Pipeline Visionaries

This episode features an interview with Sarah Kennedy, Vice President of Global Growth and Demand at Google Cloud. Prior to Google, Sarah led multiple marketing transformations as CMO of Marketo and as CMO for the enterprise software divisions at Adobe and Sabre. On this episode, Sarah discusses the marketing efficiencies and ROI drivers she’s anchored her career around, how to navigate the macro mindset shift that every marketing team goes through, and why being a career catalyst for your customers is the most rewarding impact a B2B marketer can have.Key TakeawaysHow every marketing team must undergo a macro mindset shift in order to embrace that every dollar and every minute spent must either directly or indirectly drive demand and growth for the business.Why your primary goal as a marketer is to be a career catalyst for your customer. The biggest reward of any B2B marketer’s career is to see somebody get promoted or get their next job because of the decision they made to bet on you. How to align with sales counterparts on a deep, strategic level that establishes a balanced engine that efficiently drives scale and growth.Quotes“All of your investments drive demand. [It’s important not to] view brand as one thing and demand as another. They all interplay with one another to drive growth. That's been part of the mindset shift that I've been driving really my last five years, including now at Google.”“Every interaction, every second that you consume of someone's attention, you have to quantify the value of what you're bringing. Minutes are precious, so you’ve got to think about the trade-offs [your audience is] making. It's different this year than ever before and that makes the bar even higher. It always should have been this high, but I think this year we're actually seeing that come to fruition and I like that. I think that's great for all marketers and every customer we serve.”“Being a career catalyst for a customer is one thing that I always say is my primary goal. If we see them get promoted or we see somebody get that next job because of the decision they made to bet on us, that's the reward of any marketer's career. It’s the biggest reward–that you can walk away from a career and look back and say, wow, I really impacted hundreds of people's livelihoods by making sure that I clearly communicated to them the value of our partnership and I delivered on it. For me, it’s a motivating way to look at the career of a B2B marketer.”Whatever you do, start with your first priority being your relationship with sales…I have found that no matter how much investment, energy, creative tactics, whatever you have, if you have not aligned with your sales counterparts on what the true objectives are and co-signed up for any targets that you're going to hit together, it really doesn't matter what you do. If you aren't already doing that, that's where you begin and end, because that relationship and accountability and alignment is the foundation for all success.Our job is to be career catalysts for our customers, but our second but equally important objective is to be comma catalysts for our quota carriers. All I want to do is put M's in their bank account every day of the week and if I do that, I've succeeded. Having that mindset that we're responsible for their livelihood is the right approach mentally as a marketer, because that makes you focus on the right things and make better decisions that also end up better serving your customers.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Suku Krishnaraj, CMO of Sumo Logic. Suku is a seasoned senior executive with extensive experience scaling growth at companies like AppFog, HP, CenturyLink, and SolarWinds. On this episode, Suku explains his strategy for driving revenue for the Machine Data Analytics pioneer that went public earlier this year, why the CMO’s primary job is to solve problems, how to never lose sight of marketing’s role in driving revenue, and the importance of having empathy for your customers.Key TakeawaysThe CMO’s job is to drive revenue. Never lose sight of that fact. Keep your eyes on the ball and don't get caught up in vanity metricsBuyers are all at a different stage. You have to educate and nurture them through their journey by looking at the entire customer life cycle. That means a complete end-to-end mapping that bridges your sales and marketing teamsHave empathy for your customers. Think of the buyer’s journey, and try and fix their experience with consistent messaging and a consistent experience, and your results will be there in the long runQuotes“The CMO’s job at the end of the day is to solve problems…Demand gen is one of those things, but I really think of my role as growth. I partner with the CRO and our chief customer officer to drive growth in respect to two things: How do we acquire net new logos–net new customers at scale–and how do we continue to market to our existing install base.”“Marketing is, if not to drive revenue, I don't know what it is. Ultimately it's about closed-won revenue.”“I think one of the things that a lot of marketers miss is that ultimately the folks that are going to win understand how to drive empathy, emotions, and have a lot of care for the folks that you're trying to market to. What is it that they want? You're going to win if you deeply understand what they care about, what they do, and if you show a lot of empathy.”“Our job as CMOs is to drive revenue. Never lose sight of that fact. Don't go for vanity metrics. Keep your eyes on the ball with revenue, which is the hardest thing to do for a lot of CMOs, but do that with the help of your counterpart in sales.”“For any playbook, you have to adapt it to your situation. And the only way to do that is fail often, fail fast. I have several weekly meetings with different groups in the team and they know they have to give me bad news at the beginning. If they're not failing, it's a red flag for me.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Kyle Christensen, VP of Marketing at Zuora. Prior to Zuora, Kyle served as CMO of 6Sense, SVP of Marketing at Invoca, and VP of Marketing at Responsys, where he drove the growth of the enterprise business up until the company's $1.5B acquisition by Oracle. On this episode, Kyle shares his demand gen master plan that starts with a marketing strategy that permeates the entire company and explains why the best brand storytelling attaches you to a narrative of overarching change much larger than the company itself.Key TakeawaysHow to create a compelling, tactical content strategy that elevates a targeted, account-based approachWhy you must treat content marketing as a virtuous cycle. By helping your customers succeed and learn from their experiences, you can turn learnings into better roadmaps for the next customerHow to frame a great company pitch by thinking bigger than your product, your tech, or your business value, and attaching yourself to a narrative of change that’s bigger than your company on its ownQuotes“In order to do really great demand, you need to start with a compelling underlying story. Without that, no amount of landing page optimization or keyword spending strategy is going to work. The content and the message are really what drives things.”