The Sleeping Barber - A Business and Marketing Podcast

SBP 048: What If There Was No Sales or Marketing Budget? With Jeff Lowe.

Dec 7, 2023

01:31:50

What if we have been approaching organizational design all wrong? What if there is a better way to align an organization with consumer needs?

In this week’s show, Jeff Lowe, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Smart Technologies, discusses how the gap between CMO-CEO, CMO-CFO, CMO-CRO, etc., can be bridged by removing sales and marketing silos with a Unified Commercial Engine (UCE). He also explains how a buyer journey map can be used to design an org chart and lead change management to support sales and marketing unification.

Jeff even sheds some light on how a poker table can help budgeting and be used to align teams to commercial outcomes.

Enjoy the show!

Our Guest

Jeff Lowe, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer, SMART Technologies

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefflowe2/

https://www.smarttech.com/en-gb/education

Our Hosts:

Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠

Get in touch with our hosts:

- Marc Binkley: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/

- Vassilis Douros: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/⁠

Timestamps

0:44 - Intro to Jeff Lowe, EVP & CCO Smart Technologies

3:03 - The cause of the gap between CMO-CEO, CMO-CFO, CMO-CRO etc

5:30 - Why we need to unify B2B sales & marketing teams

9:40 - 74% of customers would prefer a rep-free experience

11:58 - Removing sales and marketing silos with a Unified Commercial Engine (UCE)

13:19 - The (sales) straw that broke the (marketing) camel’s back

15:35 - Using a buyer journey map to design an org chart

18:55 - Leading the change management to support sales + marketing unification

26;04 - The biggest lesson when you remove corporate silos

27:11 - What salespeople really think of marketing presentations

28:45 - What caused the 60% improvement in lead acceptance rate (MQL-SQL)

30:51 - How SMART’s culture supported employee engagement during the UCE transformation

35:11 - How to set marketing budgets when there is no marketing team for the budget

38:16 - Poker table budgeting to align teams to commercial outcomes

42:35 - A fair process isn’t the same as a fair outcome

44:55 - Why we should stop using the word “Branding” and what to use instead

50:32 - Should you spend more on brand or performance?

52:07 - Why marketers need to know the meaning of cash flow, EBITA, market share etc

52:57 - A SMART case study from Australia

56:40 - Why buyer enablement and purpose are fueling a B2B renaissance

1:00:30 - How to find out more about Jeff and SMART

1:03:53 - Post-Pod with V and Marc

Where to Listen:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-sleeping-barber-a-business-and-marketing-podcast/id1609811324

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4v0kaM350zEY7X2VBuyfrF?si=7083317d5afd488b ⁠⁠

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy84MWVjYWJhNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwji_oSOopP-AhXnlo4IHTZKBgYQ9sEGegQIARAC

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sleepingbarberpodcast