Data-Driven CMOs: Powering Internal Collaboration & Revenue Growth

Lisa Hayashi is the CMO of Safeguard Cyber. She has a diverse background in startups, angel investments, and business development. With experience in driving hyper-growth and achieving successful exits, Lisa brings a unique perspective to her role as a CMO.

In this interview with Lisa Hayashi, the CMO of Safeguard Cyber, she brings a unique perspective to the table, having started her career in angel investments and business development for startups. She has witnessed the growth and exits of various companies, and she shares her insights on how CMOs can drive internal collaboration and revenue growth.

Lisa Hayashi, CMO @ SafeGuard Cyber – Follow Lisa on LinkedIn

“We serve sales. When you serve a team, it means you help them be successful all the time. So we walk in the shoes of our salespeople and bring them along the journey by constantly displaying empathy and using data to back up everything we do.” – Lisa Hayashi

Lisa always approaches internal conversations, starting with her CEO, with supporting data, because it’s then very difficult not to get a head nod of support. Building trust and a united front as a single growth team across marketing and sales takes a little extra effort.

Lisa’s approach to data-driven decision-making extends to the collaboration between marketing and sales. The growth team can ensure accountability and success by setting service level agreements (SLAs) and tracking metrics, working to accomplish them, refining, and moving forward as a single team.

Read on to learn all of Lisa’s insights now.

Listen to the full podcast or watch it on YouTube. To watch the 4-minute summary video, CLICK HERE.

Introduction to Lisa Hayashi

Steve MacDonald: Welcome everyone to the B2B Marketing Perspectives podcast. I’m Steve MacDonald, your host, and today we have a really unique perspective & insights from Lisa Hayashi, she’s the CMO of Safeguard Cyber. But Lisa, you started out earlier on in your career, you were at a family office, and you were managing angel investments for startups.

You were in business development. You’ve actually been involved in startups through IPOs. And you have a pattern that you’ve seen and recognize that you will share with us today on actual growth and exits. And as we were just talking just a second ago, it’s actually something that, as a CMO, we need to have our sights not only set on revenue sales and revenue, but we need to have our sights set on the overall growth of the company and preparing them for that growth in those exits.

So, we’re excited to have you on today. And if you could maybe just expand a bit more on your background, we’ll dig into things here.

Lisa Hayashi: Great. Thank you so much for having me on. I’m happy to be here today. I’ll share a little bit. Sure. I have a nonlinear path I’ve been on. And so I think that has helped me to gain perspective in many different areas. And when you talk about that pattern recognition or that understanding over time, I think it really starts with something that shaped me very early on: joining a startup in Silicon Valley in the nineties when we were disrupting how enterprises networked.

So, a very, very amazing technologist and team created a fiber channel, which changed networks forever really. And so I was very young, and I joined the marketing team there. And I was employee 30. And so I was able to witness hyper-growth. We were on a path to IPO. We had very strong influential investors that took us on this journey. And we had a really, really aggressive board that kept us absolutely on target and on this path. And I had a CEO who would physically break the switchovers between other companies and our competitors.

And so it shaped me to understand what it took to drive excellence and to be on the path to hyper growth, to an exit, which we achieved. And it was very exciting. And as a very young person, I witnessed and watched firsthand how executive leadership did things well.

Definitely, there were challenges, but there was a common goal. Everybody rallied around it, and the outcome was excellent. And I think that was a really fun way to start off my career and drove a lot of insights for me that helped shape me.

Applying experience and alignment to create growth

Steve MacDonald: So that if you could maybe today as a CMO and leading the organization and marketing, how has that affected how you do your job today, how you look at your role, and how it impacts the overall company?

Lisa Hayashi: Well, it’s interesting. So I am still very close with many of the people we did that at Brocade with. So, one of the founders has, because of his wealth, generated a family office where he invested in many, many startups. So after Brocade years, I ended up working with him for eight years in his family office.

And so we started working and investing in a lot of different startups in various technology spaces. And that was incredible because while he was a technology engineer, I was a marketer, and we had this opportunity to fund startups and watch and help encourage growth in those startups.

