MarTech360 Interview With Deanna Ransom, President and Executive Director, Women in Revenue

“As a techie at heart and having taken the journey of the introduction of many technologies, I can say that it [technology] truly elevated marketing to the heartbeat of business and growth.”

Hi, Deanna, could you walk us through your professional journey so far?

I currently serve as president and executive director for Women in Revenue, a non-profit organization predominantly for women in sales, marketing, and customer success careers. I closely identify with our members because I spent most of my career in sales and marketing.  My goal was to either be Oprah, or a brand manager at a CPG company, but I learned that there were more possibilities. I worked my way up from admin to enterprise sales to CMO in B2B tech because I wanted to help companies achieve their best business outcomes.

My first job in tech was as a hospitality admin for the solution center at an ERP company. Customers came into the center to get demos and be trained on the complex products. I managed the center, hosted the clients, and worked closely with the sales team. I learned how sales worked and about the business because I was curious. Through my work with the sales teams I interfaced regularly with all of the business unit managers and one pulled me aside and shared that he thought my talents and skills could be successful in sales. He believed in me, became my mentor, and opened the door to a career in enterprise tech sales.

In sales I learned about understanding customer needs, became a student and certified user of the product and human interactions.   From there, I became interested in how to get more viable leads to sales and that led me to marketing. I built strong relationships with the marketing leadership and team and wanted a new challenge. I shifted to marketing after seeing how critical it is for tech companies to have the right insights, messages in the right channels at the right time and build the connections that customers have with your brand through marketing.

Ascending to leadership was quite the leap of navigating choppy water, believing in myself and finding allies and sponsors to support my growth.

Can you tell us how exactly Women in Revenue bring together diverse women and provide empowerment, inclusion and equality to fuel their career?

Women in Revenue is a transformational organization that empowers women in revenue generating roles. We help amplify their voices and presence while transforming the culture of work. We offer a community that includes a member experience where we support, network, job hunt, recruit and help each other. We provide education through various channels like events and webinars where members learn everything from sales techniques, to increasing pipeline, to how to negotiate a raise.

The WIR Speakers Bureau helps members to power their personal brand and increase thought leadership experience through speaker training and speaker placement. We help women develop the skills they need to own the stage and present with influence. We also recently launched our own platform to increase visibility for women with something to say, WIR TV, which offers live streaming content that tackles hyper-relevant topics and issues impacting today’s women in revenue-generating roles.

Women in Revenue also offers much needed and sought out mentorship. In our recent report on the state of Women in Revenue, nearly 30% of respondents said lack of training and lack of mentorship were one of the top challenges they face at their company.  We have a platform built to match mentors and mentees for one-on-one mentorship, and we have small group mentorship opportunities.

We also have our Equity Resource Program in which we train and certify ambassadors while educating and supporting corporates  in creating diverse and inclusive spaces through learning based on our three pillars, gender focused needs, DE&I and allyship.  These partners and sponsors are committed to creating diverse and inclusive environments. ERP helps those organizations to be able to bring in diverse talent and to create a more inclusive environment to retain and ensure the success of that talent.

Also Read: MarTech360 Interview With Leah Logan, VP Product Marketing, Inmar Intelligence

Tell us about your role at Women in Revenue?

I am the president and executive director of Women in Revenue. The organization represents more than 6,400 members working in sales, marketing, and customer success. Many of our members work in the technology industry, and my background is in B2B technology. I was previously CMO and DE&I Chairperson at Televerde and I have held senior leadership roles at companies such as SAP, Clarivate Analytics, and Merck & Co. My role at Women in Revenue is similar to a CEO. I am responsible for creating vision, overseeing the growth and performance of the organization and ensuring that our members are well served while we advance the mission of equity.

Since Women In Revenue is focused at helping women in revenue generating roles, what are the challenges that women face?

I actually have hard data on this topic. Every year we conduct a survey to find out the critical issues facing women in revenue roles. This year nearly 2,400 people responded. The top three challenges listed were: compensation, work/life balance, and increasing women in leadership roles.

Far and away, the top challenge facing women in revenue is compensation. More specifically compensation transparency. Throughout the pandemic many people were evaluating their jobs. Our research found that for 52% of women, transparent compensation information is the most important consideration when evaluating a job offer. What’s driving this? It’s that women don’t know what they’re worth. When we asked, “Do you believe you are paid equitably compared to male peers?” 41% said they had no idea. How can you negotiate when you don’t know where you stand? If we want pay equity, we need pay transparency.

Work/life balance is a constant struggle for women. The past two years have exacerbated this pressure, with our home and job lives overlapping as we work from home. Slightly over half of respondents in our survey said that the option to remain working from home is very important, even after offices are safely reopened. But work flexibility comes with risks, especially for lead caregivers who prefer to stay home while non-caregivers, typically men, return to the office. Unfortunately, remote workers can expect to be penalized for staying home. Women want more flexibility without diminishing their career trajectory.

We need to see an increase in women in leadership roles. A good part of this is the lack of training and mentorship for women in revenue. This is not just good for women in revenue. It’s good for business.

• 67% of businesses with a mentorship program report an increase in productivity
• 87% of mentors and mentees feel empowered by their mentoring and have more confidence.

How, according to you, have marketing technology and marketing automation changed the entire marketing landscape?

As a techie at heart and having taken the journey of the introduction of many technologies, I can say that it [technology] truly elevated marketing to the heartbeat of business and growth. The tech and automation made marketing data driven, informed and connected.  It allowed for faster response but still required the core communication, writing and creativity that marketing has historically been known for delivering.  The landscape is now one navigated by data, integration and delivering human interactions across all channels including digital ones.

How are digital marketing technology trends shaping business strategies to effectively reach the right audience?

AI and machine learning are going to grow in importance in order to have a 360 degree view of the customer and perhaps finally truly deliver on accurate hyper-personalization.  Mastering extended reality VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality) and MR (mixed reality) will be key to attracting and engaging audiences in what I view as here to stay hybrid events.

And finally, effective use of big data that gathers the right insights across data sets for compelling storytelling that resonates is how just a few trends happening are shaping the strategies that are used to connect and engage with the right audiences.

Has AI & ML automation in marketing impacted the traditional Sales and Marketing funnels?

This is an excellent question!  AI has enabled marketers and sales folks alike to know where a prospect is in the sales funnel and dynamically serve that prospect for where they are in their journey.  It provides lower cost pre-qualification and powers the speed of moving from awareness to conversion at hyper speed.  It has reduced noise, helped optimize spend and enabled more predictable outcomes.

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic happened, organizations are rapidly undergoing digital transformations. Do you think having a data-driven approach is now more important than ever?

As a data driven advocate, I would say it is imperative to now have a data-driven approach.  I often say that more organizations should view data as a strategic asset that is as essential to their business as their people.  This is not essential just for digital transformation but the research is clear that data driven companies outperform their competitors.  Now more than ever, data-driven insights is an advantage that is needed for success.

Could you name the apps/platforms that you use for Marketing?

Over the course of my career I’ve used, procured and implemented the use of many platforms and tools.  Some of those tools include everything from Salesforce, Eloqua, Marketo, Hubspot, Outreach, Gong,  RingLead and Engage.  I’m a firm believer in the right tools for your company and audience needs as opposed to technology for the sake of technology.  At this time, we are using a mix of platforms with one our more central platforms being Hubspot for marketing.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to those who wish to enter the Marketing world?

Don’t set limits on yourself. I didn’t think that a sales and marketing career in tech was for me because honestly I didn’t have the proper awareness of the possibility or option. I thought I needed to be in entertainment or CPG because that’s what I knew. It was all I was aware of. I knew I was smart, but I was convinced that being in tech meant that you had to be “techie”. You had to code or understand product builds or architecture. I’d already set a limitation on myself.

My curiosity lends itself well to being a data-driven marketer and my artistic side works for me because it enables me to look for creative ways to serve the business and customers outside of traditional approaches.

Had I not had a good mentor that knew my potential, I would have limited myself to what I knew. Just because you don’t know it today, doesn’t mean you can’t do it tomorrow.

Thanks, Deanna!