Revenue Talks with Justin Keller

When the economy rocks as much as we've all witnessed in the past year, pivoting and reprioritizing can become the norm. But reprioritization doesn't need to feel chaotic.

Ryan Morel, VP of Marketing at Flexe, a software company delivering technology-powered, omnichannel logistics programs, knows this first hand. Being at the company for over seven years, Ryan is no stranger to change, which is why he's so adamant about having a North Star to work towards. With a clear North Star in mind, Ryan believes you can strategically direct a team and drive results no matter the outside circumstances.

In this episode of Revenue Talks, Ryan discusses his experience working at a start-up that is constantly evolving to meet current marketing demands. The two marketing VPs chew over knowing when it's time to “kill your darlings" in order to move forwar, how to manage team expectations and the importance of marrying marketing and sales activities through persistent collaboration.

You can connect with Justin on Twitter and Ryan on LinkedIn.

Read how other go-to-market leaders are strategizing their year: https://drift.ly/stateofconversations

"You're not listening!"

Be it in our personal or professional lives, most of us have heard this sentence once or twice. Why? Because we all like to think we know what others are thinking and feeling. In reality, however, the only way we truly know how our friends, customers, and prospects are feeling is by listening to what they have to say.

That's one of the reasons Amy Frampton, Head of Marketing for BambooHR, moved the sales development rep (SDR) team to the marketing team when she joined the company five years ago.

In this Revenue Talks episode, Amy shares how she leverages her SDR team to learn what pain points prospects really have, how her team actions on these pain points, and how the entire BambooHR go-to-market organization aligns around the voice of the customer.

You can connect with Justin on Twitter and Amy on LinkedIn.

Read how other go-to-market leaders are strategizing their year: https://drift.ly/stateofconversations

People, processes, and technology. That's the formula Rakhi Voria, VP of Sales for Procore Technologies, has found to be the most successful in building an inside sales strategy.

Rakhi is no stranger to inside sales strategies, either. She built a new digital sales force at Microsoft, managed the global digital sales development team at IBM, and now leads the sales development team at Procore Technologies.

In this episode of Revenue Talks, guest-hosted by Drift's VP of Mid-Market Sales, Armen Zildjian, the two sales leaders discuss the importance of hiring diverse talent in sales, how to determine your ideal sales tech stack, and what cross-functional alignment should look like in order to ensure quality pipeline.

You can connect with Armen and Rakhi on Twitter at @Azildj, @rakhivoria, and @DriftPodcasts.

Read how other go-to-market leaders are strategizing their year: https://drift.ly/stateofconversations

The CIA and product marketing: Two industries that are obviously different yet strikingly similar.

In this episode of Revenue Talks, Justin discovers why John Brezinsky (VP of Product Marketing at Searchmetrics) might have a background, or a future, as a CIA agent. John shares how his team figures out what messaging will resonate with different audiences across the globe, how to then ensure that the other go-to-market teams at Searchmetrics use that messaging, and how his product marketing organization fits within Searchmetrics' larger campaign strategy.

You can connect with Justin on Twitter at @justinkeller and @DriftPodcasts, and John on LinkedIn.

Read more go-to-market best practices: https://drift.ly/GTMBook

See who Drift's other Marketers to Watch are: https://drift.ly/MarketerstoWatch

Justin Keller isn't a sports guy, but in this episode, he gives sports analogies his best shot to understand how Kevan Lee (former sports journalist turned VP of Marketing) and his team at Oyster® drive sales and marketing alignment at their 2-year-old startup.

In the equivalent of just one hockey period, Justin and Kevan discuss what Oyster®'s go-to-market scoreboard looks like, how the go-to-market teams hold each other accountable, and how Kevan reports on the ROI of brand to his organization.

You can connect with Justin and Kevan on Twitter at @justinkeller, @kevanlee, and @DriftPodcasts.

Read more go-to-market best practices: https://drift.ly/GTMBook

See who Drift's other Marketers to Watch are: https://drift.ly/MarketerstoWatch

Janet Jaiswal (VP of Global Marketing at Cloudbeds) doesn't believe personalization can happen overnight. Instead, she encourages her team to look at it as a journey.

In this episode of Revenue Talks, Janet talks to Justin about what that journey looks like. The two marketing leaders question whether verticalization makes personalization easier or harder, discuss how Janet balances top-of-funnel content with bottom-of-funnel content, and Janet shares her tips for trying to span marketing messages globally.

As a bonus, you'll hear Janet's favorite travel and food destinations (spoiler: they're not the same place).

You can connect with Justin and Janet on Twitter at @justinkeller, @JanetJaiswal, and @DriftPodcasts.

Read how other go-to-market leaders are strategizing their year: https://drift.ly/stateofconversations

See who Drift's other Marketers to Watch are: https://drift.ly/MarketerstoWatch

Marketers, we get it. You feel like you're constantly moving in a thousand directions, you don't know what your true North star metric is, and it feels impossible to make everyone happy.

This marketing therapy session is for you.

In this episode of Revenue Talks, Neil Cohen, a self-proclaimed marketing therapist, talks with Justin about the biggest problems he sees in sales and marketing teams today. The two debate if sales and marketing teams should report to the same leader, discuss how to balance a sales team's asks with market research, and why branded editorial is the future of content marketing.

You can connect with Justin and Neil on Twitter at @justinkeller and @DriftPodcasts, and Neil on LinkedIn.

Listen to your customer is the advice all marketers and sellers receive, but who really understands them best?

If you ask David Malmborg, the Vice President of Marketing, Community & Partnerships at Nivati, it comes down to macro and micro levels of communication.

On this episode of Revenue Talks, Justin and David discuss what building brand affinity looks like in practice, how to create messaging that customers will resonate with, and how to ensure the entire company is using that same messaging.

You can connect with Justin and David on Twitter at @justinkeller, @davidmalmborg, and @DriftPodcasts.

See who Drift's other Marketers to Watch are: https://drift.ly/MarketerstoWatch

Read more go-to-market best practices: https://drift.ly/GTMBook

Humans, humanity, and how we are wired: those are the three components that lie at the heart of marketing according to PAR Technology's CMO, Seth Temko.

Seth has been involved with internet marketing since the internet first became commercialized in 1995. Seeing its evolution over the years has caused Seth to have a unique outlook on technology's role in marketing, which he shares on this episode of Revenue Talks.

In the episode, Seth explains how he thinks about the value of each piece of technology in his marketing tech stack, how technology can work alongside the essential humanity of marketing, and what the balance of the art and science of marketing looks like at PAR Technology.

PLUS he shares his number one book recommendation for all marketers.

You can connect with Justin and Seth on Twitter at @justinkeller, @SethTemko, and @DriftPodcasts.

Read more go-to-market best practices: https://drift.ly/GTMBook

Lisa McClure (Regional Vice President, Revenue Cloud (SMB West), Salesforce) spends her day selling to people just like her - salespeople.

While this means Lisa understands the persona, it also means that she knows the roadblocks preventing a deal from getting done.

In this episode, Lisa talks with special host Armen Zildjian (Drift's VP of Mid-Market Sales) about how her sales team overcomes these roadblocks. She explains what it's like to sell an "add-on" component of the larger Salesforce product, how she leads a start-up sales function, and the key characteristics that constitute a strong startup seller.

You can connect with Armen on Twitter at @Azildj and @DriftPodcasts, and Lisa on LinkedIn.

Read more go-to-market best practices: https://drift.ly/GTMBook

*Note: This episode was recorded when Lisa was the Regional Vice President of SMB West at Salesforce Revenue Cloud. She is now the Director of Sales Development - Commerce for Salesforce