Tag: B2B Marketing Leaders

Deloitte’s Global CMO Shares Her 4 M’s for B2B Marketers

Posted on by admin

Growing a community of leaders – an important goal for many companies, but not typically the designated task of a CMO. Diana O’Brien, CMO of Deloitte, however, is not your typical CMO. Diana spends 50% of her time prioritizing building workplace culture and, in turn, the firm’s brand to provide better marketing services to clients. She spearheaded Deloitte University, which provides training to bring employees into the fold on brand alignment, culture, and continuing workplace education for every single Deloitte employee in the United States. Now, she is recognized as one of the World’s Most Influential CMOs by Forbes and is one of Business Insider’s Top 50 Most Innovative CMOs in the World.

Diana has been on the cutting edge of marketing, working for Deloitte since the 1980s. From creating a place where leaders can grow and employees thrive, to being the first CMO at Deloitte, she has a lot to share. On this episode, she brings a wealth of knowledge on the importance of creating a workplace culture of leaders, how your business’s brand and culture affects client relations, the necessity of being the voice of the customer at the leadership table, and so much more.

Be sure to listen in – Diana has insights you don’t want to miss!

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Key things Deloitte focuses on in developing workplace culture

Diana shares that there are sequences followed at Deloitte University that are key to building employee culture. As a company, the art of empathy is massively important. This allows employees to understand differences and help people feel a sense of belonging. It teaches them how to communicate – to listen before you speak. Diana notes this is a foundational attribute as a consulting company. Empathy helps employees communicate better internally. It also vital when interacting with clients.

The art of story is also important. Employees are taught how to connect their story or stories to a client as well as the company as a whole. Stories are meant to inspire and spark action. Stories allow employees to connect the personal to why they do what they do. Be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to hear about other key items Deloitte focuses on in its employee culture.

How to get from customer insight to real innovation

Customer insight is defined as understanding who the customer is and where they are going. As a marketer, you are looking to co-create with the customer and join them in their journey. Typically the act of innovation comes out of Research and Development or a different business unit at Deloitte. Part of the CMO or marketer’s job is to communicate with these units so that they know what to create or where to look. They feed them information on where to look and what to do. Currently, real innovation is hard to find with many firms following market trends. However, Diana says that real innovation comes from the activation of an organization’s purpose. When an organization knows its purpose, it is able to innovate. Their change is based on their passion and purpose, which drives them to use their current skills to create innovation.

Make an impact that matters – creating a brand inside and outside company walls

Deloitte is committed to “make an impact that matters” – a phrase they have coined as their tagline. Diana mentions in this episode that she spends about 50% of her time on the internal activation of their brand idea. Deloitte chooses to heavily invest in its employees to make sure their brand is not just shown in the marketplace but also is pervasive within its own walls work. By creating a good workplace environment for its employees, it allows employees to focus on customer interactions. So, not only is Deloitte looking to make an impact that matters in the world, but also within its company. Hear more on how they do this in this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Timeline

  • [0:32] Who is Diana O’Brien?
  • [3:01] Why Deloitte University is the soul of the firm
  • [5:38] What Deloitte University taught Diana
  • [8:25] Face to face still matters in the digital age
  • [8:39] The three arts Deloitte focuses on
  • [18:58] From customer insight to real innovation
  • [25:43] The importance of organizationally elevated marketing
  • [31:13] Why the internal activation of a brand is key
  • [39:49] The 4 “M’s” of marketing

Connect With Diana O’Brien:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Here’s How to Make Your Marketing Metrics Work For You

Posted on by admin

Top 10 Global CMO for companies worth over two hundred and fifty million, top 15 CMO on Twitter by Social Media Marketing Magazine, and top 50 most influential people in sales lead management – just some of the accolades that CMO Brian Kardon has earned over decades of cutting through in marketing. Now, as the CMO of Fuze, a cloud-based communications business, he is continuing to cut through by using his vast knowledge of sales and marketing metrics. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, you’ll learn how to build a seamless demand gen engine, and how to focus on the metrics the matter. Brian and Drew also discuss how you can understand your clients’ perceptions of your brand, and how AI is going to influence the way people create marketing initiatives.

Brian’s insights are ones not to be missed – you’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of marketing metrics and so much more.

Click here to listen to the full story.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

How do you know when your marketing is working?

Understanding how your marketing is benefiting your business is often the top priority for both CMOs and CEOs. By using the best marketing metrics for your type of business, you can stay focused on those that matter – a avoid becoming distracted by those that don’t. Brian explains the 3 main metrics he always looks for when evaluating the success of marketing efforts:

  1. Net new pipeline contributions
  2. Total marketing-influenced leads
  3. Total number of closed bookings

These 3 metrics combine to give you data that’s actually worth examining. Learning what marketing metrics work best for you and your company is a process, but it is 100% worth the investment of time and energy.

Handling the micro-marketing metrics is just as important as the big-picture metrics

Understanding the value of both micro and macro-marketing metrics will allow you close sales at both ends of your customer spectrum. Whether you’re examining data on a $1 million contract or securing a $12,000 sale, your marketing metrics are invaluable. For example, a micro-metric will allow you to see how much time a visitor is spending on certain segments of your website, while a macro-metric goes into greater depth on what types of content a specific type of client is looking at and downloading. Brian encourages other CMOs to not forget about either one when creating a roadmap for future marketing efforts.

Use these 2 metrics to help understand your clients’ perception of your brand

There are 2 main questions Brian uses to help him understand his clients’ perceptions of his brand. They are:

  1. The net promoter score of the brand’s product(s)
  2. The level of customer satisfaction with the sales and marketing process

When conducted by third-party companies, these two marketing metrics shed new light on your entire pipeline process and buying experience. For the full explanation behind these metrics, don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Timeline

  • [0:30] Here’s why you need to be paying attention to Brian and his team at Fuze
  • [13:37] How do you know when your marketing is working?
  • [27:14] Handling micro-measurements vs. measurements that help close a sale
  • [36:19] Understanding your customer’s perceptions of your brand
  • [39:19] Use THESE metrics when presenting to the CEO and board
  • [42:43] Lifetime value, customer acquisition costs, and customer retention
  • [48:26] Using artificial intelligence in customer acquisition and marketing metrics

Connect With Brian:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

The Key to Achieving Sales and Marketing Alignment in B2B

Posted on by admin

As the marketer of a software service product, Meagen Eisenberg isn’t just a CMO. She is also a salesperson, which is why her alignment with MongoDB’s sales team proves critical to the company’s rapid success. Through her influential roles at multiple B2C and B2B tech companies, Meagen can attest to the fact that any company, no matter its audience, can create a pattern of collaboration and success in creating a unified buying path.

From insights about demand generation, to Martech, to work-life balance, Meagen’s marketing insights apply to CMOs everywhere, whether you’re B2B, B2C, or even B2D. When reflecting on her career, Meagen shares that the alignment of sales and marketing teams has transformed companies that she has worked for, including MongoDB.

On this episode, you’ll hear Meagen’s top 5 ways to increase your company’s internal collaboration, as well as discover the engaging marketing strategies MongoDB uses to attract developers. She also explains why the marketing and sales funnel strategy isn’t dead, and how it can be used in innovative new ways. For more on B2B demand generation, check out our 6 tips in our special report, here. 

Learn why collaboration is the future of marketing by listening here.

                  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Meagen’s top 5 ways to increase your company’s sales and marketing alignment

Just like countless other companies, MongoDB has struggled with sales and marketing alignment, as well as collaboration between teams. As a tech company that offers a database as a service, Meagen has learned to overcome the challenges of managing teams made up of employees with varied skill sets. Developers, salespeople, marketers, and more all want MongoDB to succeed, but approach it in different ways.

