Mind the Gap: Recent Episodes
Enablix
Why can't sales and marketing get on the same page? On Mind the Gap, host Nick Ziech-Lopez speaks with leaders in Sales, Marketing, Product Marketing, and Sales Enablement to understand why revenue teams get out of alignment, and how to close the gap in between them.
Can you effectively create content without being connected to the product and customer? In this episode, I talked with Rish Bhandari, CEO at Content Beta, on the differences (and similarities) between content and product marketing. In our discussion, we cover: why product marketers can create powerful content, instances where it makes sense for content and product marketing to be on the same team, and why "T-Shaped" marketers are often the most successful
To hear more from Rish, you can hear him as the host of the Product Marketing Show, produced by Content Beta.
Do you need a survival guide to market in a scale up? In this episode, Tom Lloyd, VP of Marketing at SEDNA, breaks down the paradox of marketing at a scale up - having to do more with less and why many decisions aren't as 'either/or' as they seem, but can be 'both/and'. Also covered: Why you need to balance proactive strategies with reactive tactics to be effective, and keys for predicting where marketing strategies and tactics may fail before they do. This episode is for any marketers who feel like they're trying to do the impossible with the resources they have.
Can you love a product so much that you market it? In this episode, Nick is joined by Erik Mansur, VP of PMM at Crayon, to commiserate and share best practices over their experiences joining marketing leadership at companies after having used the product. They cover the pros and cons of having user empathy coming into a marketing role, the double-edged sword of assuming that other users are just like you, and examples of messaging a traditionally 'nice to have' product to a 'must have' product during a recession If you like this episode and care about seeing how your competitive program measures up to the rest of the indsutry, check out the Crayon Competitive Program Grader at https://crayon.co/competitive-program-grader
The sales team has to know when new content comes out - but if you tell them everything all fo the time, they're going to end up drowning you out. In the final episode of our four part miniseries on content enablement workflows, Nick sits down with Felix Krueger, CEO at FFWD, to discuss the importance of a purpose-driven content strategy, why sales enablement has to know how sales is using content, and why most sales enablement projects should be viewed through the lens of change management, and effective ways to communicate changes. This episode is perfect for sales enablement managers and product marketers that can't seem to get their sales team to pay attention to changes in content.
How do you keep your sales content library up-to-date without sacrificing quality? In this episode, Nick sits down with Gaurav Harode, Founder at Enablix, to discuss why typical folder and storage systems aren't great at organizing sales content, why even the best content libraries eventually go bad without intervention, and easy steps to improve the quality of your content library. This episode is perfect for anyone in sales or content enablement trying to control the amount of sales and marketing content in their library without spending a ton of time or energy doing a complete audit.
Marketing can create collateral for sales, but without effective feedback it's never going to do the job. In part two of our 4-part content miniseries, Nick and Andrew cover why no one creates a 'perfect' piece of marketing content on the first release, how a modular approach to content creation helps facilitate feedback between sales and marketing, and why part of sales enablement's job might be getting negative feedback, and taking it in stride This episode is perfect for anyone wanting to facilitate successful feedback from their sales team without opening up too much to needless criticism.
While it may feel like a pipe dream to some, half of all sales and marketing content is produced by sales reps themselves in healthy revenue organizations. In the first episode of our four part miniseries on content enablement workflows, Jonathan Tavella, head of sales ops at Minna Technologies, helps me understand why the sales team is "accidentally" creating so much valuable content, Easy ways to turn your sales team into a bona fide content engine, and how to pull insights out of a busy sales team. This episode is for any content marketers who want to scale output by using the entire revenue team.
Everyone talks about building your personal brand online, but who really wants to play the Linkedin "game"? Why is finding good agency help so difficult? Can you really record a video podcast in a kitchen? In our first LIVE episode, Nick sits down with Daniel to discuss the importance of building a personal brand, ways to find a unique perspective on what's happening in your industry and world, why finding good freelance and agency work is so difficult, and the right mindset to be in when searching for agency help as a marketer. This episode is perfect for any marketers struggling to find the right fit with an agency, or anyone trying to justify the time or effort it takes to build a brand online.
How do you define sales readiness, and is it really separate from enablement? In this episode, Nick sits down with Jawahar Kanjilal, Founder and CEO of Streamz.ai, to discuss what it means to truly be sales-ready. They also dive deep into why the job of the sales rep is so dynamic and how to best prepare reps for the ever-changing outside world. This episode is perfect for anyone preparing for sales who's interested in how AI can prepare and train sales reps.
Where's the line between sales and sales enablement? Should Sales Empowerment be a thing? What's Ikigai and how does it apply to sales? In this episode, Nick talks to Andrew Gray, Director of Sales Enablement at SambaNova Systems as they cover a lot of ground on everything from The difference between sales and enablement and why former reps make perfect enablers to finding purpose and breaking into enablement from sales. This episode is for anyone looking for the deeper impact that revenue enablement can make on teams, and honestly gets pretty inspiring at times.
How fluent do marketers need to be in data? In this episode, Shashi Bellamkonda, VP of Marketing at Involve.ai, opens up about his thoughts on AI's place in marketing and the potential that machine-driven solutions have as well as the overlap between marketing and analytics and the potential for marketing to be an embedded function within the organization, with more marketers working for teams outside of marketing This episode covers a LOT of ground, and is perfect for anyone wanting to scale marketing at their organization without creating a large, standalone marketing silo.
When you're the first product marketer at a growing company... how do you choose what needs to get done? In this episode, Nick Ziech-Lopez sits down with Anand Patel, Director of Product Marketing at Appcues, to dive deep on prioritizing product marketing tasks and growing a team. They cover: How product marketing can feel less 'political' than product management, the difficulties and opportunity of being the first PMM in a growing organization, and the importance of contributing to the team, even as a 'strategic' product marketer. This episode is perfect for singular product marketers in growing organizations that feel there is simply too much to get done.
How do you know if your CEO “gets” marketing? In this episode, Nick Ziech-Lopez sits down with Matt Stammers, CMO at Zeno Technologies, to discuss how to be successful at driving marketing as a single-person team. They dive into specifics on what to do yourself, what to have others do, and knowing what to do with what doesn’t get done. This episode is for anyone who is considering joining a company as a first marketing hire, but doesn't know if it will be right for them.
Anyone can lay out a sales enablement strategy that looks great, but how do you continually execute to show progress and momentum? In this episode, Nick sits down with Felix Krueger, CEO of Fast Forward and creator of the podcast Sales Enablement, to discuss sales enablement consulting the key differences between sales and sales enablement, and where the industry is going over the next few years. This episode is for sales and sales enablement practitioners alike - a lot of great detail about execution, as well as Felix's bold prediction on whether or not sales enablement will be a college major in years to come.
What does it take to design the perfect buyer experience, leaving your customers in love with your organization? In this episode, Nick sits down with Moni Oloyede, Director of Marketing Infrastructure at Fidelis Cybersecurity, to dive into understanding the point of view of companies’ ideal target audiences. Also discussed: how effective communication is about empathy.. and what is marketing infrastructure anyways? This episode is perfect for anyone looking to perfect their companies’ relationship with consumers, and learn more about how to leave a lasting impression on people, not just gaining their attention.
Everybody wants a differentiated product, but can differentiation come from the marketing message, and not the product itself? Nick sits down with Rory Woodbridge, Senior PMM at Pleo and author of https://productmarketer.substack.com/ (The Product Marketer), as they discuss the benefits of messaging-led differentiation and why many founders build too much in the spirit of being ‘different’. Also discussed: The key for PMM’s to work more effectively with product managers and how product marketing needs to “find itself” over the next year. This episode is perfect for anyone seeking more product differentiation, or any PMM’s struggling to work effectively with their product management teams.
How do you effectively create a culture of collaboration between product marketing and sales? Nick sits down with Phill Brougham, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Unbabel, as they discuss why customer empathy and understanding are your secret weapons when helping the sales team, effective product marketing OKR’s and the framework for measuring product marketing’s contributions at any company, and why product marketing may not always need to own sales enablement. With a deep dive on product marketing OKR’s, this episode is perfect for anyone wondering how to effectively measure product marketing’s contributions to the team, or anyone figuring out how PMM’s should be fueling your sales team.
How do you bridge the gap between sales and marketing in a product-led growth organization? In this episode, Nick sits down with Alessandra Colaci, VP of marketing at Mailshake and host of the “Marketing is Hard” podcast to discuss why sales and marketing alignment is crucial for companies operating in a product-led sales model, The importance of sales and marketing members developing their personal brand through social channels, and Alessandra’s journey in creating the “Marketing is Hard” podcast. This episode is perfect for anyone growing sales and marketing in product-led companies - and be sure to check out the https://marketingishard.ck.page/ (Marketing is Hard) podcast, coming out soon!
How do you create a sales and marketing culture of Demand gen? In this episode, Jason Myers, CRO at Austin Lawrence Group, discusses how to build genuine demand for your product through content marketing and lays out a scalable content-based sales and marketing growth strategy - all without ignoring the crucial need to continuously feed the sales team with likely buyers for your product. This episode is perfect for any early-stage sales and marketing leaders who have bought into the demand gen hype but are unsure how to balance modern demand gen practices with classic lead gen strategies.
We all know that product marketers wear a lot of hats and are expected to be the ‘expert’ on just about everything… So what do they do when they’re just starting out at a company? In this episode, Nick sits down with Jason Oakley, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Klue, to discuss why so many PMM’s can feel an “imposter syndrome” when they aren’t the expert at something, and how to put more definition behind the value a person brings to a company as a PMM. If you’re a product marketer that’s just starting out in a new role OR you’re feeling anxious in how you fit into the team, this episode is for you.
Nearly every sales rep will tell you that they need quality sales content to succeed, but where does it come from? In this episode Nick sits down with Erin Sarris, Sr. Content Strategist at Paypal, to talk through ideas of sustainably creating content for the sales team, and how to develop an effective dialogue to make sure that sales enablement strategies are actually working for the sales team.
How do you determine marketing’s role in revenue generation for your organization? To figure it out, Nick talks with Emil Mladenov, VP of Corporate and Digital Marketing at Inspirata, to discuss why a background in analytics can be beneficial to marketers, how to use the challenger sales and marketing model as a blueprint, and the three purposes that content can serve within a buyer’s journey.
How do you bridge the gap between just two people? In the first episode of 2022, Nick sits down with Will Devlin, head of marketing at MessageGears, to talk through life as a marketing team of one, bridging the gap between marketing and sales as your organization grows, and key deliverables to look out for and how to stay in-sync with sales along the way.
How do you effectively market and sell products that are so complex that most people can't understand how they work? In this episode, Nick talks with Kristina Libby, CMO at Hypergiant, as she describes how to be the 'cool kids in the room' when selling AI-powered software, and lessons she's learned from building a brand while also fueling sales.
What do you do when the traditional playbook doesn't work as well as it used to? In this episode, Nick talks with Nelson Gilliat, author of "The Death of the SDR: And the Birth of Buyer Centric Revenue", about why some sales and marketing teams miss the mark when they pursue the traditional "Predictable Revenue" model of revenue generation. They discuss: How SDR's can be potentially incentivized to create negative customer experiences The pro's and con's of account executives being responsible for quota Marketing's place in the modern buying cycle, and the importance of content