“One of the most critical pieces is to audit your existing team for their capabilities, and frankly, for their weaknesses and any gaps you may have within your team in terms of experience and expertise. The first thing to do is to understand what you're working with.
The other thing you need to do is audit the tools you have available to you in the marketing team, your marketing stack, and how that integrates with sales. My view is success comes on the heels of a great partnership between sales and marketing. It would help if you made sure that not only are you having the conversations and you're consistent on what you're saying about the company and when you say it, but also that your systems support that integration.
The third thing I'm thinking about is how you're reporting on marketing.
The last essential thing is understanding the role of marketing in your company. You need to understand the dynamics that come with that to effectively make shifts and changes in the company's direction, the direction of marketing, and how that plays together.”
- Melissa Blanken, Chief Marketing Officer, GridPoint
//
To listen to more The Life-Long Customer podcast episodes, follow us on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelifelongcustomerpodcast/
Follow the host Brad Hammond https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-hammond
#thelifelongcustomerpodcast #customerjourney #marketingleadership #b2bmarketing
“One of the most critical pieces is to audit your existing team for their capabilities, and frankly, for their weaknesses and any gaps you may have within your team in terms of experience and expertise. The first thing to do is to understand what you're working with.
The other thing you need to do is audit the tools you have available to you in the marketing team, your marketing stack, and how that integrates with sales. My view is success comes on the heels of a great partnership between sales and marketing. It would help if you made sure that not only are you having the conversations and you're consistent on what you're saying about the company and when you say it, but also that your systems support that integration.
The third thing I'm thinking about is how you're reporting on marketing.
The last essential thing is understanding the role of marketing in your company. You need to understand the dynamics that come with that to effectively make shifts and changes in the company's direction, the direction of marketing, and how that plays together.”
- Melissa Blanken, Chief Marketing Officer, GridPoint
//
To listen to more The Life-Long Customer podcast episodes, follow us on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thelifelongcustomerpodcast/
Follow the host Brad Hammond https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-hammond
#thelifelongcustomerpodcast #customerjourney #marketingleadership #b2bmarketing
Introduction: 0:04
From Revenue Rhino, I'm Brad Hammond, and this is The Lifelong Customer Podcast. We're interviewing successful sales and marketing leaders in discussing ways in which they're building lifelong relationships with their customer.
Brad Hammond: 0:20
Welcome to The LifeLong Customer Podcast. I'm your host, Brad Hammond.
Ice Artificio: 0:23
And I'm your co-host, Ice Artificio.
Brad Hammond: 0:26
Today we have Melissa Blanken from GridPoint. Melissa, it's really nice to have you on.
Melissa Blanken: 0:31
Thanks for having me.
Ice Artificio: 0:32
Thanks for being here, Melissa. We're super thrilled to have you on. Before we get started with anything else, we'd love to know more about you and your marketing journey.
Melissa Blanken: 0:41
Sure. So I have been in marketing pretty much my entire career. It's been a lot of years, I won't age myself. But I've worked in various functions within marketing. And my last 4 roles now have been the leader or heading up marketing for SaaS technology-type companies.
Ice Artificio: 1:06
That sounds exciting. We don't count the years. We just count positions. That's a very important part. So we're interested, you've had all this experience in marketing, and now you're with GridPoint. How is the marketing space looking like in that area?
Melissa Blanken: 1:22
Yeah. Well, obviously, the pandemic as a theme, marketing has changed quite significantly for in-person events. In-person has been really tough. I know, recently, we've gone back to in-person, and the attendance has been down. So it's just not what it used to be. And virtual events are also quite challenging given, you know, you're sitting at a booth, at a virtual booth waiting for people to come. And that's really just not how people experience events in a virtual manner. So that's been very challenging, and trying to find other ways to generate demand and qualified leads for your sales team.