“The way we think about it, this isn't just a marketing strategy, it's a company strategy. And it’s a completely virtuous cycle. The reason to go with us is that we have better data, better insights, and a better product, and we will guide you all the way through to implementation. Then we get access to better data, we find better ways to make our customers successful, and it feeds back into the top of the funnel. We translate that into learnings, content, and assets, and the cycle repeats itself and grows over time.”“I think the essence of a good pitch is…what is the overarching change that's occurring in the market–in the world that you're operating–that gives your company a reason for being. The inevitable change that is happening whether or not you exist as a company. I think the best storytelling companies and the best pitch companies start there.”“Don't evangelize why you have a really fantastic web-based contact management application (i.e. Salesforce), evangelize that there's a massive sea change somewhere in the world…If you really want disproportionate attention from the market and to attract the right talent, the most eyeballs, the most interest from the media and the press, you need to attach yourself to a larger narrative.”“You can't do superficial content, because it’s not interesting. There's so much competition out there now for mindshare and time that you have to invest. You’ve got to have the right people, the right data, and the right narrative that you want to attach yourself to. It's not enough to put out listicles and things like that to drive conversation.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Jen Dimas, CMO of GigsterFor more than 20 years, Jen has led marketing teams at high-growth enterprise software companies like Plex, Demandbase, Egnyte, Polycom, and Hyperion.In this episode, Jen dives into the ever-changing landscape of demand gen strategy, highlighting the importance of understanding and adapting to the needs of the moment. She also emphasizes the importance of a tight partnership between sales and marketing and explains how to go about cultivating it.Key TakeawaysWhich tactics and technologies are best for empowering digital-first, adaptable marketing teamsHow to align sales and marketing teams across performance, strategies, and goal settingWhy measuring everything from first touch to close is essential to marketing’s successQuotes“As in all things marketing, ‘it depends’ is always the answer. There's not a demand gen strategy that is consistently applied that would make any sense. You have to understand your situation and adapt to whatever the needs are and the resources available in that moment.”“I need to partner tightly with sales. I just don't believe that sales and marketing exist as separate functions from each other. They're all connected and a part of driving customer value and bookings and revenue...That relationship with the head of sales, next to my relationship with my boss, is my most primary relationship at work. It's something that has to be strong so that we're doing the best job we can for the company.”“You need to have enough trust in the relationship of the executive team that you can have healthy conflict. That is the goal of having a healthy executive team. When there is conflict, I always consider it a sign of health, as long as it's respectful conflict and you're saying things in the best interest of the business, even things that are hard, that's the goal, right? You want to have a conversation where you can say hard things.”“Your website is your always-on front door, and that needs to reflect your corporate positioning–what is your value to prospects and customers–but it also needs to engage folks from a demand perspective and speak to investors and potential employees, so it’s very, very important.”“Do not try to make decisions about change in a vacuum. Leverage your community. Talk to marketers who've made the same kinds of decisions or faced the same challenges. Talk to salespeople who have struggled. Leverage people with experience because they're out there, and there's no need to reinvent things that have worked and a lot can be learned from other people's successes and mistakes.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Lauren Vaccarello, CMO of Talend.Lauren is an award-winning marketing executive with a track record of accelerating revenue growth for some of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in Silicon Valley including Box, AdRoll, and Salesforce.On this episode, Lauren talks about how to hit your numbers in the short term while working to expand the scope of who you’re selling to in the long term. She also discusses how to leverage your executive team to build brand trust, and shares a couple uncuttable budget items that may surprise you...Key TakeawaysThink of demand gen and marketing in both the short term and long term. How are you going to hit your numbers while also expanding the scope of who you’re selling to.Demand gen must start with defining who you are, why you matter, and who you’re selling to, then you can determine how you’re going to execute.With large enterprise deals, it's about emotional connection as much as it's about your product and your messaging.Invest in the backend and the “unsexy” things like tech infrastructure, because they’ll make everything else you do easier and faster.Quotes“Investing in things like executive programs, executive engagement, and building deeper relationships with senior level executives at your target audience is the gift that keeps on giving. You’ll hit your numbers today, and the more they see you as a strategic partner, the more your deal size is going to grow.”“Every CMO who comes in has to get points on the board quickly. The shine wears off our penny probably faster than any other function. You have to show momentum, and I find getting those short term wins buys you time to get long term wins as well.”“What's going to make or break every single demand gen person in the foreseeable future is your ability to be agile and adapt. If you can't move quickly, you're dead in the water. The world is moving too fast...So invest in the backend, invest in the unsexy things that no one sees or understands why you're doing it, because it's those backend, unsexy, tech infrastructure things that make everything else you do faster and easier.”“Our job as leaders is to remove every blocker and every obstacle and to give the people that work for us the ability to be creative.”“Because what we do is so visible, every single person in your company will have an opinion about what you do. And you have to listen to every single person and you have to have thick enough skin to not take it personally.”“I won't cut PR. I cannot ascribe a dollar return to my PR program, but what I've seen in the past is the anecdotal qualitative that just proves that it works...I've seen it enough times-–you're going to get better candidates, better employees, faster velocity, and your inbound interest and brand awareness just start to tick up.”LinksTruth Be Known Podcastwww.talend.comSponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Michael King, Senior Director of Cloud Marketing at VMware.Inside the $64 billion cloud computing and virtualization software giant, Michael is responsible for the VMware Cloud Marketing team and is tasked with transforming the customer perception of VMware’s cloud services and products.On this episode, Michael expands on the demand gen strategy that he calls “the relentless pursuit of whatever works,” illustrates his audience-action-measurement playbook, discusses the importance of a consistent customer experience, and explains why your channels must reflect your audience.Key TakeawaysHow the seismic shift away from “broadcast” marketing tactics is ushering in a new wave of conversational marketing tactics that are generating massive ROIWhy marketing’s fundamental measure of success should be revenue-based, and how to make this transition in your organizationWays the most successful demand gen marketers are pushing the envelope to eliminate friction in the buying process and speed up sales cyclesQuotes“Demand gen strategy at VMware is the relentless pursuit of whatever works. I tend not to be dogmatic about these things. I work with a team that is always challenging me, always pushing me to think differently.”“No matter what, things are always changing. You may come at it thinking, ‘I know the audience, I know the market, I know the benefits, here's the play I'm going to run.’ But things change…Anytime you go into any demand gen or any other marketing situation thinking that you have it cooked, you're probably cooked.”“The longer the time frame is from hand-raising activity to benefit achievement, the fewer customers you're going to convert, and then you'll just see leaky funnel left and right...reduction in speed is what kills all good demand gen programs.”“There's a lot of things that you can measure…but when it comes down to it, marketing, I feel, should measure itself on one thing and one thing only: revenue through the door.“As marketers, as product people, we spend 10, 12, sometimes 20 hours a day thinking about our product. The average customer spends 20 minutes a quarter thinking about your product. So you have a very limited amount of time to earn that ear.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Adam Blitzer, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Digital at Salesforce. Adam is truly one of the godfathers of marketing automation and B2B demand generation, having founded and sold Pardot, one of the most important marketing automation platforms ever created for CMOs and demand gen leaders. Adam currently oversees the multi-billion-dollar marketing division at Salesforce, using the products he created to meet internal demand gen goals.On this episode, Adam discusses the evolution of demand gen, how the tools and technologies for marketing automation have changed, why the fundamental challenges for marketers remain the same, what he believes is the MarTech battleground of the future, and the software products he’s building to create the single source of truth for enterprise marketers.Key TakeawaysB2b marketers have two customers – your end customer and your sales team, and sales is marketing’s most important marketing channel at most B2B companies.The tools and technologies for marketing automation have changed, but the fundamental challenges for marketers remain the same. Marketers are trying to do four things: Know their customers, personalize their interactions, engage customers across every channel, and measure all of it. Historically there's never been a single source of truth for marketing. The customer data platform is the battleground of the future, and it’s where Salesforce is building the single source of truth for marketers.Quotes“Marketing has really stepped up and said, you know what, we're the steward of the brand, and we’re now also the steward of the end-to-end customer experience. Even if it flows through a part of the company that we don't own directly, it’s all a reflection of the brand and it's all a reflection of marketing.”“When I got started in 2007 in B2B marketing automation, it was very much about feeding the funnel and moving through the conveyor belt of leads to opportunities to closed-one deals. Now it's much more about customer life-cycle marketing. It's about turning your clicks into leads, your leads into pipeline, your pipeline into customers, and your customers into raving fans.”“It's very easy as a marketer to focus on the end customer and to not focus on the other very important customer, which is your sales team. At the end of the day, if marketing blows out its numbers and they hit all of their target metrics and sales misses their target metric, how many people at the company are happy? No one is happy. At a B2B company, pipeline and sales is where the rubber meets the road. As much as possible marketing and sales need to be joined at the hip, and the more that they can share goals, the better.”“We really believe that the customer data platform is the battleground in marketing for the next five years. With this proliferation of MarTech and the average marketer using 10 to 20 different pieces of MarTech in their stack, you have got to be at the center of it.”“In this world where MarTech has become so diffuse, you can control the data, you can control the workflow, you can control the content, or you can control the analytics…And we think the most foundational of those four pieces is data, so that's really what we want to help our customers with.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Jamie Grenney, CMO of OwnBackup. Prior to OwnBackup, Jamie spent 11 years at Salesforce learning from the best in the business. Most recently, he led a large product marketing and enablement team as a Global VP at Okta, and is now working on making OwnBackup into his fourth Unicorn. On this episode, Jamie discusses the death of cold outreach, the right way to make impactful video content, how to cultivate a great sales-marketing relationship, and much more.Key TakeawaysThe big shift that we're going to see in demand gen and marketing over the next couple of years is the switch from cold outreach to warm introductions. Companies are going to come up with a way to break through the noise and get to warm introductions at scale. Cultivating a great sales-marketing relationship requires putting yourself in their shoes, having empathy for their job, and maintaining the perspective that sales closing deals that ultimately pay your salary.Video is still a great way to deliver a clear and concise message in a format that’s really easy to share. YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the web, and a YouTube link is a non-threatening way to advocate for a product and help people understand what it’s capable of.Quotes“Inbound pipeline, outbound BDR-sourced pipeline, AE-sourced pipeline, and your partners. Those are the four engines you want to think about. How do you build those for scale, how do you measure them, and how do you grow them 5 or 10X. Think about those engines, and what can we do to increase their respective productivity.”“I think one challenge that some companies have is they have a product that is not verticalized, but they go after vertical messaging. It can take a ton of time and energy to maintain a bunch of vertical messaging. When you go into verticals, you've got to think about what is the vertical and how am I going to solve that problem all the way through?”