Interview with Jocelyn Brown, VP, Customer Success, Allocadia

Tell us a little bit about your role at Allocadia.

I am the VP of Customer Success at Allocadia. The mission of my team is to make Marketing Performance Management real for our customers. That means working right alongside every customer as they move through their journey from purchase, to onboarding, through adoption and value realization. I am responsible for making sure that journey is as smooth as possible and that customers are getting ongoing and increasing value from our solution over time.

What draws you The MarTech Conference?

It brings together one of the largest groups of Marketing Operations professionals in one place. It’s an opportunity to learn from them – what is on their minds, what problems they are solving now, and what problems they want to solve in the future. Most importantly it is a chance for me to share the stage with our customer David Cohen from Palo Alto Networks and promote the great work he has been doing to drive visibility, accountability, and trust with finance within his marketing organization.

Which sessions at the MarTech Conference would you recommend and why?

So naturally I think everyone should come to my session where David will speak about how his team has become a trusted partner of finance and really raised the credibility of marketing but I suppose I should suggest a few others.  There are three that really caught my attention.

Product-led vs Sales-led Marketing….Wait? What? Where’s the Customer?

This one appeals to me because I think that marketing and sales in B2B software is undergoing a major change once again as the buyer expectations and requirements have changed. My friend Steve Woods from Nudge has been publishing this great series called #HowIBuy where he interviews execs about how they evaluate and buy product and services. More that ever buyers are being influenced by their network and their experience with trying a product. This changes the dynamic and the role for sales and marketing in the truly buyer-led journey.

Flawed to Formidable with Robin Matlock of VMWare

I am always going to be a fan of a customer-centric approach to marketing but that is no easy task to implement at a company the size of VMWare growing at the pace that they do. Looking forward to hearing some great advice from a marketing organization I have had the opportunity to work with at two companies now.

The Go-To-Market Stack: Unifying Marketing, Sales and Customer Operations

This is a topic near and dear to me as a Customer Success leader. Only recently have we had any real technology options to properly scale our business. But there is no sense operating in a vacuum so I am keen to hear from other leaders how they are bringing these valuable data sources and systems together to orchestrate a seamless and high value customer experience.

What is the one piece of advice you have for B2B salespersons in 2018?

If you want my attention you need to solve my problem not sell me software. What I need more than anything is insight and whether you bring that directly to me or connect me with a peer, I need you to show me that you understand what I am trying to accomplish and you have something new to share with me on how I can get there (and peer connects are a good way to do that.) I would also suggest that you focus on your listening skills and empathy.

How do you see the B2B sales landscape evolving in the years to come?

I think there is going to be more tech (possibly soon followed by less,) a greater need for strong operations to support the explosion of tools and data, a focus on enablement as buyers require insight and intelligent discourse, and I think it’s going to become harder. Just doing more is not going to get you there….you need to do it far better.

Which sectors is Allocadia looking to target to expand its reach in 2018?

Our mission is to bring confidence to EVERY marketer so we are segment agnostic. We want to help every marketer make smart decisions by having control over their core operating data of plans, spend and ROI.

What startups are you watching/keen on right now?

I don’t really follow startups per se but rather people who I can learn from. That said in general I am consuming more about AI because it is going to impact all of us in some way.

How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a business leader?

I think you need to test, to understand where it can add value versus where it might detract from value, and be open to the idea that people’s roles will change. The good news is that I think we will see inherently human skills like empathy and relationship building be truly valued.

One word that best describes how you work.

I think the nice way of putting it is that I work with curiosity or a learning mindset. I am sincerely curious about what everyone else is working on so can tend to bounce around a lot.  It means I learn a lot but the downside to this that I can sometimes lack focus.

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?

Slack, LinkedIn, Salesforce and Nudge fill my day. Most of my time is focused on talking to people – internal, customers, future customers and my peers. These are the tools that give me the ability to make all of those interactions meaningful.

What’s your smartest work related shortcut or productivity hack?

I cannot remember who shared it with me but anything that I am copied on goes into a folder that I only review twice a day. It helps me focus on the things that are meant for my attention and cuts down dramatically on my active inbox. More often than not things I am copied on get solved before I even get to reading them. It does take a little time for people who work for me to realize that if you want my attention you have to address me directly. Everything else is just noise and generally, customers do not put me in the copy line if they need something so my top priority always lands in my inbox.

What are you currently reading?

I have just started Katherine Graham’s autobiography. After seeing The Post I was compelled to learn more. I also considered journalism as a path at some point in my life and still love pretty much everything about newspapers (very analog I know.) I also almost always have a mystery or suspense novel on the go, typically written by a Scot….not sure why.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

This one is tough, mostly because I have a terrible memory for this type of stuff. Rather than advice, I will say that the leaders I have admired the most in my career are those who put the customer at the center of everything we did. It’s more a way of operating than a piece of advice but it has had a huge impact on my career and how I operate.

Something you do better than others – the secret of your success?

If only I knew the answer to this one.

Thank you Jocelyn! That was fun and hope to see you back on MarTech Series soon.

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Also Read: MarTech RADAR 2018: Top 150 B2B Technology Companies You Should Follow