This episode features an interview with Morgan Norman, CMO of Dialpad, a billion-dollar cloud-based business phone system that turns conversations into opportunities. Prior to Dialpad, Morgan was the Global VP of Corporate, Brand, and Growth Marketing at RingCentral, and has held executive roles at Copper, Zuora, NetSuite, and Microsoft.

On this episode, Morgan reveals some of the challenges of marketing artificial intelligence products, how he and his team generate new marketing ideas, and why it’s important to take cues from B2C marketing and implement them for B2B

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• As a marketer, you’re here to borrow, remix, and be unique — not to steal.
• Demand gen is more than numbers and metrics. Without engaging storytelling, you’re destined to fail. 
• All CMOs should have open dialogue with their CEOs. If you’re not willing/able to share your rawest ideas, you’re both in trouble.

“The thing that I would never cut and the majority of demand gen spend is organic SEO and content. You could also say thought leadership fits into that. I really believe ultimately that probably 35, 40% of your investment should go into that.”

“As a marketer, we're always borrowing, cheating, stealing from everyone out there in the market. And I think that's good and bad. You can use the pattern from someone else, but the bad part is you're also not always coming up with your own unique ideas. And if you're a marketer, you're a pretty bad-ass creative person. In general, that's why you're here. That's why the world puts you there.”

“Demand gen is brand, demand gen is storytelling. If they can't insert themselves into that story, you're not doing your job. It's not just a bunch of metrics.”

“I'll give you a sentence that I always talk to [my CEO] about: My job is to make you uncomfortable. That's the advantage of working with a really open CEO, is they're willing to go there and you're going to have very difficult dialogues, but you have to hold your ground. ”

“Sales and marketing should always have tension. It's what makes you both great. If there's no tension there, you're probably a little bit asleep at the wheel. They've got to say, ‘I’m not satisfied,’ ‘I don't have enough,’ and ‘I don't have the right quality.’ That's what you want to hear everyday, all day long. And that's going to help you.”