Tag: Enterprise

The Keys to Building Brand Trust and a Customer-Centric Business

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Salesforce has built a company that makes the customers a top priority, and it’s a big part of the brand’s success. Focusing on the customers means a marketing strategy centered on having an authentic voice and encouraging interactions that feel personally relevant to the consumer. On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Salesforce CMO Simon Mulcahy shares why that trust is so critical, and how companies can put customers first in their business plan.

Additionally, Simon discusses the art and science of marketing, the role artificial intelligence can play, and how GDPR and data security concerns are forcing marketers to get better.

This conversation is sure to inspire, click here to listen!

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What You’ll Learn:

Don’t put a product at the center of your business model

Companies often make the mistake of placing their product at the center of their business model. Simon counters this mindset and explains that in the modern era, it’s much easier to build an amazing product, but much harder to engage the customer in a relevant, honest way. With that in mind, customer-centered thinking has to be everywhere in your business, starting with the CEO. If you keep your focus squarely on the customer, success in other areas of business will follow.

Brand trust takes years to build, but seconds to lose

One of the key points Simon emphasized is that business is all about trust. If your company prioritizes generating trust in the community you’re trying to serve, customers will keep coming back to your brand. Conversely, one major negative interaction can destroy months of rapport with a customer, so you should always be conscious of your tone and how it will be received. A voice that inspires trust in your customers will serve your marketing for years to come.

Marketing isn’t just for the marketing team

Every single touchpoint with the consumer represents the brand. That means that everything from salespeople, to direct communications, to customer service, is marketing, to an extent. Make sure that the brand identity is infused into every element of the company, and that each department is helping deliver a personalized, contextually-relevant experience.

Timeline

  • [1:20] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Simon Mulcahy, CMO of Salesforce
  • [3:15] Simon’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
  • [13:07] Why the customer is at the center of the Salesforce business model
  • [19:53] The most powerful lesson learned from Salesforce – it’s all about trust
  • [25:26] The importance of having a unified view of your customer
  • [31:10] Simon shares his opinion on the future of customer centric businesses
  • [36:39] How GDPR will impact customer-centric businesses
  • [41:50] Simon’s “two do’s and one don’t” for marketers

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Resources & People Mentioned

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How DocuSign’s CMO Developed a Marketing Vision

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Developing a marketing vision through company-wide orchestration will allow you create more value while streamlining work. In today’s accelerated world, both customers and businesses want to spend less time on logistics and more time actually making a difference in their markets. DocuSign is one of the top businesses doing just that – allowing work to happen faster for over 200 million users across 188 countries.

On this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, Drew interviews Scott Olrich, the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for DocuSign. They discuss exactly what orchestration means in terms of B2B marketing environments, how to sell a marketing vision, and why courageous decision making should be a part of any CMO job description.

Scott is behind some of the biggest changes at DocuSign, rated as the 22nd best place to work in 2018 by Glassdoor. He shares his expertise with Drew in this interview and explains why ultimate orchestration will set you apart from your competitors in an exciting new way.

To hear why marketing visions are so important, be sure to catch this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Click here to listen.

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What orchestration means within a company and why it’s critical

When Scott started the orchestration process at DocuSign, the company was focused solely on making digital signatures easier. Now they are moving towards streamlining multiple components of doing business in a digital world. In any company environment, you have to understand where your organization’s broader category of business is going to go. Rather than focusing solely on the “now,” teams have to be able to see where the entire market is going in the future and set up systems to accommodate that forward growth. That’s where orchestration comes in. Essentially, orchestration occurs when a company’s marketing visions, products, sales teams, and senior leadership all subscribe to a new macro way of thinking about the company. This drives long-term success because as Scott explains, “People want to buy into the future! They just have to be given a reason to do so.”

The importance of not pushing the envelope too far 

The first step of orchestration is to develop a new marketing vision for your company. This clear vision and narrative of what you think the company should be will drive your products, marketing strategies, and internal educational components. A vision should teach and challenge people to think differently about the bigger picture issue, but you have to be able to back up this vision with real-world examples that people can understand. Orchestration does so much more than just improve response rates for one marketing campaign, it has the power to rework your entire business if you allow it. The biggest danger with orchestration? You want to avoid a disconnect between your product and the vision you’re trying to sell. If your marketing teams and product teams are not on the same page, customers will recognize this and be wary of your company. To hear Scott explain this challenge in full detail, be sure to listen to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

Why courageous decision making should be a large part of any CMO job description

As the Chief Strategy Officer and CMO, Scott has been charged with taking an already successful company and making it even better. On this episode, Drew asks Scott how he has the courage to take risky decisions and how he combats the idea of “if it’s not broken, why fix it?” Once you establish a clear marketing vision you have to subscribe to it 100%, go out and win over the rest of the company, and then sell it to your customers. There’s actually a formula for this type of courageous decision-making, and Scott fully explains each step in this interview with Drew. Your company and your career will greatly benefit from hearing his story, so don’t miss this episode.

What You’ll Learn

  • [1:10] Drew introduces his guest for this episode, Scott Olrich, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for DocuSign
  • [4:25] DocuSign’s current place in transactional happiness and what it means to be an orchestrated company
  • [11:54] What exactly does orchestration mean within a company?
  • [15:05] The importance of not pushing the envelope too far when it comes to selling a vision
  • [19:25] How Scott views the idea of a company narrative and how it can be used to sell your marketing vision
  • [24:29] Scott shares how he’s incorporating courageous decision-making into his current position at DocuSign
  • [28:59] Where DocuSign is headed in the future
  • [36:25] Drew’s summary of the episode, and why orchestration will set you apart from your competitors

Connect With Scott:

Resources & People Mentioned

Going Beyond Marketing Through Social Media and Listening to Customer Voice

Posted on by Drew Neisser

As the CMO of Hootsuite, Penny Wilson has some fantastic insights into the social media listening industry and why identifying the customer voice of your company is essential. Not only is customer voice important for executing exceptional customer service but it can also be used as a tool to effectively communicate with executive boards and chief financial officers.

Drew Neisser asks Penny about her journey towards Hootsuite and the top questions on why listening to your customers is critical. The idea of going “beyond marketing” is explored and Penny’s understanding of this concept is unparalleled.

You can’t afford to miss their discussion on upcoming social media trends that could help your company grow by leaps and bounds. The top challenges faced by CMOs are also discussed in this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

It’s sure to be an educational and inspirational episode that you don’t want to miss.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts – Stitcher – or Podsearch

What You’ll Learn

  • [1:07] Drew introduces the guest for this episode, CMO of Hootsuite, Penny Wilson
  • [4:40] How social media is helping companies go “beyond marketing”
  • [5:57] Penny’s part in a new leadership team at Hootsuite
  • [7:53] Unpacking the voice of the customer
  • [13:02] Finding insights for your company through listening to the customer voice
  • [19:43] Hootsuite’s challenge of breaking out of their original market
  • [23:32] Drew asks Penny about the main challenges for CMOs
  • [24:25] How can CMOs provide CFOs with the tools they need to understand the importance of marketing?
  • [27:00] Social media opportunities that are often overlooked by companies
  • [29:33] How AI can revolutionize the social media tools companies are using

Customer voice is a tool that reaches beyond just marketing

By taking the time to understand your company’s customers and the preferences and expectations they have, you can capture their collective voice. While this voice has obvious benefits in product/service development it can also allow you to examine their entire journey with your company. Listening to the voice of your customers allows you to build a culture that encourages the customer to direct the company and lets the customer lead. Devoted listening creates loyal customers which leads to valuable insights. The listening process should be built into every level of your company, with employees being empowered to become representatives of your company. For more information on how identifying your customer voice can be an asset to your company don’t miss this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite.

The greatest challenge faced by CMOs and how Hootsuite has conquered it

Penny’s career in marketing has allowed her to understand some of the greatest challenges faced by CMOs today. One of the most prevalent issues is the constant need for CMOs to get approval from top-level company leaders for their social listening and marketing campaigns. This challenge requires CMOs to tie marketing to a tangible outcome – a challenge that can be solved by using hypothesis-driven tools and metrics. Dive into this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite to discover how Penny and her team at Hootsuite are enabling companies to create more effective marketing campaigns by offering information on the returns on investment for marketing campaigns.

The most overlooked opportunities that exist through social media listening

Penny explains to Drew that the best marketers should be paying attention to the fact that not every customer or employee is 100% comfortable with social media yet. Educational training components can be built into the company culture or customer interface to allow those with less experience to catch up with the current trends and techniques. She also explains that while artificial intelligence is definitely making an appearance in the social listening spheres, it’s not going to overpower the human element of marketing and customer interaction. No matter how your company goes about social listening to uncover the voice of your customers, keep in mind Penny’s best acronym for marketing – SCALE – social, customer-centered, authentic, listen and learn, and engage. You and your company will benefit from listening to this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite, so be sure to listen.

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Resources & People Mentioned

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