Innovation Hub Lithuania has committed to assisting Lithuanian high-tech, ICT, and biotech companies in navigating local regulations and cultural landscape and building partnerships in the US. By boasting a wide network of business mentors in one place, the InnoHub strives to make it easier for Lithuanian innovation to gain knowledge and enter the huge US market.
Meet one of the InnoHub’s intelligent minds, Shira Abel, Keynote Speaker at ShiraAbel.com and the CEO and Founder of Hunter & Bard, an award-winning marketing and design agency that markets innovative AI, deep tech, cybersecurity, sustainability, and telecom products. Leveraging 25+ years of go-to-market experience, Abel shares insights on implementing marketing strategies, future marketing trends, and her experience as a business mentor in the interview below.
First of all, can you share a defining moment in your career that significantly shaped your approach to marketing?
First, I read The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. Although I was already doing many things mentioned in the book, they were intuitive. After reading the book, I was able to implement them with purpose.
The second was getting my MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. It gave me a deeper understanding of business language and organizational behaviour that helped my work go to another level. It also provided me with better work frameworks and raised my expectations of myself. Without it, I do not know if I would be where I am now.
Cybersecurity is a critical concern for many enterprises today. How do you approach marketing for cybersecurity products?
As with anything, it depends on the product type and target audience. My experience in marketing cybersecurity relies on high ACV products with a complex, long sale cycle.
The messaging approach toward such product customers involves building trust while reminding them to mitigate the risk. Our strategy is typically account-based marketing, working closely with the sales team to build a relationship with the target account. We would create specific materials for the sales team, target the account, and plan industry-relevant events.
What are the biggest challenges when marketing products in highly technical fields like smart cities and telecom?
In smart cities and telecom, there is typically a buying committee. This buying committee will consist of the subject-matter expert who may be using the product. It will also likely include some non-technical team members (often executives) signing the check.
The startup may have the expertise to talk to the engineers in their language, but may not quite understand the nuance needed to change their messaging for the enterprise C-Suite. If the item has a high enough ACV to include both technical and non-technical people in the buying committee, you need materials to explain what you do for both. They should not be looking at the same documents. Many engineering-led startups would benefit from hiring a “translator” who can simplify their products’ concepts so that a non-technical person can understand them.
You are also a mentor in the InnoHub Lithuania program. What are the key characteristics of a successful mentorship?
I have helped companies get their first customers, while others have taken my behaviour class and ended up becoming some of the largest companies in their industry. The mentors aim to help businesses move faster, but they cannot do that if they do not know the specific need.
The mentor only has a limited amount of time, so businesses need to be open and direct about their issues or the information they need. They should also do their research on the mentor they want to work with.
How do you keep yourself updated with the latest trends in marketing to ensure you provide relevant advice to your mentees?
I am a geek obsessed with new technologies and most of my friends and colleagues are the same, so we share information. I am also a member of several think tanks where we have calls to talk about technology, strategies, things we need to brainstorm on, and things we are working on. Those are some of the best places to learn new things.
On top of that, I read constantly, follow lots of AI industry pundits on TikTok, take classes, and test out new technologies and tactics myself.
Can you share an example of a successful outcome from one of your corporate workshops?
I did a workshop with an enterprise on implementing account-based marketing (ABM). We went through the Hunter & Bard S.C.A.L.E. ABM framework and made sure the team understood all of the components of ABM, what made it different, and how to handle the management change to ABM. That was a very successful workshop, and the team was able to implement it seamlessly with a full changeover within 2 years.
I’ve also just developed a workshop on the Perception Formula, where Perception = f (Heuristics, Hormones, History), and you can move faster, smoother, and close more deals optimizing for perception. I work with the corporate group to understand their customer perception, and where it needs to be, and we formulate a plan with recipes for different groups.
What new trends or technologies are you most excited about in marketing?
I am obsessed with AI. I use Midjourney, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Mistral, Claude, Meta AI (FB’s LLM) and more. They are getting exponentially better so quickly, it’s very exciting.
Tech companies are going through a “winter”, meaning the industry isn’t booming as it was a few years before. What I like about winters is that they bring the most interesting products (Facebook came from a tech winter, for example).
Marketing will have to become more creative with a smaller budget. Sales will need to be more mindful, as it is harder to sell these days. But difficult times also bring interesting solutions. Look for opportunities.
