Pipeline Visionaries

This episode features an interview with Kimberly Storin, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Zayo Group, a leading telecommunications company with a network that stretches over 16.8 million fiber miles and spans 141,000 route miles across North America and Europe.  In this episode, Kimberly shares with us how she built an end-to-end marketing organization within Zayo and demonstrated the value of the marketing function, diving into expanding their buying committee and creating a “Shark Tank'' mindset where people share their best ideas. Key TakeawaysMarketing can be  undervalued as a function and collaborating with C-suite peers is essential to a CMO’s ability to demonstrate their impact on revenue for the organization.At the end of the day, marketing needs to be the “voice of” and the “voice to” the market, and needs to avoid short-term, quarter-by-quarter thinking.There is value in shifting to a “Shark Tank mindset” and having people bring their ideas, then funding great ideas.Quote:“At the end of the day, we really just need to be the voice of and the voice to the market. If we're thinking about in-quarter revenue, we're not doing our job. Our job is to be thinking about the next quarter, next year, next five years, and how do we position the brand for the maximum growth efficiency. And yet so often I talk to CMOs who are stuck in this, well, what did you do for me this quarter? And if that's where marketing is focused, then marketing will never be successful.” Episode Timestamps:*(03:43 ) - The Trust Tree: Expanding your buying committee *(15:19) - The Playbook: Investing in the top of the funnel*(35:37) - The Dust-Up: Learning to have constructive conflict*(39:01) - Quick Hits: Kim’s Quick HitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.LinksConnect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Kimberly on LinkedInLearn more about Zayo GroupLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Esther-Mireya Tejeda, CMO at Anywhere Real Estate Inc., a leader of integrated residential real estate services, whose portfolio includes some of the most recognized brands in real estate. In this episode, Esther-Mireya discusses how marketers should consider themselves “business psychologists” and shares how she is incorporating neuroscience research when creating customer personas.Key Takeaways:Buying decisions for customers often have more to do with subconscious, emotional drivers that cannot be articulated in surveys or focus groups.Marketers should think about themselves as “business psychologists”, and can use neuroscience to better understand subconscious drivers for their customers.Marketers need to maintain connectivity to business objectives and avoid the trap of short-term thinking.Quote: “We have been really trying to get to the unconscious emotional makeup of consumers that set up their predisposition to like or dislike and to behave or not behave in particular ways. I call that the layer below the things that we are already measuring. And it's based on this premise that over 95 percent of our human behavior. is actually rooted and driven by unconscious emotions that we're not even aware of. So it's not stuff that I, as a consumer, would be able to articulate in a focus group.It's not things that I would be able to, as a consumer, articulate in a survey. And so it is our job as marketers, if we think about ourselves as business psychologists, to get further down and deeper into that mindset, to get to the heart set to understand those things. And that's really what this is about.”Episode Timestamps:*(08:24) - The Trust Tree: Buying decisions are largely unconscious *(26:13) - The Playbook: Research and insights are essential to success*(37:23) - The Dust Up: Leaving what isn’t right for you Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with on Esther-Mireya LinkedInLearn more about Anywhere Real Estate Inc.Learn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Ben Slater, SVP of Marketing at Beamery, a Talent Lifecycle Management platform that empowers companies to understand the skills and capabilities they have, build more agile workforce plans, and attract, retain, upskill, and redeploy their workforce.In this episode, Ben encourages companies to think about the future of their workforce, shares why internal marketing efforts are often overlooked but shouldn’t be, and why leadership should have their hands in choosing talent. Ben also talks about how creating demand starts with a story and how they go about just that at Beamery.Key Takeaways:HR is an increasingly strategic part of the organization. How companies think about the future of their workforce impacts how they can achieve their business objectives. The internal role of marketing is one of its most overlooked functions. Marketing has an amazing opportunity to be the internal communications engine that brings people back to the “why” of the organization.Creating demand starts with a story. Specifically, demand starts with a story that is not just about your product, but about a fundamental shift in the market that is accelerating your category. Quote: “ For us, if we think about the demand process, what we are really focused on is not just demand capture, but also demand creation. I'm a huge believer that creating demand, it all starts with the story. So it's a story that's not just about your product, but about a fundamental shift in the market. Something that is either creating your category or accelerating it. Something that's fundamentally impacting your buyer and the way they go about their role on a day-to-day basis. What's the big story that we think is most relevant to our audience and that's in line with our point of view on the market? How do we ensure that there's internal alignment around that story? Because I think if you get the storytelling right and if you're able to tie the different channels and programs together in a way that is consistent, clear, not just for the