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Building the Connected Revenue Engine with AI · Sales Pipeline Radio

0:16
Matt Heinz: All right.
0:17
Well, everyone, welcome to another episode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
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I'm your host, Matt Heinz.
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1:02
present, and future of this podcast.
1:05
Very excited to have with us today the CMO at Zoom, Kim Storin.
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Kim, thanks so much for joining us.
1:11
Kimberly Storin: Hey, Matt, it's great to see you.
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Matt Heinz: Good to see you as well.
1:14
It's not every day I get to talk to a CMO who has Saturday Night Live alumni
1:18
in their TV ads, let alone CMOs that have TV ads running on network TV.
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I had a chance to hang out with a couple of your people at the Webflow conference,
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and I was telling them it's so amazing to see what you guys launched early
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this year with Bowen Yang, and they said, "Well, just wait." That's right.
1:34
And then, like, a week later, I got Kate McKinnon on my TV
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talking about how great Zoom is.
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So talk about — I mean, that's a big deal for any company, let alone a tech company.
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Kinda talk about how that came to be.
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Kimberly Storin: Well, it really started because we started working with
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Colin Jost and his production team.
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And what we wanted to do — the reason we worked with Colin — is we
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knew that we had an opportunity to be part of the cultural zeitgeist.
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And Zoom has permission, right?
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We are a verb.
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We have permission to really show up in a way that a lot of our
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competitors don't have permission to.
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And we wanted to work with somebody who could really help us find humor
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and product truth at the same time.
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And so that was Colin.
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And obviously with Colin comes a lot of inroads to Colin's
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friends, like Bowen and Kate.
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So we were able to really work with him and his production agency to make
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the best possible script and commercial that told the story of the brand, and
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then bring in the talent that could help us stand out in a very crowded market.
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Matt Heinz: That's awesome.
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I mean, I think you look no further than Super Bowl ads to see where
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humor can be a two-edged sword, right?
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It can work really well, it can also—
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Kimberly Storin: —get it wrong, it's so bad.
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Matt Heinz: Exactly.
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But I think from what I've seen so far, you guys have nailed it.
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What are some of the keys to doing humor right?
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Like, keeping it light-hearted, but also making sure you're staying on message
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and getting the right message across.
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Kimberly Storin: Well, for us it is absolutely the product truth.
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And, you know, we are a product-first company.
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We were built on the premise of bringing great technology to the
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masses in a format that is super easy to use and understand how to
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get the most out of that technology.
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And so for us, the humor really comes with, you know, both the ubiquity
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of our brand and the fact that our brand is a verb, but also the fact
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that we use humor, but we anchor it on the truth of the product.
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And so that's really enabled us to do something different, to cut through the
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noise, and to surprise and delight all of the people that are watching that
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commercial, whether it is on linear TV or whether it's, you know, a YouTube
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ad or on a social platform, et cetera.
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Matt Heinz: Well, and when done right, whether it's with humor or with faces
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people recognize, I mean, getting a message across that is kind of new, right?
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I mean, I think about, you know, Zoom existed before the pandemic, but
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obviously the pandemic, it just exploded.
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And I think a lot of people probably still think about Zoom as, "Well, this
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is my virtual meeting platform." And I thought the campaign with Kate McKinnon,
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the way that people kind of lean in to just her performance and be like, "I
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didn't know Zoom did all of that." Like, it's an amazing way to not just put
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out a press release, but really sort of get people to engage with it further.
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Kimberly Storin: Exactly.
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And in a world where — I mean, you know this better than anyone, right?
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We live in the dark funnel.
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We live in a place where everything is starting on an LLM, and people don't
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really want to engage with your sellers.
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They don't want to engage with your brand until they're ready to.
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And so doing something like the Zoom Ahead ad campaign is a way for us to continue
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to get people so interested that they will go and actually want to learn more.
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And when, you know, 95% of the market is not in market at any given time,
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that's our number one job — is to help people find us, to find our new
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solutions, to understand that we solve way more, and we have solutions that are
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so much more than video conferencing.
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Matt Heinz: Absolutely.
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I mean, with the acquisition of Common Room recently, obviously that creates
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a whole new opportunity for you guys.
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I did notice — and so you're, you know, just like a lot of companies,
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trying to figure out how to incorporate AI into the message.
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You guys talk about, sort of, what you're building today with AI-powered Revenue OS.
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Talk about how you figure out how to appropriately bring AI into the
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conversation, into the brand, without making it seem like AI washing, 'cause
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I think a lot of companies that clearly don't have an AI-forward platform are
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now saying, "Oh, we're powered by AI." I was like, "No, you're not." Like,
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you can use that word, but you're not.
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Like, how do you balance that?
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Kimberly Storin: So I think it's absolutely — I mean, if you look
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back, you know, 10, 15 years, right?
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It's the same thing we did with cloud.
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Everything was cloud this, cloud that.
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We completely cloud-washed everything.
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And now, you know, marketers are doing the exact same thing with AI.
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And so for us, what it really comes down to is outcomes.
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And ultimately, people don't care how — what the technology does,
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unless that technology helps them and solves their pain point.
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And so when we think about what we launched with Revenue OS, and how
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we're starting to talk about what we bring to go-to-market leaders, and
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revenue operations leaders even more specifically, is — we know that we have
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too many point solutions in this space.
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We know that people are having that swivel-chair moment when they're trying
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to have different tools for intent versus pipeline versus, you know,
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visibility and intelligence, et cetera.
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And so we know that the fundamental friction exists.
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And what we can do to solve that is by giving them solutions that
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make their life easier, and we don't have to AI-wash all of that.
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Now, AI might be the engine that's powering it, 'cause it absolutely is.
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But if you're not solving a need, people don't care what that engine looks like.
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Matt Heinz: Well, I was excited to see the direction you guys are going,
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sort of post-Common Room acquisition.
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I think a lot of people think, okay, Zoom is a meeting tool, and, you know,
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even without sort of the agent or the Revenue OS positioning and expansion, I
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mean, I get as many of my meetings into my Zoom as possible, because then I've
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got a transcript and I've got a summary.
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Like, I literally have a bunch of Claude workflows that will the next day say,
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like, "Listen to those calls. Is there any buying signal that I missed? Is there
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any follow-up that I missed?" I have it listening to it, but I do CMO calls,
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as you know, a lot, pretty frequently.
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Every week it says, "Okay, like, go listen to those and, what are the content
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themes I should be writing about that I might not be thinking about?" So it's a
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treasure trove of content and insights.
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Talk about that pivot to really more of a revenue OS, really more
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of a — not just a meeting tool, but a means of really accelerating sort
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of revenue and pipeline development.
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Kimberly Storin: Well, I think the, what's really important that
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you talked about is that context.
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And that is what really sets Zoom apart.
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Like, think about how many meetings run on Zoom every day.
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Think about all of that context that lies in those meetings.
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And so we apply that same lens to Revenue OS, right?
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People don't lack the data.
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What they lack is context.
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They — everything is fragmented right now.
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And so what really comes together when you think about Common Room and
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Zoom is that Common Room provides that buyer and customer intelligence.
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It tells us — and again, this is all context, same thing as,
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like, a Zoom meeting, right?
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You get to understand who your customers are, what are they doing,
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what signals are showing up, all the things you just talked about.
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What are they saying?
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What's happening in that opportunity?
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What teams can actually learn through those interactions?
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And then bringing those perspectives together really enables you to
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have a stronger foundation for deciding what happens next.
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And so all of that is, you know, that pre-meeting identification, the buyer
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intelligence throughout the relationship, and really it's from that first signal
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through conversion, expansion, renewal.
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And so when you think about what makes Zoom so special, it is truly, you know,
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our conversation-to-completion, which is layering on all of that context, and then
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enable you to go act on that context.
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And the same is true here.
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Matt Heinz: Yeah.
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I totally agree.
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We're talking today on Sales Pipeline Radio with Kim Storin.
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She's the CMO, chief marketing officer at Zoom.
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I think you made a point earlier around sort of intent signals
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and, like, all the data we have.
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Like, I think most of us are swimming in intent signals.
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What we're lacking is the ability to actually mine, to
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prioritize, and activate them.
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I mean, I see this all the time with companies that are like,
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"Have signals, buy signals." You don't even have to buy signals.
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Most of us have them inherently in our data, in our interactions, in your
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customer-facing teams' discussions, in multiple formats with your customers.
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But what happens next?
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And you don't need humans to do all of that.
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You can have agents and platforms that know what you're looking for,
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that can identify that and give you some advice on the next step.
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It's that sort of last mile, so to speak, that is missing from so many companies.
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Kimberly Storin: Yeah, we really think about it as know, act, and learn.
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And that's the idea, right?
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You wanna be able to bring those signals together.
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You wanna be able to determine the right next motion across the go-to-market.
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And then you wanna actually understand what happens and learn from that.
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And so ultimately, having those three steps really come together is what sets
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Zoom, with that combination of Common Room, in a place that we can do something
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that really helps enable the revenue ops team be better at their job and better
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at helping sales be better at their job.
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Matt Heinz: Yeah.
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And I think, well, beyond sales, right?
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Like, if you've got your customer success, your account managers, all
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those types of things using this tool to listen for upsell opportunities,
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to listen for warning signs, right?
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That things may be sort of going awry.
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I think it also — what I also love about — I mean, just, I think about just how
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I use just AI tied into, you know, my Zoom meetings today is just, like, I can
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focus on the conversation I wanna have.
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I can focus on making sure I'm serving whoever I'm talking to, and less worried
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about sort of capturing everything.
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Kimberly Storin: Mm.
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Matt Heinz: Because I know it's already being captured, and I know I have a system
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that's already trained on what I need to do next and what I should be doing.
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You know, I've got a meeting follow-up task that runs every night, and in the
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morning it says, "Here's the things you hopefully have done," right?
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It's like, connect with this person, follow up with this person.
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And I would — it'd be stuck in my notes if I didn't extract that, versus having that
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data and then having something that tells me what to do — it's pretty incredible.
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Kimberly Storin: Really closing the learning loop at the end—
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Matt Heinz: —of the day.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And then you think about, okay, like, where does this go from there?
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Now I think about what I can do.
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What about what my whole team can do?
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If I have my entire account team, like, listening in that — like, what kind
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of insights are we getting about what collectively our customers are saying?
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What do I have insights around what collectively they're doing differently?
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I used to have inside sales teams send their managers, you know, a 4:58 email.
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And it was specifically because I said, "Okay, I want it to
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be — take no more than two minutes.
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I want it to be at the end of the day." I said, like, "What's
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something you learned today?
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What's something that went well?
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What's something that you didn't know about our industry or about our
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customers?" And they would send it all in, and it was great insights, but
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they'd just be a bunch of emails that would not get collated or anything.
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I can automate all that.
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Right?
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I could have regular insights feeding into my business on a regular basis based on
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the collective conversations I'm having.
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Now, think about how powerful that is, and, to your point,
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having it is one thing.
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I had the 4:58 emails.
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But I'll bet you most companies weren't doing very much with that.
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Kimberly Storin: Right.
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Right.
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And yeah, that action, right?
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The learning, the action — that's what really sets it apart.
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Matt Heinz: Yep.
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I wanna pivot for a second here before we — just a couple more minutes with you.
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I know you're busy and I really appreciate you doing this with us today.
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I wanna talk about the CMO role in companies today.
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A little bit under fire, in some cases.
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Kimberly Storin: We need a lot of time.
14:23
Matt Heinz: Well, was that — well, yeah.
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This could be a whole nother conversation, for sure.
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You know, I see a lot of sort of conversations around the
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CMO role being under fire.
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Do we really need the CMO?
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I can argue the opposite direction, that we've never needed CMOs
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more than we do today, given the noise that's happening out there.
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Talk about what you're seeing in the market.
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Not only, I mean, obviously your position at Zoom, but also what you're
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seeing from some of your peers is the sort of present and future of the role.
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Kimberly Storin: So I think, you know, ultimately — so my perspective,
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let me start with that — is that you've never needed marketing
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more than you need it right now.
