Sara Steffen, Senior Director of Customer Marketing at Databricks, shares her journey from roles at Cisco and Nutanix to her current position at Databricks, emphasizing the value of storytelling, relationship building, and strategic customer engagement. She reveals her approach to balancing business needs with fostering genuine connections with customers, including being mindful of the frequency and nature of requests made to customers. Sara also touches on the importance of aligning marketing efforts with organizational goals, the evolving preferences for content consumption, and strategies for global and regional marketing. Highlighting her human-centric approach to management and leadership, Sara discusses her personal hobbies, the importance of advocating for oneself and teammates, and provides insights for those aspiring to leadership roles in marketing.

• (00:47) Discovering the Sweet Spot in Customer Marketing
• (2:14) The Art of Being a Gatekeeper in Customer Marketing
• (3:38) Personalizing Customer Appreciation and Engagement
• (4:24) Shifting Focus From Logos to Humans in Customer Stories
• (6:53) Navigating to a Career Path in Tech
• (8:34) Gaining Experience and Expertise in Customer Marketing at Cisco
• (13:42) Sara's Approach to People Leadership 
• (17:10) The Evolution of Marketing: Adapting to Changing Content Consumption
• (20:40) Effective Stakeholder Management and Global Content Strategy
• (23:56) Predictions for the Future of Customer Marketing

Stay tuned through the end of the show (24:48) to learn: 

• The Peloton alternative that Sara gave a shot, but that didn’t live up to the standard of Cody Rigsby.
• Who Sara thinks we should interview next.

Featuring:

Sara Steffen (LinkedIn)

Sunny Manivannan (LinkedIn, Twitter) 

Follow us:

LinkedIn

Tune in:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify