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 [email protected]. 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.