Transcript
WEBVTT
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Yeah,
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welcome back to be to be growth. We are
here today with Heidi Eisenstein, she
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is the VP of global field marketing
events and alliances at oracle Heidi.
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I'm so excited to have you on the show
today. Thank you James. It's a pleasure
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to be here and really looking forward
to our conversation today. Yeah, this
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one is going to be fun. So Heidi, we
were talking off line right before we
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hit record here and we were talking
about how there's this common myth in
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field marketing where you know, field
marketing is really seen often times as
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an execution arm as opposed to a
strategic arm. And this is something
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you've run into time after time
throughout your career in field
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marketing. Uh and so as we were talking
off line, you really had what I think
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are some really smart ways that field
marketers can position themselves and
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really think about the role a little
bit differently so that they can be
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seen as a strategic arm of the business
and not just essentially an order taker.
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Um so so to start down that path, Heidi,
what do you think, you know, as we were
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talking before, you know, you really
pressed in on this with two different
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questions that I asked you, you talked
about this, you know, than than being
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seen as execution instead of strategic.
What's the number one thing that that
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field marketers can focus on coming out
of this interview, they just listen to
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this interview. They're going back to
their desk from there, you know, walk
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around the block or whatever, what is
something that they can do that's
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really actionable this week to start to
take that turn from being seen as more
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execution to being seen as more
strategic. Yeah, it's a great question
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and certainly like part of any field
marketers role, there is an execution
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component. We do plan and execute
events and programs initiatives all the
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time and we have to do that with
excellence. But there's this whole
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other side to the role that is about
understanding the strategic priorities
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for the business, understanding how you
align to the sales, go to market,
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understanding what the growth
objectives are or those business
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priorities are for a given quarter or
fiscal year and you have to build a
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field marketing plan that is really
tied to that tightly and that's how you
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position yourself as a strategic leader
and a partner to sales, I'd say really
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getting in close with sales to
understand what is their business, How
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are they aligned, how are they going to
market? What are their core challenges
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for that given quarter or year? It
might be an issue with pipeline
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creation, it might be more of an issue
with scale pipeline and they need help
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progressing that pipeline to close.
There are different field marketing
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tactics that have field marketer can do
to help in those, both those scenarios.
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So my single advice to a field market
or who might be listening to this today
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is do you understand the business that
you're trying to grow or sustain or
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retain and if you don't know your
number, if you don't know who you're
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equivalent kind of sales leader is that
you're supporting, really get closer to
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the business, Ask those questions. You
shouldn't be building field marketing
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plans, programmes, initiatives in a
vacuum because they're fun or cool.
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Yeah, but like really trying to
understand like who are you building
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this for and what is the business
objective you're trying to achieve?
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Yeah. So Heidi for for folks listening
that maybe they're in a seat like yours
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where they're tasked with finding field
marketers for their organization. What
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types of qualities, characteristics are
you looking for as you're growing your
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field marketing team, honey, I've
really, you know, certainly you need
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somebody who understands the marketing
mix and marketing framework. Somebody
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who can really think through what are
all the different tactics that we can
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use to drive a strong marketing plan
and therefore reach those business
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objectives. So yeah, marketing
experience is key for sure. But given
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the uniqueness of the film marketing
role, a lot of what we do is about
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relationship building and trust with
sales if we want to get in there and
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really understand the business, like
sales may or may not have, you know,
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the history with marketing, where they
feel comfortable pulling marketing into
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their pipeline calls or forecast calls,
really sharing where they're struggling
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and where they might need help. And so
hiring folks who can build relationship,
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who can instill trust, who can really
prove that they're in it to support
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that sales objectives alongside that
sales leader is going to be so much
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more valuable than somebody who comes
in with the brightest marketing ideas.
