Watch out world, there’s a new marketing tome in town—and it’s more than just a textbook.
Toby Murdock, co-founder of Kapost, has finally blessed us with the content guide for which B2B marketers have been clamoring for years. One part novel, one part field guide, it’s all-parts page-turner, if we do say so ourselves. But don’t take our word for it; here’s the first chapter, on us:
Chapter 1. A New World
It all started with Nancy Hernandez’s presentation at the marketing kickoff five years ago.
“From this day forward, marketing at Securita will never be the same,” the CMO had proclaimed, her eyes shining. “And Securita itself will never be the same. We know that our customer wants to buy security solutions in a new way. They’re spending much of their buyer’s journey—especially early in the funnel—on the web. We have no choice but to change, to embrace digital, to embrace the customer experience, to be accountable for driving the leads and opportunities that grow our business.
“For years, Marketing has been an organization in the shadows,” she reminded the group. “We existed, let’s face it, to support Sales. But now? Now we are a partner with Sales in driving the revenue engine. And with this new partnership comes opportunities—and a new set of responsibilities.”
Everyone in Securita’s marketing department remembered hearing that speech—and those who hadn’t been in the room had heard about it enough to almost believe they had. Everyone agreed that it had been a tipping point; it had been the day Securita Marketing’s sleepy days as a cost-center ended, and the era of revenue accountability began.
But in reality, the change had begun long before Nancy’s stirring words.
Securita had been born in the early days of the digital revolution, just after the dot-com bubble. Though the company had offices around the country—and now the world—the majority of Securita employees called the sprawling campus just outside Denver home.
As a SaaS provider, Securita made its money by being ahead of the times. But for all intents and purposes, it functioned primarily as a traditional company, standing strong on the dual pillars of a well-regarded product and a hungry sales force. The Securita go-to-market model relied heavily on Sales starting conversations with buyers, managing the flow of product information, and owning the majority of a customer’s journey. This meant sales reps were the stars of the show—as well as a good portion of the workforce. They occupied entire floors of Securita’s large, glass-front building, walking around in crisp Securita polos and raucously cheering the close of big deals.
Whether you loved the bravado or hated it, you had to admit that Securita’s sales team was doing something right. Their skill and aggression had made the name Securita synonymous with network security. Anyone shopping for a solution was more or less guaranteed to come knocking on Securita’s door during the selection process (or, more likely, had already been called by a Securita rep). And once they were in talks, sales reps considered the contract as good as signed. The company had led the industry unchallenged for as long as anyone could remember, reliably raking in three billion dollars in annual revenue.
But those who were paying attention would have begun to notice that, over the last couple of years, the whoops coming from the sales floors were becoming fewer and farther between.
Securita’s growth, ever so gradually, had started to slow.
No one thought much of the decline at first. Most saw the subtle downturn as a fluke soon to be rectified and forgotten. Michael Dawn, Securita’s Chief Product Officer, proudly supervised while Securita’s latest analyst-bestowed “Market Leader” awards were hung in the lobby and told anyone who would listen about the fact that Securita consistently ranked higher than dozens of new competitors’ flashy-yet-less-robust offerings.
“These upstarts,” he’d say with a laugh to whoever happened to be in the kitchen as he poured his cup of morning coffee. “They think they can just show up in this industry—our industry—and take over? Well, you can ask our friends at Forrester how that’s working out for them.”
But the revenue line continued to trend downward, and nobody could figure out why. Eventually, leadership was forced to acknowledge the elephant in the room: The decline wasn’t a fluke. And it wasn’t going to turn around on its own.
What happens next? You’ll have to read on to find out. Here’s where to order your copy.