Ask Stacy Gardner, and she’ll tell you she’s a demand generation practitioner with a love for data-proven pipeline impact and velocity. Ask us, and we’ll tell you that she’s a revops rock star! After all, in her last seven years at Bottomline Technologies, she’s been part of a team that’s transformed marketing into a true profit center by embracing the emerging trend of revenue marketing.
Cari and Dana couldn’t wait to sip some coffee (and maybe other fine liquids) with her, get her to open up about the revenue marketing revolution, and hear her dish about her team’s earliest foray into account-based marketing (ABM). Naturally, we also asked her about her shit-hit-the-fan moments—and you’ll be stunned by what she says! But first, let’s talk revops:
“A true revenue marketer has a love affair with data.”
To get real results from revenue marketing, you need to adore numbers. Thankfully, geeking out with numbers is Stacy’s jam. “Give me 10,000 rows of data as it relates to marketing and I’m as happy as a lark!” she says.
Revenue marketing success also takes fearless conversations with sales and marketing. And those candid talks must evolve in order to build a true partnership. One example Stacy shares: “We had contributed upwards of 60% of pipeline for a small segment in our line of business, but we weren’t hitting our booking targets,” Stacy explains. So she got sales and marketing together. “We learned there were some misses in the product, misses in our SLA criteria, misses all around.” And while those types of real conversations are uncomfortable, “Once you lean in, you uncover a lot,” she says.
“This one makes me start to sweat.”
Speaking of uncomfortable … let’s talk about Stacy’s most cringeworthy moment. It happened very early in her time at Bottomline. She was in a Thursday morning Executive Leadership call, representing her line of business. She had prepped for it the night before, thinking about the questions she might face and how she’d offer only the most brilliant answers. Then the call began. Their sales leader asked, “Is there anything Demand Generation can do for us to help us progress pipeline or net new logo pipeline?” And: Silence!
“The CMO was in the room. I’m on the phone. She, rightfully so, gave me the opportunity to answer,” Stacy says. “But my mouth wouldn’t move.” After a few super-awkward moments, the meeting moved on. Stacy was devastated! But what’s inspiring is how she used that embarrassing flub as a teachable moment. Here’s what she tells newer marketers about what she learned from this “oh shit” moment:
“Carbs are the enemy!”
That was Stacy’s gut reaction when Cari and Dana asked for the advice she’d give her 20-year-old self! (We all can relate!) But from a professional aspect, her best advice to younger marketers is this: Open yourself up to mentorship.
“I wish I could go back and find a mentor anywhere, either in a company I really admired or a leader I really admired, and just reached out to them and say, hey, I’m really interested in what you have to say and I’d like you to be my mentor,” she says. “I can’t imagine any leader would say no to that.”
You won’t be able to say no to the full version of Episode 2, either! So, dive right in. You’ll learn why Stacy calls ABM marketing “one-to-few” and why your first ABM campaign will take longer than you think. You’ll also hear Stacy get real about that time her team sent a sales promotion to their entire email list … and learn about the frenzy that followed! Listen to the full episode now. And don’t forget to subscribe to the whole series so you can hear real talk from unbelievably talented female marketers!