The Get: Finding And Keeping The Best Marketing Leaders in B2B SaaS

Doug Straton, CMO of Bazaarvoice, joins Erica Seidel on The Get podcast.
You'll hear about:
What makes an AI value prop actually defensible
Moving from a 'selfish' AI approach, where individuals automate their own jobs, to an approach that puts the business and its processes first
How relentless simplicity in org design wins, especially in an environment where CMOs need to defend their org investments to the Board ("Can I explain this to someone in 30 seconds?")
The charter of the new role of 'Head of Marketing Strategy and AI Transformation' -- to make sure the processes serve the business, not the people on the team – THEN automate the process
What it's like to go from the B2C world to the B2B SaaS world – and when to wear your 'insider' hat versus your 'outsider' hat
A context-heavy interview approach that gets candidates to dig in and explain 'This is where I can help you'

Notable Quotes:
“There are SaaS companies that are fully powered by engineers that have been able to design very clever solutions but have not necessarily really understood their customer. It takes years for them to figure out product market fit. They've got something that sounds like an interesting idea, but they have to test it over a very long period of time. That modus operandi is extinct."
"Probably the biggest move I made is I put in a Director of Marketing Strategy and AI Transformation. The job spec is very much like a marketing engineer, and that person makes sure that for all the work streams that we have, there are processes built, and the processes are strong and the processes serve the business, not the people on the team. And once we know that the process is strong and it serves the business and not the team, THEN we automate it. And only then, because if you automate chaos, you'll just get automated chaos. You'll get more content, for example, if that's what you're trying to create, but it won't be any good."

00:00 Show Intro and Guest
01:20 Guitars and Woodstock
02:27 From B2C to SaaS
04:51 Staying Client Centric
07:00 AI Value Prop Strategy
12:40 Proof and Metrics
15:36 Avoiding AI Washing
21:52 Rebuilding the Org
25:08 AI Transformation Role
30:16 Hiring and Interviewing
32:31 Early Mistakes Learned
35:31 Talking to PE Boards
38:49 Wrap Up and Outro

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.
This season’s theme is focused on how AI is reshaping the CMO role: how you lead, how you hire, and how you get hired."
The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS.
If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety, rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com.
The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

In this episode of The Get, host Erica Seidel talks with marketing leader Audrea Madey, who has led AI transformation at Rocket Software and previously led digital transformations at Manulife and John Hancock.
You will learn about
The anatomy of an AI center of excellence in GTM, and how to adapt it to your org, regardless of size
Infusing AI into marketing at enterprise scale, including training, enabling, and optimizing
'Meeting people where they are' – giving the stars the spotlight while providing the learners the coaching they need
How AI transformations are distinct from digital transformations
Metrics that balance cost savings with quality improvement
How to immediately identify someone with curiosity and systems thinking DNA
An interview tip: "Here's what Perplexity or Claude produced. What would you add to this argument?"

Some memorable quotes:
"AI for the sake of AI is just… beige."
"If a tool sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
"I've found that people will ask a third party the questions that they might feel dumb asking of their bosses or their managers."
"If you can't add to the points that these LLMs are putting out, you don't have a job in the future."

00:00 Welcome to The Get
00:58 Meet Audrea Madey
01:58 Art School to Marketing
03:58 Scope and AI COE
07:23 Leading AI Change
10:04 AI vs Digital Shift
11:51 Three Pillar COE Model
17:32 New Roles and Agents
20:21 Measuring AI Impact
22:11 Hiring for AI Mindset
29:25 Building COE from Scratch
31:41 Leader Advice and Wrap

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.
This season’s theme is focused on how AI is reshaping the CMO role: how you lead, how you hire, and how you get hired."
The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS.
If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety, rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com.
The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

In this episode of The Get, host Erica Seidel talks with Suresh Balasubermaniam, CMO at Qualio, about how AI is reframing the CMO role and what it takes to move from a larger-company CMO seat to a smaller, faster AI-first build.
You’ll hear about:
Inverting the change management playbook to focus on tech before people and process, since the tech can provide great results from the start
Advice for hiring a marketing leader from a bigger company to a smaller company…and how to tell if the candidate is really ready for a smaller company
Why it would be dangerous for a CMO -- of even a big company -- to say about AI, "Yeah, I've got a team that does that"
Responding to Board members who encourage you to chase shiny AI objects: maintain your balance and stay true to your function
Why marketing should be the catalyst for AI usage across the organization, given that marketing has the most connective tissue
How to interview someone for AI-first thinking, and for the ability to not just improve processes, but re-imagine them
A question that will separate AI posers from AI natives: "What did you build last weekend?"
How to encourage AI use without producing AI slop, by insisting on human insight, distillation, and measurable outcomes

00:00 Show Intro and Guest
01:17 Why Move to Qualio
03:22 Proving You Can Scale Down
05:24 AI Teammates in the Funnel
08:11 The Rise of GTM Engineer
10:20 Inverted Change Playbook
14:11 AI First Without Slop
15:27 Beating AI FOMO
19:00 Hiring for AI Fluency
19:30 Wrap Up and Takeaways

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.
This season’s theme is focused on how AI is reshaping the CMO role: how you lead, how you hire, and how you get hired."
The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS.
If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety, rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com.
The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

In this episode of The Get, host Erica Seidel talks with Debbie Umbach, CMO of M-Files, about landing – and fulfilling – a CMO role in the age of AI. Debbie describes building AI capability inside a 50-person global team, from hiring to designing new roles to leading change.

You will learn about:
Differentiating yourself in a CMO job search, and the role of AI in that
Key things to share with boards about your AI journey: not just what you're doing but what is working well, what isn't, and how you are building AI fluency on your team
Scaling AI fluency and transformation across a 50+ person marketing team
Carving out a new role: The AI GTM Transformation Leader
The persistent importance of context and taste in the CMO role
A framework for speedily building trust as a new CMO (Hint: balance authenticity, data, and empathy)
Change management tips for leading AI transformations, whether your team is big or small

Some quotes:
“Marketing is an ing. We're always doing things. But WHY are we doing them, and what are the outcomes we're looking for? I always am trying to get the team to think about, ‘okay, we've got these things to do, but why?’”
"You can't just change for change's sake. You can't just say, 'We want to use AI to be more productive.’ Instead, it's: 'Why are we changing? How are we going to get better? How is this going to make your job better and more fun? How are you going to get to do the things that are more interesting?’"

00:00 Welcome and Season Theme
01:20 Debbie’s Origin Story
03:30 Confidence and Speaking Up
04:40 Systems Thinking for AI
06:07 Winning the CMO Search
08:27 Showing AI in Interviews
09:12 AI Training and Org Design
12:43 AI SDR Teammate Mia
14:11 GTM Transformation Lead
19:43 New Roles and Knowledge Ops
21:10 Avoiding AI Slop
24:17 Context and Positioning
29:04 Hiring Questions That Reveal
31:53 Change Management and Trust
37:00 Future of the CMO Role
38:34 Wrap Up and Credits

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.
This season’s theme is focused on how AI is reshaping the CMO role: how you lead, how you hire, and how you get hired."
The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS.
If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety, rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com.
The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Host Erica Seidel interviews Corey McCarthy, who has held CMO roles at Axonify, Unifocus, and Webex Events, about how AI is changing CMO hiring, leadership, and team building in B2B SaaS.
You'll learn about:
How AI is showing up in searches for CMOs -- on both sides of the table
A simple, repeatable idea for breaking up your professional networking into bite-sized chunks that accelerate the speed of trust
Ways to demonstrate your AI prowess as a CMO
How someone 'in search' may actually be more up to date on AI than someone who's 'in seat'
How the strongest GTM teams are going from single-player AI motions to multi-player motions – with positive impacts not just on overall GTM strategy, but on efficiency of AI spend
How a CMO's value lies in orchestrating processes, systems, tools, data, and executive alignment with strong AI governance to avoid brand dilution, duplicated work, and runaway token costs
How CMOs should approach team-building now that AI agents have joined the org

00:00 Welcome and AI focus
00:57 52 coffees networking
03:07 Career path and fun fact
04:53 In seat vs in search
06:05 AI job search system
08:07 Network plus dashboards
11:24 Proving AI leadership
14:19 Governance and token costs
16:39 Team building with AI
19:28 Recruiter advice for CMOs
21:13 Future of the CMO
22:54 Favorite interview question
24:51 How to answer AI questions
28:44 Wrap up and outro

The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.
This season’s theme is focused on how AI is reshaping the CMO role: how you lead, how you hire, and how you get hired."
The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS.
If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety, rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com.
The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy