C-Suite Sales & Marketing Perspectives

The alignment between marketing and sales is a perennial challenge for B2B companies. However, Shawn Conahan (CRO of the Year) and Tristan Barnum (CMO) have shown that overcoming this challenge and creating a successful partnership is possible. They have built a high-performing team committed to their client partners' success by fostering trust, collaboration, co-ownership, and a shared vision. "W...

Matt Klassen, a 2x CMO, explains how adopting an agile development process in marketing can create transparency, accountability, and strong relationships with other departments. It allows for greater flexibility and the ability to pivot based on changing market dynamics. "By applying agile development practice to marketing, we've been able to remove random acts of marketing from our operations." -...

Devin Davis, a VP of Marketing with nearly 20 years of experience, explains, "Product marketing is the worst-named function in the world. You should be talking as little as possible about your product and instead talking about the problem area it solves. Once you understand that, it unlocks a new way of reaching your audience in a more effective manner." "As marketers creating content, we must sta...

Anita Tulsiani, a 2x CMO with a background in high tech, explains how CMOs must foster strong relationships with product, finance, and sales leadership to excel, moving beyond their functional roles. Marketers can align their strategies and drive revenue by understanding the customer, profitability, and pain points better than anyone, giving them a voice at the table in the C-suite. Collaboration...

James Furbush, VP of Marketing and former managing editor,​ explains how B2B buyers are 83% of the way through their research before they want to talk to a company. So, how do you get on their shortlist? It's all about the product before the product - content! "If you're thinking about your content as a product in and of itself that could stand on its own, then you need to treat it with the respec...

Phil Carpenter, CMO at Alice Technologies, believes that being a category creator gives you a competitive advantage. It sets you apart from the pack and positions you as a thought leader, creating new opportunities across the board, including the most highly competitive industries. "Even if you're not creating a new category, push for novelty and innovation. Be interesting, take risks, and break t...

Warren Zenna, founder and CEO of the CRO Collective, shares his perspective on the role of CMOs and the need for better integration between marketing and sales functions. He argues that the current organizational dynamics in B2B companies, with multiple C-suite executives, create silos and hinder alignment.  "Pipeline and revenue growth are very inward-thinking goals. It's all about customer outco...

In this episode, Karen Sage, a 5x B2B Chief Marketing Officer, discusses the evolution of content and introduces the concept of Content 3.0. She explains that content is becoming harder to differentiate and reach due to trends like ChatGPT and the impact of the deprecation of third-party cookies. To overcome these challenges, Karen suggests that companies shift their focus from content to communit...

Ron Carson, a CMO, former founder, and Forbes Communications Council member with 25+ years of experience, shares his perspective on the critical role of a CMO and the importance of "just asking" customers for insights. He emphasizes the need for marketing departments to stay connected with customers and non-customers to understand their needs, motivations, and preferred channels of communication. ...

Despite being bootstrapped, Kenneth Burke, the VP of Marketing at TexRequest, discusses the value of content marketing as a cost-effective strategy. While it required time and effort, it allowed them to build a reputation, attract qualified traffic, and serve as sales enablement tools. "Look at your startup, resources, or time limitations as opportunities and reframe them." - Kenneth Burke Kenneth...

Alex Shevelenko, CEO of RELAYTO, a content experiences company, discusses how content experiences can revolutionize how businesses engage with their customers. By transforming static content into dynamic and interactive experiences, businesses can create a more immersive and personalized journey for their audience.  "In the world of modern consumerism, people want to interact. They don't want to h...

According to Jill Tygh, VP of Marketing at Data Cubed Health, trust is the key to creating a successful relationship between marketing and sales. Both teams need to understand that they are working towards the same goal and that they can rely on each other for support. Jill's secret sauce is building trust and having sales rely on her and the marketing team. "Trust with the sales team is required....

Jim discusses how the landscape of content creation is evolving. With the rise of language model AI, marketers need to adapt their strategies to ensure AI-powered search engines discover their content. By structuring data and training AI models, marketers can provide their audience with personalized and contextually relevant content. "You can train AI language models on specific topics; marketers...