It was a great learning experience for us. But what I was doing was really observing what it took to grow a startup. We had this excellent experience with Brocade, but then how do you replicate that? And what works, what doesn’t work? But also, I’ve had mentors along the way.

The first woman that hired me was our VP of Marketing. She and I have stayed connected and friends for a long time. I’m telling you this because I got to go to a milestone birthday. It was an 80th birthday party for someone really interesting from the Brocade days. Anyway, at that event, somebody stood up and sort of gave a speech about this gentleman’s career and timeline and things that he’s accomplished.

And so I got to be there. I think that was incredible because it was at a moment when this actually connects. It was at a moment when Silicon Valley Bank was crashing, and I was very worried about our internal team, our leadership team at the company I’m at now. There were things that were challenges that we were having, as any startup has, and I was able to really draw back to that experience that I had so many years ago about having the right architecture, the right technologists, the alignment with the product, the alignment with the growth and team. I call my CRO and I a growth team, right? And he does too. And, our CEO alignment and all of that sort of came together.

And I thought we really need to replicate some of the dedication, hard work, and perseverance at this moment in our company and in the world of what we did back in the Brocade days. And it was just kind of a really interesting moment to look back at that experience.

Forming the growth team

Steve MacDonald: Now, you just mentioned something really important, and that was that there’s one team, a growth team.

Tell me who’s on that team and why you think it’s one team. And what that means.

Lisa Hayashi: I love it. So, I often go to CMO dinners, and this might be a little controversial, but I’m sitting there, and I’ll hear so much—animosity or frustration around the CRO-CMO relationship.

And I feel very lucky that I don’t have that experience now. And I usually don’t when I’m working in companies. And I think that what this means is that you have to create a strategy and plan and do that with your key stakeholders. Your CEO has to have the buy-in. Your CRO has to be bought in.

Your marketing team has to be 100% bought in. And when I talk to my marketing teams and agencies, my message is that we serve sales. We serve the sales team. When you serve a team, it doesn’t mean you let them drive every decision. It means that with a strategy in place, with a plan, you help them be successful all the time.

So it’s not us against them. More often than not, we know how to use marketing technology tools much better than they do. So we always need to train. We always need to identify who is successful. Highlight the wins with the sales team, empower them. And when we do those kinds of things, it really drives collaboration and support from the top. The CRO and the CEO are seeing us create wins and build trust with the sales team. And that works really well.

And then the other piece I think that’s critical is that we are very careful about the metrics that we report. Every level of that revenue team, that growth revenue team. So, for example, weekly, we will have goal checks, and we do that with the CRO and the CEO at the table once a week for 30 minutes.

Here are the metrics for tracking. Here’s what we’re doing. And here’s our plan for next week, because everybody knows the overall strategy. Then we meet with our just our marketing team, and we go to a very deep level of granular metrics that we’re tracking together. And then we also have a weekly meeting with the sales team, where we deliver metrics that we’re tracking together.

Things like SQLs, things like opportunities created in our world, we’ve done away with MQLs, we will only give sales the right leads that they’ve accepted. And an SQL in our book is a first meeting completed, because if we don’t deliver them the right leads, they’re never going to have a good first meeting.

And then we look at the rate those first meetings convert to opportunities. And it’s really simple, but it works really well. Nobody complains that the leads are crud that just everyone knows that we’re delivering to them what we’ve all talked about many times.

Creating accountability with internal SLAs

Steve MacDonald: You said so much that I’m on the edge of my seat, and I’ve got about 10 questions to ask here.

All right. Weekly meetings. There’s accountability that comes with that. And when we talked before, it was very much about how you’re very data-driven. You want to be a data-driven CMO that puts accountability throughout that growth team, right? Tell me a little bit about how you work with those regular meetings, the data, who’s responsible, and what you are looking at.

Give us a little bit of kind of a peek under the hood, if you could, in terms of how you orchestrate that.

Lisa Hayashi: Absolutely. So, we have a sales meeting, and I’ll just start there. And so, as I said, we report on SQLs, SQL conversion, and leads delivered. Also, we might report on how the content’s doing, all of those things that are interesting to them that they care about.

Then the next thing that we do is give them SLAs (service level agreements). Every week, the sales team has SLAs, which they’re given on a Monday. Okay. Thank you. Thursdays, we have office hours with them. And so that’s where they can ask any questions and get their SLAs done if they’re struggling with them.

And they’re talking to each other, and they’re talking to us. So it’s a deeper dive into more of the tactics versus just the numbers in a report out. Right. And so it’s almost like we give them their assignment and then enough time to complete it. And then we have that feedback loop with them. So we build trust.

They feel successful. And then we’re not going week to week going back and saying, no one did those blog posts, and no one did the invitations. No one completed their cadences, all of that. It’s all there. We can see it all.

And the beauty of that is when I’m meeting with my revenue partners, which is the CRO and his VP of Sales, they’ll ask me, what do you need help with to get the sales team to do this week? Where are there gaps? Who’s performing and how? I mean, we look at everybody’s performance on the team. And it directly relates to their pipeline generation, their conversions, and their growth, right?

And so, at every stage, we definitely can see that traction for each individual. So, we’re very lucky in that we are not a late-stage startup. We’ve been around for a while, but we’ve made some changes to the business and the platform. And we’re very, very lucky that marketing has the tools that we do in place.

And we’re optimizing continuously. So, it’s fun to show growth when it exists, but it’s also really smart to demonstrate areas where we need to improve as a team. And it’s never too late to have that conversation when you’re having it every single week. So there are no surprises.

Steve MacDonald: What was so brilliant is that you leapfrogged a problem that so many CMOs have. Here’s the problem, and it’s documented. Almost two-thirds of content throughout the B2B industry that marketing gives to sales they look at and say it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. Right. And part of the reason why is because they’re not working together.

They’re not in agreement on that content, but they’re also unaware of the content, right? They’re not even aware of the content, and they’re not using it. Guess what? Nobody’s going to say that was great content that I didn’t use. They’re going to default. And so you’ve leapfrogged all of that because you’ve created the content and the service level agreements of how that content needs to be used.

SLA creation and measurement

Steve MacDonald: Yeah. That is a partnership. Now I’m getting the idea of this kind one team approach. And so, in terms of the weekly meetings and the constantly changing SLAs. What’s the need to change those on a weekly basis? Or is it kind of the same SLAs with just new content coming out, or what drives the changes you talk about every week?

Lisa Hayashi: Great question. Yeah. So more often than not, there’ll be an SLA around opportunities created or meetings that you need to have per week to hit your numbers. So we’re always tracking that. Did the entire team meet this SLA of 40 meetings this week? First meetings, right?

So we look at that because pipeline creation and opportunity creation are in those SLAs. And that’s sort of a standard one we look at where we’re like, Oh, we fell behind in July, it was a slower month. This is what we need to do to make up for it.

Can you guys grind it out this week, and we talk about strategies, and then we’ll often have an event series or something where we’re like, all right, we need 100% compliance, everybody needs to invite X number of people to this event. We have to hit this number, and we’ll track that over time, but that’s a big push that we have as one of the SLAs.

Another is social amplification. So we give you the top three posts or four posts that you need to amplify and hit that SLA. And so it’s just a screen they’ll take, literally take screenshots of their homework, and then make sure they check it off their list. And so we can see it, right? Because we have all the tools in place.

The other bucket often is content. So, this is the new piece of content, read it, read the white paper. So, read it and then create your own commentary and share it on social. Or deliver to us 15 people in your LinkedIn to follow our company page this week.

So just little things like that that are fairly simple for the most part. They check it off their lists, and it works.

Steve MacDonald: Right. And if they’ve got it on a list, then they’ve got in their mind that they’ve got to accomplish it. It can be very simple, right?

That relationship that you’re checking, you’ve mentioned now a number of times content, and if I were to ask you a question, here’s the question.

What kind of content is critical?

Steve MacDonald: How important is content to the overall growth and success of the business? One is not important. ten, it’s vital to the growth and success of the company. What would you say? What would your rating be and why?

Lisa Hayashi: It’s vital because everything you hear and see today is around how the B2B SaaS company goes to market and what the buyer journey looks like, and it’s so very different.

And while relationships are extremely important, it still takes a long time for a buying committee to get to the human by choice and design. Nobody wants to start a first meeting and just go right into their research, right? They do a lot of research outside of that first conversation.

So the other piece that I think is really important, and I think you build it and I think you’re working on it, is community and understanding that that’s a big part of generating awareness for your people, your brand, and your product.

And so, if you’re going to create a podcast or you’re going to create community content in collaboration, all of those things I think are critical to B2B companies doing well today.

Steve MacDonald: And if you could tell what segment out for us a little bit, the content that sparks conversations, that gets people interested.

There’s a lot, and there’s a rule all throughout the buyer’s journey, which kind of looks like spaghetti these days, right? Crazy. But there’s a time for product-related feature benefits, and competitive analysis, like core hard content that sells the product.

When you’re trying in some of those SLAs and trying to get those service level agreements to get those first conversations started, how important and what kind of content is being used to create that relationship, that awareness, the relationship where they want to talk to you. What kind of content is that?

Lisa Hayashi: So there’s a few different things that we do that seem to be working. We are seeing a big uptick in our inbounds, and our sales team is using the tools much more effectively than they ever have before.

So we can really understand what content is leading people to a hand raise on our site. For example, so we do a lot with blogs. Our blog’s content is really well received. We have great read times on our blogs, and usually, those are quite topical for us. We also go a lot deeper on our site with product tours.

So we do that self-service product tour at your own pace. We’re seeing that as a really successful piece of content. That’s great. Video is also really, really popular on our site right now as well. And I would say white paper downloads, etc. Anything we do in collaboration with our analysts or with other security leaders often is really successful for us.

So, we do so many different pieces of content all the time. We do webinars, we turn those into blog posts. So we really try to maximize any piece of content that we have. So if we do a white paper, we will do like six different things to support that white paper.

There’ll be a blog about it. There’ll be a full pillar landing page on it. We’ll do social posts, we’ll animate content from there, and drive that. So, luckily I’m scrappy. We take a good piece of content, blow it out, and sprinkle it all over the site to watch the performance on it.

How outside experts can uplevel your vital content

Steve MacDonald: You mentioned things that you’re doing with outsiders, subject matter experts, analysts, as an example, other luminaries in the industry. How important is it to have outside perspectives validating your point of view that you’re bringing to the industry?

Lisa Hayashi: I think it’s critical. We definitely drink our own Kool-Aid. We believe in our mission and our product, and what we’re building. Nothing is more effective. Then when you are being referred, people are talking about you, or more importantly, they’re talking about the problem you’re solving.

And it’s really great because last year there was something that happened in the market where there was a need for our product. And so we helped some folks in the financial services industry solve the problem. And we did it well. And so we’ve literally had 15 referrals over the last four months to solve the same problem.

So 15 is a lot in a small period of time, and we haven’t had a close or win rate that successful ever at this company. And so, of course, they brought us to an event, asked us to speak at an event with their peers, and they did the testimonial. We’ve created content with them and cited the solution.

It’s been critical for our business to have our reach go beyond just using our own voice but bringing in perspectives from others as well.

Steve MacDonald: No matter what your own voice is, it’s still the voice of the company that’s selling. Right. And so it’s always critical to have this outside perspective, and validation say we’re on the same page.

We think the trend is going in the same direction, right? That gives authenticity to your brand, voice, and what you’re doing. Oh, there’s so much that we’re covering here. What I wanted to do, though, is go back just a little bit and the idea of the data-driven CMO. If you could kind of put it into perspective for us because you’re scrappy, right?

Being a data-driven CMO drives trust

Steve MacDonald: You’ve got the background, the investor background, the startup background, everything. How important is the data to creating the glue between the different members of the team and buying them in?

Lisa Hayashi: So I know that I trust my hunch all the time, right? So, my gut or those things, those are important. But when you are starting to work with people for the first time, say you have a new CEO in place. They respect you, obviously. You’re there for a reason.

