The Exit Five Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#48: B2B marketing heading into 2023, growing your career in a down economy, continuing to bet on LinkedIn organic & more with John Short (Founder & CEO Compound Growth Marketing) Jan 03, 2023

Show notes

Dave is joined by John Short (Founder & CEO of Compound Growth Marketing) to talk about the state of B2B marketing / B2B SaaS as a of December 2022 heading into the new year, tips for growing your career during a time when company growth might be slower, and why they are continuing to bet on LinkedIn organic as a key channel for B2B company growth.

Thanks to Demandwell, our presenting sponsor for the Exit Five podcast.

https://www.demandwell.com/

Demandwell is the best SEO solution for B2B SaaS marketers. They’ve helped customers like Lessonly drive 40% of their revenue from organic search. And they helped Terminus’s make organic search their number one source of demos

Here’s how it works:

Results: Demandwell is built for driving the outcomes that b2b marketers care about - demand, traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ease and control: Junior team members can follow recommended steps in the platform, while experts can customize and maintain full control over their work.
Speed: With everything in one platform, Demandwell helps you crank out content that ranks and drives leads in minutes rather than hours.

SEO expert or not, you should give Demandwell a try, and listeners of the Exit Five podcast can get a free competitive SEO Audit to see how you’re ranking relative to your competitors

Go to demandwell.com/fomo to get your free SEO consultation today.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

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Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.

Convertiv - A B2B marketing agency that helps enterprise teams build an AI-powered go-to-market strategy, specializing in AEO. Podcast listeners get a free AI search review showing how you stack up against competitors. Learn more at convertiv.com/exitfive.

Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.

Compound Growth Marketing- A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive.

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#47: Holiday Special: What Parents Talk About Reunion with Dave & Lya Dec 20, 2022

Show notes

Dave is joined by his wife Lya in a rare guest appearance. This is a very special episode of the Exit Five podcast - it's a one episode revival of the podcast Dave and Lya did a few years ago called "What Parents Talk About" and Lya takes the mic to grill Dave on a few questions about solopreneurship, parenting, telling the truth on LinkedIn, the mental load, golf vs. work, being home together everyday and more.

Thanks to Demandwell, our presenting sponsor for the Exit Five podcast.

https://www.demandwell.com/

Here’s how it works:

Results: Demandwell is built for driving the outcomes that b2b marketers care about - demand, traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ease and control: Junior team members can follow recommended steps in the platform, while experts can customize and maintain full control over their work.
Speed: With everything in one platform, Demandwell helps you crank out content that ranks and drives leads in minutes rather than hours.

SEO expert or not, you should give Demandwell a try, and listeners of the Exit Five podcast can get a free competitive SEO Audit to see how you’re ranking relative to your competitors

Go to demandwell.com/fomo to get your free SEO consultation today.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#46: Outside of Work: Running, Boston Marathon, and Sports Radio with Tim McKone Dec 13, 2022

Show notes

Dave is joined by one of his best friends from high school Tim McKone for a little change of pace podcast episode we are calling Outside of Work. Dave and Tim talk about getting into running, training for the Boston Marathon, why running makes a great hobby, falling back in love with sports, Dave's love for golf, how Tim got into his career in sports media and working at 98.5 The Sports Hub, the top local sports radio station in the country and more. You can find Tim on Twitter @Tim_McKone. Connect with Dave on Instagram @davegerhardt1. Should I do more of these types of episodes? Send me a message on Instagram - @davegerhardt1 or an email to questions@davegerhardt.com

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#45: Running product marketing globally at $100M+ ARR, working with field sales, and more with Eyal Webber-Zvik, VP Product Marketing at Cato Networks Dec 12, 2022

Show notes

Eyal Webber-Zvik is VP of Product Marketing at Cato Networks. Cato is a company in the networking and security space current over $100M in annual revenue. In his role, Eyal manages a global team of product marketing directors that are tasked driving the company's messaging, position, press and media relations, and more. Previously, Eyal ran Cato's product management organization and he has more than 20 years of experience in engineering, product management and product marketing. Dave and Eyal talk about the role of product marketing in global organization that is driven by field sales, creating the company narrative and sales deck, and more.

Thanks to Demandwell, our presenting sponsor for the Exit Five podcast.

https://www.demandwell.com/

Here’s how it works:

Results: Demandwell is built for driving the outcomes that b2b marketers care about - demand, traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ease and control: Junior team members can follow recommended steps in the platform, while experts can customize and maintain full control over their work.
Speed: With everything in one platform, Demandwell helps you crank out content that ranks and drives leads in minutes rather than hours.

SEO expert or not, you should give Demandwell a try, and listeners of the Exit Five podcast can get a free competitive SEO Audit to see how you’re ranking relative to your competitors

Go to demandwell.com/fomo to get your free SEO consultation today.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#44: Lauren Vaccarello, CMO at Salesloft, former CMO at Talend, VP Marketing at Box, Head of Digital at Salesforce Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

Lauren Vaccarello is Chief Marketing Officer at Salesloft. Dave and Lauren talk about how Lauren landed at Salesloft, the first six months in her new role, what to look for when evaluating marketing leadership roles, the relationship between sales and marketing, and lessons from her experiences from public company CMO to startup marketing exec to head of digital at Salesforce in the early 2010's.

- Send guest pitches and ideas to hello@exitfive.com
- Exit Five on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exitfive/
- Exit Five on Twitter: https://twitter.com/exitfiveco

Thanks to Demandwell, our presenting sponsor for the Exit Five podcast.

https://www.demandwell.com/

Here’s how it works:

Results: Demandwell is built for driving the outcomes that b2b marketers care about - demand, traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ease and control: Junior team members can follow recommended steps in the platform, while experts can customize and maintain full control over their work.
Speed: With everything in one platform, Demandwell helps you crank out content that ranks and drives leads in minutes rather than hours.

SEO expert or not, you should give Demandwell a try, and listeners of the Exit Five podcast can get a free competitive SEO Audit to see how you’re ranking relative to your competitors

Go to demandwell.com/fomo to get your free SEO consultation today.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#43: 16 Lessons I Wish I Knew As First Time B2B Marketing Leader Nov 28, 2022

Show notes

Dave shares the 16 lessons he wishes he knew as a first-time marketing leader, going from marketing manager to CMO in four years. This is a recording from Metadata's DEMAND 2022 virtual event in October 2022. The lessons include:

Forget the acronyms & best practices, use your brain. Ultimately there are only three ways to grow a business: get more new customers, increase the transaction value, increase how often people buy from you. You can get lost in the MQL PQL SQL SAL definitions and best practices. Get back to the basics and operate from first principles.
You need a story to be successful in B2B. Call it a category, call it a movement. Regardless, you need a story that people can bring to their boss about why they should buy your product beyond features + benefits. HubSpot created inbound marketing. Gainsight championed customer success. Drift conversational marketing. Each led through education + expertise and showed people a new way of doing things. Sell the vision and the story.
You need to sweat the "offer" - request a demo and contact sales are only going to convert for the highest intent prospects. You need other offers. HubSpot's website grader. Drift did a "test drive" to test the chatbot on your website before talking to anyone. Demandwell has a free SEO audit. Clari has a revenue leakage calculator. These are all smart ideas that are still further down the funnel than ebook but work to get qualified buyers in to eventually talk to sales.
Avoid incremental thinking. You can waste so many cycles thinking that the next homepage variation or the email series is going to be the thing that gets you out of the revenue hole. Rarely does "nurturing" solve the problem. Take bigger swings.
You must find a way to get on the same page as sales, no matter what. Find a way to put all the internal politics aside. You will never be successful unless you can marketing sales + marketing = revenue *together*. Find out how the VP of sales is comped and do everything in your power to get on the same page. Health teams gives bonuses based on company goals not team goals. Find out and fix it. Manage up to the CEO if needed. Life is 100% easier when sales + marketing have shared revenue goals.
Make finance and ops your best friends. YOU HAVE PLENTY TO DO ON YOUR OWN, YOUR JOB IS NOT FINANCE AND OPS I PROMISE YOU!!!! But instead find a way to make them your key business partners. Same way you need to be on the same team as sales, you need to be on the same team with finance and ops. Make them your best friends - collaborate on marketing as a business function Don’t be like 28 year old Dave “I got this myself” - DON’T GET DEFENSIVE - take the help, work together.
Show your work and master internal communication. Top complaint: I never know what marketing is doing. If you can’t get the people inside fired up, how will customers be? Top complaint: Marketing is doing a lot, but no idea how it fits our goals. You must always be sharing the bigger picture, related to company goals. Some systems I like: Slack: sharing screenshots, work in progress, teasers, etc. Weekly, monthly, quarterly recaps - here’s what marketing is up to . Take any opportunity to present to the company you can get. Create cross-functional check-ins with marketing, product, sales, CS, finance, ops, together. Marketing is the leadership department as Christopher Lochhead says. Make it that way. Lead by example. You're supposed to be the best communicators in the company right?
You must be able to articulate what your marketing strategy is. Don’t get lost in the tactics - see too much of this today. It’s the job of the marketing leader to have a vision for HOW the company does marketing. ABM? Product led? Both? SMB? Mid Market? Enterprise? Be intentional about your approach. You cant take the peanut butter approach and spread average stuff everywhere and expect to win. FOCUS. But also what type of marketing, what brand do you want to be? Have a view on the market, have a view on how you’ll do marketing this year, have a POV on what good marketing looks like. Ex: at Privy we sold to small businesses so we knew they weren't marketing experts and our marketing had to speak to them and they didn't have a lot of time to figure it out, so we had to lead with simple + clear + educational content.
You must be able to think short term and long term. Hitting today's goal is great, but what about when the plan jumps 50% next year? You need to be able to build the foundation for that now or you'll wish you did a year from now. Spend 70% of your time on today and 30% of your time on next year/tomorrow. Be disciplined about laying the groundwork for next year and beyond and it will payoff. What will your next channels be? Where can you get future growth from? Start testing and learning now before you need it. Then you can be ready to turn it on.
Manage up to the CEO. She cares about two things: revenue and the story. Keep your communication + collaboration tight to those things. She doesnt need to know every detail about what's going on inside of your org and you shouldn't let her. Manage up and get help around revenue and the story. Focus your efforts there.
You have to making hiring your job not your side project. People are everything. You know that. Every HBR article ever has said it. But candidates are not going to magically fall on your lap you must treat this like your own marketing program. It's not HR / recruiters job it's your job - no one will know who to hire better than you. Build a brand for yourself in the market. Get religious about sourcing via LinkedIn. Make it your full-time job. Even if you're not hiring you should always be meeting great marketers -- at least so you can model / know what great looks like. Keep a list of your dream team. Make a spreadsheet of names of great people you'd hire if you could one day. You never know.
Create your own momentum. It's 2022. You dont need to wait for Gartner or Forrester to write about you. You dont need the product team to ship the one key feature. Marketing is ultimately about content. You can create your own momentum by thinking like a publishing company. Create regular marketing launches. We called them "marketable moments" this can be content, research, reports, events. And then hopefully yes you have product shipping regularly and can do regular product launches too. But stick to a monthly launch calendar. Make some noise every month on your own, no matter what ingredients you have from the company or product team. Set the dates in advance. Dates and deadlines drive action. At Drift we launched the first Tuesday of every month, regardless. It helped us create our own momentum and was a competitive advantage -- PLUS it was contagious and pushed the rest of the the company to ship more too, especially the product team. They wanted to keep up with us.
Your job is to get the job done. Doesn't matter if your hire internally, agency, outsource, use an intern or your grandmother. As the marketing leader they are paying you to deliver the result. Put that above everything else especially your ego. That's the biggest difference between the marketing leader and the individual contributor. It's not necessarily your job to do it but its your job to get it DONE.
Do the job internally first before hiring externally. Always test and prove - at least get some signal internally. “What should the role of events manager do?” - no idea, you find out. Ex: you think you want to hire a partner marketing person; great make it part of product marketing's role for a quarter to test and learn. Ex: you want to hire for PR. Great. Make it part of your job for a quarter. You’ll never know what good looks like, how to measure, etc. unless you test it first. You can do this for almost any role / any “job" - I've m...

#42: What it means to be a media company, building an audience, community, & more with Anthony Kennada (Founder of AudiencePlus) Nov 21, 2022

Show notes

Anthony Kennada is is co-founder & CEO of AudiencePlus, a company building software, content, and community to help businesses become media companies. Prior to founding AudiencePlus, Anthony served as the CMO of Hopin, Front, and Gainsight.

