The Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt)

#170: Sales | How Marketers Can Be Better Partners with Sales with Jen Allen-Knuth

4 snips

Aug 26, 2024

Jen Allen-Knuth, founder of DemandJen and B2B sales expert with over 15 years of experience, shares her insights on collaboration between marketing and sales. She discusses building meaningful relationships that enhance customer engagement and pipeline growth. Jen elaborates on the power of video content in personal branding, especially on LinkedIn. The conversation also critiques superficial diversity initiatives, advocating for genuine representation and the importance of authenticity in marketing efforts.

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ANECDOTE

Unintentional Sales Career

Jen Allen-Knuth's path to sales was unintentional, starting with a Parks and Recreation major.
Inspired by a powerful interviewer, she spent 18 years in sales, later becoming a Chief Evangelist.

ANECDOTE

Chief Evangelist with a Quota

Jen kept her sales quota even while serving as Chief Evangelist, demonstrating her love for selling.
She experimented with marketing but ultimately returned to sales, driven by her passion.

ADVICE

Leap of Faith

Take the leap and go all-in on your own venture to discover true opportunities.
You can't fully explore your potential while working for someone else.

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Dave sits down with Jen Allen-Knuth, founder of DemandJen. Jen shares her insights from her 15+ years in B2B Sales, from managing a quota to building great working relationships with marketing.

Jen and Dave cover:

Co-creating content with Marketing and Sales that drives better customer engagement and grows your pipeline
How Jen successfully built her audience using video on LinkedIn and leveraged it to start DemandJen
How companies should focus on genuine diversity efforts rather than superficial inclusivity

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Intro to Jen
(06:00) - - Why You Should Have a Mentor and How To Get One
(07:50) - - Sales Experiences and Becoming a Chief Evangelist
(11:21) - - Making the Lead from Side Hustle to Full Time
(15:48) - - Why Your Career Experiences Should Be Diverse
(19:12) - - The Shallow Impact of Diversity Panels
(23:43) - - How Jen Built Her Personal Brand
(27:04) - - Creating Unscripted Content that’s Still Clear
(30:36) - - Being Authentic in Marketing
(35:31) - - Don’t Use Templates for Customer Conversations
(41:53) - - Strong Relationships Between Product Marketing and Sales
(42:40) - - Being Customer-Centric
(48:02) - - Why You Need to be a Good Storyteller
(49:51) - - Challenges of Data Analysis

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***

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