Brad Hammond: 2:03
Totally. So let's dive into today's topic, which is stepping up as the new CMO and setting up marketing for success at your company. So tell us a bit about if I'm someone stepping into an organization, maybe that company hasn't had a CMO, maybe there hasn't been a huge emphasis on marketing, paint a picture for us what that looks like and some of the challenges that are faced there. And then let's like dive into how to tackle all that.
Melissa Blanken: 2:32
Sure, it's an important place to start on whether you're stepping in as a new CFO, or there's been a CMO or some sort of Head of Marketing versus a company that has been bootstrapped not just for the company, but also in marketing, trying to do a lot with a little bit. And those are two very different places to start from. Though, I do believe that the steps and the thought process are very similar, but the steps that you take after you kind of do your assessment are very different depending on where your starting point is.
Brad Hammond: 3:08
Oh, so what are some things that- you step into marketing, what do you do from day one? What are some things that you look at the company, evaluate, launch? You know, like, what do you do?
Melissa Blanken: 3:22
Well, one of the I think most important pieces is to audit your existing team for their capabilities, and frankly, for their weaknesses and any gaps that you may have within your team in terms of experience and expertise. Depending on the type of company that you're with, you need different kinds of expertise. There are some functional- you need to have these in every company, but if you're a SaaS company, that's a little bit different than a business to consumer, or B2B. And so you have to be cognizant of what kinds of marketing you need to be doing in order to really do an audit of the capabilities. And like I said, the weaknesses where you can find gaps that you need to start to fill in. But that's probably the first thing to do, understand what you're working with.
The other thing that you need to do is an audit of the tools that you have available to you in the marketing team, your marketing stack, and how that is integrated with sales. My view is success comes on the heels of a great partnership between sales and marketing. And so you need to make sure that not only are you having the conversations and you're consistent on what you're saying about the company and when you say it, but also that your systems support that integration as well.
The other thing to look at, the third thing I'm thinking about, is how you're reporting on marketing. What does your dashboard look like? Do you have a dashboard? Some companies may not have a dashboard. So what are the things that you need to put in place and get on a regular cadence that you're able to, within the marketing team, determine on a week-by-week basis, what's working, what's not working, what adjustments do you need to make. And then on a month-by-month and a quarter-by-quarter basis, reporting out to the rest of your executive team, as well as the Board of Directors and what that looks like. Because that's a little different than what you need to be looking at on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis along with your marketing team.
And the last thing I think is important is understanding the role of marketing in your company. Hopefully, you already asked a lot of questions in the interview process, and you understand the importance of marketing before you even take a role. But understanding where the role of marketing has been, and maybe if there's going to be a change in where marketing and the importance of marketing will be in your company, if, for instance, it's been largely a sales-driven organization, and they want to move to a marketing-lead organization, you need to understand that and the dynamics that come along with that in order to effectively make shifts and changes in the direction of the company, in the direction of marketing and how that plays together.
Brad Hammond: 6:16
Yeah, totally. I think that's a big one. Because I imagine you step into many different companies, and many different CEOs and Boards and leadership teams are going to have different expectations around. whether good or bad, what marketing brings to the table in the company. How do you handle that? How do you fish out what's going to be expected of you from a marketing standpoint? But also on your side of things, setting those expectations up because there might be expectations, or might be they come from you. How do you handle that?
Melissa Blanken: 6:49
Yeah, well, hopefully you've handled some of that in the interview process, like, where does marketing fit in? What are the expectations of your CEO? What are the expectations of your Board of Directors potentially? But I think the most important part and what leads to, I think there's a metric that runs around that- is I've seen in several places that a CMO lasts about 18 months. That seems pretty short to me. That's not been my experience.
But some of the things that lead to that are not having clear expectations with your CEO on what marketing is going to deliver, or with your Board or Directors or some combination thereof. And one way to make sure that that's crystal clear, is putting together a 30, 60 and 90 day plan so that you are in line and making sure that your expectations are clear, and that you're meeting those expectations by very clearly stating what you're going to do in the first 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and beyond. And clearly articulating what it is that you are going to do, what goals you're pursuing, and what you are actually going to deliver so that you have that very, very clear understanding with whoever your end customer is. And I mean internally, which is, you know, typically for a CMO, that's the CEO, and potentially the Board of Directors.
