We chat with recently appointed CMO for Asia-Pacific, Michael Peachey, about why tech and data knowledge is so important to marketers and how innovation and customer advocacy is driving his approach
It’s equally important for marketers to work with technology teams, although this, like sales, has historically been a fraught relationship.
“We all know the story of digital transformation going on right now, and that’s driven by putting the customers in the centre,” Peachey says. “One thing contributing to this issue between CMO and IT has been legacy systems and customer data locked up in the mainframe. Even with the huge evolution to cloud, some still need to operate with these on-premise systems.”
Salesforce’s acquisition of Mulesoft is the integration component customers have been asking for to unlock customer data in legacy systems to create new levels of digital interaction with customers, Peachey claims.
“I do think our customers have been very aware of the need to integrate the data because marketers are hungry to create these exciting and personalised interactions with their customers,” he says. “But they have been challenged because data has been locked up.”
For Peachey, data utilisation then has to be about making it easy for customers to buy from your brand.
“As customers are making purchasing decisions, we need to deliver the right content, material and information to them at the right time,” he says. “It’s just as important for us as a B2B organisation to do that as a B2C organisation. Just behind a Web browser is an individual trying to make the right decision for their company and feel good about that purchase decision. It’s our job to help with them that.”
As Peachey sets out to bolster regional customer numbers and success, a guiding Salesforce principle he’s using is “tactics dictate strategy”.
“Don’t spend six months defining strategy – try and test something and succeed or fail fast, then move on. If it’s successful, do more of it. If it’s not, don’t do it anymore,” he advises other CMOs. “That’s how I have innovated marketing at Salesforce, and how our company innovates. It’s the number one thing.”
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