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 them. Your job as a marketer and marketing leader is to be connected at the hip with your customers." - Jeff Perkins

In this podcast interview, we will delve into the insights shared by Jeff and explore the implications and potential impact of his strategies.

“The playbook can’t be run the same at every different company.” - Jeff Perkins

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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-suite about the impact and the role of marketing and cover that off early in the interview process." - Jill Ransome

She emphasizes the need for strategic moves and finding organizations that align with the CMO's beliefs and the role of marketing in adding value to the company. Jill highlights the significance of understanding the customer and their needs and the role of content in driving demand and building reputation. She also stresses the importance of open communication and teamwork within the C-suite.

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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, marketers can position their companies as trusted advisors and partners versus vendors. 

"The narrative that you can create, the strategy you apply to how to build alignment between the problem that you solve and the way your customer views the problem is the key to solving marketing." - Steve Arentzoff

This strategic approach drives revenue growth and creates a competitive advantage by solving the customer's core problems more effectively than the competition. Furthermore, marketers can amplify their message and reach a wider audience by leveraging external voices for validation. This external validation enhances credibility and fosters a sense of urgency among potential customers.

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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 non-critical tasks. 

"Hiring individuals who are comfortable with ambiguity and can be self-starters is essential for success in a startup." - Matt Anthony

Matt also discusses the need to hire self-starter individuals comfortable with ambiguity and prioritizing by saying no to non-critical tasks. 

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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, even if you're not doing so at the most efficient standards or opportunities." - Kevin Bobowski

In the PE world, the focus is on driving efficiency and solving core problems in the business. PE firms typically have a two to five-year timeline for their investments, aiming to set the company up for a successful exit. To achieve this, they have developed standard processes, playbooks, and approaches that can be applied across their portfolio of companies. Kevin emphasizes the importance of understanding the PE model as a marketer, as it offers valuable insights into efficient growth strategies. 

"Times change, and understanding the nuances of these two models can be beneficial. Knowing when to apply each approach is crucial. In a rapidly evolving market, being able to pivot between efficient growth and rapid scaling can give you a competitive edge." - Kevin Bobowski

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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 acquisition, nurture, retention, and overall company growth.

"Marketing is sales. It's a different type of sales that people can self-select into." - Jessica Zall

Learn more about how marketing will continue to evolve and play an even greater role in driving growth and retention. Chief Marketing Officers are becoming Chief Growth Officers, highlighting the increasing responsibility and importance of marketing in today's digital landscape. As buyers continue to self-select into the customer journey, marketers must adapt their strategies and content to meet their evolving needs. By staying agile, creative, and customer-centric, marketers can continue to steal time from buyers and drive business success in the years to come.

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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 your experience to be for the people interacting with your company." - Randy Wootton

Randy advocates that CMOs must adapt to these changes by developing data-driven strategies, crafting compelling narratives, and aligning their efforts to help shape the company's go-to-market success. By embracing these evolving trends, CMOs can position themselves as strategic partners to the CEO and drive the growth and success of their organizations. 

For part one of the series, click through to https://contentstrategies.io/podcast/what-ceos-want-from-cmos-challenging-the-typical-perspective/ 

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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 than facts and data.

"The number one job of a CMO is to be a great storyteller. And stories are 22 times more memorable than facts and data." - Karyn Scott

Karyn also emphasizes the need for authenticity and the voice of the customer in storytelling, as it adds credibility and trust to the brand. She shares examples of successful storytelling campaigns and advises companies to let their customers be the storytellers, as they are the most genuine and credible advocates.

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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 impact on the business is crucial."

Dayna also believes that data-driven content is key to thought leadership and advisory roles in sales. She highlights the importance of leveraging internal research and unique data to create valuable content that educates and nurtures prospects throughout the buyer's journey. Dayna advises CMOs and CROs to understand each other's businesses, respect each other's contributions, and work together towards the common goal of revenue generation.

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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 content creation. Content plays a key role in building trust and influencing purchasing decisions." - Jamie Gier

Jamie also explains the need for a content strategy to remove friction points in the sales process and provide valuable educational content. Jamie stresses the significance of customer voices in content creation and the role of relationships in building trust. She concludes by emphasizing the importance of setting expectations, getting early wins, and building a long-term marketing engine.

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