Here are my lessons learned from working in tech marketing over the past decade. I recently gave this talk at a Menlo Ventures event in San Francisco.

1. Steve Burton
@BurtonSays

2. WARNING:
ZERO
MARKETING
QUALIFICATIONS

3. Who am I?

4. Things That Drive me Insane
• ”Can we check with corporate to get that approved”
• “I created 5,000 leads last month”
• “I need you to stay on brand”
• “Sales people just don’t understand”
• “The product sells itself”

5. Things That Made Me Laugh
• “I don’t really believe in Social Media” – Head of PR
• “Can we A/B test the shit out of that” – CRO
• “I’ve seen this movie before, at my last company 10 years ago” –
President
• “Can’t we do some digital banner ads and retargeting” – CRO
• ”Talking about the competition elevates them” - CMO

6. Bottom Line: Marketing Makes Me Feel

7. Marketing Leaders Don’t Last Long
• AppDynamics – 8 Leaders in 9 years
• Moogsoft – 4 in 6 years
• Glassdoor – 6 in 10 years
• OpTier – 5 in 7 years

8. Biggest Marketing Mistakes in First 90 Days
• Not Aligning with sales, first meetings, relationships, objections, needs
• Not Understanding the real problem/market/buyer
• Product Features vs. Business Value
• Not Aligning Expectations/Goals/Budget with CEO
• Not Spending time with team
• Branding, Branding, Branding

9. Don’t Be This Marketing Executive

10. SMarketing (Sales Marketing)
“Marketing thru the eyes of a Sales Rep”

11. If you don’t sell,
everything else is kind of irrelevant.

12. Winning the Respect of Sales
• Quality over Quantity
• Collaboration over Dictatorship
• Feedback over Bitching
• Transparency over Agenda

13. Quality
• Opens
• Views / Impressions
• Clicks
• Signups / Leads / Scans
• Qualified Meetings (Need)
• Qualified Opportunities (Pipeline)
• Customers (Revenue)
Sales Care
About This

14. Can Find Budget
Business or
Technology Fit
Right
Buyer
Problem
or Pain

15. Collaboration
• Email, Slack
• Phone/Beers/Lunch/Coffee
• Bi-Weekly Syncs
• Get used to last-minute sales requests
• Help them sell (demos, meetings, roi, events, …)

16. Example: Glassdoor
• Our ASP was $7.5k
• Our value was 20X more than LinkedIn (customers told us)
• Increased prices 300-500%
• Sales Execs bought into it, but roll out was a disaster
• ASP increased to $16.5k within a year (ENT $12k to $45k)

17. Feedback
• Identify ALL Sales Objections
• Why Do You Win? Why Do You Lose?
• Expect Feedback & Enablement sessions
• Learn to Give/Receive Feedback (EQ vs. IQ)

18. Transparency
• Don’t BS your numbers or metrics (you’ll lose)
• Be Clear On What Help You Need
• Communicate Your Projects (market what you do)
• Communicate Your Success/Failure
• Be Honest but Firm

19. Things That Make A Difference
• Listening. It’s about Sales, Not Marketing
• Your Message/Story is a collaboration
• Learn how to sell (like actually sell)
• Support New Sales Hires & Leaders
• Be Curious, Don’t Assume, Benefit of Doubt

20. Example: AppDynamics
• Many Sales Leadership Changes
• New US & EMEA Sales Leaders
• Recruiting, Selling, Demo’ing, Tooling, Enabling, Hustling
• Proven/Experienced Sales Leaders Know What Works
• Smart enough to Know What Doesn’t Work

21. Tips for Product/Market Fit
• Market & Analysts
• Buyer (who really cares)
• Segment (SMB, Mid, Enterprise)
• Competition (yep, no competition is a bad thing)
• Uniqueness & Differentiation
• Quantifiable Business Value
• Customer Proof Points
• Pricing

22. Marketing Compensation
• Align Marketing Comp with Sales Comp
• In General (Demand & PMM)
• 50% tied to creating qualified opportunities (pipeline)
• 50% tied to company revenue (sales)
• Sales Enablement
• 50% tied to Time-To-First-Deal (Velocity)
• 50% tied to Time-To-Achieving-Quota (Revenue)

23. Harness First Nine Months
• ~1,000 First Meetings & Demos
• 23 Messaging Versions
• 10 Referenceable Customers (30 Customers total)
• 67 Blogs
• 50% of New Logos from Marketing
HARD WORK

24. Tools We Use
• Wordpress (website & blog)
• MindTickle (Enablement)
• TweetDeck (Social)
• Chorus.AI (Record & Analyze
meetings)
• Allbound (Partner Enablement)
• Marketo (automation)
• Salesforce (CRM)
• Camtasia (video)
• Wistia (video)
• Adobe Creative Suite (graphics)
• LeanData (lead routing)
• Drift (chat)
• Outreach (bdr)
• Prospect (bdr)
• LinkedIn (bdr)

25. SMarketing
• Put Sales Before Marketing
• Quality, Collaboration, Feedback, Transparency
• Marketing through a Lens of a Sales Leader/Rep
• Remember….

26. If you don’t sell,
everything else is kind of irrelevant.

27. Questions?
@BurtonSays