Accelerating Value: Recent Episodes

Proof Analytics

Accelerating Value is a marketing show for marketing, communications, sales, and operations leaders who want to see their business value clearly and succeed, no matter what storms are shaking the marketplace. In each episode, we go beyond the normal marketing podcasts to pick the brains of leaders and experts, gaining valuable insights into how they find the way forward and navigate their way to success. Accelerating Value delivers the critical stuff you need to know, straight from the people who have walked it out. The show topics include strategy and value creation, data and analytics, and the current events that give context into your most pressing questions, spanning a wide range of industries. It’s time to see marketing and sales in the context of the business and the marketplace, not just a series of campaigns and a collection of channels. Every episode of Accelerating Value is packed with real-world, hard-core business acumen you can use now to increase your business impact, value and ROI.

How well can you see the future?

With the tools available today, forecasting has become easier and more precise than ever — but only if you avoid the common pitfalls many organizations fall into.

To help you steer clear of these potential traps, I invited Bill Schmarzo, Customer Advocate, Data Management Incubation at Dell Technologies, onto the show to share the secrets to forecasting — and I predict it’s going to be a great episode.

Join us as we discuss:

Why humans are natural forecasters

The importance of agility and pushing decision making down in your organization

Why data and technology should supplement human decision making, not replace it

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The rise of RevOps over the past 5 years is impossible to overlook.

But despite the surge in popularity, this business function is still in its infancy — leading to many questions as to its most effective implementation and the future of the role.

To help answer those questions, today I’m speaking with Nate Follen, Revenue Ops & Biz Systems at BentoBox, who shares the secrets to successful RevOps.

Join us as we discuss:

The ideal role of RevOps within a business
How data reporting and RevOps work together
The future of RevOps

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Marketing is essential to any organization’s bottom line…

But it’s no secret that it’s often difficult to attribute its ROI.

So, how do you make sure you’re getting the most from your marketing mix?

To help answer that eternal question, I invited Lance Werling, Director of Worldwide Revenue Operations at Medigate, onto the show to share his marketing expertise.

Join us as we discuss:

The lag time between marketing efforts and results
The best ways to handle historical data
How to get Marketing, RevOps and the C-Suite speaking the same language

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Big Data has finally become a reality for most organizations.

And the increased complexity it brings is ushering in a new era.

We’re beyond Big Data: It’s a Big Ops world now.

Today I’m joined by Scott Brinker, VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, the perfect tour guide to welcome you into this exciting new world.

Join us as we discuss:

The rise of Big Ops
How to navigate increasing complexity
The No-Code Movement

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There is an age-old issue in the revenue functions of every business…

Sales, Marketing and Service are all quick to blame each other when something goes wrong.

How do you finally get alignment between these key components in your business?

According to today’s guest, Alisa Goldschmidt, Senior Revenue Operations Manager at Harver, one of the best ways is through RevOps — and she joins the show to share why.

Join us as we discuss:

The value of having each revenue function under one umbrella
How to measure success across these departments
How RevOps makes life easier for the C-suite

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Do you believe your business can stay successful by luck alone?

There is only one definition of luck I’ve heard that will consistently drive results:

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

But you might know that by another name — strategy.

Today’s guest, Karen Root, Director of Experience Strategy at Boehringer Ingelheim, is a master strategizer, who joins me to untangle the secrets to planning and executing a successful strategy.

Join us as we discuss:

Why strategy begins with asking the right questions
How marketing can overcome the standard C-suite criticisms
Why you should seek strategy insights from outside your industry

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Positioning is vital to any business, yet it’s too often neglected.

Many will stick to their original positioning even if it doesn’t make sense — which is like Amazon calling itself a bookstore.

Others will position too broadly and try to please everyone — there’s a reason McDonalds is bad at selling salads.

So how do you find the right position for your business?

Today’s guest, April Dunford, Founder of Ambient Strategy, joins the show with the answers you seek.

Join us as we discuss:

The most common mistakes leading to an uncomfortable position
How to test the effectiveness of your positioning
How to get everyone in your organization aligned around your position

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Everyone wants to know what the next best move is. That’s going to depend on where you’re standing now, of course.

But here’s a hint: You’ll probably need to build out your RevOps.

In this episode, I chat with Sangram Vajre, Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder at Terminus and author of The MOVE, about answering the question, “What’s our next move?”

Join us as we discuss:

The SaaS Valley of Death, a.k.a. hitting $10M
The 3 Ps of market fit
Why RevOps is essential for growth
Who is the best RevOps fit right now
Retention is the new acquisition

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There’s a record level of distrust between the C-suite and the CMO. And just like an unhappy customer, regardless of the facts or reason, that unhappiness needs to be addressed.

With the intention of getting to the bottom of this contention, we’re joined today by three guests with CMO experience, either current or former:

Debbie Murphy, CMO at Gibraltar Industries
Lisa Cole, Global Marketing Leader at FARO Technologies
Domenic Colasante, CEO at 2X.

They discuss how they really feel about the conflict and what can be done to alleviate the situation.

In this episode, we discuss:

Declining marketing budgets, low levels of trust, & a high turnover rate
How to optimize for both the short & long term
Using data to predict for the future & helping businesses understand
Aligning C-suite & marketing
How to let marketers out of the box

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Why is it that IT & Marketing always seem to speak a different language?

It’s because they’re focusing on their process, not the outcome they need to achieve.

Solving the alignment problem starts with putting the customer first.

Today, I’m joined by Jason Galloway, Principal, and Bret Sanford, Managing Director of Marketing Consulting, at KPMG, where their extensive research into the problem has given them key insights that will have CMOs and CIOs finally speaking the same language.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why marketing and IT have trouble understanding one another and the common obstacles they face
Why putting the customer first is the best approach to solving the problem
How an agile model and clear leadership can lead to the best outcomes for the customer and your organization

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The CMO role is changing, whether you like it or not.

For many, the role is increasingly seen as less relevant.

And for the best CMOs, that provides some real opportunities to prove their value.

Today’s guest, Gaetano Nino DiNardi, Head of Growth & Demand Gen at Nextiva, understands these opportunities (and how to avoid the pitfalls in their way) better than anyone.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why CMOs need to update their core competencies
How marketing can avoid wasting the time of prospects and sales teams
Why we need to stop neglecting the value of brand

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For many startups, it seems like you have a choice:

Revenue or doing good in the world?

This binary is an illusion — if you take a Double Bottom Line approach, you can have your cake and eat it, too.

Today, I’m joined by someone who proves it. Norbert Sygdziak, Chief Executive Officer and President at RideAlong, was convinced he would do better than the 120-year-old yellow bus system that failed his son and decided to do something about it.

As his company saw massive growth, scaling threatened to upend the values inspiring the company, so he slowed down — and revenue never even had to take a hit.

In this episode, we discuss:

The very personal — yet universally relatable — problem RideShare was built to solve
How to maximize values and revenue simultaneously
The challenges of being a disruptor and carving a new niche

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Stop trying to measure brands by the quarter.

Building a brand is squarely a long-term play. If you try to smash it into a short-term round hole, you can only see 10% of your efforts at best.

Without a complete picture, you’re abandoning your hard work before you ever know its true impact.

Marketers need to be business people first, with a layer of marketing on top.

So says Nick Robinson, Digital Demand Generation Director in SAP North America, who, having been on both sides of the fence, joins the show to discuss the intersection between strategy and operations.

In this episode, we discuss:

The trouble with brand attribution
Linear vs exponential thinking
The difficulty in making marketing predictions

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Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Accelerating Value in your favorite podcast player.

Many businesses look at the wealth of data available to them and think: “Finally, I’ll have all the answers I need.”

Meanwhile, every great data scientist is shaking their head…

Because they know that data science is about more than the data (or even the science).

One such master of the art of data science is Andy Hasselwander, Chief Analytics Officer at MarketBridge, who joins the show to share what businesses (and many data scientists) get wrong about analytics.

In this episode, we discuss:

Common mistakes companies make with data analytics
The measurement trap (and how to avoid it)
Why data specialists need to better understand the businesses and industries they work in

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For businesses, value is equivalent to monetization. For customers, not so much.

Todd Unger, Chief Experience Officer for the American Medical Association (AMA), understands the healthcare value chain from all angles. Todd is also the AMA’s SVP of Marketing and Member Experience.

It’s only fitting that I invited him onto this episode of Accelerating Value, to discuss:

How to get people to pay attention while they’re under pressure
The AMA’s role in the healthcare value chain
Recurring membership marketing and audience growth
Todd’s most significant learnings from the pandemic

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Marketing requires a ton of creativity, but that doesn’t mean it should be devoid of the analytical.

In fact, analytics are key to the success of any marketing strategy.

Which is why the best marketers are those who know how to marry the qualitative with the quantitative.

One such marketer is today’s guest, John Busby , Chief Marketing Officer & Managing Director at Centerfield . After years spent analyzing data, the skills he learned are helping him succeed daily as a marketer.

In this episode, we discuss:

-Why KPIs should be central to everything you do

-How to get organizational buy-in using analytics

-The importance of aligning incentives

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Customer experience is the key to retention, but you can only deliver it when everyone is working together.

So, if you’re a new CEO at a company and you realize CX is missing from the culture— what do you do?

The best solution is probably to ask my latest guest, Adam Dorrell, CEO of CustomerGauge. But, in case that’s not an option…I asked him for you and he was nice enough to share the secrets to delivering phenomenal customer experience.

In this episode, we discuss:

How B2B can deliver customer experience just as well as B2C
How to create a culture of customer experience
How to think about NPS and your tech stack for customer experience

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The term decision support came about 70 years ago. Throughout the years, the discipline has gone through different iterations from machine learning to business intelligence, but at its essence, it’s still simply about using data and analytics to support people in making decisions.

Want to know more?

Join us as Donald Farmer, Principal at TreeHive Strategy, leads us through the complex world of data and analytics.

We discuss:

The relationship between data and analytics
The analytics process
Working with AI
Why data analytics needs to match the rhythm of the business
How automation helps you do business in a new way

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If you want to drive value from data, you have to understand the definition of value. It’ll be different at every organization, and most of the time it has nothing to do with financial metrics.

When you monetize data, you’re actually monetizing the manifestation of insights about your customers.

In this episode, I interview Bill Schmarzo, Data Science and Data Monetization Strategic Advisor at Dean of Big Data, about the meaning of value, the value of data, and the role of data analytics in data monetization.

In this episode we discuss:

Why merely having data puts you in the negative percent of monetization
How to avoid fixation on cleaning your data house
How to avoid the cult of precision
The ideal composition of a data science team
Where the real value of AI manifests (hint: not with execs)

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to the Accelerating Value on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

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Choosing a senior living community can be one of the biggest decisions of a person’s life. That community will usher them until their last days—providing care and a relational experience unmatched by other healthcare services such as a hospital stay.

Lindsay Hutter, CMO of Goodwin House, joins the show to discuss her strategies for building a first-rate experience for customers, tailoring the experience w/ shifting customer values, & reinforcing the idea that senior care can never be just a transaction.

What we talked about:

Background of Goodwin House
AARP and Other Associations’ Relationship w/ Goodwin House
Rating Systems within Senior Living Communities
Data Accumulation & Following Customer Journeys
The Velocity of Commitment Concept
Understanding the Changing Values of the Customer & Associated Risks
Long Term VS. Short Term Value Creation

To hear more interviews like this one, subscribe to the Accelerating Value on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

Value is subjective and context-specific, but it can’t exist without people. Defining and striving for value hinges on people interacting with each other.

Jim Weiss has spent almost 20 years as the Chairman, CEO & Founder of Real Chemistry, thriving on the view that value is people-centric, no matter which metrics we use to analyze it.

What we talked about:

Value creation hinges on communication skills
The importance of listening and managing expectations
Are ESG scores worth using as value indicators?
Value through the lenses of learning and risk
Value from a marketing perspective: balancing fine print with building trust

Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:

Jim’s LinkedIn profile
Real Chemistry’s website

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Most business leaders expect the marketing and brand management teams to accommodate the business perspective, but what would happen if we changed that?

Jennifer Granston, CCO of Zignal Labs, places the marketing cap on business leadership. It’s how she keeps things fresh, and why we’ve spoken with her about:

Evolving function-first mentality into function-informed business mentality
What’s holding back the evolution of PR & Comms?
The brand story: to tell or not to tell?
Lessons from the previous 12 months
Zignal’s role in brand monitoring and business management

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Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It’s a challenge to define value for each of your business functions, vertically and horizontally, let alone to assess if it’s being created regularly.

Helping us define value in context, in today’s episode of Accelerating Value, is Kevin Moriarty, Principal at KMM Ventures, LLC.

What we talked about:

Defining value
It’s not a business case if it doesn’t explain how it creates business value
The relationship between value and time
Value-based decision-making in an uncertain world

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Lisa Sullivan, Partner, Managing Director Technology Practice at Ketchum, spoke with us about how the value proposition of PR has changed over the course of her career. Not only is PR being perceived more as a two-way street, but communications is serving an even more important role in creating value.

We also talked about:

Characteristics of good PR
Combining art and science into PR decisions
Two challenges that the number of communication outlets presents
PR value in the B2B context
Internal PR: employee communications

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Ayaz Malik, Group Marketing Manager Digital Strategy at Roche, talks with us about creating value over a long period of time. Rather than a “campaign,” we should be thinking in terms of continuous engagement, constantly making small changes to what we are building based on analytics.

