Pipeline Visionaries

This episode features an interview with Jessica Shapiro, CMO at LiveRamp, the data collaboration platform for the world’s most innovative companies.In this episode, Jessica shares with us how brand and demand go hand in hand, why everything you do should be measured, and the importance of avoiding building up silos within your marketing team. Jessica also talks about how she and her team are combating stagnation through producing simple content and fostering a strong brand strategy. Key Takeaways:Everything has to be measured. Even the “unmeasurable” aspects of your business needs proxies that can be measured by effectiveness, but everything you do needs to be monitored and appraised in some way to better understand effectiveness.A strong brand strategy is not stagnant. If you’re looking to run a differentiated brand, which you should be, you need a strong brand strategy. Your brand cannot live in PowerPoint; it needs to have room to breathe and grow, and teams need to be constantly evaluating alignment cross-functionally within the company.Interdependencies are key. Making sure you don’t build up silos within your marketing team leads to the best marketing. We all have the same goals. The way relationships become strong isn’t simply through human nature, it’s data driven, so when any and all information is shared across teams, success abounds.Quote:“I started with a differentiated brand and understanding that buyer's journey. It's not a channel or a tactic, but it is everything. If you do not get the whole company singing off the same page, it's very hard to make a difference. So, for me coming in, it was taking that time to do the rigorous research, talk to customers, get alignment with our leadership, get a strong brand story, train our marketing, build the marketing materials, and then train our sellers to use those same stories as they are talking to their customers. So having the whole organization moving together, we revealed our brand platform at our major customer event, Ramp Up…and it was this incredible organizing principle around data collaboration and so my “not cut” is strong brand strategy and I believe a strong brand strategy is not stagnant. It has to live and breathe and grow and everyone has to continue to be aligned.”Episode Timestamps: *(06:07) - The Trust Tree: Bringing companies together to exchange first-party data in a privacy-safe way*(22:29) - The Playbook: Your whole company should be singing off of the same page *(35:30) - The Dust Up: The most effective marketing is through layering your messaging in every channel*(37:40) - Quick Hits: Jessica’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 Jessica on LinkedInLearn more about LiveRampLearn 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 Andy Nester, CMO at Firstup, the world’s first intelligent communication platform.In this episode, Andy gives us the scoop on why Firstup is the best in the business at delivering information to individual workers, how he and his team help large organizations personalize experiences for their workers, and his approach to in-depth problem solving for customers. Andy also shares about his work breaking down organizational silos and how that helps scale success for businesses.  Key TakeawaysBuild communities based on who you’re specifically trying to serve. The more you attempt to attract and engage a community of multiple roles and various functions, you inadvertently water down the value you offer. Identify your persona’s shared purpose and get laser focused on how they are collectively marching toward the same objective.Large companies need a platform where they can communicate with every single worker. Utilizing a platform that automates communication at scale with individual employees is key in successfully understanding your workforce and making data driven decisions.If you want to scale, you need to identify and break down organizational silos. Whether it’s sales, marketing, or otherwise, when teams work individually, they risk losing knowledge and insights that could help the company grow as a whole.Quote: “Most companies when they think about communicating to the workforce, it's a lot of knowledge workers, desk workers, people who sit behind a laptop like this. But in reality, 70% of the world's workforce doesn't have an email address. They don't sit behind a desk. So being able to communicate with them and understand how those employees are either engaged or disengaged is really, really difficult if you don't have a platform that can automate this type of communication at scale and in a personalized way to capture all those insights that can exist. When you keep that connection with the workforce and use those insights to really identify where there is potential challenges with retention, where there are productivity issues, where there are opportunities for advancement for people, where you should deliver more L&D, for example, there's lots and lots of great things that come out of really understanding the workforce down to an individual level.”Episode Timestamps: *(04:27) - The Trust Tree: Being the best in the market at delivering information at the right time, in the right place to every individual worker.*(22:57) - The Playbook: Nothing is uncuttable.