CMOs – The new Swiss Army Knife

Shownotes

In this episode of Sunny Side Up, Kim Kaminski, a technology marketing expert with more than 30 years of experience, discusses the importance of a strong and empowered leadership team for a CMO to focus more on market and strategy than day-to-day marketing activities. Listen in as Kim talks about how a CMO should have a bench across different areas of marketing and be able to make connections between different parts of the organization to prioritize and focus on customer needs.

About the Guest

Kim Kaminski has more than 30 years of technology marketing and operational leadership experience. She is CMO for NS1, a leader in smart network control solutions. Before joining NS1, Kim was VP of global marketing at Amplitude. She previously led global integrated campaigns and sales development teams at ServiceNow. Kim’s expertise spans brand management, go-to-market, product and portfolio marketing, digital demand creation, and partner marketing. She has a B.A. degree in journalism/advertising from Northern Illinois University. Her passion is aligning marketing, sales, and product to accelerate business growth.

Connect with Kim Kaminski

Key Takeaways

• The key role of a CMO in today’s economy is more critical than ever and requires a well-balanced approach across all domains of marketing.
• To remain competitive, companies need to focus on what is working and adjust their strategy accordingly.
• When it comes to focusing, focusing on a core set of ICP accounts which they score and measure everything across the funnel on these accounts.
• Alignment focuses and prioritization has allowed us to react more quickly to economic and competitive pressures and adjust approaches with fluidity.

Quote

“I think now more than ever, we all need to be more of a Swiss Army Knife, and we all need to have that right balance of knowledge and working experience across the domains of marketing.”

– Kim Kaminski

Highlights from the Episode

How does a strong and empowered leadership team allow a CMO to focus more on market and strategy rather than being tied down to run the day-to-day marketing activities?

It boils down to the importance of customer experience as a competitive advantage. Given the responsibility of marketing to know the customer intimately, it is natural for the CMO to have a system that drives the company’s strategy. The CMO needs to have strong marketing leadership, and the shift comes when the CMO becomes more of a coaching facilitator and is ready to do the hard work when required. Smart CMOS works across different parts of the organization and makes those connections, really focusing on targeting customer needs.

How does a well-balanced approach help in assembling a successful marketing team and building out a winning strategy as well?

First of all, it is necessary to have working knowledge across all the domains. Without it, it becomes more challenging to identify the right leadership and the right players on your team. It requires being aware of blind spots and areas of weakness. Being humble and acknowledging those aspects helps to create guidance when building teams and marketing strategies.

Has the role of a CMO become even more critical considering the current economic climate?

Clearly. Considering the competitive pressure of today’s industry. That’s where alignment, focus, and prioritization come into play. In Kim’s experience, when it comes to focusing, the focus needs to be on a core set of ICP accounts, which Kim’s team scores, and we measure everything across the funnel on these ICPs. Alignment is across product, marketing, sales, and business development on the go-to-market strategy and then within marketing, in terms of prioritization, they use a real agile planning framework, and that’s essentially a mix of always on and prioritize precision programs. This alignment, focus, and prioritization have allowed us to react more quickly to these economic and competitive pressures and adjust our approaches with a lot of fluidity.

Is there a book, blog, newsletter, website, or video that you would recommend to our listeners?

A book: Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt

A podcast: Revenue Vitals with Chris Walker

A blog: Good News Marketing by Debbie O’Brien

A newsletter: Marketing Brew, Stacked Marketer, Benedict’s Newsletter, and Visual Capitalist

A website: McKinsey & Co’s app McKinsey Insights

Shout-outs

Jennifer Johnson – CMO at CrowdStrike

Claire Darling – CMO at Sky Box

Hien Phan – Product Marketing Leader at Amplitude

Steven Dunston – VP of Marketing at Avoma