What does it take to simplify the end user shopping and customer experience in today’s business environment? Katrina Klier, Chief Marketing Officer at PROS weighs in with a few observations and tips:

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Tell us a little about yourself Katrina…you’ve just recently taken on your role as CMO at PROS: a few thoughts on this change?

I’m excited to be joining PROS at a time when nearly every company is seeking to remain agile and resilient, especially after COVID. Companies are pivoting to a digital-first approach to selling as buyer’s preferences are rapidly moving towards digital channels. Companies are accelerating their digital transformation efforts by leveraging AI-based solutions to deliver more personalized and tailored offers to buyers in this omni-channel commerce world. I was drawn to PROS because I love the platform solution that PROS provides and the company’s vision of optimizing every shopping and selling experience. While I’m still relatively new to the company, my role at PROS will focus on aligning global marketing strategy and programs with corporate priorities. I look forward to bringing my experience in high-tech, spanning software and professional service organizations, to drive PROS marketing strategy and help scale the business.

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Take us through some of your biggest marketing learnings and highlights over the years?

Connection is key. It is critical for a marketing organization to be connected internally to essentially every function of the business, including the sales and product teams, company strategy and IT, to be successful. Marketing teams also need to be connected externally and provide a radar for the business, including trends that could affect sales and the brand, plus keeping a close eye on opportunities where the company can sell more and have a bigger presence. Bottom line – for marketing to be meaningful and impactful it must have connections inside and outside of the organization. 

A few thoughts on how you feel today’s marketing leaders and mid-level executives from enterprise teams should reshape themselves to adjust to today’s business challenges and needs?

Constant curiosity is essential for long-term success. Marketing leaders and mid-level executives need to be endlessly curious about different ways of doing marketing, business models, different technologies and how they can help organizations conduct better business. Being curious and eager to learn other people’s perspectives and diverse points of view is also where you find the most ingenious answers and ideas. 

When companies shifted to operate in mostly virtual environments last year, it opened a lot of opportunities and forced us all to think differently. For example – by adjusting to remote work, companies suddenly had more access to talent in places they may not have had before. Meetings and conversations became more focused and efficient, and we all found ways to build relationships with teams outside of the proverbial “water cooler.” Having worked in a virtual environment myself for many years, I’ve learned that making the commitment to form connections with others either through calls, video, or email, is essential to building and maintaining strong working relationships. You must lean in and commit to doing it well and consistently. 

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What are some of the top marketing technologies that have helped your strategies through the years? A few marketing technologies you feel every marketer out there should know like the back of their hand?

In my experience, what contributes most to an effective marketing strategy is less about specific technologies and more about technical trends that impact the organization and business overall. It’s important to set aside time and budget for innovation in this space. There is constant change in the MarTech landscape; marketers have to be comfortable with the uncomfortable – try new solutions, be proactive and deliberate in leveraging technology – otherwise they are left competitively at risk. 

Take us through some of your upcoming marketing plans for PROS, a few key initiatives that are in the pipeline (events / etc)?

PROS vision is to optimize every shopping and selling experience. Through the AI-powered PROS Platform we help organizations transform their end-to-end selling process, so they can sell smarter in today’s digital economy, accelerate revenue, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. Companies rely on PROS solutions to coordinate personalization, pricing, and selling in real time so they can optimize their customer experience seamlessly, across selling channels, in record time. Upcoming key initiatives for us focus on fulfilling the PROS vision to support our customers and help them win in today’s digital era.   

As far as events, we’re gearing up for our annual conference, Outperform, which brings together enterprise companies and our clients to share tools and trends that help companies compete in today’s digital economy. Now more than ever before, we’re proud to provide an event that is designed to equip companies with the resources they need to thrive in volatile markets; connect with their customers; and drive revenue growth by harnessing the power of PROS solutions.

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