The Growth Asset Most Companies Barely Use
Ashley Deibert, a three-time Chief Marketing Officer, explains why customers are one of the most valuable growth assets B2B companies often underuse. She shares how loyalty, advocacy, and ongoing customer partnership can protect revenue while creating trust with future buyers. Ashley also explains why long-term growth requires patience, quick wins, and a customer voice that shapes every part of the business.
Ashley Deibert has spent her career close to the revenue side of the business. As a three-time Chief Marketing Officer, she has helped growth-stage companies build marketing organizations, scale revenue, and create stronger relationships between sales, marketing, and customers. Her perspective is clear. Sustainable growth does not come from treating customers as a final step after acquisition. It comes from treating them as active partners in the growth strategy.
Many B2B companies invest heavily in new-logo acquisition while underinvesting in the customers they already have. Ashley explains why customer loyalty, advocacy, and feedback should influence far more than retention. They should shape the way a company builds its brand, messaging, product roadmap, and go-to-market strategy.
“Sustainable growth isn’t something you do to customers, it’s something you build with them. The companies that listen to their customers and bring them into the journey, earn their trust, are the ones that usually build growth that lasts.” – Ashley Deibert
To learn more, watch the video or read the article below.
To catch the full interview with Ashley at “The Growth Asset Most Companies Barely Use.” CLICK HERE.
Article: "The Growth Asset Most Companies Barely Use"
This article is based on an interview with Ashley Deibert, a three-time Chief Marketing Officer
Build Trust Before Buyers Are Ready to Buy
Revenue pressure often causes companies to focus on immediate conversion. Leaders want every campaign, event, and piece of content to generate pipeline quickly. However, Ashley points out that only a small portion of a market is actively buying at any given time. Most marketing and sales activity is directed toward future buyers.
She explains, “Most people you are launching a go-to-market motion at are future buyers.” Marketing’s job is not only to capture demand when it appears. It is also to build familiarity, credibility, and preference before that demand exists. This requires patience and consistency. Ashley warns that constantly changing the message, strategy, or campaign can reset the value of prior investments. “Impatience can actually make growth slower,” she says, because the company does not allow awareness, trust, consideration, and purchase decisions to build over time.
That does not mean leaders should wait passively for results. Ashley recommends identifying quick wins that show internal progress while larger programs take shape. Customer webinars, product announcements, stronger event engagement, and visible customer activity can show momentum. These smaller wins help create confidence while the company builds a long-term growth engine.
Customer Loyalty Creates Revenue That Has Not Yet Arrived
Customer retention protects existing revenue, but Ashley believes loyalty creates something more powerful. Loyal customers advocate for the company in conversations that happen outside the vendor’s control. They share their experiences with peers, provide references, create word of mouth, and influence future buyers before those buyers ever speak to sales.
Ashley explains, “Retention protects the revenue you already have. Loyalty creates the revenue that you don’t have yet.” This distinction matters for leaders who want sustainable growth. A satisfied customer may renew because replacing a system is difficult. A loyal customer goes further. They proactively recommend the company, validate its credibility, and help future buyers feel more confident. That matters because buyers increasingly trust peers more than vendor messaging.
Ashley notes that customers are having conversations about a company’s brand that the company can never control. The opportunity is to protect, elevate, and create a network effect from those conversations. Strong customer experiences, advocacy programs, references, and customer stories are not separate from go-to-market. They are part of the growth system.
Build With Customers, Not Just for Them
Customer feedback is valuable only when it leads to visible action. Surveys and call analysis can help leaders understand what customers think, but Ashley emphasizes that true partnership begins when customers see that their input changes something. “There’s a huge difference between doing that and actually letting them see that their feedback changed something,” she says. “That’s when a customer starts to feel invested in your company.”
This partnership should influence more than customer success. Customer insight should guide the product roadmap, company positioning, marketing investments, campaign themes, content, and even hiring decisions. The goal is not simply to ask customers for feedback. It is to build a business around their evolving challenges and priorities.
Ashley shares an example of launching a customer webinar series. Rather than deciding the topics herself, she created the framework and invited customers to identify the subjects that mattered most. The result created a more useful program for customers and better insight for the company.
She also encourages leaders to ask customers about messaging before campaigns launch. A simple question such as, “Does this resonate with you?” can help a company avoid assumptions and create communication that connects with the market.
Conclusion
Customer relationships are often treated as a retention responsibility rather than a growth asset. Ashley Deibert’s perspective challenges that approach. Customers can protect current revenue, shape better decisions, strengthen market credibility, and create trust with future buyers.
Her central message is simple. “Sustainable growth isn’t something you do to customers; it’s something you build with them.” Leaders who continually listen to customers, involve them in meaningful decisions, and act on what they learn will build stronger relationships and more durable growth.
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.
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.
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