In this episode, Felicjan talks with Paul Slack, the CEO of Vende Digital, about managing up in a marketing role. Paul worked with many marketing leaders and he shares the things he learned throughout the years. We talk not only about managing up but also about the importance of horizontal alignment across the organization.
Paul shares why we sometimes have to have difficult conversations and how we can navigate them to ensure the company is headed in the right direction. On top of that we learn how to talk with other stakeholders in the company to drive results. In the second half of the conversation, Paul tells us about the difference between the best and worst leaders. We learn how they work and what things they focus on in their day-to-day.
Throughout the conversation, we talk about sales and marketing and how these roles should work together. Paul shares his experience of how we can get rid of friction and the blurry lines between the two. He also tells us why communication is always the key thing to work on.
00:40 - What should every B2B leader know about managing up?
04:05 - Managing horizontally if you want to manage up
05:20 - What if the CEO doesn't know what marketing should do?
09:00 - How the marketing function changed over the last 20 years
10:00 - Can we apply demand generation to all parts of business?
12:00 - Why do we have to have hard conversations? How to navigate such conversations
15:30 - Be on the same side of the desk
16:40 - The difference between a Good and Bad Marketing Leader
19:30 - Focus on the fundamentals to solve the problems
23:20 - Navigating between a few stakeholders and who you should support first
26:20 - The blurry line between sales and marketing
30:00 - How to get rid of the friction - communication
31:25 - The quality of the best in the game
34:30 - FUNDAMENTALS
36:25 - Where you can find Paul
Paul Slack - the Founder and CEO of Vende Digital a Full-Service B2B Digital Agency
