In B2B Marketing: Tomorrow’s Best Practices Today, we feature expert interviews about the state of B2B Marketing and what the future holds. In this post, I interview Jenn LeBlanc, CEO & Founder at ThinkResults Marketing.
Tell us about yourself?
I am an author, a keynote speaker, a founder, and a board advisor. And a lover of launching new things.
I founded ThinkResults Marketing in 2003 and work with tech CEOs and CMOs to drive results. Our client work focuses on building results-driven marketing strategies and programs for high-growth companies of all sizes including Microsoft, Intel, SAP, PeopleSoft, and dozens of startups.
Clients see a significant return on their marketing investments: whether it is a 350% increase in web traffic, a 1400% increase in online leads, or a 400% increase in conversion rates, My focus on smarter marketing and more effective launch strategies have driven well over $1.5B in new revenue to clients.
I am proud of my reputation in Silicon Valley as a fierce advocate for advancing women in science and technology.
As a former member and long-time advisor of Women In Consulting’s Leadership Network, the co-lead for the Watermark Women Like Us program, Advisor to Women’s Startup Lab and the Women’s Leadership Committee of the Founders Network, I enjoy mentoring and speaking regularly on go to market and funding strategies, particularly for female founders and entrepreneurs.
I have been recognized as a Silicon Valley Women of Influence, and was recently shortlisted as Advocate of the Year for Women in IT. ThinkResults was ranked as 2017’s 10th Fastest Growing Private Company by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Note: Follow Jenn on Twitter: @JenniferLeBlanc.
Tell us about your background in B2B marketing?
I’ve been in B2B marketing for 20 years now. Started out at PeopleSoft in the Customer Communications group, then landed in the Consulting division (long before Oracle took them over) and then moved to Nektar Therapeutics to get back to my biology roots.
Now we work with all types of clients from high tech to biotech to greentech clients at ThinkResults (celebrating our 17th year now). All along, my focus has been on launching new initiatives, new companies and new careers in some cases for execs.
What’s a best practice that B2B marketers should move on from?
Believing that there is a magic bullet, a viral video, or some other magic potion that takes the place of really knowing your customers and delivering them products and services that make their lives easier.
Tell us a best practice of tomorrow that B2B marketers should be doing today?
“Great marketing requires great empathy. Sometimes that takes real work.”
I believe that as long as you start with the customer and really understand what they need and want (even if they can’t articulate it yet), everything else follows. Great marketing requires great empathy. Sometimes that takes real work.
Describe B2B marketing in three words or less?
Be your customer.
What’s a theme that runs across the books you’ve written?
Both books (and the ones not yet written) are really all about how to be successful in business.
A common theme across the last two is definitely how to ensure the success of your new venture whether you are starting a new company, or you are an intrapreneur inside a large company.
The obstacles to starting something new are really the same and I see the same challenges in my tiny startups as we do in our large, global clients.
So both Launching for Revenue and Changing Tides are about solving those challenges in business so you can ensure success.
Tell us about Changing Tides Circles?
Changing Tides Circles are small groups of 8-12 female founders and women entrepreneurs who get together monthly to work with a trained Changing Tides Circle Leader and work on topics such as how to respond to the kinds of questions female founders are asked (which are different from those that male founders are asked), how to research the ideal investors for your cap table, how to determine your ideal customer persona, and many other topics.
Circles are forming in San Francisco, Seattle, LA, New York, Denver, Toronto and many other cities are coming soon.
You run a business, write books and support a number of causes. How do you pull it off?
“Don’t try to do big things without a good home team and a good work team!”
Easy. I have an AMAZING team both at work and at home.
Don’t try to do big things without a good home team and a good work team! As the saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
There is no way I could do all the things I do without my amazing, supportive teams (who also call me on it when I’ve really bitten off more than I can chew…).