Juliette Kopecky, CMO at LinkSquares, shares how they’re approaching content creation and connecting better with customers.
0:00
[MUSIC]
0:08
>> Welcome to Pipeline Visionaries.
0:10
I'm Ian Fazan, CEO of Caspian Studios.
0:12
And today I am joined by a special guest, Juliette.
0:14
How are you?
0:15
>> I'm great. Thank you so much for having me.
0:18
>> Thanks so much for joining.
0:19
Excited to chat all about your background.
0:22
We're going to chat about link squares,
0:25
marketing to lawyers,
0:28
which is going to be fun and much more.
0:30
What was your first job in marketing?
0:34
>> It's funny. I would say that I found marketing later in life.
0:40
One of the things that I always tell people is,
0:43
I have a very non-traditional marketing background,
0:46
I would say. I actually started out my early career working in finance.
0:50
Did that for a number of years before going back to school,
0:54
I went to business school at MIT and had always been interested,
0:58
in marketing and startups and technology,
1:01
and joined HubSpot after business school.
1:04
I was an early HubSpot employee,
1:07
but actually I started out there working in sales,
1:10
and then I worked in product before joining their marketing team.
1:14
I love that intersection between sales and product and marketing.
1:19
But that was my first marketing role.
1:21
That would have been in probably 2012,
1:26
so fairly late in my actual career.
1:29
I graduated college in 2003,
1:32
so for those doing the math on it.
1:34
But really grew up my marketing career from there,
1:37
and found a love and passion for it.
1:41
>> Flash forward to today,
1:43
what does it mean to be CMO of link squares?
1:46
>> To be CMO at link squares.
1:48
I joined link squares almost four years ago,
1:51
and really built marketing from the ground up when I joined four years ago.
1:55
I was the only marketer,
1:57
and to where we are today.
2:00
Our marketing team is about 32 people.
2:03
To be CMO at link squares,
2:05
what I do is I oversee all of marketing,
2:09
so that includes content, demand,
2:11
gen, or creative team,
2:13
and also our product marketing team.
2:15
Really what it involves,
2:17
I would say my role today is very different than what it was four years ago,
2:22
when it was just like a marketing team of one.
2:25
But it's really setting marketing strategy as a whole,
2:29
and defining how we generate demand and awareness for our product and company.
2:35
>> We're going to get into all that here in a little bit.
2:38
Let's go to our first segment,
2:40
the Trust Tree, place where you go.
2:42
If you're honest and trusted,
2:44
you can share those deepest, darkest, pipeline generation secrets.
2:49
Zoom in out, what do you all do,
2:51
and who are you selling to, what is link squares?
2:55
>> Yeah. Our core product is an AI powered CLM.
3:02
So that's contract lifecycle management.
3:05
We help businesses write better contracts,
3:08
understand what's in their contracts,
3:11
and collaborate on that process across the team.
3:13
We actually just last week announced our latest product,
3:18
which is actually our first product outside of CLM,
3:22
and it's task management for legal teams.
3:25
So helping them manage all of those key projects and things that they do,
3:29
that may be fall outside of contracts as well.
3:32
For us, our key target buyer is in-house legal teams.
3:37
Typically, that is your general counsel,
3:40
your chief legal officer, occasionally it's your head of legal operations,
3:44
and sometimes it's your CFO.
3:47
>> Yeah. So within that buying committee,
3:49
obviously a few different types of personas,
3:51
how do you think about going to market with those different personas?
3:56
>> Yeah. I think for us,
3:59
I have worked at a number of different software companies,
4:02
and before I joined link squares,
4:04
I will say that marketing to legal teams was something that was new to me.
4:09
I had worked at HubSpot before, and we were marketing to marketers.
4:13
I had worked at a backup company before,
4:16
and we were marketing to IT folks.
4:19
So legal was a new audience for me to market to,
4:22
and to really understand,
4:24
and to dig deeper into,
4:27
and really understanding some of their buying habits,
4:29
and what's interesting for legal teams purchasing software.
4:33
A lot of times when they're looking at something like link squares,
4:36
it might be the first time that they are looking at software that is designed
4:41
for legal,
4:42
which I think is very different than like if you asked me and you said,
4:46
"Hey, Juliet, what does your marketing tech stack look like?"
4:49
I would probably name for you 20 to maybe 30 pieces of software that we use on
4:54
the marketing side,
4:56
to do better marketing, and that are very specific to marketing and what we do.
5:01
You ask a typical legal team what pieces of software do they use to do their
5:06
job?
5:06
A lot of times they might mention something like, "We use Excel Spreadsheets.
5:12
We use Microsoft Word to write our contracts,
5:15
and we manage our tasks and our projects,
5:18
or key terms in those contracts and in Excel Spreadsheet,
5:21
and we store everything in a shared network drive."
5:25
I think what's really interesting there in terms of the software purchasing
5:30
process,
5:31
in terms of evaluating technology and taking a look at it,
5:35
legal teams are just earlier on in that process than other groups within an
5:40
organization.
5:41
Yeah, they sure are. It's pretty crazy.
5:44
As a whole new horse of legal teams pretty often when we're doing contracting
5:50
and all that stuff,
5:51
and boy, same thing every time.
5:53
Redline in Google Docs that have turned into Microsoft Docs that have turned
5:59
into
5:59
15 different types of formatting, and it's absolutely maddening.
6:04
Absolutely. I think what really stood out to me about Ling Squares is that,
6:10
even for those of us that don't work in legal,
6:13
all of us have dealt with contracts.
6:15
Exactly what you're outlining in terms of negotiating a contract,
6:20
working with redlines, I think, for most people in their career have gone
6:24
through that process,
6:26
and know some of the pain and frustration of going through it,
6:30
and have wanted that process to be easier and better.
6:35
That's really what we do at Ling Squares,
6:38
and I think across the board, even though our key buyer is a legal team,
6:43
I think everyone has felt that pain of wanting to create a contract faster
6:48
and having that process be easier,
6:50
and then even understanding where I know,
6:53
even as a marketer, where I've had to go back into contracts that we've signed
6:57
last year or the year before,
6:59
to really do a deep dive and understand it, and all of that process is easier
7:03
with Ling Squares.
7:04
What are the types of accounts that you're going after?
7:08
Yeah, we've focused pretty squarely on the mid-market,
7:11
is that what you mean in terms of the area?
7:13
I think that for us as a business, though, we're certainly industry agnostic.
7:17
One of the great things that I think has really led to our growth as a company
7:21
is that,
7:22
all companies use contracts to do business,
7:26
so there isn't one specific protocol or industry that we focus on,
7:30
that we're pretty squarely focused in terms of company size on the mid-market.
7:34
Yeah, what's your marketing strategy?
7:38
I think for us, it is certainly, if I think back to when I started at Ling Squ
7:43
ares four years ago,
7:44
it has certainly evolved over time,
7:47
but really for us, a lot of what we focus on is thinking through what are the
7:55
different channels,
7:56
obviously, that our key buyer uses to make their decision process,
8:00
and then also focusing on knowing that some of these key characteristics about
8:06
them,
8:06
where they're newer to purchasing technology, that they haven't maybe
8:13
implemented a lot of technology
8:15
on their own before in that evaluation process.
8:19
And what we focus on is, one, certainly from an education and thought
8:24
leadership standpoint,
8:25
like, how do we help educate our buyers into different ways that they should
8:30
think about,
8:31
like their contracting process and even their legal function as a whole?
8:35
How do we educate them and help them with that process of understanding
8:39
technology,
8:40
and how to make that purchasing decision?
8:42
And then also showcasing for them the real true value that Ling Squares
8:48
provides them.
8:48
And in terms of different channels that we focus on, probably typical, as you
8:56
see,
8:56
with most marketing teams, I would say one thing that really differentiates
9:02
ourselves when I think
9:03
about marketing as a whole is that we do a ton of events. We do find that legal
9:09
teams use events
9:11
as an opportunity to evaluate new pieces of technology. They go to events to
9:17
learn about,
9:18
new solutions out in market. And that's probably something that's very
9:22
different
9:23
than what I've seen versus other companies that I've worked at in the past in
9:27
terms of
9:27
particular buying habits. Yeah, that is really interesting. I'd imagine,
9:32
especially if there's,
9:34
if this is probably a brand new budget item most of the time, right? If they've
9:37
never
9:38
bought any software for them specifically, I'd imagine that that process is a
9:43
little bit more
9:44
got to wait for the budget to hit, you're not to hit, but to be actually built
9:49
in.