Brad Hammond: 8:12
Totally. And let's even back up a second. You said a lot of the stuff you want to handle in the interview. And I imagine as you're stepping in as the CMO at an organization, not only is it the company interviewing you, but it's you interviewing the company, interviewing the CEO. What are some things that you want to really make sure that are discussed in that interview process so that both sides can evaluate, is this going to be right fit?
Melissa Blanken: 8:38
Yes, definitely. So you definitely want to ask about what has been the role of marketing up until that point. What has changed that is facilitating the need to put a CMO in place? If for instance, there has not been a CMO before, what's driving this change? Why? Who supports it? Potentially, who doesn't support it? Because that'll give you an idea of who your supporters and who your blockers might be internally that you need to pay attention to and cultivate certain kinds of relationships after you are hired and sitting in the chair.
Brad Hammond: 9:16
Yeah, totally. How do you make sure that there's alignment around proper expectations? Do you ask like, what are the expectations of marketing? Do you tell here's what I can deliver? Or is it something in between?
Melissa Blanken: 9:30
Yeah, you ask what are the expectations for your first year. And some of what drives that is what's been in place before that. But sometimes it'll be because marketing hasn't been performing to what they had expected. Sometimes, it's simply because they just haven't had the budget to hire a CMO and do a lot of marketing activities.
And so like I said, being very clear about this is what I can do and what I can deliver, and make sure that your values are aligned with the CEO or whoever you're directly reporting to. Sometimes it's the Chief Operating Officer. But making sure that you are 100% clear. And like I said earlier, one way to do that is being very deliberate about your 30, 60 90 day goals. And by the way, when you're in your first 30 days, you don't know what you don't know. And when you start digging into things, you have to reserve the right to change your mind on what may be the priorities going forward in the 60, in the 90 days and beyond, because you may uncover some things that you did not realize in the beginning.
So I think the other thing that is really important and related is in your first time there, you know, everybody wants to come in and make their mark and you know, do something remarkable that impresses people and lives up to the expectations of someone new starting, but I always try to listen more than I talk. And let things be uncovered that way, so that you can make an informed decision. You can contribute to the conversation based on things that you have heard versus what you think it should be.
Brad Hammond: 11:15
Totally. How about budget? Is that a component of this conversation, having the budget to hire people to take on vendors, all that?
Melissa Blanken: 11:24
Absolutely. In the interview process, I always ask, what's the budget? What's the budget this year? Are you expecting it to grow? How is that benchmark? How are you determining what the budget actually is? Or should be?
Sometimes they'll ask, well, what do you think the budget should be? So you should be prepared for an answer on that. But yeah, in my current role, I already knew that the budget was limited. The marketing team had been bootstrapped. I knew that I was going to have to come in and ask for more money even within the year and not wait until the next year. So getting in there, understanding the current budget and where money is being spent, and what kind of results you're getting now, then help you determine what kind of incremental spend you might need for that calendar year. And then going beyond into year two, and year three.
Brad Hammond: 12:15
Totally. Is there such thing as a good budget or a bad budget? Any things you look for that's like this is kind of-
Melissa Blanken: 12:21
Money is good. Money is just good. I always look at it in percentages. And so I'll give you an example. In my current role, within 60 days, I already had to present to the Board of Directors kind of here's my plan. Here's how I'm thinking about things. And here's a request for a lot of dollars more than what I had. And you know, depending on your goals, I always express it in, okay, one of my major goals is x. And therefore, my budget aligns with that based on these percentages.
So in my current role, I said, we need to mature the marketing organization, put a bunch of foundational aspects in place, and then start to grow and elevate our brand. And so the biggest percentages of the budget asked were in those buckets. And I could tie that back directly to the goals for this year. And you know, I did that in July. So I still, you know, had six months of time and dollars and resources to accomplish a few things before we're already heading into the next year, in the next budget cycle.
