Forget the Funnel, with Georgiana Laudi

forget the funnel with Georgiana Laudi

Episode 167

A trend that’s currently having its day in the sun is Product-Led Growth. According to our guest, it’s a fine model, but our companies need growth that’s based on a more foundational element – advocating for Customer-Led Growth.

CLG begins with creating organization-wide understanding around what experience is most appropriate for the company’s best customers. Value to customers is then delivered — whenever, wherever, and however they need it — throughout their relationship with the company. 

Our guest pioneered customer experience mapping while she was leading marketing for the Vancouver-based SaaS company Unbounce.

She has been a brand builder since 2000. In 2009, she embraced tech startups and SaaS, recognizing marketing’s pivotal role in SaaS success. In 2023 she co-authored Forget the Funnel and with her co-founder Claire Suellentrop has a consultancy that goes by the same name. 

Let’s talk to Georgiana Laudi.

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Georgiana on Twitter/X

ACV = Average Customer Value

Clayton Christiansen’s jtbd framework

Dave McClure’s Pirate metrics

You may also like the previous episode on customer interviews with Ryan Gibson

Episode Reboot. Get the free workbook and other free resources on the FTF site.

Book’s phases and customer journey milestones combined (used with permission)

What we can learn from artists, with Fred Pike

What we can learn from artists, with Fred Pike

Episode 163

Today we’re talking about what analytics has to do with music (check out this music about analytics by songwriter Kai Feng). We’re looking at a musician’s work style and seeing what analysts can adopt from it. According to today’s guest, these two disciplines have much in common.  

Fred Pike is a father, a grandfather and a string musician who both plays in and is president of the Milwaukee Mandolin orchestra. 

He is also a Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager expert, having been a founding member of the web development agency Northwoods which just celebrated twenty five years in business. He has also shared his knowledge through various courses and at CXL which is better known as Conversion XL and sessions he has presented at Superweek

He approaches marketing analytics in much the same way as he approaches a musical performance. So let’s listen to how he does that, in my chat with Fred Pike. 

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Northwoods, the agency which Fred co-founded

Fred on LinkedIn

Fred on X/Twitter

Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra

Great video by Kai Feng singing about data: https://youtu.be/D_upBpY1U2I?si=DxFHdl-PO7CqLGXH&t=147

Simo Ahava

Jeff Sauer

Julius Fedorovicius

Sonke Ahrens

“The dullest pencil beats the sharpest mind”

Episode 162: In search marketing, change = opportunity. With Giannina Fumagalli

In search marketing, change = opportunity. with Giannina Fumigalli

This is the second episode in a series on having a thriving career. There is one specific subfield where this challenge is harder than usual – it’s marketing within paid and organic search. There are always new tools and techniques coming along, and In our guest’s opinion, to be a search marketing professional means upgrading yourself, to master them while the iron is still hot. 

I’ll be talking with someone who has dealt with more than her fair share of change – but who feels she is better as a result. Originally from Peru, Giannina Fumagalli has lived in Montreal Canada for the last 18 years and who has been working in digital marketing that whole time, including both agency and client-side roles. She is currently the Growth Marketer at Vircom, a pioneer in B2B Email Security.

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Giannina works at Vircom.com

Parisian vs Quebecois French

RSA = Responsive Search Ad

Episode Reboot. “Not all clicks are created equal”

Episode 161: Charting your course as a young marketer, with Marissa Homere

Ep 161 Charting your course as a young marketer

There’s a lot you need to deal with in a marketing career, such as: 

  • What skills you should chase after when in an entry-level vs what’s needed at higher levels
  • How to manage both above and below your level
  • What continuous learning actually looks like
  • Knowing when a job isn’t panning out and you need to cut  your losses
  • Balancing whether to join a company based on the brand’s cachet, the title, the salary and what you will get out of the experience
  • Advice when interviewing for marketing roles – what she looks food when hiring
  • How to cultivate your profile within your organization
  • When to stay a generalist, or when to gain a specific skill by joining a special project 

This episode’s guest is eminently qualified to cover these topics. Marissa Homere is the VP of Marketing at Irwin, an investor relations and capital markets software company. She is a demand generation leader and for the last decade, she has built and scaled marketing teams in a wide range of industries. She also teaches in an online marketing program. 

In this episode, Marissa shares her thoughts on the marketing industry as a whole, how young professionals can be best prepared for today’s rapidly changing environment, and what it takes to succeed in a fast-paced marketing role. Most importantly, she talks about how, as a wife and mother, how societal issues have muscled in on her life as a marketer. Like being a working parent, handling old oppressive tendencies in the workplace, struggling to balance career ladder-climbing with family responsibilities. 

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

Marissa works at Irwin

Dave Hale

uOttawa Marketing program

Modern Marketing Certificate

Episode Reboot. Marissa’s 3 questions: Are you growing? Are you learning? Are you fairly compensated?

Episode 160: Do It! Selling, with David Newman

Do It Selling

If you want to learn about sales and start Googling, you quickly run across self-professed gurus, who claim to know the secret to selling. If you faithfully follow this method (available today only for a low low price), you’ll have sales success. Despite feeling a twinge of skepticism about their pitch, you’re so deep into their slick, pressure-filled pitch at this point that you pay for their books and courses…which end up being disappointing. 

Today’s guest says these gurus have put you in the Vortex of crazy. 

He doesn’t try to apply the same advice to everyone – his response reminds me of what an ancient Buddhist guru said. Well, according to a novel written a century ago by Hermann Hesse. 

There are a few men on a spiritual pilgrimage, and they reach a stage where the leader, Siddhartha, tells his followers that he must  continue on alone. His right-hand man, Govinda asks him why, “Siddhartha…spoke quietly… “Always, oh Govinda, you’ve been my friend, you’ve always walked one step behind me. Often I have thought: Won’t Govinda for once also take a step by himself, without me? Behold, now…[you] are choosing your path for yourself.”

Our guest says there’s only one sales method that works  –  the one that comes naturally to you. That refreshing take ripples through his 2023 book Do It! Selling.

David Newman has been working since 1992 to help customers land better clients, bigger deals, and higher fees. From Fortune 500 corporations to sole-practitioners, his firm has helped over 1,800 clients with their marketing, sales, and professional services. David is also the host of the highly rated podcast, The Selling Show.

David is married to the #1 most amazing woman on the planet (his words, not mine), launched two great kids into the world disguised as small adults, and has enjoyed raising some of the world’s sweetest retrievers.

People/Products/Concepts Mentioned in Show

David’s site Do It Marketing

David’s free webclass about consultancy growth 

David’s Do It MBA

1992 Movie A Few Good Mew

Brent Adamson’s The Challenger Sale

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Book urges sellers not to be shy about asking questions.