Pipeline Visionaries – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode features an interview with Mary Wells, CMO at Cloudera, a software company that empowers organizations to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. 

In this episode, Mary discusses her maniacal focus on strong foundations and operational efficiency, and how it allows her to experiment and take calculated risks. She also dives into her focus on simplified, consistent messaging and why CMOs need to tap into their inner CIO. 

Key Takeaways:

• Ruthlessly prioritizing foundations and operational excellence, especially with budgets, allows you to optimize, experiment, and take calculated risks. 
• CMOs need to tap into the inner CIO. CMOs have a tech stack and their organization is an expensive line item for a company. Scaling back and leaning into data and reporting gives the CMO a seat at the table and insights into what their customers need. 
• Mix matters to your audience. Do fewer things, but do them bigger and better, aligning behind one marketing strategy to find your customers where they are in the buyers’ journey.

Quote: 

•  ”The other strategy is what we're not doing and cutting down on the quantity. What we want to do are fewer things, but bigger and better. By breaking down these silos, we're able to do that, so that when I wake up on a Wednesday, like today, I don't have 50 marketing things happening today. Everybody in marketing now has one playbook and together we're making it happen. And with the strategy though, again, it's not just events, it's not just hands-on labs. Mix matters, and knowing where a prospect or a customer is in the buyer's journey lots of times helps me and the team gauge where we need to dial up and down. Sometimes it's video, sometimes it's a deep dive technical presentation, sometimes it's an event, digital, et cetera. And the idea is that mix matters based on the audience.” 

Episode Timestamps: 

*(05:37) The Trust Tree: Prioritizing operational excellence 

*(18:21) The Playbook: The value of comms

*(35:10) The Dust Up: Practice the pause – different day, different person

*(38:27): Quick Hits: Mary’s Quick Hits 

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline 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.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Mary on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Cloudera
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Mika Yamamoto, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Freshworks, a company that provides powerful, easy to use Customer service, IT, and CRM software.

In this episode, Mika discusses surgically blending the physical and digital world, to create a campaign experience that sticks with prospects. She also talks about encouraging innovation from her team, tying marketing victory to sales’ success and focusing on customer over function. 

Key Takeaways:

• Blending the physical and digital world when creating campaigns can create more lasting impact and better returns.
• Allowing your team to divide and conquer different markets and functions allows people to specialize and be the best at what they do, an impossibility if they are doing too many things.
• Incorporating humanity and a recognition of the human on the other side, not only differentiates your marketing in a B2B space, it makes the whole job more enjoyable

Quote: 

• ”In terms of signals, what helps is that we have one operations function that works across all functions. There's traditionally been, marketing comes up and celebrates and says, “Woohoo, we did all this work, we’re green!” And then sales is saying, “Well, what the heck you can't claim victory because we haven't met our numbers. So how can you declare victory if we haven't met our numbers?” And so again, the construct that we have is we have one operations group in our organization, Freshworks. So, we have one dashboard that essentially ties together and we're still working on making those ties, but that ties together, marketing doesn't declare victory if sales can't. So, it's driving shared metrics in one dashboard versus this view of the world that is a marketing view, then a sales view then a product view. We want to drive one view, which is more customer focused versus functionally focused.”

Episode Timestamps: 

*(08:24) The Trust Tree: Divide and conquer different markets 

*(24:12) The Playbook: Focus on demand capture 

*(39:20) The Dust Up: Assumptions about sellers and marketers

*(42:49) Quick Hits: Mika’s Quick Hits
 

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline 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.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Mika on LinkedIn
• Learn more about FreshworksLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Michael Freeman, VP of Marketing, Airbase, a procure-to-pay solution that simplifies purchasing.

In this episode, Michael discusses smart SEO strategy and the importance of investing in the distribution of your content. He also talks about how, while marketers are incentivized to demonstrate that they are generating pipeline, they still have to pursue the high ROI tactics that are difficult to measure and predict. 

Key Takeaways:

• If you create content, customers will not just come; they may never even find it. SEO is a core ingredient from the start, not an afterthought, and you need to find people with the language they use, understanding their intent. 
• Marketers are charged with generating pipeline and proving it, but they need to avoid neglecting high ROI tactics that may be difficult to quantify or predict. 
• Don’t just feed the content beast; make sure you are creating quality content purpose that has a genuine impact on your audiences. 

Quote: 

• “I've been at a lot of companies where there was just a mentality of feed the beast on the blog. And we don't do that here. Every post has a specific objective and purpose that we're trying to meet. Sometimes there's just some corporate brand stuff we need sales to be able to point to or use for other purposes, but 95, 96 percent of what we publish has a specific objective and purpose from a traffic or leads perspective. And we've done the research upfront to say, yes, we have a reasonable chance to achieve that objective before we commit the resources on that piece of content.”

Episode Timestamps: 

• *(04:14) The Trust Tree: Be smart about paid search 
• *(18:59) The Playbook: SEO and good content strategy 
• *(48:43) The Dust Up: Inheriting a bad website 
• *(51:11) Quick Hits: Michael’s Quick Hits
   

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline 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.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Michael on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Airbase
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Every week on Demand Gen Visionaries we sit down with marketing leaders from some of the world’s largest and fastest-growing companies to uncover the demand gen strategies that have been fundamental to their skyrocketing success. For the first time ever we have a special edition of Demand Gen Visionaries Live. We sat down with the marketing legends that built Dreamforce and world-class speakers who were excited to share their insights, inspire you, and to make you think.

This episode features a live interview with featured panel speakers, Lauren Vaccarello, CMO at SalesLoft, Julie Liegl, CMO at Slack, Karin Flores, Vice President, Strategic Events, Customer Experience Center and Programs at Okta, and your host Ian Faison, CEO of Caspian Studios. 

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Think of part of your budget as an innovation fund. What are the big bets that you and your team have come up with and, and those could vary. If you can architect it right, with the right customer experiences, and the right amplification across press and social, doing something kind of crazy and stunt like can actually make sense. - Lauren Vaccarello, CMO, SalesLoft

It’s about differentiating, if you can do an event in a way that is going to be special, whether it's going to an event or throwing an event, how do you make it different? It can't just be status quo, you have. Give people a reason that it's exciting, and that it matters.- Julie Liegl, CMO at Slack 

I think we are working in a world now where we really need to think about convincing people, and so I think you need to entertain them, motivate them, and inspire them beyond product, and what's going on in the world. - Karin Flores, Vice President, Strategic Events, Customer Experience Center and Programs at Okta

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Episode Timestamps:

*(04:46) Marketing in uncertain times

*(07:13) Thinking of your budget as an innovation fund

*(08:40) Investing in like big name events this year

*(09:18) Differentiating you events from competitors

*(13:51) Curating an experience that's personalized

*(15:50) Human marketing and bringing humans together

*(20:08) Inspiring people beyond product

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Sponsor

Demand 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.

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Links

Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn

Connect with Ian on LinkedIn

Learn more about Qualified

Learn More about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Suresh Sathyamurthy, CMO of SingleStore. SingleStore helps businesses adapt more quickly, embrace diverse data and accelerate digital innovation by operationalizing all data through one platform. Prior to SingleStore Suresh held various product and marketing leadership roles with industry leaders like Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, and Dell EMC helping build and grow emerging businesses in areas of Security, Data Platforms, and Cloud Services.

On this episode Suresh shares his insights into building high-impact partner ecosystems, ways to demonstrate value to your customers, and secrets to non-intrusive marketing.

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“You have to focus on fewer, bigger partners at scale, so you can dedicate the time and energy with them. And then over time you’re creating proof points and value that other partners are going to look at and say, I want to be a part of that story. Create the energy and evidence that you need for partners to want to be a part of your ecosystem.” - Suresh Sathyamurthy, CMO,  SingleStore

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:18) - Suresh’s role at SingleStore

*(02:49) - Segment: Trust Tree

*(08:05) - Targeting developers to try your product

*(12:05) - Segment: The Playbook

*(14:04) - Providing value to users of your product

*(20:22) - The value of non-intrusive marketing

*(17:35) - Building high impact partner ecosyetems

*(37:32) - Segment: Quick Hits

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Sponsor:

Demand 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.

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Links

• Connect with Suresh on LinkedIn
• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Learn more about SingleStore
• www.caspianstudios.com

This episode features an interview with Kate Adams, SVP of Marketing at Validity. Organizations across the world have relied on Validity solutions to target, contact, engage, and keep customers, using trustworthy data as a key advantage.

On this episode Kate Adams shares her insights into building consumer trust with education-based marketing, how to generate leads with webinars, and providing customer engagement tools to attract consumers.

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“I generate revenue by providing valuable education and making people better email marketers at the end of the day, and as a result, they trust and rely on our products.” - Kate Adams, SVP of Marketing, Validity

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:32) - Kate’s role at Validity

*(02:58) - Segment: Trust Tree

*(10:14) - Segment: The Playbook

*(14:04) - How to generate leads with webinars

*(17:35) - Generating revenue by providing valuable education

*(22:27) - Providing customer engagement tools to attract consumers

*(26:35) - Segment: The Dust Up

*(29:17) - Segment: Quick Hits

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Sponsor:

Demand 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.

