MarTech360 Interview With Kristen Knouft, CMO and Co-CRO at WizeHive

“By understanding your audience, you can communicate why they need your solution and why your product or service is best suited for their needs.”

Hi, Kristen, can you give us a background of your professional journey?

I’m currently CMO and “Co-CRO” at WizeHive, a growth stage SaaS company that helps over 750+ mission-focused organizations better manage application-centric processes like Grants, Scholarships, and Fellowships as well as employee giving and other Social Impact programs.

Prior to WizeHive, I was a Managing Director with Accenture, and member of the executive team responsible for leading and growing Accenture’s global procurement services business which now contributes more than $1B in Sales per annum. In this role I led marketing efforts as well as key aspects of sales and business and product strategy.

Prior to that, I was part of the senior leadership team that launched a company called Procurian and grew the business from a small start-up to a global market leader (with nearly 1,000 people in seven countries) which was eventually acquired by Accenture. As Procurian’s SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, I got to play a key role in shaping and executing product and go-to-market strategies and put a lot of focus on transforming Marketing from a tactical function to a strategic one that directly contributed to the company’s revenue and market growth. I led an amazing team of marketers in the creation of the Procurement BPO category (a $3+Billion category today, which did not exist in 2000); the rebranding and positioning of Procurian as the clear and recognized market leader; along with revenue fueling efforts including demand and lead generation.

Tell us about your current role at WizeHive.

At WizeHive, we’ve implemented a collaborative “revenue generation” structure by having Co-CROs (Chief Revenue Officers): my colleague, Ken Lienemann, and me. I have primary responsibility for those things typically led by marketing: broader market positioning, pipeline development, product marketing and partnerships. Ken drives sales execution and ongoing account management, but together we own our revenue number as a partnership.

Oftentimes, Sales and Marketing teams operate in silos or worse, are at odds with one another leading to a misalignment on strategy and tactics which creates noise and distraction and ultimately impedes goals. Ken and I try to focus on the entire revenue generation system as one integrated process and unit. Sure, certain subteams each own important sub-goals but these goals all add up and work together to drive toward our shared targets and goals.

How does WizeHive support mission-based organizations?

WizeHive provides cloud-based solutions to help mission driven organizations optimize and accelerate their social impact. Our company’s powerful yet flexible Zengine^TM platform enables Corporations, Government and Nonprofit organizations to optimize giving done in the forms of grants, scholarships, fellowships and other awards while our Bright Funds^TM platform enables corporations to quickly and easily extend giving, corporate matching and volunteer opportunities to employees. We’ve recently expanded our solution to include high impact, curated volunteer events that further increase employee engagement and social impact.

As traditional methods of sales and marketing are no longer prevalent, how are the modern methods impacting the entire marketing landscape?

I wouldn’t say traditional methods are out-the-door. Whether it’s sales or marketing, It’s always been people at the other end of that interaction. And when you look at it that way, people haven’t fundamentally changed. The psychology behind why people buy remains the same.  I think the other major driver of a good marketing and sales strategy is understanding your demand type. Are you in an active market where people are looking for your solution but just trying to determine if you are the right partner or are you in a less developed market where you need to convince buyers why they need a new or different kind of solution (and then why you are the right choice).  To me everything has to start with knowing your target buyer and where they are in the buying journey and how to best engage and speak to them (a principle that has not fundamentally changed).

That said, the ways we can engage and reach them has certainly changed. We can now get to prospects much quicker than we once could and we’re reaching them through multiple devices, retargeting ads, and reappearing through different digital channels and getting more data and feedback than ever.

What are the most important things that businesses can do to optimize their digital outreach?

First, to get their attention you have to offer something extremely relevant, compelling and valuable. There’s just too much noise and competition. Deeply know their pain, their needs and wants. Use that information to inform everything you use to communicate from your marketing content, to your ad copy to your sales decks.

By understanding your audience, you can communicate why they need your solution and why your product or service is best suited for their needs. Sometimes, businesses are too focused on messaging around why they’re better than their competitors. While competitive research is important, solely concentrating on that approach can lead to an uninspiring “me too” marketing strategy.

Then find out where your audience hangs out online. What websites do they frequent? What newsletters do they subscribe to? What influencers do they follow? Do they hang out in specific Subreddits? Listen to specific podcasts? I’d recommend using SparkToro if you’re not sure where to start.

According to you, what are the current major sales and marketing trends?

It would be remiss not to mention AI. We’re currently inundated with AI news, and some are (understandably) over hearing about it, but it’s already affecting multiple industries including sales and marketing. Even if we’re not using it every single day or for every piece of content, I think it’s important to understand and learn how these tools work.

There’s also third-party cookie deprecation. This isn’t new, but it will only continue to affect more platforms and more users. The loss of third-party cookies makes it harder for marketers to track users through targeted ads, forcing us to rethink/restrategize our approach to reaching these same people.

How effectively can sales and marketing technology help in shaping business strategies to effectively reach the target audience?

In my role as Co-CRO at WizeHive, we’ve been able to align sales and marketing more effectively through technology. Because both departments use a shared CRM and data dashboards, we’re able to collaborate more efficiently and take a unified approach to our target audiences.

As an example, our marketing campaigns are tailored to specific audiences. Depending on the interaction of each lead within those campaigns, they’re then routed to our sales team for more personalized outreach. All of this takes place within one platform so both teams are always up-to-date on the status of our pipeline, how our different campaigns are performing, and where we can optimize our efforts.

How important is it for a business to work on their product strategies to achieve set marketing goals?

Product-led growth is only becoming more and more of a focus. In this past year alone, there’s been a tremendous 101% increase in searches around product-led growth.

With how quickly technology changes, people expect your product to do the same. There’s value in listening to your prospects, interviewing customers, learning the reasons behind customer churn, and then aligning those insights back to your product (whether it’s through product development or overall positioning and messaging).

Can you name some of the most essential sales or marketing tools that you use on a daily basis?

• Hubspot: since I feel accountable for overall company revenue , I’m reviewing data in our CRM every day
• Google Analytics and Google Search Console: these are great for diving deeper into website data and site performance
• Semrush: for SEO and PPC research to inform our inbound efforts
• Google Alerts: an easy way to get notified of the latest news in the topics/industries that are relevant to your business

What would be your advice to all the marketers out there keen on trying new methods of marketing to scale their business?

I think it’s easy to accidentally spread yourself too thin trying to use every single method in existence. Before trying new methods, make sure your current marketing channels are dialed in and producing results. If you’re starting from scratch, focus on just a couple of channels, and get really great at them.

Then, when you’re ready to branch out, test often and use data to make informed decisions.