Speaker:

Hi, you're listening to The Get, the podcast about finding and keeping

Speaker:

great marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

Speaker:

I'm Erica Seidel, your host.

Speaker:

Lately, I've noticed something that all my best CMO candidates do.

Speaker:

When they hear that a company wants to, say, double in revenue, they make sure to

ask a particular question:

"How exactly do you plan for the growth to come from?"

ask a particular question:

Our guest today reminds CMOs to take the reins for growth planning.

ask a particular question:

You'll hear from Jay Gaines, who now runs marketing for the insurance

ask a particular question:

tech company AgentSync and is the former CMO of SiriusDecisions.

ask a particular question:

You'll hear about mistakes to avoid when starting to scale.

ask a particular question:

Spoiler alert - and this was surprising: Don't hire too

ask a particular question:

heavily in demand generation.

ask a particular question:

You'll also hear about the importance of hiring fast and hiring for

ask a particular question:

diversity and equity and inclusion.

ask a particular question:

And you'll hear about what candidates are looking for today and how

ask a particular question:

that's different from before.

ask a particular question:

Jay, welcome to the show.

ask a particular question:

Let's talk about key things to avoid as a CMO embarks on a scale journey.

ask a particular question:

I think the main thing, and all of these things are a little bit connected, the

ask a particular question:

main thing to avoid is letting the scaling of the organization impact negatively

ask a particular question:

the focus and purpose of marketing.

ask a particular question:

Now, inevitably as a company scales, you're going to have a lot more

ask a particular question:

products that are going to be launched.

ask a particular question:

You're going to add complexity as you expand into new vertical

ask a particular question:

industries, into new geos, all of those things are going to expand the

ask a particular question:

scope of marketing's work for sure.

ask a particular question:

But the other thing that happens along the way is that a lot of

ask a particular question:

random projects come up and people aren't quite sure where they belong.

ask a particular question:

The default seems to be marketing can do this, right?

ask a particular question:

They've got limitless capacity, sure.

ask a particular question:

Just throw it to marketing and they'll take it on.

ask a particular question:

So you want to avoid allowing that to happen, and there's

ask a particular question:

a few ways to avoid that.

ask a particular question:

The first is to be constantly marketing internally.

ask a particular question:

Being sure to reinforce with the CEO, the head of sales, other leadership in

ask a particular question:

the company the role that marketing is playing at the business as it scales.

ask a particular question:

Like I said, that will expand somewhat, but you always want to make

ask a particular question:

sure that there's a shared, common understanding of what it is marketing

ask a particular question:

is here to do for the business.

ask a particular question:

That's important.

ask a particular question:

The second thing to do is, and it usually falls to the CMO to do this, and this

ask a particular question:

might be a surprise for some folks, but to seize control of that strategic

ask a particular question:

planning process at the corporate level.

ask a particular question:

Not talking about just marketing strategic planning, but I'm talking about

ask a particular question:

strategic planning for the business.

ask a particular question:

And when I say seize control, I don't mean that the CMO

ask a particular question:

necessarily leads the entire thing.

ask a particular question:

But it usually falls to the CMO to step up within the business and say, I understand

ask a particular question:

that we are doing some planning and we are intending to hit this revenue number, for

ask a particular question:

example, and expand maybe into these geos.

ask a particular question:

And at a high level I understand what we're trying to accomplish as a business.

ask a particular question:

Usually, it falls to the CMO to say, okay, but we have to go a click or

ask a particular question:

two deeper than that in our strategic planning process and really define how

ask a particular question:

it is we're going to hit those revenue targets and what it means for us as a

ask a particular question:

business as we expand into new verticals or into new geos or scale in terms

ask a particular question:

of the number of people we have here.

ask a particular question:

That's important because if you don't do that, what will inevitably happen

ask a particular question:

is marketing will be asked to treat everything across the business equally.

ask a particular question:

For example, at my business, we're scaling very fast right now.

ask a particular question:

We have very clear revenue targets that we want to hit next year, but I had to

ask a particular question:

work with the head of sales, head of product, the founders, and really get

ask a particular question:

at when we think about hitting that number, what products sold to which

ask a particular question:

audience segments do we expect to contribute what percentage to that growth?

ask a particular question:

And when I'm armed with that information, which we quickly got to, thankfully, we're

ask a particular question:

a very operationally mature business.

ask a particular question:

But when we got to agreement on that, that's the information I need to know

ask a particular question:

how to focus marketing's investment of resources and efforts so we're

ask a particular question:

not spread like peanut butter across everything the business does equally.

ask a particular question:

