Diary of a first-time CMO - Attracting talent
Hey B2B marketers 👋
Here it is. Four years, $50m+ ARR and 200 pages later… My journey as a first-time CMO.
Covering the key learnings I've gathered in four years of leadership. This diary reveals the lessons that helped me scale Cognism from $3m to $50m ARR, build a team from 3 to 39, and transform our set-up from a classic lead gen function to a demand gen engine.
It’s my handbook for B2B marketers looking to thrive in leadership.(especially if you’re as daunted as I was when I started out!)
Contents
Back to start page- Marketing Leadership: Where to start & nailing the fundamentals
- Hiring and building a team
- Going from lead gen to demand gen
- Lessons on e-books
- Tie yourself to revenue
- Experimental budget
- Building a media machine
- Redirection
- Buyers want instant gratification
- Setting records
- Making predictions
- Lead gen to demand gen: Making the switch
- It’s not 2010 anymore
- On-demand, ungated, free content
- LinkedIn wins
- Sourcing subject matter experts
- Building successful processes
- Done is better than perfect
- Marrying ideas and execution
- Give yourself problems
- Cognism DNA
- Becoming a subject matter expert
- Random acts of marketing
- Art and science
- Let’s get it live
- Minimal viable product
- B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring
- Value customer loyalty
- Rebranding Cognism
- Lessons I’ve learned about marketing and sales alignment
- Align your destinies
- Mindset of a CMO
- Predictions
Attracting talent
I feel incredibly passionate about this one.
I’ve already mentioned that I believe hiring should be a CMO’s superpower.
One of the biggest wins for my team as a result of our shift away from lead generation (and our openness and transparency about this journey) has been that we have built a following of marketers.
Not only do they regularly read and engage with our content, but they also want to work for us!
It has shown that Cognism is an innovative place to work, it’s somewhere that prioritises marketing investment.
It’s a successful example of marketing being a revenue-generating engine.
It’s a marketing team where you know you will be setting the standard for what good B2B marketing looks like and there’s no following well-trodden paths. It’s all about creating our own ‘new way’.
We have managed to build a community that breeds like-minded marketers who buy into our philosophy, and who are forward-thinking and comfortable operating in the unknown.
I’ve never had an easier year of hiring.
The quality of the inbound talent that has been applying to positions has been incredible, with personalised cover letters like the one from diary entry no.50 becoming the norm.
There’s a movement happening and I am incredibly proud that Cognism is building a home for these unicorn B2B marketers.