9:50
Well, what I think is very interesting is that I would say, yes, in terms of a
9:57
line item in the
9:58
budget, legal software isn't always something that's a line item that exists.
10:05
But if you think
10:05
about your legal team at an organization, they actually have access to a lot of
10:11
budget, right?
10:12
And actually have a lot of sway in terms of that budget when you think about
10:16
outside council, like outside legal fees that they might use a law firm to
10:23
manage. Like,
10:24
typically that budget is very, very large. And certainly if a company is in a
10:28
high growth phase,
10:30
where they might be fundraising, or maybe they're looking at M&A, or they're
10:35
doing different like
10:37
due diligence projects, or thinking about expanding into new markets, where
10:42
understanding what's in
10:43
their contracts and creating better contracts and managing all the tasks that
10:47
are involved in it,
10:48
that in terms of their access to budget, it's pretty large. And typically your
10:54
legal team,
10:55
like your general counsel, will roll up directly into the CEO of the company.
11:00
So they definitely
11:01
have a direct line of sight into decision making and being able to make that
11:06
case for improving a
11:08
process and driving those decisions and having access to budget. But yes, I
11:12
would agree that they
11:13
don't always have that line item where it's like legal software, X amount of
11:18
dollars. And so a lot
11:19
of times when we talk to legal teams, sometimes it's having them think about
11:24
their budget,
11:25
in different ways in terms of the allocation and showing them a really clear RO
11:29
I with their
11:30
software, in terms of the projects that they're working on and they're looking
11:34
to do.
11:35
Yeah, that's super fascinating. And a much more interesting and dynamic sales
11:41
cycle when
11:41
there is budget available and they just have to carve it out as something else.
11:46
I mean,
11:50
because the legal teams are generally speaking so minute driven, because they
11:56
're like,
11:56
hey, 15 minutes is X amount of dollars. I'd imagine that they could probably
12:02
get to an ROI number
12:04
pretty quickly, right? I mean, I'd imagine like, hey, this cost me, however
12:09
many 1.75 hours on a
12:10
given week that I'd or month that I don't have to deal with. And like, that's
12:14
whatever 600 bucks
12:16
an hour or so. Absolutely. You know, you think about for most legal teams, if
12:20
you're using outside
12:21
counsel for a due diligence project, right, you're getting that itemized bill
12:26
and you can see,
12:27
you know, how many hours were found on a project and what, you know, usually it
12:31
's like those six
12:32
minute increments that you're getting, getting billed to. And so when you think
12:36
about like the time
12:38
saved and how you can improve a process for them, it's, it's in some ways a
12:42
very easy calculation.
12:43
I would say on the link square side, you know, we certainly help our customers
12:48
make that process
12:49
easier. Like one of the great pieces of content that we created last year is we
12:53
partnered with
12:54
Forrester and Forrester did a study on our customers. They call it their total
12:59
economic impact report,
13:01
T.E.I. report for short. Essentially what they did is they took a look at our
13:06
customers and
13:06
interviewed a number of them and they said, you know, what, what are the quant
13:10
ifiable benefits
13:11
that you see with using a product like link squares and they distill it down to
13:16
a number.
13:17
And they found that our customers see a 352% ROI with the investment that they
13:22
use that they make
13:23
with link squares. And what I love about that is in terms of answering that
13:26
question, like,
13:28
what results will I see with using link squares? What are the tangible quant
13:31
ifiable benefits in
13:33
terms of time saved in terms of processes improved in terms of risk mitigated
13:38
that we have a very
13:40
real like number that we can point to with data? And I think it's so powerful
13:46
in that purchasing
13:46
process because our customers, you know, are asking that question. They're
13:51
saying, hey, we're
13:52
going to change a process that we're doing. What do I get in return for it? And
13:57
I don't know about
13:58
you, but if you told me I could get a 352% return on something, I would make
14:02
that investment all day
14:04
every day. Yeah, I mean, if I if I had anything that was that good, I would
14:07
lead every conversation
14:09
with it. You know, like that would just be my starting point of of every single
14:13
thing. Yeah,
14:14
exactly. Pretty incredible. Any other thoughts on strategy marketing strategy
14:18
or as it relates to
14:19
to demand gen or pipeline generation? I mean, I would say for us, you know,
14:23
part of really having
14:24
that strong demand gen strategy is is having the content behind it, right? And
14:31
so we I think like
14:33
for me being a hub spot alum, you know, I definitely drank like the inbound
14:37
marketing cool aid.