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Links

• Connect with Kate on LinkedIn
• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Validity
• www.caspianstudios.com

This episode features an interview with Melissa Rosenthal, Chief Creative Officer at ClickUp. ClickUp is an all-in-one productivity platform, that brings teams, tasks, and tools together in one place. Melissa is an award-winning marketing executive focused on making the world more productive through best-in-class software as a service marketing.

On this episode Melissa Rosenthal shares her insights into creating champions of your brand, the importance of taking bets in marketing, and ways to differentiate your brand from competitors.

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“I believe in building people as media channels. It was just a huge growth lever for us because there’s a lot of value in building people, versus brands.” - Melissa Rosenthal, Chief Creative Officer, ClickUp

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:51) - Melissa’s role at ClickUp

*(03:12) - Segment: Trust Tree

*(09:10) - Segment: The Playbook

*(09:37) - Why its trivial to take big bets

*(13:24) - Building people as media channels

*(15:33) - Leveraging people as funnels

*(26:21) - Empowering you teams to have a creative mindset

*(28:07) - Segment: The Dust Up

*(32:53) - Segment: Quick Hits

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Sponsor:

Demand 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.

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Links

• Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn
• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Learn more about ClickUp
• www.caspianstudios.com

This episode features an interview with Allyson Havener VP of Marketing at TrustRadius. TrustRadius is the most trusted review site for business technology, serving both buyers and vendors. Allyson leads the marketing strategy across all functions including demand gen, PR, product, and partner marketing. 

On this episode Allyson shares her insights into strategic story arcs that shape B2B narratives, ways to use data to analyze your market, and the benefits of an integrated marketing approach.

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“When you think about content and what you’re going to say,  you have to have strong messaging. Think about what you’re trying to say and the point that you want to drive home with your audience.” - Allyson Havener, VP of Marketing, TrustRadius

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:37) - Allyson’s role at TrustRadius 

*(03:53) - Segment: Trust Tree

*(10:48) - Benefits of an integrated marketing approach

*(12:11) - Segment: The Playbook

*(16:55) - Shaping strategic story arcs

*(18:03) - Using data to analyze your market

*(25:56) - Segment: The Dust Up

*(27:13) - Segment: Quick Hits

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Sponsor:

Demand 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.

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Links

• Connect with Allyson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Learn more about TrustRadius
• www.caspianstudios.com

This episode features an interview with Kristi Melani, CMO at Telesign. Telesign provides continuous trust to leading global enterprises by connecting, protecting, and defending their digital identities. Kristi brings with her over 27 years of cross functional marketing experience, leading global marketing teams across demand generation, campaign creation, events, web, digital transformation and more. 

On this episode Kristi shares her insights into why it's important to make your website feel like a virtual concierge, why successful marketing is people-based, and the way empathy enhances marketing. 

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“What are the high-value tasks that you can embed in the website? So that when you do make it there, it's useful and it's helping. I've called it the virtual concierge.” - Krisiti Melani, CMO at TeleSign

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Episode Timestamps:

*(03:16) - Segment: Trust Tree

*(04:56) - Kristi’s role at TeleSign 

*(10:04) - The power of people based marketing

*(13:43) - Segment: The Playbook

*(16:02) - Creating thought leadership

*(20:24) - Making your website feel like a virtual concierge

*(33:12) - Segment: The Dust Up

*(36:34) - Segment: Quick Hits

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Sponsor:

Demand 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.

Links

• Connect with Kristi on LinkedIn
• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Learn more about TeleSign
• www.caspianstudios.com

This episode features an interview with Patti Boyle, CMO at Dstillery. Dstillery is the leading custom audience solutions company, empowering brands and their agencies to maximize the value of customer data and transform the way they connect with their audiences. Patti is a strategic marketing leader responsible for planning and driving results through growth plan development, team collaboration, client and partner relationships, and oversight of integrated marketing programs.

On this episode Patti shares her insights into why banding together is essential for success, how to build your relationship currency, and the innovation of ​​data science in marketing.

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“The banding together is essential for success, because if everybody’s not marching in the same direction, you don’t have alignment, and you don’t have a shared vision for innovation for constant continuous learning, you have a very average company.” - Patti Boyle, CMO at Dstillery

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:48) - Pattis role at Dstillery

*(03:47) - Segment: Trust Tree

*(12:21) - The innovation of ​​data science in marketing

*(16:55) - Why banding together is essential for success

*(17:37) - Segment: The Playbook

*(19:16) - Why relationship currency matters

*(28:29) - Segment: The Dust Up

*(29:54) - Segment: Quick Hits

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Sponsor:

Demand 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.

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Links

• Connect with Patti on LinkedIn
• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Dstillery 
• www.caspianstudios.com