Growth Driver

As revenue leaders, we spend the majority of our time working on strategy, processes, and metrics... And we should. But when you step back and look at how our customers and prospects actually get to know us, what they really interact with, it’s our content. Content is the heartbeat of B2B growth—yet, let's face it, much of it is uninspired and forgettable. B2B content is often generic, jargony, and timid. And it’s not a stretch to say you could swap logos on the content in most categories and not even tell the difference.So how do you create content that doesn’t suck? That’s what we’re going to cover today with content expert Ardath Albee. Join us as we walk through the key steps of the content process and uncover insights, advice, and mistakes to avoid so we can create content that is super engaging, highly relevant, differentiating, and actually drives growth.About the Guest Ardath Albee is a B2B Marketing Strategist and CEO of Marketing Interactions where she creates personas and persona-driven content marketing and buyer enablement strategies for her clients. She’s written two books—Digital Relevance and eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale—and is often found speaking at industry events, leading workshops, and on the lists of the top B2B industry experts to follow. Growth Driver is powered by Intelligent Demand. Visit intelligentdemand.com to learn more about how they can help your organization hit its growth goals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

B2B buyers have changed—and your strategy should too. Are your strategies still centered around the outdated MQL model? You're not alone, but it's time to break free and step into the realities of new buyer behavior, buying teams, and multi-threading. These challenges are more connected than you might think.Today we’re tackling the monumental shifts in B2B buyer behavior and why clinging to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) is no longer the path to revenue success. It's time to equip your business with the know-how to engage buyers on their terms and dramatically improve your revenue process. Join us as we reconnect with two game-changers from season one, Terry Flaherty and Kerry Cunningham. With their decades of experience in shaping B2B marketing and sales processes–the funnel model to name one–they bring a wealth of insights into the 'why' and 'how' of aligning your strategies with modern buyer behavior.Terry Flaherty is a senior marketing executive with a passion for sales and marketing integration through effective demand generation. His background includes more than 15 years of experience delivering enterprise-level software solutions, including business process management (BPM), IT infrastructure management, business intelligence, and application development. Check out Terry’s first episode on Growth Driver: https://www.growthdrivershow.com/mqls-are-out-buying-groups-are-in-with-terry-flaherty/ Kerry Cunningham is a research director, analyst, and thought leader with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of B2B. He’s authored numerous B2B frameworks including the latest versions of the Revenue Waterfall model. Most recently at 6sense, Kerry leads research and insights, including the just-released B2B Buyer Experience Report.  Check out Kerry’s first episode on Growth Driver: https://www.growthdrivershow.com/how-b2b-buyer-behavior-has-changed-with-kerry-cunningham/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and Target Account Lists (TAL) are nothing new in B2B. Yet, what data to leverage–and when–is something many organizations have struggled to operationalize, leading to wasted resources and lagging efficiency. That’s why we’re breaking down the steps to build a precise ICP and TAL using firmographics, technographics, and exegraphics–and where intent signals, event triggers, and segmentation should be part of the process. Sit down with Aaron and Jeff Ha, Chief Go-to-Market Officer at Rev Intelligence, as they discuss: The importance of creating a precise ICP and TALHow to use firmographics, technographics, and exegraphics to segment your marketBest practices for tiering and segmentationHow and when to use intent signals and event data to target top accountsAbout the Guest Jeff Ha, is the Chief Go-to-Market Officer at Rev. He’s an accomplished Silicon Valley start-up veteran with a passion for making the workplace a great learning and development environment. Ha previously worked at PLAE, a digitally native sneaker brand, and at NetBase Solutions, a social media analytics company. Earlier in his professional life, Ha was a senior secondary teacher with the U.S. Peace Corps in Namibia, where he overhauled the way math and physical science were taught, dramatically boosting the pass rate. He has a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Berkeley and started his professional career as a field nuclear engineer with Schlumberger. Growth Driver is powered by Intelligent Demand. Visit intelligentdemand.com to learn more about how they can help your organization hit its growth goals.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re kicking off Season 2 with a deep dive into the mindset and methods of the new model Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The B2B field is undergoing a monumental transformation—marked by disruption, innovation, and a significant generational shift in leadership, so it’s no surprise that innovative leaders are spearheading the change. As many of us know all too well, marketing is often the first to face cuts when budgets constrict. But this transformation presents an opportunity to marketing leaders, where they can help their fellow executives make the critical shift from viewing marketing merely as a cost center to recognizing it as a key revenue leader.Join us as we dive into how modern marketing leaders are approaching growth, the necessary skills and experiences they should possess, what outdated practices they are shedding, and what cutting-edge concepts they are championing with Kyle Coleman.About our Guest: Kyle Coleman is a living definition of a modern CMO, with experience across sales and marketing. Kyle’s foray into B2B tech sales started in 2013 when he joined Looker as the 6th employee (acquired by Google for $2.6b in 2019). He then moved on to Clari and for the next 5 years helped 8x revenue as the head of growth and CMO. Kyle is now the CMO at Copy.ai, the first ever GTM AI platform. Growth Driver is powered by Intelligent Demand. Visit intelligentdemand.com to learn more about how they can help you drive efficient growth at your company. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the all new series on Growth Driver, Expert Deep Dives, with Aaron Owens.  Aaron, Head of Growth Consulting at Intelligent Demand, pulls back the curtain to get deep and detailed in these interviews with real deal experts across all of the practice areas of modern B2B revenue growth: technology and Revenue Operations; paid media; digital experiences and web best practices; messaging, positioning, brand, creative and content; sales development; events and field marketing; product marketing; research and insights; and project management. These experts dive deep into the what and the how of their jobs and share pragmatic, executable better practices, templates, and advice from the trenches.Topics we’ll cover:Specialty interviews and shop talks with subject matter experts and specialty practitioners across industries Deep dives into relevant benchmarks, trends, research, and metric must-haves Retrospectives of frameworks, use cases, case studies, and emerging better practicesExclusively for subscribers: invitations to special events and access to limited content Growth Driver is powered by Intelligent Demand. Visit intelligentdemand.com to see how we help B2B companies grow revenue.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season 1 of Growth Driver was packed with insightful conversations with some of the brightest minds in B2B, and we’re just getting started. Starting in season 2, we're launching an all new type of Growth Driver episode featuring Expert Deep Dives with Aaron Owens, head of Growth Consulting at Intelligent Demand. Aaron is a growth expert with over 20 years starting companies, leading sales and marketing teams, and advising the fastest-growing companies across industries. Every episode of Expert Deep Dives pulls back the curtain to get deep and detailed in these interviews with real deal experts across all of the practice areas of modern B2B revenue growth. Aaron's guests are real deal expert practitioners that dive deep into the what and the how of their jobs, and are joining us on Growth Driver to share pragmatic, executable better practices, templates, and advice from the trenches.Here are some of the highlights from our first season of Growth Driver, and a sneak peek into what you can expect from the new Expert Deep Dives series. Growth Driver is powered by Intelligent Demand. Visit intelligentdemand.com to see how we help B2B companies grow revenue. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amidst the boom of go-to-market (GTM) in B2B, there’s no better time than now to decode the intricacies of the strategy. Is it real? Or, is it hype? Can GTM really unlock efficient B2B growth? Today we’re dissecting the core components and modern trends of GTM strategies, breaking it down from buzzword to game-changer in B2B growth. Because GTM isn’t a buzzword at all; it's a comprehensive process that connects strategy to execution across all customer-facing functions. Tune in with us as we dive into go-to-market with Bryan Brown and explain just why GTM has become a game-changer for B2B growth. If you're a business leader looking to sharpen your GTM strategy, this episode is a must-listen.Bryan Brown is a SaaS pioneer and thought leader in the marketing and sales tech industry and author of MOVE the 4-question Go-to-Market framework. As Co-founder he leads client advisory and analyst research at GTM Partners, a data-driven Go-To-Market Analyst firm helping GTM teams and GTM technology vendors achieve efficient growth by transforming their GTM strategy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People and culture are the bedrock of any successful growth strategy. But it’s easy to lose sight of this amidst the technological tools, trends, and best practices that bombard growth leaders daily. No matter how brilliant your strategy, if you get the people part wrong, it's hard to get the growth part right. From the evolution of leadership fundamentals over the last decade to top mistakes that hold senior executives from being more effective leaders, we’re diving deep into what makes great leaders truly stand out. Whether you're a senior executive, a mid-career leader, or just stepping into a leadership role, this episode is packed with actionable advice and thought-provoking insights. Tune in with us for a candid and insightful conversation with leadership expert Darrell Hammond Sr. Darrell Hammond, Sr. completed a degree in Business Management after earning an athletic scholarship. After college he continued playing basketball and traveled around the world playing exhibition basketball, keynote speaking, and providing custom training. A silver medalist for Team USA, Darrell has first hand executive leadership experience on a variety of high performing teams.