C-Suite Sales & Marketing Perspectives Steven MacDonald

💡 Tue Søttrup, Chief Executive Officer at Smart Role, explores Customer Experience’s critical role in B2B. He discusses its impact on sales cycles, relationships, and revenue compared to B2C. He also highlights varied views on CX's direct link to churn in B2B SaaS and stresses holistic support beyond sales to nurture partnerships and drive sustained business success. 💡
"As a B2B company, it's your job to stay top of mind and keep reminding your partner customers about the value you provide. Show them that you understand their business, know your product, and can help them become more successful with it." - Tue Søttrup
In B2B, prioritizing customer success, fostering employee happiness, and strategic CX is crucial. Despite transactional differences from B2C, universal CX principles drive sustainable growth and relationships. Integrating best practices and demonstrating ongoing value solidifies B2B organizations as trusted partners, essential for lasting success and growth.
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💡 Melissa Moody, CEO at Matcha with 14 years of experience at Google, shares insights on the evolving role of the CMO. She emphasizes the importance of having a seat at the table and being involved in strategic decision-making. Melissa also highlights the need for marketers to listen to their customers and encourages CMOs to focus on both running the business and changing the business. 💡
Melissa discusses how to be an effective CMO in a rapidly growing startup. She shares her insights on the role of a CMO and the importance of having a seat at the table. She also emphasizes the need for marketers to think strategically and contribute to the overall business direction and highlights the balance between strategy and execution and the importance of listening to customers.
“It's never so much about something on paper or a specific salary or equity. It's about the feeling you get when you're sitting with your coworkers at that highest level and you bring something that has come out of the marketing side of the business, but should be an influence to the overall business.” - Melissa Moody
An effective CMO should strive to have a seat at the table and be involved in shaping the overall business strategy. This can be achieved through proper strategy and execution of creating valuable content that is tailored to what the audience needs. With that, continuous learning is essential to stay ahead of the curve and adapt their strategies to meet the evolving needs of their audience. 
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💡 Dave Rigotti, Co-Founder and Head of Marketing at Inflection.io, underscores the critical significance of net revenue retention (NRR) and advocates for a shift in focus among marketers toward this metric. He states that tapping into revenue streams from existing customers is more straightforward and cost-efficient.💡
He emphasizes that marketing should focus on customer expansions and driving product usage to improve NRR. He also advocates channeling greater attention and resources into customer marketing efforts and enhancing customer engagement with the product. By doing so, marketers can substantially enhance NRR and consequently drive revenue growth.
“CEOs need to have a real conversation with their CMOs about how important NRR is. CEOs need to change the metrics for marketing that marketing signs up for NRR because once you get to 100% NRR, you start to become unstoppable. It's really hard for even macro-economic headwinds to slow you down.” - Dave Rigotti
Net revenue retention (NRR) measures revenue growth from existing customers, which is critical for SaaS companies aiming for over 100% NRR. CEOs and CMOs should prioritize NRR, focusing on customer expansions and tailored onboarding to boost revenue. By emphasizing customer-centric strategies, marketing can drive NRR and sustainable growth, prompting dialogue between leadership for dedicated plans.
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💡 TJ Waldorf, CMO of 1WorldSync, emphasizes closing the consumption gap between company capabilities and stakeholder perceptions. Amid rapid growth and acquisitions, educating internal and external stakeholders on expanded capabilities is vital. TJ stresses ongoing communication, internal campaigns, and reframing conversations to align understanding. By closing this gap, companies improve client service, drive revenue growth, and establish thought leadership.💡
“There always tends to be some gap between those two things. In our case, it has been accentuated because, over the last three and a half to four years, we’ve transitioned from a single-product company to making nine acquisitions, significantly expanding our capabilities and our platform.” - TJ Waldorf
Closing the consumption gap is a multifaceted endeavor requiring internal and external education. While external marketing efforts are crucial for reaching clients, internal education is equally vital in ensuring that employees understand and can effectively communicate a company’s capabilities. Thought leadership content is essential in educating internal and external stakeholders, reframing conversations, and driving growth.
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💡 Annie Wissner, VP of Marketing at Choozle, shares tips for new VPs or Heads of Marketing. She emphasizes relationship building, understanding existing initiatives, and conducting a listening tour. Annie highlights the need to assess marketing functions, analyze the competitive landscape, and identify gaps. She also discusses the importance of a clear content strategy, creating engaging content, and balancing urgent tasks with long-term planning. 💡
"As an executive marketing leader, you can get caught in a tactics trap from listening to input from your peers and your team. That's why it's important to be strategic and balance tactical execution." - Annie Wissner
As a new head of marketing, building relationships and conducting a listening tour are crucial. Annie Wissner’s insights emphasize meeting with a wide range of people in the first 30 days to understand the organization. She also highlights the need for a clear content strategy, creating valuable content, and establishing a publishing cadence to align marketing with business objectives and drive growth.
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💡 Marina Devalia, CMO at Vantaca and founder of Playbook Lab, discusses the need for marketers to evolve and take on a more strategic role within organizations. She encourages marketers to be brave and assertive in their approach. She also emphasizes the importance of unpacking the buyer's journey and identifying the touchpoints where thought leadership content can have the most significant impact. 💡
"I'm a huge fan of training your sales force, your sales team, not only to use the content appropriately, which already validates them as points of authority and knowledge in the industry, but also to elevate them to the point of participating in the production of content." -Marina Devalia
Marina Devalia discusses the importance of revenue-driven and customer-centric marketing. She emphasizes the need for marketers to be brave and assertive in decision-making. She also highlights the company's importance as an industry innovator in improving the sales process. She suggests engaging customers and industry experts in producing thought leadership content and creating peer-to-peer engagement and education opportunities.
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