*(41:14) - The Dust Up: Stay calm and approach tension thoughtfully*(42:26) - Quick Hits: Andy’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 Andy on LinkedInLearn more about FirstupLearn 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 Jenny Victor, CMO at Epicor, a company focused on solutions that help their customers with big-picture inventory management, forecasting, and timely delivery.In this episode, Jenny shares with us how compelling content should be at the center of all that you do, how consumability is key when reaching prospective customers, and the unique strategies Epicor is employing to stand out in a crowded marketing landscape. Jenny also shares a new vision for what it means to be a CMO in our modern world and what that looks like when it comes to services and customer success.Key Takeaways:The role of CMO is evolving. Being a CMO isn’t just about the demand side of things anymore; it’s about impact and driving the business. CMOs are now blending more with the services and success side of the house, which gives marketers a more strategic role in a business.Content is king. Content is at the center of everything you do, so it’s something that needs to be constantly invested in. It also needs to be eye catching, compelling, and consumable above anything else.Create space for peer to peer experiences. Marketing and sales go hand in hand, so marketers working directly with sales helps to accelerate the sales part of the funnel. Acceleration events, where prospects are brought together with SMEs so everyone can learn more about each other, what everyone does, as well as use cases for products, provides a space for everyone to get on the same page and visualize the same goals.Quote:“ I think one of my final thoughts for all the marketers that are listening to this, see if you can find the cool stuff and make it work for you. I think we all want the big hype and we all want the cool stuff. We are fortunate enough to sponsor an F1 car, Alpha Tauri. That is so fun with Drive to Survive. We've done a lot of cool, fun things with it, but we've made it meaningful in the story because Alpha Tauri uses our product to make sure that car's ready for every race. Those 14,000 parts are where they need them to be. And I think it's being able to find that cool stuff and make it work for you.”Episode Timestamps:*(05:39) - The Trust Tree: The most essential ERP partner to the most essential businesses*(10:53) - The Playbook: Content is king*(37:02) - Quick Hits: Jenny’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 Jenny on LinkedInLearn more about EpicorLearn 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 Gabie Boko, CMO at NetApp, a hybrid cloud data services and data management company, offering cloud data services for management of applications and data both online and physically.In this episode, Gabie shares with us why you can’t have brand without demand, her desire for partnerships vs handoffs, and the beauty of marketing agility. Gabie also helps us unpack why running a brand of commas isn’t the goal, but rather how companies can work toward stabilizing the functions and innovations they offer customers through their brand narratives.Key Takeaways:Leverage thought leadership as a market accelerator. Especially with conversations today about AI and cloud, thought leadership gets lost in the mix. If you’re not in the market and seeding the conversation, you’re reactive vs proactive.Stabilize a “brand of commas” through the narrative. Companies are so much more than what’s written on paper. Showcase what you do for your customers and how you’ve made them successful by stabilizing your brand narrative.Sometimes content is less about what you make and more about where you put it. Be strategic in making your content accessible and available anywhere a prospect might consume it.Quote:“We're putting the dollars in on the narrative, not putting the dollars in on a branding campaign. It's taking the strategic dollars and saying, let's go get the basics right and then not spend money over on this so we can go spend money on some other things until we get some of this other stuff right. You don't need to plant the flag and then defend the flag all in the same year, maybe you just spend some time to getting it right and planting it and getting everybody engaged versus, you know, saying, okay, now we're done! Let's go, let's go out into the market! So, you know, I think it's strategic choices like those two that are the important part of our budget this year, but it's also kind of the like goes back to what I said. I love the agility of marketing to be able to say that's not relevant for me right now. I gotta do this. And I think it's really important to have a good team around you to say, yep. You're right. We support that. You don't have to go do everything.”Episode Timestamps:*(03:36) - The Trust Tree: Brand and demand go hand in hand*(16:28) - The Playbook: Fixing the “brand of commas”  *(37:27) -  The Dust Up: You can’t do your job well without going head to head with others*(39:00) - Quick Hits: Gabie’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 Demand Gen 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 LinkedInFollow Gabie on LinkedInLearn more about NetAppLearn more about Caspian StudiosEvent: NetApp Insight 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 Orlando Baeza, CRO & CMO at Flock Freight, fixing freight’s biggest weakness by offering a smarter alternative — shared truckload — that moves goods more reliably and with fewer emissions.In this episode, Orlando shares with us his tips for innovating decades old marketing strategies, the benefit of working under dynamic leadership, and why you should always keep your prospects laughing and learning. Orlando also talks about his journey of becoming the active CRO and CMO at a company like Flock Freight and what it takes to reimagine go to market from org structure and design.Key Takeaways:Shared truckload is the key to a cost-saving, efficient trucking future. Most of the trucks you see on the road are half empty, so when we think of the next step forward for cutting costs and getting more commodities to more customers at a faster rate, shared truckload is the answer.Utilizing humor to educate the market. Leveraging humor and wit to grab attention and create care so customers want to engage and learn more about the company 's mission.Reimagine go to market top to bottom. From org structure to design, go to market materials, sales enablement, messaging, inbound vs outbound, and beyond. An organizational shift is necessary at some point in a company's lifecycle for scaling into the future.Quote:“ So one of the big things, we've done is really reimagined our go to market top to bottom from org structure and design, all the way through go to market materials and sales enablement to messaging, right? To even thinking about the inbound versus outbound dynamic and how we prospect.  So  we've done a lot of organizational shifting to create what we believe is a much more dynamic, much more efficient organization that will set us for scale into the future.”Episode Timestamps:*(05:05) - The Trust Tree: A shared truckload future*(14:53) - The Playbook: Build bespoke to reimagine the existing company playbook*(38:46) - Quick Hits: Orlando’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 Demand Gen 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 Orlando on LinkedInLearn more about Flock FreightSteve Burns Solves a New Mystery for Flock Freight: 'How Much Is a F**kload?'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 Andrea Tarrell, CEO of Sercante, making marketing and sales teams wildly successful on the Salesforce platform.In this episode, Andrea shares what organizations should be thinking about in their marketing when it comes to AI, how companies have overused marketing automation, and why the focus of AI should be on process, content, and technology.Key Takeaways:The role of Generative AI: process, content, and technology. AI isn’t going to solve all of our problems or do all of our work for us and it shouldn’t. The human element will always be needed, so marketers should look at how AI can step in to help with the non-value parts of our jobs.Personalization is a frontier we haven’t conquered yet. We see use cases pop up all of the time, and yet we’re still struggling with basic use cases, let alone more sophisticated ones. There’s a lot of untapped potential when it comes to serving up content, offering next best action for prospects as well as related products provides us with lots of room to work with. Marketing automation is overused and sloppy. Be thoughtful about why and how you create content, always be authentic, and think through the natural sequence of information your customers need. Quote:“ I think one continued challenge is training and enablement and getting your teams ready to embrace new technology. And part of the reason why that's top of mind is with all this talk of AI. There's going to be a whole new sector of jobs that are created as a result of that, and getting people comfortable and adopting things that are new is a muscle that I feel like all organizations need to start working out.”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 Demand Gen 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 Andrea on LinkedInLearn more about SercanteLearn 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 Kyle Coleman, CMO at Clari & Devin Reed, Head of Content at Clari. Clari’s Revenue Platform improves efficiency, predictability, and growth across the entire revenue process. In this episode, Kyle and Devin give us the inside scoop on how to reduce revenue leak with purpose-driven Marketing, share their thoughts on operational thought leadership, and how revenue is not just an event it’s an outcome.Key Takeaways:Revenue is not just an event, it’s a business process. And a process can be planned, modified, and provide more predictability.Map out your buying personas across the entire buying group. This has to be done so marketers can have more of a seat at the table for deal acceleration. The buyer’s journey has changed so much and we need to be aware of those changes and make strategic decisions through a more updated, effective playbook.Sell and evangelize the problem you solve. You should always be talking about the value you bring to the marketplace and make sure you put the hero cape on your customer so they feel empowered to leverage what you offer and solve their problems.Quote(s):Kyle:“ You need to be selling and evangelizing the problem that you solve, and you need to be putting the hero cape on the buyer so that they feel empowered to go solve that problem, leveraging your technology. And that's the move that we're trying to make. So a lot of what we do in the RunRevenue campaign, and the way that we're showing up, and certainly, hopefully, the vibe that you get when you engage with any Clary properties, whether that's RunRevenue pro or Clary. com or us on social. Hopefully, you get more of a B2C feel from us. We want you leaving any Clari experience and feeling like, that was, that felt like Nike. That felt like Apple. Not, that felt like IBM. Like, that's not the way we want to go. So that's what we're trying to invest more in.”Devin:“You need to win mind share before you can win market share. So all that like people like, oh, it's brand content, like that's not converting. It's like, but most people aren't buying anyway. So you need to start to get, uh, get them to know, like, and trust you, like you're doing with your ad. And then later, when the meeting comes, when it comes up that I need your services, you'll be the first one. And you'll get more inbound.”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 Demand Gen 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 Kyle on LinkedInConnect with Devin on LinkedInLearn more about ClariLearn 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 Karin Flores, VP of Strategic Events at Okta, a software development company enabling organizations to securely connect the right people to the right technologies at the right time.In this episode, Karin talks about how Okta is augmenting its portfolio to meet the needs of their customers, how customer stories are always the greatest asset in any marketing campaign, and what it means for brand personas to be more connected than ever before.Key Takeaways:Know the true identity of your customers. After Covid, we learned we didn't’ know our customers as well as we thought we did, yet all we do is centered around our customers. So, it’s an important time to utilize technology and augment marketing portfolios to truly meet the needs of your customers and give them an outlet to share their stories.You always have to be in change motion. You can’t build your portfolio or event after it’s been created: you have to constantly poke at it and make necessary changes. Otherwise, you’re behind.As a marketer, you need to ask yourself: what am I trying to accomplish? Everything about your program is built from understanding your end goal.Quote:“So we've really started to augment our portfolio to meet the needs of our customers. So I think you always have to be in this change motion, change motion. I think you can't build your portfolio anymore, build your event, leave it and be like, this works and then just let it go. You can't, you constantly, constantly have to be poking at it and have to be making changes…  You have to be willing to make changes. You have to look at what you're doing. And I say like, look at what you're doing. Change 50%. You know, listen, the times are changing, we change, the way we do business is changing, our priorities are changing, and if you're not making those changes, you're behind.”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 Demand Gen 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 Karin on LinkedInLearn more about OktaLearn 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 McConnell, VP of Demand Generation at Qualified, the pipeline generation platform for revenue teams that use Salesforce.In this episode, Sarah shares the benefits she’s seen of nesting owned events into broader marketing goals, hiring varied skill sets in house as an invaluable ROI, and how everything you do should be about pipeline. Sarah also talks about pipeline as a personalized journey for prospects and the opportunity in giving potential buyers as many avenues as possible to convert.Key Takeaways:Being more diligent about spend. We need to be referring to our data often to be sure the ROI we expect and work towards is something that’s actually happening. It’s important to never stray too far from is this tactic or strategy really working? Owned events should play a multi-functional role for your business. Every event you host should be nested within a broader goal that works for multiple aspects of your business operations.It’s all about pipeline and the customer journey. Every customer’s journey is different. Let’s be sure we’re giving them as many avenues to convert as possible.Quote:“It's business. It's pipeline. Like, that's all we care about. At the end of the day, everyone needs pipeline. If they need revenue, which is every single company. So, I think you make such a good point of, I hate to say it, but like, who cares? It's great to have. It's good to know. It, it helps us directionally. But at the end of the day, we're all working together to drive pipeline. And that's all that matters.”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 Demand Gen 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 QualifiedLearn 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 Anthony Kennada, Co-Founder & CEO at AudiencePlus. In this episode, Anthony shares the many benefits of companies distributing content on their own domains, the idea of a more efficient content feedback loop, and how owned media is the way forward.Key Takeaways:The old marketing playbook no longer works. Marketers need to be asking: How can we tell more and better stories about our brand and our customers? How can we entertain and educate our prospects? The marketing industry is hungry for authenticity, so let’s create compelling content and utilize more marketing automation strategies. Unearth peer-driven insights. If we can learn from what we’re all doing in real time, we can fundamentally change how we think about how we’re serving the right information to the right people by utilizing our peers through their expertise and insights.Owned media is the way forward. AudiencePlus is going all in on content production and events to champion brands to own their media channels.Quote: ”When you have someone that is... Opted in to your content, where we see if they're coming back, what they're watching, what topics they're interested in. And so, you know, I think part of the value proposition of what we're trying to offer is, you could get a pretty close, a pretty fast feedback loop on content you're producing today, if you're able to have the data to prove the connection to, to something else.”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 Demand Gen 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 Anthony on LinkedInLearn more about AudiencePlusLearn 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.