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So you really need folks who know how
to have relationships and build trust
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first and foremost and then build the
plan and then of course we want folks
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who can execute with excellence, but
that's secondary or tertiary to those
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first, foundational people. Does it
make sense at all? Heidi to look for
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people with a background in sales or
are the disciplines a little too
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disconnected for that to make sense? I
think I had lots of folks on the sales
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side who are interested in changing
careers and kind of coming into
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marketing and vice versa. And I do
think with regards to field marketing
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in particular there is a natural
connection point when you think about
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that sales marketing continuum and how
that continuum is more connected than
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it's ever been in years past and now we
have software and different technology
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that really mergers that sales
marketing continuum. I think the
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closest marketer to fail in the field
marketer, so we often are the ones that
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are closest to the customer were
closest to the business. We speak in
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terms of pipeline, we understand growth
objectives. So I do think there's
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crossover between an account executive
and a field marketer. So I can see
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folks go back and forth between those
roles. They are, they are distinct
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sometimes in marketing, we have to take
a longer investment view, were
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oftentimes thinking a year or two out
and making investments to drive
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something like awareness. If our plays
awareness, we're not going to achieve
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awareness in a single quarter, we have
to make investments now to achieve
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awareness over the course of a year,
two years, three years in a particular
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category. And that can be a different
way of thinking for a sales person who
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certainly nurtures relationships long
term and is thinking of future business
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but is really focused on the quarter at
hand or the fiscal year at hand and the
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number that they have to go after makes
all the sense idea. I want to I want to
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go back to this idea of getting field
marketers out of the mindset of being
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execution focused and being more
strategy focused and being seen really
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more as a strategic partner for the
field market are listening to this,
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they want to go do this, they want to
ask the right questions to the right
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people really get aligned with sales
objectives. What could you foresee that
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field marketer who it kind of falls
into the myth that you shared earlier
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that they're thinking of themselves
just as execution. What could be
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something if they're trying to follow
your advice, What's a potential way
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that they could screw it up in, trying
to actually do what you're saying? It's
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a good question. That's not where I
thought you were going to go with that
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one. I am at this great question
because you can't just walk into a room
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and say I'm your strategic partner and
it just doesn't work that way. You do
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have to commit yourself to
understanding the ins and outs of the
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business. You do have to commit
yourself to conversations around
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business priorities. You do have to
push back. In some cases, sales will
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often want what they might need in a
moment and it might not align to the
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marketing strategy and plan that you've
agreed to for that quarter for that
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fiscal year. So sometimes you have to
have that confrontation or that
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conflict respectfully to push back and
through the course of time, you
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establish yourself as somebody who can
speak on business terms, who can look
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at pipeline numbers or scorecard and
you know, take insight from that and
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pivot their plans based on those
insights and the sales leader, sales
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folks that you're working with, see
that and that trust, you know, grows
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over time and therefore you earned the
reputation as a strategic leader. So
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you have to lean in, you have to know
where to lean in and you have to be
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patient and I think if you're looking
at like step one, if you haven't sat
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down with your sales leader, your sales
team that you're supporting to really
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net out what their business priorities
are for the quarter or for the year,
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you need to do that first and foremost.
And we started our physical, you're
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doing the same thing because you owe a
marketing plan to that sales team, you
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can have the best ideas in the world
and like a gut sense for what that
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group needs and maybe you're spot on.
But if you don't start with their
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business inputs and kind of forced them
to think through their priority
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industries, is this a year where we're
going after net new business or
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retaining our current installed base?
Like if you haven't gone through that
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conversation of understanding what the
business priorities are, you can't
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possibly serve up a marketing plan,
that strategic, you have to start there
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really digested ask questions center in
on that and then come back with a
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marketing plan that reflects those
business priorities. That's step one.
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So step one, you've got to have those
conversations and ask the questions
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that you need to ask So that you can
get aligned on what those objectives
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are, what those goals are. Step two is
you're gonna build a plan to then
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present to them to say, hey, this is
what I think we can do, that is going
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to align what we're doing in our field
marketing efforts with the goals you're
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trying to achieve then, is it just a
matter of being a dance back and forth
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because sales inevitably is going to
want to go off track of that plan. And
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is it just a matter of pointing back to
that North star that the plan that you
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guys really came up with together? Yeah,
that I think is where the rubber meets
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the road. So a lot of the initial
sourcing of business priorities and
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building of the plan can happen in the
first month or two of a fiscal year and
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now you've kind of got your plan and we
all know it's build marketers, nobody
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sits on a plan for a year and calls it
good. Like we are constantly evolving
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and optimizing our plan based on how
sales is performing each quarter. And
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sometimes we're putting into the mix
some new marketing tactics throughout a
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given quarter if if we're not seeing
the performance that we want to see,
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you know, and so we have to stay on our
toes in the way we stay close to the
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business. And the way we're able to
pivot and optimize our plans as we go
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is we stay close to fails and that
means we we asked to be part of their
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team, We have to be part of their
strategic teams. So can you join
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pipeline calls weekly where they go
through every opportunity that's in
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cycle. That's expected to close that
quarter and they talk about where they
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might be stuck or things are going
really well, You can create a top deal
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list with your sales partners like what
are the top 10 deals you absolutely
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must close. And maybe two of those 10
actually could use marketing support to
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help bring those over the line. Others
you can't touch as a marketer and
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that's fine. But having those
conversations to say where can I lean
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in to support you be successful this
quarter and if they're looking a
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quarter or you're looking at some film
market or a quarter or two quarters out
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and you see that you're not going to
have the pipeline, you need to hit your
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revenue target that quarter. You can
start putting in place programs this
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quarter that will impact pipeline,
build next quarter of the quarter after
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so that you can get in front of that
problem. So you're just constantly
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reviewing the data, the sales
performance together, you're measuring
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the impact of your own marketing
programs to say what's working. Not
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working any good sales leader will say
let's dial up what's working and let's
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dial down and pivot on what's not and
as a marketing professional field
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market or you have to be able to say
these executive engagement programs are
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thriving. Look at all this great impact
we've been able to have on the business,
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these kind of generic horizontal
roundtable series, not really
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performing. Let's create an industry
lends to those and see what we can do
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to read our accounts that that you know
are organized by industry for example,
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God, we touched on this a little bit in
the pre interview Heidi. But I I want
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to press in a little bit more here
because you've had a really storied
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career in field marketing. What's
something that you have changed your
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mind about or maybe evolved your
thinking on as it relates to field
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marketing throughout your career? You
know, it's it's a great question and I
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have been doing this profile and so
it's like what did I initially think?
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And I think we've we've touched on a
lot of it here. You know, I I think I
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thought at one point that if you if you
are the brightest marketer in the room
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and you come with the most creative
ideas that that might be enough. I also
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have thought that if you just simply
have the best relationship and you get
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along really well with sales, that
maybe that's enough. And what I've
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learned over time is that there is a
healthy tension between sales and
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marketing and that's good. It needs to
be respectful and you need to know
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their business to be able to hold that
tension respectfully, but it's
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appropriate to push back. It's
appropriate to share more about your
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discipline and why you've made
investments in certain areas. I love
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personally learning about sales
discipline and how they approach their
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business and how they generate interest
in an account and then how do they move
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it to the next level. And then at what
point did they expand that buying
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committee and get closer to a different
L. O. B. To actually be successful in
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closing the deal like that side of the
business is fascinating. Marketing is
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the same way. And so I think pulling
each other into understand kind of the
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anatomy of what it is that we do is
really important and it's something
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I've I've kind of slowed down and build
confidence to do through my career. And
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sales are super receptive to that. Like
they want to see you as an owner of
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your discipline and they want to
understand the logic behind the
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investments that you make or the
recommendations that you make and so
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slowing down to explain those and
sometimes push back or shared different
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rationale with the direction they might
want to go that you don't agree with is
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also appropriate. Yeah I think
something you mentioned earlier, how
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did it's just an important reminder
here that if this hasn't been how you
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are operating in your organisation,
this kind of change. The perception
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shift doesn't happen overnight. It
takes patients, you mentioned that
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earlier but I think there is a path to
you being seen as that strategic
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partner. If you start doing a lot of
the things that you've outlined here
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asking those questions really getting
that alignment eventually you're going
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to see the tide turning you're going to
start to see your sales counterparts,
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looking at you through the strategic
lens, like you want them to be seeing
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you. So I really appreciate your time
here today, Heidi. This has been
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fantastic. If there's somebody
listening to this, they want to stay
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connected with you, what's the best way
for them to do that? Certainly, I mean,
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I love too learn from others. I love to
connect with marketers and folks who
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are looking at marketing as a potential
career path or they're looking to shift
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gears, move from sales to marketing or
vice versa, so feel free to reach out
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to me on linked in. I'm out there and
would love to touch base and connect.
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That might be the best way to do it.
We'll have a link to Heidi's linkedin
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profile in the description of this
episode. So if you want to check out
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Heidi just find her on linkedin and
that link. And Heidi, thank you so much
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for your time today. This has been
incredible. I really appreciate it.
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It's been so fun. James, thank you for
the opportunity.
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Are you on linkedin? That's a stupid
question. Of course you're on linkedin
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here. Sweet fish. We've gone all in on
the platform. Multiple people from our
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team are creating content there.
Sometimes it's a funny gift for many
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other times. It's a micro video or a
slide deck and sometimes it's just a
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regular old status update that shares
their unique point of view on B two B
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marketing leadership or their job
function, we're posting this content
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through their personal profile, not our
company page and it would warm my heart
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and soul if you connected with each of
our evangelists, we'll be adding more
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down the road. But for now you should
connect with Bill Read, our Ceo Kelcy
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Montgomery, our creative director, dan
Sanchez, our director of audience
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growth Logan Lyles, our director of
partnerships and me, James Carberry.
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We're having a whole lot of fun on
linked in pretty much every single day
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and we'd love for you to be a part of
it. Mm