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Depending on when you start counting, Account Based Marketing and Selling is 15+ years old as a defined GTM strategy. It’s time we take a fresh look at how and why Account Based started, its current state, and where it’s headed next as a driver of B2B growth.One thing is for certain: it never should have been called ABM. True account-based motions are cross-functional, and the most successful include the entire customer journey–from acquisition to retention and expansion. But whether it’s due to CRM technology’s struggle to accommodate, or simply a lack of market complexity, many B2B organizations are still struggling to effectively execute ABX motions. Join us as we unpack the complexities of ABX and discover how to leverage it for B2B growth with Gabe Rogol, CEO of Demandbase. Whether you're struggling with cross-functional alignment or looking to refine your account-based strategies, you’re in the right place. Gabriel Rogol is the Chief Executive Officer of Demandbase. In his role, Rogol is responsible for fulfilling the company's mission of transforming how B2B companies go-to-market. Since joining Demandbase in 2012, Rogol has been integral in setting the product and corporate strategy for the company. Throughout his two-plus decade career, Rogol has held leadership positions, including managing world-class customer service and sales teams at IDG and other leading publishers. Rogol received his BA in Comparative Literature and Russian Language and Literature from Brown University.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) is a relic from 25 years ago, yet it remains central to most companies' revenue processes. Running an MQL-centric process offers no more than a 1-2% success rate—when opportunities and buying groups can claim numbers up to 400% increases in conversion rates. It's time to rethink MQLs as the cornerstone of marketing metrics. Old habits die hard, but understanding why and how to transition to focusing on buying groups can greatly improve your efficiency and success rate. Transitioning to a new revenue model involves significant change management, but we’re here today to share a roadmap for transforming outdated revenue processes into efficient, high-performing systems with you. Our guest, Terry Flaherty, is a titan in the realm of B2B waterfalls, funnel metrics, and revenue processes. As the Vice President and Principal Analyst in Demand Services at Forrester, Terry has spent decades shaping the frameworks many companies use today. His expertise offers invaluable insights into the future of B2B marketing and sales. Terry is a senior marketing executive with a passion for sales and marketing integration through effective demand generation. His background includes more than 15 years of experience delivering enterprise-level software solutions, including business process management (BPM), IT infrastructure management, business intelligence, and application development. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What makes or breaks a B2B growth strategy? The pivotal roles of understanding your ideal customer, aligning your product to their needs, and crafting positioning and messaging that not only attracts but wins and retains those very customers. This trifecta can significantly reduce missed revenue, minimize wasted go-to-market spend, and alleviate professional suffering. But these elements cannot merely exist in theory, confined to a PowerPoint presentation or trapped in the mind of a single visionary. They demand to be operationalized, brought to life in the day-to-day of any B2B organization. We sat down with April Dunford, a widely recognized expert in B2B positioning and messaging, to discuss the details of how to actually do this. Throughout our conversation, April emphasized the importance of not just developing strong positioning and messaging, but of integrating these elements into every facet of your operation. This means moving beyond the conceptual phase and ensuring that your strategic positioning and messaging are reflected in how your product is marketed, sold, and supported. With experts like April Dunford, there's no doubt that the path to more effective positioning and messaging—and, by extension, more successful B2B marketing—is becoming clearer for us all.April Dunford is the world's foremost authority on product positioning. As a consultant, April helps companies make complex products easy to understand and love. Boasting an impressive 25-year career as a VP Marketing at various rapidly developing technology firms, she has collaborated with hundreds of growing technology companies such as Google, Epic Games, Postman, and others. April is also the acclaimed author of the best-selling book, "Obviously Awesome," which delves into the art of positioning and the future sales classic, "Sales Pitch," which unveils the secrets to crafting a winning sales narrative in the market.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conflict can have a positive impact on your organization when it’s handled with the right approach and language. When leaders leverage purposeful actions early on and establish a strong foundation of trust, they’re able to leverage difficult situations as growth opportunities for their organizations. It starts by prioritizing deliberate leadership, and equipping yourself with the right tools to ensure intention matches the impact of our actions and sets our teams up for success. From self-awareness to actively engaging in constructive conflict, there are critical steps leaders must consciously take to move from lazy leadership to deliberate leadership–which is what today’s conversation is all about. Join us as we sit down with Julie Holunga, an expert in deliberate leadership who has helped over eight thousand professionals and teams stop practicing Lazy Leadership by developing trust, communicating more effectively, and actively engaging in constructive conflict. Julie Holunga develops professionals to amplify their influence and impact. She works with teams and leaders to instill her Trusted Voice Paradigm to increase effective communications, make conflict constructive, and develop leaders who lead with integrity. Through these programs, leaders get out of their own way, develop trusting relationships with key stakeholders, and positively impact the organization's bottom line. Her expertise lies within professional services: law, accounting, and investment firms, with a specialization in the careers of female leaders. Check out her TEDx talk on the power of leadership language! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the race towards modernizing go-to-market strategies, B2B firms often lose sight of what truly propels growth–the customer. If you've nodded in agreement to buyers’ behavior shifts, the tangle of tech consolidation to drive efficiency, and the explosion of new GTM motions; it’s time to pause. Amidst all this talk and transformation, our customers seem to have been forgotten. Customer obsession is more than a mantra; it's a strategy that infuses customers into the lifeblood of leadership and operations. We’re bringing the concept of 'customer obsession' into the limelight, directly from the start reality sourced from Forrester Research. Join us as we sit down with John Arnold, Principal Analyst at Forrester, as we strip down this buzzword to its core and construct an actionable blueprint tailored for the ever changing landscape that is B2B growth.John Arnold is a Principal Analyst at Forrester, helping B2B organizations grow revenue with marketing strategies for a digital-first world. He is an expert in frontline marketing strategies and the co-creator of Forrester's lifecycle revenue marketing approach. John has been a published marketing author since 2007 and began his career building marketing education programs at Constant Contact (IPO in 2007) and the Mobile Marketing Association. John was also on the advisory board at Wildfire (acquired by Google in 2012). John's marketing leadership roles include product marketing and sales enablement at Return Path (acquired by Validity), account-based marketing (ABM) strategy and consulting at Demandbase, and vice president of marketing at FullContact. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The way today's B2B buyers are actually buying has changed dramatically in the last few years, leaving many B2B companies with out of date and out of sync go-to-market strategies. The good news is we finally have the research and data-back behavior insights to update GTM strategies with the modern B2B buyer. We know the modern buying journey is done almost entirely online, but did you know most buyers are already 70% through their decision-making process by the time they talk with any vendor reps? And when buyers do initiate contact—which they do 83% of the time—they're likely reaching out to the vendor that has already won in their minds.We’re going to anchor today’s episode in some of the best research about B2B buying available today, and we’re going to do it with a true expert–Kerry Cunningham. Kerry Cunningham is a research director, analyst, and thought leader with over 25 years of experience in all aspects of B2B. He’s authored numerous B2B frameworks including the latest versions of the Revenue Waterfall model. Most recently at 6sense, Kerry leads research and insights, including the just-released B2B Buyer Experience Report.  Check out the report from Kerry: https://6sense.com/blog/new-buyer-experience-report-3-insights-and-a-warning/ Other articles mentioned in this episode: https://intelligentdemand.com/resources/sirius-decisions-new-demand-unit-waterfall/ https://www.forrester.com/b2b-marketing/b2b-revenue-waterfall-guide/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before the pivot into efficient growth, and even before AI, the field of B2B sales has been seriously transformed in the last few years. B2B buying behavior has shifted, away from meeting with sellers and toward anonymity. There has been an unprecedented rise of different GTM motions; account-based, product-led growth, customer-led growth, partner ecosystems… And to top it all off, we’re experiencing an absolute explosion in technology, data, and now generative AI. Despite all of this upheaval and innovation in B2B, sales and marketing teams still have to deliver growth, and efficiently. The era of siloed heroics is coming to a close, and smart leaders are leveraging alignment to keep up with the demands of efficient growth. Join guest Dan Gottlieb for a deep-dive conversation with co-host John Common about the vital trends reshaping B2B and how sales and marketing leaders can foster a culture of resilience amid constant change. Dan Gottlieb is a Senior Director Analyst at Garter for Sales Leaders. He covers a range of topics, from generative AI for B2B sales to RevOps data automations, to conversation and revenue intelligence. He describes the current state of the market in a single word: mayhem. Prior to Gartner, Dan was a Senior Analyst leading research in the sales practice at TOPO.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.