14:38
On it, we create a ton of original content in all different forms. We have e
14:44
books. We have blog
14:46
articles that we we have a video video series that we produce. We have a ton of
14:52
webinars that we do.
14:54
We do a ton of video content for product videos and different informational
14:59
series. And so part
15:02
of us having like a really strong, robust demand gen strategy, the foundation
15:08
for that is the
15:09
content that we create and that we produce. And, you know, we produce most of
15:14
it in house and we
15:15
have an incredible marketing team that I'm so proud of music to my ears, Julia.
15:20
Love it. You
15:21
know, content is proving that would that would your ear, right? I mean, you
15:26
know, I, you know, I,
15:28
of course, I'm biased, but but at the same time, like, there are only reason
15:33
why we do this stuff
15:34
is because it works. You know, did you know that a video series is a 350% or
15:39
350 X ROI or wait,
15:41
what was it? 300% or 52% but who's counting? No, but you know, I, I, I just but
15:50
like,
15:50
I mean, we've seen all the data on videos perform better than than like grading
15:55
things. Like,
15:56
we know that videos over perform like, so why don't more people do it? I mean,
16:01
you grew up with
16:02
inbound marketing is, you know, quarter your background. So of course you, you
16:05
believe it, but
16:06
I mean, we've all seen those statistics too. So I don't know. Well, I think for
16:11
that, I mean,
16:11
you think about even like your own buying habits. If I think about like, as I
16:15
scroll through LinkedIn,
16:16
for example, if there was a post where it's just text, right, I might read it,
16:22
I'm probably more
16:23
likely to read it if it's a post with texts in a photo and probably even more
16:27
likely for it to
16:28
kind of catch my eye and have it be something compelling if it's text with a
16:33
video, right?
16:34
And how do they all complement each other? And I think if you just think about
16:38
that very
16:39
natural way in terms of how we as individuals consume content and what kind of,
16:45
what kind of
16:46
peaks are interest, I think it's very natural. And I think for me, it's really
16:51
interesting. One of
16:53
my early hires is I was building out the team was actually a video hire. And I
16:59
tell people that,
17:00
and it's funny, I was just having lunch with someone today and they're building
17:05
out their own
17:06
marketing team. And I was talking about how, you know, my first two hires on
17:10
the team was an
17:11
events person because we saw such a high ROI with events and it's what our
17:16
audience uses to
17:18
take a look at new products and understand new technology. And the second hire
17:22
was actually a
17:23
video person. And I'm always surprised at how many people are kind of blown
17:28
away by that. Like,
17:29
oh, wow, like, that's that was something that's really interesting or that's
17:34
that's really risky.
17:35
And in some ways, it was just very natural for me to think about video as a
17:41
content medium.
17:42
First, I think that in terms of the ways in which our buyer evaluates software
17:50
and wants to get
17:50
comfortable with it, since it might be their first technology purchase that
17:54
they were making,
17:55
I think video is a great way to showcase our product, help them understand like
17:59
how easy it is to use,
18:01
you know, what it looks like when they become a customer and what that
18:04
experience is like.
18:06
I also think it's it's just such a fundamental way for how people consume
18:10
content and building
18:12
that connection. And it was a really easy way for, you know, just even in the
18:16
very early days to
18:17
support like the sales process that existed at Ling squares. And so I always
18:23
think it's interesting
18:24
like how many people are kind of are struck by that. I think it's also a huge
18:29
competitive advantage.
