SBI Podcast

Episode 4: Growth at Any Cost is Over

Understanding the right design and execution of GTM levers in uncertain markets could help CEOs propel their revenue growth by making efficient use of existing resources.

In this episode, Pilar Schenk, Cisco COO, Global Specialists, and Mike Hoffman, SBI CEO, discuss strategy, execution, and activation against a backdrop of those who had a growth thesis in tech of growth, at any cost.

Key Talking Points:

Episode 3: Know to Grow Sales Talent

A crucial driver of an organization’s revenue growth plans is the people that work there and how they perform. The importance of understanding how to develop top talent in go-to-market teams cannot be understated.

In this episode, Senior Partner and TMT Practice Leader at SBI, Tony Erickson meets with Director of Global Sales Enablement at Nearmap, Karen Mattice to talk about Nearmap’s approach to talent development through its Know and Grow strategy.

Key Talking Points:

Podcast: Increasing Sales Talent Productivity Through Effective Coaching

In the current landscape, where business leaders are strategically shifting their focus to recovery, the role of sales managers has taken on a critical new dimension. Join us for an interactive webinar to discuss the transformative power of sales coaching in driving commercial excellence.

In this webinar, you'll learn about:

Episode 2: Delivering Sales Velocity

Understanding the types of seller behaviors that have been most successful in today’s slow-moving market could help CEOs create value by improving the commercial productivity of their GTM teams.

In this episode, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at SBI, Nick Toman, and SBI General Manager of Talent Productivity, Ray Makela, discuss how top CEOs are adopting effective seller approaches and generative AI to push the sales margin. 

Key Talking Points:

Episode 1: Wait and See is Over CEOs are no longer waiting to see what will happen next. They are taking control of what they can to be optimally positioned for what comes next.

There are many aspects of business outside the control of CEOs; and many have recognized this and are no longer waiting to see what will happen next. In this episode, SBI CEO, Mike Hoffman, and SBI President of Consulting, Scott Gruher, discuss how CEOs are taking control of three major challenges to position their companies for what's to come.  

Key talking points: 

CEOs must make rapid, critical business decisions while being increasingly inundated with data, trends, and conflicting information. In this age of information overload, how can you make sound judgments for your organization without the threat of falling behind?

On today's show, we are joined by Frank Cespedes, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, recurring contributor to Harvard Business Review, and author of Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World that Never Stops Changing. Frank discusses key insights from his book and ultimately how leaders can separate fact from hype.

On today’s show, serial entrepreneur Jeron Paul, Cofounder and CEO of Spiff, explains how he started, grew, and exited 3 successful ventures. Jeron and SBI’s CEO, Matt Sharrers, talk about the elements needed to drive a growth culture, including a Revenue Growth Office that generates a universal fact base executive team leaders can use to make unified decisions, as well as tools that create visibility, connectivity, and improved employee experience.

Organizations have had to drastically reimagine their revenue model since last year to accommodate the new era of digital. However, some companies anticipated this shift much earlier in advance and were able to adapt and scale quicker than their competitors. Autodesk is among those whose strategy pre-pandemic allowed them to weather 2020 unscathed.

On today’s show, Steve Blum, Autodesk CRO and EVP Worldwide Field Operations, joins us to discuss topics that are top of mind for commercial leaders navigating the second half of 2021, including:

SBI recently held its first Chief Financial Officer Growth Forum to bring together like-minded finance executives to discuss common challenges and share best practices with their peers. These growth-focused CFOs gathered in an intimate virtual setting to discuss the following topics:

On today’s show, Jim Ettamarna, SBI Managing Director, joins John Staples, SBI Senior Partner, to share key learnings from the meeting.

A good account segmentation will keep the lights on, but a great segmentation is how market leaders surpass their competition. How does yours compare?

On today's show, we are joined by Malorie Feidner, Senior Consultant at SBI, to discuss what it takes to achieve best-in-class account segmentation. Malorie shares the 3 key items every sales leader should prioritize, as well as the most common mistakes organizations make.

SBI recently held it’s Spring Growth Advisory Board meeting where less than a dozen market-leading Presidents and Chief Commercial Officers gathered to discuss the most pressing challenges in today’s environment. During the afternoon, the attendees shared best practices on the following topics:

On today’s show, Scott Gruher, Senior Partner and Revenue Practice Lead, shares key insights from the meeting that executives can begin implementing immediately.

SBI recently held its Spring CEO Advisory Meeting to connect with less than a dozen market leaders on current challenges and to share best practices. This influential peer group share key insights into the following topics:

On today’s show, Scott Gruher, Senior Partner and Revenue Practice Lead, joins us to discuss these items and share takeaways from the meeting.

Being a CEO during a large Go-to-Market transformation is difficult, and with multiple acquisitions, this adds further complexity, such as:

On today’s show, Steve Smith, CEO of Zayo, joins us to discuss how he navigated these challenges during his first few months in his role and shares how harnessing the power of listening and an efficient cadence has brought unity and clarity to his team.

To say your salesforce is changing is an understatement. Not only have there been shifts in adapting to a new virtual world, but your teams also need the time and attention dedicated to reaching their full potential now more than ever before. As a sales leader, how can you create a culture for your teams to thrive?

On today’s show, Roquita Williams, Head of Sales Effectiveness and DEI Partnerships at Habits at Work, joins SBI Consultant and Diversity Ambassador Jenny Sung to discuss the modern salesforce. Roquita shares impactful insights into what it means to be a sales leader in today’s world and how to create an inclusive and empathetic culture.

CEOs often get lost in data while trying to decide what's working, if there is too much, or if it's even correct. But even great data is moot if not activated properly across commercial functions. On today's show, Mike Dickerson, CEO of ClickDimensions, joins us to discuss how CEOs should be thinking about their data and the processes that go with it. By owning the data, CEOs will not only have clearer visibility into the complete operation but also a unified fact base to run an unmatched commercial strategy.

On today's special edition of the Revenue Growth Help Desk, we celebrate Women's History Month and are joined by three inspiring women leading the charge in revenue growth: Debra Walton, Chief Revenue Officer, Data & Analytics, London Stock Exchange Group, Pilar Schenk, VP of Sales Strategy and Operations at McAfee, and Tracy Hansen, CMO at Chief Outsiders and President of ProGlove Inc., NA.

In this show, our esteemed panel shares their respective journeys that led them to their current positions and the active role they play in fighting against gender bias and inequities today.

At SBI we strive for all of us to reach our full potential by being diverse by nature, equitable by design, and inclusive by choice. Our curiosity to understand, value, and celebrate our unique strengths will improve outcomes for our people and our clients. This is an unwavering belief that guides how we build teams, cultivate leaders, and work with others. DEI, like revenue growth, is an all-the-time thing, not a sometimes thing.

In this special edition of the Revenue Growth Help Desk, we celebrate Black History Month and discuss DEI strategy with SBI’s CEO, Matt Sharrers.

Nearly 1 year ago, the economy had come to an abrupt halt as many organizations waited to be ushered into a "new normal." Now, companies worldwide have adapted to new digital capabilities to operate better than ever before, but many still struggle to replicate a personalized customer experience online.

On today's show, Brad Christian, Chief Customer Officer at Conversity, joins us to discuss how they have helped companies connect with customers in a virtual world while maintaining the personalization of in-person experiences.

Nearing the end of 2020, less than a dozen market-leading CEOs gathered for SBI's fall Advisory Meeting to discuss common challenges faced throughout the year as well as share best practices for trending topics, including:

On today's show, Scott Gruher, Senior Partner and Revenue Practice Lead, joins us to discuss these items and share key takeaways from the meeting.

At SBI’s most recent Sales Advisory Board meeting, market leaders from a variety of industries came together in a virtual environment to discuss topics that are top of mind for sales executives:

On today's show, Scott Gruher, Senior Partner and Revenue Practice Lead, joins us to share insights from the meeting that sales leaders can begin implementing immediately.

While every industry has been impacted by the ongoing pandemic, private equity professionals have had to unpack an entirely different set of challenges trying to buy and sell in this environment.

On today's show, Mike Hoffman, SBI Senior Managing Director Private Equity, joins us to share how PE firms are validating investment theses centered on accelerating organic growth. 

Of all the challenges that sales leaders have faced this past year, effectively evolving field sellers into virtual teams has been one of the most difficult to navigate.

On today’s show, Mike Carpenter, President of Global Sales & Field Operations at CrowdStrike, joins SBI Managing Director Tony Erickson to discuss the strategic pivots Mike has facilitated to better enable their team in a work-from-home environment and the opportunities they have seen since, including:

It may be easy to assume that tech-enabled services became an overnight success in the wake of the work-from-home and digital phenomena. However, many companies will not only miss their number but have also experienced an 8% year over year decrease. It is clear that if TMT leaders do not make significant changes to their 2021 strategy, they will get left behind.

On today’s show, Tony Erickson, SBI Managing Director, joins us to discuss how the industry has handled this severe disruption and what market leaders are doing differently to outpace their competition.

Consumer behaviors have changed drastically over the past year, with a significant rise in ecommerce. As the supply chain is being disrupted across industries, businesses are reimagining how to go to market, generate demand, and serve customers.

On today's show, Grant Dismore, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer at Interstate Batteries, joins SBI Managing Director Tony Erickson to discuss the macro trends that are forcing B2B and B2C companies to adapt or die.

Over the past several months, SBI’s latest research has unpacked how market-leading CEOs have responded to market disruption and how they approach planning for 2021. Those identified as "Accelerators" have not only managed to thrive in the face of adversity but remain vigilant in aligning their revenue growth strategy with their corporate strategy.

On today’s show, Chethan Sharma, Senior Managing Director and CEO Practice Leader at SBI, joins us to share key constructs that market-leading CEOs are using to build the 2021 plan.

Marketing leaders have faced numerous difficulties over the past year, but one challenge is not exclusive to just 2020 — sales and marketing alignment. Getting this correct is more imperative now than ever before and can make or break your growth strategy. Ultimately, companies that create strong alignment win 38% more deals and retain 36% more customers than those who are not aligned. 

