Latest / The Prompt / Ep. 537 | How to Scale Demand Generation Like a Pro
Transcript
- 0:01This is on base your one stop shop for solving your most
- 0:04pressing B to B go to market challenges each week.
- 0:07Host Chris Moody and Paul Gibson talked to sales and marketing
- 0:10leaders to get you in depth insights and creative strategies
- 0:13to set your revenue teams up for success.
- 0:18Everyone, welcome back to the Home Based podcast.
- 0:20I'm your host, Chris Moody, and today we're very excited to have
- 0:23Lily Yoon with us to discuss scaling demand Gen. lessons from
- 0:27startup to scale up. Lily, thanks for joining us
- 0:30today and welcome to the show. Thanks for having me Chris.
- 0:33Excited to be here. Well, we're pumped to have you
- 0:35here. I know that the weather is
- 0:37lovely in Austin, TX today, so I appreciate you locking yourself
- 0:41in a room with me for a little bit.
- 0:44But we love to start each episode with a little
- 0:47understanding of the journey that led you to what you're
- 0:50doing today. Yeah, to your point, the weather
- 0:52is amazing, but very excited to be here.
- 0:55So want to be anywhere else I'd say career wise.
- 0:59And what brought me here today, I started my career in tech as a
- 1:03BDR and prior to starting my career in tech as a BDRI was
- 1:08actually a full cycle sales Rep and a non tech industry.
- 1:12And so I didn't really have like an understanding of marketing
- 1:17and where leads were coming from.
- 1:19I just knew it showed up magically on my computer every
- 1:21morning and like I have to follow up with them.
- 1:24And it wasn't until I actually started my career in tech right
- 1:28around the time like Austin started really booming up in the
- 1:30tech space and got my BDR role. And the leader, my manager at
- 1:35that time was actually leading the BDR team and also the
- 1:40marketing strategy at the startup.
- 1:42And so that was my first introduction of understanding
- 1:46like demand generation and how it all comes together for
- 1:49businesses. And at that point, the
- 1:52organization was like a series B startup and so very fast-paced
- 1:58learn the impact that each campaign can have in relation to
- 2:03like a BDR and overall in turn the business.
- 2:06And so my interest started really growing and how does that
- 2:10all work together and how do you actually get the like channels
- 2:14and overall like how does that impact the business and the
- 2:17people in a positive way? And where can I fit into that?
- 2:21And so that's how we all kind of started for me and then kind of
- 2:25built my career more into the sales aspect and then transition
- 2:30more into the full demand generation aspect as I started
- 2:34going to like earlier stage organizations, so Series A and
- 2:38then seed funded company. And now I'm at a larger
- 2:43organization. And so having kind of like
- 2:46walked the different paths of different stages, it's been a
- 2:49really great experience and seeing how different
- 2:52organizations operate their demand Gen. teams.
- 2:55I love that talk about experience when it comes to
- 2:59alignment. When you've been a seller,
- 3:01you've been a BDR and then in demand Gen. that's always
- 3:05advantageous. I'm sure that never helps you
- 3:07every single day. I'm curious what's inspired your
- 3:12focus on account based strategies and those go to
- 3:16market approaches within demand generation?
- 3:18Yeah, great question. I feel like a camp based
- 3:23strategies, What really inspired me is initially I was a part
- 3:28kind of like a Wild West model. There wasn't really a strategy
- 3:32when I first started in sales and I didn't really understand
- 3:36like what exactly are we doing? I just know that I just need to
- 3:40reach out to contacts and see if we can set a meeting.
- 3:44And it wasn't until a little bit later in regards to account
- 3:48based marketing strategies that I was looking at like and
- 3:51learning as well a lot along the way around the industry,
- 3:56changing technology that's helping with the strategy.
- 3:59And one thing I took away from all my learnings is it all
- 4:02starts with the accounts. Like I always like to tell my
- 4:05team, you know, what's the most important part of your house
- 4:09when it's getting built the foundation.
- 4:12And so similar to applying it to like strategy for organizations,
- 4:17everything starts with the accounts.
- 4:19And so you do activities, you find the right contacts within
- 4:23the accounts, you do activities on top of those contacts that
- 4:26which yields opportunities. And all the quality of that
- 4:29depends upon the accounts that you have and how you're going to
- 4:33market and targeting those accounts.
- 4:35And so I kind of always say like, if your foundation's not
- 4:38great, you're going to start getting cracks in your house, in
- 4:41your walls, in your like windows.
- 4:43And believe me, I've seen it actually happen to one of our
- 4:46neighbors and it's not bring to their house.
- 4:50And that's how I see like our business as well.
- 4:52It's like, what are the right accounts and what are the right
- 4:55channels to meet our buyers? And what's the right messaging
- 4:58and how do we improve that over time?
- 5:01And so that's something that I've taken away from each of my
- 5:03organizations and that applies to any stage organization.
- 5:08Yeah, I love that and foundation problems.
- 5:11Super scary, just getting termite inspections is scary
- 5:14enough so I can't imagine how much it costs to fix the
- 5:17foundation. Important to all demand Gen.
- 5:21strategies is the team too. So, you know, I'd love to know
- 5:26if there were any pivotal moments or challenges that
- 5:29happened in your career that changed the way you think about
- 5:33building and scaling demand generation teams.
- 5:35Yeah, I'd say pivotal moment was going to a very early stage
- 5:42company where we were doing category creation.
- 5:45It was also timing wise really crazy.
- 5:48It was when everything was getting shut down with COVID
- 5:51happening. And So what I thought were the
- 5:55basics were no longer the basics with our buyers especially.
- 5:59And so I think with like the team aspect, it really was a lot
- 6:04of communication that was needing to be done.
- 6:06And we are all remote and a lot of us have never worked remote
- 6:09before too. So over communicating, like what
- 6:13are the goals that we're looking to achieve and being aligned on
- 6:16that across the board as an executive team as a big pivotal
- 6:21moment in my career, I feel like either I'm going to have to step
- 6:25up and find creative ways to get through this, or we're not going
- 6:29to do so well in the next quarter and the next few
- 6:32quarters. So for me, it was really about
- 6:35like, how do we communicate in the best way and pivot and
- 6:38change with our surroundings and all the events happening and
- 6:43make sure that we are aligning and understanding our buyers and
- 6:46what they're going through as well.
- 6:48And how do we best communicate with them.
- 6:51So that way we can make sure that we're up to date with
- 6:54what's going on and having conversations with our own team
- 6:58and keeping them interested and aligned to solving the problem.
- 7:03That and look, I, I know from talking to a lot of marketing
- 7:07leaders, you mentioned Series A, series B startup scale up.
- 7:11A lot of folks like to narrow in on one very specific stage for a
- 7:17company growth. I'm curious if you think your
- 7:20experiences at startups helped to prepare you for scale UPS or
- 7:24maybe one comes before the other, chicken or the egg style.
- 7:28But tell us a little bit about how you think of that experience
- 7:32helping you at different stages of company growth.
- 7:35Yeah, great question. I'd say.
- 7:37So I went from scale up to like startup and then back to scale
- 7:42up. So I think what the scale up to
- 7:46or going to startup phase really taught me was I thought I was
- 7:50resourceful a lot and scrappy at my first organization at the
- 7:55scale up. But when I got to the startup, I
- 7:57was like, oh, I really did not know what scrappy
- 8:02resourcefulness is until I joined the earlier stage
- 8:05company. Because you're really having to
- 8:07work, wear multiple hats. You don't have the full team
- 8:10marketing team to support you and the full sales team to
- 8:13support you. So you're having to actually do
- 8:16a lot of the work and you're having a better prioritize
- 8:19what's actually going to yield the highest results because
- 8:22there's so many things that you could be doing for each of the
- 8:26different departments to support them, whether it's very top of
- 8:29auto demand Gen. or ongoing pipeline support or customer
- 8:33upsell and renewal support. So I think that was my biggest
- 8:39learning and going to early stages, how do I prioritize and
- 8:42make sure I'm really just focusing on those main three
- 8:46goals for each quarter and then moving on to the next few goals.
