Is the Chief Marketing Officer best positioned to be the next Chief Revenue Officer? Who is best suited to bring the entire end-to-end revenue process together?

In this episode of The Revenue Engine Podcast, Rosalyn discusses this sometimes controversial topic with Brandi Starr, a long time marketing executive, business owner, and best selling co-author of CMO to CRO, The Revenue Takeover by The Next Generation Executive.

They also discuss the evolution of the role that Marketing plays in the overall revenue process and how marketing has become much more science vs. art. Take a listen to this and much more!

Connect with Brandi on LinkedIn or visit the Tegrita website.

Check out the book CMO to CRO: The Revenue Takeover by the Next Generation Executive

Connect with Rosalyn on LinkedIn.

Thanks to Sales IQ Global for powering the Revenue Engine. 

Imagine being a successful C-level executive reading operations for a successful marketing consultancy, being a mother of five and being a best-selling author. Well, Brandi Starr, the COO of Tegrita, doesn't have to imagine she's a time marketing executive doing all of the above and more.

In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, Brandi shares what has changed with marketing's role in the overall revenue process, why the CMO is best positioned to be the next CRO, and how as a woman you can be heard. So please take a listen and learn from this powerhouse who is not only an inspiration, but just a wonderful human being.

So excited to be here today with Brandi's Starr, the chief operations officer at Tegrita. For anyone who is not familiar with Tegrita is a marketing consultancy specializing in enabling marketing strategy through technology and automation. Brandi is also the co-author of the international bestseller CMO to CRO the revenue takeover by the next generation executive. So welcome Brandi, and thank you so much for joining.

And so I, you know, went to college, studied marketing for my undergrad. And you know, continuing down the path of odd choices did my master's in adult education because I knew that I wanted to be able to teach sales and marketing principles. And so my, you know, never thought I'd be in career in consulting.

I always thought I'd eventually be a professor at some prestigious university but you know, life and. I've been in digital marketing now for 20 years I started off. In design and I was designing collateral for fax machines. So, you know, totally dating myself. But through my career, I have my kids. I don't even think

And so there is still, you know, a lot of creativity that goes into marketing, but I think over the 20 years, it really is now a beautiful blend of art and science, where it used to just be art. And I think in the last, you know, five to 10 years that has become more and more prevalent. And I think it also leads to a lot of the challenges that I see because you, you know, the people that have been in marketing for a long time are not historically analytical and technical people.

And so. This battle of the way that we've always done things to the way that things are done now. And some companies tend to adopt that a lot faster and you know, they're, they're, they're early adopters. I mean, I guess at this point, we're not in the, the earliest. But you do still have a lot of organizations, a lot of marketing leaders with real old school mentalities.

And then look at everything that plugs into it and we focus a lot on how are things being exited? So people process technology how does data flow because that's a key component and how are we tracking and measuring. And so when we are working with clients we are doing everything from helping with technology selection.

To getting tech implemented and set up to being an extension of the marketing operations team and actually doing some execution. And then on the strategic side, working with those that manage the strategy to effectively enable that strategy with the technology. Making sure that you are getting the most out of your tech, that you're using the technology in a way that actually will enhance the performance of whatever is being done on the strategic side.

And so we lead with the tech and that's a lot of, you know, what the book is about. But we are focused on both the strategy and the technology.

So they're like, oh, I really love X, Y, and Z by that. Or, you know, ripping things out. They don't like it, or because something's not working. So they blame the technology or buying things because, you know, FOMO it's, whatever is the hot thing that people are talking about. And. You know, honestly, like there's a lot of focus on like best-in-class technologies and the magic quadrants and all these sorts of things and best in class does not necessarily mean best for you.

And so for me, when you are thinking about. You know what tech you're going to retire or acquire or use differently. You really have to think about what actually works for the business, the way that you're marketing and what you're trying to achieve. And that a lot of times really gets lost in the process and not enough.

Time and effort is spent on really understanding that before jumping into selecting something or buying something. And so that is probably the biggest issue that I see is, you know, too much tech and tech for all the wrong reasons.

We'd kind of work around the clock. And during one of those meetings, we were. Kinda over dinner, talking about the challenges that we see with our clients and in the industry and, you know, Mike, Raleigh and I, we all have very different backgrounds. So we sort of see the same problems from different aspects.

And we really just started brainstorming about, you know, if it were left up to us, how we would solve these problems for clients. And it just went down this rabbit hole. And after a while, it was like, Yeah, we're really onto something here. We should totally write a book. And you know, when Raleigh said that, like Mike and I both laughed hysterically, cause we were like, yeah.

When are we to have time to write a book? Like, you know, we're trying to do X, Y, and Z. Like we're a fairly small firm, which means everywhere everyone wears multiple hats. It was like, yeah, how are we gonna write a book? But the more that we kept talking about it, the more that we realize. We have to write this book.

And our motivation was not that we have all the answers like we, you know, in the book we lay out our four step plan to how we think that companies can tackle the biggest challenges within the revenue teams. However, it's not that we. Solved everything it's that we want to challenge the way that things are done, the way that revenue is thought about.

And we recognize that marketing best understands what's happening because we're in the middle of all the dysfunction. You know, we overlap with everyone that touches revenue. And so we fully understand the problems in a way that. It does. And so this was meant to be a blueprint of, you know, the steps that you can take to start with what you and marketing control and then, you know, move to like the bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

In order to get to a great place with revenue. But it really is just meant to stir conversation to you know, really lay out and, and get people to think about that, you know, things can be done differently and more effectively and here's the way forward.

However revenue is everything that touches revenue. It is, you know, how we are attracting people on through how we are supporting our current customers and growing things within our customer base. And so we have to think about revenue as a whole. And so we see that one of the biggest challenge. Is all the different teams that touch revenue have different processes.

They have different goals, they have different objectives and focuses. And so we believe in order to solve a lot of that, that you have to roll those people under one leader so that we are all marching to the beat of the same drum. And. In many organizations, the CMO is best positioned to take on this new version of a CRO role because.

CMOs generally really understand all the different aspects and because marketing overlaps with marketing overlaps with sales, marketing, overlaps with success, marketing overlaps, with support. And so, you know, the marketers are seeing the pains from all different angles and many marketers have, you know, had some level of experience with the different departments.

We still believe there has to be ahead of the functions that would report into this new CMOs. So it's not our CRO, it's not like a COO all of a sudden has to be an amazing sales leader. They just have to be able to set the revenue direction, working with the CEO. And so. That is why we think that that is the person that is most uniquely positioned to fulfill this pedal.

So let's switch gears a little. And talking about revenue, right. As we both know, revenue is still a pretty male dominated industry, right. Especially as you sort of move up that corporate ladder, right. You see less and less females, right. In executive roles and especially women of color, you know, myself being a minority woman in an executive role, I'm often asked for career advice.

Right. And I'm sure you get asked this all the time as well. Right. What advice, I guess, do you have for other ones. Who are really looking to progress their career, especially in this revenue space.

And. You know, while some of those are true while every situation is not going to you're not always going to be received well, You know what? I can't remember the exact quote, but it's like, well, behaved women never make history. Like you, you have to not be afraid to, you know, step out into the forefront and share your ideas and what direction you think things should go and be able to take on you know the, the men in the, in the room or at the table that may not be as receptive because.

There is some intimidation that happens in the boardroom, but where you are able to essentially stand your ground and show that like, no, I deserve to be here as well. My ideas are just as valid. You will actually see. They'll kind of back down and take you seriously. But in most cases it is almost like that, a little bit of that intimidation to see, like, you know, does she really believe in what she's saying?

And that's something that can be really hard to push through especially if you don't have as strong of a personality naturally, but that's my biggest piece of advice is like, don't be afraid to, you know, Challenge the status quo to step on toes, to really fight for what you think your organization should be doing.

But the real balance and success is understanding that tomorrow's a different day. And you know, the other thing is also to really think about how you design your life. To be able to allow you to best support. And what I mean by that is an, you know, one, I mean, I, I hate to use the term blessing coupled with pandemic because I don't at all want to minimize the negative that has happened, but there have been some.

Positive outcomes from, you know, this negative situation. And one of those things is because the way that everyone works has changed, people are now thinking more about how they work, where they work, how they structure their day. And in some cases there are small things that you are able to modify. That allow you to better balance.

So for example, one thing that I found is, you know, most of my kids are older. I have one that is elementary school and the other four are college age now. So now it's easy. But you know, with my son, I realized that in the morning, he just does not move. And, you know, he likes to have time to, you know, be silly in the mornings and, you know, dance around and do all these things.

And initially I was constantly like, we gotta go, I gotta be here, you know, all this. And what I realized was something as simple as just starting my work day, like. Really allows me to be a great mom in the morning and, you know, make Tik TOK before we go to school and you know, all these silly things.

And I start my work day at 10 instead of at nine, no one in the office misses me that first hour. I'm able to have that time with my son to not run. So then, you know, be able to work out in the morning and get my day started at 10 and I can still put in a full day. And so that's one way that I've been able to find balance is to look at what small modifications can I make so that I can show up in all the areas that really matter in a balanced.

And so that is really, the key is understanding that there might be one day that I ended up working 12 hours. Cause I got something going on and you know, it's delivery dinner and you know, a quick kiss, goodnight, like we'll shower in the morning. Like, you know, I don't have time to be a mom today, but then you know, that weekend I'll take the entire weekend.

You know, I'm not in my office. I we're just working. We're just having fun. So it all really balances out. You know, there are some days that my health but you know, it's kinda like I'd rather have time with my kid or make sure I show up for my team. Then, you know, spend all day like mopping and things.

It's kind of like clean enough is sufficient. You know, when live in a pig, but it's definitely not company ready at all times, but it really is like thinking about what is actually important and designing your life around. And not putting so much emphasis on all the other stuff. Like, yes, I would love if I didn't always have, but. That's, you know, that's not my life. I, you know, put more time into all the other things and, you know, we, we gotta make it work.

That's great. Okay. So let's see. So as I think about, you know, really the revenue engine, right? This podcast, I'm always looking for ways to Axe, to help others learn some tips and tricks around how to accelerate revenue growth, right. And really power that revenue engine. So I think we've touched on a lot of different areas here. Talked a lot about different things. Including, you know, obviously work-life balance, but talk about revenue, you know, what are, you know, maybe the top couple of things, one or two things that you think, you know, really all revenue leaders should be thinking about today, really to help accelerate that revenue growth.

Like run more demand gen. And although sometimes that helps not saying it doesn't work. But the problem is there's a lot of steps in between those two things that if we focus some attention, all along the journey, That we can actually positively impact that bottom number without trying to artificially fill the top.

And so what I mean is if we really actually have good tracking in place, I mean, cause. That's the underlying thing to the point that I'm making is understanding where are things breaking down. So it could be that when it goes from sales accepted, lead to opportunity, and I'm just using some common stages that percentage could be really low by comparison to the rest of the chain.

So then the question is. What do we do there? How do we fix that? It could be that our deal size is too low. Like we could be converting the same all the way through, but maybe there's ways that we can change the way that we're marketing that actually increase the overall deal size. Increases that bottom line number.

So the key is that there are lots of key points from end to end, that can be influenced in different ways that really can impact revenue. And so my number one piece of advice is stop just focusing on the top and the bottom. Really actually understand, which usually takes some time and a lot of times some technical changes but really understand that whole flow and how people get from hello.

My name is to here's all my money. And how do we move the needle in between? And that is like, that is honestly, the secret sauce is really what levers can we pull so that the number at the end ends up bigger. And that doesn't necessarily mean get more people in the funnel.

That's that is incredible advice and it's so true, right. When you're not getting enough. We just want to stop the funnel, get more at the top of the funnel and that's not always the answer, so that's great. I love that. So when you look back at your career and kind of look back at, you know, 20 years of experience in marketing, running your own business, you know, helping all these different customers, are there any things that, you know, you wish you knew earlier, or maybe that you might do differently if you could do it all over again?

Had I sort of spoken up or. You know, advocated for myself. But beyond that, the other one that is most notable for me is paying attention to the numbers. Overall early in my career, I was very focused on learning the specific areas of marketing. That I felt like I needed to learn. And I really shied away from the financials and, you know, the only financials I cared about was my budget.

And so, you know, the further. Up, you go in your career. The more you have to understand the big picture, the financial implications in order to make sound decisions. You know, I've been lucky that I have a great team that manages that. And so, you know, I'm able to get what I need to make informed decisions, but that is something that I definitely wish I had focused on earlier in my career.

Anyone who knows me would not at all call me shy, but anyone who would just observe me at like a networking event where I don't know anyone would like totally be like, who is that person? Cause that's definitely not the Brandi that I know. So, yeah, so that is my surprising thing that, you know, anybody who knows me listening, they're like, you gotta read, get it.

And then what was the second part of the question?

So there's not a ton that people don't know. But I would say one of my. Professional goals is to be an international speaker. And so I've been doing public speaking in one form or fashion. Also since middle school, I was very active in middle school, but and so, you know, I just had my. Virtual keynotes a month or so ago, which was really exciting, but it is my goal to actually travel all over, to be able to share like, you know, that was one of the reasons I got my master's in adult education is wanting to be able to teach and share knowledge and give back.

So that is one of my. Goals that I have not accomplished in my career is to really be a sought after international speaker. Hopefully the book will get there. So if there's people in non north America who are listening, call me, but yeah, that's one of those that is one of those things that not a lot of people.