OnBase: Smashing Sales and Marketing Misalignments

In this episode of Sunny Side Up, the focus is on career success as anything but a straight line. For Utkalika Badu, Managing Vice President for Global Sales Strategy and Operations at Gartner®, the trajectory has been steep and often unexpected. She shares her journey from preconceived notions based on university classes to on-the-ground experiences that have shaped an entirely different conception of what it takes to be a successful leader. Along the way, she has picked up a wide range of skill sets, always prompted by curiosity and a willingness to stretch and take a risk. Utkalika offers advice to would-be leaders on their ascent and uses lessons from sports as a great metaphor for business success through collaboration and team building. You'll also enjoy some evergreen book recommendations! Connect Utkalika Badu | Follow us on LinkedIn

This episode of Sunny Side Up highlights not only a huge marketing success story (a 50% increase in demand generation in under three years!) but also the step-by-step strategy our guests used to get there. Alberto Cantor, senior director of demand generation & corporate marketing at ArisGlobal, has taken the company's historically sales/product-led culture from virtually no marketing function to a sophisticated, multi-pronged program. The B2B SaaS company, which is based in the life sciences sector, has enjoyed organic, sustained growth as well as branding awareness and improved user acquisition and engagement. Alberto has grown his team 6x over in his brief tenure and acquired buy-in among the top executive ranks. How has he done it? This conversation reveals his process – from the initial campaign to secure buy-in with metrics and demonstrated results to reinventing marketing basics (such as email and website content) to the massive overhaul of a legacy CRM system that – once cleaned up – started to yield amazing results. Alberto shares tips and tricks in this methodical look at the anatomy of a marketing department from conception to robust maturity! Connect Alberto Cantor | Follow us on LinkedIn

This episode of Sunny Side Up brings the latest and greatest data from McKinsey & Co., where guest Liz Harrison is a partner specializing in all things B2B marketing and commercial growth. She provides insights from recently released research that will shape how B2B decision-makers choose to interact with customers going forward. The number of available sales and marketing channels has exploded, which has crowded and complicated the field. Liz sorts out where resources should be allocated (which generally follows what she calls “the rule of thirds”) and why, despite huge leaps in e-commerce adoption, the “personal touch” still matters. You’ll also be interested to hear about how companies best leverage data analytics and what key leadership style elements many “super-executives” to share. Connect Liz Harrison | Follow us on LinkedIn

This episode of Sunny Side Up features Jeff Perry, chief revenue officer at Carta, a cloud-based provider of equity management solutions. This fast-growing company started out as a provider of software products but has grown to include an equity management platform now serving more than 20,000 companies (at all stages of growth) as well as more than 2 million investor, law firm, and employee accounts. Originally known as eShares, the company's initial focus was on capitalization tables and valuation software. But these days, Jeff is responsible for marshaling core products and burgeoning new frontiers related to investor relations and data and computational tools. Learn about Carta's latest offerings, sales strategies for keeping up with what's on the horizon, and recommended reading for anyone interested in the world of business. Connect Jeff Perry | Follow us on LinkedIn

This episode of Sunny Side Up features Shivani Bhatt, who has made the art of integrating data science across marketing team functions. In her role as Director of Analytics at Zuora, she is laser-focused on the integration of data analytics, strategic marketing, and growth operations. She shares insights into the role metrics have to play and where they inevitably fall short if all stakeholders are not brought along throughout the process. Shivani believes the tools and insights data science affords very often originate in the service of marketing functions but ultimately, as organizations scale and evolve, can play a centralized role across the enterprise. You'll hear about some of the people who have influenced her development as well as recommend reading for anyone who shares her passion for all things marketing: demand generation, performance metrics, and growth strategy. Connect Shivani Bhatt | Follow us on LinkedIn

This episode of Sunny Side Up features Aimee Johnson, a marketing dynamo whose career portfolio has included a unique mix of consumer and tech brands. She shares insights about what it takes to build and maintain a marketplace niche that resists erosion. As CMO at Seattle-based Zillow, an online real estate platform, Aimee is daily tasked with protecting a brand that is vulnerable to a perpetual onslaught of challenges from competitors and generalized social media noise. Her leadership style, developed through personal reflection and evolution, is a big part of what Aimee brings to the table. She’s constantly assessing the landscape and figuring out how to identify corporate brand and marketing needs. Another primary focus is empowering those around her, especially in the C-suite, to nurture, grow and protect one of their company’s most valuable assets: Brand identity. Enjoy this lively conversation with a marketing pro who’s sharing wisdom along with tactics for ascending to that next rung on the managerial ladder. Connect Aimee Johnson | Follow us on LinkedIn

Advertisers and agencies both need to come to the table – and right from the outset when it comes to optimizing outcomes. How, when, and why that should happen is the focus of this episode of Sunny Side Up, which features Earl Potter, Senior VP of Media Analytics at Quad. He brings extensive experience with technology and analytics, helping clients get the most out of their market investments by finding the right combination of technology, method, and analytical framework to optimize media spend. Before joining Quad in 2019, Earl worked in senior positions at some of the largest global media analytics firms, including Gain Theory, a marketing effectiveness consultancy that is part of WPP, and Mediabrands, the media and data arm of Interpublic group. He shares insights on advertisers and agencies – how they can best leverage ad dollars and maximize ROI through candid communication, planning, research, and transparency. Connect Earl Potter | Follow us on LinkedIn

In this episode of Sunny Side Up, Alina Gubavu, Director of Analytics and B.I. at Microsoft, shares her change management philosophy. A voraciously curious lifelong learner, she has expanded her roots in Romania and taken flight in the world of business intelligence. Reflecting on the key elements of her success, Alina recognizes the power both in being a mentor and staying perpetually open to mentoring. Progress comes in pieces, she says, and it takes a network pulling together to identify, sort, and leverage those pieces. Change management is a cornerstone to Alina’s work, helping organizations optimize operations through business information, data analysis, and decision-making support. But none of it works without intentionality, clearly identifying goals and mitigating risks. Productivity means different things to different companies, but there’s always a value-add available if you can get buy-in and stay open to what’s on the horizon. “See change happening,” she says, “and embrace new waves of change in order to continually grow your business.” Connect Alina Gubavu | Follow us on LinkedIn

Aditya will talk to us about helping marketing and sales teams evolve and stay updated on new trends by bringing together real-world insights. He will also help us understand the achievements of ratings and what is beyond the quadrants. Connect Aditya Modi | Follow us on LinkedIn

Andres Ceballos is a trusted district advisor and manages initiators and programs that focus on Salesforce's portfolio growth and adoption. In this episode, Andres shares his experience in leadership roles from the past 20 years. He defines the difference between a mentor and a leader, highlights the significance of inner work, details how to change our thought process effectively. Connect Andres Ceballos | Follow us on LinkedIn