It also puts me in a position to do the most important work as the CMO,

ask a particular question:

which is create and protect focus for the marketing organization because,

ask a particular question:

invariably, every product has a product manager that has a number on their head.

ask a particular question:

You have sales teams that are oriented around different parts of the business.

ask a particular question:

And as they observe marketing investing more in one part of the business

ask a particular question:

than another part of the business, you're gonna have people come to you

ask a particular question:

and be like, hey, what's going on?

ask a particular question:

Why aren't you giving the part I care about as much

ask a particular question:

attention as this other part?

ask a particular question:

So you want to be in a defensible position to say, look, we've all agreed that this

ask a particular question:

other part is going to contribute more to our growth than the part you care most

ask a particular question:

about, so I'm investing more over there.

ask a particular question:

It really creates an environment where there's shared understanding.

ask a particular question:

And I, as the leader of the marketing team, can help everybody understand

ask a particular question:

why we're doing the things we're doing and oh, by the way, not doing all of

ask a particular question:

those other random things and treating everything equally across the business.

ask a particular question:

I think that's great because it really puts marketing in the

ask a particular question:

driver's seat of growth, which is what we're all talking about.

ask a particular question:

But I think a lot of marketers they decide, like, I'm going to inherit

ask a particular question:

the strategic plan from the CMO, and then I'm going to do my marketing.

ask a particular question:

But you're right, there can be this kind of gap between CEO can set the plan and

ask a particular question:

that plan might be, we're going to double in two years or we're going to increase

ask a particular question:

our ARR growth rate to blah, blah, blah.

ask a particular question:

But then it's easy to fall into these random acts of marketing or this, what

ask a particular question:

I like to call, a vending machine kind of marketing, where it's like, oh, hey,

ask a particular question:

we're just going to press on the belly of the marketing person and a campaign

ask a particular question:

is going to come out or a new sales enablement toolkit is going to come out.

ask a particular question:

So I can totally see that.

ask a particular question:

You've scaled marketing at several companies now.

ask a particular question:

How often do you revisit that plan?

ask a particular question:

Because it would seem that every once in a while, you might want to

ask a particular question:

go back and say, okay that person has been asking for marketing resources.

ask a particular question:

Maybe we actually do want to allocate some resources to that.

ask a particular question:

So, I'm curious about revisiting the plan and also the corollary

ask a particular question:

of revisiting the budget.

ask a particular question:

Well, you can't be too rigid.

ask a particular question:

You have to adapt as you go, especially if you're at a relatively early stage

ask a particular question:

company, which typically are the companies that are scaling the fastest, right?

ask a particular question:

Things change over the course of a quarter, not just a year, but

ask a particular question:

things can change pretty quickly.

ask a particular question:

So you do have to be flexible and willing to adapt.

ask a particular question:

You want to be revisiting it almost constantly.

ask a particular question:

To that end, the idea that we have to revisit the marketing plan, for example,

ask a particular question:

based on shifts that are happening at a high level in the business and the

ask a particular question:

business's plan because you're learning as you go, everybody's learning.

ask a particular question:

To make it easy to revisit that marketing plan, I do this thing that

ask a particular question:

I call a marketing plan on a page.

ask a particular question:

My mission is literally to get the marketing plan on a single page that

ask a particular question:

lays out our primary objectives and how they link to the primary business

ask a particular question:

goals, how we're executing to achieve those goals, how we're measuring it,

ask a particular question:

and the risks and dependencies that exist that are going to get us there.

ask a particular question:

It doesn't get into marketing activity planning, that's separate, but it gets

ask a particular question:

into the strategic plan for marketing.

ask a particular question:

If that's in place, and it's nicely, clearly defined business goals, when you

ask a particular question:

do have to revisit it, it's easy to do and you can have a rational conversation

ask a particular question:

about how things are going to change.

ask a particular question:

Again, if you can go back to the corporate strategy and the corporate

ask a particular question:

goals that are hopefully very clear, then you can say is, say, okay, it

ask a particular question:

appears we need to change because this other thing has changed, but that means

ask a particular question:

we're not going to do this other thing.

ask a particular question:

So you can do a bit of, I don't want to call it horse trading, but it's

ask a particular question:

trade-offs and make it very clear to people that we have X amount

ask a particular question:

of resources, X amount of budget.

ask a particular question:

Are we going to get more budget?

ask a particular question:

Typically, the answer is no, but you never know.

ask a particular question:

These days, actually, it's increasingly yes, you can have more budget.

ask a particular question:

And if you can agree to that, you can say, okay if we're going to do it

ask a particular question:

then there's a few other things that we're not going to do, or we're not

ask a particular question:

going to give as much attention to.

ask a particular question:

And if you have that starting point of agreement on focus and how you're going to

ask a particular question:

grow, if anything changes the trade-offs become pretty clear, pretty obvious.

ask a particular question:

Something increases in importance and another thing diminishes, and you can

ask a particular question:

adjust your resources accordingly.

ask a particular question:

What's harder to do is adjust people accordingly.

ask a particular question:

Moving budget around is relatively easy, changing up some programs

ask a particular question:

and tactic mixes, and that sort of thing is relatively easy.

ask a particular question:

But as you're scaling, you're also building a marketing organization

ask a particular question:

that's designed to do certain things.

ask a particular question:

Hopefully, you're not just building it randomly.

ask a particular question:

And that gets a little bit harder.

ask a particular question:

So especially when I'm at earlier stage companies where I know change

ask a particular question:

can be anticipated, it's going to come, I try to populate my team with

ask a particular question:

people who are multi-position players.

ask a particular question:

People who, yes, they have strong skill sets, for example, in

ask a particular question:

product marketing, but guess what?

ask a particular question:

They've done a little bit of customer marketing, as well, and maybe they've

ask a particular question:

got a little demand in their background.

ask a particular question:

So that as things change, people are able to wear a few hats.

ask a particular question:

It's really important that people can be flexible.

ask a particular question:

I also, as I'm bringing people on, I get them ready for that.

ask a particular question:

I make it very clear that, hey, you're joining a company that's at this stage.

ask a particular question:

We're scaling quickly.

ask a particular question:

We're going to be learning as we go.

ask a particular question:

So we all have to be flexible.

ask a particular question:

We all have to be willing to wear a bunch of hats.

ask a particular question:

And guess what?

ask a particular question:

Our roles might shift a little bit as we go along.

ask a particular question:

Are you down for that?

ask a particular question:

Is that something that you're okay with as you join us?

ask a particular question:

That makes it a bit easier, but people change is the hardest, I think.

ask a particular question:

Can you talk about an organizational misstep that you made at some point?

ask a particular question:

Sure, I'd be happy to.

ask a particular question:

Let me think.

ask a particular question:

The problem isn't finding one.

ask a particular question:

The problem is picking one.

ask a particular question:

I've become successful through a series of mistakes that I've

ask a particular question:

learned through in my career.

ask a particular question:

I would say the biggest one that I made, and this was probably my first CMO role,

ask a particular question:

I was building an organization essentially from scratch and it was in a company

ask a particular question:

that had been around for about twenty years, but was just releasing some new

ask a particular question:

products and extending into new markets.

ask a particular question:

So we were scaling pretty quickly.

ask a particular question:

When I joined, there were two people and I grew us to about twenty-seven people over

ask a particular question:

the course of about a year and a half.

ask a particular question:

My background was very much oriented around digital marketing and demand.

ask a particular question:

I had some product marketing background and some other things as well, but I was

ask a particular question:

really focused on demand and I completely over-rotated around demand as I was

ask a particular question:

building out my marketing organization.

ask a particular question:

I brought on a lot of people who were really good at demand.

ask a particular question:

I made that part of the function just really big, kind of too big.

ask a particular question:

I forgot the fact that demand needs to be fed by all kinds of other stuff

ask a particular question:

like really great product marketing and really great content and all

ask a particular question:

sorts of other things, and really good comms and messaging and all that.

ask a particular question:

So, I kind of failed at creating all the demand I expected to make 'cause

ask a particular question:

I just had too many demand-focused and experienced people and not

ask a particular question:

enough of the other people that were going to feed that demand engine.

ask a particular question:

It was just a lack of foresight and, frankly, being too focused on what

ask a particular question:

I knew best, if that make sense.

ask a particular question:

That's so interesting because I think a lot of CEOs, I mean, god bless

ask a particular question:

them, but they're like overgrown salespeople in many cases and they love

ask a particular question:

the idea of a marketing organization that's over-rotated on demand.

ask a particular question:

So it sounds good in theory until you realize you can pour more budget into

ask a particular question:

it, but there are diminishing returns.

ask a particular question:

And you're right.

ask a particular question:

I like to think of it as you need the product marketing and branding

ask a particular question:

people to help you point and then the demand gen people to help you shoot.

ask a particular question:

That's a very over simplistic way to think about it, but there is that piece.

ask a particular question:

It's accurate, though.

ask a particular question:

To your point, the CEO at that company was cheering me on the whole way,

ask a particular question:

loved the fact that I was building out this huge demand organization.

ask a particular question:

Since then, including at the company I'm at now and my last

ask a particular question:

company, the same is true.

ask a particular question:

CEOs, especially of early stage SaaS companies, they want that demand and

ask a particular question:

they're right to want that, but in both cases I've gotten a lot of pressure.

ask a particular question:

Are you sure that's enough demand people?

ask a particular question:

Which has offered me the opportunity to get into really how demand is fed.

ask a particular question:

Effective demand comes from the crews over all the things that marketing does.

ask a particular question:

I would especially emphasize product marketing 'cause you're right, we

ask a particular question:

have to have a depth of understanding of not just our products, but our

ask a particular question:

audiences, and really strong positioning and competitive intelligence and

ask a particular question:

great content and all of that stuff.

ask a particular question:

If those are in place, then demand becomes far more effective.

ask a particular question:

So I've had to do that repeatedly to avoid making the same mistake

ask a particular question:

that I made in that first CMO role I had because it's easy to go along.

ask a particular question:

When your CEO is like "Build demand!"

ask a particular question:

Of course you just want to go along, but that's when you've

ask a particular question:

got to step up and explain.

ask a particular question:

It makes me think of a former boss of mine who says, "Today's

ask a particular question:

brand is tomorrow's demand."

ask a particular question:

Once I heard that

ask a particular question:

- I love that.

ask a particular question:

I know it's great, right?

ask a particular question:

So I started a list of things to say to a CEO who is thinking more on the

ask a particular question:

demand side than on the brand side.

ask a particular question:

It might be over-rotating, to use your word.

ask a particular question:

Are there others catchphrases that you have seen work to

ask a particular question:

communicate that to a CEO?

ask a particular question:

'Cause I feel like that's half of my job, that's half of a CMO's job is

ask a particular question:

to educate and guide a CEO and not get into so much of the weeds, but

ask a particular question:

get them to see what's going to help make things work and make things grow.

ask a particular question:

Yeah.

ask a particular question:

So I don't know if they're as catchy as the one that you just had, but a

ask a particular question:

few things that I've said and have said repeatedly that seem to resonate

ask a particular question:

and seem to work are things like I've talked to quite a bit about the fact

ask a particular question:

that awareness and trust fuel demand.

ask a particular question:

That's the context that creates the ability to engage audiences, build

ask a particular question:

audience, and convert audience because you can have the coolest product in the world,

ask a particular question:

but if you're just driving people to demos without them understanding who you are,

ask a particular question:

without them trusting you, any of that being in place, chances are, you're not

ask a particular question:

going to be very effective at doing that.

ask a particular question:

Obviously, "content is king."

ask a particular question:

Content is also "the fuel that drives the demand engine" is another big one.

ask a particular question:

That's become less of a problem.

ask a particular question:

But as recently as six, seven years ago, I literally had to sit down with some

ask a particular question:

people and just explain to them why yes, we have to invest in creating content.

ask a particular question:

I guess a catchphrase I use around that is "what marketing should be delivering

ask a particular question:

to our prospects all the time is value."

ask a particular question:

It's all about value and there is no value in asking people to watch that

ask a particular question:

demo video or fill out that form.

ask a particular question:

All of the value is in that content that's created.

ask a particular question:

Oh, and by the way, brand as well and awareness and trust is built

ask a particular question:

if you can deliver value over time.

ask a particular question:

The other thing I've been thinking about lately is, there's always this

ask a particular question:

brand versus demand kind of thing and I think now there's a growing awareness

ask a particular question:

of the holistic approach to marketing.

ask a particular question:

I'm seeing more and more CEOs want the demand and the brand.

ask a particular question:

There's just this concern that the brand person is going to be a typical B2C

ask a particular question:

person, or the perception of a typical B2C person, who's just going to go and

ask a particular question:

find an agency and spend a million dollars and that's going to be so expensive.

ask a particular question:

What I've been thinking about lately is what you really want is the

ask a particular question:

tight cycles of test and learn, not just for your performance and your

ask a particular question:

demand gen, but also for branding.

ask a particular question:

So I've been asking people how quickly can you test out a message?

ask a particular question:

How do you test out a message?

ask a particular question:

How do you swap it out, et cetera, which I think can be a helpful way of thinking.

ask a particular question:

Testing is difficult when it comes to that stuff, I find.

ask a particular question:

In the world of demand, obviously, testing a subject line or a call to action is

ask a particular question:

pretty straightforward, assuming you have a big enough audience to do relevant AB

ask a particular question:

and multivariate testing and all of that.

ask a particular question:

But testing messaging can be a lot harder and it takes a little bit longer

ask a particular question:

to figure out what's actually working and resonating and what's not from a

ask a particular question:

positioning and messaging standpoint.

ask a particular question:

The way I like to do it is that it's not just marketing's job.

ask a particular question:

Obviously, you want to do your work up front.

ask a particular question:

You want to pass things by actual customers and prospects and talk to

ask a particular question:

your salespeople and all of that.

ask a particular question:

I'll give you an example, a tangible one.

ask a particular question:

We just launched a new product in my company earlier this week

ask a particular question:

and it's pretty groundbreaking.

ask a particular question:

It's a pretty new concept.

ask a particular question:

And we had to be very cautious about how we message around it and position

ask a particular question:

it because, without getting into too much detail, it could change

ask a particular question:

the way people perceive our company and it could provide an opportunity

ask a particular question:

for our competition to misposition us if we didn't get it just right.

ask a particular question:

And I'm brand new so I spent a lot of time talking to customers and people who have

ask a particular question:

been at the company longer than myself.

ask a particular question:

But now that it's launched, one of the things I set up right off the

ask a particular question:

bat was a feedback cycle from our frontline people, our salespeople,

ask a particular question:

our customer success people who are going to be talking to the recipients

ask a particular question:

of this message all the time and ask them to constantly create feedback.

ask a particular question:

But also to set up a series of regular meetings where we're going to sit in

ask a particular question:

a room and I'm asking them to tell me, from their point of view, how it's

ask a particular question:

going because it's not always visible to us in marketing as immediately

ask a particular question:

as it is to those other folks.

ask a particular question:

So that helps a lot.

ask a particular question:

I like that.

ask a particular question:

That's awesome.

ask a particular question:

You're right, you're going to get sick of your messaging well before your

ask a particular question:

customers will and that's probably a good thing for you to be ahead of that.

ask a particular question:

So we talked about organization stuff.

ask a particular question:

Is there a really unique organizational decision that you have either seen

ask a particular question:

or implemented yourself that funnily worked but you didn't expect would

ask a particular question:

work during a period of rapid scaling?

ask a particular question:

That's a good question.

ask a particular question:

I'm trying to think.

ask a particular question:

Marketing organizational design is something that I've done more of than

ask a particular question:

I care to even either think about.

ask a particular question:

Because, as you know, I spent ten years as an analyst as well, working

ask a particular question:

with CMOs, and one of my areas of expertise was organizational design.

ask a particular question:

So I've done it across dozens of companies at various scales.

ask a particular question:

I'm trying to decide there's this demand center thing, but that's more

ask a particular question:

like companies that are at scale.

ask a particular question:

I think for companies that are smaller and scaling quickly, probably the

ask a particular question:

most unique one and the one that I still get pushback on quite a bit.

ask a particular question:

In fact, I'm hiring this person, my new company right now, is this idea of a

ask a particular question:

senior leader who is head of campaigns.

ask a particular question:

It sounds logical and pretty obvious, but when you're a relatively small

ask a particular question:

company that's scaling pretty rapidly and you're the head of

ask a particular question:

marketing, oftentimes the pushback you'll get is why is that necessary?

ask a particular question:

We're pretty narrowly focused.

ask a particular question:

We're not that complex in how we're going to market.

ask a particular question:

Oh, and by the way, isn't that your job as the head of marketing to

ask a particular question:

play that role of head of campaigns?

ask a particular question:

Because the way I define the head of campaigns is somebody who is helping to

ask a particular question:

coordinate activity across marketing, make it cohesive and programmatic to

ask a particular question:

drive the desired optimal outcomes that you're trying to drive.

ask a particular question:

At a relatively small scale of company, you would say, well, yeah, that's

ask a particular question:

definitely something that the head of marketing can and should be doing.

ask a particular question:

But I found bringing somebody in who owns that role completely and all the

ask a particular question:

time, is critically important and plays, again, this effect of focusing and

ask a particular question:

aligning within marketing everything that we're doing in a huge way because I, as

ask a particular question:

the head of marketing, in this rapidly scaling company, have many, many jobs.

ask a particular question:

I can give that a bit of my attention and if it's only getting

ask a particular question:

a bit of somebody's attention, it's not getting enough attention.

ask a particular question:

So it's one of those things that I've found to be very valuable

ask a particular question:

and that person oftentimes ends up becoming my right-hand person.

ask a particular question:

I will say that the last person who had that role for me is now CMO of a

ask a particular question:

really great company in their own right.

ask a particular question:

The person who had the role before that person is also a CMO.

ask a particular question:

So it's this path to the CMO role because you're organizing a lot of what

ask a particular question:

marketing is doing, a lot of coordination across all of what marketing does.

ask a particular question:

And again, it sounds like something that a big company would have,

ask a particular question:

but not a smaller company, but I think it's critical very early on.

ask a particular question:

And how was that role different from a head of demand gen?

ask a particular question:

Good question.

ask a particular question:

So for example, the role I'm hiring for right now is Head of Demand and Campaigns.

ask a particular question:

I oftentimes blend them together and the same is true at Sirius.

ask a particular question:

It's different in the sense that a head of demand, what I found is if

ask a particular question:

you're just kind of director of demand or VP of demand or whatever it is,

ask a particular question:

you are very exclusively focused on designing and executing demand programs

ask a particular question:

that generate leads, or focused on end-to-end demand management.

ask a particular question:

You're working with ops to measure it.

ask a particular question:

Whereas this campaigns person is taking a much more holistic view and saying,

ask a particular question:

when I think about all the work we're doing across brand and comms and product

ask a particular question:

marketing and digital and all of those things, how do I make sure that they

ask a particular question:

are accruing to cohesive programs that drive ideal demand outcomes?

ask a particular question:

I should mention, without getting too deep into it, this role becomes

ask a particular question:

necessary when you take a specific approach to your go-to-market strategy.

ask a particular question:

I take a campaign framework based approach to go-to-market and was something that

ask a particular question:

was developed at Sirius when I was there.

ask a particular question:

It's something that I've implemented many times.

ask a particular question:

I've seen it work over and over again, and it basically aligns

ask a particular question:

all sub functions within marketing around a set of programs and a mix

ask a particular question:

of tactics to drive optimal outcomes.

ask a particular question:

The reason I blend demand into that role is because, at the stage I'm

ask a particular question:

at, and usually when you're scaling rapidly, the primary arrow comes

ask a particular question:

through trying to drive our demand.

ask a particular question:

So that's why I blend them.

ask a particular question:

Thank you so much for sharing.

ask a particular question:

That's going to be great for folks to hear about.

ask a particular question:

So we talked about organization, let's talk about hiring.

ask a particular question:

One thing that people can struggle with is, should I hire fast, or

ask a particular question:

should I hire slow and fire fast?

ask a particular question:

Can you talk about how you've thought about it?

ask a particular question:

What's a CMO to do?

ask a particular question:

What's your perspective now?

ask a particular question:

In my two and a half months in my current role right now, I've probably spent 60%

ask a particular question:

of my time on hiring, and that's painful because there's so much else to do.

ask a particular question:

But I also know my greatest risk of not being able to do what I know I

ask a particular question:

need to do for the business will be not having the right people in place.

ask a particular question:

So I have to give it time.

ask a particular question:

That means writing really good job descriptions, reaching out to my

ask a particular question:

network and engaging them in every way I can, talking to people like yourself.

ask a particular question:

I think I've reached out to you a couple of times along the way.

ask a particular question:

It's really critical.

ask a particular question:

Then, engaging the rest of my business as well.

ask a particular question:

I get our COO, our head of sales, other people involved in the hiring process

ask a particular question:

too, and the interviewing process.

ask a particular question:

So it's not just me making these decisions along the way.

ask a particular question:

And as my team grows, my team gets involved in it as well.

ask a particular question:

My current company, AgentSync, we are scaling very, very fast.

ask a particular question:

I think I was in the low seventies two and a half months ago, and

ask a particular question:

we've surpassed a hundred people.

ask a particular question:

And we're just adding more and more and more, very quickly.

ask a particular question:

And we, as a leadership team, know that our greatest risk to us not

ask a particular question:

hitting our number is not getting the right people in place fast enough.

ask a particular question:

That's across everything from engineering to customer success, to sales, to

ask a particular question:

marketing, and everything in between, program management, you name it.

ask a particular question:

Yet, we made a deliberate decision as a team, and this was top-down from our

ask a particular question:

founders, that we're willing to miss our goals to slow down the hiring a little

ask a particular question:

bit to make sure we hire the right people, but also hit our diversity, equity,

ask a particular question:

and inclusion goals, which I can tell you is having the effect of actually

ask a particular question:

helping us bring on talent a lot faster.

ask a particular question:

A commitment to DEI, for example, and a commitment to work-life balance that

ask a particular question:

is tangible and very real, is the kind of thing that's a differentiator today.

ask a particular question:

We find that people care about and want to join companies that are truly

ask a particular question:

committed to that and see companies taking action, not just speaking to it.

ask a particular question:

For example, I think I shared this story with you on the work-life

ask a particular question:

balance thing as we've been on boarding and bringing on a lot of people.

ask a particular question:

Everybody who's a go-to-market hire in sales and marketing and product,

ask a particular question:

the CEO still talks to as the final stage in that interviewing process.

ask a particular question:

We're going to get past that point pretty quickly, but we're still at

ask a particular question:

the scale where we can handle that.

ask a particular question:

And the CEO has a new young daughter at home.

ask a particular question:

So as I was hiring my initial hires, when I first joined and said we've

ask a particular question:

got to set you up to talk to Niji, our CEO, there were moments where we said,

ask a particular question:

ooh, well, Niji can't do it after a certain time because that's family time.

ask a particular question:

He spends that time with his daughter.

ask a particular question:

And when these people then joined the company, they told me that was the

ask a particular question:

deciding factor, hearing that your CEO set aside that time for family every evening

ask a particular question:

was all I needed to hear to know that this is the kind of company I want to be at.

ask a particular question:

It was unintentional.

ask a particular question:

It was just a nice side effect.

ask a particular question:

But also being able to tell the story and demonstrate through our actions

ask a particular question:

and how we bring people on that we are really dedicated to achieving very

ask a particular question:

aggressive DEI goals is something that really appeals to a lot of people and

ask a particular question:

causes them to want to be with us.

ask a particular question:

So this kind of decision we made that we're going to slow down to get this

ask a particular question:

right has actually helped us accelerate in a strange way, in terms of our ability

ask a particular question:

to bring on the people we really want.

ask a particular question:

I think that's great.

ask a particular question:

It just speaks to the fact that what people want out of their jobs is changing.

ask a particular question:

I don't want to say they're looking for a family, there's a little bit of that.

ask a particular question:

But when a company and an employee come together, it's like you're

ask a particular question:

hiring the whole person and you're ingesting the whole company.

ask a particular question:

That is very different from how it used to be.

ask a particular question:

What I'm seeing on the hiring side is, I always ask people,

ask a particular question:

what are the top three things that you're looking for from a company?

ask a particular question:

It used to be upside is key, and I need this industry and I need this growth

ask a particular question:

rate, and that can still be important, but what I'm hearing more and more

ask a particular question:

is this pivot towards a really great culture, a really great leadership team,

ask a particular question:

integrity, transparency, authenticity.

ask a particular question:

It makes me realize that those things that you think are, not a throwaway

ask a particular question:

thing, but, okay, the CEO's busy with his kid, but these signals become almost

ask a particular question:

the most important thing to put forward.

ask a particular question:

It's not that they're intangible, but they need to come across naturally.

ask a particular question:

It's not the kind of thing that I think can be forced, so it's gotta be authentic.

ask a particular question:

It's gotta be just an actual part of the culture and the way that the

ask a particular question:

business is for it to be effective.

ask a particular question:

And I think you're right, with COVID and so much that's happened over the past

ask a particular question:

year and a half plus, people's values have shifted in very tangible and real ways.

ask a particular question:

People want to be part of successful businesses that are growing, but they

ask a particular question:

also, for the most part, and I know I'm making generalizations now, aren't

ask a particular question:

all that interested in being part of growth-at-all-costs kind of companies,

ask a particular question:

like sacrifice all elements of your personal life to achieve these goals.

ask a particular question:

I know I personally have no interest in being part of that, and I think

ask a particular question:

that's pretty common these days.

ask a particular question:

It's not as cool as it once was to talk about how sleep deprived

ask a particular question:

you are and how you have no life because all you do is work.

ask a particular question:

I think that's out right now and I'm glad.

ask a particular question:

Exactly.

ask a particular question:

The world has changed and companies need to change along

ask a particular question:

with it to get the top talent.

ask a particular question:

My last question for you is can you share your favorite interview question?

ask a particular question:

What is the question that you find most revealing when you

ask a particular question:

interview people for your team?

ask a particular question:

Sure.

ask a particular question:

It's a tough one 'cause I have a few that I really, really like to ask.

ask a particular question:

The one I'll talk about, and it sounds like it's a very cliche question, but

ask a particular question:

I like to think that the way I do it is a little bit different and it actually

ask a particular question:

links to what we were just talking about because I do think that part of

ask a particular question:

the shift that I perceived happening in the world is people allowing themselves

ask a particular question:

to be a little bit more vulnerable than we used to allow ourselves to be.

ask a particular question:

And just more human than we used to allow ourselves to be.

ask a particular question:

One of my favorite questions starts with me telling a story about

ask a particular question:

myself, a very self-effacing story.

ask a particular question:

I pick from a few where I just failed miserably at something, like

ask a particular question:

I really got something wrong or something I'm really not good at.

ask a particular question:

And I tell it in a very tangible way, like I really mean it,

ask a particular question:

and I make myself vulnerable.

ask a particular question:

Then I ask the person to tell me a similar story about themselves.

ask a particular question:

So, it's kind of cliche in the sense that it's like, hey, what's your

ask a particular question:

greatest weakness kind of question.

ask a particular question:

But again, I do it in such a way where I make myself vulnerable and I'm seeing if

ask a particular question:

this person who I'm talking to, who, by the way, is in an interview situation,

ask a particular question:

which is difficult to begin with, is willing to be honest and vulnerable in

ask a particular question:

that situation and be very open with me.

ask a particular question:

Because very often what people will respond with are things like "I care

ask a particular question:

too much," or "I just work too hard."

ask a particular question:

And that's not what I'm looking for.

ask a particular question:

I'm looking for somebody to get pretty honest and be like, you know

ask a particular question:

what, here's something that I really messed up or that I'm really not good

ask a particular question:

at, and by the way, I don't think I'm ever going to be good at it.

ask a particular question:

That's real.

ask a particular question:

I love hearing that from people because it tells me that they're

ask a particular question:

human, they're willing to get vulnerable, and they're going to

ask a particular question:

be transparent, which I care about.

ask a particular question:

There's a lot of stuff I'm not good at.

ask a particular question:

And the extent to which I'm honest about that with others and myself is the extent

ask a particular question:

to which I can augment myself and build really good teams and be effective.

ask a particular question:

So that's a big one that I like to ask.

ask a particular question:

The other one, 'cause I have to say two, sorry.

ask a particular question:

The other one is, usually at the end, I ask them, "Is there anything I didn't

ask a particular question:

ask you that you wish I had asked you?"

ask a particular question:

It's just fascinating to see what people come out with.

ask a particular question:

Some people are totally stumped.

ask a particular question:

Other people come out with really revealing things.

ask a particular question:

Because if there is something that they wish I had asked that I hadn't asked,

ask a particular question:

it's because there was something they really want to tell me about themselves

ask a particular question:

that they haven't had a chance to.

ask a particular question:

So it gives them a window to do that.

ask a particular question:

Do you get more personal and more professional stories from that?

ask a particular question:

It's fascinating, I get a mix of the two.

ask a particular question:

I would say it's weighted towards more professional, but

ask a particular question:

- actually, I wouldn't say that.

ask a particular question:

It might be weighted towards more personal.

ask a particular question:

Usually, people tell me something about themselves that they're really proud of.

ask a particular question:

So I think it's a mix of the two, but I just find it interesting

ask a particular question:

to see what people say.

ask a particular question:

It also helps me get better too, because I get great ideas for other

ask a particular question:

questions to ask when they tell me what I should have asked that I didn't.

ask a particular question:

Yeah, it's interesting 'cause I think so much of interviewing,

ask a particular question:

on both sides, is just getting comfortable with the other person.

ask a particular question:

And while there is a professional benefit to somebody who can admit that they

ask a particular question:

don't know it all or have some soft spots that they need to augment themselves

ask a particular question:

around, I think a big piece is it makes the interviewer feel more comfortable.

ask a particular question:

Oh, I'm actually getting at the real person here and it's not just

ask a particular question:

some polished interview thing.

ask a particular question:

Thank you so much for sharing Jay.

ask a particular question:

This has been great to chat with you and I appreciate all of your insights on scaling

ask a particular question:

and org design and hiring, and I really appreciate your insights for the show.

ask a particular question:

So thank you again.

ask a particular question:

Well, thank you, Erica.

ask a particular question:

It was really fun to be here.

ask a particular question:

That was Jay Gaines, who runs marketing for SaaS insuretech scaleup AgentSync, and

ask a particular question:

earlier was the CMO of SiriusDecisions, sharing some hard-won do's and don'ts on

ask a particular question:

scaling -- and focus -- for B2B SaaS CMOs.

ask a particular question:

Next time on The Get, we'll do a deep dive on budgeting for marketing during growth

ask a particular question:

with CMO scale-up queen Kristin Hambelton.

ask a particular question:

Don't miss it.

ask a particular question:

Thanks for listening to The Get.

ask a particular question:

I'm your host Erica Seidel.

ask a particular question:

Hiring great marketing leaders is not easy.

ask a particular question:

The Get is designed to inspire smart decisions around recruiting and

ask a particular question:

leadership in B2B SaaS marketing.

ask a particular question:

We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today's top

ask a particular question:

marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.

ask a particular question:

This season's theme is Solving for the Scale Journey.

ask a particular question:

If you liked this episode, please share it.

ask a particular question:

For other insights and recruiting great marketing leaders, what I

ask a particular question:

call the 'make money' marketing leaders rather than the 'make it

ask a particular question:

pretty' ones, follow me on LinkedIn.

ask a particular question:

You can also sign up for my newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com.

ask a particular question:

The Get is produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.