On today's show, Lori Christiansen, VP of Marketing at Motus, joins SBI Managing Director Tony Erickson to discuss how market-leading companies drive alignment between sales and marketing to accelerate revenue growth.

With the global shift to working from home, UC&C companies have witnessed a record amount of demand for their tools and services to carry on productivity away from the office. However, how are market leaders positioning themselves to be set up for success in 2021?

On today's show, Gregg Blatt, SBI Managing Director, joins us to share what UC&C market leaders are doing differently to outpace competitors.

For market-leading software companies, the changing economic conditions have had a positive effect on the bottom line. But this has not been without their fair share of challenges, especially for those facing a high growth environment.

On today’s show, Doug Winter, Founder and CEO of Seismic Software, joins SBI Managing Director Marc Odenweller to discuss how an accelerating software company could pivot to meet market demands and make pragmatic decisions every step of the way.

Legacy companies have been able to withstand nearly every possible economic condition over several decades, and yet even they have had to persevere through new challenges seen this year.

However, companies like Hexagon PPM have not been around for over 50 years by merely surviving difficult circumstances. Through the adversity, they have made their mark by quickly pivoting to market demands in any disruptive climate.

On today’s show, Hexagon PPM CRO, Steve King, joins SBI Managing Director Tony Erickson to discuss how PPM has responded to shifts in the market to thrive while maintaining their growth trajectory.

The software industry has experienced more disruption in the last 6 months than in the previous 10 years. With an increased need for online purchasing, content management, payment processing, and more, leading software CEOs have navigated changes in demand drivers flawlessly, even with imperfect data.

On today's show, Marc Odenweller, Managing Director at SBI, joins us to discuss how the top 9% of software leaders have been relentlessly agile in their planning process to outpace competitors.

Over the last 6 months, there have only been an elite few known as "Accelerators" — those companies that have thrived in a recessionary environment.   One such company is CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society. By expediting the growth strategies they already had in motion, CAS gained a first mover advantage in their market and continues to widen the gap ahead of competitors.   On today's show, CAS' CEO, Manuel Guzman, joins SBI Managing Director Andrew Urteaga to discuss the fundamentals that an organization must have in place to be able to seize unexpected opportunities.

In a virtual world, Customer Experience has definitively been at the forefront of the digital revolution. How has your company adapted to the new demands of the market?

On today's show, John deLorimier, EVP at Concentra, joins us to discuss how to bring more value to the customer journey and deliver on the brand promise.

As part of our advisory program, SBI recently held a virtual meeting comprised of an intimate group of market-leading B2B CEOs (public and private with market caps from $1B to 10B) to discuss current market challenges and opportunities for achieving strategic revenue growth.

On today's show, Scott Gruher, Senior Partner, and Chethan Sharma, Senior Managing Director and CEO Practice Leader, share insights from the powerful peer group including:

Any CEO can attest to the current level of difficulty in closing deals. Customer sentiment and individual mind share are in high demand, and even with everyone online, many fail to adequately engage their communities in order to access their full potential.

On today’s show, Kevin Boyce, CEO of Higher Logic, joins us to discuss new ways of building and leveraging your internal and external communities to drive engagement in a virtual world. Kevin shares how the company pivoted its strategy to meet today's demands and new ways they have been able to enable and communicate to the organization amid their digital evolution.

It’s hard to imagine a time where calendars weren’t inundated with video calls and discussions around your digital sales transformation. With a virtual revolution upon us, how can you maintain the personal aspects that define your culture internally and externally?

On today’s show, Tim Brackey, President and COO of RGP, joins us to discuss how to translate culture from on-prem to a virtual world:

For many services companies who achieve exponential growth within narrow timeframes, they often find themselves lagging in critical operational areas, including go-to-market.

Jarrod Johnson, Chief Customer Officer at TaskUs, found himself in a similar situation but was able to remain as agile as he was during the company’s startup years. Jarrod joins Scott Gruher, Senior Partner, SBI, on today's show to discuss how executing SaaS best practices allowed TaskUs to achieve manageable growth by:

With the shift towards retention being the new growth, companies have increasingly seen the incremental value that Customer Success brings. If you are still assessing the benefits of a CS function in today's world, you will fall behind your peers and the market significantly.

On today's show, Alan Rudolph, SVP of Apttus, joins Tony Erickson, Managing Director, SBI, to share best practices for Customer Success and strategic deals in today's world. Alan shares how he achieves a 360-degree view of the customer and buyer journey and how to leverage CS to drive business outcomes seamlessly.

To kick off the summer, SBI held a virtual meeting comprised of an intimate group of market-leading B2B Chief Revenue Officers (Public and Private, $240M to $8B in Revenue) as part of their advisory board program. These global CRO's gathered to collectively share and learn from one another in an intimate, confidential setting.

In this video, Matt Sharrers, CEO of SBI, and Scott Gruher, Senior Partner, share insights from the powerful peer-group reflecting the sentiment of what is top of mind of global CROs. They discuss emerging best practices such as, what are the applications of digital? You first have to find your strategy.

The evolution of the Marketing leader role has transformed drastically over the years. Today, those changes are even more significant than what their role looked like nearly 90 days ago. Still, there is no telling what the second half of the year will bring for CMOs.

On today's show, Jim Kruger, CMO at Veeam, joins us for a glimpse into how a market-leading software company has been adjusting to the current market conditions and how they are preparing for the back-half of 2020.

Customer Experience is no longer just a buzz word that companies can throw around. It has become a megatrend that demands a complete mindset shift in not only executive teams, but it also requires buy-in from the board in order to thrive.

On today’s show, Ryan Hollenbeck, CMO of Verint, joins us to discuss what market-leading companies do differently to prioritize CX programs. In Ryan’s first segment, he shares 3 critical steps to building a world-class customer experience program.

On today’s show, we are joined by Vince Lombardo, President of US Payments and Payroll Solutions at Heartland Payment Systems. Over the last two decades, Vince has seen Heartland grow from a startup to a global company with 4,000+ employees and has learned a thing or two along the way.

Vince shares valuable lessons learned from his tenure at Heartland that not only relate to the post-COVID recovery but also how you choose to advance your revenue growth journey through any challenging circumstance.

Having a full comprehension of customer experience in a digital world is crucial to revenue growth today. This motion requires not only active market listening, but communicating actionable insights across product, service, and channels — all while reducing friction in a virtual environment.

Joining us today is Tish Falco, veteran CX strategist and thought leader in tech and subscription-based services. Tish shares valuable guidance on:

Although many sales leaders have had to adjust to this new world since March, global companies have had to acclimate since January. With every challenge that came with reorganizing a regional market, also provided the chance to accelerate a very crucial digital transformation.

As an early adapter to this new normal, Deb Walton, Chief Revenue Officer at Refinitv, saw the opportunity to interact with customers and employees like never before. On today’s show, Deb joins us to discuss how the changes she had made out of necessity have quickly proven to be more effective and have established permanence for years to come.

At the beginning of stay-at-home orders, maintaining a connection with the customer base was a top priority for CMOs. Marketing teams worked quickly to stand up virtual communities and help customers in an authentic way.

Now, as executives look to the future and aftermath of the pandemic, continuing to invest time and resources into their communities remains an integral part of making their number — not doing so could create a costly disconnect and breed mistrust.

On today's show, SBI community expert and Executive Consultant Laura Hall shares how to continue strong community engagement and why this continuity is important.

Over the last couple of months, CEOs across all industries have faced unique challenges. However, during this time, they have exhibited a common trait — they have proven it is imperative to uphold their brand promise and continue to serve customers the best they know how.

On today's show, Mary McDowell, CEO of Mitel, shares valuable insights for fellow chief executives:

Shifting the go-to-market model to digital has been a subject on the mind of market leaders for some time, and now it is being accelerated. For better or worse, COVID-19 has been the catalyst for a digital transformation that will fundamentally change how customers engage with vendors.

Veteran and market leader Chris Perry, President – Broadridge Financial Solutions, has a broad view of his organization and recognizes the critical importance of digital transformation right now. On today's show, Chris discusses:

In the world of a sales enablement leader, the primary goal is to keep the sales team efficient and effective. How that goal gets accomplished occurs with consistent resegmenting of the customer base, cleansing the pipeline, and accurately forecasting changes and opportunities in the market. Market leaders know that these actions were important even prior to the last 30 days and are critical now.

Jedd Williams, Vice President of Global Sales Acceleration at Poly, was in the midst of a transformation when COVID-19 shifted the sales strategy and operating norms. Hear Jedd discuss:

Well-established tech companies have typically developed a large, multi-layer partner ecosystem that they rely on. For a sales leader in this environment, problem-solving, and having shared responsibilities with these channel partners is the only way to succeed in moving the GTM strategy forward.

Today, Scott Peterson, SVP Americas at Mitel and veteran UCaaS executive, shares what is working for him in adjusting to COVID-19 market implications with his partner ecosystem:

We have seen first hand how the pandemic has devastated businesses around the world. However, as we adapt to a new era of commerce, many companies have found opportunities to reevaluate their strategies and thrive. For a CRO in the SaaS cyber security industry, market opportunity has increased.

On today's show, Bob Layton, CRO of Digital Defense, joins us to discuss the effect of the pandemic on software companies. Bob shares that while many aspects of their business remain unchanged, like their coverage model, they are finding creative ways to drive revenue and incentivize their teams.

It can be difficult to keep up with current updates and regulations surrounding this new normal. Without knowing the full implications of how long this crisis will last, how are business leaders adapting their strategies, especially when working with customers on the front lines of the pandemic?

On today's show, Milton Silva-Craig, CEO of Q-Centrix, joins Doug Bain, SBI's Healthcare Practice Managing Director, to discuss how teams must be agile in facing our new reality. Milton shares how to communicate with your teams and customers and solve arising problems outside of your traditional playbook.