Brad Hammond: 13:31
Totally. Let's talk about vendor relationships. How do you handle those? Maybe there's some existing vendors, PR firm that CEO hired or any of that. Do keep all those? Do you not? Do you bring your own? How do you handle that stuff?
Melissa Blanken: 13:45
Yeah, I mean, I think this is along the lines of listening and then reacting later, because you got to give everybody a chance. But generally, your first impressions are pretty right on. I've been in a role where I came in and a PR agency had been hired. And I knew right away that they just were not going to be the right fit for the company. And so I gave them 60 days, and then I let them go.
So you got to know what your goals are. And if those vendors are going to help you meet those goals, because ultimately, you're on the hook for delivering results. And you know, these vendor relationships and agencies, they are an extension of your team. And so they are a reflection on you. And you have to be very careful about where you spend money and time and resources with those vendors to ensure that they're helping you meet your goals and make you look good.
Brad Hammond: 14:40
Totally. So it sounds like to me like you sit down with them and kind of evaluate, maybe have a meet and greet, all that kind of stuff and look at like, this is going to be a good fit, this is going to be not.
Melissa Blanken: 14:50
Right. I listen to them, give them a chance, especially if you're coming in and you've changed the direction, and they were in a certain frame of mind trying to deliver something else. Then give them a chance to meet your expectations before making a change. But it's inevitable that coming in as a new CMO, you're going to make some changes to some of the vendor relationships. And your vendors are going to already understand this.
Brad Hammond: 15:16
Hold on. How do you have this conversation with leadership at all? Because maybe there's someone's buddy, and you know, they've been around, they have a good relationship and all this. But ultimately, you're responsible now for these goals and that's changed. How do you handle the human side of all of that, and not upsetting anyone too much and all that?
Melissa Blanken: 15:36
Yeah. I mean, you're always going to upset someone. Yeah, it's just a matter of who it will be. But you have to focus this around facts and data. And we're trying to meet these goals. These were the goals that were given to this vendor. They weren't able to meet them, or they were able to meet them for whatever reasons. And look, it's just business. That's the bottom line, is business. And I always try to think about people's lives and livelihoods, and all of that, being sensitive to that. You don't want to fire anyone just because you don't like them. You want to let them go because they're not delivering for you. So you got to keep it to the facts. And keep it to- here are the five things and five ways that I'm evaluating you.
Brad Hammond: 16:23
Yeah, totally. So what are the pitfalls to avoid? This is quite a complex saying that, you know, go through that whole interview process, step in as the new CMO, hand all the stuff. What are traps? What are the, you know, poles you can walk into, or?
Melissa Blanken: 16:38
Yeah. I think I alluded to this earlier. Understanding who your supporters and who your blockers are internally, and managing those appropriately. That can make or break you. And you'll have a very good idea in the beginning, based on the individual conversations that you've had, the individual meetings and discovery that you've had, and you'll get a good understanding of who believes in marketing and who maybe doesn't believe in marketing.
And we talked about this earlier as well, the properly setting expectations with your CEO, with your Board of Directors and, frankly, with your executive team and your marketing team on what you're expecting of them, from them, and to be delivering to them. And I think being new and coming into an organization, you may not always understand. You understand marketing, you know, I come in, I understand marketing, I've been doing that a long time. But I may not understand certain aspects of the company.
And so you just have to not be afraid to ask questions, especially in the beginning. And I find in some of the roles that I've been in, I've been six months, seven months, sometimes nine months in, and I've asked a question and had an a-ha moment simply because sometimes it just takes that long for the light bulb to go off and for you to really understand something or get some concept, especially in these tech companies with all of the technology that goes into it into the platforms into AI and machine learning, if those are components of your company, and understanding the impact and what those actually do for your business or can do for your business. So that's a long way of saying, just don't be afraid to ask questions. And say, you know, what does that acronym mean? You're not expected to know everything. So ask questions.