- 8:50Whereas being for larger organizations where I had a few
- 8:54more resources, it's more about you can do other things on the
- 8:58side because you had the capacity to do that.
- 9:01But and then going from start up to scale up, I think is really
- 9:06allowed me to kind of just get into the weeds a bit more so and
- 9:10like help in different aspects and guide more on the day-to-day
- 9:14side of things for my team. So there's a value in like
- 9:17having the different transitions for both.
- 9:20I think that's great advice. I I feel the same way too.
- 9:23I mean some of my favorite experiences were companies of
- 9:2725, but I've also been the first full time employee.
- 9:31Then I've worked at some of the biggest companies in the world.
- 9:34All can give you very distinct experiences.
- 9:37I'd love to dig into the ramp up as a new demand generation
- 9:42leader in the 1st 30 days. If if you're joining new, what
- 9:47are the top 3 priorities that you think everyone should focus
- 9:51on? Yeah.
- 9:52So for me, it's always been aligning with the company goals
- 9:58and understanding with the main stakeholders of like where can I
- 10:02support and what's needed from my department.
- 10:06And so it's actually really relevant because I just started
- 10:08at my new company like 2 months ago now feels like I've been
- 10:12there forever. And so that was like my first
- 10:15thing, having one on ones with main stakeholders to align on
- 10:20strategy goals with a sales department, a product marketing
- 10:23department, Rev OPS, CS, the exact team and making sure that
- 10:30we understand, I understand specifically like what does my
- 10:34team need to focus on and what are the top three things that I
- 10:36can work on within my first quarter.
- 10:39And so that's the first thing I did.
- 10:42And then the second thing I did was take a look at our existing
- 10:46programs and the performance of those programs.
- 10:49So the BDR organization reports to me as well.
- 10:53And so kind of got a breakdown of metrics from the BDR team,
- 10:57but then also our different channels and campaigns, what
- 11:00funnel conversions look like overall, and then understanding
- 11:04attribution first and then finding where the gaps are from
- 11:08there. Because I'm sure you've
- 11:10experienced this. Like everybody when you first
- 11:12start, they're like, Oh my God, so glad you're here.
- 11:14Let's talk about what we need to prioritize and you're really
- 11:17needing to listen. And they have a good point of
- 11:20like prioritizing, but you also want to make sure you have the
- 11:22data to help with that prioritization and the goals
- 11:25that need to be achieved from the business standpoint.
- 11:28Absolutely. You know, as you're figuring out
- 11:30those longer term strategies too and really getting plugged into
- 11:34a business, how do you work to identify potential quick wins
- 11:39where you can make an early impact?
- 11:41Yeah. I have a concept of like people
- 11:45first. So I look at capacity on my team
- 11:49and I try to understand where are we generating, who's
- 11:53generating the most pipeline in regards to like demand
- 11:56generation for the organization. And so I usually look at like
- 12:01top performers on the BDR team and then look at what they're
- 12:04doing and then try to understand what are the potential gaps that
- 12:09they have that we can support with.
- 12:11And so from there, I kind of create a playbook of like an
- 12:16example and then fill in those gap areas.
- 12:19And then from like funnel aspect, I do a breakdown of like
- 12:23understanding what are our convergence from, you know, lead
- 12:26stage to MQL to sales qualified and then opportunity to close
- 12:31one when rights and loss rates. And so trying to understand like
- 12:36where is the leakage with friction?
- 12:38And then that usually gives you a really good idea of like what
- 12:41are the technical things that you should be focusing on then
- 12:44from there to improve those specific metrics.
- 12:47So just as an example of like you're noticing your lead to MQL
- 12:52conversion rate isn't could be improved, then it's a matter of
- 12:56like digging into understanding what exactly is causing that,
- 13:00whether it's messaging, whether it's like the lead routing
- 13:03scenario, maybe there's too much of A delay.
- 13:05We're not following up as quickly as enough as we should
- 13:08be. So scenarios like that.
- 13:10And I'm actually reading an interesting, a really good book
- 13:13I recommended to me by my mentor.
- 13:15But what it states, like what it stated really stood out to me.
- 13:19And it was saying like you need to go do the job to understand
- 13:23like how to solve it or at least ask the person who's doing the
- 13:26job to understand what's happening to solve any type of
- 13:29gaps. And so really just under trying
- 13:32to understand like what's actually the day-to-day scenario
- 13:35that's happening that's affecting some of the the
- 13:38metrics and the convergence there?
- 13:39Yeah, this is such a good point. Just do the job that it reminded
- 13:43me of my first job as a product manager.
- 13:46And there was no substitute for just walking in the doctor's
- 13:50office. It was a medical device product.
- 13:51But seeing how they interact with things and it was very
- 13:55different than the support tickets that came in because you
- 13:57started to see how the problem is not with the product.
- 14:01It was with an accessory. It was the basket on the mobile
- 14:04stand, not the mobile stand, just the basket.
- 14:06They would come off and then they'd have stacks of them, but
- 14:09it never made its way up. It was, we have a problem with
- 14:11the product and then boom, boom, boom.
- 14:14Until you did the job, we didn't really see it.
- 14:16So I, I think that one spoke to me a lot.
- 14:19I'm curious what are the biggest challenges if you're going from
- 14:24demand Gen. Strategies at a start, up to the
- 14:27scale up where you're really trying to hit that maximum
- 14:30velocity, huge momentum, bigger numbers that you have to
- 14:34accomplish. I think from startup to scale up
- 14:38some of the challenges and differences, I'd say like to
- 14:42your point, it's like when you're at a startup, you're
- 14:45really needed to have a targeted account list.
- 14:49So you know like Tam, Samsung serviceable, addressable market
- 14:54and a serviceable attainable market.
- 14:56Really kind of getting that idea of like who are the top 100
- 14:59accounts that we should be really targeting as an early
- 15:02stage startup that would be our perfect ICP fit.
- 15:05But that also is a challenge is like when you're so early stage,
- 15:07you're like, what is our ICP fit?
- 15:10And so it's like step one, we got to really find our ICP fit
- 15:14and then build off from there. And whereas for scale UPS, it's
- 15:17really about, you know, you need programs that definitely can
- 15:20scale across the different regions and personas and the
- 15:23different verticals and then making sure that everyone is
- 15:27aligned with the personalization that's needed for each of those
- 15:31scenarios. So I think that's one one of the
- 15:34bigger challenges is like that transition of like we actually
- 15:39need to do more process related focus and training.
- 15:42And because you do have more head count and more resources
- 15:45and capacity that you need to be aware of at the scale up stage.
- 15:49And then I think the earlier stage companies have a little
- 15:53bit more of a challenge with like investing in good CRM
- 15:57hygiene and data. I've been very fortunate where
- 16:01I've been a part of organizations where like the
- 16:03CRM, it's been very clean when I started and also clean when I
- 16:08left. And so I think we're like at
- 16:12early stage, you're very much like, let's go.
- 16:14We got to like build as much pipeline as we can and close as
- 16:18many deals. And you know, so you end up
- 16:20getting super busy in the day-to-day stuff and you end up
- 16:24potentially losing the focus and need on understanding like
- 16:28attribution, setting up the right criterias and definitions
- 16:32and having that alignment as an executive team.
- 16:35And that can impact a lot as you are getting to that scale up
- 16:40stage, right? Because then you end up having
- 16:41to like overhaul your CRM processes and update all the the
- 16:45fields and definitions. And when you're trying to do
- 16:48historical reporting, it becomes much more of a headache.
- 16:52But I think that's a big focus and recommendation I would have
- 16:55for earlier stage leaders is like, even if you don't have the
- 16:59tech to do it, you know, use a spreadsheet and start tracking
- 17:03it, you know, from day one, it will help in the end and you may
- 17:07not use it immediately, but it could come over like it'll
- 17:11probably help eventually. So.
- 17:14Absolutely. And I laughed when you were
- 17:16talking about the startup ICP because I said around a 30
- 17:20person company and Oracle bought us and then the due diligence
- 17:23process, they were pressing pretty hard on the ICP.
- 17:27We were around a 30 person company and my answer was our
- 17:30ICP is anyone who pays us and that was not sufficient to them.
- 17:35And they kept pressing and I said no, literally anyone who
- 17:39will transact with us is our ICP right now that that's just how
- 17:44it was as a startup. And then you go in and you have
- 17:47to get a lot more specific, but our customers range from mom and
- 17:50pop teddy bear shop right down the street, literally to one of
- 17:54the largest companies in the world who is in every store that
- 17:58you walk in, right. And that just, it reminded me
- 18:02very different top 100 accounts versus scale up and start up.
- 18:08I'm curious, you were hitting on technology.
- 18:11What are some of the frameworks or tools that you lean on to
- 18:14align account based strategies with company wide go to market
- 18:18efforts? Yeah, great question.
- 18:20So alignment is always something that I am very passionate about
- 18:26because I like to know what goals I need to be focusing on.
- 18:30And I think that's my biggest thing.
- 18:33It's like if you give me the goal, I will focus on whatever I
- 18:37can do to achieve that goal. And the challenges that I see a
- 18:41lot with leadership teams, it can be the fact that people
- 18:44aren't aligned on the goals. And so, you know, technology
- 18:48wise, you know, you can use like OK, our solutions or project
- 18:53management solutions to help that foster that communication.
- 18:56But I think it really starts with like the executive team and
- 18:59they need to have that time to connect with each other and
- 19:02discuss and make sure they are aligned on where they want to
- 19:06take the the company to go to market strategy and then cascade
- 19:11that from there. So like a framework OK Rs?
- 19:14Are you familiar with OK Rs like?
- 19:16Yes, we have just been through that process for this quarter.
- 19:19Shout out work board for us but that we use tools like that too
- 19:23oh of. Course, then we also use work
- 19:24board, great solution. And so in the sense of like
- 19:28cascading that information, it really helps just to like
- 19:31understand and prioritize like what are the biggest focuses for
- 19:36this quarter and next quarter? And then from there, what are
- 19:40each department heads focused on to support that?
- 19:43And so then from like a leadership VP side of things,
- 19:47then I take those OK Rs and then create my own for each of my
- 19:52department heads as well. And then they also cascade that
- 19:57message to our individual contributors.
- 19:59So that way we're making sure that the team is the entire
- 20:02organization is fully aligned to how they actually.
- 20:06Impact the day-to-day, but also like how that day-to-day work
- 20:10that they're doing is impacting the overall goal.
- 20:12Because feel like when you're doing the day-to-day stuff, a
- 20:15lot of times you lose sight of like, what is this actually
- 20:19impacting overall? And having like a visual
- 20:23document, you know, that reminder, whether you show it to
- 20:26the team weekly or monthly, helps keep, keep people in line
- 20:30because sometimes you get sidetracked, right?
- 20:33Like there's another project that can be coming up and you're
- 20:36like, Oh yeah, let me go take a look at that project.
- 20:39But then when you look at your OK Rs that are assigned to you,
- 20:41it helps you realign and say, does this actually align with
- 20:46supporting the OK Rs? And if not, we'd let's try to
- 20:48prioritize this and for another quarter then?
- 20:51I totally agree. We go through that process bi
- 20:54weekly. So we do bi weekly updates and
- 20:56that is keeping your eye on the metrics that matter to drive the
- 21:00right behaviors. They may not be directly
- 21:02correlated to the measurement, but it's always getting our
- 21:06brains in the right place. So I'm a big fan of that.
- 21:08And you mentioned alignment or well-being aligned in the
- 21:12process. I'd love to go back to alignment
- 21:16and revisit that. You've been a BBR, You've been a
- 21:19seller across the entire cycle. You lead to mansion teams.
- 21:24How do you ensure alignment between sales and marketing as
- 21:27teams grow and you have different stages of growth at
- 21:30each company? Yeah, great question.
- 21:33So right now, I'd say from all my experiences, the biggest
- 21:38thing has just been finding time like a regular set schedule on
- 21:43the calendar to meet with each department stakeholders and
- 21:46having a agenda of what needs to be covered and making sure that
- 21:51again, it's tied to the objectives and key results that
- 21:54you have as a business. So I typically like to have the
- 21:59meetings focused on strategy topics and like dated, you know,
- 22:03there's always day-to-day stuff back and forth on like existing
- 22:06projects and campaigns that we're running.
- 22:08So it's like, OK, those should be done quickly, right?
- 22:11We can message each other very quick or hop on a quick call,
- 22:15but at least having a bi weekly meeting with the main department
- 22:20stakeholders and trying to align on making sure we're on the
- 22:24right track from a go to market standpoint.
- 22:27Has there been any changes in our environment, whether it's
- 22:32our internal environment or our external environment for our
- 22:35buyers that we need to actually pivot and change some of the
- 22:38strategy? And I think that's something
- 22:41that I've learned a lot regardless of the stage of the
- 22:44organization is like making sure we're recognizing like do we
- 22:47need to pivot as quickly as possible before it gets too
- 22:50late? And are we AB testing the right
- 22:53things? I love that I have a soapbox
- 22:55question for you. So we're going to create a
- 22:57hypothetical situation. You're in a room full of demand
- 23:02generation leaders and you can step on the soapbox.
- 23:07Your goal is to make sure that they avoid the most common
- 23:10pitfalls, traps, mistakes, and building out their demand
- 23:14generation teams. So if you're on that soapbox,
- 23:17what are the things that you would want to make sure do other
- 23:21demand generation leaders avoid to build the best possible
- 23:24demand Gen. team? Avoid to build the best demand
- 23:30generation team. There's so many things.
- 23:35I think as you're building out your demand Gen. team and you're
- 23:40thinking about how do I create the best in class demand
- 23:44generation team. It's really about defining like
- 23:47roles within your department as a leader of like what are the
- 23:51strengths our current team has and what are some of the gaps?
- 23:55And then understanding like does our everyone on our team have a
- 23:58clarity of what their role is within the team?
- 24:02So their roles, responsibilities, what they own.
- 24:06And then from there, making sure you're filling in the gaps with
- 24:09the right people, because people are what drives success with an
- 24:14organization from my experience. And not everyone has the same
- 24:19like skill set. And so it's finding the people
- 24:21who have specific skill sets and making sure that that is, you
- 24:25know, contributing to the organization.
- 24:27Outstanding. OK, similar question.
- 24:30Just a little extra specificity here.
- 24:32You talked about your mentor earlier, which I think is always
- 24:36great to have a mentor. If you are the mentor and it's a
- 24:40demand generate duration leader, so demand Gen. leader for the
- 24:44very first time, what is the most critical piece of advice
- 24:49you're going to give them? I was gonna say go find a
- 24:52mentor, but if I'm a. Mentor.
- 24:54You are the mentor. Yeah, Well, that could be it,
- 24:57actually. I mean, we could, we could take
- 24:59a step back. Maybe that is the thing, like
- 25:01have someone to talk to. Yeah.
- 25:04Step one is finding someone that has a similar background as you.
- 25:08I think there's a lot of great experience leaders out there
- 25:12that, you know, you can reach out to that are like, you know,
- 25:16common thought leaders within the space.