Thanks to Demandwell, our presenting sponsor for the Exit Five podcast.

https://www.demandwell.com/

Here’s how it works:

Results: Demandwell is built for driving the outcomes that b2b marketers care about - demand, traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ease and control: Junior team members can follow recommended steps in the platform, while experts can customize and maintain full control over their work.
Speed: With everything in one platform, Demandwell helps you crank out content that ranks and drives leads in minutes rather than hours.

SEO expert or not, you should give Demandwell a try, and listeners of the Exit Five podcast can get a free competitive SEO Audit to see how you’re ranking relative to your competitors

Go to demandwell.com/fomo to get your free SEO consultation today.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#41: Building your 2023 marketing plan with Peter Mahoney (CEO at Plannuh) Nov 14, 2022

Show notes

Dave is joined by Peter Mahoney (Founder & CEO at Plannuh) to break down how to create your 2023 marketing plan. We cover:

1. Overall approach to building a plan

2. Setting goals, metrics, and targets

3. Building a framework for marketing campaigns over the year

4. Modeling funnels and determining cost per opportunity

5. Determining how much marketing budget to spend

6. Selling your plan to the CEO, CFO, and getting it approved

Thanks to Demandwell, our presenting sponsor for the Exit Five podcast.

https://www.demandwell.com/

Here’s how it works:

Results: Demandwell is built for driving the outcomes that b2b marketers care about - demand, traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ease and control: Junior team members can follow recommended steps in the platform, while experts can customize and maintain full control over their work.
Speed: With everything in one platform, Demandwell helps you crank out content that ranks and drives leads in minutes rather than hours.

SEO expert or not, you should give Demandwell a try, and listeners of the Exit Five podcast can get a free competitive SEO Audit to see how you’re ranking relative to your competitors

Go to demandwell.com/fomo to get your free SEO consultation today.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#40: How to make marketing bets, a scientific process for generating revenue, & scaling marketing programs with Chris Walker (Refine Labs CEO) Nov 08, 2022

Show notes

Dave is joined by Chris Walker (CEO, Refine Labs) to share a scientific process/framework you can use to build, prove, and scale marketing programs they call Revenue R&D. This is a great listen for anyone thinking about marketing planning, where to make bets for the year, how to prove new channels, and how to think like an executive when it comes to revenue generation.

Thanks to Demandwell, our presenting sponsor for the Exit Five podcast.

https://www.demandwell.com/

Here’s how it works:

Results: Demandwell is built for driving the outcomes that b2b marketers care about - demand, traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ease and control: Junior team members can follow recommended steps in the platform, while experts can customize and maintain full control over their work.
Speed: With everything in one platform, Demandwell helps you crank out content that ranks and drives leads in minutes rather than hours.

SEO expert or not, you should give Demandwell a try, and listeners of the Exit Five podcast can get a free competitive SEO Audit to see how you’re ranking relative to your competitors

Go to demandwell.com/fomo to get your free SEO consultation today.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#39: Marketing when there's no urgency to buy, what the CEO wants, & driving predictable demand with John Short (Founder, Compound Growth Marketing) Oct 31, 2022

Show notes

Dave is joined by John Short, Founder & CEO of Compound Growth Marketing. John spent a decade as a B2B SaaS marketer at LogMeIn, Yesware, and Workable before starting is his own full-funnel marketing agency in 2018. John is focused on helping companies find the right strategy in order to grow, as opposed to just blindly picking from a menu of marketing tactics. His company helps B2B marketers with everything from infrastructure (marketing ops and analytics), customer acquisition, funnel optimization, and scaling growth.

Thanks to Demandwell, our presenting sponsor for the Exit Five podcast.

https://www.demandwell.com/

Here’s how it works:

Results: Demandwell is built for driving the outcomes that b2b marketers care about - demand, traffic, leads, and revenue.
Ease and control: Junior team members can follow recommended steps in the platform, while experts can customize and maintain full control over their work.
Speed: With everything in one platform, Demandwell helps you crank out content that ranks and drives leads in minutes rather than hours.

SEO expert or not, you should give Demandwell a try, and listeners of the Exit Five podcast can get a free competitive SEO Audit to see how you’re ranking relative to your competitors

Go to demandwell.com/fomo to get your free SEO consultation today.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing the podcast for me. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.

Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more

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