How to Build a Marketing Team Effectively with Sheridan Orr

Welcome to the latest episode of Three-Minute Marketing, a podcast where we micro-interview the world’s foremost thought leaders in growth marketing across different disciplines. I’m your host Arsham Mirshah and co-founder of WebMechanix, a performance advertising agency. I’m honored to have a bad-ass growth expert, Sheridan Orr, as our guest today. Sheridan is the CMO of Built In, a go-to hub for tech professionals who want to learn about the technology industry, build connections, and ultimately carve out a future and get a job at these companies that they believe in. Sheridan’s done product marketing and channel marketing for Red Hat, ChannelAdvisor, and PeopleFluent. Today’s question is: “How do you build a marketing team most effectively for different stages of a company’s growth?” Show Notes: * Think of it like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. First, you need to have food to eat, so feed sales. * Focus on creating a great customer experience from day one. It serves as the flywheel to accomplish other things, such as creating case studies. * Start with the low-hanging fruit, which is to feed your sales team with good leads. * Feed your sales team because that’s what matters most. * Even though she’s a brand marketing, Sheridan admits that product marketing goes before branding. Otherwise, you’ll waste money branding to the wrong people. * You get more budget as you drive leads and sales, and budget is what fuels your growth and allows you to scale. Then, focus on product-market fit. * Finally, work on your brand. It’s more than a color palette or logo. Find out how to differentiate yourself. * Until you get close to the customer, you don’t know what brand story to tell. Bonus discussion after recording: * It doesn’t matter if you’re insourcing or outsourcing. It’s about getting the best possible talent. * Just like a sports team, you need the best people on your team at all times. * Use a spreadsheet to rate your team and ask if that’s the best world-class talent you can get for each role. * WebMechanix uses an accountability chart instead of an organization chart to rank teams and to identify areas for improvement.