I’m honored to announce that I’m stepping into the CEO and Chairman role at Terminus. As a longtime believer in Terminus and the next wave of B2B marketing, I see this moment in the market and the company’s trajectory as a truly unique opportunity to transform the way businesses go to market – one of the biggest opportunities I’ve seen in B2B marketing in the last decade.
Ten years ago, Marketing Automation became the center of gravity for CMOs and their teams — as well as savvy investors. But as lead- and email-based constructs continue to create volume versus value challenges, growth-focused B2B companies are looking to an account-centric approach as a more predictable, more efficient, and better-performing strategy. As a result, I believe we’re standing on the precipice of the next marketing revolution. Call it Marketing Automation 2.0, an era in which the account-centric approach will transform more than just marketing.
What’s driving this? The explosion of data and consumerization of B2B. And it requires a shift to an account-centric approach which focuses on arming market-facing teams with the intelligence needed to drive into the right markets and buying teams with the best message in a far more scalable way. The CMOs, CROs, and CEOs of leading companies are putting more data to work as they assess opportunities, identify the right accounts, and align sales and marketing resources appropriately. And the lines have blurred at the point of engagement. Marketing programs and sales teams need to be integrated — not just aligned — to deliver a consistent experience in the eyes of the customer. Not just at the top of the funnel, but throughout the customer journey at an account level. Certainly, the requirements to tie all of this intelligence together have moved beyond a lead-based approach and a formal hand-off from marketing to sales.
At the same time, I’ve also watched the broader market evolve — and increasingly, it looks more and more like what we experienced as we transformed ExactTarget from an email marketing platform to an end-to-end digital marketing hub. As the market moves to drastically consolidate tech stacks from dozens of point solutions to two or three platforms, we know that one of them will focus on driving efficient growth. Experts and analysts agree that the highest-performing companies will be account-centric; they will need to aggregate data, identify signals, automate engagement — all while measuring and iterating every action. It’s a big ask, but I believe that Terminus is poised to be the technology to empower companies to make that transformation.
With the maturation of marketing automation, we’ve seen marketing quickly move to center-stage of revenue conversations. And, while marketers should have a seat at the table, this shift has almost over-rotated the conversation too heavily on lead volume rather than focusing on a more strategic approach to growth. In the most successful companies, marketing is partnering with sales to leverage market signals and tap into an ideal customer segment to create aligned experiences from points A to Z in the sales cycle. We need to remain marketer-focused and to do that, we must deliver a platform from the ground up, designed for our account-based world.
It’s this incredible opportunity that brought me back into the operating fold.
As the CMO of ExactTarget for 6+ years, I, along with a team of more than 400 marketers around the globe, shepherded the company through explosive growth, an IPO, and the eventual sale to Salesforce for $2.7B in 2013 — success that was largely predicated on our ability to identify and lead the next wave of marketing. In 2015, I led Hyde Park Venture Partners’ (where I still serve as a General Partner) investment in Terminus based on a strong belief in the company’s vision to transform B2B marketing through account-based strategies. As a board member, it’s been incredible to witness the milestones our company has achieved in such a short time – the opportune time to jump in deeper, and hit the gas, is now.
Now, as I lean into Terminus as the CEO, I’m excited to see a parallel wave on the horizon of marketing. I’m certainly ready for the ride and looking forward to the future. And, of course, we’re hiring…
