C-Suite Sales & Marketing Perspectives

Episode #336:Liz Emmott, Chief Revenue Officer at CIBT, explores how commercial leaders can rebuild revenue organizations amid changing technology and buyer expectations. She explains why customer understanding, internal trust, and expert collaboration create meaningful differentiation. Her perspective shows how aligned teams can build credibility, improve the customer experience, and drive sustainable revenue growth.“Being able to articulate, understand, and speak the language of our customers and prospects is actually the only way we are going to win. We have to demonstrate that we know their industry better than they do, and this is why they ne...

Episode #335:Stephanie Crockett, President and CEO at Eric Mower + Associates, explains why customer obsession should influence decisions across the entire organization. She explores how customer intelligence can align teams, reduce risk, strengthen trust, and support bolder decisions. Stephanie also shows how CMOs can turn the voice of the customer into greater strategic influence and sustainable growth.“That's where the revenue comes. It's about creating products and services, front of the house and back of the house, where all of the things that a customer experiences demonstrate that obsession with their needs.” - Stephanie CrockettCu...

Episode #334:Zach Calef, Chief Revenue Officer at Infinity, explains how customer obsession becomes a practical revenue strategy. He explores client economics, strategic alignment, innovation, trust, human capital, and disciplined execution. Zach shows why understanding what customers truly need can help revenue teams differentiate, strengthen relationships, and build repeatable growth.“The obsession is where it starts, and without the obsession, you're going to minimize the revenue that you're capturing for your clients. You have to start with the centerpiece, which is the client.” - Zach CalefCustomer obsession becomes more valuable when it shapes how...

Episode #333:Jennifer Knecht, Chief Revenue Officer at Western States Lodging, explains how emotional intelligence strengthens B2B revenue performance. She explores how awareness, trust, transparency, and meaningful connections influence buyer decisions. Jennifer also shares how AI can help sales teams understand different perspectives, strengthen human relationships, and reach the emotional level behind buying decisions faster.“Revenue is driven by the exchange of value. The faster you can get to the emotional level, the faster you can get to a true, solid decision that sticks.” - Jennifer KnechtJennifer explores why emotional intelligence is beco...

Episode #332:Mike Head, Chief Revenue Officer at Orderful, explains how customer understanding can strengthen every part of the go-to-market organization. He shares practical ways to prepare for executive conversations, improve discovery, coach teams with AI, strengthen retention, and align teams around customer priorities. Mike also explains why consistent execution, genuine curiosity, and continuous customer engagement can build trust, improve revenue performance, and create sustainable growth.“Your technology, your logo slide, all that stuff doesn't matter. What really matters is the customer and what they care about, and if you focus on that across your engagements in...

Episode #331:Matthias Holder, Chief Sales Officer at Lindner Recyclingtech, explains how customer obsession creates sustainable revenue by helping sales organizations understand customers, their markets, and their needs. He explores how salespeople can become trusted advisors by discussing business needs, market conditions, productivity, quality, costs, and competitive advantage before recommending solutions. Matthias also shows how continuous customer insight can guide sales strategy, product development, internal decisions, and stronger long-term customer relationships.“Never fall in love with your products. Fall in love with your customers, your customers' success. Products change, technology changes, markets change, customer expectations and ch...

Episode #330:Brooke Norton Lais, Chief Marketing Officer at Venbrook, explains why relationship-led growth requires companies to build trust long before a buying decision occurs. She shares how marketing can create opportunities for salespeople to reach the right executives and build meaningful one-to-one relationships. Brooke also explains how established C-suite relationships can create internal advocates and open access deeper within prospective accounts. “Creating situations where we can drive awareness and credibility for our brand while also building relationships is where I’m going to get the most value. When we can get our people in front of p...

Episode #329:Siddharth Singh, Chief Revenue Officer at Intangles, explains the skills modern salespeople need as buyers become more informed and meetings become harder to secure. He explores deeper discovery, primary research, creativity, and AI-enabled productivity. Siddharth shows why knowing a customer’s business beyond searchable information creates differentiation. He also explains why sales leaders must remain active player coaches as their responsibilities expand.“Ask the right questions. But if you ask questions without actively listening to what the customer is saying, you dig your own grave. The skill is how fast you go from situation ques...

Episode #328:Michael Scott, Global Chief Revenue Officer at LoopMe, explains the revenue logic behind customer obsession. He shares how deeper customer understanding helps companies identify problems they are uniquely positioned to solve, create greater value, and become more important to customers. The conversation explores why customer obsession requires C-suite alignment, continuous customer learning, and strong data. Michael also explains why it must become part of how the entire organization operates.“The better you know your customer, the more you can be a trusted partner, advisor to them, the more you can find problems that you're un...

Episode #327:Trine Tirsgaard, Group Chief Marketing Officer at Twoday, explains how customer understanding, data, experimentation, and continuous learning can create greater strategic value with AI. She explores how marketing leaders can combine technology with customer intelligence to improve decision-making, strengthen teams, and create more meaningful business value. Trine also shares why curiosity and practical experimentation are becoming essential leadership capabilities for navigating rapid technological change.“What matters the most in the future is the power of humans. It's the way we put our intellect to work. It's our creativity, and the way to orchestrate concepts an...

Episode 326:Laura Davis, Chief Marketing Officer at Rimes Technologies, explains why customer obsession must translate into commercial outcomes. She explores customer intelligence, AI, data strategy, internal alignment, and pipeline accountability as markets rapidly evolve. Laura shows why sustainable revenue ultimately depends on continually understanding what customers need and building the business around those priorities.“The customer is everything. Even in the context of AI and our whole industry changing, and the practice of marketing changing and all the different things, at the end of the day, you need to build and sell something the customer wa...

Episode #325Nick Malone, Chief Revenue Officer at XTM, explains what separates successful AI-native companies from organizations simply adopting new tools. He explores value-led AI, executive leadership, experimentation, data, and practical workflows that improve productivity. Nick shows why companies that connect AI to measurable outcomes while keeping humans at the core can turn incremental gains into meaningful competitive advantage.“A company's got to be willing to go into uncharted territories, to be willing to experiment. You must go and dig deep and experiment and understand in what ways you can use the AI capabilities today to im...

Episode #324:Katie Strout, Chief Marketing Officer at Highspring, explains why sustainable growth requires more than a stronger pipeline. She shares how customer problems can align teams around shared outcomes. Katie explores why sales and marketing should operate as one connected revenue motion. She also explains how customer validation, internal trust, and shared ownership can turn marketing into a commercial growth partner.“Growth and revenue belong to the whole organization. It's not the responsibility of any one function. It happens when marketing, sales, technology, delivery, leadership, customer success, all of those things come together around customers' pr...

Episode #323: Alison Richmond, Chief Marketing Officer at Medix, explains why customer obsession requires more than collecting feedback. She explores sales and marketing alignment, customer experience, and the importance of asking better questions. Alison also shows how customer insight can shape decisions, strengthen trust, and support growth across the business.“Your best marketing campaigns and marketing moments come from that long-running relationship you have with your customer. Start by asking and learning where your customers are today and what they think of you today, and make sure that's always part of the conversation going forward.” - Alis...

Episode #322:Cristy Garcia, Chief Marketing Officer at impact.com, explains how influencer marketing can build trust and drive measurable B2B growth. She explores buying committees, ABM, performance-based partnerships, UGC, and customer communities. Cristy shows why authentic third-party voices can become powerful assets across the entire revenue funnel.“Customer obsession doesn't happen because you have a transaction. Customer obsession happens because you believe in a brand, you refer business to them because you trust them, and a brand has to show up in different ways to be considered customer-obsessed.” - Cristy GarciaCristy expl...

Episode #321:Cynthia Gumbert, Chief Marketing Officer at Litera, explains how established companies can compete confidently in an AI-first market. She shares how customer trust, long-range innovation, and a dedicated Voice of the Customer program strengthen brand relevance and revenue growth. Cynthia also reveals why customer advocates often outperform traditional marketing and sales messages.“Get customers to be your advocates and spokespeople, and never lose sight of the fact that they are your best marketers. They can be your best salespeople. In this age of AI, it is easy to get distracted by product innovations and fe...

Episode #320: Robert Nicklin, Chief Growth Officer at Compass Group Canada, explains why judgment is becoming a defining competitive advantage. He explores how behavior, adaptability, observational intelligence, trust, and stronger questions shape sustainable enterprise growth. Robert also reveals why leaders should design repeatable growth systems instead of continually chasing short-term outcomes.“Growth is something that you design. It is not something you chase. A true growth system is built and designed, and once you have created that system, you should have people who can sit within it. That is about leaders creating strong leaders who create st...

Episode #319: Rebecca Welsher Kaplan, Chief Marketing Officer at Slice Merchant Services, explains why trust, customer obsession, and empowered employees have become the real competitive advantage in modern B2B growth. She explores how AI, personalization, and strong relationships work together to build lasting customer loyalty. The companies that consistently prioritize people alongside technology will earn stronger brands and sustainable growth."There is never one solution, there is never one channel, and there is no one right way to build a successful marketing campaign or branding practice. It comes down to who you are as a...

Episode #318: Eliana Angelova, Global Chief Revenue Officer at iSON Xperiences, explains why customer obsession has become the defining growth strategy in the AI era. She shares practical lessons on exceeding customer expectations, aligning teams around shared outcomes, and using AI to strengthen customer experiences rather than simply improve efficiency. She also provides a practical framework for building sustainable revenue through customer-first thinking."Always have the end customer in mind. If every decision starts there, you'll make better choices for your business, your people, and your customers." — Eliana AngelovaCustomer expectations are evolving faster th...

Episode #317John Lamb, Chief Marketing Officer at Elo Touch Solutions, explains why sales and marketing alignment begins long before revenue is generated. He shares how mutual respect, shared priorities, and customer-focused collaboration create stronger execution across every department. The conversation also explores how culture, brand consistency, and organizational alignment help companies build trust, accelerate growth, and create lasting customer relationships."You have to realize we perform very different roles, and that's meant to be. But to be aligned is absolutely critical. If you don't have it somewhere, you honestly need to make a change in...