GTM 88: Know Your Numbers to Create Alignment and Unlock Scale with Kyle Lacy

The GTM Podcast

Kyle Lacy spent the last 17 years building, scaling, failing, and winning in high-growth software. He is currently serving the Jellyfish team as their CMO, and before joining the Jellyfish ‘bloom’, He had the pleasure of building a company called Lessonly, employing over 230 people and changed the lives of many more after the acquisition. He has also been fortunate to lead teams at Seismic, OpenView, Salesforce, and ExactTarget. Most importantly, he is the father of two wonderful boys, an energetic dog, and one too many books on World War II.

Discussed in this Episode:

• Aligning marketing and sales is crucial for the success of a company, and marketers should focus on numbers and pipeline models from the early stages.
• Creativity in marketing should be balanced with alignment to sales goals and objectives.
• Building personal brands can be beneficial, but it's important to be mindful of what is shared on social media and how it may impact professional relationships.
• When choosing advisors, look for individuals with relevant experience in the stage and industry of your company.
• Curated dinners and high-quality content are effective strategies for building relationships and engaging prospects and customers.

Highlights:
(04:37) The importance of pipeline models and numbers for early-stage companies.
(06:23) How Kyle gains equal footing with sales leaders
(08:01) Winning over individual sales reps
(09:57) Balancing proactive and reactive marketing
(11:45) The story of winning a 7-figure deal against an incumbent
(15:39) Using donor-choose gift cards in the sales process
(17:00) Converting prospects by asking for feedback and interviews
(18:18) Building a personal brand as a marketer
(21:27) A personal branding misstep that got Kyle in trouble
(24:30) What to look for when bringing on company advisors
(29:10) A widely held belief Kyle thinks is BS
(32:41) A marketing tactic that's working well now
(34:55) Using Lego sets in the sales process
(36:07) Roles Kyle is hiring for at Jellyfish
(31:12) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Kyle thinks is bull$***.
(34:51) One thing that is working for Kyle in go-to-market right now.

Guest Speaker Links (Kyle Lacy):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy/
Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/
Sponsors:

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The GTM Podcast
Features conversations with well-known tech executive, VC, and founders - the expert operators in the trenches who have ‘been there, done that’ to build some of the fastest-growing software companies. Every week, a guest joins Scott Barker to dissect their stories, revealing expert insights around what worked, what didn’t, and how things actually went down.
This podcast is produced by GTMnow, the media brand of GTMfund - sharing insight on go-to-market from working with hundreds of portfolio companies backed by over 350 of the best go-to-market executives. GTMfund is an early-stage VC fund focused on investing in the most exciting, up-and-coming B2B SaaS companies across the world. The LP network consists of VP and C-level Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success leaders from companies like DocuSign, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Snowflake, Okta, Zoom, and many more.
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