“Conversational marketing is an uncuttable [budget item] because I think it's the future of how we engage our prospects and customers. It’s less about forms and more about getting them to the right person who can help. It's about improving the quality of conversation, and it's about making sure that you make the connection in real time.”“One thing that I see fading away is cold outreach. Every company has a pipeline gap to fill, but cold outreach makes no sense at all…generally cold outreach is expensive, inefficient, stressful, and it often yields disappointing results. These days, if you're a high value prospect, you're bombarded with unsolicited calls and emails and advertisements that you're going to tune out. So marketers really need to figure this out.”"Sometimes you have to relax your ideals to earn trust. You have to put yourself in [sales’] shoes. Understand that it's more important to be effective than to be right. A really good lesson in bridging the sales and marketing divide is to think about what is the right pace to introduce things to sales and how do you build trust in those relationships."SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Heidi Melin, CMO of Workfront. Heidi has held the position of CMO 6 times over an impressive two-decade career of developing and executing marketing strategies that drive growth. On this episode, Heidi illustrates her approach to pivoting Workfront’s marketing strategies in response to the paradigm shift that companies are experiencing in 2020, and she explains why you need to be viewing your marketing dollars as an investment, not just an expense.Key TakeawaysWe’re undergoing a paradigm shift driven by COVID and the rise of the millennial B2B consumer that is completely changing how companies buy software.Companies can differentiate themselves by deeply understanding how buyers engage with their brand, and then utilizing those insights throughout the selling process.Account-based marketing isn’t enough; the strategy must be hyper-targeted across marketing and sales.Quotes“As marketers, if we have learned anything over the course of the last few months, it's that we have to be able to adapt much more quickly in order to be successful. All the things that we knew were effective are changing and they're changing immediately. So how do we adjust and continue to drive demand to support the pipeline that's required for our selling organization?”“One of the most important things that we have learned out of the pivot in response to COVID is that the entire business process needs to change, not just a marketing tactic here or there. It's a paradigm shift that we're going through right now that is not only going to change our marketing programs and tactics, but it's going to change how organizations buy enterprise software.”“I think in terms of what channels give us the ability to be very focused and targeted in our investments. We're prioritizing those channels that allow us to more accurately target our target accounts. We have the tools today to be very specific about who our messages go to. Leveraging those tools becomes really important, because our spend levels aren't necessarily going up, but the pressure on marketing teams to deliver engagement and demand is going up.”“I always talk about marketing as an investment versus an expense. If we want to make sure that each one of those dollars is used to its fullest impact, we want to make sure we get to the people that have the highest likelihood to buy from us.”“I very seldom use the term ABM because it's been overused and over promoted. Isn't ABM just a category of software that allows us to deliver on the premise of marketing that's always been there? ABM technology provided the ability for us as marketers to do what we've always said we should be doing, which is targeting the right people with our message.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview between Ian Faison and Udi Ledergor, CMO of Gong. A 5-time VP of Marketing, Udi has 20 years of experience heading marketing teams and is an expert in helping B2B companies grow faster by optimizing and transforming their marketing efforts.On this episode, Udi discusses the synergy between Gong’s demand gen efforts and brand plays, and lays out the content strategy that he uses to drive the inbound and outbound motions that create thousands of MQLs every month for a $2.2 Billion B2B powerhouse.Key TakeawaysWays the content marketing landscape is changing in our fast-paced, digital-first worldHow to build compelling content that reaches your audience on the channels they frequent mostThe three basic elements that every successful content machine must includeQuotes“Here's the really simplified truth: we create darn good content, and we use that content to drive both our inbound and outbound motions. Then we create thousands of MQLs every month by looking at who's consuming our content and attending our events.”“Here’s the big secret: [LinkedIn] is my cheapest demand gen channel...we can get thousands of downloads in a day and that doesn't cost me a dime. It’s completely organic. That's why I love this channel. I know that the people are there because they want to be, I'm not chasing them. I could not live without that channel.”“I think the biggest mistake that brands make is they start with what they want to say rather than what their prospects or customers want to hear. By starting from the customer side and working back, you can give them what they want in a way that also serves your brand. That's the right way to do it.”“I'd say 99% of our content takes less than five minutes to consume. We’ve found that with today's attention span, especially of busy executives, that type of content is hugely popular. If you're going to create a 40-page e-book like we did 10 years ago in content marketing, the only ones likely to read it are your competitors.”“The days where we could plan six months ahead for a content project are long gone. I think it's a joke if someone can plan a year ahead on their content calendar in this fast moving market. Either your content is stale or it's just completely detached from what's going on in the market. What plans could you have made six months ago that would be remotely relevant to your audience right now? You have to be a lot more agile than in the past to keep up. The companies that are keeping up, that are producing timely content that’s answering real time questions and solving problems quickly– they are moving quickly ahead, and the others are way behind.”“Become best friends with your CRO or VP of Sales. You have to put your ego aside and understand that you are there to make sales easier. You can't build the right demand gen machine if you don't understand exactly what your sales team needs. If you manage to make sales’ lives easier, you will have built a successful demand gen machine. It’s that simple.