- 25:18That being said, if they're not at the same stage as you, it may
- 25:21not be as relevant to reach out to them and get their feedback
- 25:24if they're like 30 years in their career and you're just
- 25:28starting off right. So finding someone with like a
- 25:31relevant similar background has gone through that transition as
- 25:35you and then has some recency behind it too, can definitely be
- 25:40impactful. And then the other thing is once
- 25:44you find that mentor, and it could be from like different
- 25:46channels, right? You can either connect through
- 25:48your network, personal network or go to some of the
- 25:52communities, join some Slack communities, online communities
- 25:56with leaders and try to find a mentor there.
- 25:58And then once you find that mentor, let's say that mentor
- 26:01was me, I always like to, before I give advice, I usually like to
- 26:06understand like what is that person's situation?
- 26:09Because each organization has, you know, different nuances,
- 26:13different challenges, each person has their own skill sets.
- 26:16And so I think trying to understand like self reflection
- 26:20first is really important. And so that would probably be my
- 26:22advice to my mentee is like, hey, actually do a SWOT analysis
- 26:27for yourself 1st and try to understand your strengths,
- 26:30weaknesses, what are your opportunities and what are the
- 26:33potential threats. That sounds a little bit, you
- 26:36know, scary, but it's, I usually like to convert the word threats
- 26:39to like, what are some opportunities for like growth or
- 26:43some challenges you may face in your new role, whether that's
- 26:47something where it's like you aren't an expert in XY and Z, so
- 26:51that could be a challenge or a threat for you.
- 26:54So doing that first is probably my first recommendation.
- 26:58And then from there you can kind of build and grow and try to
- 27:01find ways to fill in your own personal gap.
- 27:04Awesome. Yeah, I would plus one that for
- 27:06everyone listening at Demand Base, we're big on the Enneagram
- 27:10process. So we've gone through that as
- 27:12leadership teams and across our teams.
- 27:15And even ahead of our marketing off site, which is next week, we
- 27:19went and did a strengths assessment and that's one of the
- 27:22exercises we're going to do. It gives you your top five
- 27:24strengths. But even across my team, I only,
- 27:28I have a very small team. So there are two folks on my
- 27:30team right now. And even looking side by side
- 27:34with the first one to complete it, we didn't have a single
- 27:37strength in common of our top five, which is really
- 27:41interesting when you think about how we work together and the
- 27:43things that I'm running and the things that she's running.
- 27:46So that's an incredible process. I think that's great advice.
- 27:50So I will plus 100 that one. What about the the trends or
- 27:55innovations and account based strategies?
- 27:57How do you see any of the trends that you're noticing shaping the
- 28:01future of Dimension? Yeah, I've been following along.
- 28:05I think it's been like almost two years when we were really
- 28:07like AI technology has come in and what does that mean and how
- 28:12do we apply that to our day-to-day?
- 28:15And so I think it allows us to really enhance our capabilities
- 28:21and efficiency. And that's something that, like
- 28:23we really focus on for my team is like, how do we become more
- 28:27efficient and how do we actually help AI help us be more
- 28:30efficient? Yeah.
- 28:32So for some examples, like you may end up having like AI do
- 28:36like dynamic landing pages, personalized ads and, you know,
- 28:41contract recommendations that are much more relevant and to
- 28:45the buyer all in turn, like ultimately helping with like
- 28:48merchants as well. So and like, yeah, a preload for
- 28:52example, we actually have like an AI tagging component to make
- 28:55content operations wait smoother and easier to find content.
- 28:59All of that is just like the change and the shift.
- 29:01I think there's a lot of amazing technology that's coming out and
- 29:07in turn that can be a lot of noise.
- 29:09And so I don't know if you've experienced this, but I for a
- 29:13while was going through this rabbit hole of like any time
- 29:16someone mentioned a new AI software to help with demand, I
- 29:20was like looking at it and looking into it and getting
- 29:23feedback on it. And so I think the one thing
- 29:27though was my North Star is like trying to realign though, like
- 29:31does this support I OK R though? And how does it fit with our
- 29:35current existing tech stack? And is this a pain point?
