All About The Customer

Great companies tap into their customers to drive everything. At Wrike, they look to their customers to dictate their messaging, go-to-market strategy, and even product decisions. In this episode with Wrike CMO Esther Flammer, we uncover exactly how they start everything with their customer.

Zendesk powers customer experiences, so it’s only logical that their own CX is a major focus. But recently, Zendesk decided to double down. In this episode, Teresa Anania, Zendesk’s SVP Global Customer Experience, shares how to get top-down buy-in for customer centricity, how Zendesk believes CX will take their company to the next level, and how you can get even non-customer-facing teams to care about the customer.

Starting with our customer in mind sounds obvious, but it’s unfortunately not our default. When we get stuck on the autopilot of our day-to-day roles, we begin with our inside-out mindset. But Johann Wrede, CXO of Emburse, believes an outside-in mindset can set your company apart. In this episode, Johann shares what gets unlocked when organizations think about the customer first, how to be an agent of customer-centric change in your company, and how to change your own mindset.

All marketers know customer reviews are essential—but G2’s Katlin Hess believes they’re still an untapped goldmine. In this episode, Katlin dives into how the voice of your customer can be a differentiator, how to handle negative reviews, and tactical advice for how to get every part of your organization to care about the customer.

The advent of customer marketing has shown why marketing’s role shouldn’t stop after the sale. Unfortunately, not enough companies are getting on board. But author Rod Cherkas believes that should change. In this episode, Rod shows how marketers’ skill sets nicely mesh with customer success teams, why our existing customers are currently the best source of new bookings, and he dives into his book, The Chief Customer Officer Playbook.

Every year, TrustRadius releases their B2B Buying Disconnect report that shows the misalignment between buyers and sellers. In this episode, we sit down with Allyson Havener, VP of marketing at TrustRadius, to discuss the report in depth, diving into the voice of the customer, marketing resources that make a difference with buyers, and why CFOs are more involved than ever.

Great creatives learn from those outside their field. But can marketers really learn anything from improv? Lauren Turner, Director of Customer Marketing at Alyce, believes they can.

In this episode, we talk about how Lauren first started bringing her learnings from improv into the marketing world, how improv can lead to more active listening (which can help you connect more deeply with your customers), and how it’s helped Lauren not be afraid to take risks.

Many companies have some form of customer education—whether onboarding or knowledge bases—but not many are truly going all in. Mark Kilens (CMO of Airmeet) believes that’s a big miss.

In this episode, Mark shares his experiences building HubSpot academy, thoughts on why more companies aren’t investing in customer education, and some aspirational examples of companies who are nailing it. 

Advocacy is often thought of as just a marketing responsibility—but it doesn't have to. In this episode, Julie Norquist Roy outlines why advocacy can truly impact every part of the organization, gives ideas for how to align sales and CS to this more customer-centric view, and shares why we lose focus on our customers.

According to Jeff Pedowitz (author of F the Funnel), the traditional funnel is outdated. It simply doesn't reflect the way modern consumers want to buy. Luckily, he believes there's a better way. In this episode, Jeff shares why the funnel isn't living up to expectations, walks us through his customer-centric replacement, and outlines how to put the customer at the center of your universe.