CMO Attentive, Sara Varni: Cold Beer and Cheeseburgers

Jan 3, 2022

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Bowling Roots From Childhood Summers

Sara traced her bowling passion to summer trips where she and cousins were allowed to roam the alley.
Those early memories created a lifelong love for bowling and weekday leagues.

ADVICE

Write Simple Customer-Focused Copy

Use straightforward, consumer-style copy for B2B messaging to be memorable.
Favor clarity over cleverness to make product value instantly understood.

INSIGHT

Training By Template Scales Marketing Talent

Salesforce trains marketers with repeatable formats and a shared language that scale across teams.
That institutional training produces many high-caliber CMOs who carry the playbook elsewhere.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

B2B marketing powerhouse, Sara Varni joins this episode on her final day at Twilio to discuss her journey and what lies ahead as she steps into her new role as Chief Marketing Officer at Attentive. Sara demonstrates a stellar track record of marketing know-how and creativity and has a refreshing take on the ever-changing marketing landscape.

In this episode, Sara shares insight on what it means to speak to your audience and uses an example from her Twitter to show how products can market themselves. She reflects on her time at Salesforce and Twilio, discusses why it’s important for marketers to recharge, and explores how her disciplined mindset contributes to her success. Sara and Joubin also discuss their shared love of bowling and Sara shares her thoughts on joining Attentive at the beginning of its next phase of growth.

In this episode, we cover:

“The full slice of life at the bowling alley”: Sara and Joubin connect over their love for bowling. (04:26)
How Sara learned from her father’s disciplined mentality - and what it means to create a home for her children. (07:17)
Sara follows up on her tweet about product marketing - and she shares why her 10 years at Salesforce was “the best marketing training.” (15:14)
A look back at the marketing structural changes at Salesforce and Sara’s role as CMO - and a conversation about writing memorable copy and earning “the right to speak to your audience.” (26:14)
Sara’s insight on why managers play a key role in cultivating a motivated team - and her take on the balancing act of working remotely. (35:39)
Why it’s important for marketers to recharge and how that mindset led Sara from Salesforce to Twilio. (39:53)
Twilio’s aggressive customer-centric values and go-to-market approach - how Sara navigated her son’s autism diagnosis during that stressful time of her career and what gives her peace of mind. (48:31)
Advice Sara received from her career coach and the benefits of a consistent feedback loop for people at any stage in their career. (56:16)
Reflecting on Sara’s last day at Twilio and why she loves being a CMO. (01:02:49)

Links:

Connect with Sara
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: gtmg@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins