Jen Spencer Demand Generation and the CRO - 246

In this episode, Mike talks with Jen Spencer about the role of sales and marketing in demand generation and her new role as CRO at SmartBug Media.  Key Takeaways: You have to make hard decisions when it comes to demand generation, having data helps.  Organizations struggle when they don’t have that data - it becomes an emotional decision when data is absent. Use data to tell a story. Failure comes when you’re not aligned across the board. We are still in the early days of the CRO role in organizations, it will change things. But, we are in the early adoption stage of that philosophy. Cross-functional collaboration among teams is starting to emerge. Most people are sitting on a ton of data and they don’t know how to access it or organize it in a way that is useful. Initially it seems hard to justify carving out time to set up data gathering/documenting correctly, but it is worth it to spend the time upfront. Lay the foundation as early as you can.  Job shadowing work - members of the team participating in some of the conversations they might not otherwise, offers great insight and the ability to ask different types of questions of the client.  We don’t sell alone. Leverage members of your team to set better alignment.  Everything needs to roll back up to company goals and initiatives. Then it is about pulling the right levers.  Show Links:  Jen on LinkedIn SmartBug Media website Revenue Collective SDR Nation Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or [email protected] Download some of our free resources here Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to [email protected] or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit