Episode 6

How CMO Candidates Choose CEOs

Erica Sheehan is a cybersecurity marketing whiz and the VP of Marketing at Guardsquare, a Belgian mobile application security company that she is helping to expand to the US market. Aside from stints at Novell and Oracle, Erica was most recently VP of marketing at ObserveIT. During her tenure, the company quickly grew 4X and was recently acquired.

Erica is a great example of a marketing leader who has successfully gone from larger to smaller companies. Hear what it means to make that switch, why being analytical is crucial to the marketing leadership role, how high-performing marketing leaders should evaluate a potential employer; and what it’s like to build a marketing team in a rapidly-growing company.

Here are some of the themes from the conversation:

1. The difference between average and great in a B2B marketing leadership role

2. Why analytical skills and field marketing experience are both important in shaping a marketing leader

3. How CEOs can assess if a marketing leader coming from a large enterprise to a high-growth smaller company can ‘scrap’

4. The trend of the CMO or VP of Marketing reporting into the CRO (as opposed to the CEO)

5. How to know whether you need a marketing leader who is more demand-oriented, more brand-oriented, or more product marketing-oriented

6. And finally, some unmissable insights into hiring and building a marketing team in a high-growth environment



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

About the Podcast

Show artwork for The Get: Finding And Keeping The Best Marketing Leaders in B2B SaaS
The Get: Finding And Keeping The Best Marketing Leaders in B2B SaaS
Your inspiration from the best marketing leaders in B2B SaaS today... from hiring, getting hired, leading, organizing, and more!

About your host

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Erica Seidel

Erica Seidel recruits the marketing leaders of the 'make money' variety – not the 'make it pretty' variety. As the Founder of The Connective Good, a boutique executive search firm, she is retained to recruit CMOs and VPs in marketing, growth, product marketing, demand generation, marketing operations, and corporate marketing. She also hosts The Get podcast. Previously, she led Forrester Research's global peer-to-peer executive education businesses for CMOs and digital marketing executives of Fortune 500 companies. Erica has an MBA in Marketing from Wharton, and a BA in International Relations from Brown. One of her favorite jobs ever was serving as the Brown Bear mascot.

You can find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericaseidel/, or on her website/blog at www.theconnectivegood.com.