Marketing Happy Hour - The Intersection of Sales and Marketing | Shannon Powers of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Hey, Marketing Happy Hour listeners. Welcome back to the show. This week, we are chatting with Shannon Powers, North America Marketing Strategic Projects and Initiatives Lead at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. In this episode, Shannon uncovers how to foster a symbiotic relationship between sales and marketing, how employee personal brands can benefit an employer, and lets us in on the secrets to finding and keeping a great career mentor. You know what to do. Grab a drink and listen in with us. Hi, Shannon. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you guys? We're doing so well. Super stoked to have you join us today. And before we get started, we have to ask you a very important question here that we ask all our guests

Starting point is 00:01:40 on the show. And that is, what is in your glass this morning? I've been so excited for this question. I think it's so fun. So at the current moment, I have a nice homemade latte, um, part of my little daily ritual. And I always have a very full hydro flask with me. Um, but during happy hour, I am a spicy margarita girl. If I can find one on the menu, that is absolutely what I'll be having. Oh my gosh. I love that so much. And people probably know that this is coming our listeners, because every time someone mentions like anything with tequila, I always have to ask, have you ever tried, um, Onda it's Shay Mitchell's sparkling tequila brand. Have you tried it? Not that sounds absolutely amazing. It is so good. I'm not even a tequila person,

Starting point is 00:02:26 but I love that. And if you like spicy, I always recommend doing like one of those with a little rim of like tahini. I love the tahini rim. It is a must. Yes. Anything Shane Mitchell does sounds amazing. So I'll definitely be checking that out. I know she's a queen. I love her. Um, but yeah, so I always have to say that I'm more of a Negroni person myself when I'm indulging in, you're so bougie. Love it. It's not that bougie, but I do love a really good, like well-made well-crafted cocktail. Um, but right now I'm just sipping on my homemade latte, um, with nut pods creamer, which is like the only creamer that I use. Exactly what I have. I'm with you there. I love it. And it's so healthy. It could be better. Right. Cassie, what do you have? I, so I'm kind of boring this morning. I did my caffeine already.

Starting point is 00:03:19 But right now I have water, but I put some stir in it. It's like a vitamin water enhancer just because I'm normally really good at drinking water. But recently for some reason, I am not doing a good job. So I added that to it, get a little bit of vitamins, a little flavor, and it's great. But I have to second you Shannon. I'm a big fan of anything spicy. I had this amazing drink at SDK last week in Orlando and it was like a watermelon something, but it had a tahini. Oh my gosh. It was so good for sure. Yum. Now I'm thinking about happy hour. I'm like, do we even need to do this? Like too bad we don't live near each other. Well, Shannon, let's get into the episode here. We are so excited to learn from you today. But first, could you share just a little

Starting point is 00:04:12 bit about your background in sales and how you kind of transition those skills over to marketing? We're super interested to hear that. Absolutely. So from the start, I knew that my long-term goal was to hold a leadership position at a large tech company specifically in the field of marketing. But I also knew that setting that really strong foundation in sales was going to be necessary in achieving that. So salespeople have this unparalleled insight into the customer's needs and their interests and what they're experiencing.

Starting point is 00:04:43 And they're the ones on the front lines doing that customer engagement. And that makes them such invaluable sources of knowledge for marketers in particular. And so I graduated from the University of Alabama with my master's in marketing in 2020. And so I joined HPE right after that. And from the beginning, I was proactively networking with individuals in various roles across the organization, including sales and marketing and go-to-market strategy. So kind of bridging that together. And my aim was to learn from their experiences and gain exposure to different aspects of the business that I wasn't organically being exposed to in

Starting point is 00:05:21 my early sales role. And so I had a few different sales roles at HPE. I started as a sales development rep, so doing that cold calling. And then I moved into different inside sales roles and I moved into a field sales role. So being in person with customers and partners and throughout these roles, I remained really passionate about being a strong performer, which included hitting my sales targets and building those strong customer relationships. And I also made sure to consistently leverage the resources provided by our marketing team. So this included the sales tools and taking part in the contest and these programs that were designed to generate demand. And I stayed very closely connected with our

Starting point is 00:06:02 aligned marketing team. And so my official transition from sales to marketing actually came from a connection I made through networking. So I met a leader in the company whose role and career path were really fascinating to me. And he actually had started in sales and this was his first marketing role. He was this big marketing leader. And we really just clicked off the bat. And we continued to meet regularly. And after having spent a few years in sales, an opportunity arose within his organization

Starting point is 00:06:30 that would allow me to leverage that sales background in a marketing role and work on some really exciting projects. So following some discussions, I was fortunate enough to be offered that position, which I started about nine months ago. And it's been an incredible experience so far. So overall, my successful transition from sales to marketing can be attributed to really cultivating those relationships with the customers and being a strong performer and just prioritizing, leveraging those resources in the collaboration with the marketing team. All of this kind of together was critical in shaping my journey

Starting point is 00:07:05 and positioning me for success in this transition. That's amazing. Thank you for sharing that with us. And I'm curious because you've tapped into both sides of things, and this is kind of a heavy question, I would say, but what do you feel like is the difference between sales and marketing? And why do you think it's so important for marketing professionals to get close with the sales team and kind of build this strong relationship with them to gain some of those insights, as you mentioned, that they have that we can leverage in marketing? Absolutely. So

Starting point is 00:07:35 the salespeople, as I mentioned, they're the ones on the front lines. They have those customer relationships and they're doing those day-to-day interactions. And marketing honestly has this critical role of enabling them. So providing them the resources to do their job really effectively. So having that really strong communication with them is very critical in making sure that both teams can be really successful because both have this immense amount of knowledge and when used together, it's very powerful. And with your current role, what does your day-to-day look like? What are some of the projects and initiatives that you're working

Starting point is 00:08:10 on just currently in the organization? Yeah. So one thing I really love about my role is that not every day looks the same. So each day comes with new opportunities and new challenges. So some weeks I have the chance to travel to different events or meetings organized by our team. And so most recently I've been to some really cool cities. So I've been to Houston and Minneapolis and New York in the past couple of weeks. And later today I'll be heading to Philly. On other days, I'm collaborating with my manager to execute different projects or different initiatives that are currently in focus. And so these can range from demand generation activities to planning customer-facing events and organizing effective communication to go across all of the teams and implementing

Starting point is 00:08:57 contests to encourage sellers to utilize our marketing programs. So additionally, I work cross-functionally with teams across our marketing organization to ensure that everyone has that really strong alignment and collaboration so that we're working together effectively. But no matter what the top focus is at the moment, I will say one thing I'm always prioritizing is dedicating time to speak with different sellers in the organization. So I consider this just really, really important because when you're actively engaging with them and understanding their experiencing and what their challenges might be in that moment, our team can better support and empower them.

Starting point is 00:09:36 And so with that too, with your current role, what have been some of the highlights and what are some of the things that have gotten you excited about being in marketing more recently? Absolutely. So a few weeks ago, one of my really great coworkers and I had the opportunity to travel to our headquarters office in Houston. I'm a remote worker. So getting the opportunity to go in person was really exciting. And our goal here was to provide training on this really great digital sales tool called OneMob, which is this personalized video emailing platform that helps sellers connect with and schedule meetings with new customers. And so conducting this training in person allowed us to receive really candid feedback from sellers, which then enables us to enhance their learning experience and optimize their usage of the tool.

Starting point is 00:10:24 And this was really rewarding. Not every marketing team is involved in that sales tool aspect. It sometimes belongs somewhere else. And so being able to work on this is really cool. Another exciting thing that we're doing is this series of events called HPE Greenlink Days, which you'll see a lot of on my LinkedIn. These are events that we host at a variety of really cool venues all across the country. And these events provide us a platform for our customers and partners to gain really valuable insights into one of our main technology solutions. And it also provides really valuable networking opportunities and the chance to engage with our internal experts. And so I've had the

Starting point is 00:11:03 privilege of not only contributing and executing some of these events, but I'm also getting that interaction with customers and partners that I was getting as a seller and I'm now getting to continue these. And so learning from these experiences and establishing those new relationships, we actually hosted a few events at Disney World last year

Starting point is 00:11:21 and have some coming up in the new calendar year. Cassie, I know you'd love that one. And so this has been my first career experience doing events. And it's so cool to see this aspect of marketing and action and putting these events together for customers. And it not only provides them this like unforgettable experience, but it also allows us to gain these really valuable insights into their business and what challenges they may be facing in a more candid setting rather than sitting in an office, which is a little bit more sterile. And so this then allows us in partnership with sales to provide them solutions that are going to drive their business forward and establish those strong

Starting point is 00:12:00 relationships at the same time. Oh, that is so cool. And I love that you mentioned you have an upcoming one in Disney World. I'm sure we would be super interested to even just go check it out ourselves, but we'll have to connect offline about that. Yes, absolutely. Amazing. Okay. Well, you touched on this a little bit earlier, just the connection between the sales and marketing team and why that's so important. I'm curious to know how you effectively are connecting the sales and marketing teams at HPE, which by the way, is Hewlett Packard Enterprises, correct? We didn't say that earlier. Yes, exactly. Exactly. They split into two a couple of years ago, so we still get some confusion on that, but yes, I'm on the HPE side. My friends like to joke that I sell printers so I'm on the other side of business um but uh in my experience I've learned that the key to really affect like effectively connecting

Starting point is 00:12:53 the sales and the marketing teams um really just lies in strong communication between the two one of the reasons that I was hired for my current role is what's called like my sales lens which allows me to provide that valuable input from the seller's perspective. And so this insight helps us position what marketing is doing in a way that simplifies the sales team's roles and enables them to effectively reach customers and deliver that value, which is what they're designed to do. An interesting stat, I think it's like 35% of a seller's time is actually spent selling. And so drawing from my own sales experience, I am able to contribute those ideas on how our team can best support them in maximizing that selling time.

Starting point is 00:13:40 No, that's great. And I'm curious too, for someone listening out there who wants to have that great relationship between sales and marketing, how do you foster that? Do you have any like specific tips for professionals at other large organizations looking I kind of touched on this earlier, it would be to engage with sellers on an individual one-on-one basis. So it might not be super feasible to connect with every single seller in the organization. Taking the time to engage with some of them individually establishes that sense of being heard and being supported and working together as one team. And so this approach really enhances their inclination to actively engage with the marketing efforts that you're putting forward. And again, fostering that collaborative mindset.

Starting point is 00:14:35 So by creating this environment where sellers feel comfortable approaching you or your team because you've made yourself accessible, you encourage that flow of valuable information and insights. And so sellers often have this, like I've talked about before, unique perspective and these firsthand experiences with customers and being able to share those and having that collaboration can really just be beneficial for both the marketing and the sales teams. And so, yes, like it's a mutually beneficial relationship and it better drives alignment in between the sales and marketing teams and achieving the shared objectives.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Absolutely. Do you have any tips on kind of how to approach those relationships, how to network internally? What are the questions that you should be asking? Who should you be approaching and and kind of how does that relationship get built? Is it just sending a cold email? Is it like, you know, a company happy hour where you're like, Hey, I see that you work in sales and I want to have this, you know, relationship with sales. Do I go up to them and start talking about it? You know, do you have any tips around that? Yes, absolutely. So the one thing I do is I kind of have this backend view of who's participating in the marketing programs and who's leveraging what we're putting out there, which is really helpful to me.

Starting point is 00:15:51 So if I see that someone is already starting to leverage these programs that we're putting forth, I'm reaching out to them like, hey, I've seen that you're starting to use this. How is it working out for you? Is there anything in addition that we can help you or your team with? Is anyone on your team struggling to use this? How is it working out for you? Is there anything in addition that we can help you or your team with? Is anyone on your team struggling to use this? And they're honestly like sometimes shocked that I'm reaching out, but they're always very happy. And they're

Starting point is 00:16:13 more than happy to provide me that input. Like, Hey, like this was a little tricky to me. Like I'd love more training on this. And then I can take that back to our team and we can put something together to make it more accessible and easy for them to do. And then I also do it on the back end. So if someone hasn't been leveraging the program, but I know that they might be really busy selling or something like that, I'll ask them, is there something that we can be doing to make this more approachable and make this easier for you? Are you struggling with any aspect of the training?

