Yes, It's Y(O)ur Fault: Kelly Hopping & John Eitel of Demandbase

From blame to gain. How to get sales and marketing to play nicely together.

Author

Wes Schaeffer
June 18, 2024

Professional Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast ...

00:00 The Challenge of Sales and Marketing Alignment
03:13 The Role of Location in Alignment Efforts
26:56 The Impact of Brand Advertising and Lead Generation
31:27 Challenges of Modern Prospecting Methods
36:03 Sales and Marketing Alignment in the Digital Landscape

Takeaways

  • The importance of collaboration and shared metrics in achieving sales and marketing alignment.

  • The role of leadership in setting the tone for alignment and fostering a culture of collective ownership.

  • The impact of AI and technology in targeting the right audience and driving insights for marketing and sales strategies.

  • The challenges of remote work on alignment and communication and the need for intentional efforts to maintain alignment in a virtual environment. Brand advertising creates brand awareness and serves as top-of-the-funnel activity.

  • Targeted ads and personalized outreach are more effective in engaging potential leads.

  • The changing landscape of sales and marketing requires a shift towards more personalized and credible outreach.

  • Sales and marketing alignment is crucial for successful account-based marketing and prospecting.

  • Human connection and personalized engagement are essential in a digital world.

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Guest Bios

Kelly Hopping is currently the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for Demandbase where she is responsible for differentiating the go to market platform, increasing brand presence, and accelerating acquisition and conversion of potential customers.

Prior to joining Demandbase, Kelly honed her start-up skills as the first CMO at HYCU, a series B, venture capital-backed data protection SaaS company. She now continues at HYCU as an Advisor. Before HYCU, Kelly served as the Chief Marketing Officer for the Digital Markets division of Gartner where she managed a portfolio of brands - Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice - to grow awareness and demand in the market. In this role, Kelly and her marketing team drove 100% of the revenue acquisition for the $300M+ organization.

Prior to Gartner, Kelly led various functions during her 4+ years at Rackspace as Vice President of Integrated Solutions and Product Marketing, Senior Director of Integrated Marketing, and Director of Brand. Kelly also served in marketing and operations leadership positions at AMD for 5 years, including the last 18 months as Director and Chief of Staff to the Chief Operating Officer. She also spent 1 year at Dell marketing the Latitude notebook business.

Kelly’s passion for branding and product management began at Kraft Foods, prior to Dell, where she managed a variety of brands including Chips Ahoy!, Nutter Butter, Breakstone cottage cheese, and Kraft string cheese. She believes in bringing the art and simplicity of consumer goods brand management and demand generation to the technology world.

She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University. Kelly serves on the board of Empowering Women as Leaders Austin, and she has spoken at various leadership conferences including the Texas Conference for Women, the HEB Women in Leadership Conference, BrightEdge Share19, and the CMO Mentor Roundtable at the Digital Creative Institute. Kelly is the author of the book Rising: How to Thrive as a Corporate Executive while Staying True to Yourself, which launched in 2023. She was also featured on the Center Stage, B2B Growth, Sunny Side Up, Authentic Energy, Powered by Search, and Marketing Trends podcasts. Kelly resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband and three children.

John Eitel is the Chief Sales Officer of Demandbase.

John is a technology-savvy, customer-focused executive with more than two decades of progressive sales, marketing, and operations leadership in intensely competitive enterprise technology markets. He has held senior leadership roles and has been pivotal in the growth trajectory at Rackspace, Spiceworks, WP Engine, and Canva.

In his most recent role, he served as General Manager for North Americas and VP of Sales at Canva, a design tool that has attracted over 100 million monthly active users across 190 countries and has collectively created over 1 billion designs. He was recruited to launch a new region in North America as well as bring their enterprise, business-to-business offering to market and lead the teams and strategy that support this effort.

Over his tenure, John has progressed through multiple positions of increased responsibility and scope based on his consistent record of top-tier sales performance as a manager and individual contributor. He has also held roles across multiple disciplines — sales, operations, marketing, and corporate strategy. As a result, he has been tapped to lead several high-level initiatives, including turning around some of the poorest performing teams in the country, building a large-enterprise sales unit from the ground floor, and launching new regions and products for a successful product-led growth startup.

John and his wife and their two sons live in Austin, TX, where they are involved in their children's school and athletic programs and numerous charitable and civic endeavors. He received his bachelor’s of science from University of Texas at Austin.

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