external audience, but also for internal teams, it can really be a force multiplier for demand.”Episode Timestamps:*(03:28) - The Trust Tree: Addressing talent gaps accelerates transformation*(17:24) - The Playbook: Investing in community*(33:52) - Quick Hits: Ben’s Quick HitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Ben on LinkedInLearn more about BeameryLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Brad Rinklin, CMO at Infoblox, a Computer and Network Security company that unites networking and security to deliver unmatched performance and protection for a world that never stops. In this episode, Brad shares with us how Infoblox is expanding its buyer persona reach, what a modern marketing team looks like, and the importance of adapting to whatever your data tells you. Brad also talks about what makes a great marketer better than the average marketer - creating the right thing, in the right place, at the right time.  Key Takeaways:Bringing in new buyers through education. When you’re looking at personas outside of your normal reach, be sure you’re providing educational resources so they can better understand who you are and what you offer.Partner marketing acts as a force multiplier for your brand. Good partner relationships provide credibility in spaces you’re not currently in and can potentially cut marketing efforts and costs in half.A lesson in marketing from fly fishing. Whether it’s the buyer journey, the “bait” or content you create, remember your efforts should be focused on one buyer at a time. So, how can you be a better marketer? Provide the right thing, at the right place, at the right time. Quote: “What makes a great marketer better than an average marketer? Two fishermen go on the lake, they both have the exact same rod, the same reel. You might even have the same bait. What makes the one just ripping fish out left and right? And the other one doesn't catch anything at all? It's the same concept. You've gotta understand the behaviors of the buyers that you're selling to and the market that's out there and what else is out there trying to steal their attention.” Episode Timestamps: *(05:09) - The Trust Tree: Passive decisions have big implications*(25:11) - The Playbook: Partners as as force multiplier for your brand*(32:46) - Quick Hits: Brad’s Quick Hits Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Brad on LinkedInLearn more about InfobloxLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Stephanie McCarty, CMO at Taylor Morrison, the 5th largest homebuilder in the U.S. made up of the nation's leading homebuilders and developers. In this episode, Stephanie shares with us why your website should be a selling tool not a seduction tool, how the role of sales is changing, and the unique ways Taylor Morrison has created partnerships to boost brand awareness and demand. Stephanie also talks about how companies should be approaching the next generation of buyers by mixing up traditional marketing models.  Key Takeaways:Fitting your products/services to the various life stages of consumers. When you’re able to meet the customers where they are at any place in their lives and lifestyles, you’ll create repeat buyers naturally.Mix up your marketing game. There are marketing models a lot of us use that simply don’t fit the next generation of buyers. These outdated systems can act as unintentional traps for consumers who will probably decide the process isn’t worth their time or money. Make sure your company is removing as many buyer traps as possible by mixing up marketing models.Thinking of the customer journey after they buy. Once a customer buys from you, do you have strategies in place that benefit them and keep you top of mind? Innovative, engaging content is a great way to create a win-win for you and your buyers. Quote: “Remember a time when, before Zappos, before Amazon, when you had to actually go into a department store to buy shoes, or before Uber, and Airlines, or you didn't have your boarding pass on your phone, you had a physical one. So it's just taking our executive team through kind of reminding them that things that they're used to today haven't always been, and that's the space that homebuilding needs to enter. We need to enter that chat room and talk about here's what has always worked, here's that model, but there's a lot of that model that doesn't fit the next generation of homebuyers.” Episode Timestamps: *(04:28) - The Trust Tree: Managing a family of brands*(24:39) - The Playbook: Creating innovative content your consumers (and beyond!) can benefit from*(41:30) - Quick Hits: Stephanie’s Quick Hits Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Stephanie on LinkedInLearn more about Taylor MorrisonLearn more about Caspian StudiosTaylor Morrison x The Home Edit Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Jordan Schenck, Chief Brand Officer at Flashfood, a technology company working to eliminate retail food waste by connecting consumers with discounted food nearing its best-by date.In this episode, Jordan shares with us how to push through the zeitgeist around what you do to change consumer perception, and she talks about some unique strategies for mobilizing your fan base to boost sales and brand awareness even without Coca-Cola dollars.Key Takeaways:Your biggest fans are your biggest drivers of sales. Empower and motivate your customer base to go to bat for you and market your products. How do you do it? Make and sell good products that people use and have them share their experiences.Changing the zeitgeist around you and your product. Just because consumers have used similar products to yours doesn’t mean anything. When you make superior products that people love, and when you market those products in unique ways, you get people's attention, which builds greater brand awareness.Organic brand awareness can be worth more than big dollars. Most companies don’t have the kind of cash big dogs like Coca-Cola do. But if you create fandom around your products, you do a lot with a little. Quote: “So there's something really interesting in that tension for me to like, how do we actually change behavior or you can like create a really cool movement around doing something totally novel. And I'm like, how can we make this idea of food that's near its best by the same as like how cool it is to shop for vintage clothes? Like what Depop did for Gen Z is really cool, right? And we've got that same sort of thing going where, like, how do we sort of create that sort of spirit and moment around the perfect window of this food? Truly, it's the perfect window. It's food ready to eat and the cheapest. Like, boom. Go. It shouldn't be that much more complicated than that.” Episode Timestamps: *(05:57) - The Trust Tree: Selling to a double-sided market*(22:07) - The Playbook: Healthy level of commitment to owned and earned*(36:20) - Quick Hits: Jordan’s Quick Hits Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Jordan on LinkedInLearn more about FlashfoodLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Ed McDonnell, CRO at Asana, a software company that helps teams orchestrate their work, from small projects to strategic initiatives.In this episode, Ed shares with us Asana’s vision for tackling work automation, insight into their Work Innovation Lab, and why attribution for attribution's sake is meaningless. Ed also talks about the importance of treating pipeline like a team sport and how to effectively run a “Pipe Council”. Key Takeaways:Get focused on your ICP. Partner with your product teams to develop your ICP so you can define use cases and show the productivity you can gain from those use cases. Tell your story through the lens of your customers. Your customers are the inside players of how your product works and what it’s doing in a real way on a daily basis out in the world.Pipeline is a team sport. All of your business channels should be involved when it comes to pipeline generation. Pipeline is not one person or function, and in order to succeed, it has to be the highest-performing team in your organization at cross-functional scale. Quote:“Pipeline to me is a team sport. It is not one person. It is not one function. It is such a, it is, it, it has to be.  The highest performing team in your organization at cross functional scale, because nobody works for each other. Everybody's in their own worlds, but they have to come together as a team and solve the, you know, a problem that every B2B enterprise software company faces. Which is, do we have enough pipeline to go into the market to be successful? Because every organization is a little bit different as to how much they want each of those. stakeholders to develop into their pipeline. If you're not producing at the right scale or the right coverage model, Why? Like, interrogating the why is equally as important as getting all hopped up as to why not. And too many companies and too many people I have found spend time on, well, why isn't something happening? Like, versus going in and saying, okay, it's not happening. What can we do differently to actually produce a different result? Because you get caught up on poking on sales leaders and saying, hey, you're not hitting your pipeline metrics, like, why, what's wrong, and  that friction, while good and has to happen, you also have to be really open to interrogating so to me the interrogation of it in a healthy way with everybody having a seat at the table and being a team sport is Is the way that I, I have found to be very successful running a Pipe Council.” Episode Timestamps:*(03:44) - The Trust Tree: Go to market strategy when you solve lots of problems for lots of people*(15:32) - The Playbook: Running a Pipe Council*(37:53) - Quick Hits: Ed’s Quick Hits Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more. Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Ed on LinkedInLearn more about AsanaLearn more about Caspian StudiosFrom zero to ten podcasts: How Caspian Studios produces B2B podcasts with Asana Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Justin Anovick, Former CPO/CMO at Syndigo.In this episode, Justin gives us a masterclass in operationalizing ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles) by providing us with tangible strategies for defining ICPs, tips for how to approach fringe use cases, and the reason why it’s so important to have alignment with the executive level. Key Takeaways: How to define your ICP: 1. Accounts 2. Size 3. Region 4. MarketAlignment with the executive team is essential. When the board asks “Who is our customer?” “Where are we seeing success?” you better have answers. Beyond marketing, teams need to work together cross-functionally so everyone is in the know and leadership understands where the company is at any given moment.The entire organization needs to own the ICP. When product, marketing, finance, and leadership teams understand the ICP and do their jobs well, company success is inevitable. Quote:“So I think that a lot of organizations I see they just haven't put the time, effort, money, manpower behind it in order to actually define and understand the ICP. And so certainly each of those three times, one of the hardest things to operationalize it was to explain to the organization, starting with marketing, what actually ICP meant, what target adjustable market meant, but what service obtainable market meant and what you needed to do, and it was eye opening to realize how, to your point, most even marketers didn't really… they understood the concept, but they hadn't actually operationalized it or used it before.”Sponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links: Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Justin on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Sarah Cascone, VP of Marketing at Bluecore, a retail marketing platform that enables marketers to turn data into revenue-generating campaigns, in minutes.In this episode, Sarah educates us on what her team calls the Relationship Demand Gen Chain, how to foster a meaningful customer community, and how ruthless prioritization is a super power. Sarah also shares with us why she believes traditional outbound is fading away and that now, marketing is all about curating hyper-personalized content.Key Takeaways:Building out the Relationship Demand Gen Chain: Turning overall demand generation into pipeline. Sarah’s four points of focus are: points of view - educating the market on your points of view; points of entry - how you’re engaging with your target audience; points of leverage, where you can organically access your personas; and points of conversion - where your prospects have meetings with your sales team.People buy from people, not companies. When you build a community around what you stand for, it’s a lot harder for prospects to walk away from that community anchored with your  service or product offering.Always have something to drive your target market to. When your prospects are ready to buy, they’ll enter into that conversation with your sales team. So before that point, it’s imperative to be connecting with your prospects and community at large organically and often.Quote: “ I think traditional outbound is fading away. That is why we've kind of pivoted our entire SDR team into this ABX account based experiences role. This goes back to in enterprise, where tech solutions are oversaturated, most prospects are not buying from just like a cold call or a cold email. So, the way we kind of integrate the SDRs and the ABX team, really is what they are, into that relationship demand gen chain totally elevates their value because we're becoming known and respected in all of the activities we're doing between thought leadership, events, and community, which gives them the ability and the time to curate their outreach based on the very specific research they're doing on the specific company so that they can speak to exactly what the person that they're going to email is feeling the pain that they're feeling, who, if we're doing our job right, has heard our point of view all along, has been part of our community, now they want to take a call with us…So goodbye, like cold calling and blast emails from the SDR. Hello, hyper-personalized curated that's built right into the marketing engine.”Episode Timestamps:*(03:25) - The Trust Tree: The Relationship Demand Gen Chain*(09:06) - The Playbook: Building a community around what you stand for*(36:14) - The Dust Up: You can take the girl out of NY but you can’t take NY out of the girl*(40:33) - Quick Hits: Sarah’s Quick HitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Sarah on LinkedInLearn more about BluecoreLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode features an interview with Jacqueline Woods, CMO at Teradata, the connected multi-cloud data platform for enterprise analytics, solving data challenges from start to scale.In this episode, Jacqueline talks about the new age of personalization, why AI should not be held accountable, and reminds us that data in technology is only as good as the data put into it. Jacqueline also shares how data is like water and paints a picture of her vision for a unified, frictionless customer experience. Key Takeaways: Personalization is key. One size does not fit all, so dimensional personalization has become so much more important in recent years. There are greater expectations amongst customers when it comes to their digital experiences and how they engage with companies, and it’s important to be aware of these changes and leverage them in marketing strategies.AI isn’t responsible. When we talk about “responsible AI” we have to remember that it cannot be responsible - it’s a technology. So, AI can be trusted, but people need to be responsible. And when people are responsible, they can begin to create an environment of trust for users.Prepare for the AI driven enterprise. Teradata’s estimate is that AI will drive most of our experiences by 2030 and a lot of companies feel disorganized in this area. Data is currently extremely siloed, so the first step is to cultivate a connected enterprise.Quote: “How do you know you're moving the needle? I mean, when we started this conversation with Forbes, it literally was around the same time last year, and my pitch to them was the following: There are a lot of people that say data is the new oil, data is gold, data is this, and I said, you know, my own belief is that data is like water is because this planet is over 72% water. That is what the earth is comprised of. The usable water that you can use on this planet is 2.5%. Most of that is in glaciers, which means that the real usable fresh water is 3 tenths of 1%. And so when you think about data, and all the data that's out there in the world, about 90% of the data is like data that's duplicated or replicated and how much of the core data is new data and information that you can use? And when you distill it down, it probably is very similar to water where the usable data that you can use, once you filtered it, cleaned it, harmonized it, associated it with the right things is probably less than 2 or 3% and that takes a lot of work. And at the end of the day, our thematic or our core belief is that we believe that people thrive when empowered with the right information. People don't always necessarily use the right information when they get it. But if they had it, and they were able to use it, they would actually be better off.”Episode Timestamps: *(05:06) - The Trust Tree: The cloud has changed marketing forever*(30:05) - The Playbook: AI needs to be trusted and people need to be responsible*(46:57) - The Dust Up:*(49:54) - Quick Hits: Jacqueline’s Quick HitsSponsor:Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.Links:Connect with Ian on LinkedInConnect with Jacqueline on LinkedInRead: Enterprise 2030: Building the AI-powered company of the futureLearn more about TeradataLearn more about Caspian Studios Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.