Our guest for this episode of the Marketing Automation Podcast is Justin Gray, CEO & Chief Marketing Evangelist for LeadMD.  Justin founded LeadMD in 2009 and has spent the last 12 years helping companies overhaul and optimize their marketing and sales departments. Most recently Gray served as the CEO for MaaS Impact, a Marketing Automation start-up. Prior to that he was Vice President of Sales & Marketing at BillingTree and founded RootOne Marketing while in college at the age of 17.

This interview covers the following topics.

• Background on LeadMD how they help companies with marketing automation.
• When an organization should engage a marketing automation consultant.
• How to use marketing automation software to improve the lead scoring process.
• The biggest mistake most companies make in their marketing automation efforts.

Dan founded PointClear in 1997 with the mission to be the first and best company providing prospect development services to business-to-business companies with complex sales processes.  In addition to serving as president and CEO of PointClear, Dan is the author of The Truth About Leads, a book that helps focus B2B lead-generation efforts, align sales and marketing organizations and drive revenue.

This interview covers the following topics.

• How PointClear bridges the gap between marketing sales with response management, lead qualification and lead nurturing services.
• Using multi touch marketing to enhance the marketing automation process.
• When should an organization outsource outbound lead qualification.
• What it takes to educate your prospect development associates on complex business products and processes.
• How to staff outbound lead generation efforts.
• The biggest mistake most companies make in their phone qualification efforts.

Prior to The Annuitas Group, Carlos was responsible for global SMB marketing at BMC Software. Carlos held similar roles at other various B2B companies including McAfee and Staffware, as well as Bertram, McKee & Associates

The interview covers the following topics…

• What is The Marketing Automation Institute (MAI) and what do you hope to accomplish?
• Who comprises your Executive Council and what is their role in the MAI?
• Is the MAI vendor neutral or does it require some type of sponsorship?
• What type of courses make up The Certified Marketing Automation Professional classes?
• What are some of the macro trends you see in the marketing automation industry today?

Greg has a successful history in the software business with a track record of creating winning products, brands and businesses. For over 15 years, Greg helped grow the ACT! contact management and SalesLogix CRM businesses from startups to global brands. He has a passion for helping emerging technology companies with their marketing and growth strategies.

The interview covers the following topics…

- Why Infusionsoft is the right choice for small business owners.

- How Infusionsoft differs from other marketing automation solutions that target the small business space.

- The advantage of converging CRM, marketing automation, and ecommerce in one platform.

- Why being bigger is not the main motivation for  most small businesses.

Jon has over 20 years of experience in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Force Automation (SFA). An entrepreneur at heart, Jon founded GoldMine CRM in 1989 with a college friend and turned it into a very successful venture that he eventually sold to FrontRange.  In 2009, Jon founded Nimble LLC, and is ready to strike again!

The interview covers the following topics…

- How Nimble is different than other CRM’s.

- How social networks are transforming the way companies sell.

- Why a good CRM should collect what a salesperson is already doing versus adding work to an existing process.

- Jon’s vision for how marketing automation will integrate with Nimble.

- Common mistakes customers make when selecting a CRM.

Before helping to start Pardot, Adam was a senior email marketing consultant for InterContinental Hotels Group, a consultant at Moxie Interactive, and he spent four years in Japan at an advertising agency. He is also co-author of the book Think Outside the Inbox: The B2B Marketing Automation Guide.

The interview covers the following topics…

- Why he helped to start Pardot.

- What makes Pardot different than other marketing automation solutions in the market.

- The questions that businesses should be asking when selecting a marketing automation vendor.

- The biggest mistakes that businesses make when executing a marketing automation system.

- Big trends in marketing automation.

- The importance of marketing http://traffic.libsyn.com/marketingautomationtimes/Adam_Blitzer_Interview.mp3 learining  basic HTML and CSS.

- How customer satisfaction is a priority.

Our guest for this episode of the Marketing Automation Podcast is Jon Miller, the VP of Marketing of Marketo.  Before co-founding Marketo, Jon held positions at Epiphany, Exchange Partners, and Gemini Consulting.

The interview covers the following topics…

- Background on Marketo

- What makes Marketo different

- The biggest mistake marketers make with marketing automation

- Jon’s take on IBM’s purchase of Unica

- Jon’s new role with Marketo Demand Center

Here is an excerpt from the interview…

I see a lot of marketers who want to boil the ocean when they get started with marketing automation.  They have these grand visions of all the lead nurturing they will be doing and all the scoring they will be doing and how they are going to be transforming the lead to revenue process.  As a result of all the stuff they want to do they get into an analysis paralysis.  They end up doing white board session after white board session and hiring consultants on how to do all of these things before they deliver the first drip of value.

I think it makes so much more sense to get started.  My phrase is think big, start small and act quickly.  So have that big vision but then just do something.  Build five lead scoring rules and just get started with that.  Then tomorrow do something more.

I have been using the Marketo for 2 1/2 years and we are still evolving and adapting the system.  We are still making it better.  So it is not something you should just think of as an implementation but think of it as a journey. And what is great about that is you are going to end up in a much different place than you would have if you would have built everything up front because you are going to be learning along the way.