Pipeline Visionaries

Corinne Sklar, CMO of IBM, shares how demand gen influences their marketing strategies, and vice versa. She dives into the partnership her team shares with sales to ensure seamless execution of their acquisition strategy. On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Corinne talks about growth at IBM and how companies, big and small, can implement consistent marketing strategies to generate a successful sales experience.Key TakeawaysWhen brand marketing and demand gen work closely together to bring awareness to prospects, revenue followsTimeless content is the key to providing a seamless and reliable customer experience that continues to deliver value — even years down the roadTransparency and clear communication with teammates is the secret to a healthy, productive, and conflict-free work environmentQuotes“Content marketing has to stand out. It either has to be provocative, or it has to be super detailed in regards to a problem we know needs to be solved.”“People are people. I have resolved conflicts more by simply picking up the phone and calling someone than any other tactic that I've ever used.”“The company needs to be thought of as a marketing- and sales-driven organization, not just sales.”“Look for digital clues around what products and services customers are interested in — what engagement they're having across your business to be able to tailor outreach to them. Marketing plays a huge role in providing those digital footprints right into the place that sellers work every day. And that should be their CRM or on their mobile device. I think that's a critical aspect of driving demand gen in a B2B world.”“We’d look at the integrated needs of our sellers — whether it was about tools, whether it was about training, whether it was about compensation — and really develop programs together as a team. All of those things are so important for a marketing organization.”SponsorDemand Gen 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.

Fewer demand challenges are greater than driving growth in a mature market. But it’s not impossible, according to Nate Skinner. On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Nate explains how he has been able to help drive growth at Oracle by stepping in and understanding the landscape, identifying opportunities, coordinating with sales, and clearly articulating value.Key Takeaways:In today’s digital environment, it’s impossible to predict the exact journey someone will take toward becoming a customer, so it’s important that every touchpoint reinforce the desired customer experience.There is no shortcut for talking to customers. Great demand gen marketers have to talk to customers and understand their needs.Especially with larger brands, it’s important to be coordinated across functions. Great campaigns are ones where sales, marketing, product, and everything other function are on the same page.Quotes:“The journey your customer follows to get to your brand is nonlinear. They can come in through a case study, an ad, a demo, etc. Every one of those touchpoints is an opportunity to influence that relationship and engage that customer. And now more than ever, we have to bring those things together and really engage that customer on their terms in the way that they want to be engaged.”“I can't be good at my job unless I understand what's working and what's not working. Then we can do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Then you can look for those opportunities to change the game.”“If you go back a few years, we all were learning about or knew about the ideal customer profile. But now it's no longer necessarily a persona that you need to market to and engage with. It's a committee of personas."“You have to make the website as simple and approachable and concise as possible because people have such limited attention spans. And in addition, right now everyone is sitting at their home on their computers, searching the internet. So if you're not doing your best to make sure your website attracts them when they find you, you are losing right now.”“There's no shortcut to talking to customers. Nothing drives me crazier in marketing professionals than those that don't talk to customers all the time.”SponsorDemand Gen 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.

According to Sara Varni, every marketer is a demand gen marketer in some respect, because success is all about performance. But that doesn’t mean that every marketer needs to be a “spreadsheet jockey.” On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Sara tells us why it’s important to combine the art and science of demand gen to fully master the art of B2B marketing.Key Takeaways:Funneling leads to sales is great, but you can’t abandon your long-term strategy plays. Make sure you’re developing a fully built-out funnel and not sacrificing a healthy pipeline for short-term gains.Don’t spread yourself too thin. Make sure you’re really focused on no more than two or three key personas.Field marketing is going to be key to developing a fully functioning demand gen team, even in a post-COVID world.Quotes:“Personalization is going to be the key to conversion moving forward.”“[Demand gen is] a mix of art and science. You need a mix of short term wins that are easy to quantify and awareness tactics that are not perfectly simple to align attribution to.”“It’s been a really crazy time to lead people but I do really believe we’re all going to come out of this stronger marketers.”“Get under the hood as quickly as you can. Go look at your funnel top to bottom. Figure out where your biggest levers are and where you can have the most impact.”SponsorDemand Gen 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.

Marketers perform all sorts of important functions, from brand campaigns to assisting PR. But if a marketer isn’t filling the pipeline, nothing else matters, according to Scott Holden, CMO of ThoughtSpot. On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, he tell us that the most important duties of a demand gen marketer are to know their numbers, answer for them, and be able to explain why they are where they are. Because if you can measure, then you can manage and grow.Key Takeaways:Any good demand gen strategy will include a segmentation plan. It’s impossible to have a good demand gen strategy that focuses on all potential accounts equally.LinkedIn is quickly becoming an uncuttable channel for many demand gen teams because of the way that it allows them to target specific accounts.While the cancellation of in-person events has been a blow for many B2B marketers, it can be an advantage for those who realize that senior-level execs are easier to get access to than ever.Quotes:“The number one job for a marketing leader is pipeline creation. If I'm not hitting my pipeline target for the sales team, nothing else matters.”“We've got hundreds of campaigns running at any given point of time. Marketing these days is an all-out, guns blazing affair.”“Segmentation strategy is critical, but it just doesn’t fly at all if you don’t have sales bought in. If they’re not ready to segment accounts and narrow the focus to a reasonable level, then it won’t work.”“It’s the golden age of data. In particular, being able to pull data from nontraditional sources together and analyze quickly across them is crucial.”SponsorDemand Gen 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.

Welcome to Demand Gen Visionaries, where we interview marketing executives from all sorts of companies, from the Fortune 500 to high-growth startups.They walk you through their playbooks. We’re not talking about theory and concepts, we are talking x’s and o’s. We’re getting into the nitty gritty of how they drive results.They discuss their customers, prospects, how they structure their organization, where they spend their budget, their best and worst campaigns, and all the tips they have for how to generate pipeline.Learn more at DemandGenVisionaries.com.