Revenue Rehab: November Recap 2022

CMO Exit: Securing a Coveted Board Seat

Brandi is joined by Coco Brown, the Founder & CEO at Athena Alliance, and Sabrina Hannam, CEO & Board Chair at Boardswell for this episode of our Revenue Rehab series on CMO Exits: Securing a Coveted Board Seat. On the couch, Brandi, Coco, and Sabrina discuss another ‘next step’ for CMOs.

To kick-start the conversation, Brandi asks Coco and Sabrina to outline what CMOs should consider when thinking of next steps to secure a board seat, and how to approach their timing tactics. Sabrina believes this is a natural next step for CMOs, while Coco stresses that CMOs should consider exploring this option early on. Coco emphasizes that it isn’t too early to become a board member, even in your current role as CMO. Sabrina recommends taking the plunge – start inquiring and start asking questions. Whether it’s for a private or public board, start creating visibility and expanding your network for the right opportunities.

If you’re considering securing a board seat, Sabrina suggests creating a risk profile. Can you sit on a board in your current role? Do you have the time? Do you believe in the future of the company? Can you bring added value? Do you believe in the company’s future success?

So, what is the one thing you can do today? Both Sabrina and Coco recommend writing out your value proposition as a CMO, which will drive your next steps and future success.

Collaborative Not Cookie Cutter: A New Approach to Event Sponsorship

Phil Stanley, Senior Strategist at InVision Communications, joins Brandi to discuss event sponsorship.

Phil expounds upon the ‘before and after’ COVID relationship between sponsors and events. He and Brandi discuss his white paper: A Strategic Approach to Sponsorship; a new approach and shift in mindset to the traditional event sponsorship model.

Phil stresses that there needs to be a shift in roles and duties of event teams to fully realize this new approach. There needs to be more than just event managers who are solely focused on operations. In addition, team members need to truly understand sponsorship, work closely with sponsors, and move away from cookie-cutter tiers and generic experiences.

Phil explains how speaking opportunities and thought leadership play an important role in virtual events. A captive audience presents a fantastic opportunity for valuable sponsorship time, and should be treated as such.

When reaching out to sponsors, Phil recommends r event organizers to ask questions like: “How can we help you drive value? What is it that you need?”. For sponsors, Phil recommends reviewing their entire events portfolio. By doing so, they will get a better understanding of their opportunities and sponsors’ marketing needs.

Competitive Intel vs. Competitor Obsession: Striking the Right Balance

Tiziana Barrow, Founder and CEO at Tilagia and Gerardo Dada, CMO at Catchpoint join Brandi to discuss Competitive Intel vs. Competitor Obsession.

Tiziana stresses how data interpretation makes all the difference when it comes to effective competitive intel. “It really matters how competitive and how dynamic the market is,” adds Gerardo. Targeting and analyzing the correct type of information t is where you will access more useful information.

When asked how to collect competitor intel, both guests agree to collect it all, but narrow your focus to where the intelapplies most efficiently.

According to Tiziana, Intel feeds the marketing plan and your ability to communicate with your market. Gerardo believes that intel will grant you a different position and a different way to make your value visible to customers experientially.

According to Gerardo, the one thing you can do today as a marketing leader is understand your customers’ wants and needs. Tiziana advises to start being curious about your customer’s pain points and their impact, as this will uncover the source of their specific issues.

My Journey with Tyler Shields: Analyst, Investor, CMO

On the first of Revenue Rehab’s My Journey Series, Brandi is joined by Tyler Shields, CMO at JupiterOne, to discuss his unique career path to date.

Tyler walks through his career progression from a professional cyber security hacker for hire to a prominent public speaker. Tyler discusses how his unique ability to generate knowledge resulted in more confidence at public speaking.

Tyler also describes how his role as an analyst was vital in helping him understand how a business operates strategically and how this qualified him to help guide executives.

While Tyler’s first advisory role was accidental, it quickly became satisfactory and meaningful when he helped a company to offer start-up recommendations without charge. These free advisory roles led him to being compensated as an official advisor, and being invited to angel investing opportunities.

Tyler has one and a half things you can do today – the half is to be passionate about what you are doing. The ‘one thing’ you can do today is to start figuring out how you push beyond the competition in your field and leverage it as a core differentiator.

Gated vs Non-Gated Content: Taking Sides on the Issue

On the couch, Brandi is joined by Wendy White, the CMO at Daxko, and Jaime Romero, the Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Fortinet, in a conversation centered around Gated vs. Non-Gated Content.

Non-gated content is content which is free at the point of use. Gated content is online materials, such as white papers, articles and videos, that require that users fill out a form before they can access them.
When asked whether to gate or not to gate, Jamie asserts that as a B2B marketing organization, your role on your website is to drive qualified interests and prospects, so gating makes sense. Alternatively, Wendy cautions that gating can lead to problematic vanity MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead).

Brandi asks both guests – how do you determine what to gate? Jamie says you should always ask “what is driving demand?”. Wendy agrees to an extent, emphasizing the need to be thoughtful: “what is the journey that the audience is on? How can I create a great compelling brand experience through that gating” she asks.

Wendy and Jaime share their views on the relationship between the alignment of sales and marketing and gating. Jamie says gating content is a strategy to build your database, and “marketing is, to some degree, a vendor or an agency for sales to supply them with a funnel of leads,” which will inform how you approach your gating strategy. Wendy asserts that site conversion and lead volume are critical, but the key to alignment is that both marketing and sales are on the same page.

Wendy’s advice is to understand your content portfolio and your content strategy and select the high-quality pieces that will be your anchor.
Jaime’s one thing you can do today is to hone in on your metrics and find what is working and what is not.