Sara Varni
DEMAND GEN VISIONARIES
/
EPISODE
2
The Magic Behind Twilio's Meteoric Growth
Sara breaks down how she's building a well-oiled demand gen machine at one of the world's fastest growing technology companies.
Millions of developers around the world have used Twilio to unlock the magic of communications to improve any human experience. Twilio has democratized communications channels like voice, text, chat, video, and email by virtualizing the world’s communications infrastructure through APIs that are simple enough for any developer to use, yet robust enough to power the world’s most demanding applications.
INDUSTRY
High Tech
FOUNDED
2008
WEBSITE
www.twilio.com

Sara is responsible for growing Twilio’s community of developers while simultaneously bringing Twilio into the enterprise market. Prior to Twilio, Sara was SVP of Marketing at Salesforce where she was responsible for the positioning and go-to-market strategy for Sales Cloud, the world’s leading sales platform. At Salesforce, Sara held various leadership roles, including marketing for Desk.com and the Salesforce AppExchange. Before joining Salesforce, Sara worked in mobile strategy at E! Networks. She holds a BS in Business Administration from Bucknell University and an MBA from The Anderson School of Management at UCLA.


Episode Summary

According to Sara Varni, every marketer is a demand gen marketer in some respect, because success is all about performance. But that doesn’t mean that every marketer needs to be a “spreadsheet jockey.” On this episode of Demand Gen Visionaries, Sara tells us why it’s important to combine the art and science of demand gen to fully master the art of B2B marketing.

Key Takeaways

  • Funneling leads to sales is great, but you can’t abandon your long-term strategy plays. Make sure you’re developing a fully built out funnel and not sacrificing a healthy pipeline for short-term gains.
  • Don’t spread yourself too thin. Make sure you’re really focused in on no more than two or three key personas.
  • Field marketing is going to be key to developing a fully functioning demand gen team, even in a post-COVID world.
  • Personalization is the key to conversion.

Quotes

Personalization is going to be the key to conversion moving forward.
[Demand gen is] a mix of art and science. You need a mix of short term wins that are easy to quantify and awareness tactics that are not perfectly simple to align attribution to.
It’s been a really crazy time to lead people but I do really believe we’re all going to come out of this stronger marketers.
Get under the hood as quickly as you can go look at your funnel top to bottom. Figure out where your biggest levers are and where you can have the most impact.

‍

Demand Gen Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for Demand Gen pros. The world’s leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

‍

Episode Transcript