Today’s guest is Polo Aristoy, an experienced marketing professional with a unique background in both B2C and B2B. He has worked as an analyst and consultant for companies like Procter & Gamble and Nielsen. He has also served as the CMO of a professional soccer team and has worked with FinTech companies in the B2B world.  "The adherence and dedication of a company to content becomes a muscle in th...

Maria Osipova, CMO at Penny AI, discusses the role of AI in marketing and how it can augment, rather than replace, marketing teams. She emphasizes the need for marketers to understand the different subsets of AI and to start small by identifying areas where AI can improve efficiency and output. "AI is like 10, 15 different technologists with different capabilities, different risks and limitations....

Jeff Perkins, a 3x CMO and CEO, shares his insights on achieving hockey stick growth in startups. He emphasizes the requirements of a deep understanding of the customer journey, the ability to adapt strategies to unique circumstances, alignment between sales and marketing, and a focus on high-quality content. "The key is understanding your buyer, their journey, and where you must be to influence t...

Jill Ransome, a two-time B2B CMO with over 25 years of marketing experience, discusses the importance of alignment between CMOs and the companies they join to ensure a successful and fulfilling career as a senior marketing executive. It is essential to strategically evaluate potential employers and seek alignment in beliefs and values. "You've got to be a good storyteller to the rest of the C-suit...

Meet Steve Arentzoff, the SVP of Marketing for FlexPay with over 20+ years of experience. Steve introduces the concept of reshaping the buyer's core problem as a bigger opportunity with profound implications for marketing and sales. By redefining the playing field and the true cost of not addressing the problems, as stated in terms of impacting the buyer's company at a strategic growth level, mark...

Matt Anthony, the CMO of Query, talks about his experience with 13 different startups and his strategies for developing high-performance teams. Matt shares his insights on the importance of having the right team in place, being flexible, and building a strong communication system. He also discusses the challenges of managing chaos in a startup environment and the need to prioritize and say no to n...

Introducing Kevin Bobowski, a seasoned B2B CMO boasting 20+ years of SaaS expertise, now serving as CMO at AWARE—an AI data platform. Kevin's rich background includes roles within Private Equity and PE/VC-backed SaaS enterprises, providing valuable insights for any B2B CMO.  "PE-backed models tend to be a little more structured and rigorous. The VC models tend to focus more on how to scale quickly...

Jessica Zall is the Chief Marketing Officer of Percent, a company that has created a private credit marketplace. With over 20 years of experience in the financial services and financial technology industry, Jessica has worked with big names such as JP Morgan, Thomson Reuters, and Refinitiv. She brings a mix of corporate organization and entrepreneurial spirit to her role, focusing on client acquis...

Meet Randy Wootton, Maxio's CEO, a seasoned tech leader (Microsoft, Salesforce) turned 3x CEO. He explores the evolving CMO role, stressing value creation, C-suite collaboration, tech-savviness, data-driven creativity, and thought leadership proficiency. Randy advocates storytelling, a strong POV, and aligning with CEOs for success. "You've got to have this real North Star around what you want you...

Karyn Scott emphasizes the importance of storytelling in B2B marketing. As an experienced journalist, CMO, and marketer with Salesforce and Cisco, she believes storytelling is the key to putting the customer at the forefront and creating an emotional connection. She highlights the neuroscience behind storytelling, explaining how our brains are wired to remember and process stories more effectively...

In this interview, 2x CMO and former CRO Dayna Rothman discusses her insights from her time as CMO at OneLogin, where she learned from the failure of three previous CMOs due to their inability to benchmark and track the business impact of marketing and report it all the way up through the board.  Dayna states, "Making those connections and ensuring that the organization understands marketing's imp...

Jamie Gier, a three-time B2B CMO, discusses the challenges faced by B2B CMOs and why they often fail quickly. She emphasizes the difficulty of creating a brand and generating high-quality content in a B2B environment with elongated sales cycles and multiple decision-makers.  "Today's brand is tomorrow's demand, and CMOs must balance immediate results with a strategic focus on brand building and co...