Monthly Podcast Recap: Top Highlights from August 2021 - Pavilion

We created the Pavilion podcast for one reason — give top revenue leaders a chance to share inspiration, know-how, and insights with the broader community. 

Which Pavilion podcast episodes have you caught lately? We know how busy life and work can get, especially these days, so it’s ok if you’re behind on the latest episodes. No worries — we’ve recapped the top four episodes from the last month for you. Skim, enjoy, and listen back to our favorite August episodes. 

Episode 120: August 10, 2021

Motherhood, Startups, and Marketing with Leigh Chesley, VP Marketing, Longbow Advantage

Today, our work and home lives are more intertwined than ever. Conference calls may happen at the dining room table, and our co-workers may know our children by face and first name. Parenting has become even more challenging as children are schooled from home, and employees adjust to working from home.

The instinct might be to keep those worlds as separate as possible, but there is some benefit to allowing work and life to crossover. In this episode, we talk with Leigh Chesley about the benefits of sharing the struggle, navigating the startup world, and seizing the right opportunities.

If you’re looking for the highlights, here are a few gems from the discussion:

• Be patient and find the right opportunity: Don’t assume this is your last opportunity to do something when it comes to new roles. It pays to wait until you find the one that is the right fit for you.
• Perfection is overstated: Be willing to open up with co-workers about balancing family, pandemic, and career. Most people are struggling with work-life balance, and you may find you’re in good company.
• Don’t be afraid to go with your gut: Sometimes, you have no choice but to go with your gut, and that’s ok. Just be sure that once you have data available, you check it against your assumptions and make changes if necessary.

Listen to this 16-minute episode

Episode 119: August 9, 2021

Modern Sales with Sam McKenna, Founder, #Samsales, and Russell Wurth, VP Sales Enablement, Showpad

The sales world has changed dramatically, especially in the last year and a half. We are a long way from the world of Don Draper and Mad Men, where pitches happened in person, cold calls were acceptable, and the only tools you needed were your voice and some well-drawn sketches.

Today, we’re not only faced with more sophisticated consumers, but there are new mediums to grapple with (digital selling and social selling), much more competition, and a plethora of information to help us learn more about prospects. One truth remains the same, though: you build a successful client relationship by building trust.

In this episode, we talk with Sam McKenna and Russell Wurth about connecting with prospects by using the available data to earn the right to a meeting and encourage more relevant conversations with clients.

Here are just a few of the many tips from the episode:

• Be smart about the data you already have: If you see a client has changed jobs, for example, reach out and congratulate them — then ask if you can connect after they’ve had a chance to settle in.

• Connect through something the client is interested in: Start building rapport during early calls. Choose a topic that isn’t product-related, but is an interest of the client.  

• Remember it’s your call to run: Know when to transition from rapport building to the business discussion so that the conversation feels more natural.

Listen to this 40-minute episode

Episode 121: August 12, 2021

Listen to Your Customers with Melissa Pegus, Chief Revenue Officer, Chord Commerce

We hear about putting the customer first all the time, but putting that into practice can be very elusive. Even when we take the time to look at customers, what exactly are we looking for? And what can they really tell us?

It turns out there’s a lot we can learn from customers, but we have to show up with two guiding principles: lead with curiosity and dive into solving the problem. We talked with Chord CRO and MIT instructor Melissa Pegus about how to put customer-first thinking into practice.

If you’re still skeptical, here’s a bit about what you stand to gain:

• Customers can help you troubleshoot: If you have a tough problem to solve, go to the market and ask customers — they can put you on the path to what a solution might look like.
• Client job boards are your best friend: Clients often try to solve their problems by hiring new talent. Job boards will tell you what a client’s pain points are and what their goals are.
• It’s not just about the customers; it’s about the people: Even internally, it’s the people that matter. Your team can often be the difference between success and failure.

Listen to this 16-minute episode

Episode 122: August 16, 2021

Growing From a VP to GM Role with Paul Sebastien, CMO, Offensive Security

Paul Sebastien has been a part of many great transitions in several industries — from General Manager at Udemy as they moved from B2C to B2B to General Manager at Microsoft, where he transitioned Xbox Live into a wide-reaching platform. Paul’s experiences have helped him understand the value of a General Manager, and how the role differs from other career tracks.

“The General Manager role is like a project manager with authority,” says Sebastien. In other words, GMs use lateral thinking to decide how to leverage all parts of the business to achieve goals. We sat down with Paul to talk about how his GM experiences have differed from his marketing experiences, how he’s guided teams through transition, and tips for connecting with customers.

A few of the insights: 

• The big difference: The GM role is more overarching, meaning you have to think about every part of the business versus just one piece of it — including P&Ls. 
• Marketing is part of your tool kit: When you are a GM, marketing is just one of the tools in your quiver for driving business goals.
• You don’t have to be an expert in everything: If you choose to be a GM, you don’t need experience in every part of the business, but you do have to know how all the pieces fit together.

Listen to the full 35-minute episode