“If the CEO tells you to go right and the VP of sales tells you to go left, you go left.”
Gustav Wallberg, B2B Marketing Lead & Partner at Republiken
In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva interviews Gustav Wallberg, B2B Marketing Lead & Partner at Republiken. They explore how marketing leaders navigate conversations with CEOs, CFOs, and boards to bring their ideas to life. Gustav shares his experiences and pain points in aligning marketing and sales, balancing short-term and long-term goals, and building brand recognition. They discuss the importance of collaboration, earning trust, and finding the right initiatives to focus on. Gustav emphasizes the need for marketers to understand the strengths of their company and leverage them to achieve growth and he shares his journey from B2C to B2B marketing.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Marketing alignment
- B2B marketing
- Sales collaboration
Takeaways:
- Aligning marketing and sales: Gustav emphasizes the importance of working closely with the sales team, ensuring both departments are moving in the same direction and achieving common goals.
- Executive buy-in: Getting buy-in from both the CEO and the Head of Sales, with a focus on collaboration and presenting a united front.
- Balancing short-term & long-term goals: Practical tips for balancing immediate performance metrics with long-term brand-building efforts.
- Transitioning from B2C to B2B: Insights into the challenges and learnings from moving from a B2C marketing approach to a B2B strategy.
- Leveraging internal experts: Utilizing internal experts as brand spokespeople to build trust and credibility within the target market.
Time Chapters:
[00:06] – Introducing Gustav Wallberg
[01:12] – The pain points of marketing alignment
[03:03] – Reporting structure at Alva Labs
[04:06] – Importance of sales alignment over CEO buy-in
[05:31] – Transitioning from B2C to B2B marketing
[07:17] – Marketing’s role in go-to-market strategies
[09:55] – Collaborative goal-setting with sales
[12:42] – Adjusting marketing strategies based on company strengths
[15:04] – Balancing short-term and long-term marketing goals
[18:39] – Leveraging internal experts for brand building
[20:04] – Practical execution of marketing initiatives
[22:55] – Long-term vs. short-term demand gen strategies
[24:25] – How to build trust incrementally
[27:07] – Wrap-up
About Gustav Wallberg
Gustav is a digital marketer at heart, first stepping into a CMO role in a high-volume B2C venture before transitioning into B2B SaaS. At Alva Labs, a Swedish tech scaleup in the HR space, he built the marketing function & GTM strategy, helping them grow ARR by 5x over the last 3 years.
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