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Chandar Pattabhiram, CMO of Coupa. Chandar has more than 25 years of experience in strategic marketing and management consulting, including his previous role as CMO at Marketo. As CMO of Coupa, he is responsible for driving all aspects of worldwide marketing including strategic segment marketing, product marketing, growth marketing and corporate marketing.On this episode, Chandar breaks the mold on demand gen, explaining why you should be thinking of it in terms of growth marketing and revenue gen, and he illustrates his flywheel approach to marketing that goes far beyond the traditional funnel model.Key TakeawaysExpand your view of demand gen–view it as growth marketing, and even as revenue gen. Those terms are important because what you call it and how you view it gets permeated throughout your organization.It’s important to view marketing as a flywheel of activities as opposed to the traditional funnel model. The flywheel approach consists of awareness, acquisition, expansion, and advocacy.A step that’s missing in growth marketing in a lot of organizations is adoption marketing. Adoption marketing is about ensuring that your customers are successful with what they’ve already bought before you go about trying to expand your presence in their business.Instead of running big virtual events and claiming victory on vanity metrics, marketers should consider the value of “circles,” which are smaller, more intimate gatherings that are easier to engage and have a much greater impact on deal-acceleration.Quotes“I don’t use the words ‘funnel’ or ‘demand gen.’ We call it revenue marketing. Because why do any marketing unless it’s for revenue?”“Your job in marketing is to find the fastest path to the most dollars for the sales organization. That’s the guiding principle at the end of the day.”“Value is one divided by vanity. You have to take the vanity metrics out of it...We are looking for value, not vanity. If my goal is deal acceleration, I should not be worried about vanity metrics, I should only be worried about value metrics.”“Advocacy marketing is not them advocating for you, it’s you advocating for them. If you’re doing it well, you’re showcasing how your customers are driving transformational change in their organizations.”“Your best salesperson is your customer. if you’ve done a good job of driving value, they’re going to do the selling for you.”“I view our website as the most strategic weapon in marketing...I view it as a vehicle for conversation, not just one-way information dissemination. It can be a vehicle to start a conversation and move it forward in the journey. It’s an important asset for us in that way, and it’s a top lead-generation tool as well.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Melton Littlepage, Senior VP of Marketing at Tenable. Melton has more than 15 years of marketing experience, including as VP of Global Marketing for SAP Concur, and CMO of Schoology. At Tenable, Melton is responsible for driving demand gen for cybersecurity solutions that are used by more than 30,000 organizations worldwide, including more than half of the Fortune 500.On this episode, Melton breaks down his solution-based marketing approach, how to truly understand the problems your customers face, and how to make your brand synonymous with the solutions they need.Key TakeawaysMarketing has two missions: tell your story to the market, and then when the market is searching for an answer to a problem, be there with the answer.The job of a marketer is to help the buyer understand how to manage their problems. It’s to help them see that there is a solution that can take a lot of pain and effort out of their life, allow them to do a better job, and help their company be more successful.Management of your website is crucial. It's where you express yourself as a brand, develop your category, create community, inform and educate the market on the products you offer, and it’s how you assemble those products into solutions that are important for solving real-world problems.Having conversational marketing on your website is an essential tool. It’s an attractive alternative to gated content forms and it goes beyond being a lead-capture tool. It allows you to have meaningful conversations with your customers and guide them through their buying journey.Quotes“Being a VP of marketing is like being the VP of helping the customer solve a problem. We have a lot of internal processes and KPIs and metrics and all that's really important, but our job is really to understand our buyer and understand what they're up against.”“[Our customer] is not looking to buy a product, they're looking to solve a problem. We need to jump in there and help them solve the problem. That's how they're going to end up buying the product. It doesn't come the other way around.”“We've built a demand gen organization that is dedicated to reaching our target persona and changing their mind. That’s it in a nutshell.”“We start with the buyer and the problems they have in their day to day world. We try to help them understand that there is a better way to do what we do. We hold their hand through the process of learning how it could apply in their organization and what the potential benefit is. And then, in an ideal world, we start a conversation with them. If we can do that, we've succeeded in our role as marketing. If we can't do that, then all the KPIs, processes, tech– it just doesn't matter.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Dave King, CMO of Asana. Specializing in B2B enterprise marketing and growth, Dave joined Asana in 2017 to oversee global marketing efforts after having previously led marketing teams at Percolate, Highfive and Salesforce.On this episode, Dave breaks down Asana’s unique, hybrid demand gen strategy that starts with a core belief in an exceptional product experience. Dave discusses how to add value, engender trust, and deliver such a remarkable experience that your customers become your greatest advocates.Key TakeawaysWord of mouth marketing is the future and is still largely untapped. More people hear about Asana from word of mouth than from any other advertising or marketing tactics. Think about how to create an experience that’s so remarkable that people want to share about it.Ultimately a brand is about building trust. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, what matters is that you’re engendering trust within the specific audience that you’re targeting.Demand gen has to be tailored to your audience and the needs of the business. You can’t take a demand gen model that works for company X and apply it to company Y. The first and most important thing you need to do is figure out what you need demand gen to do for your organizationBoth the demand gen team and sales teams at Asana are really focused on how to help customers get even more value out of the product.Asana customers can use the product for free and see the value from day one, which aligns everybody’s incentives in a powerful way, and is a huge driver of word of mouth.Everyone at Asana uses the product, which is a huge advantage to knowing how to explain to customers how it can add value.Big ad platforms still work fine but have likely reached their peak influence. There are exciting new types of smaller channels and communities that are more targeted and intimate (like podcasts).Gated assets are still sometimes a necessary evil, but there’s likely a technology breakthrough coming where you won’t have to make the false choice between customer experience and data capture. Quotes“More people hear about us from word of mouth than they do from any of our advertising or marketing tactics. Our community team does several hundred events per year, on five continents, all about driving word of mouth.”