So I have always operated that way, and I feel really lucky because it produces good relationships in the company. So, I have a team that does the same thing. I’m really lucky that way. I have support that they come to me, and they’re like, here’s the data.

What should we do if there’s no data? I don’t make decisions. Usually, I notice. Right. And so I feel like my peers operate the same way at the company, which is good. Sometimes we’ll have a moment where we don’t all agree on something. And so then I really think about it, and I’m like, okay. I’m so sure about this opinion. I have to prove it. And how there’s no better way to do that than with data to demonstrate what you’re trying to convey.

Steve MacDonald: It goes back to those CMO dinners. You’re talking about that antagonistic relationship, right? Because then it just takes the opinion factor away, right.?

Lisa Hayashi: Yeah, I think that’s where I feel like, I know how a conversation’s going, but then I understand it if the data conveys that my goal or my opinion is not accurate, and it happens.

Key takeaway: marketing and sales must collaborate

Steve MacDonald: Lisa, if with everything that we’ve talked about here, for the people that are heading up marketing their organization, if there was a takeaway, there was one thing that you really wanted them to know and take away from this conversation, what would that be?

Lisa Hayashi: Walk in the shoes of your salespeople. Just really, really try to understand what they’re going through.

That empathy is, I think, critical for us to be successful together. So we’ll help everyone remove that us against them mentality, and it goes both ways. You can definitely ask your CRO to walk in my shoes for a minute. Right. Look at the challenge I’m having and help me solve it.

Let’s do this together. So, always bring people along on your journey, but do it with a lot of empathy.

Steve MacDonald: And you can kind of think that that would be a sign of weakness, right? Help me look at my walk in my shoes, help me solve this problem. It’s not. It’s actually working together as a team.

It’s that collaboration, and they appreciate it, right? Because ultimately, your success is tied to theirs and theirs to yours. So why not intertwine them?

Lisa Hayashi: Oh yeah. How do I help you? What can we do in marketing that’s going to make this better? Hey, BDR, your cadence isn’t working. Let’s talk about it. Let’s break it down. What’s not working? Let me get on the calls with you. Let me write that email for you and see if that works better. It takes just that little bit that builds trust and, I think, builds a united front with your team.

Steve MacDonald: So we talk about building trust and authenticity, right? And expertise outside with our buyers. But you’re talking about doing that internally.

Lisa Hayashi: Yeah, it’s contagious, I think, when you start doing that, and people want to be around that. I do believe that for sure.

Steve MacDonald: Well, Lisa, thank you so much for coming on. If somebody had a follow-up question and they wanted to get a hold of you, would you a link to your LinkedIn profile? Would that be a good place to start?

Lisa Hayashi: That would be great. LinkedIn is great, for sure.

Steve MacDonald: Fantastic. Well, again, thank you for coming on the podcast.

Lisa Hayashi: It’s so great to talk to you. Take care of Steve.

Next Steps

Lisa highlights the importance of creating content that sparks conversations and builds awareness, especially with industry experts—high-quality content drives conversations and generates leads. To elevate your content’s ROI and revenue impact, don’t miss the opportunity to CLICK HERE and schedule a 20-minute strategy session with Steve MacDonald, founder of ConstentStrategies.io.

ELEVATING CONTENT MARKETING STANDARDS RAISES A CRUCIAL QUESTION:
Why shouldn’t the very act of creating thought leadership content also spark new conversations with in-pipeline deals, top prospects, and high-priority customers for revenue expansion? Or serve as the cornerstone for learning and applying voice-of-customer strategies? That’s the power of ABM Podcasting—engaging B2B buyers and customers in meaningful conversations that uncover essential go-to-market insights, support long sales cycles, reinforce your market perspective, build peer-level trust, and dismantle objections that kill deals.

Steven MacDonald

Steven MacDonald is the founder of Content Strategies, CEO of a MarTech SaaS Company, fractional CMO consulting with leading B2B companies and former Director of Strategy and Client Service at top ten digital marketing agencies.

Follow Steve on LinkedIn.

Steven MacDonald

Follow Steve on LinkedIn.