Marketing Metrics to Deliver Growth Efficiency - with Kelly Hopping, CMO Demandbase

**Ray Rike** (0:00)
Hello, I'm Ray Wright, Founder and CEO of BenchMarket, and your host of the Metrics that Measure Up podcast. We talked to a wide variety of the top B2B SaaS and Cloud thought leaders, CEOs, executives, investors, and people just like you to discuss the metrics and benchmarks they use to make metrics-informed and benchmark-validated decisions. Now, onto today's show.
Welcome to today's episode of the Metrics that Measure Up podcast. Today, I am joined by Kelly Hopping, the Chief Marketing Officer at Demandbase. We'll be covering four primary topics with Kelly today. First, marketing's focus on delivering pipeline in revenue growth efficiently. Number two, how account-based programs and intent data supports more efficient revenue growth.
Third, the top level metrics that CMOs should prioritize heading into 2024 And then fourth, getting Kelly's insight on how to thrive as a corporate executive while staying true to yourself. So with that, Kelly, please take a moment to give a brief overview of your journey to becoming a guest here in the Metrics That Measure Up podcast.

**Kelly Hopping** (1:22)
Awesome. Thanks, Ray. Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, quick intro.
I've been in marketing most of my career. I started as an engineer, but immediately moved to marketing in my first job.
And I've been in tech for a while. So my favorite, I've sort of progressed from hardware to silicon to services and now into SaaS, and I'm loving all of it. So I've been the Demandbase CMO for almost three months now, so fairly new. And I'm a big believer. I've shifted from being a brand marketer early in my career to really being a metrics driven performance marketer, which I think the future is all about performance branding. So that's it.

**Ray Rike** (2:00)
Performance branding. We're going to double click on that in a few minutes, if that's okay, Kelly.
Well, that's an amazing background and it's interesting. I'm a electrical engineer, network engineer by schooling. And that was my first job. And then I made a transition into that evil world of sales, but it was one of the best learning experiences I ever had. And I'm kidding about the evil world of sales.
Let's talk about this. So 90 days, how has the role of CMO kind of changed over the last year? And I'm really looking specifically how efficient revenue growth has become so much more important to CMOs and CROs. Can you talk a little bit about that?

**Kelly Hopping** (2:39)
Yeah, I mean, I think efficiency is king right now. I think with the market economics, the way that they are, and the challenges on acquisition, the challenges on pipeline growth, the challenges on actually closing and growing revenue right now, all of that, especially for private organizations, post Silicon Valley Bank a few months ago, I think that put cash at an all-time premium. For a long time, if you were a private organization, VC-backed, it was all about growth at all costs, top-line growth as fast as you could go. Now, no one wants to raise in an economy like this. No one wants to have a down round, and so cash is king.
The real goal is how do I grow profitably, or how do I grow and sustain without burning cash in the process? I think what that does is that means you have to be efficient with the way that you spend and acquire customers, because every single dollar matters and you need to make them work as hard as possible.

**Ray Rike** (3:36)
Well, let's talk a little bit more about that because our benchmarking research says that at median sales and marketing expenses were down 9 percent this year, year-over-year from 2022, and early indicators are 2024 is not going to be much better. So how does that impact your specific approach to B2B marketing? And maybe it's around strategies or even programs, Kelly.

**Kelly Hopping** (4:00)
Yeah. To me, it's been all about focus. So when I got here, I mean, account-based marketing can really help a large number of customers, different sizes and scales.
But the sweet spot for demand base, I believe for our brand as well as for the platform that we have, our technology and where I think the market opportunity is the sweetest is really in that upper mid-market enterprise space. So one thing it's about narrowing in your target. So instead of trying to be everything to everyone in the universe, and you end up sort of spraying broadly and not getting a lot of return, it's about concentrating those dollars, concentrating that message, concentrating your brand, events, spend, everything hitting at that same deal, making sure our pricing aligns, making sure that our CSMs are equipped with the key decision makers in an enterprise as opposed to a small startup.