The Get: Finding And Keeping The Best Marketing Leaders in B2B SaaS

The best CEO/CMO matches are ones where, BEFORE day 1, both sides collaboratively, intentionally, and explicitly surface the challenges they will face together and how they will overcome them together. That's not as easy as it sounds, though! 

In this episode of The Get, host Erica Seidel dives into the complexities of hiring CMOs in B2B SaaS companies. Drawing from her 13 years of experience in recruiting marketing leaders, Erica discusses the high risks and challenges faced by CEOs and investors during this process. 

She is joined by James Lamberti, Head of Go-to-Market for Georgian, who shares his extensive experience in hiring and getting hired as a CMO. 

You'll learn about:

• A method for collaborative de-risking between the CEO and CMO 
• How one of the most important functions of the interview is to sketch out the company's GTM framework and identify any misalignment in GTM strategy.… because the more the company is clear on their GTM strategy, the more effective the CMO will be
• How to diagnose in the interview process when product-market fit is loosely held or when the market is defined too broadly
• The 'homework' that top CMO candidates will do ahead of their first meeting with a CEO, including defining their 'Ideal CEO Profile' and how to add value to that person
• How to identify and skirt typical threats to marketing being successful, including 'silver bullet expectations,' 'new day/new strategy' situations, under or over-hiring for the stage, and mis-selling the CMO opportunity
• What CEOs are likely to ask CMO candidates about AI

This episode is packed with valuable insights for both hiring leaders and candidates looking to navigate the high-stakes world of CMO recruitment.

00:00 Introduction: The Challenge of Hiring a CMO

01:20 Understanding the Risks in Hiring a CMO

03:25 Tips for CEOs and Investors on Hiring a CMO

04:50 Guest Introduction: James Lamberti

06:22 James Lamberti's Framework for Diagnosing a Role

17:25 Balancing Efficiency and Thoroughness in Interviews

22:57 The Importance of Customer Love and Rev Ops

25:53 Challenges and Red Flags in the Hiring Process

30:33 The Role of AI in Marketing Leadership

33:21 Favorite Interview Questions for Marketing Leaders

35:53 Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is The Race to Reduce Risk in CMO Recruiting. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

In this episode of The Get, host Erica Seidel delves into what it takes to excel at networking and effectively work with recruiters, exploring programmatic ways to engage with professional networks. Erica discusses the best questions candidates ask recruiters and the importance of developing a personal Board of Advisors. She also explains the role of executive search professionals, differentiating them from career coaches and therapists.

Special guest Tracy Eiler, CMO of OpenSesame, discusses her recent experience evaluating marketing leadership opportunities, how today's recruiting climate is unique, the fast-paced pressure-testing playbook she uses to assess roles, and red flags to watch out for. Tracy shares how CEOs can demonstrate their support for marketing, tips for collaborating with recruiters, and how CMO candidates can make a strong impression. The discussion extends to the complexities of career trauma, confidence, and the right level of transparency when delivering your 'career story.' Tracy also emphasizes continuous relationship building within one's network and the importance of having a well-prepared personal narrative.

00:00 Introduction to Networking and Recruiters

00:35 Welcome to The Get with Erica Seidel

01:06 Tips for Working with Executive Recruiters

04:09 Introducing Tracy Eiler

05:02 Tracy Eiler's Journey and Insights

08:57 Pressure Testing a Role

12:47 Evaluating CEOs and Red Flags

17:53 Tracy's First CMO Job and Lessons Learned

20:54 Collaborating with Recruiters

22:24 Navigating Recruiter Relationships

22:50 The Role of Feedback in Shaping Searches

26:24 The Importance of Networking

30:10 Building and Maintaining Meaningful Connections

33:25 Career Trauma and Vulnerability

38:01 Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is The Race to Reduce Risk in CMO Recruiting. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

Welcome back to The Get! It's Season 6 and the theme this season is 'The Race to Reduce Risk in CMO Recruiting.' We look at risk from the perspective of hiring and the perspective of getting hired.

In this first episode, host Erica Seidel shares:

• How CMO candidates can find out what they need to find out BEFORE saying yes so they can move forward wholeheartedly
• How to make efficient use of interviews despite time and access being limited
• The top questions CMO candidates ask, from culture and cap tables to
• What the best CMO candidates do during the recruiting process (not just during interviews, but more broadly) to show up as peers, demonstrate their 'altitude,' surface important insights, and mitigate risk

The episode includes a deep dive with guest Andrea Kayal, CRO at Help Scout and former CMO.

Andrea and Erica discuss:

• When it makes sense for a marketing leader to report to a CRO rather than the CEO… and why CMOs can make great CROs
• The key questions Andrea asks when evaluating a role
• Key metrics that Andrea recommends looking at to evaluate the health of the business
• How to balance efficiency and thoroughness when vetting a role
• The all-important piece of vetting cultural fit

You can read Andrea’s article on interviewing companies here.

00:00 Introduction: The CMO Dilemma

00:42 The Importance of Mitigating Risk

01:23 What Top CMOs Look for Before Saying Yes

02:54 Key Questions CMO Candidates Should Ask

04:02 Beyond Questions: Actions of Top CMO Candidates

06:14 Introducing Andrea Kayal: Insights from a CMO and CRO

08:10 Evaluating the Role of CROs and CMOs

13:27 Top Criteria for CMOs Before Accepting a Role

23:58 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is The Race to Reduce Risk in CMO Recruiting. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

Erica Seidel, the host of The Get, provides an overview of the key themes from this season. Erica runs The Connective Good, the executive search practice that specializes in placing CMOs and VPs of Marketing for B2B SaaS companies. She is known for recruiting the ‘make money’ type of marketing leaders, not the ‘make it pretty’ ones. 

This episode serves as an executive summary of the learnings from our fifth season, which has focused on the CMO and Board relationship. 

We cover:

• What do Board members want in a SaaS CMO? And how can you ace your interview with a Board member?
• Board meetings: How can you land on your feet once you are inside the Boardroom? 
• How do you build a strong dialogue with the Board OUTSIDE of Board meetings? 
• Serving on Boards: How can you become the CMO who gets tapped for Board seats? 

I designed this season to be a guide for how to upgrade from one-way reporting to the Board to a two-way dialogue. With that ongoing dialogue and collaboration, both in and out of the Boardroom, both sides will learn more, and the business is more likely to be successful. 

A huge thank you to the guests this season, who ranged from B2B SaaS marketing leaders, CMOs who have become Board members, and Board members/investors who are involved in hiring CMOs:

• Elana Anderson
• Kelly Ford Buckley
• Allison Dancy
• Evan DeCorte
• Jennifer Pockell Dimas
• Chris Fountain
• Sandra Lopez
• Madeline O’Phelan

Please tune in to each of their episodes. And, check out the episodes from the previous four seasons. Last season, for instance, we covered ‘Solving for the Scale Journey in B2B SaaS.’ 

To stay in the know for our next season, please keep following the show in your preferred podcast listening app.

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericaseidel/

https://theconnectivegood.com/

https://thegetpodcast.com/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS: How can that relationship go from fraught to functional and even to fantastic?

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Sandra Lopez is a marketing dynamo who has been in marketing leadership and general management roles in many of the world's biggest and most influential tech companies, like Adobe, Intel, and Microsoft. She recently served as co-chair for the World Economic Forum for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement USA and PureRED, she's an advisor for Cabra Sports, and she is the co-chair for Sports Integrity Global Alliance.

We discuss:

• How to translate marketing-speak into language that CFOs and Board members can understand
• How to work with Board members who think they know more about marketing than they actually do
• How to manage expectations with Boards about how long things take in marketing and educate along the way, understanding that "it's hard to educate someone in 30 minutes"
• How to prepare for Board service – and knowing when to say no to a Board opportunity
• How interviewing for a Board seat is different from interviewing for a CMO spot

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lopezsandra/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

A good CMO/Board relationship entails both giving and getting. Elana Anderson talks about putting Board members at the center of marketing initiatives by making bold asks of the Board to add value to customers and prospects. She also talks about the anatomy of a successful CMO/Board interview.

Elana Anderson has been the CMO for Veracode, Vidyo, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud. She reflects on her experiences interacting with Boards at public versus private companies. 

Learn about:

• How to move from broadcasting to your board to incorporating them into your marketing initiatives
• How Board members can add value to you through special executive events and advisory sessions 
• How you can discuss brand initiatives with the Board in an interactive and impactful way… even if the topic is short on numbers
• How to interview successfully with the Board for a CMO role
• When and how to prepare for serving on a Board yourself… and how to find your 'hook'

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eranderson/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Hear two SaaS marketing leaders from PE-backed companies discuss their hard-won learnings on working with Boards. 

You'll learn about:

• The relative importance of the 3 C's – Context, Content, and Confidence – when interacting with the Board
• How Boards tend to respond to certain marketing terms with open arms (ICP, personas, ABM) and other marketing terms with shaking heads (hint: brand!)
• The importance of Board posture and how marketing and sales can support each other during Board interactions
• How a marketing maturity matrix can be useful to show the Board

Allison Dancy is a veteran CMO who most recently was CMO for Kibo in the e-commerce space. Madeline O'Phelan is VP of Marketing at Verity, the SaaS fintech company.

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisondancy/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeline-o-phelan-97290111/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Listen to the honest dialogue between a CMO and her Board member, who have managed to forge a fruitful partnership together. Jen Pockell Dimas is Chief Marketing and Experience Officer for Telarus, the global technology solutions brokerage. Evan DeCorte from Columbia Capital is a Telarus Board member. 

You'll hear about:

• How investors can have reptilian brains – focusing uniquely on Big V value: getting more value for the business than they paid for it
• How to translate marketing-speak into investor-speak
• How to set yourself up for a successful standing with the Board from the interview process onward: "Invest in the relationship before you even accept the job so you are on the same page for expectations."
• How to react when a Board member suggests a marketing direction that feels like a firedrill
• Why asking how Board meeting prep could be shorter is 'the wrong question to ask'
• A simple framing that will help as you prep your board meetings

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenpd/

www.telarus.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-decorte-8086029

www.colcap.com

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Chris Fountain is an Operating Partner with Frontier Growth, the PE firm that invests in B2B SaaS companies in scale-up mode. He has been a GTM leader, a CEO, and a Board member. In his role, he collaborates with multiple CEOs and CMOs both inside and outside of the Boardroom. 

You'll hear about:

• What it takes to be a successful operating partner for a PE shop (Spoiler alert: Be able to be non-threatening to a CEO)
• How to be successful in your first Board meeting as a CMO and how to avoid guesswork when aligning with the Board
• How the best marketing leaders provide a 'heads up display' for the business
• How psychological factors can get in the way when CMOs interact with their Boards
• How you can evolve from seeing your Board members as gatekeepers to seeing them as resources
• How you can stand out when you interview with a Board member for a CMO job
• Why it's important to focus on key results… not the time that went into those key results 

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fountainchristopher/

https://frontiergrowth.com/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.

Kelly Ford Buckley has a career many CMOs dream of: She is a marketing leader who became an investment partner, developing a platform to accelerate and scale growth across Edison Partners' portfolio of companies. She then broadened her role into general partner and COO for the firm. Since she's been in the marketing leadership seat and she's been on several Boards, she is uniquely qualified to talk about the bridge between CMOs and their Boards. 

You'll hear about:

• How to remove the intimidation factor when working with boards
• How to build an ongoing dialogue with your Board
• Whether the Board is looking to the CMO for content or confidence
• Why you should NOT be re-creating the wheel with every Board presentation
• How Board interactions are different in a downturn
• How to upgrade from a reporting conversation to a strategic conversation
• What it's like to be an operating partner focused on marketing and how to prepare for such a role

Key Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyaford/

https://www.edisonpartners.com/

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The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

This season’s theme is the CMO and Board Relationship in B2B SaaS. 

The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS. 

If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety - rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at [email protected]. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com. 

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.