We also talked about:

The relationship between time, value, and risk
Ayaz’s life mission to serve others faithfully
A marketing campaign vs. a mindset of continuous engagement
Using data responsibly to enable relationship and decision-making

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Jennifer Brenner, CMO at iland Cloud, speaks with us about value, risk, and marketing. Just five years ago, we considered it to be no major risk for our websites to be down for a day or so. Now, a minute can be too long.

We also talked about:

Recent mindset shifts with regard to risk
The CMO as investment manager
The top risks for marketers to avoid
The role of account-based research and strategic accounts

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Chris Walker, CEO at Refine Labs, had a candid conversation with us about why most people have marketing all wrong. Those who view marketers as people who hunt for contact information for sales are living in the late 2000s, while those who view marketers as educators and demand creators.

We also talked about:

Peer-to-peer learning among CEOs and CFOs
Executives need to audit the data on which they base decisions
Why creating delight for customers is a better, yet harder ROI
The origin of churn in B2B

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Erica Brinker, Chief Marketing Officer of Commercial Excellence & ESG at Array Technologies, Inc and formerly of Honeywell, brings a perspective on accelerating value based in marketing for a long sales cycle and renewing brand value. She shares the importance of eating your own dog food, as well as a strange call she received from her carpet installers.

We also talked about:

Why preventative maintenance is better than downtime in manufacturing
Applying digital transformation logic to marketing
Reviewing brand value in the light of 2020
Minimizing risk with marketing
The intersection of our personal lives with our professional lives

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The conventional wisdom is that you should avoid mixing the professional with the personal…

But that’s wrong.

Often, getting better in one makes you better in the other.

Just ask Sangram Vajre, Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder at Terminus, who approaches improving as a family man with the same zeal as his marketing.

And he’s always adding value in either domain.

In this episode, we discuss:

Learning what energizes you so you can add value for others
Why great leaders ask questions, not just bark orders
How the personal and pr

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Everything is shifting online out of necessity.

Not only your tactical choices but also the way you think about online presence can affect your profitability.

In this episode, I interview Joe Tran, Chief Marketing Strategist at Brandigy, about how he counsels clients on how value is changing in the marketplace.

What we talked about:

The need for an online presence strategy
Getting the ROI right on marketing spend
Brand and culture perception
Impact from Apple iOS 14.5 and other data tips

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In this episode, I interview Julie Brown, Global Director of Business Transformation – Services at Johnson Controls, about how the 2 pillars of value are rooted in understanding the times.

What we talked about:

The 2 pillars of value: humility and recalibration
Stagnancy is the death of value
Energy conservation, minimizing risk, and opportunity cost
The biggest obstacle to driving internal change

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Bob Pearson, CEO of The Bliss Group, has been a part of some really amazing value creation over the course of his career and he shares some of those stories on today’s episode, including how he recently created The Next Practice Group, which maximizes structured value creation for clients.

What we talked about:

Challenges of creating value in 2021
Creating sustained value
How value creation affects compensation and price structures
Building a culture where people are eager to ask questions
Clearly communicating value

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One person has been documenting the rise of martech in corporations since the very beginning. For Scott Brinker, VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, the Chief Marketing Technologist blog started out as a labor of love driven by his fascination with the entanglement happening between IT and software development and marketing. Since its inception, it has delivered massive value to the industry at large.

In this episode, we cover:

What led him to create Chief Marketing Technologist
The volatility and velocity of change over the past 30 months with respect to martech
Two things successful companies are doing to ride the wave
Finding harmony between human and machine to increase speed to insight

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On this episode of Accelerating Value, we talk with Russ Somers, the CMO at Trust Radius.

Our conversation centered around:

The difference between confidence and trust
Why incentivizing things like software reviews actually establishes trust and creates more statistically sound data
Positive manipulation
How the B2B buyer journey is like a marriage

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In Accelerating Value, you’ll hear something that will help you answer your marketing questions. Every episode.

This podcast is about giving visibility to the marketing multiplier effect that marketing delivers. It’s about taking the success of others and scaling that into your situation.

In this trailer episode of Accelerating Value, your host Mark Stouse, Chairman and CEO at Proof Analytics, explains the goals of the podcast — and asks you to reach out.

What we talked about:

Why marketing has the coolest goal of any department
About Proof Analytics and what it solves
What listeners should expect to hear on each episode
Mark’s request for you to suggest podcast questions or guests

Get in touch with Mark on LinkedIn, on Twitter @markstouse, or email at mark.stouse@proof.world.

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