Summary:

This week on How to Win: Lindsay Bayuk, CMO at Pluralsight, an online technology learning platform designed to help teams upskill. Pluralsight was founded in 2004 and was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2021.

In this episode, Lindsay breaks down some of the strategies that have helped her as a CMO. We discuss communicating the importance of marketing to a CEO, how to align your company metrics, and why you should be wary of 'yes-men'. I weigh in on cross-company collaboration, the correct way to use customer research, and why a day not gathering customer intelligence is a day wasted.

Key Points:

Lindsay discusses what it's like being a CMO with a product marketing background (01:10)
Is life too short to work with a CEO who doesn't understand marketing? (03:10)
I dive into communicating the importance of marketing with a CEO with a quote from former Privy CMO Dave Gerhardt and Drift's David Cancel (03:51)
How does Lindsay communicate important marketing metrics cross-company? (05:38)
I talk about getting buy-in from across the company with a quote from Hubspot's Kipp Bodnar (09:31)
Lindsay lays out Pluralsight's successful messaging and positioning play (11:24)
I weigh in on how you should approach your positioning and messaging (13:34)
How does Lindsay use customer interviews to inform Pluralsight's positioning? (14:26)
I discuss how to use customer research in the right way (16:02)
How are Lindsay's teams structured and how does she juggle them all? (17:14)
I explain why you should surround yourself with people who challenge you with a quote from former astronaut Garrett Reisman (19:11)
Why does Lindsay think that "go-to-market is a team sport?" (20:54)
What are some of the mistakes Lindsay has made in her career? (22:24)
Wrap-up (23:48)