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And that is because of the world in which we live.
15:02
If prospects do not want to talk to a seller until they're 80% of the way done,
15:07
until they have a shortlist that they've already decided on, then the importance
15:14
of marketing is higher than ever, right?
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People need to be found.
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We need to be present in the conversations where we might not naturally be.
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We need to be believed.
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We need to be preferred.
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And that can't happen because of a sales engagement.
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That can't happen because of, you know, spam or a cold call.
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Like, this has to happen naturally and organically through the conversations,
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through the channels and the vehicles where people are engaging all the time,
15:50
that Zoom or other companies may or may not be part of that conversation.
15:53
And so that 80% of the dark funnel that we live in requires that marketing
16:00
be strategic, that marketing be good capital allocators, ultimately.
16:06
Like, we have to find the most efficient channels, and the most effective channels.
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And we have to be super creative because nobody wants AI slop anymore.
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Matt Heinz: No, no.
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And no one's ever wanted AI slop, whoever—
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Kimberly Storin: —did, probably never did.
16:18
Matt Heinz: Yeah, yeah.
16:19
And I think that where a lot of companies have said, "Okay, marketing's basically
16:22
just leads for sales, and so let's just have it report to the CRO" — like, your
16:25
sales team actually doesn't want leads.
16:27
Like, what your
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sales team wants is a market that craves what you're selling, what your—
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Kimberly Storin: That's it—
16:34
Matt Heinz: —what your sales team wants is a market that understands the problem, and
16:36
quantifies the problem, and prioritizes the problem that you uniquely solve.
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Kimberly Storin: Exactly.
16:41
Matt Heinz: And that is not something you're gonna do by sending out a
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bunch of emails for the 3 to 4% of people that are in market right now.
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Kimberly Storin: Right.
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That's exactly right.
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And so I think that is, you know, that is the reality of where we are.
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But I think what the challenge is, is that because marketing is now
17:00
all-inclusive of so many things, right?
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In any given day, you're focused on, like, corporate positioning and narrative.
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Then you turn around and you're thinking about product positioning and narrative,
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and then you turn around and you're thinking about campaigns based on personas
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with multiple products going to market.
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And then you're thinking about your customer advisory board, and then
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you're turning around and looking at customer references and content.
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You gotta worry about AEO, and GEO, and SEO now.
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And there's so many things that are competing for our attention.
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It gets really tactical really quickly.
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Matt Heinz: It—
17:36
Kimberly Storin: —does, yeah.
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And, and ultimately our job is to be the voice of and the voice to the market.
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But we spend more of our time educating internal stakeholders about the role
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of marketing, and that, you know, how we are the voice of and the voice to
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the market — versus actually being the voice of and the voice to the market.
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Matt Heinz: Oh, boy.
17:59
Kimberly Storin: And so that's, I think, the fundamental challenge that
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we face — is how do you — it's hard enough for us to understand all of those
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things that fall under our purview.
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Now we've gotta try and go educate our peers to also understand how
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all of those things come together.
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Matt Heinz: It's, boy — we could spend a whole nother hour just talking about
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that and the challenges around that.
18:25
And what's funny is, so this Friday, with our CMO Coffee Talk group, our
18:29
topic is literally, like, managing internal politics, and I feel like
18:32
that aligns with some of this as well.
18:34
Kimberly Storin: Oh, yeah.
18:35
Matt Heinz: But, Kim, I appreciate you.
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I love what you guys are doing there.
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Just think you guys are doing some great work on the product, but also
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the marketing side's fun to see.
18:43
And I know you're busy, but thank you so much for joining us today.
18:45
Kimberly Storin: Yes, thank you for having me.
18:47
Matt Heinz: Absolutely.
18:48
Thanks, everyone, for joining live on demand.
18:50
Appreciate y'all.
18:51
Definitely check out salespipelineradio.com.
18:55
Subscribe to make sure you don't miss any future episode.
18:57
Thanks again, everyone, for today, and we'll see you next time.
19:00
Take care.
19:01
Kimberly Storin: Thanks.