Episode Summary
When Michael joined Revenue Analytics as its Vice President of Marketing more than two years ago, he was a one-man team. Since then, he’s built out a small team of talented marketers, executed a complete brand refresh and solidified the company’s marketing strategy.
Over time, Michael has found that rather than investing in sales and business development reps, content prevails. People don’t want to be told what their problem is; they want to discover it for themselves, and content allows them to do just that.
“I like to tell our team when we’re creating something, pretend it’s for your brother-in-law or sister-in-law, someone you’re genuinely trying to help — not someone you’re trying to sell,” Michael says.
On this episode of Tech Qualified, Michael talks about his trials and tribulations when building out the Revenue Analytics marketing team, and he explains what he’s learned along the way. He also shares how his team has weathered 2020 and what he’s doing to best support them (and himself) during these trying times.
Guest Profile
- Name: Michael McCunney
- What he does: As the Vice President of Marketing at Revenue Analytics, a B2B SaaS company that develops revenue management software, Michael leads a small team of marketers to implement global marketing and brand strategies.
- Company: Revenue Analytics
- Key Quote: “Instead of going out there and thumping our chest and saying, ‘How fantastic am I?’ we're really telling the story, and we're doing it in a way that's educating customers as to what problems are out there and how we might be able to solve them.”
Key Insights
- When it comes to customer segmentation, identify what makes a client unique within their own vertical. Revenue Analytics serves customers across a wide variety of industries, including hospitality, media, and transportation. So instead of building a general go-to marketing persona, Michael focuses on understanding each individual customer — the unique problems and challenges within a specific company.
- Revenue Analytics has worked with business and sales development representatives, but Michael has found content is far more powerful. People don’t want to be told what their problems are, he says. Instead, they want to use content and resources to identify those problems on their own — and then turn to the content source for a solution.
- If you’re operating as a one-person team — or even a particularly small team — it’s essential you focus on building that team and getting folks on board with your vision. Michael advises prioritizing this early on rather than spending all your time executing your vision and collecting early wins.
Episode Highlights
- The importance of diving deeper than your persona
- Getting people to notice Revenue Analytics
- Genuinely valuable content > sales pitches
- Help your customers realize their own problems
- When you’re a one-person team, avoid this common mistake
- Take time to stop and think about strategy