This episode features an interview with Clare Dorrian, CMO at SugarCRM, a CRM that helps marketing, sales, and service teams finally get a clear picture of each customer’s journey. 

In this episode, Clare talks about gaining clarity on your strategy and ensuring that it is not based on conjecture, advising marketing leaders not to sacrifice data-backed decisions for speed. She also discusses the importance of investing in reputation management and her approach to content.

Key Takeaways:

• You need to focus on profitable growth, and remaining both efficient and effective, especially as a lean marketing team.
• People buy from people, investing in events is very important, as is investing in reputation management.
• Don’t drive strategy based on conjecture; keep your team honest about goals and what needs to be done.

Quote: 

• “I think that this comes back to getting crafty when you are a lean, mean team. We think about big rock pieces of content…the way that we approach content is to break down those insights and map themes, topics that those insights have and will uncover, and we're in the middle of this right now, by the way this piece of research, into social media soundbites, webinars, into short form, long form, and multiple formats, and with a perspective that will resonate to each of our core buying groups. So that we get the most out of the research that we're doing. We're approaching content in a way where we're trying to uncover insights that we can then package in many, multiple ways to educate. When people are at the top of the funnel to reinforce that the challenge that they're having, or that we're expressing to us when they become a prospect is shared by many others and they are not alone,  but also into door openers for our sales team to give them reason to reach out, to give them reason to connect as well.”

Episode Timestamps:
*(06:53) The Trust Tree: Focusing on profitable growth as a private-equity-backed company
*(15:25 ) The Playbook: The importance of investing in reputation management 
*(34:39) The Dust Up: Rebrand tensions and using your community to validate the right choice 

*(38:15) Quick Hits: Clare’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Clare on LinkedIn
• Learn more about SugarCRM
• Learn more about Caspian Studios