“Hard skills get you to a senior IC role. After that, it’s all about influence—who you can align, who you can persuade, and how well you sell your ideas.”
Jordan Hwang, VP at OpenPhone
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In this episode of Executive Conversations, Maeva Cifuentes speaks with Jordan Hwang, VP of Marketing at OpenPhone.
Jordan explains why marketing leaders must learn to “market marketing” within their organization to secure buy-in for initiatives. Jordan and Maeva also discuss expanding influence across teams and aligning stakeholders around shared goals.
Jordan emphasizes that cross-functional teams should intuitively understand why marketing does what it does. They also discuss how to cut through noise, establish credibility, and prevent “armchair marketing” from derailing real strategies.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Internal buy-in for marketing
- Marketing influence in GTM
- Scaling from IC to leadership
- Cross-functional alignment in SaaS
- Marketing storytelling for category repositioning
Takeaways
- Marketing marketing: Jordan explains why marketing leaders must sell their own ideas internally to secure buy-in and drive initiatives forward.
- Scaling influence: Moving from an individual contributor to leadership is about expanding impact, not just execution.
- Securing buy-in: Why even the best marketing strategies need internal alignment before they can succeed.
- Cross-functional alignment: Ensuring your peers understand marketing’s role to prevent misalignment and unnecessary roadblocks.
- Navigating scrutiny: Managing the challenge of marketing being more visible and widely critiqued compared to other business functions.
- Storytelling for category repositioning: How OpenPhone uses long-form content like podcasts and video to shift market perceptions.
Time chapters
[00:07] how Jordan transitioned from IC to marketing leadership
[01:51] why hard skills alone won’t take you past a senior role
[04:16] expanding influence: the key to making an impact in leadership
[07:23] structuring your marketing team for maximum influence
[10:09] the challenge of changing market perceptions in SaaS
[12:32] leveraging podcasts and video to tell a longer story
[17:21] experimenting without chaos: setting clear alignment first
[20:12] why marketing faces more scrutiny than other functions
[24:05] handling internal resistance to marketing strategies
[26:48] who should take ownership of driving projects to execution
About Jordan Hwang
Jordan Hwang is the VP of Marketing at OpenPhone, a business phone system company. With over 15 years in the SaaS industry, he has held leadership roles such as VP of Demand Generation at Gusto and Senior Director of Growth at Evernote. Jordan is passionate about internal marketing, emphasizing the importance of securing internal buy-in and aligning cross-functional teams to drive marketing initiatives forward.