“We like to say great marketing is about education and delivering an experience. So how do we help people be better at their jobs, and how do you make it an experience that people want to talk about?”“Helping people be better at their jobs rather than selling features is a shift that’s happening across our craft...We view ourselves as community organizers more than as professors.”“Some of the best marketing is not creating things from scratch, but seeing the bright spots–what is working organically, what’s happening naturally, and how do we create programs to amplify or facilitate that. Our most creative ideas come from what we’re seeing in the community, versus us thinking them up in the lab”“I think that the scarce commodity in society right now is trust. We make emotional decisions, and we make them based on trust. That’s ultimately what a brand is: How do I deliver trust?”“Our philosophy is that we believe so much in the product experience that we want to get people into that experience as quickly as possible.”“Speed to market is the new currency of success. You have to be agile and adaptive...Who has time for a one- or two-year software deployment cycle these days? Especially as demand gen marketers, we’ve got to get up and running quickly, and where you can put tools together to be really adaptive and move fast gives you a big advantage.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Julie Liegl is used to being a part of big things. As EVP of Global Marketing at Salesforce, she helped create and oversee the world-class corporate event that is known as Dreamforce, and she’s currently overseeing a complete transformation in the way that businesses communicate as CMO of Slack.On this episode, Julie unveils some of the plays that have made her so successful across her career. She talks about corporate events and how they can maintain relevance as digital events in the time of COVID, how to create a demand gen team from scratch, and much more.Key TakeawaysDemand Gen needs to be integrated. Every aspect of it needs to be thought of as a part of one single function, rather than separate one-off activities.In order for an event to be successful, you need to help prepare your attendees to make the most of it before they ever arrive.Brand marketing can work hand-in-hand with demand gen. The top of the funnel is still a part of the funnel.Quotes"You have to think of demand gen as a program rather than a set of tactics and how they're going to go along the way. We used to call it lead gen and that very much reflected what it was, which was marketing, throwing leads over the wall, and demand gen is really about being smarter about the entire thing.""I see events as an amplifying effect to demand gen and as a point in the demand gen journey.""Brand is funny because there definitely are ways to measure it. We do a lot of brand studies. We do research on consideration awareness sentiment, and we try to measure it quarterly.""I still think that flashy things can work, but they need to work in a way that makes sense with your product beyond just a clever marketing tagline."SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tom Butta, Former CMO of SignalFx (acquired by Spunk for $1.05B), discusses the demand-gen mindset that leads to high-dollar acquisitions. On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Tom explains the importance of focusing on marketing fundamentals to see big results, how putting your customers above all will lead to retention and more pipeline, and keeping a company-wide eye to make sure your demand gen leads to more sales. Key TakeawaysThere are three essential elements of demand gen: pipeline creation, revenue metrics, and, often overlooked, customer retention.Customers should be treated as family. They should never find out about a big announcement when the rest of the world does. They should be notified about it before.The most fundamental requirement of demand gen is perspective. Know where marketing is having an impact and make sure customers can find your website.When you spend money on marketing tactics, you need to make sure you’re seeing a return on your investment.Own your content creation. You need to have content that the company can stand behind without question. Quality always starts from within and it needs to be amplified.It’s important to have data to back up your actions. Let your metrics guide your company's strategy, not emotion.Quotes“Demand gen is a function within a function. It's part of a team, but it does not live on its own. It’s reliant upon really good content. It's reliant upon the ability to act appropriately and quickly on opportunities that it creates.”“The validation that you get from customers is just immeasurable.”“Understand that your home is the place that most people will go to and you need that to be your website. You need to be able to ensure that when they get there, they have the best possible experience, but you also need to be sure that they actually can find you.”“You go after the new logos exclusively, and you forget that you can actually have great influence over, building relationships with your existing customers. Those customers are our franchise. They give reason for us to exist.”“My belief (for content) is, it always has to start from within. In terms of turning something over, we did a couple of case studies with external consultants and writers, but for the most part we wrote everything ourselves.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Latane Conant is the CMO of 6Sense and author of No Forms. No Spam. No Cold Calls: The next generation of account-based sales and marketing. discusses the importance of personalized marketing. On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Latane explains how she generates demand by illuminating “the dark funnel”, why cold outreach is undergoing a fundamental change, and much more.Key TakeawaysThe best demand gen will make people feel something. You need to create a genuine connection with your customer to accelerate their desired results.Contacting a potential customer should be personalized and scaled. Cold emails aren’t going to work anymore. You need to stand out.Shine a light on prospective clients that might be hiding in “the dark funnel”. Dive deeper into client relations to turn prospects into valued customers.Shift your mindset from demand gen to demand capture. Make the experience unique so you organically retain customers.Over time, you earn the right to take risks. Sometimes you have to trust your gut and dismiss outside influences.Quotes“I think the best demand gen makes people feel something. It creates a connection.”“I'm just going to blow this thing up and prove that if we put prospects and their experiences first, we can generate a lot of pipeline and succeed, and do it in this new and different way.”“We decided early on not to have sales ops and marketing ops, but to have revenue ops. As a revenue team, let's always be finding our ‘red’ and always be bringing issues and conversion points forward that aren't performing because that gives us a chance to go and fix them.”“I just always encourage people. If your gut is telling you that it's the right thing to do, it probably is, and sometimes you gotta take those risks.”