Shahin Hoda chats with Alex Colvin, CEO at Pendula, about why marketers should stop looking at NPS as the holy grail of metrics when it comes to customer retention and what to do instead. As Pendula’s CEO, Alex creates and manages both the vision and mission of the business. Never one to shy away from a challenge, he takes great pride in showcasing how the company can signal a gear change to new and prospective customers. Alex believes that Pendula is primed to be a benchmark platform, and the b...
May 11, 2022•36 min•Ep. 117
Shahin Hoda chats with Marcella Larsen, Senior Director, Retail Advisor at Salesforce about some of the recent developments in the retail sector and what you should know if you're selling into this space. Marcella is the Retail Industry Market Development Executive for Australia. Marcella is responsible for leading platform-agnostic cloud and mobile Focused Growth Strategies in the industries of Retail, Travel, Hospitality and Consumer Goods. Marcella brings almost 22 years of deep customer, ver...
May 04, 2022•38 min•Ep. 116
Shahin Hoda chats with Brett Chester, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Deputy, about how marketers can leverage the novel concept of customer-led growth to create powerful content pieces and drive better engagement. Brett starts by defining this approach and talks extensively about why and how marketers should bring in customer success stories, customer quotes and testimonials in their go-to-market content pieces. Brett also shares his views on humanising the sales cycle and emphasises the ...
Apr 27, 2022•28 min•Ep. 115
Shahin Hoda chats with Nick Sheehan about how to prepare your organisation for a merger or acquisition. Nick is the founder and CEO of EFEX, an Australian Business Technology Service provider, dedicated to making IT simple and accessible for SMEs and enterprise-sized companies. Nick is responsible for overseeing the growth of the business through acquisition, expansion and diversification of new products and services as well as leading the team to success. In just eight short years, Nick has gro...
Apr 19, 2022•42 min•Ep. 114
Shahin chats with Joe Escobedo, CEO and Chief Editor at Esco Media, about how B2B marketers can leverage podcasts as part of their ABM efforts. Joe is the author of “Asian Growth Stories“. He has advised and trained over 12,000 executives from around the world, from countless Fortune 1000 brands, on building brands and growing revenue through digital. He is a former LinkedIn content marketing consultant, advising the company’s top clients across the Asia Pacific. ABM in APAC survey: https://www....
Apr 13, 2022•32 min•Ep. 113
Host Shahin Hoda chats with Julia Merrick, Head of Brand and Content at Employment Hero, about how marketers, either in the startup world or the enterprise space, should change their approach to PR and also establish and communicate its ROI to the rest of the business. Before Employment Hero, Julia worked in a number of different industries spanning technology, professional services and travel. A graphic designer in a previous life, Julia consolidated these skills with her keen passion for strat...
Apr 06, 2022•35 min•Ep. 112
In this episode, host Shahin Hoda chats with Darrell Alfonso, Global Marketing Operations at Amazon Web Services, about how marketers should approach their martech strategy to drive revenue and higher ROI on their investments. Darrell starts by advising marketers to begin with their objectives and work backwards to discover the martech they need to create a great customer experience. He also talks about why marketers should take the education provided by martech vendors with a pinch of salt and ...
Mar 30, 2022•36 min•Ep. 111
Shahin Hoda chats with Anthony Lieu, Head of Marketing & Partnerships at LegalVision , about generating high-quality content at scale. Anthony, began his career at LegalVision as a newly minted lawyer, before seizing on the more interesting challenge to turn legal marketing on its head. Anthony leads a team that brings together lawyers, growth marketers, and developers. They are tasked with breaking down barriers to legal services by transforming the way businesses engage lawyers. LegalVisio...
Mar 24, 2022•25 min•Ep. 109
Shahin Hoda chats with Matthew Hunt, Founder at Automation Wolf, about the importance of building communities. Most available advice is high level, ambiguous and lacks practicality. Matthew joins us to explain how to practically approach building B2B communities. Matthew Hunt is a serial entrepreneur, B2B sales and marketing expert, and coach to company CEOs, marketing directors, and entrepreneurs. His extensive experience of over a decade of helping B2B companies succeed in sales and marketing ...
Mar 15, 2022•45 min•Ep. 108
Shahin Hoda chats with Su-Ren Neo, Senior Director, Marketing for Asia-Pacific and Japan at Twilio, about how marketers can improve their approach to customer engagement. Su-Ren starts with her definition of customer engagement. She talks about the fascinating nature of APAC from a marketing perspective and emphasises the role of data in creating a competitive advantage for any company in the region. During the conversation, Su-Ren also discusses some industry examples of companies acing the cus...
Mar 10, 2022•33 min•Ep. 107
In this episode, host Shahin Hoda chats with Neil Berry, Head of Global Account & Deal Based Marketing Centre of Excellence at Atos, about how and why marketers need to build a theme for their ABM campaigns. During the conversation, Neil defines the purpose of a theme and what it is supposed to achieve. He recommends starting with the priorities of the target accounts and building the campaign theme around them. He advises marketers to be thorough with their research, encourages them to take...
Mar 02, 2022•23 min•Ep. 106
Host Shahin Hoda talks with Lidia Lal, Head of Marketing (APAC) at Udemy, about how to build an APAC marketing team from scratch as a regional office. Lidia Lal is currently the Head of Marketing for the Asia Pacific at Udemy. Prior to this, she has held senior marketing management roles with some of the world’s leading technology brands including Experian, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services, Rightnow Technologies, SAS, Oracle and Westcon Group. She also ran her own marketing consultancy for ov...
Feb 23, 2022•31 min•Ep. 105
In this episode, host Shahin Hoda chats with Boden Westover, CMO at Vivi, about how foreign companies can grow their presence in the United States of America. With more than 10+ years of experience leading US expansion initiatives for organisations such as Vivi and Catapult, Boden shares a lot of valuable guidance. During the conversation, he talks about the increased need for clear positioning and the importance of managing potential cultural differences. Boden also shares his input on GTM and ...
Feb 16, 2022•35 min•Ep. 104
Shahin Hoda chats with Jamie Cairns, Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce about how to set up a partner-led strategy for your organisation. Jamie has spent the last 20+ years collaborating with partners to take new solutions into new markets, within start-up scale businesses like TimesTen and Arantech and global software organisations such as Tektronix and Oracle, where he was responsible for the Retail Solutions portfolio in APAC immediately prior to joining Fluent Commerce in 2015. In his...
Feb 09, 2022•33 min•Ep. 103
Shahin chats with Robin Zhang, Head of Marketing at Thought Machine about how B2B marketers should approach career development and plan in 2022. Robin joined Thought Machine with 18 years of experience in various global and regional marketing leadership roles at EY and Deloitte, covering a wide range of marketing disciplines from events, content marketing, account marketing, branding and communications, to operations. Prior to the Big Four, Robin was the product marketing manager of Dun & Br...
Feb 02, 2022•23 min•Ep. 102
Shahin Hoda chats with Jill Berry, CEO & Co-Founder of Adatree about how organisations should approach and target the financial services space in Australia, what works, what doesn't work and how to ensure a successful sales and marketing approach to the sector Adatree is an Australian financial technology company at the forefront of Open Banking, also known as the Consumer Data Right (CDR). As an Open Banking advocate passionate about solving big problems with high-impact solutions, Jill use...
Jan 26, 2022•27 min•Ep. 101
Shahin Hoda chats with Joanne Schofield, Director of Marketing, ANZ at The Access Group, about how marketers can build a plan that generates a pipeline. Joanne advises marketers to start with their organisation’s business objectives. She then recommends working backwards from the company-wide revenue growth projections to develop a realistic target and a plan for the marketing team. During the conversation, Joanne also talks about important considerations while building an effective marketing pl...
Jan 19, 2022•27 min•Ep. 100
Shahin Hoda chats with Christopher Willis, Chief Marketing Officer & Chief Pipeline Officer at Acrolinx, about how B2B marketers should think about pipeline acceleration and how they can execute it successfully. During the conversation, Chris emphasises the importance of having consistent meetings with sales and revenue executives about their pipeline for future quarters. He also talks about the marketing team’s role in removing any risks concerning the deals in the sales pipeline. Chris adv...
Jan 12, 2022•40 min•Ep. 99
On today’s podcast, host Shahin Hoda talks with Nicki Shirley, Head of Marketing at Qruios about creating thought leadership that stands out and how she has done exactly that in her role at Qrious. Nicki has over 20 years of experience implementing exceptional B2B tech marketing in New Zealand. She’s passionate about achieving business growth by combining the art and science of marketing. As well as embracing agile marketing practices and empowering marketing teams, Nicki is also a committee mem...
Jan 05, 2022•36 min•Ep. 98
In this episode, host Shahin Hoda chats with Leandro Perez, Vice President, Asia Pacific Marketing at Salesforce, about how he manages his team and executive stakeholders in the post-COVID world. Leandro stresses the importance of empathising with employees’ situations while working on a project. He also shares his approach to boosting employee morale and ensuring proper upskilling of his team. Furthermore, he talks about how he aligns his KPIs with that of the business when it comes to marketin...