- 29:39And how do I justify the ROI for that tech stack?
- 29:42So I think that's something that I've noticed over time is just
- 29:46like we are getting more feedback too around the earlier
- 29:50doctors of AI technology and we're hearing things that are
- 29:54working. And so it's great to see like
- 29:57the technology being adopted and people benefiting from it.
- 30:01I love that. And in marketing we have never
- 30:04chased a shiny object, right? I feel that too.
- 30:07I know when I first found out about Mid Journey a couple years
- 30:10ago, I went so deep. And that was in a Discord server
- 30:14and you figure out the prompts and then I was building, you
- 30:17know, all these amazing Space Jam characters and just doing
- 30:21random things because it was interesting.
- 30:23I think it's always good to learn, but your point is a very
- 30:26important one. We have to do strategy goals
- 30:30first and then find the technology and the tool set to
- 30:34get us there, which is, you know, we're pretty close to
- 30:37making it a perfect Segway. I have one more question before
- 30:40we jump into tech, but we're shifting into our quick hitters.
- 30:43So this is kind of our lightning round as we're coming up on
- 30:45time. A lot of these can be very
- 30:48quick, brief answers. And the first, you can only pick
- 30:52one thing. What is the single biggest
- 30:54challenge in B2B sales today? I know you said quick quick
- 31:02other formatting, but I'm just going to say because to my
- 31:05earlier answer and what I prioritize is targeting the
- 31:09wrong prospects biggest challenge.
- 31:11That's good. That's good.
- 31:12OK tech. So this would have been the
- 31:14perfect segue if I didn't want to ask that, but we had to get
- 31:17to it first. Technology.
- 31:18What are your favorite tools and technologies that you're using
- 31:21today? Favorite tools today?
- 31:24I love a sauna. I love project management
- 31:27technology, so work board a sauna.
- 31:31Zoom info copilot has been really interesting as well.
- 31:34All right, sounds good. All right.
- 31:36What about Goodreads? Book, blog, newsletter, podcast.
- 31:39You can take it anywhere you want.
- 31:40Yeah. So that quote I was mentioning
- 31:42earlier about the book from my recommendation for my mentor,
- 31:45it's actually called, it's called Reset by Dan Heath.
- 31:49And so that's been really great recommended if you're interested
- 31:53in learning about like how to improve your overall day-to-day
- 31:56operations as a leader. Who inspires you the most?
- 32:00And B to B. So this could be about people.
- 32:03I would say the specific people that I've worked with that as
- 32:09like a BDR and now I'm seeing them lead their organizations as
- 32:13leaders. So just a name drop.
- 32:16If you don't follow them, you should.
- 32:18Shannon Hawari is definitely one of those leaders.
- 32:22And then Graham Collins has always been a great leader and
- 32:25mentor with amazing insights around comp plans.
- 32:28Outstanding comp plans. No one cares about that.
- 32:32Yeah. The only the most important
- 32:34thing that drives behavior, right?
- 32:36How you get paid. So great shout outs there.
- 32:39And then Willie, the most important question of all, how
- 32:41can everyone get in touch with you after this episode?
- 32:44Yeah, great question. So happy to connect on LinkedIn.
- 32:47My LinkedIn name is Lily Yun Jaroszewski and so I won't ask
- 32:53anybody to spell that out, but if you just type in Lily Yun,
- 32:56you should be able to find me. Awesome.
- 32:58Well, thank you so much for your time today.
- 33:00You crushed it. Oh, thank you.
- 33:02Thanks for having me. Thanks for joining us for On
- 33:05Base. If you enjoyed this episode,
- 33:07please be sure to share, rate, review and subscribe on Spotify,
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- 33:14The show is brought to you by Demand Base, the only account
- 33:17based experience platform built for sales and marketing
- 33:20alignment.