketing? And how can AI help teams improve lead quality, spot opportunities, and work mo...
10/15/2026

What makes a good lead in B2B marketing? And how can AI help teams improve lead quality, spot opportunities, and work more efficiently?

We pulled together 15 minutes of the most valuable insights on B2B lead generation and qualification, shared by members of our B2B Marketing Leaders сommunity.

Olga Bondareva, founder of ModumUp - AI-native B2B marketing agency, talks with experts from different B2B companies:

• Ralff Tozatti, Global Director Marketing AI Strategy, Systems & Automation at Thomson Reuters
• Hitendar Sethi, Director Product Marketing | AI Security at Palo Alto Networks
• Rahul Agarwal, Product Manager at Trystar

At Thomson Reuters, Ralff’s team worked with Gartner and Forrester to create consistent definitions for MQLs, sales accepted leads, and opportunities. Different business units and acquired companies were using different terminology, so the goal was to build one shared measurement framework and focus on how leads move into pipeline, not just how many are generated.

Ralff also described a data quality initiative that uses AI and third-party sources to clean, validate, and complete customer records. Across five pilots, this improved conversion rates by ~12–15%.

Rahul explained why lead qualification works differently in manufacturing. At Trystar, the team follows a standard MQL → SQL → opportunity process. If someone contacts the company about a medium-voltage transformer, they have usually already done their research and shown strong buying intent. Sales then evaluates production capacity, customization, pricing, and margins before deciding whether there is a real opportunity.

His team also uses ConstructConnect to identify construction projects and buying signals. Rahul stressed that the definition of a good lead should evolve, with regular feedback from sales.

At Palo Alto Networks, Hiten describes a shift from traditional MQLs to marketing engaged leads (MELs). With so much noise around AI buyers, a single ebook download or form submission isn't enough. His team looks for several engagement signals before treating someone as a lead.

They are also starting to look at engagement across the whole account, not just individual contacts. For existing customers, the team already has some context on expansion opportunities. For new accounts, activity across different assets can show whether the interest is in AI, firewalls, or other solutions, giving sales a clearer view before the first call.

A big thanks to Ralff, Rahul, and Hiten for sharing their experiences and practical insights! 😊

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FIRzuhyzNWM
Find more insights on the topic here: https://modumup.com/blog/leads_in_b2b_marketing?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=…

We pulled together 15 minutes of the most valuable insights on data-driven B2B marketing, shared by members of our B2B M...
10/02/2026

We pulled together 15 minutes of the most valuable insights on data-driven B2B marketing, shared by members of our B2B Marketing Leaders сommunity.

Olga Bondareva, founder of ModumUp, talks with experts from different B2B companies:

• Dina Habib O'Mara, Global, Industry Partner Strategy, GTM Co-Sell Lead at Microsoft
• Christiaan Davel, Global Marketing Manager at Hilti Group
• Kristi Berg McCutchen, Global Marketing Executive at aXs, formerly at T-Mobile

Dina walks through a go-to-market rebuild for global system integrators at Intel. The team had three jobs: help partners bring Intel solutions to more customers in a trusted way, build pipeline around their sales teams' limited time, and enable those teams. Data sat in separate pots. They pulled it into one privacy-compliant hub, with GDPR checks, tied to ICP systems and Salesforce, so the approach could scale from one integrator to Intel's top six global system integrators.

At Google Cloud and AWS, Kristi scored accounts and buying groups using CRM, firmographic, and intent data. Red, yellow, and green showed sales where a close was more likely and where there was room to grow share of wallet. For example, one team could already be a customer while another used a competitor. Pilots proved the model. Partners, from VARs and alliances to GSIs, then helped open doors into those teams.

At Hilti, Christiaan faced a timing problem: different products become relevant at different stages of a construction project. His team combined software usage, construction timelines, engineering specifications, and account-level buying data to identify the right moment for an account manager to step in. That produced higher-quality leads and a clear sales boost. Before scaling, though, they test the hypothesis with customers.

On AI, the examples stay close to the work. With customer permission, Kristi’s team recorded executive briefings and used AI to turn them into feedback and action items for product, pricing, and bid teams. What once took weeks or months took hours. In a few cases, this helped identify projects that could launch within the same fiscal year, including one around a problem competitors were not addressing. Building on Kristi’s point, Dina adds another perspective, citing a Forbes Insights figure, with Fivetran, that ungoverned AI could cost B2B companies $10 billion. A person still needs to review the output, or the message slides into a sea of sameness. Christiaan reinforces that point with a Hilti example: he helped train a website model for structural engineers and flagged answers that would not be good enough for an engineer.

A big thanks to Dina, Kristi, and Christiaan for a great and insightful conversation! 😊

Watch the full episode of the B2B Marketing Leaders Podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CCaQxFVQN5o

AI made content easy to produce. Attracting enterprise B2B clients still takes earned trust - not louder brand broadcast...
09/29/2026

AI made content easy to produce. Attracting enterprise B2B clients still takes earned trust - not louder brand broadcasting.

Recently we hosted TRUST, our sixth annual online conference, where B2B Marketing Leaders community members shared how B2B companies win enterprise clients in the AI era.

685 registrations from 58 countries and 103 live attendees. Thanks to everyone who joined! 😊

Olga Bondareva, Founder of ModumUp and organizer of B2B Marketing Leaders - сommunity and podcast, opened with the TRUST framework: relationships, owned authority, and borrowed authority as one system when buying moves into dark social. She showed it through ModumUp's community - 400+ members, ROI above 400% - and client work that closed more than $20M for NetApp.

Dmitry Suvorov, Senior Marketing Manager at Harbinger, argued that volume got cheap but trust did not, so Social Selling starts with content before outreach. He showed it with a clean-sheet post at 55,000 views, then 340 leads and $1.25M closed year to date.

Priyanka Dasgupta, Director, Field Marketing - US Alliances at Kyndryl, said the messenger now matters more than the message, so trust comes through employee advocacy. She showed it around Google Cloud Next - about $40M in pipeline from advocacy.

Elsa V. Paul, CGAIE, AIC, Senior Marketing Manager at Columbus McKinnon, argued that mentions are not enough - brands need to be cited. She showed it at Crosby: demo days and training reached 600,000+ people, then that expertise published so partners can carry it.

Doug Kimball, Head of Marketing at Red Sky Health, closed on borrowing a bigger market voice through analysts and influencers. He showed it at Red Sky Health - Gartner briefings led to a report mention and a sale - and the Data Avengers at 454 MQLs in four weeks.

Huge thanks to Priyanka, Elsa, Dmitry, Doug, and Olga for the amazing presentations and insights you shared! 😊

You can read the full recap here: https://modumup.com/blog/trust-2026-how-b2b-companies-win-enterprise-clients-in-the-ai-era

And watch all the sessions here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYO6FNoQAhYA

09/21/2026

B2B buyers are getting more skeptical of AI-generated content. Employees' original posts now matter even more for B2B companies.

Priyanka Dasgupta, Director, Field Marketing - US Alliances at Kyndryl, will talk about this at TRUST, our sixth annual online conference.

At Kyndryl, Priyanka leads US alliance marketing. She works with alliance partners on go-to-market and account-based marketing. She focuses on reputation, relationships, and revenue.

Priyanka has been at Kyndryl since 2021, including field marketing roles across telecom, media, tech, automotive, manufacturing, and energy. Before Kyndryl, she spent several years at IBM in product marketing, sales enablement, and performance marketing.

Join us on September 23.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gy9hWNZG

09/18/2026

Plenty of B2B thought leadership gets published. Very little of it gets mentioned or cited. Elsa V. Paul, CGAIE, AIC, Senior Marketing Manager at Columbus McKinnon, will talk about it at TRUST, our sixth annual online conference.

At Columbus McKinnon, Elsa leads marketing strategy for the Crosby and Kito brands across the Americas, along with the AI and analytics work behind it. She has more than 20 years in industrial B2B marketing across manufacturing, oil and gas, medical, and nonprofit. That includes nine years at Kito Crosby, through its acquisition by Columbus McKinnon. Elsa presents regularly for the IEEE Computer Society on AI strategy, change leadership, and communication, and she writes weekly on practical AI adoption for a B2B audience.

At TRUST, Elsa will share a case study from a large manufacturer. She'll show what thought leadership has to do now when publishing anything takes six weeks and three approvals, and what it takes to get cited, not just mentioned.

Join us on September 23.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gy9hWNZG

09/17/2026

TRUST is less than two weeks away! We'd like to introduce one of our amazing speakers, Dmitry Suvorov, Senior Marketing Manager at Harbinger.

Dmitry joined Harbinger in April 2024 as their first marketing hire and built the marketing function from scratch. In 18 months, he generated $25.1M in qualified pipeline from $343K in spend. That's 73x ROI. He used Clay to track intent and run outreach automatically, rebuilt the brand, and ran a multi-channel GTM strategy that grew leads 382% and SQLs 259% quarter over quarter.

Before Harbinger, Dmitry built marketing at PwC, Wheely, and Cobalt AI. He got strong at taking technical B2B products to market with clear positioning and pipeline you can measure.

At TRUST, Dmitry will share the story behind 215 B2B leads and $1.25M in deals through Social Selling. He'll show how Social Selling turned outreach into a reliable way to bring in revenue.

Join us on September 23 to hear Dmitry and other marketers share what actually works in B2B.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gy9hWNZG

ModumUp ran a LinkedIn Social Selling project inside NetApp's strategic ABM program in one EMEA region. Across about 10 ...
09/16/2026

ModumUp ran a LinkedIn Social Selling project inside NetApp's strategic ABM program in one EMEA region. Across about 10 priority accounts, the work contributed to around $20M in deals tied to large AI deployments on NetApp storage, and roughly 3x lead growth compared with the previous approach.

NetApp sells intelligent data infrastructure. That means storage, software, and cloud services for enterprises that manage data at scale, including for AI.

Buying committees already included storage and infrastructure admins. They also increasingly included Big Data, AI, DevOps, and cloud leaders. Those roles influence deals, but they care less about the storage stack itself.

The target list covered large accounts in finance, oil and gas, services, and telco. The team started with one marketing profile, Irina Chernova, Demand Marketing Manager EMEA & LATAM at NetApp. Other profiles were added only after the pilot proved the approach.

What we did

1. Warmed up NetApp Insight, a regional conference
Before the event, the team connected with people from target accounts, posted about the conference, and sent personal invitations. During it Irina published short situational posts. Afterward the team followed up with attendees and with people who could not come. That year attendance reached about 1,000, versus around 600 historically.

2. Used exclusive research for soft lead generation
After the conference, Irina offered IDC and NetApp research. People could comment or message her to request the file, and she delivered it personally. That post generated 79 responses, 44 from target companies, and 8 SQLs handed to sales. Conversion from targeted responses to SQLs was 18%.

3. Added an executive profile for peer conversations
A Regional Director profile focused on recognition and senior dialogue, not hard lead gen. Relevant connections grew from about 800 to 5,000. Average reactions per post rose from 34 to 85. Average comments rose from 10 to 31. Many senior people from target companies skipped public comments and moved to direct messages.

4. Brought BDRs onto the same account list
Business Development Representatives (BDRs) then covered the same accounts, tied to their sales goals. One BDR noted that social media helped him reach people he could not simply call, because they already knew his profile.

Results of the pilot

- Around $20M in deals tied to large AI deployments on the NetApp storage layer
- Roughly 3x lead growth compared with the previous approach
- At least one relevant contact at every buying-committee level on the list
- 8 SQLs from exclusive research: 79 responses, 44 from target companies, 18% targeted conversion
- Regional Director network: about 800 to 5,000 relevant connections

Read the full case study: https://modumup.com/case-studies/netapp

09/14/2026

We’re happy to have Doug Kimball, Head of Marketing at Red Sky Health, joining us as a speaker at TRUST.

At Red Sky Health, Doug leads go-to-market strategy, positioning, and messaging. He works with product, sales, and the executive team to turn complex products into clear stories that help the company grow. He keeps the work practical and buyer-first, so the message answers the questions that actually matter: what’s the impact, why now, and who should care.

Doug has done this work across AI, data, healthcare, and consumer goods. He wrote So What? Why? Who Cares?, a simple framework for messaging that buyers actually get, and he often speaks with product marketing and revenue leaders about storytelling and getting executives on the same page.

At TRUST, Doug will share how analyst relations can build trust and influence in the market, and how B2B companies can borrow authority to reach enterprise buyers.

Join us on September 23.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gy9hWNZG

09/10/2026

We're excited to welcome Olga Bondareva, Founder of ModumUp, as a speaker at TRUST.

Olga started her career at Microsoft, where she led social media marketing, social selling, employee advocacy, and digital marketing campaigns across 33 countries. In 2018, she founded ModumUp - an AI-native B2B marketing agency.

Today, Olga leads the agency and the B2B Marketing Leaders - сommunity and podcast, an invite-only global community of 400+ B2B marketers from 36 countries. She uses it as a GTM and ABM channel. Her ModumUp team works with Microsoft and AWS partners, NetApp, Logitech, and Georgia State University, managing LinkedIn profiles, communities, and outreach that drive measurable business growth.

At TRUST, Olga will open with trust-based enterprise growth: how B2B brands build relationships, build owned authority, and borrow authority to win enterprise clients in the age of AI.

Join us on September 23 to hear Olga and other inspiring voices.

Registration and full agenda here: https://lnkd.in/gy9hWNZG

09/07/2026

You should never start your marketing strategy with AI

In this episode of the B2B Marketing Leaders podcast, Aleksandra Savina, Demand Generation Manager, Global Marketing at Olink Proteomics, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, explains how to approach AI in demand generation.

Aleksandra emphasizes that marketers should start with the goal, not the tool. Aleksandra explains how AI can act as a co-pilot across different stages of marketing work - from developing briefs to ex*****on and A/B testing - while keeping AI tied to a clear business purpose.

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