From her years in both engineering and marketing, Meagen has learned how to create the ultimate environment of collaboration. Check out all the details behind her top 5 strategies for alignment on this episode.

  1. Understand your sales funnel and how it converts leads into customers
  2. Intentionally build all of your systems together
  3. Focus on authentic communication
  4. Identify the stopgaps in your sales system
  5. Invest in your tech stack (but don’t add more tools until you’re ready)

MongoDB uses creative and engaging strategies to hook their audience

After Meagen and her team built a solid team, together they were able to develop creative marketing strategies. They hook interested followers through live events, energetic brand advocates, and a speedy website that always delivers to their followers. They fill their robust website platform with content that educates and inspires. This content is found in many forms, such as white papers, blogs, thought leadership pieces, product demonstrations, and compelling customer stories.

Marketing and sales are about putting the right information in front of the right people at the right time

Alignment between your marketing and sales departments doesn’t happen overnight. Meagen and Drew discuss how a business that sells directly to consumers as well as to other businesses can approach their content marketing strategies. For example, when a B2B prospect visits your website, they most likely need to be connected to an account manager and salesperson that can address their specific needs and questions. A B2C prospect, however, is much more likely to explore your website and fill out an inquiry form all on their own – without ever speaking to a salesperson. The key in content marketing and sales is to make it obvious to your followers who you are and what you do, that way you can address their questions before they even think of them.

Timeline

  • [0:30] MongoDB is a massive resource for CMOs
  • [2:04] Meagen’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [12:16] Alignment between sales and marketing is critical – use these strategies to succeed
  • [16:03] Connecting with developers is key
  • [19:16] The sales funnel is not dead in today’s marketing world
  • [21:35] What’s the difference between MongoDB and a datalink system?
  • [23:11] MongoDB hooks their audience through a variety of creative marketing tactics
  • [30:32] Balancing B2B and B2C audiences for your business
  • [39:24] Meagen’s problem-solving thoughts for the challenges facing marketing

Connect With Meagen:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

Simplicity + Side Hustle = CMO Success

Posted on by admin

Let’s face it – simple is hard, especially in B2B marketing. It’s so easy to get caught up in flashy features, complicated jargon, and complex campaign strategies that we forget what marketing is all about – making buying easier. Faced with this challenge of persuading people, many CMOs are struggling to keep things simple. Margaret Molloy is not one of those CMOs.

As the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Siegel+Gale, Margaret has mastered the art of persuading people with simple, but powerful messaging. She points her success to two key foundations: having permission to fail and the effectiveness of fact-based storytelling. The lessons she has to share are not only coming from her experience at Siegel+Gale, but also from what she learned by exploring her own passion project, the #WearingIrish initiative.

In this episode, Drew and Margaret talk about how to keep things simple in B2B marketing and explain the four main traits of successful CMOs. Margaret describes her experience with her passion project, the #WearingIrish initiative, and how CMOs could be growing and learning from their own side hustle.

Margaret is a bundle of B2B wisdom, click here to listen to her story.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

Marketing Made Simple: The 2 Foundations You Need to Know

B2B marketing is all about making a buying decision easier for a customer. Even though there are thousands of experts and opinions in the industry, Drew and Margaret both believe in the idea of simple marketing – a Renegade approach to marketing that makes everything approachable and easy to understand.

Simple marketing focuses on encouraging and persuading people to act, but a CMO cannot pursue this path without these 2 foundations: internal company support and a solid fact base. Without these tools to lean on, a CMO is more likely to get distracted and lose sight of the true company goal. Artful, courageous simple marketing follows after these foundations have been laid.

Successful CMOs exhibit these 4 behaviors that lead to better simple marketing campaigns

Great CMOs are fundamentally simplifiers. They’re always working towards boiling down ideas into easy-to-digest pieces of information. Margaret explains that throughout her career as a marketer and creator, the best CMOs consistently exhibit these 4 behaviors.

  1. They’re purpose-driven
  2. They’re fact-based, but they have an imagination
  3. They are bold and brave in prioritization (they say no often)
  4. They execute on company and brand promises

These behaviors allow a CMO to focus on what truly matters in their marketing campaign.

Margaret uses her passion project #WearingIrish to help her role as a CMO – and you can too

Margaret’s native country is Ireland and even while working as a top CMO she knew she wanted to bring global exposure to Irish creators. That’s why she created the #WearingIrish initiative. She is telling the untold story of Irish fashion design and learning skills that are transferable to her CMO role as well.

Margaret explains that this passion project has given her an opportunity to have an “experimentation lab” that is separate from the risks and responsibilities associated with Siegel+Gale. It also allowed her to develop a higher sense of empathy for other companies and her CMO clients. No matter where your personal interests may lie, the stories shared on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite show that they can always be used to benefit your company and your own professional work.

Timeline

  • [0:30] Margaret Molloy, CMO, and creator is featured on this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite
  • [2:07] Margaret’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [11:35] The story behind Margaret’s #WearingIrish passion project
  • [19:04] Tying together your personal brand with your company’s brand and mission
  • [22:20] These are the top 4 behaviors of successful CMOs
  • [32:00] Actionable steps make simple marketing tangible

Connect With Margaret:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew

You Need to Blow Up Your Approach to B2B Marketing

Posted on by admin

Brent Adamson has a bone to pick with marketers: the way many of them define their industry is miles off the mark. In fact, Brent may want to abandon the term ‘marketing’ altogether, because too often the notion of separate marketing and sales departments breeds a lack of coordination. If your marketing and sales teams are not in perfect lockstep, you can count on your business suffering. If you disagree, maybe he can sway you in part 2 of his interview.

In today’s conclusion to the interview, Brent and Drew get at to the heart of how a marketing team needs to operate to be successful, and it involves a lot more than handing leads off to sales like a relay-race baton. Brent will talk the listener through seven tools that can help make speed up the process of connecting a customer with a product. Then, Drew and Brent talk through the buyer enablement journey, and why breaking down walls between sales and marketing will enable the teams make it as easy as possible for the customer to buy. In the end, that’s goal number one.

This episode is chock full of wisdom to help you shed some outdated notions of marketing and sales, click here to listen!

What You’ll Learn

Marketing and sales collaboration is the wave of the future – here’s why

Brent wants every marketer to understand that the role of every B2B business is to make buying easier for the customer. This is achieved through a high level of marketing and sales collaboration. Gone are the days where marketers can simply hand off a prospect to the sales department and hope for the best. If a company knits together the two departments, they will have a competitive advantage over every other business in the industry.

Where do buyers look for information validation?

During the purchase journey, a buyer is always seeking for validation on the information they receive. After speaking with a sales representative, there are 3 main places where they will look for validation:

  1. The company’s website
  2. SEO organic searches
  3. A third-party analyst/thought leader

That’s why it’s so important for companies to be unified in the way they deliver information and lay out why their solution is the best available. If a buyer receives mixed information, they’re less like to choose your solution.

The 7 main tools that enhance buyer enablement

A B2B company with linked marketing and sales departments can work together to create tools that help a customer make easier buying decisions. There are 7 main categories of tools that can be explored.

  1. Calculators
  2. Simulators
  3. Recommenders
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Connectors
  6. Advisors
  7. Diagnostics

These tools ultimately allow the customer to choose the best solution to their problem. Brent explains that there is a “huge commercial benefit” to providing tools that make a customer’s life easier, and companies can see increased loyalty from customers after they use these tools.

Timeline

  • [1:40] Marketing has a new role – make it easier for the customer to buy
  • [4:24] Buyer enablement takes the form of these 7 tools
  • [10:14] You can’t fit these ideas into legacy structures for companies and brands
  • [14:20] This is the #1 place customers look for information validation
  • [23:34] Why you should be excited about the upcoming Gartner conference

Connect With Brent:

Resources & People Mentioned

Connect with Drew