For weeks now, businesses have been impacted by COVID-19. While it has been difficult to predict the severity of the pandemic, the one thing that has been unwavering is people's innate desire to connect with one another. As a Customer Success leader, the actions of your teams now will undoubtedly leave lasting impressions for years to come.

Bernie Kassar, Chief Customer Officer at Xactly, joins us on today's show to discuss what Customer Success teams are doing to help guide businesses through these uncertain times. Bernie shares unique opportunities for companies in today’s environment and how to create a frictionless customer experience.

While businesses world-wide have been grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 crisis, few industries have been seeing a surge in demand. Among those who have an opportunity to thrive are industrial markets like transportation and logistics. While T&L companies have the potential to increase revenue and enter new verticals, this is not without added risks.

On today’s show, we are joined by industry expert Chris Davy, Managing Director at SBI. Chris shares his experience and lessons learned from previous market disruptions in T&L and highlights the importance of a clear exit strategy.

There’s no denying it – unity, connection, and community are the marquee themes in the COVID-19 business world. Navigating these current challenges has also presented the opportunity to reimagine what is possible from product offerings and new revenue streams to internal and external communication.

On today’s podcast, Jeff Ray, CEO of Brightcove, a video powerhouse company, joins us to discuss how CEOs have the potential to:

"We're all in meetings where the dog runs around the back behind you or the neighbor fires up the chain saw. It's just the way it is. We're actually getting to know one another's kids and dogs better... I think there's more authentic talking happening now than ever before. And it would be a shame for us as leaders to miss that window of opportunity."

Sales leaders around the world have been adjusting to working from home while attempting to maintain a team-oriented environment. However, leading a virtual workforce eliminates the face-to-face interactions that so many businesses have relied on. How do you sustain personal connections and community, especially in large, global organizations?

On today's show, we are joined by Steve Blum, SVP Worldwide Field Operations at Autodesk. Steve shares how he has been keeping talent engaged during COVID-19 challenges.

Although the global pandemic is creating challenges that businesses have never dealt with before, many leaders had already felt imminent market changes prior to the outbreak. Executives are in the process of reimagining their go-to-market strategies and seeking to minimize disruption, given the circumstances. On today’s show, Tony Erickson, Managing Director at SBI, joins us to share what market-leading CEOs and CROs are focusing on right now:

As we near the end of the first quarter of 2020, sales leaders anticipated a much different outcome for their Q1 goals. In the face of a global crisis, how can you not just keep the lights on but also take care of your team? Joining us on today’s show is Chris Gosline, an Engagement Manager at SBI, to discuss best practices for providing quota relief and adapting compensation plans. Chris outlines three options that every sales leader should consider.

Over the last week, we have seen the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the market, businesses, and communities. During these unpredictable times, one thing is certain; we cannot control these events, but we can control how we react. In today’s interview, we are joined by Josh Horstmann, Senior Partner at SBI, to discuss how to adapt to the new normal. Josh shares a 7-step action plan and timeline to help executive teams mitigate business impact during the crisis.

Entering a role as a new sales leader can be challenging enough. Entering a new role within a legacy company during tumultuous market conditions might then seem impossible. Having overcome these challenges, Steve King, CRO of Hexagon PPM, joins us to discuss his experience leading a full go-to-market transformation.

Steve shares how he prioritized the challenges he faced and began leading the sales organization through massive change.

Companies who find themselves declining in revenue, experiencing customer loss or employee churn may be in dire need of a turnaround. To successfully recover from this type of crisis, it often requires a new CEO to step in and lead through the turbulence.

In today's segment, an expert in company turnarounds, David Ratner, CEO of Hyas, joins us to share insights for new CEOs who find themselves in a turnaround position. 

Stefano Redditi, EVP of Sales and Marketing for JAS Worldwide, joins us to discuss how he has successfully made this move upmarket to achieve enterprise customers. Stefano shares his experience from identifying triggers for change to navigating the resistance that accompanied the reorganization.

For many B2B companies, the effort to continually maintain and improve their products has become too demanding. Evolving economic factors affecting these companies have pressured many to make the shift from being a product company to a platform company.

Sudhakar Ramakrishna, CEO of Pulse Secure, joins us in this segment to discuss changing your mindset to successfully make the transformation from product to platform.

As a marketing leader, if you have ever thought about where your next new form of revenue is coming from, the answer is Outbound Marketing. Eric Quanstrom, CMO of Cience, joins us to discuss how Outbound is the new normal. Do not be too quick to dismiss older methods of reaching customers, as Eric affirms cold-calling is not dead.

In this first segment, Eric shares the different methods and advantages to implementing an effective outbound motion.

Digital has rapidly transformed the economy, and it is no surprise that having a digital strategy has a profound impact on revenue growth. With so many definitions and ideas of what a digital strategy is and how to implement one, companies find it difficult to find clarity and achieve consensus. Today, Scott Santucci, CEO of Growth Enablement Ecosystems, shares his experience navigating the digital landscape.

