GTM Disrupted with Mike Smart

GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart sits with Jason Vander Meer a serial CPO in the B2B SaaS industry. Jason shares his views on how the CPO role has changed in recent years and what it takes to succeed in the job. Jason’s insights and best practices come from nearly 20 years of experience in a variety of product leadership roles including CPO for several midmarket B2B software companies. He shares a perspective that is grounded in aligning product strategy with business direction. His approach is based on building and executing product strategies with limited resources that prioritize and maximize growth. Key learnings from this podcast include:  Implement a 3-pillar framework  Master the Art of Managing Expectations  Build a Strong Team for Scale  Embrace Fire Prevention over Firefighting The go-to-market mindset of a modern CPO is more than just signal noise. Tune in to this episode to find out how to unlock the value of your existing product management organization and succeed as a product management executive. Mike and Jason explore how the macro climate has influenced a shift in the CPO role and what may be next. Jason’s Bio: Jason has served in product leadership roles in various industries the last 18 years with a key focus on building, refining, and successfully implementing GTM strategies as part of M&A integrations, product consolidations, and new product launches. With a core focus on driving revenue growth, cost efficiency, and customer satisfaction, Jason has helped companies from wide range of industries grow and achieve these successes, from finance at SS&C Eze, legal at Litera, now CPO at GoCanvas supporting companies in the trades digitizing their operations. To Learn more about Jason to go -- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonvandermeer/

GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart gets a chance to talk go-to-market, ABM and customer growth practices with Adam Turinas, CEO & Founder of Health Launchpad a health tech marketing consultancy. His new book “Total Customer Growth” outlines how to use ABM to impact topline results. Adam reveals how several health tech companies have benefited from ABM by adopting concepts including precise targeting, personalized engagement and sales development (SDR) buy-in. Key take aways from this episode include: 1. How to break marketing lead MQL addition 2. Implementing ABM at any size company 3. Identifying and tracking Key ABM metrics 4. Achieving Total Customer Growth through account-based experience (ABX) Mike and Adam discuss the key concepts of his book. Adam shares his career journey from advertising executive to health tech entrepreneur and marketing expert. Adam’s Bio Adam Turinas is a long-time technology marketing leader and entrepreneur. Adam spent two decades marketing for Dell, IBM, Bank of America and dozens of other major marketers. In 2012 he founded, grew and eventually sold a healthcare technology software business and then created healthlaunchpad, a leading healthtech marketing firm that is teaching clients how to use ABM. To Learn more about Adam to go -- https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamturinas/

In a recent interview GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart sat with Sangram Vajre, best-selling author and Co-Founder/CEO of GTM Partners, a data driven go-to-market analyst firm to chat about the urgent need for B2B companies to modernize their go-to-market functions. Sangram shares his experience and insights on how to use a go-to-market framework to scale a company at every stage to sustain growth. His call to action for B2B companies that struggle with stagnant Net Recurring Revenue (NRR) is based on clarity, alignment and trust starting at the C-Suite. Sangram’s Bio: Sangram has been at the forefront of the B2B marketing trends for over a decade. He is the author of two books on B2B marketing the most recent one “MOVE The 4-question go-to-market framework” is a Wall Street Journal best seller. Sangram believes his primary job is being a great husband and Dad. His side gig is running GTM Partners. Prior to his most recent side gig, he was co-Founder and Chief Evangelist of Terminus the ABM platform company. He has also served as head of marketing for Pardot, a Salesforce company. To Learn more about Sangram to go - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangramvajre/ Correction Please Read: At 21 minutes into the show I stated that Product Board acquired the product management community “Mind the Product”. Correction – on February 1, 2022 Pendo.io Inc. announced that it acquired Mind the Product the terms were not disclosed.

GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart reconnects with Jesse Lujan Vice President of Product at Ascend a leading a leading provider of Accounts Payable (AP) automation solutions for medium and large enterprises. Jesse shares his insights on the evolution of an organization from legacy on-prem to a multi-tenant business model and ultimately to being product-led. Jesse emphasizes the essential ingredient of go-to-market success is product management and sales alignment. As a former scientist Jesse brings a strong data-driven mindset to the product leadership role with a keen emphasis on cross-functional collaboration and shared goals. Jesse’s Bio: Jesse is a B2B SaaS Product Management expert with a focus on utilizing quantitative and qualitative strategies to create successful products. Responsible for driving Ascend’s product vision by prioritizing the right value-adding People, Products, and Processes. His focus is using market research, business case scenarios, and experimental design to orient my teams to produce accurate and measurable roadmaps. Prior to Ascend, Jesse was a scientist in immunology, R&D, and therapeutics. He transitioned into enterprise software while working as a product consultant at Egress Solutions, Inc. To learn more about Jesse go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesselujan/

GTM Disrupted host Mike Smart interviews Brian Utz Sr Director of Global Product Management at Sopheon, a leading innovation platform for innovation, product, and project professionals. Brian brings a diverse product management background, having built products and solutions for retail, finance, and now for the enterprise. He shared that his experience in the B2B and B2C domains provides a set of common principles that are based on customer/user empathy, an understanding of their job to be done, and knowing the customers’ customers leads to better product outcomes. We also discussed how customer and stakeholder alignment is crucial to market success. Brian's common sense insights on the B2C and B2B knowledge transfer give PMs practical approaches to improve product launch success. Brian’s Bio: Brian is a seasoned product professional, with experience in business verticals from Retail to Finance. As a product leader Brian helps teams design, build, release and launch the leading innovation solutions for Sopheon. Brian has seen the best parts of small companies operating in start-up mode and the advantages of the scale of large organizations can leverage to benefit their customers. Always with an eye toward innovation, Brian uses all this experience and learning to help his team bring the best possible products and experiences to market. To learn more about Brian go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-utz/

Mike Smart of Egress Solutions has an exhilarating discussion with successful entrepreneur Esben Friis-Jensen. He is working on his second start-up in less than 10 years. Esben adds a unique perspective on the product-led growth (PLG) initiative with offers his thoughts on how the enterprise software business will shift and change in the future. We discuss the progression of PLG and how it will change how software companies organize teams to improve their effectiveness. Esben is Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code onboarding flow builder that enables customized in-app tours and checklists. Previously he was Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Cobalt, a security platform that offers Pentest as a Service (PtaaS). Esben began his career as a consultant with Accenture responsible for the deployment management of global IT implementations. Esben’ Bio: Esben Friis-Jensen is the co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow, a no-code builder for in-app onboarding and surveys, allowing SaaS businesses to be more product-led. Prior to Userflow, Esben co-founded Cobalt, which today is a 200+ employee company. Esben holds BEng in Mathematics and MEng in Mathematical Modeling from Technical University of Denmark (DTU). ----------- Guest: Esben Friis-Jensen | Linked In: Esben Friis-Jensen Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

Mike Smart of Egress Solutions sits down with Kavita Ganesan, PhD founder of Opinosis Analytics and author of “The Business Case for AI: A Leader’s Guide to AI Strategies, Best Practices & Real-World Applications.” Kavita brings key insights and ideas about how enterprise and mid-market software companies can apply an AI mindset to have greater success layering AI capabilities and tools into new and existing solutions. Kavita shares her experience of over 15 years in the trenches completing successful AI projects with companies such as eBay, 3M and GitHub. As an AI thought leader, advisor, strategist and educator, Kavita has worked with enterprise leaders and practitioners around the world to implement AI strategically. Kavita has been featured by numerous media outlets including Forbes, CEOWorld, CMSWire, Verizon, SDTimes, Techopedia, and Ted Magazine. Kavita’s Bio: Kavita Ganesan is the founder of Opinosis Analytics (http://www.opinosis-analytics.com), an AI advisory and consulting company, and a strategic advisor, educator, and consultant. Over the years, she has advised Fortune 500 companies as well as midsize to smaller operations and has helped deliver numerous successful AI initiatives.  Kavita holds graduate degrees from top computer science programs in the US—specifically, a master’s degree from the University of Southern California and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign–specializing in applied AI, NLP, and search technologies. With over fifteen years of experience, parts in the trenches, and then out of it to advise leaders and teams, Kavita has seen a range of problems in practical applications of AI, leading to failed and canceled initiatives. Kavita’s mission is to change the status quo. She aims to see many more wins in the adoption of AI through mindset changes, sound strategies, and education. To learn more about Kavita, visit www.Kavita-Ganesan.com. Finally, if you’re not already connected with Kavita on LinkedIn, you can do at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kavita-ganesan/ ----------- Guest: Kavita Ganesan | www.Opinosis-Analytics.com Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

In this episode Mike Smart of Egress Solutions interviews Jim Ewel, Trainer, Coach, Author of The Six Disciplines of Agile Marketing and Co-Founder of the Agile Marketing Alliance. Jim Ewel shares insights from his most recent book "The Six Disciplines of Agile Marketing" on how to improve employee engagement, customer success and business outcomes through embracing the practices of business agility. As one of the leading voices on Agile Marketing Jim outlines a path to greater marketing effectiveness and improved business results. Jim’s insight is based on decades of executive experience and consulting engagements with many of the most successful global technology firms. His key to successful business agility is based primarily on a shift in mindset for the marketing organization as well as the front line professionals and their stakeholders. According to Jim, CEO’s and other executives should avoid “cheerleading” agile initiative and resist the urge to make too many decisions; instead their role is to provide the resources, provide the leadership, get obstacles out of the way. Jim’s Bio: JIM EWEL is one of the authors of the Agile Marketing Manifesto and the co-founder of the Agile Marketing Alliance (www.agilemarketingalliance.com ). He is also the author of the essential guide to the implementation of Agile marketing, The Six Disciplines of Agile Marketing. He is frequently asked to speak on the topic of Agile Marketing at industry conferences, and he has helped over 80 companies adopt Agile marketing, including organizations as diverse as T-Mobile, Salesforce, Best Buy Canada, Thales, Doxy.me, EQ Bank, Boston Private, CUNA, NAIT, Deseret Digital, SpaceSaver, Great Dane Trailers, Northern Arizona University, Netskope, Sprinklr, and Zenprise. Earlier in his career, Jim spent 12 years at Microsoft in various roles including GM of SQL Server marketing and Vice President of Server Marketing. Jim was also CEO of three startups in the Seattle area, all of which grew rapidly and were eventually sold to Oracle, Google, and Stratus Video. ----------- Guest: Jim Ewel Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

In this episode Mike Smart of Egress Solutions interviews Alex Gammelgard, a go-to-market and product marketing leader and expert with extensive background in B2B and B2C GTM strategy and execution. Gammelgard describes her unique path to achieve GTM career success and how she continues to differentiate herself. She emphasizes that during our current times of uncertainty and coping with macro-economic factors product marketing best practices and our core go-to-market skills are even more valuable in the technology sector. Alex’s perspective is, “Understanding the customer, anticipating their needs, and delivering easy-to-use solutions with great education and support are still key fundamentals of go-to-market success.” Alex’ Bio: Alex is a GTM and product marketing executive with expertise driving go-to-market strategy and brand outcomes for and B2B SaaS, Marketplace, AI, and Robotics companies. As a consultant she works cross- functionally with senior leadership to help define and drive company strategy. Previously Alex has worked with companies such as Active Campaign, Softbank Robotics US, Rentlytics and Apttus in leaderships roles such as Head of Product Marketing, Head of go-to-market strategy and Sr. Direction of Brand Development. ----------- Guest: Alex Gammelgard | https://www.linkedin.com/in/agammy/ Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

Nils Davis, the author and podcast host of "The Secret of Product Management," jumps onto Mike Smart's show GTM Disrupted to discuss the vast world of product management, product writing, sales, software tooling, and go-to-market strategies. Davis emphasizes that successful product management and go-to-market strategies requires a comprehensive grasp of the customer experience, along with the company's strategic goals. Learn from Davis and Smart as they take a deep dive into the fast paced role of sales in the go-to-market process. Davis emphasizes the importance of aligning sales and product teams around a shared vision and strategy, and of creating a culture of experimentation and continuous improvement. Overall, the interview provided valuable insights into the world of product management, marketing, and sales. ----------- Guest: Nils Davis * The Secrets of Product Management podcast: secretsofpm.com * My site, The Secret Product Manager Handbook: secretpmhandbook.com * My book: The Secret Product Manager Handbook: secretpmhandbook.com/amaz * My LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nilsdavis. Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net About Nils Davis: Like you, product management expert and author Nils Davis has seen product management defined numerous ways over the years. Is it the CEO of the product? Owner of the backlog? The locus of business, user experience, and technology? Or is there a different, better way to think about product management? Based on over more than two decades of enterprise product management, including a stint managing a product for product managers, Nils's view is radically different. The fundamental component of successful products is the problem they solve for customers. Focusing your efforts on understanding, solving, and communicating about market problems creates a powerful structure for making better decisions, becoming more persuasive, and getting superior products to market.  In his articles, his podcast The Secrets of Product Management, and his book, The Secret Product Manager Handbook, he shares new, powerful ways for product managers to create more value by ensuring every product is a solution to a meaningful market problem. And that every team creating and selling products is as effective and motivated as they can be.  See if that will work for you. I have a lot of different versions. And feel free to wordsmith as necessary. ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

In this interview, Mike Smart of Egress Solutions interviews Phil Montgomery, General Manager for Security Product Marketing GTM at Microsoft, discussing his vision for the future of technology and how the principles of go-to-market will change as the market evolves. Montgomery emphasizes the importance of innovation and collaboration in driving progress between various departments in order to secure the success of an organization. He also discusses the growing importance of security and privacy in the tech industry, noting that Microsoft is investing heavily in these areas to ensure that its products and services are secure and trustworthy. Throughout the interview, Montgomery demonstrates his deep knowledge of the tech industry and his passion for driving positive change, underscoring his position as a leading voice in the field. Phil's bio: Phil Montgomery joined Microsoft as General Manager of Security Go-To-Market in June 2021, bringing more than 25 years of technology marketing experience across security, enterprise software, services, hardware, Internet of Things and other segments. He has launched over 20 products and services for both startups and large companies. Prior to joining Microsoft, Phil served as SVP of Product Marketing for FireEye/Mandiant. Phil also held senior product positions at Pulse Secure, identiv, VMware, Blue Coat, and Citrix Systems. Phil is based in Silicon Valley, and originally from Australia. He is a graduate of the University of Southern Queensland with a bachelor of business degree and spent seven years in the Australian Army departing with the rank of Captain. ----------- Guest: Phil Montgomery | Microsoft Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

Mike Smart of Egress Solutions discusses with Chad McAllister the extensive experience in go-to-market and company effectiveness. Chad is a seasoned business strategist, and his insights into these areas are invaluable. Together, they look into Chad's approach to go-to-market strategy and how he has helped companies successfully bring products to market. From developing a clear value proposition to identifying target audiences and crafting effective messaging, they workshop strategies that have worked for him. They also take a closer look at Chad's expertise in company effectiveness, which encompasses everything from organizational structure and culture to leadership development and process improvement. His experience in these areas can help companies achieve their goals and maximize their potential. Throughout the episode, we'll discuss the essential components of go-to-market strategy and company effectiveness, and how they relate to each other. Chad's experience and expertise make this a must-listen episode for anyone involved in business strategy and company growth. ----------- Guest: Chad McAllister | www.ProductMasteryNow.com Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

Mike Smart of Egress Solutions sits down with Wayne Cerullo's of B2P Partners to learn of his extensive experience in B2B SaaS marketing while promoting his book, B2P Partners. Wayne is a recognized thought leader in the industry, and his insights into product marketing are invaluable. Wayne's book, B2P Partners, outlines the shift from B2B to B2P (Business-to-People) marketing. This approach emphasizes the importance of building relationships with individual buyers, rather than simply selling to businesses. Throughout the episode, they discuss the essential components of product marketing and how they relate to B2B SaaS marketing. Wayne's experience and expertise make this a must-listen episode for anyone involved in product marketing or B2B SaaS. By the end of the episode, listeners will gain valuable insights into B2B SaaS marketing, the importance of relationship building in the B2P era, and the key strategies for effective product marketing. ----------- Guest: Wayne Cerullo | www.B2PPartners.com Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

For Yasmeen Turayhi, diving into the topic of product marketing and B2B SaaS is a breeze given the fact that she has established an authority in these fields. Yasmeen has extensive experience in product marketing and B2B SaaS. She's known for collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure the product meets the needs of enterprise customers. Mike Smart of Egress Solutions learns from Yasmeen the ins and outs along with what's changing. Target audiences, messaging, and marketing collateral that drives adoption- these are just some of the things that Mike Smart explores in the name of effective product marketing. With the rapidly-changing landscape of the SaaS industry, they discuss the importance of staying up-to-date on emerging trends and technologies to remain competitive. ----------- Guest: Yasmeen Turayhi Host: Mike Smart | www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

GTM Disrupted is LIVE! Mike Smart of Egress Solutions formally introduces himself in this complete telling of his backstory, credentials, and expertise. Product Marketing and the world of technology has been a passion of Mike Smart's for some time now. Mike sets the stage for the constantly changing times that we live in. The product marketing world is consistently being disrupted. With enthusiasm, Mike Smart's network has discussed the several phenomena they are facing and how they manage to provide quality service and meaningful experiences. For more than 25 years, Mike worked with information technology and software businesses as an executive running product management responsibilities. He successfully guided development and launched new products in the internet security, service management and mobile data software markets. To connect with Mike Smart, visit www.EgressSolutions.net ----------- This is a Mr. Thrive Media production. Learn more at www.MrThrive.com

The pace of change has never been faster and yet it will never be this slow again. For the tech world, the rules for product and market success are continuously being disrupted. It is hard for product managers and product marketers to see clearly the radical changes that will impact product and market direction. Mike Smart of Egress Solutions sits with product marketing and product management leaders of the software and technology sector to explore trends that will impact their product and go-to-market decisions. Tune in for your fill of business, tech, and industry insights from thought leaders who change the game. Learn more at www.EgressSolutions.net