Tech Qualified

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Rafael Fonseca, Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Artel Video Systems. Rafael Fonseca discusses what Artel has brought to the industry in the last 30 years, what it means to them to be ‘good citizens,’ what Artel is accomplishing on the product and marketing side, how they are embracing IP, and how IP is benefiting end-users in the broadcast industry.

Episode Highlights:

• Rafael Fonseca shares some of his career experience and his current work. 
• Who is Artel’s ideal customer and how do they help them?
• How is the industry changing and how have standards been implemented?  
• What does IP open up for the end-consumer? 
• How does Artel compare to competitors?  
• What is Rafael up to on the product and marketing side? 
• What is happening these days between broadcast and IT?
• What is Rafael’s mindset on how to differentiate the company from competitors?  
• How does Artel develop data and content? 
• Are they doing a lot of one-to-one content?  
• Do they leverage content writers internally or externally? 
• Once marketing assets are available, what is the communication across teams? 
• Is he finding that customers need more information to make decisions? What about buying committees?  
• What are some of the major marketing initiatives that Artel is gearing up for?

3 Key Points:

1.   Artel aids broadcasters and media companies to transport their content from the venue and the contribution side of things all the way to the distribution as well as organizations that are media generators, broadcasters, and live events. 
2.   End-users will benefit from IP by seeing the quality and richness of information being better, improved data and social media experiences, more personalized experiences and more interaction.  
3.   Sales channels that Artel rely on include: direct channels, a direct sales force, partners, and end-customers.

During this episode of Tech Qualified Podcast, we talk with Sarah Lee, Director of Marketing at PYPE, a software company that develops solutions for construction companies. Sarah Lee discusses building up the marketing team at PYPE, the adoption of technology in the construction industry, how to properly move towards ABM, ways that PYPE tracks data, and the hiring process at PYPE.

Episode Highlights:

• Sarah Lee shares some of her career experiences and her current work. 
• Who is PYPE’s ideal customer and how do they help them?
• What is the general mindset in the construction industry with technology being adopted? 
• What has been the process to build PYPE’s marketing team?
• What skillsets are more important to have in-house instead of giving them to partners? 
• What are some of the biggest challenges that they have had along the way?
• What is the key content strategy for building awareness? 
• Sarah talks about PYPE’s change in gears as far as their marketing efforts. 
• What are some of the attributes of data that Sarah has used for PYPE’s marketing? 
• Sarah Lee came into PYPE with a lot of Google Analytics experience. 
• What does ABM mean to PYPE?
• She discusses how sales and marketing integrate work with PYPE.
• How should a company approach an evolution towards ABM?
• How does the marketing department communicate with the product department? 
• What are some of the key initiatives that Sarah is looking forward to in 2020?
• What are some of Sarah Lee’s favorite resources?

3 Key Points

1. PYPE has had great experiences with early adopters and has used that feedback loop to develop data points to gain a broader audience.
2. PYPE’s uses of data have included: Google analytics and tag manager system, making sure the website and platforms track data, in-platform use analytics and within tracking data CRMs and marketing automation software.
3. Get your team accustomed to tracking data early on in establishing your marketing habits.

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Jake Atwood, CEO of BuzzBuilder, a company that gives both salespeople and marketers a smarter way to connect with potential buyers, generate interest, and drive new sales leads to your inbox. Jake is a Sales Author & Speaker, and the leader behind an award-winning prospecting software that helps sales representatives reach and exceed their sales quotas. Jake Atwood talks about how and why he worked to start BuzzBuilder, the problems that BuzzBuilder solves, the state of account-based marketing, what makes personalization resonate with prospects, and best practices for lead scoring.

Episode Highlights:

• Jake Atwood shares some of his career experience and his current work. 
• Who is BuzzBuilder’s ideal customer and how do they help them? 
• What is the gap that Jake Atwood saw in the marketplace? 
• What is the state of account-based marketing compared to 3,4,5 years ago? 
• When is it appropriate to take the account-based marketing approach? 
• What makes personalization resonate with customers?
• How can you coordinate all of these resources?   
• Does he personalize white papers for a specific account? 
• The line between sales and marketing is starting to blur.  
• What are some best practices as far as to lead scoring? 
• How are purchase decisions changing? 
• What type of content is Jake seeing that works? 
• Don’t tell them what you do. Tell them what is possible. 
• What does Jake Atwood do at BuzzBuilder? 
• What are things that Jake is looking to focus on in 2020? 
• What are some of Jake Atwood’s favorite resources? 

3 Key Points:

1.   The average client or prospect needs at least eight touches and most sales people give up after only two or three touches. 
2.   There is more segmentation with a sales person or marketer dividing their data base up by industries, subsets, company sizes, and specific titles.  
3.   Prospects care more about what you know than what they know about you.  

Resources Mentioned:

• Jake Atwood: Linkedin
• BuzzBuilder: buzzbuilderpro.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate
• Tech Crunch: techcrunch.com
• Built With: builtwith.com
• Zapier: zapier.com

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Matt Garrepy, Chief Digital Officer at Solodev, a content management and customer experience platform. Matt Garrepy discusses the innovations at Solodev, how they service the solo developer, connecting data across multiple platforms, and personalizing marketing with the customer experience.

Episode Highlights:

• Matt Garrepy shares some of his career experience and his current work. 
• Who is Solodev’s ideal customer and how do they help them? 
• What does Matt mean by a ‘headless platform?’
• What are some of the challenges marketers are having with connecting data across multiple platforms?
• What is Solodev doing to communicate using APIs? 
• Matt Garrepy discusses the trends in ‘customer experience’ and personalized marketing?  
• How can marketers personalize content experiences based on other actions consumers have taken?
• What are some of the early tests on content that will be rolled out?  
• How important will content become to marketers moving forward? 
• What are some of Matt Garrepy’s favorite resources? 

3 Key Points:

1. Digital hyper-personalization is what every enterprise platform is struggling to master because it hasn’t been automated enough to scale and the human resources required to enact these strategies is large.
2. RNN or Reoccuring Neural Networks are driving deep learning and these are artificial intelligence modeled after how the human brain works for enterprise customers. 
3. Solodev offers identity management with an SSO strategy, virtual private cloud that customers live inside of, and the deployment of an EC2 server.

Resources Mentioned:

• Matt Garrepy: Linkedin
• Solodev: solodev.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Dan Drechsel, Senior Vice President at BIP Capital, a 12 year-old investment firm with a $100 million fund covering almost 20 different technology companies. Dan Drechsel discusses the types of companies BIP Capital invests in, the importance of segmentation, the alignment of sales and marketing, and marketing trends he sees within the technology space.

Episode Highlights:

• Dan Drechsel shares some of his career experience. 
• Who is BIP Capital’s ideal customer and how do they help them? 
• Where are some of the open opportunities within martech?
• What is the state of the marketing infrastructure of the companies that they bring on?
• What are some of the things that they focus on when advising companies? 
• How do the different BIP Capital departments work together?
• How can an organization ensure marketing and sales are aligned?  
• What do BIP Capital's companies tend to need the most help with? 
• What are some of the minimum content pieces companies need to have in place? 
• What tends to be the first hire on the marketing side? 
• What are good hiring resources or procedures? 
• How has the B2B buyer’s journey changed during Dan Drechsel’s career? 
• What are some of Dan Drechsel’s favorite resources?  

3 Key Points:

1. Segmentation that is too broad causes the acuteness of necessity to diminish. 
2. SDR programs should most-likely be outsourced instead of internally run...especially for earlier stage companies. 
3. Key content companies need: product and company description, the website because it is the hub for inbound research, product demos, the sales deck, and case studies

Resources Mentioned:

• Dan Drechsel: Linkedin 
• BIP Capital: bip-capital.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Tina Wung, Vice President of Marketing at RocketSpace. Tina Wung shares her business background, why she made the shift from major corporations to the startup world, startups partnering with big brands, marketing as a growth driver, and the importance of metrics.

Episode Highlights:

• Tina Wung shares some of her past career experience.
• What is Tina Wung’s role at RocketSpace? 
• What made Tina shift over to the startup side of business? 
• Why is marketing important for growth strategy? 
• How can brands create an emotional connection with consumers? 
• What are some of the examples of startup companies Tina has seen firsthand that have connected well with clients?  
• Why has marketing become more of a formal approach to growth?
• How are startups filling the gap on the marketing side?  
• What are some of the most important aspects of marketing to focus on, early on?  
• Data should lead the way in marketing and growth. 
• What are some of the initial metrics that are important to startups? 
• What is the role of marketing as a growth driver on the public relations side? 
• Tina Wung discusses startups partnering with big brands.  
• What are some of the challenges Tina Wung is looking to overcome in 2020?
• What are some of Tina Wung’s favorite resources? 

3 Key Points:

1.  No matter what technology you are using, it can be applied to a wide range of companies and industries because there are macro-trends that everyone is trying to solve on a global basis.  
2.  Be able to humanize your brand and create an emotional connection with consumers. 
3.  Get the infrastructure in place to know your data and make insights based on what the data tells you.

Resources Mentioned:

• Tina Wung: Linkedin
• Tina Wung’s Website: tinawung.com
• RocketSpace: rocketspace.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Sam Johnston, Chief Marketing Officer at BookingLive, the number one online booking and reservation system that serves the public sector, enterprises and SMEs, based in Bristol, England. Sam Johnston discusses BookingLive’s approach to digital transformation, keywords and industry buzzwords, the collaboration between marketing and sales, what the workflow is like, and methods for generating successful content that is tailored to the client.

Episode Highlights:

• Sam Johnston shares some of his past education and career experience. 
• Who is BookingLive’s ideal customer and how do they help them? 
• What does the term digital transformation mean?  
• What are the things that BookingLive needs to do on the marketing side to approach a new market? 
• How do they build a rapport with government agencies with digital transformation?  
• Sam Johnston talks about using case studies to satisfy existing customers. 
• What is the approach to understanding an organization’s hierarchy? 
• How do they approach keywords, industry terms and hashtags? 
• What types of content works well? 
• What is their workflow like and where does it stem from? 
• Continually evaluate your product, which creates new content.  
• What is the collaboration between marketing and sales?
• What areas have they had to focus on the content side? 
• How is BookingLive approaching its move into the United States?  
• What have been some of the biggest surprises he has noticed with BookingLive? 
• What are some of Sam’s favorite resources? 

3 Key Points:

1. BookingLive’s ideal customers are local government, healthtech, and education looking for digital transformation on the enterprise side and connect customers that are typically startup smaller entrepreneurial businesses.   
2. BookingLive has about 700 organizations as clients in about 45 countries all over the world.
3. With marketing content, position the customer as the hero of the client’s story and the primary character. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Sam Johnston: Linkedin
• BookingLive: bookinglive.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of the Tech Qualified podcast, we talk with Mariya Finkelshteyn, Vice President of Marketing at Sapling. Sapling is a San Francisco-based HR platform for mid-market companies that assists HR teams with automating workflows, supporting data-driven decisions and being more strategic. Mariya Finkelshteyn talks about how Sapling applies account-based marketing, internal communication for ABM, and the core elements needed for companies to use account-based marketing.

Episode Highlights

• Mariya Finkelshteyn shares her work history and how she got involved with Sapling. 
• What is Sapling’s ideal customer and how do they help them?
• How does Mariya define account-based marketing?
• How does Mariya handle personalized messages per account as a marketer? 
• Why is the traditional marketing funnel upside down?
• She talks about omni-channel marketing. 
• What are the core pieces a company needs to have in place for account-based marketing?
• What elements allow a company to enhance their ABM strategy?
• What has been the process to apply ABM at Sapling?
• What does internal communication for ABM at Sapling look like? 
• The best customer is the one you already have.
• What are some of the challenges that Mariya is looking to overcome? 
• What are some of her favorite resources?

Key Points

• Sapling's ideal customers are SMB and mid-market companies in the high-growth phase between 20-500 employees that gain assistance with establishing their centralized HR hub.
• HR leaders typically use 20-30+ tools for recruitment, onboarding, offboarding, and performance management. 
• Mariya addresses account-based marketing as switching the focus from contacts and leads to a holistic approach to each account that is personalized and strategic.

Resources

• Mariya Finkelshteyn: Linkedin
• Sapling: saplinghr.com
• Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate

During this episode of Tech Qualified Podcast, we talk with Lisa Bonanno, Vice President of Marketing at Knowland, a provider of best-in-class sales solutions to expand the group sales process with the largest sources of meetings market intelligence data. Lisa Bonanno talks about the marketing infrastructure she helped to implement when she arrived at Knowland, how group sales typically works in the hospitality industry, the customer success side and the product side, along with data attributes that Knowland is tracking. 

Episode Highlights:

• Lisa Bonanno shares her work history and how she got involved with Knowland. 

• Who is Knowland’s ideal customer and how do they help them? 
• Is there often a buying committee to appeal to when Knowland is selling its services?  

• How did Lisa build out the marketing infrastructure when she arrived at Knowland?

• What were some of the priority projects Lisa Bonanno tackled when she started at Knowland?
• Lisa talks about the customer success side and the product side. 
• Which tools does she use for communication? 
• Lisa talks about the trade show and event programs for Knowland.  
• How did she prioritize content pieces?  
• What audience are they attracting with their webcast?  
• How sophisticated are the data attributes that they are tracking?  
• What resources does she use to keep up with martech? 

3 Key Points:

1.   Knowland provides clients alternative ways to sell groups. They use data to contact planners directly and sourcing business directly to increase profitability without paying third-party commissions. 
2.   For content around live events, Knowland uses a pre-event, during, and post-event to curate content for product launches.
3.   Approaches to content creation when Knowland is not launching a new product can include: what’s happening in the industry, within the market itself, something compelling that is trending, or something outside of the industry that can be tied back to it.

Within this episode of Tech Qualified, we talk with Richard Donaldson, Founding Member and Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Requis, a company that allows enterprises to buy, manage, and sell assets. Richard Donaldson talks about the inception of Requis, what supply chain is, opportunities to improve the supply chain of the Global 2000, how it impacts business, and how he has established the brand in the industry.

Episode Highlights:

• Richard Donaldson shares his background and what he is up to at Requis
• What does Richard think has been his smartest decision as a professional? 
• It is important to be clear about what the problem is before seeking a solution.  
• What is the ideal customer profile for Requis? 
• Enterprises are always about mitigating risk.  
• How does Requis fit in the tech stack with supply chain activities?
• How does he go about positioning Requis? 
• What has Richard seen change with the B2B journey or the enterprise component?  
• How did he go about establishing the brand?  
• How did he decide what formats to use?  
• What content format did he set out to use?
• What have been some of the biggest types of content that have resonated the most?

3 Key Points:

1. Every supply chain professional is a consumer in their personal lives, used to the consumer efficiencies of companies like eBay and Amazon. 
2. Requis is a cloud-based solution platform hosted at the Amazon web services. 
3. The three companies Requis envision on their platform are a set of enterprises that are the suppliers, the enterprise, and value buyers.

Resources Mentioned:

• Richard Donaldson: Linkedin
• Requis: requis.com

Motion: motionagency.io/ultimate