Brad Christian, Chief Customer Officer of Market Force, joins us to discuss the true meaning of customer experience. Brad and his team at Market Force have become pioneers in mastering customer experience. Listen to Brad discuss best practices for implementing a world-class customer experience design.  

Nestor Benavides, CEO of EMG, joins us to discuss how a CEO can establish new forms of communication that not only drive the culture but deliver continuous improvement. Nestor shares how he perpetuates a strong culture within his organization through effective communication, objective conversations, and active company values.

Chris Downie, CEO of Flexential, joins us to discuss how to lead an integration that produces a strong organization, brand, and culture. He draws from his experience forming Flexential from two legacy companies.

Scott Tapp, former CEO of Software Brands, joins us to discuss the evolution from being head of sales to becoming a CEO. The former sales leader turned CEO gives valuable insights that he has learned along his journey, and how to leverage your own path to the top job.

Eric Vermillion, the former CRO of BlueCat, joins us to discuss how revenue leaders can build a legacy in their company that survives their departure. Eric reflects on his role as a CRO and how his leadership through integrations allowed him to develop successors to perpetuate his legacy.

Today Meredith Kildow, Chief Revenue Officer of Consilio, joins us to discuss the ramifications of being a sales leader and how to design, manage and execute the integration effort when you combine multiple sales forces over time in a series of acquisitions.

Jill Rowley, former Chief Growth Officer of Marketo, discusses how this emerging role brings together sales and marketing leaders to leverage the power of their best salespeople, their customers.

Global Customer Officer and former CRO for Anaplan discusses how a revenue leader disrupts their industry to crush their revenue number.

Chief Growth Officer and Chief Marketing Officer discuss how to transition to a data-driven business and how to navigate the sales and marketing data mess.

EVP of Sales discusses how a business can move from a traditional offering and distribution channel into a new, hybrid approach.

SVP of Sales for Businessolver demonstrates the case for why a separate customer success function is necessary.

VP of Customer Ops discusses the emerging role of customer operations.

Global Director of Talent Development for UPS Capital discusses the employee experience and how it impacts top line.

Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder delves into the topic of ABM to help CMOs capture and implement this emerging best practice.

Today we’re going to demonstrate how to drive revenue per sales head up, and time to productivity for new sales hires down.  Success for Andy in making his number quarter after quarter and year after year is tied to his ability to leverage insights from the field. Andy and his team implemented a Field Advisory Board to understand the needs of the field.  You'll find as you listen to this podcast that an advisory board and how to run it may be the key to success for driving revenue per sales head up.As a guide to the discussion, download our 10th annual workbook, How to Make Your Number in 2017. Turn to the Sales Strategy section and flip to the Sales Enablement phase on pages 319 – 322 of the PDF workbook.

Joining us on the is Mark Lister, he is the Chief Digital Officer for Ness, a digital engineering company that designs and builds digital platforms and software that helps organizations engage customers, differentiate their brands, and drive revenue growth.

Today we're going to demonstrate how to make the digital experience a competitive differentiator. So, why this topic of digital experience? I mean, if there was a trend happening right now in B2B sales and marketing it is digitization, and how do you become a digital company?

Prospect and customer expectations have risen, and failure to provide them with an exceptional digital experience, for every single one it's going to result in poor revenue growth. So, some customers prioritize their digital experience over product performance when they make a purchase decision. So, this requires a deep understanding of the customers digital journey, and every single touchpoint along the way. So, mapping this customer digital journey is difficult, but it's mission critical, and when it's done correctly it's going to result in exceptional revenue growth. This is a trend you need to get on.

Joining us on the SBI Podcast is Andrea Brody, the Chief Marketing Officer for Bravo Solution, which has sinced merged with JAGGAER to create the world’s largest independent spend management company. 

Andrea is one of the top B2B revenue generating marketers with a passion for building brands. Andrea has a great story to share about how she led her marketing team to help her company achieve a successful exit strategy.

In today's show, Ryan and Matt demonstrate how an enterprise sales leader brings the best of the enterprise to a fast-growing tech company.

Joining us on the SBI Podcast is Sarah Kennedy, the Chief Marketing Officer for Marketo.

In today's show, Sarah details how to apply revenue attribution to marketing. Why this topic? CEOs, CMOs and CROs need to understand what sales and marketing activities help influence a revenue booking. Once you can quantify the value of those activities, then you can attribute revenue back to the activities that produced the revenue and use those insights to guide your marketing and sales investments.

Joining us on the SBI Podcast is Joel Trammell, the Chief Executive Officer of Black Box. In today's show, Joel provides a wealth of advice to first time CEOs. Joel covers the firt 100 days, dealing with an inherited management team, and interacting with the Board. 

If you are a new CEO, this episode is for you.

Joining us on is Steve Grimshaw, the Chief Executive Officer for Caliber Collision. In today's show, Steve demonstrates how a chief executive orchestrates the right level of inorganic growth to maximize the valuation of their company.

Joining us on is Steve Grimshaw, the Chief Executive Officer for Caliber Collision.  Steve has built and incredible business through both organic and inorganic growth.  He’s here today to demonstrate how a chief executive orchestrates the right level of inorganic growth to maximize the valuation of your company.

Today we are going to unpack the career path of a new breed of Sales-driven Chief Executive Officers and what it takes to develop the business mindset to ascend to the top position. 

Joining us on the SBI Podcast is Mike Volpe, the Chief Marketing Officer for Cybereason, the world's most powerful cybersecurity analytics platform. 

Often called the "godfather of inbound marketing" for his work in taking inbound marketing from an idea to a movement of tens of thousands of people, Mike Volpe is one of the most sought-after B2B marketers. 

Today Mike is going to demonstrate how to replace leads with real opportunities for the sales team through the use of account based marketing. ABM is the effort performed by both marketing and sales to replace leads with opportunities for the sales team. 

Why is this an important topic? Demand generation and lead management does not work for companies with business models dependent on a small number of accounts, but who spend a lot.

On this episode of SBI TV, Matt and Marc Osofsky, CEO of Aberdeen, demonstrate the importance of Market Intelligence.

 Why is this important for your company?

 Many companies are flying blind, and this is especially true with B2B companies. Company leaders are forced to reactively respond, rather than proactively guiding their teams to a higher level of success.

The buyer is changing, and the sales channels we go to market with must do the same. Buyers are more comfortable than ever purchasing virtually. Inside Sales organizations are handling larger deals than ever before. Today Mike Huseman is here to share his experience leveraging Inside Sales to virtually drive profitable growth.

Joe Vitalone, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Razberi Technologies, demonstrates how to develop and execute a sales strategy at scale through channel partners.

Chief Marketing Officer for Caliber Collision, Greg Clark, demonstrates customer relationship management.

Our guest on SBI TV is Robin Saitz, the Chief Marketing Officer at Avecto. Robin is a transformational marketing executive who knows how to get off to a quick start in a new role.  In today's show we demonstrate how to get off to a fast start in a CMO's first 90 days. If you prefer to watch a video of the interview, click here. 

Getting off to a fast start actually starts in the interview process.  Robin interviews with the end in mind, and through the interview process she learns a great deal about the company and team.  She dove deep into learning about Avecto, a cybersecurity software company that provides privileged management and application control solutions.   Robin states, "I think the interview process is actually sort of like that pre-first day. It's not really counted in the first 90 days, but the interview process I think is a core part of preparing for those first 90 days. So, I like to say that I was interviewing the company as much as they were interviewing me, and it wasn't just to make the decision to join, but also, to help answer ... to get answers to questions that I had that would make my first day and the first month go well. So I insisted on meeting with a lot of people in this process, because it was a big decision for me, and it was a big decision for them." 

Once Robin accepted the role as CMO, she prepared for her first day and how she planned out her first 90-days before the start date. Listen as Robin describes her preparation steps. 

Matt summarizes Robin's first 90 days, "she articulates how she broke down short-term first 90-day initiatives to put points on the board along with more longer-term initiatives that needed to get done. Robin articulate how she broke down short-term first 90-day initiatives, kind of putting points on the board as we like to say, with more longer-term initiatives that needed to get done. Building that content strategy. Knowing it was both people and resources. Recognizing that, but willing to live with not just doing something haphazard out of the first 90 days to check a box, being thoughtful." 

Robin describes how to assess the marketing team and shares: 

"So whenever a CMO or any new leader joins a company, I think there's probably a healthy amount of skepticism, nervousness and excitement. It's like all of that. So, kind of have to like knock down the nervousness and skepticism. And so, I firmly believe it's important to understand the individual career objectives and the job satisfaction of each team member. So that's sort of like the first set of questions that I tried to hit on with my team, and I met with all of them individually. And then I also tried to understand ... I collected feedback from their peers, from folks inside marketing, folks outside of marketing." 

"I also assess their work output, their responsiveness, and then to the extent, metrics were available. I would look at metrics. Then the other thing that we use that we're testing, we haven't adopted it broadly at Avecto, but I used at my previous company is the Predictive Index for behavioral assessments. I said, "Hey, I'd love to pilot it with the marketing organization," and they were very cooperative with that. So everybody's taken the PI. We have an understanding of who's got a strong process orientation, who's got a high sense of urgency, who's very dominant, and that I think will help the whole organization function better." 

Today we are going to demonstrate how to Go-to-Market with a new product. We will cover the topics of sufficiently covering your markets, selecting and optimizing your sales channels, and finally, pricing and packaging your products correctly. If you prefer to watch the interview in HD video on SBI TV, click here. 

Why are these such important topics? Traditional routes to market are being replaced with innovative ways to reach customers. So, evaluating whether you have the right channels in place for a new product launch is vital for driving revenue growth. Revenue growth driven by products that create new markets, attract new customers, and convince customers to buy more is the most valuable type of revenue growth. Download the full interview transcript in a MS Word document here. 

The first segment will seek to answer the question: How do you evaluate whether you have the right channels in place for a new product launch? Christopher provides examples of when he launched a new product and added new channels, and when he used an innovative route to market that gave him an advantage and resulted in a substantial revenue lift. 

Christopher outlines, in the second segment, how to package your new products to differentiate yourself from the competition. Christopher goes on to advise the audience on how to identify and validate the true points of differentiation in your product, and how to bring that product differentiation to life.

The final segment of the show describes how to avoid these pricing mistakes when launching a new product. Price your products in a way that does not scale with customer growth and this will result in revenue leakage. Price your products in a way that is difficult for your sales channels to explain the change to your customers and watch your sales steadily decline. 

Christopher details his approach to determining the right pricing strategy for a product launch, pricing at different levels to different customer segments, and equipping the sales force with value-based messaging and negotiation strategies to defend the price point.

Our guest on SBI TV is Dan Levinschi, the Head of Marketing for PandaDoc. Dan is a revenue generating marketer who knows how to quickly transition from marketing strategy to execution.

Dan and I discuss how to move from marketing strategy to execution. Dan describes his process for developing a marketing strategy, and how he interlocks the company’s corporate strategy, product strategy, and sales strategy with his own. Dan also shares his rollout strategy and how he presents it to the marketing team to ensure that each person understands the overall strategy, their role, and how their execution fits into the overall strategy.

To follow along, leverage SBI’s How to Make Your Number in 2018 PDF Workbook and turn to the Marketing Strategy section starting on pages 236. To download the full transcript in a word document, click here. 

In today’s captivating show, Dan shares his method for transitioning from the planning phase to the execution phase of the marketing strategy, specifically how to ensure that the right KPI’s closed loop reporting is built into each new activity. Turn to the 13-minute mark of the video to watch Dan discuss how a marketing leader validates that progress is being made on major initiatives without micromanaging the team.

Matt and Dan discuss how precisely Dan makes this happen at PandaDoc: 

“It is very important for me personally knowing what everyone on the team is doing without being too invasive. The number one thing that you need to have is  a playbook for how your department functions. If people don’t understand how your department functions, it doesn’t matter whether they’re on your team or on a separate department, you’ll always run into the problem of people not knowing what you do essentially. You also have to build an internal Wiki page with all things marketing, just for internal for the company. Then you need to have a project management system in place. If you’re a startup on a budget, you can use something like Trello. Another thing you have to focus on are the core problems and helping your team to understand the impact of their work. Some people just go to work for a paycheck and do the minimum necessary. If they understand very well what the impact on the work is, they’ll be more motivated to work diligently. I find that when people are motivated they don’t need strict management, you can give them a lot of responsibilities and freedom and they’ll spend their time on the right things. 

Dan Levinschi shares his advice on encouraging the marketing team while also instilling the team with a sense of accountability.  

“The way we normally work is to hold open forums. I think that the best ideas are born when you have a number of viewpoints in the same room. What we do is, whenever there’s an argument about whether we should continue a project or not, the results are not there, the real question I’m asking is: “What is the immediate impact on business short term and long term?” If the impact is minimal, which you can generally quantify through specific metrics, it all comes down to revenue. Then it’s a simple argument for me to win. For example, if the impact is short term but in long term this doesn’t make any sense, maybe we should kill the project and reiterate. To summarize, I’m a performance marketer, so I believe in numbers. If you cannot prove it to me in numbers, then the argument generally ends.” 

Having a solid strategy in place sets a company and a department up for success. Understanding and utilizing marketing metrics in your strategic process can make the difference between success and failure. Skip to the 20-minute mark of the video to watch Dan describes how he establishes accountability with his marketing team, how he manages individual contributors, how he reports progress to the CEO, and how he measures the success of his team’s strategy. 

Joining us for today’s show is Hassane El-Khoury, the CEO of Cypress, the leader of the semiconductor industry. Hassane’s mission is to establish Cypress as the global supplier of choice for innovative companies in high-growth markets. Cypress is leading the industry in growth after making the shift from commodity products to high value sales efforts. This has made it possible to focus on the  higher value offerings in the Cypress product portfolio.

Today we are going to demonstrate how to define which markets you will, and will not, compete in.  

Why is this an important topic? Being in fast-growing markets is the largest driver of revenue growth. Least important is market share growth. Yet, many executive teams tend to focus most of their attention on gaining share in their existing markets. While it is necessary to maintain, and sometimes increase, market share, changing your company’s exposure to growing and shrinking market segments should be a major focus. 

The first segment will seek to answer the question: How have you prioritized high-growth markets?   Hassane provides an overview to validate the claim that exposing your company to rapidly developing markets is the easiest way of growing with the highest probability of success.

In the second segment, Hassane outlines what traditional routes to market exist in his addressable markets, as well as innovative routes that disrupt those markets and his company’s competitors. Hassane also covers which channels he uses to target buyers, for each market segment (direct field sales, inside sales, global account management, key account management, VAR, systems integrator, e-commerce, phone, etc.). 

The final segment of the show describes the different areas market growth can come from, such as  market expansion or taking share from your competitors. Hassane goes on to describe the current demand drivers of his company’s addressable markets.