Episode #249:

Stephanie Pilon, Chief Marketing Officer at Singular, shares how her team exceeded revenue targets without relying on paid media. She explains why long sales cycles and niche ICPs reduce the effectiveness of paid channels in B2B. Stephanie also walks through data-backed decisions that drove a strategic shift away from ads. Her approach shows how focus, alignment, and execution outperform spend.

“Start looking at your data and begin understanding the commonalities between the deals you’re winning. Start reverse-engineering those patterns, because that’s how you’ll develop your scoring model. That’s how you’ll figure out which signals will lead you to fresh deals down the road.” – Stephanie Pilon

In this episode, Stephanie breaks down how B2B CMOs can rethink growth by shifting attention away from paid channels and toward customer insight, internal alignment, and signal-based execution. She explains how partnerships, precision outbound, and disciplined data analysis create a more predictable pipeline and help marketing earn credibility with sales teams, executives, and boards.

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Episode #248:

Michelle Urdiales, CMO at LAM and a Member of the Regional Leadership Board at A.P. Moller - Maersk, explains how customer centricity must move beyond intention and become an operational strategy. She outlines how working backward from the customer shapes leadership decisions, prioritization, and long-term value creation. Michelle connects customer focus to retention, trust, and internal alignment across the organization. Her insights show how sustainable growth follows when customer value leads every decision.

“Never lose sight of the customer. Stay close to the business and the customer, and make it intentional. Plan these conversations, bring in the voice of the customer, and apply what you learn daily. This drives personalization, creates meaningful experiences, and completes the growth circle for their benefit.” – Michelle Urdiales

In this episode, Michelle shares how global leadership experience across technology, logistics, and B2B environments shaped her customer-first mindset. She explains why organizations must move past slogans and dashboards and embed customer insight into daily decision-making.

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Episode #247:

Vitaly Bochkarev, Chief Marketing Officer at Звук, explains how companies can grow when traditional channels disappear and trust becomes the real competitive edge. He shares how deep partner integration, not surface-level collaboration, creates scalable customer value. Vitaly demonstrates how unified journeys, shared KPIs, and multi-level buy-in turn ecosystems into high-performing engines. His insights reveal why partnerships succeed only when every layer of both organizations commits.

“Real growth, especially in B2B, is not about having the biggest budget or the flashiest channel. It is about building trust, creating value, and investing in people and partnerships that actually work.” - Vitaly Bochkarev

This episode goes deeper into how partnership ecosystems become a scalable engine when incentives align, teams buy in, and companies commit to shared outcomes. Vitaly shares practical lessons leaders can apply to accelerate growth in complex or limited-channel markets.

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Episode #246:

Vidhya Srinivasan, Chief Marketing Officer at Prophix, explains why internal alignment is the most significant barrier to scale. She describes how cross-functional miscommunication creates friction, anxiety, and stalled execution. Vidhya shares how simple, repeatable processes and clear engagement models unlock growth. She closes with a reminder that going back to basics is the fundamental foundation for sustainable scale.

"If we can get past the internal friction points and make our operational processes like clockwork, then scaling the organization is going to be a breeze." – Vidhya Srinivasan

This episode gives leaders practical steps to remove internal roadblocks that stall growth. Vidhya shows how simple funnels, disciplined communication, and consistent feedback loops improve execution. She also explains how operational clarity helps marketing, sales, and product teams perform in sync for sustainable scale.

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Episode #245:

Willem Hendrickx, Chief Revenue Officer at Vectra AI, shares how customer insight becomes the foundation for strong strategy and lasting momentum. He shows how a clear ICP sharpens focus and accelerates growth. Willem connects culture, leadership, and the voice of the customer into one unified system. He highlights how internal alignment transforms customer evidence into predictable, scalable success.

“The customer should be at the center of gravity. The customer is the one who pays the bill, and the customer is the one who defines your overall strategy. You need to make sure you are very clear about putting that customer first.” – Willem Hendrickx

This episode explores how aligning leadership, data-driven ICP targeting, and customer advocacy builds a reliable growth engine. Willem shows how companies can strengthen retention, reduce internal friction, and scale faster by grounding every decision in customer evidence and shared accountability.

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Episode #244:

Jillian Als, Chief Marketing Officer at Dealfront, reveals why misalignment is the hidden challenge slowing growth inside every organization. She explains how internal definitions of success must match across departments. Jillian shares why direct, agenda-free customer conversations reshape strategy. She also warns that chasing AI without clarity results in wasted effort rather than impact.

“You need to have the most honest conversation about what growth means to you individually. Everyone needs to get around the table and align on where the organization is going, when agreement is reached, and how each strategic goal contributes to achieving that growth.” – Jillian Als

In this episode, leaders will learn why clarity, shared expectations, and authentic customer dialogue create a roadmap for growth. Jillian shows how alignment, experience, and defined outcomes help companies avoid wasted effort and make strategy executable across the entire organization.

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Episode #243:

Jacqueline Woods, Chief Marketing Officer at Teradata, explains why execution only works when trust and culture come first. She shows how clear roles, accountability, and mutual respect unlock performance. Jacqueline connects preparation and discipline to sustainable innovation. Even with an average product, the right culture can still win.

“When teams perform best, everyone feels like they are in it together, and they do not feel blamed for things that are not working. That kind of culture builds trust. If you do not have that, your execution probably does not go as well.” – Jacqueline Woods

In this episode, Jacqueline breaks down why high-trust environments outperform even with average products. She shares practical stories on accountability, communication, and team alignment, giving leaders a clearer view of how trust shapes execution, innovation, and long-term success.

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Episode #242:

Kari Hanson, Chief Marketing Officer at Robin, explains why traditional ideas of predictability are breaking under the pressure of AI-driven change. She describes how shifting buyer behavior makes historic performance less reliable as a guide. Kari shows how brand and voice of the customer can restore clarity in this chaos and outlines a path to rebuild more predictable revenue systems grounded in genuine customer insight.

“The brand and really understanding the voice of the customer are the pieces that feed the predictability in a very unpredictable way.” - Kari Hanson

This episode explores why classic ideas of predictability are breaking in an AI-driven world and what CMOs can do about it. Kari unpacks shifting buyer behavior, lazy AI use, and noisy markets, then shows how brand and customer voice give leaders the context they need to design more reliable, scalable revenue systems.

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