Dec 29, 2021•43 min•Ep. 97
In this episode, host Shahin Hoda chats with Iris Luo, APAC Marketing Lead at Zoom, about the current state of virtual B2B events and what marketers can do to better leverage tools such as Zoom while taking their traditional physical events online. Iris advises marketers to decide on the experience they want to create for their audience before going into the features of the solution being used for the delivery. She also talks about hybrid events and the need to bridge the online and onsite commu...
Dec 27, 2021•31 min•Ep. 96
In this episode, host Shahin Hoda chats with Ray Kloss, Director of Brand Marketing for APJC at Cisco, about how diversity within the region impacts marketing and what can marketers do to set themselves up for success. During this interesting conversation, Ray talks about the importance of having an “insider” from every culture to help make better marketing and hiring decisions. He also shares some valuable advice on mentoring, having a local network and managing the APAC region, specifically In...
Dec 22, 2021•50 min•Ep. 95
In this episode, host Shahin Hoda and Andrea Dixon from DocuSign analyse how the COVID-19 pandemic has placed lead scoring under the spotlight. Andrea goes through some examples of how her team has improved their own processes and about the new industries reaching out to DocuSign. Her unique perspective is a priceless insight to understanding the importance of lead scoring, today and in the future. Read the show notes: https://xgrowth.com.au/blogs/lead-scoring-docusign/ Join the Slack channel: h...
Dec 20, 2021•26 min•Ep. 94
Host Shahin Hoda chats with Michele Clarke, Head of APAC Marketing at Secure Code Warrior to tap into her wealth of knowledge on Account-Based Marketing. Michele discusses how to run ABM pilot campaigns and her advice for other marketers thinking of embarking on an ABM journey. Michele has over 15 years of experience in B2B demand generation within the IT & Cybersecurity sector across APAC. She is passionate about driving growth in organisations large and small. Join the Slack channel: www.g...
Dec 15, 2021•20 min•Ep. 93
Host Shahin Hoda chats with Ben Lipschitz, Managing Director at FoodByUs about how to sell and market technology products and solutions into industries that are considered traditional and have a low level of technology adoption. Ben is co-founder and Managing Director of FoodByUs , an online marketplace that connects restaurants, cafes and caterers with hundreds of wholesale food suppliers. The overall business has increased 600% in annual revenue since 2019. Ben’s expertise in the business focu...
Dec 08, 2021•30 min•Ep. 92
On today’s podcast, Host Shahin Hoda chats with Alex West, CEO at Swoop, about how B2B leaders can and should prepare their business for acquisition. Alex is the CEO of Swoop , an ASX-listed Australian-founded fixed wireless infrastructure provider looking to shake up the telecommunications landscape. Alex has over 20 years of experience in the Telco sector and has held senior management roles at Superloop, Vocus Communications and PIPE Networks (now TPG). In his previous role as Group COO at Su...
Dec 01, 2021•23 min•Ep. 91
Shahin chats with Cameron Buckley, Regional Director - APAC at Trustpilot, about the importance of review platforms, how they are helping B2B marketers build trust with their audiences and why there should be more attention from marketers in the region. Cameron Buckley is the Regional Director - APAC for Trustpilot, a Danish-founded online consumer reviews platform. In his role, Cameron is responsible for scaling the business across the region. He has over 20 years of experience in marketing, sa...
Nov 24, 2021•42 min•Ep. 90
Shahin chats with Rory Boyle, Managing Director at Hampers with Bite about how to measure and budget sales and marketing activity as a B2B founder. Rory is the founder of Australian based B2B gifting company Hampers with Bite, which recently sold up to $28.3 million. Rory is also the founder of another successfully branded merchandise company called Promotions Warehouse, which specialises in B2B promotional products. Join the Slack channel: https://growthcolony.org/slack...
Nov 10, 2021•34 min•Ep. 89
Shahin chats with Carlota Feliu Argila, Global Marketing Leader - 3D Printing & Digital Manufacturing at HP about how B2B marketers should approach marketing in Japan and Korea. Carlota is a B2B marketer based in Barcelona with experience in tech and innovation companies, from start-ups to large corporations. Carlota is now leading the Global Markets team at HP 3D printing, and overseeing the demand generation and ABM efforts in AMS, EMEA and APJ. Carlota considers herself a fair and inclusi...
Nov 03, 2021•23 min•Ep. 88
Shahin Hoda chats with David Fisher, a Sales Hall of Fame Inductee, Speaker, Author and Coach. They discuss how marketers should collaborate with the sales team to turn them into brand advocates for the business on LinkedIn. David J.P. Fisher (also known as D. Fish) is a speaker, coach, and author of 9 books, including the best-selling Hyper-Connected Selling and Networking in the 21st Century: Why Your Network Sucks and What to Do About It . David helps salespeople, business owners, and entrepr...
Oct 27, 2021•31 min•Ep. 87