Brad Hammond: 18:35
Yeah, I love that. I imagine you're probably especially asking a lot of questions to the sales team and Head of Sales, and all that, of how does a product work and this and that customer and all that stuff.
Melissa Blanken: 18:45
Yeah, and one of my core tenets is, it's a partnership with sales and marketing, and it has to be. And then depending on the type of company that you're in, you also have to have very strong relationships with other functional areas. In a SaaS company, you better be tight with your product team, and you better have product marketing tied at the hip with your product managers. They should be able to both speak intelligently about your products and your services.
Brad Hammond: 19:15
Is that ever a component of the interview process? Or do you rope in those people or maybe just by default, the company will? But if now, hey, can I talk to this and that other person?
Melissa Blanken: 19:26
Absolutely one of the questions I always ask is trying to dig into the product and like, what's on your product roadmap now? What are you aspiring? What's part of your value proposition right now that isn't maybe all the way here? What's going to be delivered this year that you think is going to be the thing and digging into that and understanding? Because marketing is a little bit of pushing the envelope, right? You're pushing the envelope on sometimes something that's in the future and selling a value proposition that is maybe not 100% there or you haven't necessarily sold it to a customer and been able to show it yet, but it's there. So understanding what those limitations are, what's coming in the future, and how that will contribute to what you have to market.
Ice Artificio: 20:18
That's nice. You mentioned earlier about the light bulb moment. And as a marketer that has been around, definitely, there's a lot of those light bulb moments. What would you say is the craziest marketing initiative that has come from something like that?
Melissa Blanken: 20:32
Yeah, I think this goes back to- I was at the 4G business unit of Sprint. And it was the first time that 4G was being launched. We had opted to launch a technology called WiMAX. Because we knew that WiMAX is going to be available first before LTE would be first to market. So we went with this other technology. But we were selling home internet, but not a wired-in modem. It was a wireless modem. And we're like, how do we show this? And we're launching this new thing. And we're in only a couple of cities. We're not nationwide. Because when you're relaunching wireless services, you kind of go city by city.
And so we came up with this experiential marketing ploy, I'll call it. And we had a mobile truck, basically, like you see mobile advertising where they have an ad on the side, and they're just driving down the road. Well, this was actually a flatbed truck with Plexiglas around so you could see in, and it was a living room, basically, with people on their laptops and some other wireless things, and actually showing wireless internet on a mobile basis but in a home. We were like, how do we show this because we need to show it in person. And so then we started doing like events around so we had the mobile truck driving around, and then we would have events where people could try it and sit down and you know, experience the speed in a wireless manner.
Brad Hammond: 22:05
That's really cool.
Ice Artificio: 22:06
That sounds so exciting. It re-envisions the show not tell part of marketing. That's brilliant.
Brad Hammond: 22:13
Very cool. As we're wrapping up here, one last question, and that is what final takeaways do you have for the other marketers listening today?
Melissa Blanken: 22:21
Yeah, I think right now, especially, there's so much opportunity out there. So asking a bunch of questions in the interview process, and what the company thinks about marketing, what your CEO thinks about marketing so that you know exactly what you're walking into. Because even as much as you think you know what you're walking into, there will always be surprises.
And so cultivating that close relationship and understanding with your CEO, I think, is probably one of the most important aspects of walking in and starting a new role as a CMO. And it's- if your expectations in your head are different from what the CEO thinks that you should be accomplishing, you are set up for failure from the very beginning. So I think that's probably the most important thing are the expectations and clearly, setting those and reserving the right to change your mind on that but setting the expectations and delivering on those expectations.
Brad Hammond: 23:26
Totally. Well, thank you so much for joining and sharing all your wisdom and advice here. Really appreciate it.
Melissa Blanken: 23:32
Alright, thank you for having me.
Ice Artificio: 23:33
Thanks, Melissa.