The Get: Finding And Keeping The Best Marketing Leaders in B2B SaaS – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this episode of The Get, we highlight key insights from this season of The Get, which is all about the race to reduce risk in CMO recruiting. Host Erica Seidel and her guests delve into the intricacies of how CEOs and CMOs at B2B SaaS companies can make more-informed decisions before saying yes to each other.

Whether you’re hiring a CMO or looking to step into a new CMO role, you will learn a lot from these takeaways, which range from the practical to the provocative.

We discuss the challenges, fears, and risks that CEOs and investors faces when recruiting a CMO. For instance, they often worry about hiring CMOs who either misalign with the company’s growth stage or struggle to get to the right blend of short-term wins and longer-term impact. We discuss how to mitigate those risks, such as by co-creating the roles and managing expectations about timelines for marketing results.

Then we turn to the candidate side: What risks and red flags do CMO candidates perceive when evaluating CMO roles, and how can candidates reduce these risks? We discuss red flags such as unclear product-market fit, inadequate resources, and misaligned leadership dynamics. We cover several practical strategies for ensuring a good match and getting off to a successful start in a new CMO role.

A huge thank you to the guests this season:

• Andrea Kayal, CRO at Help Scout
• Tracy Eiler, CMO of OpenSesame
• James Lamberti, Head of Go-to-Market for Georgian
• Melissa Sargeant, CMO at Lumaverse
• Norman Guadagno, former CMO at Mimecast
• Peter Mahoney, Chief Commercial Officer at GoTo
• Gary Survis, Operating Partner with Insight Partners

00:00 Introduction to The Get

00:52 Understanding the High Stakes of the CMO Role

03:37 De-risking CMO Recruiting

07:53 Red Flags for CMO Candidates

10:16 Mitigating Risks as a CMO Candidate

18:53 Maximizing Success in a New CMO Role

23:26 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is The Race to Reduce Risk in CMO Recruiting. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by the team at

On today’s episode, Erica talks with Gary Survis, an Operating Partner with Insight Partners. Erica and Gary discuss how the strongest CMOs limit risk when transitioning into new marketing leadership roles:

• They stand out by demonstrating credibility, collaboration, and curiosity. They're aware that what you don't say in an interview is just as important as what you do say.
• When interviewing, they communicate their experience with this structure: strategy + example + numbers. 
• Once in the new CMO role, they realize that no matter what their background is, they have to deliver on their demand gen goals or risk losing their job.
• They have a perspective on AI and know how they will organize their teams and define roles differently for AI-supported marketing. 
• They create a "flywheel of credibility."
• They take the time they need to form an assessment – "it'll be the only time in your tenure when you are afforded the luxury of time."
• They follow the "Diagnose, Don't Delude" approach – identifying and surfacing problems rather than sweeping problems under the rug.
• They swiftly make the org changes they need to make: "If you are not successful because the people below you are not strong, you have no one to blame but yourself for not making the changes you know you need to make."

00:00 Welcome to The Get: Season Overview

00:47 Introducing Gary Survis: Insights from an Operating Partner

01:37 De-risking the CMO Hiring Process

02:10 Common Pitfalls in Recruiting Marketing Leaders

05:01 Balancing Strategy and Execution in Marketing

11:00 Key Traits of Successful Marketing Leaders

13:19 The Importance of Curiosity in Leadership

17:15 AI in Marketing: What to Look for in a CMO

19:36 Early Steps for a New CMO

21:41 The Role of AI in Organizational Structure

22:34 Setting and Achieving Goals

24:25 Challenges in Coaching CMOs

26:53 Reflections on Past Marketing Roles

28:56 Marketing Under the CRO: A Controversial Trend

31:13 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is The Race to Reduce Risk in CMO Recruiting. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

Sandra Lopez is a marketing dynamo who has been in marketing leadership and general management roles in many of the world's biggest and most influential tech companies, like Adobe, Intel, and Microsoft. She recently served as co-chair for the World Economic Forum for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement USA and PureRED, she's an advisor for Cabra Sports, and she is the co-chair for Sports Integrity Global Alliance.

We discuss:

• How to translate marketing-speak into language that CFOs and Board members can understand
• How to work with Board members who think they know more about marketing than they actually do
• How to manage expectations with Boards about how long things take in marketing and educate along the way, understanding that "it's hard to educate someone in 30 minutes"
• How to prepare for Board service – and knowing when to say no to a Board opportunity
• How interviewing for a Board seat is different from interviewing for a CMO spot

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lopezsandra/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

A good CMO/Board relationship entails both giving and getting. Elana Anderson talks about putting Board members at the center of marketing initiatives by making bold asks of the Board to add value to customers and prospects. She also talks about the anatomy of a successful CMO/Board interview.

Elana Anderson has been the CMO for Veracode, Vidyo, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. She reflects on her experiences interacting with Boards at public versus private companies. 

Learn about:

• How to move from broadcasting to your board to incorporating them into your marketing initiatives
• How Board members can add value to you through special executive events and advisory sessions 
• How you can discuss brand initiatives with the Board in an interactive and impactful way… even if the topic is short on numbers
• How to interview successfully with the Board for a CMO role
• When and how to prepare for serving on a Board yourself… and how to find your 'hook'

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eranderson/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Hear two SaaS marketing leaders from PE-backed companies discuss their hard-won learnings on working with Boards. 

You'll learn about:

• The relative importance of the 3 C's – Context, Content, and Confidence – when interacting with the Board
• How Boards tend to respond to certain marketing terms with open arms (ICP, personas, ABM) and other marketing terms with shaking heads (hint: brand!)
• The importance of Board posture and how marketing and sales can support each other during Board interactions
• How a marketing maturity matrix can be useful to show the Board

Allison Dancy is a veteran CMO who most recently was CMO for Kibo in the e-commerce space. Madeline O'Phelan is VP of Marketing at Verity, the SaaS fintech company.

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisondancy/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeline-o-phelan-97290111/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Listen to the honest dialogue between a CMO and her Board member, who have managed to forge a fruitful partnership together. Jen Pockell Dimas is Chief Marketing and Experience Officer for Telarus, the global technology solutions brokerage. Evan DeCorte from Columbia Capital is a Telarus Board member. 

You'll hear about:

• How investors can have reptilian brains – focusing uniquely on Big V value: getting more value for the business than they paid for it
• How to translate marketing-speak into investor-speak
• How to set yourself up for a successful standing with the Board from the interview process onward: "Invest in the relationship before you even accept the job so you are on the same page for expectations."
• How to react when a Board member suggests a marketing direction that feels like a firedrill
• Why asking how Board meeting prep could be shorter is 'the wrong question to ask'
• A simple framing that will help as you prep your board meetings

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenpd/

www.telarus.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-decorte-8086029

www.colcap.com

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Chris Fountain is an Operating Partner with Frontier Growth, the PE firm that invests in B2B SaaS companies in scale-up mode. He has been a GTM leader, a CEO, and a Board member. In his role, he collaborates with multiple CEOs and CMOs both inside and outside of the Boardroom. 

You'll hear about:

• What it takes to be a successful operating partner for a PE shop (Spoiler alert: Be able to be non-threatening to a CEO)
• How to be successful in your first Board meeting as a CMO and how to avoid guesswork when aligning with the Board
• How the best marketing leaders provide a 'heads up display' for the business
• How psychological factors can get in the way when CMOs interact with their Boards
• How you can evolve from seeing your Board members as gatekeepers to seeing them as resources
• How you can stand out when you interview with a Board member for a CMO job
• Why it's important to focus on key results… not the time that went into those key results 

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fountainchristopher/

https://frontiergrowth.com/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Kelly Ford Buckley has a career many CMOs dream of: She is a marketing leader who became an investment partner, developing a platform to accelerate and scale growth across Edison Partners' portfolio of companies. She then broadened her role into general partner and COO for the firm. Since she's been in the marketing leadership seat and she's been on several Boards, she is uniquely qualified to talk about the bridge between CMOs and their Boards. 

You'll hear about:

• How to remove the intimidation factor when working with boards
• How to build an ongoing dialogue with your Board
• Whether the Board is looking to the CMO for content or confidence
• Why you should NOT be re-creating the wheel with every Board presentation
• How Board interactions are different in a downturn
• How to upgrade from a reporting conversation to a strategic conversation
• What it's like to be an operating partner focused on marketing and how to prepare for such a role

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyaford/

https://www.edisonpartners.com/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

 Hello, and welcome back to The Get. The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS. I'm your host, Erica Seidel. 

This is our fifth season! And in this season, we dive into the relationship between CMOs and Boards. How can that relationship go from fraught to functional and maybe even fantastic?

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Produced by Simpler Media

This season on The Get podcast, we have stayed close to the theme 'Solving for the Scale Journey.' We have talked with marketing leaders who have scaled… and, in one case someone on the investor side who hires marketing leaders for scale-ups. We've looked at different dimensions around scaling: Hiring. Budgeting. Aligning with the Board. Getting the balance of brand and demand right. Balancing aspirational goals with achievable goals. 

Obviously, every scale journey is different. Just because someone did a scale-up in one place doesn't mean they will be successful somewhere else. But there are some themes that emerged. This episode is a recap of 10 of those themes.

If you are a CEO or investor looking to know what good looks like when hiring the CMO for a scale-up, you've come to the right place. And if you're a CMO or VP of Marketing who is solving for a scale journey, you too have come to the right place.

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Hiring great marketing leaders is not easy. The Get is a podcast designed to inspire smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. 

We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is Solving for the Scale Journey.

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn, or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.