Bryan Schielke 0:00

All right. Thanks for joining. You spent over two decades leading marketing transformations in enterprise technology. What separates companies that truly accelerate growth from those that stay stuck?

Tevia Arnold 0:10

It's a good question. It's a question that I've been asking myself because I really want to make sure I'm choosing the accounts and the clients that will have the most success with what I do. And so, and there is a common thread between them that I've noticed. And it starts with really how fast can they make decisions? So their speed of decision making, I can see that very early on in the discussions. Are they taking months to get back to me? Are they, is it not, does it not seem urgent? So how quickly can they make decisions? And then are they willing to try new things? Are they willing to get outside the box of what they've been doing and trying the same things over and over that are having the same result? Are they willing to really step out of their comfort zone and try something new? And then lastly, where are they at in terms of their investment and marketing? Are they scaling back? Are they, how do they view marketing? Is it a cost center? Is it an area where they see growth? Is it the first thing they cut when sales are down? I want to know that they see marketing as a strategic priority because they won't be successful if I come in and they just want me to keep doing the same thing they've been doing and just keep the lights on and don't be creative and let's just same old, same old. I won't be happy, they won't be happy. So those are my really my top three criteria for looking at what accounts will have the best success with me. I will really be able to have the best impact with.

Bryan Schielke 1:28

Fantastic. That's terrific. Okay. You've worked across both large global organizations and fast moving startups. How does your leadership approach shift depending on the stage of the company?

Tevia Arnold 1:39

Good question. And it really depends on what their goals are. So are they looking to move faster? Are they looking for market expansion? Are they looking for category creation? Are they preparing for an acquisition? What are they trying to do? And that's where I start. I would say I work with a lot of startups. I work with a lot of multi-billion dollar companies. And I have the most fun with the startups because, again, they're very creative. They are trying, willing to try something new. They're very fast and they want to move quickly. And so I do encourage my more global companies to have a startup mindset. What are the startups doing right? What are they? I would say they largely are moving much faster than some of the global companies. They're willing to fail fast. They're willing to try something new. So I approach every company differently. I really think that some of the larger global companies can learn from these startups and how they approach their marketing and how they're able to make decisions quickly and try new things and be creative and think outside the box. And so, yes, that's the approach I take with all of my clients is really encouraging speed.

Bryan Schielke 2:46

That makes sense. Very cool. All right. As a fractional CMO and advisor, you're often brought in during critical moments. What are the first signs that a company's marketing is not aligned with its growth goals?

Tevia Arnold 2:58

Yes, I would say I'm I'm typically brought in at an inflection point. So there's either things are stalling, slowing, or they are getting ready for something big. They're getting ready for an acquisition or a launch of some sort or a rebrand. So there's multiple reasons why I'm brought in. I would say it's pretty clear where there's misalignment when I come in. I have a scorecard assessment. So I essentially come through and I look at every aspect of their marketing. I look at their messaging, I look at their campaigns, I look at where they're spending their marketing, I look at their metrics, and I can really very clearly see when there's misalignment and where it's at. And then I put a plan together of how to fix it and I help fix it.

Bryan Schielke 3:42

That's amazing. Not easy to do. You have a strong track record in building pipelines and driving revenue. What does effective relationship-driven marketing look like in today's B2B landscape?

Tevia Arnold 3:52

It's a good question. I think effective B2B marketing today is all about relationships. It's really moving out of this mass marketing, everybody's the same. Buyers are really overwhelmed with noise. They're overwhelmed with AI-generated content and this generic outreach. And I don't know about you, but I'm getting spam calls every day. I'm getting spam email and it's just overwhelming. It's just, it's exhausting. So really it comes down to effectively understanding your clients, really deeply understanding your clients. What do they need and want, and really helping them and providing insight and really being useful and not just coming at them with take, take, take, what are you giving? What are you giving to the client? So it's looking at really a lot of my clients are moving towards a more of an account-based approach. So really understanding everything about the customer, what do they need and want, building messaging around specific clients and even targeting specific people at a specific companies. So it's getting very laser focused and really taking out all the noise and taking out and really showing that you're you care about them. And so I would say B2B marketing is all about relationship building and it starts from the beginning of the cycle to when are they when they're customers. So it's not, it doesn't end when the when the deal closes. It's how can we recognize them as customers? How can we acknowledge them? And how can we create advocates out of them? So there's a whole program that I've launched around events and customer wards, and how do we get case studies and how do we get customers to be advocates of ours? So I would say really, really understanding your customers from start to finish and making sure they really feel cared for. And you're not just another number on the list and you're not an AI generated bot, and you're you're really a human. It really comes down to being human. Turns out we're getting so automated with AI and technology that we forget that we're all humans. So I would say that's the most important thing. Be a human.

Bryan Schielke 5:54

I love that. Yeah. Hopefully we can continue to go back that direction.

Tevia Arnold 5:58

I hope we can stay human. Yeah.

Bryan Schielke 6:01

Fingers crossed. All right. Great job on that one. Okay. You've led brand transformations and repositioned companies in competitive markets. What is one mistake leaders make when trying to rebrand or reposition?

Tevia Arnold 6:13

So I think one of the biggest mistakes they make is really not understanding their brand equity. If they can do a brand study, ask their customers how they feel about them, ask them what they're known for, ask them what they're good at before they go into a rebrand or before they go into brand transformation. Make sure they're not overriding something they've done that's good and that is valuable and they're not going backwards. So I would say that's most important. Make sure you really know your brand equity and know what matters to your customers before you go out to the market with something new and unknown. Make sure you really understand the value you're bringing to your customers and that's what you want to want to base your messaging and your and your plans and your credibility building around.

Bryan Schielke 6:57

That makes sense. Absolutely. Final question number six. For founders and executives navigating tighter budgets and higher expectations, how can they make smarter marketing decisions without sacrificing long-term growth?

Tevia Arnold 7:09

Yes. And I think it's a challenge. Marketing budgets are often the first to get cut. When sales are down, we go turn to marketing for cost savings. And that's really the opposite of what we should be doing. But if we are asked to give, you know, help support cost reduction efforts, it's making sure you know where you're reducing costs. Don't cut everything across the board. Make sure you're going back to what was driving ROI, what was your successful campaign, what was most successful way you're driving growth. And make sure you're you keep that going. You really can't. I've seen companies just let's turn everything off. And you cannot, you cannot just disappear for six months while your mark, your competitors take over the market. So you can do really effective things very creatively at a low cost, but you can't do nothing. That is the key. You cannot do nothing. The companies that I see that win, they they don't do everything, but they do things, the things that they do are doing, they do them exceptionally well. So I would say, yes, you can't cut everything and you need to be smart with your dollars and make sure you know exactly what you're cutting and and you you can't disappear while everybody else is continuing to do marketing. That that is very disruptive.

Bryan Schielke 8:20

Very good. That makes sense. All right.