On today's show and the theme of The CRO Series we will be discussing topics like; Rev Ops, Cx, GTM, Functional Alignment, Metrics that Matter, Pipeline / Forecasting, Digital Strategies and Digital Transformation. Again, we promise to give you actionable insights from our guests who are tenured and experienced CRO’s who come from high growth SaaS companies.
Today we have Christopher Bray, CRO at Aura, who has an illustrious career spanning many decades in Dell, McAfee, Symantec, Cylance and now at Aura. We welcome him to the show.
We kick off by asking Christopher about his journey, and what has led him to where he is today?
Grew up in more than one culture
Learnt how to make friends quickly
Global role for most of his career
Started in Europe, South Africa and then the US
Dell in Southern Africa
It is so diverse
Learnt how to think on his feet
Malware and threats
Aura as a brand is new
The technology isn't
Taking technology and pulling them togetherNext we ask Christopher, what does the CRO role mean to him?
Multiple functions
Marketing team
Engineering team
Customer facing team
Account management
Project ManagementWho is Aura and how are they helping the world?
Protecting consumers
Identity and privacy
Device security
Informative, engaging and empowering
AI
Product does the thinking for youWe ask Christopher what are the next big plans for Aura?
An exciting acquisition coming up
Very disruptive in the marketplace
Fun and exciting culture to be a part ofNext we ask Christopher how they are structured and what markets do they operate in?
Market segmentation approach
Partnership
Layer of security
Enterprise sales
Understanding performance marketing
Partner Sales
Diverse background beyond pure sales
Patience of long sales cycles
Appreciation of how to drive performance KPIsWe then ask Christopher, do they invest heavily on the support/ onboarding side?
Yes
Partner SolutionsNext we ask Christopher, could he tell us about how they begin the process to inform the direction for the year ahead?
We can unpack this for hours
Really strong ops team
Strong relationship with finance
Account by account basis
Stack right
Scenario planning
Transition to Google Suite
Multi-tab spreadsheets
AlignmentWe ask Christopher, do they have competitors or are they dominating?
Depends..
They see us as competitors
We stand apartLast but not least, we ask Christopher, what he feels is his super power?
Building phenomenal high performance teams
Solving complex business problems
The best ideas don't always come from headquarters
Learnt very early on that you should understand your people super power
We don't have a price list