Starting point is 00:16:40 Like what more can we do? And they'll share with their teams that I may have reached out and I'll ask them to share any insight they have with their teams. And so that in turn makes me more accessible. And I will say it helps that I've had this sales background because it's hard for someone in marketing that has no sales experience to be like, Hey, use this program. It's like, well, I was a seller too. I use this. I know that it can be effective when used right. Like let's work together to make this work for you. Oh, that's awesome. And as you've already kind of alluded to, there's a lot of benefit that comes from internally marketing or

Starting point is 00:17:16 networking. And I think one of them is just really understanding not only what the other teams experience from the customers, the clients and new learnings, questions that are being asked on a regular basis, but also just learning how the organization works as a whole, I think can give you another level of understanding and awareness for the different projects you're working on with your department. So it's such a good place. Absolutely. Well, I want to shift gears just a little bit, Shannon, and talk about just the personal brand that you've built over time and would love to know kind of what you're doing there to build your personal brand, but why you think that's beneficial to do so and what your goals are in crafting that personal brand

Starting point is 00:18:02 for yourself. Right. So building my personal brand while working my nine to five, it's been an exciting journey for me. And I will admit, I used to feel really nervous and really shy about posting on LinkedIn. I was so overwhelmed and worried about what people would think. And honestly, like for a while, I didn't think I had anything of value to share because I was earlier in my career, which seems like very silly now because we all have something valuable to contribute. But recently I made a commitment to myself to start posting original content on LinkedIn at least once a week, accompanied by some form of media. So I'm really pushing past those fears and I'm finding something to share no matter what. And so as I continue to learn and grow, as I do this, I'm exploring what works best for me

Starting point is 00:18:46 and what I really want my personal brand to represent. And so my goal is to continue sharing insights and experiences that align with a lot of what we've talked about today. So topics like transitioning from sales to marketing and mentorship and the sales to marketing connection and career growth. And so by sharing these like aspects of my professional journey, my goal is like overall to inspire and provide value to others who are likely navigating similar paths.

Starting point is 00:19:13 And I know that I've been really inspired by a lot of the content that I've seen on LinkedIn. And so by crafting this personal brand, like it's been an ongoing process and I'm excited to see how it evolves. But my goal is overall to leverage my experiences and the knowledge that I've had to contribute to the professional community, the marketing community. And I'm committed to continue to build that personal brand while working my job as well. And overall, I just think it's important,

Starting point is 00:19:42 you know, obviously like working for a company, I love working for HPE, but I think it's important to build your brand within and outside of that. Yeah. And I think too, with this, there's a lot of people that I know come to us and they say, well, what is my team going to think? What is my boss going to think if I start posting about XYZ on social media and building my brand? Are they going to think I'm going to leave or I'm trying to leave? And then also just a lot of times we even had this conversation last week with someone is someone comes to us and they say, but I don't have enough experience to start sharing, or I don't have enough to share with people out there, or I haven't been in the industry for enough years in order to build authority or whatever for myself. And so curious what you would say to either of those issues

Starting point is 00:20:32 or just challenges that come up internally for someone and why you would recommend continuing past that and just doing it anyways. Absolutely. I had some of those fears as well because I would never want anyone to think that I was leaving my company because I'm starting to build this personal brand. I try to relate back a lot of my experience to my company and the experiences that I'm having there and connecting

Starting point is 00:20:54 like a lot of the people within my company to my post and referencing them and the experiences that we're having. And so, and also just like getting that industry knowledge that you can provide to other team members that may be on LinkedIn can be really valuable. And then on top of that, I just think it's really important that, you know, your team members are encouraged by that. And in terms of someone that's early in their career and doesn't think that they have a lot to post, you're having this experience that people that are established in their careers don't have, like they don't understand what it's like to enter the workforce in this current day and age, this post COVID day and age. There's so much to share that a lot of people don't have that perspective that you early in your career have. And so everyone has something to contribute,

Starting point is 00:21:41 whether, I mean, mine are so random, mine are you know learning like different learning tools and different self and personal development tools and things like that and then sharing about work experiences that I'm having and sales tools that we're working on and so everyone has them to contribute there's so many different aspects that you can pull from I love that I think it can actually be super beneficial for your company or organization to have employees posting those type of content, you know, things on LinkedIn, because that way people might, it might increase brand awareness. You know, people might not know what they have to offer, but you see Shannon posted about this. Oh my gosh, that sparks an idea in my head to go tell this team member that, that has this tool, you know, maybe we could get a conversation going there. So I think it's super beneficial. I don't think, you know, there's a lot of, you know, traditional leaders out there who don't understand

Starting point is 00:22:34 the power of social media. And I think that's something that they should be looking at as a positive thing versus like a negative, like, Oh, are they going to leave type ordeal? Exactly. Yeah. I love that. So one other thing that you said that you were pretty passionate about is mentorship. And that's a huge topic for our listeners. A lot of them are, you know, fresh out of college or, or just starting their career or looking to make a career change a little farther into their career. So could you just share a little bit about what mentorship looks like for, you know, for your career and what are your top tips for finding a mentor and like fostering that relationship? Definitely. So I definitely have a few tips on this topic and yes, I'm very passionate about this. I've had really amazing

Starting point is 00:23:22 experiences both as a mentee and a mentor. My first tip would be that it is really important to reach out to individuals who align with your career path and their roles align with your career aspirations. If you are looking to make a career change. Um, but it's also equally important to diversify the people that you're reaching out to and connecting with. So don't limit yourself to reaching out only to those high-level VPs and directors who may have your dream job, although that's very important because those are the ones that can really champion you at a high level. It's really important to prioritize connecting

Starting point is 00:23:53 with key contributors who may have a role that aligns with a realistic next career step for you or individuals taking part in projects that interest you within your organization or outside. Another tip is be really strategic in your outreach. It's important to tailor your message differently depending on who you're reaching out to. So if you're reaching out to someone earlier in your career, earlier in their career, it's going to look different from the messaging that you're sending to a VP. And if possible, see if you have any mutual connections with the person you're wanting to connect with. An introduction from someone you already know can really help to warm up that interaction. And make sure you're showing up prepared and leaving with action items. So when I say prepared, I mean make sure you're doing your homework on who you're meeting with. What is their

Starting point is 00:24:39 role? What does their background look like? What do they seem to be passionate about based on their online presence? And make sure you're showing up with thoughtful questions that align with all of this info. And then do your best to have the person you meet with connect you to another person. So towards the end of the meeting, I always ask something along the lines of, you know, based a little bit about what we chatted on today, is there someone else within the organization or outside that you'd recommend that I connect with? And people love being known as a connector. So chances are they're going to have someone for you to meet with or a suggestion for which direction to go. And this can really help you just organically expand your network of mentors. In terms of

Starting point is 00:25:19 locking in someone who's like to be an official mentor of yours, find someone that you really click with. You're not going to totally click with every single person that you reach out with, but these calls, you're going to learn something either way. But ask to establish a cadence with them and see if they have the availability to meet every month or every quarter, keep them up to date on your progress and any successes that you're having and let that expand naturally. And then my final tip on this would be, and one thing that I think is often forgotten is thank you notes. Always make sure you're sending a thank you note after you have a networking or a mentorship call. And this can be so simple, like just review some of the things that you talked about, recap any action items and thank them for taking the time out of their day to connect with you. Well, such good advice. Just overall, we don't talk about mentorship enough. So thank them for taking the time out of their day to connect with you. Well, such good advice.

Starting point is 00:26:05 Just overall, we don't talk about mentorship enough. So thank you for diving into that a little bit with us today. And you've just shared so many nuggets of wisdom in today's conversation. So thank you for all of that, that you've passed along with us, but we have to close out today's conversation with another one of our favorite questions to ask. And that is is what do you know now that you wish you knew early on in your career? Yes, I love this question. And honestly, I've gotten so many nuggets of wisdom from hearing people on your show answer this question. But

Starting point is 00:26:34 one valuable lesson that I definitely wish I knew earlier in my career, and definitely the best advice that I've received is the phrase, you don't get what you don't ask for. And this is like a really simple and but it's a really ask for. And this is like a really simple and, but it's a really powerful message and it's had a very profound impact on my professional journey. Every job that I've had within my company has been a result of me specifically asking for it and has not been this traditional application route. So for instance, the role that I have now, which was by far my biggest transition in career, I did not go the traditional application and interview route. I asked my manager for it and listed out the reasons why he should hire me and why I was the perfect fit for the role,

Starting point is 00:27:14 even though it was a little out of my depth. During my college years and earlier on in my career, I was definitely more reserved and I lacked that boldness that I now really lean into. And so I was really fearful of hearing no and facing rejection in that more personal sense. And so it's still something I'm working on and improving each day. Since I've started implementing this, though, my career has progressed at a faster pace without question. And I have been given really exciting opportunities to work on exciting projects and participating in these awesome events. So being proactive and vocal about your career aspirations and your needs is so crucial. If you don't express these, and she's wanting to expand her relationship with the sales team at her company so she can gain that experience. She reached out to one of the VPs at her company to try to accomplish this. And now that VP is bringing her into these high-level

Starting point is 00:28:14 leadership meetings with sales leaders and having her contribute to projects that involve the sales team and overall getting her that exposure that's going to allow her to get that desired experience. So overall, staying silent and wondering like what could have been is so much worse than knowing that you went out of your way to be bold and ask for what you want in getting that rejection. That is excellent. And such good advice too, with the past, you know, three or six months of job searching, it's been insane out there, just numbers and numbers of people submitting blind applications. And there's just not a lot of traction on getting a job. So I cannot, you know, agree more with you on, you know, asking for what you want and just going out there, even if, you know, there might not be the opportunity now, putting yourself

Starting point is 00:29:05 out there and vocalizing what you do want will then keep you top of mind for people who have an opportunity down the road. So I love that so much. Thank you for sharing that. Absolutely. So where can everybody find you follow along with what you're up to on LinkedIn, on social, where are you at online? Yes. So you can find me on LinkedIn. My username is Shannon B Powers. I encourage everyone to connect with me and feel free to send me a message. If you want to set up time to chat, I'm more than happy to help out any listeners in whatever way that I can, whether, you know, we're discussing topics that we talked about today, any mentorship or just engaging in any

Starting point is 00:29:44 meaningful conversation. I'm super excited to connect with and support the marketing community. discussing topics that we talked about today, any mentorship or just engaging in any meaningful conversation. I'm super excited to connect with and support the marketing community however I can. So please don't hesitate to reach out and follow along with whatever I'm up to on LinkedIn. Amazing. Thank you so much, Shannon, for joining us today. This has been so great. Awesome. Thank you so much. marketing happy hour, but don't know where to start, we invite you to download our free marketing happy hour starter kit at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash starter dash kit. This interactive magazine style PDF walks through who we are, includes helpful resources like a marketing term glossary and the printable daily planner sheet that we actually use ourselves and contains clickable links to our episode

Starting point is 00:30:45 recommendations by subject area. Not to mention all the fun extras like a quiz, the link to our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders Facebook group, a word search, a playlist, a goal setting guide, content inspo by month, and more. It's our hope that you'll dive into this resource and walk away more confident in your career journey with a group of industry hope that you'll dive into this resource and walk away more confident in your career journey with a group of industry pals that you can lean on for advice and support. Snag your free starter kit today at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash starter dash kit for all of the info you need to become a Marketing Happy Hour insider.

Marketing Happy Hour - The Intersection of Sales and Marketing | Shannon Powers of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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