Mark Herring is a passionate marketing leader with strong technical roots and deep knowledge of how to market cloud and enterprise software to open-source developers and DevOps audiences. He is the Chief Marketing Officer at HiveMQ.

In this episode, Mark shares his approach to cold outreach, explaining why leading with recognizable brands before introducing value creates engagement. He explores effective email strategies, emphasizing the power of short, curiosity-driven messages over long, detailed pitches. He also discusses pricing from the buyer’s perspective, highlighting how perceived value—rather than just function—drives purchasing decisions.

Why you have to check out today’s podcast:

• Learn proven strategies for grabbing attention in cold calls and emails, using brand credibility and psychological triggers like FOMO.
• Discover how to price based on what buyers truly value, rather than just cost or features, using real-life analogies.
• Get practical tips on structuring sales conversations to keep prospects engaged without sounding like a typical salesperson.

“Try and understand the value in the eyes of your buyer. I think far too many times as vendors, we think there's intrinsic value because it costs us much to produce or we think it looks like that. It's trying to understand from a buying perspective, what is the value you're providing.”

- Mark Herring

Topics Covered:

01:29 - How his journey from development to product marketing led him to pricing

03:41 - How his early pricing research focused on how customers would use a product rather than explicitly asking about the problem it solved

04:59 -  To what is the short tenure of CMOs in B2B and consumer goods attributed to

06:25 - Explaining what a pipeline is and how pipeline generation involves value demonstration

10:38 - Comparing pipeline to running a marathon, emphasizing that while MQLs and SQLs are useful stepping stones, the ultimate goal is generating real sales opportunities

12:02 - Differentiating a pipeline from a SQL

14:18 - Demonstrating how a successful cold outreach combines multiple touchpoints

18:57 - How to make prospects more receptive in a cold call 

21:13 - Why he uses big brand names as conversation openers in cold calls rather than starting with a value statement

22:27 - What an effective cold email should be

24:42 - Highlighting  the importance of A/B testing cold emails and continuously refining outreach strategies to improve open rates

25:55 - Mark's best pricing advice

Key Takeaways:

“It's cold because you've never had the interaction, but usually they've interacted somewhere with you. It's like they might have seen you at an event, or they might have seen some of your outreach to you already and going, ‘Okay, I'll give this guy a bone.’” - Mark Herring

“One of the sales guys was talking about this [cold calls] at the conference we were at together, and I just loved it. And he is like, ‘Don't over research, because there's never a good time to know everything.’ Because you got to keep on dialing.” - Mark Herring

“You can't stop doing it [cold outreach] because it's like getting dice and trying to get the six, the more you throw it, the better chance you're going to get to the six.” - Mark Herring

“I lead [cold call] with brands, not with value. And when you do that type of thing, they're then shocked going, ‘Oh, he didn't do a sales pitch on me. He's asking me about these companies. Well, maybe it is something interesting.’” - Mark Herring

People/Resources Mentioned:

• FedX: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/home.html
• UPS: https://www.ups.com/us/en/home

Connect with Mark Herring:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/herringmark/
• Email: mark.herring@hivemq.com

Connect with Mark Stiving:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiving/
• Email: mark@impactpricing.com