18:31
For your marketing to have video because video is way harder to do. Like you
18:36
mentioned that you
18:37
have a video series, which is really cool. And I checked out as part of this,
18:42
but but it's not
18:43
just that it's the customer videos. It's it's it's demos. It's all those
18:47
different ads. Like
18:48
quote unquote video is so complex in terms of how many things you can do, but
18:53
it's really hard to do.
18:55
And if you don't have some type of video component in house, and then, you know
19:00
, you could flex
19:01
with partners, you could flex with other stuff, or, you know, you can figure
19:03
out ways to do that.
19:04
But it's just a really big competitive advantage. Because it's way harder. You
19:09
know, we always talk
19:10
talk about like, there's no traffic on the extra mile. If you go the extra mile
19:13
, your competitors
19:14
are not going to go there. Like they just generally don't. Yeah, no, and it's
19:19
been hugely beneficial
19:20
for us. And I agree, I think some of the points that you were making about
19:24
bringing it in house
19:26
that, you know, what is really allowed us to do is for it to be really
19:31
reflective of our brand at
19:33
Ling squares, have it aligned with the messaging that we have, and also move
19:38
really quickly and
19:40
experiment and iterate at that level. I mean, I have certainly worked with
19:45
agencies in the past. And
19:47
especially when you're working out like a high growth software company, our
19:51
product changes
19:53
all the time. And we're constantly evolving our product in terms of new
19:57
features,
19:57
new functionality. And the worst thing is always when you work on a large scale
20:02
video project,
20:03
and you get to the very end, and it might be like three or four months later,
20:07
and you're like,
20:08
oh, we changed our messaging on this. The product looks totally different now
20:13
than what, you know,
20:15
like what we started out with. And oh, can we include this other thing in it?
20:19
And you're just
20:19
not able to move as fast as you want to. And so I very much so believe in like
20:24
bringing these
20:24
skill sets in house to really quite frankly match the pace of the company that
20:30
we're working at.
20:31
I think it's always thinking about like, how do these different things
20:34
complement each other,
20:35
right? It's not an either or scenario. It's not as if we have only chosen to do
20:40
video and we do
20:41
zero written content, right? But how do they, how do they complement one
20:45
another? And how do we
20:47
think about different themes and sort of topic areas that our audience cares
20:52
about and wants to
20:53
learn more about? And then how do we, how do we meet them where they are? I
20:57
mean, I know for me,
20:59
it's not, it's not always that I want to watch a video. But certainly if I'm
21:02
looking to learn
21:03
more about a piece of software, right, being able to see a video is, is, is
21:10
going to be a
21:11
much different experience than just reading a block of text on it. If there is
21:16
a new skill that I'm
21:17
trying to learn, like depending on like what that skill is, sometimes video
21:20
content is the best
21:21
medium for it. Sometimes I want that written out step by step instructions on
21:25
how to do something
21:27
and or something that, you know, as I'm doing it, that I can almost have it
21:32
like open next to me.
21:34
And I think for us, that's what we always think about is what is like that
21:38
piece of content or topic
21:40
area that we want to build upon that like our audience cares about and what is
21:44
going to be like
21:45
that best medium for it. And sometimes it can be the same topic area and
21:48
different pieces of it,
21:50
like a bite-sized piece of content might work well in an audio podcast, whereas
21:56
a detailed sort of
21:57
step by step here's how you use the product goes really nicely with, with doing
22:02
maybe a video
22:03
tutorial or a written out piece of document. And I think that's so much about
22:07
like marketing is
22:08
thinking about like that content and what is the vehicle and then really
22:12
meeting matching it to
22:14
your to your buyers and your prospects with what their needs and how they
22:17
prefer to consume that
22:18
content. And I think in many ways, that's kind of what surprised me about
22:22
events. Like I have never
22:23
seen at another company that I've worked with where, you know, literally we'll
22:28
have prospects that
22:30
come by like our booth at a trade show. And it's almost as if they have like a
22:33
shopping list like,
22:34
okay, this year I'm looking to purchase X and I want to stop by, you know, your
22:39
booth and see a
22:40
demo. You know, I know for me as a marketer, that's probably not how I think
22:46
about purchasing
22:47
and evaluating software. But I think it's like in marketing, you always have to
22:51
have that open mind
22:53
into learning about your buyers and how they think about that purchasing
22:58
process, how they go about
22:59
finding information that's going to be valuable for them and having your
23:03
marketing match that.
