B2B Agility with Greg Kihlström™: MarTech, E-Commerce, & Customer Success

Everyone listening that is already in the workforce, from entry level positions to leaders has had to learn at least a little bit about AI over the last few years. But what are we teaching college students about how AI will impact their work, and more importantly, what should we be teaching them? Today we're going to talk about helping companies scale AI across sales, marketing and operations, as...

Making intelligent decisions is critical for all businesses, but relying on good information is becoming more critical than relying on what worked yesterday. Today we're going to talk about data-driven decision making in B2B marketing and sales. I'd like to welcome Kunal Mangal, Associate Director of MarTech Strategy at Verizon Business Group, who leads the Pega Decisioning platform team within th...

Agility today means adapting your marketing playbook at the speed of AI—experimenting fast, learning faster, and never assuming yesterday's tech advantage still applies. Today we're going to talk about how B2B marketers should be thinking about AI in the months ahead—and how to know if you're already behind. To help me discuss this, I'd like to welcome Victoria Blackwell, Sr. Program Manager of Re...

We aired this episode a little while ago but wanted to share it again because we think there are some great insights for B2B marketers within it. Today we're going to talk about using personalization to create more engaging and inspiring stories for B2B brands. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Tiffany Grinstead, Vice President – Personal Lines Marketing at Nationwide Insurance. A...

How does a B2B brand maintain speed and agility in the area of UX design, where it has often taken a considerable amount of time, effort, and testing to get to a better result?  Today we're going to talk about using AI strategically in UX research, design, and testing. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Jason Bowman, Executive Director of User Experience at The Office of Experience...

Customer onboarding is often where good intentions often end up with less-than-stellar execution. Delays, confusion, and misalignment derail even the most promising new relationships. Why is onboarding still broken in so many organizations, and how is AI finally changing that? Today I'm joined by Srikrishnan Ganesan, Co-Founder and CEO of Rocketlane, a platform that's redefining customer onboardin...

We aired this episode a little while ago, but thought it had some amazing insights we thought were worth sharing again. Today we're going to talk about building a change maker culture and how you can help your teams to thrive among change, instead of being disrupted by it. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Steve Blum, Chief Operating Officer of Autodesk. About Steve Blum As Autode...

When your site is technically "up" but takes too long to load, customers don't care—it might as well be down. Why is "slow" the new "down", and how is that reshaping the way organizations think about digital experience? Today I'm joined by Gerardo Dada, Chief Marketing Officer at Catchpoint, a leader in digital experience monitoring. Gerardo recently helped launch the 2025 SRE Report, which delive...

Most brands invest heavily in content creation, but how much of that content actually reaches global audiences in a way that feels authentic? With 94% of B2B buyers saying they are more likely to engage with leadership and conference videos in their local language, companies are missing a massive opportunity. How can AI-powered video localization remove barriers, preserve cultural nuance, and make...

How do you take a business from a basement office in Queens to a $25 million company—without losing the personal touch that made it special in the first place? Joining us today is Fred Meyers, President and Founder of Queensboro, a company that has revolutionized the custom logo apparel industry. Fred spotted a market gap while doing laundry in his college dorm room, long before e-commerce, fax ma...

Payroll isn't exactly what you'd call exciting—so how do you take a - let's face it - rather boring topic like that and make it relatable, engaging, and even funny enough to capture an audience's attention? Joining us today is Jason Ing, Chief Marketing Officer at Gusto, a leading platform that provides small and medium-sized businesses with payroll, health insurance, HR tools, and more to empower...

Is your brand's story building trust—or are you leaving credibility to chance? Our guest today is Karla Jo Helms, Founder and CEO of JOTO PR Disruptors™. Karla is an expert in transforming B2B brands through innovative public relations strategies. With a career dedicated to building trust, managing crises, and leveraging data-driven storytelling, she has helped countless businesses scale and thriv...

As small and medium-sized businesses navigate economic uncertainty, here's a question to consider: Are your payment systems an asset that drives growth, or are they just another expense? Today, we're joined by Brian Goudie, CEO of Aurora Payments. With nearly 30 years in the payments industry, Brian has guided Aurora to serve over 27,000 merchants, equipping small and medium-sized businesses with...

