We talk with customer-obsessed people to uncover how you can be more customer-focused. From customer marketers to CS leaders, we go deep with people who put their customers at the heart of everything they do. This podcast is for: Customer marketers, advocacy/community builders, CS leaders. Your host is Dan Kalmar. Dan is the managing director of Upshot by Influitive, where his team creates authentic customer stories for industry-leading companies like Cisco, HPE, and Dropbox. He’s also the host of the All About the Customer podcast, but you knew that already, didn’t you?

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Autodesk has long been a product-driven company. And while they were always customer-centric, they knew they needed to double down and shift from being product-driven to customer-driven. In this episode, Vikram Dutt, Vice President of Industry &amp; Portfolio Marketing at Autodesk, shares the reason for this shift, how they’ve codified these approaches in their marketing efforts, and why being more customer-centric has been empowering to his team.

How Autodesk Is Doubling Down on Customer-Centricity

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For a long time, customer retention was viewed as CS&#39; singlehanded responsibility. After all, isn’t that their job? But Kevin Lau, Senior Director of Global Customer Engagement at F5, believes retention is a team sport. Marketing, sales, and CS should come together to create better customer experiences. In this episode, Kevin dishes on why he believes marketing can help CS, why onboarding is a key part of retention, and how to determine the proper swim lanes when multiple teams are involved in ensuring customers are successful.

Why Customer Retention Is a Team Sport

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How often do you run your key messaging by your customers? Probably not often enough. Sara Varni, CMO at Attentive, believes too much messaging work happens in an ivory tower. In this episode, Sara dives into why marketers tend to work in those ivory towers, what happens when we don’t talk directly to our customers, and shares her framework for how she works through messaging with customers.

From Ivory Tower to Customer-Centric: A Guide to Better Messaging

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Great companies tap into their customers to drive everything. At Wrike, they look to their customers to dictate their messaging, go-to-market strategy, and even product decisions. In this episode with Wrike CMO Esther Flammer, we uncover exactly how they start everything with their customer.

Tapping Into Your Customers to Drive Messaging, GTM Strategy, and Product Decisions

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Zendesk powers customer experiences, so it’s only logical that their own CX is a major focus. But recently, Zendesk decided to double down. In this episode, Teresa Anania, Zendesk’s SVP Global Customer Experience, shares how to get top-down buy-in for customer centricity, how Zendesk believes CX will take their company to the next level, and how you can get even non-customer-facing teams to care about the customer.

How Zendesk Is Building the Gold Standard in CX

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Starting with our customer in mind sounds obvious, but it’s unfortunately not our default. When we get stuck on the autopilot of our day-to-day roles, we begin with our inside-out mindset. But Johann Wrede, CXO of Emburse, believes an outside-in mindset can set your company apart. In this episode, Johann shares what gets unlocked when organizations think about the customer first, how to be an agent of customer-centric change in your company, and how to change your own mindset.

Developing an Outside-In Customer-Centric Mindset

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All marketers know customer reviews are essential—but G2’s Katlin Hess believes they’re still an untapped goldmine. In this episode, Katlin dives into how the voice of your customer can be a differentiator, how to handle negative reviews, and tactical advice for how to get every part of your organization to care about the customer.

G2’s Katlin Hess on the Untapped Power of Customer Reviews

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The advent of customer marketing has shown why marketing’s role shouldn’t stop after the sale. Unfortunately, not enough companies are getting on board. But author Rod Cherkas believes that should change. In this episode, Rod shows how marketers’ skill sets nicely mesh with customer success teams, why our existing customers are currently the best source of new bookings, and he dives into his book, The Chief Customer Officer Playbook.

Author Rod Cherkas on Why Marketing Should Have a Bigger Post-Sale Role

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Every year, TrustRadius releases their B2B Buying Disconnect report that shows the misalignment between buyers and sellers. In this episode, we sit down with Allyson Havener, VP of marketing at TrustRadius, to discuss the report in depth, diving into the voice of the customer, marketing resources that make a difference with buyers, and why CFOs are more involved than ever.

A Deep Dive Into the B2B Buying Disconnect

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Great creatives learn from those outside their field. But can marketers really learn anything from improv? Lauren Turner, Director of Customer Marketing at Alyce, believes they can.In this episode, we talk about how Lauren first started bringing her learnings from improv into the marketing world, how improv can lead to more active listening (which can help you connect more deeply with your customers), and how it’s helped Lauren not be afraid to take risks.

Yes, and Marketing: Unleashing Creativity and Adaptability Through Improv

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Many companies have some form of customer education—whether onboarding or knowledge bases—but not many are truly going all in. Mark Kilens (CMO of Airmeet) believes that’s a big miss.In this episode, Mark shares his experiences building HubSpot academy, thoughts on why more companies aren’t investing in customer education, and some aspirational examples of companies who are nailing it.

Empower Your Customers and Grow Your Business Through Customer Education

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Advocacy is often thought of as just a marketing responsibility—but it doesn&#39;t have to. In this episode, Julie Norquist Roy outlines why advocacy can truly impact every part of the organization, gives ideas for how to align sales and CS to this more customer-centric view, and shares why we lose focus on our customers.

How to Drive Advocacy Across Your Entire Organization

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According to Jeff Pedowitz (author of F the Funnel), the traditional funnel is outdated. It simply doesn&#39;t reflect the way modern consumers want to buy. Luckily, he believes there&#39;s a better way. In this episode, Jeff shares why the funnel isn&#39;t living up to expectations, walks us through his customer-centric replacement, and outlines how to put the customer at the center of your universe.

Why the Traditional Sales Funnel Is Outdated (and Its Customer-Centric Replacement)

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Looking to start a customer marketing program but don’t have the budget? No problem. Michelle Randall, CMO at Playvox, shares 10 ways to start a customer marketing program with just a little elbow grease.

10 Low-Cost Ways to Launch a Customer Marketing Program

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Looking to give gifts to your customers but don&#39;t have the budget of Oprah? Reputation&#39;s Cassie Sneed has you covered. In this episode, Cassie shares insights on the perfect times in the customer journey to give gifts, the types of gifts that are most impactful for different customer groups, and how to think about gift giving on tight budgets.

Unwrapping the Art of Customer Gift Giving

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When you find a customer willing to be an advocate, how often do you overuse that relationship? Probably way too often. HubSpot’s Natalie Gullatt has seen it throughout her career and has found ways to avoid advocacy fatigue. In this episode, we chat about how to build meaningful reciprocal relationships with customers, how to ensure we aren’t burning out relationships with too many one-sided asks, and even how to get around PR and legal department roadblocks.

HubSpot’s Natalie Gullatt on How to Overcome Advocacy Fatigue

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Your approach to B2B sales and marketing is becoming obsolete. But best-selling author Brent Adamson thinks the better way involves customer confidence. In this episode, we discuss how marketing and sales teams can operate differently to better serve prospects, how organizations can potentially completely rework their go-to-market strategy by reorganizing teams, and how to improve the likelihood that your customers feel great about their purchasing decisions.

Best-Selling Author Brent Adamson on How Sales and Marketing Can Better Support Customers

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GitHub’s The ReadME Project takes a unique approach to brand-based marketing and is perhaps the next evolution in customer marketing: giving your customers incredibly valuable resources without expecting anything back. In this episode, we sit down with GitHub’s Virginia Bryant and Robb Mapp to discuss this content initiative, how to create content that’s valuable to your customers, and how to make your customers want to provide you with user-generated content. Read more about The ReadME Project here: https://github.com/readme/

How GitHub Elevates Their Customers and Creates Unrivaled Content (at the Same Time)

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Sam Shepler, CEO of Testimonial Hero, believes the B2B buyer journey has changed. More than ever, prospects want to self-serve, not be led by a salesperson. So how can our content adapt? In this episode, Sam dives into this new buyer’s journey, how snackable and candid content can serve our prospects, and the power of video testimonials.

How B2B Buyer Journeys Are Changing and How Content Can Keep Up

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Customers give you feedback—and then what? To get ahead, Airbnb’s Raj Sivasubramanian believes you need to close the loop on customer feedback. In this episode, Raj shares why so many companies fail to close the loop, how closing the loop can mean different things, and shares a video feedback program he spearheaded at Airbnb to help bring more empathy to customer feedback.

How to Close the Loop on Customer Feedback (and Why It’s So Important)

We talk with customer-obsessed people to uncover how you can be more customer-focused. From customer marketers to CS leaders, we go deep with people who put their customers at the heart of everything they do. This podcast is for: Customer marketers, advocacy/community builders, CS leaders. Your host is Dan Kalmar. Dan is the managing director of Upshot by Influitive, where his team creates authentic customer stories for industry-leading companies like Cisco, HPE, and Dropbox. He’s also the host of the All About the Customer podcast, but you knew that already, didn’t you?