23:05
And I don't think it's a one size fits all. Like I'm certainly not prescribing
23:10
for everyone. Like
23:11
everyone, you know, spend, you know, most of your marketing budget, like in
23:15
events, right? But that
23:17
happens to be a really, a really high ROI channel for us. And I think you have
23:23
to be open to those
23:24
ideas. Yeah, I love it. I couldn't agree more. I think that like this multi
23:29
channel, multi format
23:30
sort of approach to just be people where they are. And like people like to
23:34
consume in different ways.
23:36
And, and, you know, consuming versus like actually buying or like two very
23:42
different sort of things,
23:44
like one passive one, one very aggressive. And that's a, it's a great, that's a
23:48
really cool,
23:51
cool little anecdote that you you've learned by talking to your customers. Okay
23:55
, let's get to
23:56
the playbook. So are we, where you open up that playbook and talk about the
24:00
tactics that help
24:01
you in? Obviously you've discussed a bunch of these already. What are your
24:04
three channels or
24:05
tactics that are your uncutable budget items? I would say in general for us, I
24:09
mean, events
24:10
are such a high ROI like marketing activity for us. Content 100%. I mean, it's
24:18
an area that we invest
24:20
heavily in across different formats and forms of content. And I mean, I don't
24:31
know, there's so
24:32
many like different parts of it. And probably like just even like video and
24:38
creative in in general,
24:40
right? Like how do we build that, that brand that's memorable and different
24:46
than our competitors?
24:48
I think it's a competitive differentiator for us. I do want to ask though, when
24:53
you talk about
24:55
distributing this content, how do you think about getting it out there in front
24:59
of people?
24:59
Yeah. So, so it's funny as you ask like the first question, it's like even
25:06
thinking more about it.
25:07
I think that in some ways there's probably like no uncutable areas of like
25:14
marketing for us.
25:15
I mean, one of the things that I pride myself on is I definitely think I'm a
25:20
very data driven
25:22
marketer, very quantitative and analytics focused. And we're constantly
25:26
evaluating our
25:27
different campaigns and our channels to make sure that they're performing well
25:31
for us. So, in some
25:32
ways, like the answer to the question is like none of the things that we're
25:35
doing, they're all
25:36
uncutable because I think that we've done such a great job of eliminating the
25:41
things that are not
25:42
performing for us. And so, the things that we're doing, we just have such a
25:46
high confidence in their
25:48
ability to create like meaningful results and not just in terms of leads, but
25:53
also revenue for
25:54
our business. I think for your other question in terms of the channels for
26:01
distributing our content,
26:03
I mean, we kind of run the gamut there, I would say. Certainly, we do a fair
26:11
amount of paid
26:12
acquisition. We have our content readily available on our site depending on the
26:18
format. If we're
26:19
talking about things like video content, pushing it out through YouTube and
26:23
other channels,
26:25
thinking about like our web series, we also do an audio podcast version of it
26:30
and pushing that
26:30
out through the different channels. We invest heavily in terms of PR, we use
26:37
social media.
26:39
So, all the different areas that we find our audience is looking to find
26:43
content and educate
26:44
themselves. I mean, we also use content syndication, especially for our written
26:50
content. We find it's
26:51
a great channel for us. The list kind of goes on and on. I'll be honest with
26:55
you.
26:55
What's one thing that you're not doing now that you might be wanting to invest
27:01
in here going forward?
27:03
That's a really hard question. I think, and I'll just honestly, I'll readily
27:11
admit that I don't
27:12
necessarily have a good answer for that. I think for me, with having so much
27:18
experience working
27:20
in startups, a big part of the marketing that we do is focused on
27:24
experimentation.
27:26
When I think about experimentation and trying out new ideas, I guess the lens
27:32
that I always
27:33
look through it in is partially, how can we truly experiment? How can we maybe
27:39
start smart,
27:40
start small with a channel or a type of marketing and see, do we see early
27:46
results? And it's almost
27:47
the doubling exercise, right? Like, can we start small? And if we see positive
27:52
results,
27:53
well, let's double down on it and then look at the results again and compare it
27:57
to different
27:58
channels that we do. And if we continue to see positive results, like, let's
28:02
double down on it
28:03
again and continue to invest in that. And so in some ways, there's not a lot of
28:09
areas that I'm like,
28:10
oh, I really want to do that, but we're not doing that right now. Because I
28:15
think that
28:16
we have built such a strong sort of culture of experimentation, both in the
28:23
company as a whole
28:24
and on the marketing side. How do you view your website? Our website is an
28:31
extremely powerful channel.
28:33
For us. And I think that our website, I think everybody's website is in many
28:40
ways like that,
28:42
that front door to your company. And such an important channel to optimize and
28:47
to think about
28:48
that experience. I think that our website for us is always going to be a work
28:54
in progress and
28:56
something that we're continuing to optimize and improve on and build more
29:00
content and thinking
29:01
about that buyer journey and how it complements it. But I mean, our website is
29:06
a foundational item for
29:07
us. Let's get down to the next segment. The dust up, where we talk about
29:11
healthy tension,
29:12
whether that's with your board, your sales teams, your competitors, or anyone
29:16
else,
29:16
have had a memorable dust up in your career, Julia. I think I was approach like
29:21
, so one, what I would
29:22
say is that I don't necessarily view conflict as a bad thing. I think that
29:31
people are going to come
29:32
into different situations with differing information, with differing opinions,
29:36
with different experiences.
29:38
And I don't think conflict itself is necessarily a bad thing. But I think it's
29:44
how you approach it
29:45
and how you deal with it. And do you come at it from a place of understanding
29:49
and trying to
29:51
understand and educate yourself on a different viewpoint? I love it.
29:55
Okay, let's get to our final segment. Quick hits. These are quick questions and
30:04
quick answers,
30:05
just like how quickly qualified helps companies generate pipeline,
30:09
tap in your greatest asset, your website to identify your most valuable
30:13
visitors,
30:13
and instantly start sales conversations. Right there on the website, quick and
30:20
easy,
30:20
just like these questions we love qualified with the bottom of our very hearts
30:25
for being with us.
30:26
Since the very beginning of this show, go to qualified.com to learn more,
30:31
qualified. They're
30:32
the best. Quick hits. Julia, are you ready? I am and I'll even just kind of
30:38
join in on the
30:40
love fest where I admit that we are qualified customers and we are a victim of
30:44
the product.
30:46
I didn't know that. That's great. It might have been a little bit of a leading
30:49
question on your
30:50
part. I don't know. It was not a leading question. I actually didn't know that.
30:53
It was not in my
30:55
preparation and probably should have been. But I didn't know that. That's great
30:58
. How's qualified?
30:59
How's life? It's been wonderful for us. It's been a huge asset to the team. And
31:06
it's been a great
31:07
opportunity, honestly, for us on the marketing side to partner really closely
31:11
with our sales team.
31:13
One of the things that I certainly pride myself on is the relationship that
31:17
marketing and sales
31:18
has at Link Squares. I think partially from me, even if I think about the way
31:23
in which I got into
31:24
marketing, I have been in sales roles before. When I first joined HubSpot, I
31:30
was in a sales role.
31:33
I've sat in that seat. I know what it's like to carry a quota. I know what it's
31:36
like to get on
31:37
the phone and sell. And so for me, when I think about marketing, it's all about
31:42
how is marketing
31:44
complementing the sales process? How are we making it easier for our sales team
31:49
to sell by giving
31:50
them the resources, the materials, the warm leads to have those great
31:54
conversations and that information.
31:57
And so I just so strongly believe in that partnership between marketing and
32:02
sales.
32:03
And I think qualified has actually been like a great tool for us to continue
32:08
having that great
32:09
relationship and to continue that conversation and making it even more seamless
32:15
on some of that
32:15
handoff. So it has been a great, great tool in sort of our toolkit.
32:19
Well, that's the best organic read I could possibly do. That's for sure.
32:24
You know, you feel free to have the qualified team reach out to me for a case
32:28
study.
32:29
Yeah, there we go.
32:31
I will even say like candidly that before we had our call today, my senior
32:37
director of
32:38
demand, Jen, like reached out and she said, Hey, I saw that you were going to
32:42
be on this,
32:43
you know, podcast that that qualified as a part of that's so amazing. I mean,
32:48
she's a huge fan of the product as well. Well, man, this if this isn't if this
32:53
isn't one of the
32:54
great days in in in this podcast history, I don't know what is. That's cool. Sh
32:59
out out to
32:59
shout out to her. What's her name? Her name is Angelica. Shout out Angelica. We
33:05
love you dearly.
33:06
Thank you for for for listening and also for for being a qualified customer.
33:11
Okay, quick hits.
33:13
I know that was not a quick answer. I apologize. Hey, you can you can wax
33:18
poetic about the
33:19
presenting partner of the show. You won't. Do you have a hidden talent or skill
33:25
that's not on your
33:26
resume? Yes, I would say I I truly love I truly love like going out and
33:35
discovering new restaurants.
33:37
So I am definitely someone if you are ever in the Boston area and you are
33:41
looking for a restaurant
33:43
recommendation, definitely hit me up. Hey, no. Do you have a favorite book or
33:50
podcast or TV show
33:52
that you've been checking out recently? This is a hard one for me because I
33:58
would say that like
33:59
I consume a lot of content. One of the things that I love that I'm a part of is
34:04
I have a book club
34:05
filled with incredible women that I'm a part of. And what I love about that
34:09
partially is it
34:10
forces me to at least like read one new book a month. One book that we read
34:15
recently was called
34:17
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow that I highly recommend. And it's probably
34:22
one of the books that
34:23
that I have loved the most recently. Do you have a
34:29
Do you have a non marketing hobby that maybe indirectly makes you a better
34:39
marketer?
34:42
I don't know if this qualifies as a hobby, but I am a parent. I have two little
34:50
girls
34:50
age five and seven. And I would say I would say that being a parent makes me a
34:56
better marketer in
34:58
that I think parenting forces you to prioritize the things that are most
35:03
important in your life.
35:05
And to make time for those and sometimes say no to other things that might be
35:10
going on.
35:12
But it really forces you to say what are the things that are most important to
35:16
me and how do I
35:17
make time for those and how do I maybe you know say no to some of the things
35:22
that that aren't as
35:24
important. I love it couldn't agree more. If you weren't in marketing at all or
35:29
even business
35:30
what do you think you'd be doing? I think really tied to the comments about
35:39
loving new restaurants and trying new food and exploring new places in Boston.
35:44
I think that if I wasn't in marketing I could certainly imagine a life of
35:50
running something in
35:50
the hospitality business whether it was something related to travel or
35:56
restaurants or
35:57
giving recommendations in that area. That's something that I love to do.
36:04
What advice would you give to a first time CMO who's trying to figure out their
36:08
pipeline gen strategy?
36:10
I would say is really build that partnership with the sales team and understand
36:20
how the sales
36:21
team is currently selling the product and also what they need most from
36:27
marketing to build that
36:29
partnership and to complement that buying process. I love it. Chill yet it's
36:36
been awesome. Oh I buried
36:37
the lead here. Y'all are hiring so I've clearly you know you know how awesome
36:42
of a CMO she is
36:43
but Link Square is hiring right now and you can go to the website we'll link it
36:48
up
36:48
to for positions where you're hiring. Any other thoughts or anything to plug?
36:55
No I think that we covered a lot during our time today and it was so wonderful
36:59
getting to meet you
37:00
and talk with you. Likewise for everybody listening go on Slack or wherever
37:05
ping your
37:06
internal counsel and be like hey if you checked out Link Squares it can save
37:11
you
37:11
352% of your time value money energy and life force so go yeah go just give
37:20
them a nudge and say
37:21
drop the link in go to link squares. Hopefully I've been doing my job and they
37:25
're like link squares
37:26
I've heard of link squares before. Right yes right like ah that was on my
37:31
ledger when I was at a
37:32
conference and I said this is something I need to evaluate in summer and it's
37:36
summer now.
37:36
Chill yet thanks so much.