Pipeline Visionaries

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

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

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

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

This episode features an interview with Rachel Konrad, Chief Brand Officer at The Production Board, a holding company established to solve the most fundamental problems that affect our planet, by reimagining global systems of production across food, agriculture, biomanufacturing, human health and the broader life sciences.In this episode, Rachel shares with us her take on conventional marketing, why the most disruptive companies are the ones who think from a tech and marketing perspective, and the need to throw out the incumbent’s chess board and play your own game. Rachel also shares her mission for crafting brand intent first and foremost in order to make greater customer impact.Key Takeaways:Conventional marketing doesn’t always cut it. It’s hard to be disruptive in a busy marketing space with your brand if you aren’t willing to throw out the way everyone has done the same thing in the past.You can cut anything in your budget. Especially in startups, hire people who are swiss army knives to keep costs low and who give you the ability to internally support your company better.Craft brand intent first. If you don’t know who you are and what your purpose is, you cannot create effective campaigns that reach your target audience(s) well.Quote:“It's actually a lot easier than you think if you break it down into these, what does the consumer want? What does the consumer care about? And everything else is just not even something you should over, overly worry about. You just have to be in the same zone of the incumbents on those, but you have to dominate the few things that really profoundly matter to the customer. The goal is not for us to be thumping our chests, telling our story, in our own words, using a lot of marketing jingo. The goal is users. The goal is having user generated content, having your true believers, your advocates, and... Convincing and converting the non-believers, right? That is the goal.”Episode Timestamps: *(07:17) - The Trust Tree: Disruptive companies throw out the incumbent’s chess board*(38:04) - The Playbook: Don’t get too precious about any of your uncuttables*(48:29) - Quick Hits: Rachel’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 Rachel on LinkedInLearn more about The Production BoardLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Analisa Dominic, CMO at Opengear, a company that delivers secure, resilient access and automation to critical IT infrastructure, even when the network is down. In this episode, Analisa shares with us how marketing and sales work as one team at Opengear, the importance of getting clear on your buying persona before setting strategy, and why she put Darth Vader in a photo booth. Analisa also shares her experience being a disruptor in the marketing space and how she enables her team and encourages new CMOs to be bold and different.Key Takeaways:Be bold. In order to stand out in the marketing landscape, you have to unabashedly embrace new and unique marketing methods to connect with your customers. Creativity is free.Get to a place where your customers love you. When your customers truly love you, they're your best advocates for quality referrals and so much more.Remember why you were hired in your marketing role. If you were hired to disrupt the space, then disrupt. Quote: “It's really being able to understand the buying persona then creating the strategy. Because if you think you understand the buying persona and you create a strategy, it doesn't matter how good the strategy is, if you're not speaking to them in the right way, in the right times and pulling all those levers, you're never gonna be successful. So, I think there, when you set strategy, it's also important to have that alignment with the sales organization. What's important to you? What are you trying to hit? What are your target customers? Who are gonna be making those decisions, et cetera, et cetera. So it's not just a marketing strategy, it's a business strategy.”Episode Timestamps: *(02:47) - The Trust Tree: Opengear is the silent ninja for all engineers*(14:46) - The Playbook: Darth Vader in a photo booth*(33:51) - The Dust Up: Bring all the stories you can*(37:09) - Quick Hits: Analisa’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 Analisa on LinkedInLearn more about OpengearLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with TJ Waldorf, CMO at 1WorldSync, the leader in Product Content Orchestration.In this episode, TJ shares the true value in customer case studies and what that can do for the sales team, why brand and demand aren’t mutually exclusive, and the importance of understanding what your business is trying to accomplish. TJ also talks about why alignment across teams is critical to marketing success. Key Takeaways:Brands should refresh and reposition to be sure they’re resonating with their buying groups. Buyer needs and wants change over time, and brands need to be flexible and evolve to meet those changing demands. Brand and demand go together.Build up a backlog of customers who are willing to help your brand. Customer case studies provide endless value and opportunity for businesses to market their brand. An investigative approach will lend more answers to the questions brands really want to know from their customers.Teams must be aligned to experience the greatest success. Get as granular as possible cross-functionally so everyone sees the same vision and is on the same page.Quote:“ I mean, it goes back to, is that asset distinctive? Right? Like if you want them to think about a certain series, like for us, if we wanted to think about or have marketers think about a certain series different than the IT team or the master data team, you know, how do we make that distinctive so when a marketer sees it's not kind of blending in with some of the other stuff that we might be doing that speaks to a different audience.”Episode Timestamps: *(03:30) - The Trust Tree: Refreshing brand to reevaluate persona needs*(15:38) - The Playbook: Brand and demand go together*(30:36) - The Dust Up: Quick responses aren’t always best*(31:34) - Quick Hits: TJ’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 TJ on LinkedInLearn more about 1WorldSyncLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Efrat Ravid, CMO at Quantum Metric, a pioneer in Continuous Product Design, helping business and technology teams align faster on customer needs and prioritize the opportunities that will drive the most value. In this episode, Efrat takes us on a deep dive into Quantum Metric’s continuous product design approach, the endless benefits of hearing directly from your customers, and the importance of data accessibility across entire teams. Efrat also shares with us how Quantum Metric provides opportunities for their customers to release with confidence and warns all CMOs to stay away from marketing campaigns that do not work for your customers. Key Takeaways:Modern marketing is all about customer relationships. If you don’t know your customers and ask for (and accept) their honest feedback, you are leaving a lot of untapped potential on the table. Encourage customers to share feedback in their own words.Embrace industry dynamics and lean into continuous product design. The purpose of new initiatives isn’t always about selling more products; it’s about continuous improvement to our products for the benefit of our customers.Feedback in your customers’ own words creates marketing magic. The more companies try to force language out of their customers, the less useful customer feedback truly is.Quote:“And then we ask them a different question, and they ask them, what's the value the product actually brings you? Like, forget about what we tell you, what you and the word they use were completely different. They were talking about releasing with confidence. So every time you have an update on your website, you need to release and think about your airline, like United Airlines and you need to release, you can break so many things, right? Or think about [if] you are a bank like US Bank and people can stop, withdraw money because of a mistake you make and it can have a real impact. So releasing with confidence was an amazing value. Another thing they mentioned is being able to test and try again and again and not be afraid of that.”Episode Timestamps: *(04:08) - The Trust Tree: All marketing efforts are focused on the customer: their journey and their feedback*(22:58) - The Playbook: Why Efrat’s not married to any particular tactic; anything can be cut if it needs to be*(31:44) - The Dust Up: There’s an ongoing healthy tension between sales and marketing*(34:29) - Quick Hits: Efrat’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 Efrat on LinkedInLearn more about Quantum MetricLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Juliette Kopecky, CMO at Link Squares, the company behind the AI-powered contract management platform of choice for legal teams aiming to move their business forward faster.In this episode, Juliette shares with us her strategies for defining and creating good content and how to meet customers where they are, her focus on creating stronger customer connections, and the importance of bringing varied skill sets in house in order to match the change of pace within the marketing industry.Key Takeaways:It’s crucial to understand how your customers interact with your content and why. Not only does this help your team to better understand your target personas, but it also helps create better connections with prospects and customers.Now more than ever, bringing skill sets in-house is key to marketing success. A skilled and diverse team allows for resilience against the pace of change within the marketing industry.Eliminate what doesn’t perform well for you. Create meaningful results, not just leads, and when you do this over time there’s less to cut in your business.Quote:“And I think for us, that's what we always think about is what is that piece of content or topic area that we wanna build upon that our audience cares about and what is going to be like that best medium for it. And sometimes it can be the same topic area and different pieces of it, like a bite-sized piece of content might work well in an audio podcast, whereas a detailed sort of step-by-step here's how you use the product goes really nicely with, with doing maybe a video tutorial or a written out piece of document. And I think, and I think that's so much about, like marketing is thinking about like that content and what is the vehicle, and then really matching it to your buyers and your prospects. What their needs and how they prefer to consume that content.”Episode Timestamps:*(03:56) - The Trust Tree: Making the backend processes easier for legal teams and increasing ROI by 352%*(24:17) - The Playbook: Eliminating what’s not performing so you don't have to cut anything else*(29:20) - The Dust Up: How you approach conflict is key*(30:24) - Quick Hits: Juliette’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 Juliette on LinkedInLearn more about LinkSquaresLearn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Shafqat Islam, CMO at Optimizely, a leading digital experience platform (DXP) that equips teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new ways.In this episode, Shafqat shares his core company beliefs around marketing, the journey of cutting Optimizely’s budget to zero and starting over, and how he and his team are getting scrappy and going back to the drawing board to start afresh with their marketing strategies. Shafqat also gets transparent about what it’s been like to be a first time CMO and the advantages that presents him in his new role.Key Takeaways:For long term business success, you have to have a solid digital presence, create awesome content that keep your customers coming back for me, and utilize creativity and science to provide unparalleled customer experiences.Sometimes, you have to scratch it all and start over. By cutting their company budget to zero and starting afresh, Shafqat and his team now run a leaner and more scrappy marketing organization. Anything measurable is uncuttable, anything unmeasurable is cuttable. Be ruthless about what your output is and how it affects your input.Quote:“We wanted to get a lot scrappier, a lot more entrepreneurial, a lot cheaper, like spend a lot less money, even though we have big budgets and it just requires a different type of person, right? And so, as I mentioned, sometimes some people opted out. Some were encouraged to find a better fit somewhere else. And the entire leadership team in our marketing org turned over very quickly…So they all left and all the people who were doing the job one level below got promoted into the new marketing leadership team, and they've absolutely crushed it. Like I'm so proud of them because they were just waiting in the wings to take on more responsibility. Get shit done, prove that we can run a very different type of scrappy marketing organization.”Episode Timestamps: *(03:43) - The Trust Tree: Cutting the budget to zero and starting over*(23:37) - The Playbook: Getting scrappy and redefining the marketing game*(33:39) - Quick Hits: Shafqat’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 Shafqat on LinkedInLearn more about OptimizelyLearn more about Caspian Studios