In a world of fleeting attention spans and oversaturated markets, how can brands truly stand out and build loyalty that lasts—even when it comes to something as overlooked as board meetings? Today, we're joined by Allison Capaldi, Senior Content Manager at Zeck, and Robert Wolfe, Founder of Zeck. Together, they've built not one but three successful brands, including Moosejaw, which sold to Walmart...

Is your marketing operations team set up to be a strategic driver of growth, or are they stuck managing tools and putting out fires? Today, we're joined by Mike Rizzo, Founder of MarketingOps.com. Mike is here to discuss the 2024 State of the Marketing Operations Professional Report, which is based on insights from over 600 MOps professionals. This report sheds light on the evolving role of market...

In a world where sales cycles are getting longer, what's holding your business back from reaching the right person at the right time? Today, we're joined by Joshua Garrison, Vice President of Content Marketing and Product Education at Apollo.io, a leading go-to-market platform used by millions of sales professionals and SMBs globally. Josh is not only a sales leader but also the author of the Amaz...

How aligned is your organization when it comes to driving growth—are internal silos or misaligned goals or expectations holding you back from reaching your full potential? Today, we're joined by Robert Chatwani, President and General Manager of Growth at Docusign. Before joining DocuSign in 2023, Robert was the Chief Marketing Officer at Atlassian, where he helped scale the business to nearly $3 b...

Are your landing pages truly working for you, or are you caught in a cycle of driving traffic to pages that fail to convert effectively? Today, we're excited to welcome Sahil Patel, CEO of Spiralyze. Sahil leads a company that has optimized over 34,000 landing pages for SaaS leaders using insights from more than 130,000 A/B tests. With his deep expertise, he's here to share actionable strategies f...

Is your B2B e-commerce content working as hard as it should be? In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, strong content creation and management could be the key to unlocking both customer engagement and business growth. This was recorded live at Opticon 2024 in San Antonio, TX. Today we're diving into the role of strong content creation and optimization in e-commerce with Ashlyn Fulton, Senior Dig...

Is your B2B buying experience stuck in the past? If you're making your customers email for a quote while competitors offer seamless online purchasing, you could be losing the next generation of buyers. Today we're discussing the Amazonification of B2B commerce with Alex Sayyah, CEO of Aleran Software. We'll dive into how B2B companies are adopting B2C principles in e-commerce and why Gen Z and Mil...

To be truly successful with AI, capturing data is only the beginning. You need to understand and contextualize in terms of your business it to truly harness the power of artificial intelligence and get real returns. Today we're going to talk about going beyond the hype of AI to get real, tangible results and unlock benefits that approaching data in the right way can enable. To help me discuss this...

Are you missing out on one of the simplest yet most powerful tools for building business relationships? What if a small, personalized gesture could mean more to your clients and colleagues than a raise or promotion? Today we're exploring the power of gratitude in business with Brendan Kamm, Co-Founder and CEO of Thnks. We'll discuss how small, meaningful acts of gratitude can strengthen business r...

What if AI could be your invaluable sidekick? Imagine freeing up hours of your day by letting AI handle the repetitive tasks, so you can focus on the big picture. Is your team ready to make that shift - and how can you as a leader help enable that? Today we're going to explore how AI can accelerate marketing velocity with Shannon Duffy, Chief Marketing Officer at Asana. We'll dive into how AI can...

In this special episode, brought to you by Landrum Talent Solutions, a national recruiting firm specializing in marketing and HR positions, we're going to talk about a few things today, including the state of the job market and how elections, the economy, and AI are affecting the plans that hiring managers and job seekers are making for 2025. Joining host Greg Kihlstrom to discuss this topic is Su...

Welcome to today's episode where we're going to talk about event data and personalized marketing with Brian Gates, SVP of Industry Strategy at RainFocus. We'll explore how great data can drive marketing strategies, the balance between personalization and privacy, and strategies for overcoming data silos within organizations. About Brian Gates Brian Gates is the SVP of industry strategy at RainFocu...