“I would challenge the new world order to be thinking, not about demand generation, but demand capture. Because if you uncovered ‘the dark funnel’, then you actually see the demand right in front of you.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tracy Eiler, CMO of InsideView Technologies, explains how she has aligned marketing and sales to accelerate pipeline, and shares how optimizing your CRM can drive growth. She also talks about the importance of human interaction with customers to turn buyers into company advocates, and the importance of generating quality vs. quantity leads. Tracy was also a key speaker at the Growth Marketing Conference.Key TakeawaysAlways strive to improve your CRM. Don’t overlook the issues. Cleaning up dirty data can have a significant impact on the company's productivity.Cold calling doesn’t exist anymore. If marketers are doing their job, they’re getting in front of the audience and reaching out to them in a much more productive way.Marketers need to focus on the top of the funnel, but they need to remember to think about their role post-sale to turn customers into advocates.Focus on updating old content into new systems. Just because the platform of the data is outdated doesn’t mean the information within it isn’t relevant.Emphasize diversity in the workplace, and give opportunities to people with unconventional backgrounds to help your company expand.Quotes“I don't use the term ABM anymore. I really think that it’s account-based engagement or account-based pursuit because we’re so integrated between sales, marketing, and customer experience. We go account-based not only for new logo pursuit but also for customer expansion.”“I really think demand marketers should think about, org structure-wise, having sales development report into marketing.”“CRM data quality is something that the ops folks typically own, but it’s at the root of impact to sales and marketing effectiveness.”“Cold calling. I just don't think that exists anymore, right? If marketers are doing their job, we’re warming up an audience and reaching out to them and getting in front of them in a variety of ways.”“Really make sure that sales understands and has buy-in into your strategy. It’s really important—we have to educate them. Wean them off of lead quantity and wean them onto opportunity quality.”“We want more folks who are not white, and we also want diversity of thought, right? Take first-generation college graduates as an example. We don't want everybody to look and sound and come with the same background.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mike Marcellin, CMO of Juniper Networks, explains the benefits of having automated, AI-driven systems that allow marketers to focus on understanding the market and creating organic connections with potential customers.Key TakeawaysCompetition in the marketplace is inevitable. Working smarter than competitors with larger budgets can put you in the same league.The more data, the better the AI. Marketers need to make sure that accurate data informs AI-driven decision-marking.Make the opportunity of demand gen count. When an interested customer comes to you with questions, show them how you can help.Emphasize the importance of digital assets as you think about automating the customer journey.Quotes“If we do our job right, we'll eventually get to a conversation about technology, but the first goal is: Why should I be talking to you? What's in it for me? How's it going to help my business?”“AI is worthless without data. The more data, the better the AI can be, and the more value you can deliver.”“Centralize what you can, and distribute what you must. It’s pretty profound because obviously, we know the benefits of centralization that you can get from efficiency, But you also realize that, at times, you do have to distribute things if there's a strong, compelling reason to do so.”“Many of our competitors are much larger and will outspend us from a marketing perspective. And for that matter, from a sales perspective. They'll have more feet on the street. So we have to be super smart and super-targeted, effectively outsmart them, because we can't outspend them.”“This has become much more of a science over the years, and with the amount of data that we now have at our fingertips, that can be hugely valuable to making demand gen successful. But it's only valuable if you have people that can make sense of that data.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ryan Bonnici discusses why the campaign-based approach to marketing needs to be jettisoned for a new school mindset that constantly tests and adapts, his philosophy for creating useful content that drives value and leads to conversion, how he's driven growth at G2, and much more.Key TakeawaysThe campaign-based approach to marketing needs to be jettisoned for a new school mindset that constantly tests and adaptsDemand gen leaders need to be leveraging intent data in order to increase the efficiency of their demand gen spendCreating interactive content that dramatically increases lead conversionMaking more intentional and digestible content by researching complex topics and simplifying for an easier, more simple user experience results in higher trafficQuotes“I think of demand gen differently than most B2B SaaS marketers. How do I generate as much marketing source pipeline for the business as possible? How do I increase our brand awareness and trust? So that pipeline, whether that was through marketing or through sales, flows through the pipe more efficiently.”“We can't just rely on organic word-of-mouth. We need to really try and improve our technical SEO and prove the breadth and depth of the content on our site.”“Most marketing teams over-index on influence and should over-index more on sourcing revenue for their sales team. You can over-index and they think there's like this holy grail of attribution that I have yet to see any company really have when it comes to influence.”“I just fully believe at my core that inbound marketing and attracting someone to you and giving them value is just a better way of doing business. It's a much longer-term way of doing business. It creates a moat around you that paid can never do.”“I just ultimately look for the team to think about not just creating content for content's sake, but if we're going to write something, how can we write it in a way that's better than everyone else. Can we do more research so that we can simplify this complex topic to make it easier to understand? Can we identify better metaphors? Can we write a catchier headline that increases click-throughs? How do we really do it a little bit better than everyone at each of those different stages of the content creation process?”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Corinne Sklar, CMO of IBM, shares how demand gen influences their marketing strategies, and vice versa. She dives into the partnership her team shares with sales to ensure seamless execution of their acquisition strategy. On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Corinne talks about growth at IBM and how companies, big and small, can implement consistent marketing strategies to generate a successful sales experience.Key TakeawaysWhen brand marketing and demand gen work closely together to bring awareness to prospects, revenue followsTimeless content is the key to providing a seamless and reliable customer experience that continues to deliver value — even years down the roadTransparency and clear communication with teammates is the secret to a healthy, productive, and conflict-free work environmentQuotes“Content marketing has to stand out. It either has to be provocative, or it has to be super detailed in regards to a problem we know needs to be solved.”“People are people. I have resolved conflicts more by simply picking up the phone and calling someone than any other tactic that I've ever used.”“The company needs to be thought of as a marketing- and sales-driven organization, not just sales.”“Look for digital clues around what products and services customers are interested in — what engagement they're having across your business to be able to tailor outreach to them. Marketing plays a huge role in providing those digital footprints right into the place that sellers work every day. And that should be their CRM or on their mobile device. I think that's a critical aspect of driving demand gen in a B2B world.”“We’d look at the integrated needs of our sellers — whether it was about tools, whether it was about training, whether it was about compensation — and really develop programs together as a team. All of those things are so important for a marketing organization.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fewer demand challenges are greater than driving growth in a mature market. But it’s not impossible, according to Nate Skinner. On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Nate explains how he has been able to help drive growth at Oracle by stepping in and understanding the landscape, identifying opportunities, coordinating with sales, and clearly articulating value.Key Takeaways:In today’s digital environment, it’s impossible to predict the exact journey someone will take toward becoming a customer, so it’s important that every touchpoint reinforce the desired customer experience.There is no shortcut for talking to customers. Great demand gen marketers have to talk to customers and understand their needs.Especially with larger brands, it’s important to be coordinated across functions. Great campaigns are ones where sales, marketing, product, and everything other function are on the same page.Quotes:“The journey your customer follows to get to your brand is nonlinear. They can come in through a case study, an ad, a demo, etc. Every one of those touchpoints is an opportunity to influence that relationship and engage that customer. And now more than ever, we have to bring those things together and really engage that customer on their terms in the way that they want to be engaged.”“I can't be good at my job unless I understand what's working and what's not working. Then we can do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Then you can look for those opportunities to change the game.”“If you go back a few years, we all were learning about or knew about the ideal customer profile. But now it's no longer necessarily a persona that you need to market to and engage with. It's a committee of personas."“You have to make the website as simple and approachable and concise as possible because people have such limited attention spans. And in addition, right now everyone is sitting at their home on their computers, searching the internet. So if you're not doing your best to make sure your website attracts them when they find you, you are losing right now.”“There's no shortcut to talking to customers. Nothing drives me crazier in marketing professionals than those that don't talk to customers all the time.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

According to Sara Varni, every marketer is a demand gen marketer in some respect, because success is all about performance. But that doesn’t mean that every marketer needs to be a “spreadsheet jockey.” On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Sara tells us why it’s important to combine the art and science of demand gen to fully master the art of B2B marketing.Key Takeaways:Funneling leads to sales is great, but you can’t abandon your long-term strategy plays. Make sure you’re developing a fully built-out funnel and not sacrificing a healthy pipeline for short-term gains.Don’t spread yourself too thin. Make sure you’re really focused on no more than two or three key personas.Field marketing is going to be key to developing a fully functioning demand gen team, even in a post-COVID world.Quotes:“Personalization is going to be the key to conversion moving forward.”“[Demand gen is] a mix of art and science. You need a mix of short term wins that are easy to quantify and awareness tactics that are not perfectly simple to align attribution to.”“It’s been a really crazy time to lead people but I do really believe we’re all going to come out of this stronger marketers.”“Get under the hood as quickly as you can. Go look at your funnel top to bottom. Figure out where your biggest levers are and where you can have the most impact.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Marketers perform all sorts of important functions, from brand campaigns to assisting PR. But if a marketer isn’t filling the pipeline, nothing else matters, according to Scott Holden, CMO of ThoughtSpot. On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, he tell us that the most important duties of a demand gen marketer are to know their numbers, answer for them, and be able to explain why they are where they are. Because if you can measure, then you can manage and grow.Key Takeaways:Any good demand gen strategy will include a segmentation plan. It’s impossible to have a good demand gen strategy that focuses on all potential accounts equally.LinkedIn is quickly becoming an uncuttable channel for many demand gen teams because of the way that it allows them to target specific accounts.While the cancellation of in-person events has been a blow for many B2B marketers, it can be an advantage for those who realize that senior-level execs are easier to get access to than ever.Quotes:“The number one job for a marketing leader is pipeline creation. If I'm not hitting my pipeline target for the sales team, nothing else matters.”“We've got hundreds of campaigns running at any given point of time. Marketing these days is an all-out, guns blazing affair.”“Segmentation strategy is critical, but it just doesn’t fly at all if you don’t have sales bought in. If they’re not ready to segment accounts and narrow the focus to a reasonable level, then it won’t work.”“It’s the golden age of data. In particular, being able to pull data from nontraditional sources together and analyze quickly across them is crucial.”SponsorDemand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Demand Gen Visionaries, where we interview marketing executives from all sorts of companies, from the Fortune 500 to high-growth startups.They walk you through their playbooks. We’re not talking about theory and concepts, we are talking x’s and o’s. We’re getting into the nitty gritty of how they drive results.They discuss their customers, prospects, how they structure their organization, where they spend their budget, their best and worst campaigns, and all the tips they have for how to generate pipeline.Learn more at DemandGenVisionaries.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.