Building With Buyers

Prepare for something different and fun and fast!  This is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Kourtney Simons on perfectionism. I met Kourtney way back in 2006 at Accenture. Kourtney has worked on marketing at MSNBC, Disney, and Netflix. Here's what we hit on: What does perfectionism mean; I asked Kourtney if she's a perfectionist...and also shared myself; Why perfectionism is particularly hard when you're a marketer at a startup; How do you know you're stuck in the "perfectionist" mindset; Why is perfectionism killing your marketing; What's a better approach? You can find Kourtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourtney-simons-83456b4/ For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Amy Volas, founder and CEO of Avenue Talent Partners, joined me on the show. She's such a fun lady. Amy helps startups hire sales leaders without the cringe. Amy has been a sales leader at ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and Yahoo! She has personally closed $100MM+ in revenue (and counting). She's got 70+ recommendations on LinkedIn. Woah. Amy also co-hosts the #1 weekly virtual sales happy hour (Thursday Night Sales). This is a marketing podcast. Why am I bringing on Amy Volas, sales rockstar, on the show? Well, my experience has shown that Marketing + Sales is SUPER intertwined. Marketers need to understand how sales works (and vice versa) in order to accomplish business growth. Personally, after starting my own business, I’ve been straddling both marketing AND sales and it’s becoming almost a blur. Like I’m doing marketing, but I’m also getting customers. So I must be selling otherwise people wouldn’t know to buy. It's a natural progression. What I have realized over time (and as we move more into digital) is that there is no buyer journey anymore. I've been asking founders and marketing leaders the same question and they have a hard time pinpointing exactly what journey their buyers take before they become a customer. There are many different steps, and the point is to be there with the right content to help build the relationship and the trust. Here's what we hit on: What does sales mean to you, what does marketing mean to you; How has sales changed over the last 10 years; How is growth in digital impacting sales; What are the big problems you're seeing that your customers have, and what's your advice; What kind of sales leader (or team) do you need for Seed/Series A (earlier stage) vs. Series C+; You’ve personally closed $100MM+ in revenue...what are top 3 things that you’ve done/learned to make this happen; What’s working well for you right now at Avenue Talent Partners, in terms of sales + marketing strategies; Top tips on growing LinkedIn followers (Amy has 43k+); Top mistakes or failures and how that has impacted how you lead. You can find Amy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas Find out more about Avenue Talent Partners: www.avenuetalentpartners.com Link to join Thursday Night Sales: www.thursdaynightsales.com For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Prepare for something different and fun (and fast!). Switching it up like I love to do, this is a BONUS 10-min. episode with Kourtney Simons on how to do marketing when you have a shoe-string budget or no budget.  I met Kourtney way back in 2006 at Accenture. Kourtney has worked on marketing at MSNBC, Disney, and Netflix. She has a wonderful personality and is a wonderful person. Here's what we hit on: Starting from a place of "let's get our foundation right, first" vs. marketing channels; Marketing includes both content + channels; For content, figure out your "content tilt"; For channels, list them all and prioritize based on a) easy and b) impact. You can find Kourtney on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kourtney-simons-83456b4/ For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

In this episode I was interviewed by Tristan Pelligrino, host of Recorded Content and co-founder of Motion, about a hidden treasure that’s within every podcast episode – beyond just the audio file. A podcast provides a way to have amazing conversations. And it also provides a way to present raw & unfiltered thoughts through solo episodes. But that’s as far as most podcasters go. B2B podcasters don’t realize there’s often a hidden treasure within every episode – beyond just the audio file. Here's what we hit on: Your unique voice is what makes your marketing "modern"; Talking is an essential part of business strategy, and podcasts are a good way of starting to hear yourself; How and why I decided to start this podcast; Startups start with the marketing activity that they’re supposed to do, like ‘we need to get blog posts up. Look at the competition. They’ve got tons of blog posts up. We need to be on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter. We need to do ads.’ This is a problem and here's what to do instead; Podcasts with guests are different from the ones you do solo; Creativity is important, but there should be a system behind it; Companies spend a lot of time updating their website, but for digital to work, you have to be everywhere where your target audience hangs out. Here's a link to where you can find more info and clips: https://motionagency.io/episode/sharing-your-point-of-view-in-solo-podcast-episodes-with-anna-furmanov/ For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Christina Mautz, CMO and head of sales at Moz, joined me on the show.  This is an interesting episode because Christina has that unique experience - a CMO that also heads up the sales team. Christina's been a marketing executive at Amazon and Yahoo!, as well as a few Seattle VC-backed SaaS startups where she earned the nickname “Chief Problem Solver.” Moz was founded in 2004, has ~170 people, and is based out of Seattle, WA with offices in Vancouver, BC and Cork, Ireland. They've raised Series C ($29.1M total). Started by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig, Moz is a source of robust, reliable data, with accessible training and easy-to-use software to help SEOs. The folks at Moz believe there's a better way to do marketing. A more valuable way where customers are earned rather than bought. Here's what we hit on: “Customers are earned rather than bought” - what does that mean; Quick pitch on Moz - why you exist, who you’re for (what segments are most popular), problems you solve; SEO is not dead, but it’s changing. You can’t just write blog posts and expect to rank high in search. Ranking on Google is hard, especially for startups. Reaching your target audience through other channels like social media can be faster. What’s Christina's advice? Christina joined 3 years ago - what stage was the company in with their marketing back then, and what was her team working on back then vs. focused on now; What does Christina's (marketing) team look like; I asked Christina to explain how she's both CMO and head of sales - how does that work? (HINT: very well); We talked about MQLs and SALs and what's effective for shortening the sales cycle. You can find Christina on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christinamautz Find out more about Moz: www.moz.com For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Meghan Hurley joined me on the show to talk about yummy food and marketing. Meghan Hurley is Head of Marketing at Farmer’s Fridge. She's also a founding member of Chief (the private network of women leaders that are helping and supporting each other). Meghan has held marketing leadership roles at Trunk Club, Peet’s Coffee, McCain Foods, and Whole Foods. Farmer’s Fridge was founded in 2013, has ~150 people, and is based out of Chicago, IL. They've raised Series C ($42M total). Farmer’s Fridge is on a mission to make it simple for everyone to eat well. They've developed a rapidly growing network of 350+ user-friendly smart Fridges stocked with chef-curated, restaurant-quality meals and snacks. Besides the vending machines, they've also recently started offering delivery. PLUS a recent partnership with Rick Bayless. Lots goin' on. Here's what we hit on: Who eats Farmer's Fridge (besides me); Who's on the marketing team; What marketing channels are working well (HINT: leveraging UGC is part of it, also email); Partnering with Dunkin' Donuts; Being scrappy during COVID with photos, iPhone videos, motion, colors, etc.; "People are fickle" so how do you approach looking at your marketing data; The "tomato fridge" ad - this UGC story is fascinating; What are the top challenges (HINT: growing the team that supports the growth of the org); Why it makes sense to invest in a marketing TEAM vs. just one person; What is the Head of Growth in charge of? (HINT: supports email - lifecycle marketing, SMS/Push, and soon Web - SEO) How Meghan's experience at Starbucks, Whole Foods, McCain, Peet's, and Trunk Club has impacted the way she understands ops, brand + growth (HINT: observing consumer behavior is a BIG part of it); Bad marketing recommendations (HINT: the pendulum has swung too far to analytics and paid, so that brand is underdeveloped); Chicagoans love to connect with others and play the "who do you know?" game; Meghan gets a little introspective and talks about some mistakes as a leader. You can find Meghan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meghan-hurley-a4b4532/ Find out more about Farmer's Fridge: www.farmersfridge.com/ For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

I'm a huge fan of Chris Walker. He's actually one of the main reasons I launched this podcast. Chris started a company - Refine Labs - a demand accelerator for B2B SaaS companies. Chris started a weekly event, Demand Gen Live, about 1 year ago and still going strong with 45+ attendees every week. Chris has 60k+ followers on LinkedIn. Most importantly, he's such an inspiration to all sorts of marketers, all different ages, and different walks of life, that all understand this idea of "the modern era of marketing has arrived" but know that so many companies are stuck doing things the old way.  We want to get out of the muck. So here's what we hit on: A bit more about Refine Labs and the types of customers he works with; What does marketing mean to you now and what has shifted for you over time; Seed/Series A B2B startups' biggest mistake is over-prioritizing sales; Series B+ B2B startups' biggest mistake; Why startup founders need to do their own marketing first; What kind of marketing leader needs to be hired early stage (HINT: the team should not be just one person); Brand (organic) vs. Demand (paid) marketing activities that are working really well for Refine Labs (HINT: for paid, deliver high-quality content instead of lead gen); #1 problem with focusing on SEO; Why are marketers still so frustrated at their startup and how it starts with the Marketing Mindset; Business challenges at Refine Labs; When you narrow your niche, your TAM is smaller but your marketing and growth is better; How do you keep your marketing fresh and avoid getting passive (HINT: it involves driving the narrative, being active on social, using intuition and listening, and experimenting); You need 1-2 things to work with your marketing and not a million things to drive growth; How Chris balances his LinkedIn thought leadership posts and activity within his work day; "I talk so that I can listen" - this is powerful and this is what Chris does; Mistakes that Chris has made and learned from; Top learnings from starting the company (HINT: know your strengths and weaknesses and hire accordingly); Chris shares something unique about his personal life (and it's not Kombucha!). You can find Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chris-walker-41597028/ Find out more about Refine Labs: www.refinelabs.com For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

Sara Kinsey is Head of Digital Marketing, Demand Generation, and Events at Gem. She's been there for 2+ years.  Prior to Gem, Sara was at Unifi Software (acquired) and Alteryx (IPO’d). Sara is a true B2B SaaS leader. Gem was founded in 2017, has 110 people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series B ($48M total). Gem is the platform for modern recruiting. Like what Hubspot does for marketers, Gem does for recruiters and hiring teams (find, engage, and nurture top talent). It all started when co-founders Steve Bartel and Nick Bushak were working as engineering managers at Dropbox and Facebook and were using spreadsheets to track the best talent (they called them “gems”). They realized they needed to build something better. Here's what we hit on:  What did Sara and team focus on early stage given limited resources (HINT: they built their first significant marketing asset and then promoted it); Events turned out to be a BIG driver of marketing sourced leads - how did they track TOF all the way to Customer; You’re growing! What does your (marketing) team look like now; Marketing: what’s been working well for you? what channels (HINT: heavily focused on events including webinars, demo day, happy hour, Talent Talks, round tables, etc.); What does the team do with the recorded content from events; Leading with need vs. leading with content; What failure(s) have you had that have shaped you as a person; Experimentation is key to successful marketing at startups; How do you stay creative, keep your marketing fresh, keep from getting passive with your marketing/content. You can find Sara on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kinseysara Find out more about Gem: www.gem.com For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen).  You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com  Thanks for listening!

Daniel Huerta is Digital Marketing Manager at Udacity. Before that, Daniel headed up marketing at Workify (HR tech startup) for 4+ years, running their content and demand generation efforts. Daniel is also the co-host of The Modern People Leader podcast. We covered both Udacity and Workify during this podcast session.  Udacity was founded in 2011, has 2000+ people, and is based out of Mountain View, CA. They've raised $235M in funding. Udacity’s mission is to train the world's workforce in the careers of the future. Learn digital, data science, programming, AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity and more. 200+ industry experts build the content. 100+ enterprise customers globally.  Workify was founded in 2014, has 11 people, and is based out of Austin, TX. Workify has raised $1.3M in funding. Workify helps you unlock the power of your people. Analytics for modern employee engagement.  Here's what we hit on:  Dug a bit more into Workify, who it's for and the problem they're solving;  Daniel is helping traditional orgs become more like tech companies - what does that mean;  How does Udacity differentiate from other players in the space;  Demand gen the old way, and transforming to the new way (HINT: they're working with the Refine Labs team!);  Does a bigger budget mean better marketing;  At Workify, how did you grow ARR from $40k to $1.2M from your content and demand gen efforts;  If you could go back in time at Workify, how would your run marketing differently (HINT: we talked about all the effort that went into outbound and then getting low conversions, we also talked about inbound and what were some of the pitfalls);  For inbound to work you need 1) unique POV 2) value prop 3) customer obsession 4) brand trust;  We touched on The Modern People Leader podcast and some different ideas to grow the audience.  You can find Daniel on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-huerta-74661390/  Find out more about Udacity: www.udacity.com  Find out more about Workify: www.getworkify.com  And here's The Modern People Leader podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-modern-people-leader/id1545875052  For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com  Thanks for listening!

Cassidy Shield is VP of Marketing at Narrative Science.  Before Narrative Science, Cassidy served as VP of Marketing at Gogo, VP of Marketing at NetCracker, and spent 13 years at Alcatel Lucent (purchased by Nokia). He's also a fellow Kellogg alum! Narrative Science was founded in 2010, has 88 people, and is based out of Chicago, IL. They've raised Series D ($43.4M total). Narrative Science humanizes analytics with data storytelling (not dashboards). Data should be understandable for everyone. Stop creating unused dashboards and start data storytelling. Here's what we hit on: More about Narrative Science, who you’re for, what problem you solve; The challenge with finding early adopters/visionary leaders (that's the target buyer) and how they’re trying to figure this out; Who’s on the Marketing team, anything unique? (HINT: the people in the roles have never done the specific work before - instead, Narrative Science sets a high bar and looks for specific behavioral traits); Podcast "Leading With Data" - what are you trying to do with it? What’s the purpose and how’s it going; Cassidy has 20+ years of experience. I asked him to explain his quote “the key to digital is great content that leads the buyer to what you sell”; Narrative Science doesn’t have a PR agency, and that's because startups should do their own PR (if they can); Marketing: what’s working well for you right now? what channels? (HINT: paid media - FB and Instagram, building community through events and the podcast); Marketing: what are the challenges, what are you trying to figure out; How do you track marketing’s impact on revenue? (HINT: the company's revenue is 90% marketing sourced! The team has not had much consistent, repeatable success with outbound sales); What are the last 2-3 really good (marketing) ideas you've come up with; What are some bad recommendations in your area of expertise. You can find Cassidy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cassidyshield Find out more about Narrative Science: www.narrativescience.com And here's the Leading With Data podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leading-with-data/id1535701027  For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!