The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

#384 | A lot of people say B2B marketing is boring - those people couldn't possibly be in B2B. Take Clare Corriveau, VP of Marketing at Tekmetric: her buyer is an auto repair shop owner who isn't on LinkedIn, doesn't check email, and isn't downloading anything. Clare walks through how Tekmetric built its messaging around a founder who ran a shop for a decade, why every new hire visits an actual shop before touching a campaign, and how peer groups and an unmanaged 6,000-member Facebook community became a real lever in the company's growth engine. This episode focuses on marketing to an overlooked B2B category, and the huge upside that comes with it. The opportunity is anything but boring.
Timestamps

(00:00) - - Why "boring" B2B categories are actually the biggest opportunity

(06:00) - - Why a founder who ran a shop for 10 years shapes every messaging decision

(11:00) - - Events at scale: 100+ a year, plus a 1,000-person first-time conference

(17:00) - - What the VP of Marketing job really is

(21:00) - - Hiring humans when everyone is saying AI will replace them

(24:00) - - Betting on channels the team almost skipped: Bing and Facebook

(26:00) - - Peer groups and a 6,000 member Facebook community

(30:00) - - How to get customers to love, support, and defend your brand

(37:00) - - The real competitor is status quo

(38:00) - - Why new hires visit a real shop before they touch a campaign

(45:00) - - The opportunity: 5% market share in a category growing 50% a year

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:
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.
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.

Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn how to build an ABM program that scales at vector.co/exitfive.

Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.
Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/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

#383 | YouTube is the second-largest search engine on the planet, yet few B2B marketers know how to use it optimally. Dasha Shakov, the newest Exit Five podcast host, sits down with Samu Kovács, founder of the B2B YouTube agency KS Media, to unpack why he calls YouTube the hedge against AI slop. Samu breaks down the research process his team runs before writing a script, what belongs in a hook that keeps people watching, and how clients repurpose high-performing LinkedIn posts into YouTube videos instead of starting from zero. They also cover the realistic 90-day timeline for results, how to tell if YouTube is lifting your other channels, and the exact AI stack his team uses for scripting and thumbnails.
Timestamps 

(00:00) - - Why YouTube is B2B marketing's hedge against AI slop

(02:19) - - Who hires a B2B YouTube agency, and why YouTube still scares most marketers

(06:26) - - The direct and indirect ROI of nailing YouTube

(08:33) - - Where YouTube fits in the funnel, and when a niche is too small for it

(13:33) - - Mapping ICP pain points, then reverse-engineering proven video formats

(19:54) - - Doing the research yourself, and diagnosing a failed YouTube strategy

(22:39) - - The hook, the structure, and repurposing LinkedIn content into scripts

(33:09) - - Publishing cadence and the realistic 90-day timeline

(35:44) - - Shortening sales cycles and proving YouTube's impact across channels

(39:42) - - Where AI fits in the process, from research to scripting to editing

(44:22) - - Samu's exact AI model stack

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:
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.
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.

Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn how to build an ABM program that scales at vector.co/exitfive.

Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.
Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/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

#382 | Rob Sobers has been CMO of Varonis for 15 years - through its growth from startup to public company doing over $700 million in revenue. Dave talks with Rob about how he's stayed sharp enough to keep the job this long, starting with the fact that as an engineer, he still writes JavaScript and even fixes bugs on the Varonis website from time to time. Rob explains why no manager on his team oversees work they don't do themselves, why he'd rather keep marketing simple than layer on complexity as the company scales, and his "reasonableness test" for deciding which programs don't need to be forced into a pipeline number. They also cover his approach to saying no to his own team, and why longevity gives him a wider lens on the business.
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Timestamps

(00:00) - - Meet Rob Sobers, CMO of Varonis for 15 years

(01:18) - - Why Rob still writes JavaScript and fixes bugs on the website

(05:06) - - Learning a new marketing discipline every time he was out of his depth

(05:55) - - Why there are no career middle managers on the Varonis marketing team

(07:24) - - The communication tax of overstaffing a team

(09:59) - - Keeping goals dead simple: opportunity creation as the north star metric

(14:28) - - Getting good at saying no to his own team, but not too good

(18:02) - - The reasonableness test: why not everything needs a pipeline number

(20:49) - - Reverse-engineering the marketing budget from the revenue number

(23:04) - - What separates a CMO from a VP of Marketing

(26:26) - - The ClickUp $1M "one-person marketing team" debate

(35:26) - - Marketing to skeptical CISOs, acquisitions, and why B2B brands need a mascot

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:
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.
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.

Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn how to build an ABM program that scales at vector.co/exitfive.

Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.
Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/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

#381 | Dave sits down with Emma Robinson, Head of B2B Marketing at Canva, and Christine Siegrist, VP of Consumer Marketing at Canva, to talk about how the two teams operate as one org instead of fighting over lead credit. They get into Canva's matrixed structure across consumer, B2B, and international, how signals from free users turn into team and enterprise upgrades, and why Canva built a dedicated data science team so marketers can make bigger creative bets instead of smaller, "provable" ones. They also unpack the Love Your Work campaign, why out-of-home ads make a consumer brand feel legitimate to enterprise buyers, and the lessons Emma and Christine carried over from their time at Google and Meta.

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:
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.
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.

Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn how to build an ABM program that scales at vector.co/exitfive.

Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.
Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/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

#380 | Eight B2B marketers get two minutes each to pitch the single best marketing play they ran this year - and the crowd votes on who moves forward. Dave Gerhardt and Dasha Shakov hosts the second round of the Exit Five B2B Marketing Blitz, and this episode covers a lot of ground: updating old blog content to win AI search citations, turning product into research that got a company's CEO in front of Congress, an AI agent that rewrites website copy for different buyer personas, why LinkedIn articles are quietly dominating AI search results, scaling influencer marketing from a tiny four-creator pilot, a multi-channel brand campaign built around customer wins, and how one team turned a physical book into a 65x return on target accounts closed. Tune in to find out who makes it through to the second round, and who was ultimately crowned the Blitz MVP.
Timestamps

(00:00) - - The B2B marketing Blitz kicks off

(03:56) - - Turning sales, success, and support calls into content gold

(06:48) - - Updating old blog content to win AI search citations

(08:58) - - Using your own product to get your CEO in front of Congress

(11:09) - - An AI agent that rewrites content for different buyer personas

(15:38) - - Why LinkedIn articles are winning AI search citations

(17:49) - - Scaling influencer marketing from a tiny pilot to a full program

(20:18) - - A multi-channel brand campaign built around customer wins

(22:39) - - Turning a physical book into a 65x return on target accounts

(26:43) - - The exact AI workflow behind the content optimization play

(35:40) - - The specific questions to ask sales, success, and support teams

(42:53) - - Following up a book launch with an account-based magazine

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:
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.
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.

Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn how to build an ABM program that scales at vector.co/exitfive.

Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.
Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/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