Episodes

Season 1 of Growth Driver was packed with insightful conversations with some of the brightest minds in B2B, and we’re just getting started. Starting in season 2, we're launching an all new type of Growth Driver episode featuring Expert Deep Dives with Aaron Owens, head of Growth Consulting at Intelligent Demand. Aaron is a growth expert with over 20 years starting companies, leading sales and marketing teams, and advising the fastest-growing companies across industries. Every episode of Exper...

Amidst the boom of go-to-market (GTM) in B2B, there’s no better time than now to decode the intricacies of the strategy. Is it real? Or, is it hype? Can GTM really unlock efficient B2B growth? Today we’re dissecting the core components and modern trends of GTM strategies, breaking it down from buzzword to game-changer in B2B growth. Because GTM isn’t a buzzword at all; it's a comprehensive process that connects strategy to execution across all customer-facing functions. Tune in with us as ...

People and culture are the bedrock of any successful growth strategy. But it’s easy to lose sight of this amidst the technological tools, trends, and best practices that bombard growth leaders daily. No matter how brilliant your strategy, if you get the people part wrong, it's hard to get the growth part right. From the evolution of leadership fundamentals over the last decade to top mistakes that hold senior executives from being more effective leaders, we’re diving deep into what makes grea...

Depending on when you start counting, Account Based Marketing and Selling is 15+ years old as a defined GTM strategy. It’s time we take a fresh look at how and why Account Based started, its current state, and where it’s headed next as a driver of B2B growth. One thing is for certain: it never should have been called ABM. True account-based motions are cross-functional, and the most successful include the entire customer journey–from acquisition to retention and expansion. But whether it’s du...

The MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) is a relic from 25 years ago, yet it remains central to most companies' revenue processes. Running an MQL-centric process offers no more than a 1-2% success rate—when opportunities and buying groups can claim numbers up to 400% increases in conversion rates. It's time to rethink MQLs as the cornerstone of marketing metrics. Old habits die hard, but understanding why and how to transition to focusing on buying groups can greatly improve your efficiency and su...

What makes or breaks a B2B growth strategy? The pivotal roles of understanding your ideal customer, aligning your product to their needs, and crafting positioning and messaging that not only attracts but wins and retains those very customers. This trifecta can significantly reduce missed revenue, minimize wasted go-to-market spend, and alleviate professional suffering. But these elements cannot merely exist in theory, confined to a PowerPoint presentation or trapped in the mind of a single vi...

Conflict can have a positive impact on your organization when it’s handled with the right approach and language. When leaders leverage purposeful actions early on and establish a strong foundation of trust, they’re able to leverage difficult situations as growth opportunities for their organizations. It starts by prioritizing deliberate leadership, and equipping yourself with the right tools to ensure intention matches the impact of our actions and sets our teams up for success. From self-awa...

In the race towards modernizing go-to-market strategies, B2B firms often lose sight of what truly propels growth–the customer. If you've nodded in agreement to buyers’ behavior shifts, the tangle of tech consolidation to drive efficiency, and the explosion of new GTM motions; it’s time to pause. Amidst all this talk and transformation, our customers seem to have been forgotten. Customer obsession is more than a mantra; it's a strategy that infuses customers into the lifeblood of leadership...

The way today's B2B buyers are actually buying has changed dramatically in the last few years, leaving many B2B companies with out of date and out of sync go-to-market strategies. The good news is we finally have the research and data-back behavior insights to update GTM strategies with the modern B2B buyer. We know the modern buying journey is done almost entirely online, but did you know most buyers are already 70% through their decision-making process by the time they talk with any vendor ...

Before the pivot into efficient growth, and even before AI, the field of B2B sales has been seriously transformed in the last few years. B2B buying behavior has shifted, away from meeting with sellers and toward anonymity. There has been an unprecedented rise of different GTM motions; account-based, product-led growth, customer-led growth, partner ecosystems… And to top it all off, we’re experiencing an absolute explosion in technology, data, and now generative AI. Despite all of this upheava...

Stories of ascent and success don't get more compelling than those penned in the high-stakes environment of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). We’re taking an honest look at the path to becoming a B2B CMO, followed by a deep discussion about what it takes to be successful as you enter the role and make the right impact. This episode is tailor made for 3 types of folks: 1. You want to become a CMO 2. You’re currently a CMO and feeling some version of imposter syndrome 3. You’re a head...

Why should businesses shift focus from the old 'growth at all costs' playbook to the more nuanced approach of 'efficient growth'? What's the lowdown on leveraging technology, data, and AI to supercharge your B2B sales and marketing? Striving for not just growth, but efficient growth in the competitive landscape of today's business-to-business marketplace is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’, but a mandatory requirement to surpass the competition. We're rolling up our sleeves and diving into the modern...

Everyone is talking about how the Old B2B Growth Playbook isn’t working any more and it’s time to learn a smarter, more efficient New B2B Growth Playbook. We see and feel it. We’re living it. But What are the real differences? And how do you make that shift? We’re going to bring some structure and rigor to this conversation and do a point-by-point analysis that compares and contrasts the old playbook and the new playbook. At each step, you’ll get insights and advice for how and where to focus...

There’s a lot of confusion around the role of the chief revenue officer (CRO). What’s clear, though, is that the right CRO in the right situation can be a powerful force for aligned GTM and for integrated growth. In this episode, host John Common takes a fresh, honest look at the role of a modern B2B CRO with one of the best in the business, Lane Brannan, Executive Vice President and General Manager (Americas) at Pax8, a cloud commerce marketplace. They discuss the role of the modern CRO and ho...

The GTM game is changing quickly, and if you’re focusing your efforts on outdated plays, you run the risk of being left behind. That’s why we’re talking through the most important trends in GTM as we head into 2024. It’s time to step back, review the GTM landscape, and make sure you’re not stepping over dollars to pick up nickels. In this episode we explore 5 strategically important trends with the perfect guest: Craig Rosenberg, a veteran of B2B sales, marketing, and technology and Chief Platf...

Meet Anne-Marie Coughlin, co-host of Growth Driver! Director of People Operations at Intelligent Demand, Anne-Marie has years of experience in talent management, talent acquisition, and organizational development across a wide range of industries and companies. In her episodes, Anne-Marie speaks with an exciting variety of people ops experts about many of the most important and interesting topics of the day: finding purpose in work, leadership training, DEI practices, and aligning business goa...

Meet John Common, one of the hosts of Growth Driver! A career-long B2B growth and GTM executive, over the past 25 years John has worked with 100s of B2B GTM teams across a range of industries. Today, John is the founder and CEO of Intelligent Demand, an expert B2B growth partner. He started Intelligent Demand 15 years ago because while there were plenty of single point agencies and consulting firms, John wanted to create a company that helps GTM executives drive measurable growth with an inte...

Welcome to Growth Driver, a podcast about redefining B2B growth! We started Growth Driver because B2B growth needs an intervention. The old playbook and tactical approaches aren’t working as well as they used to. Many companies are failing to meet pipeline targets and experiencing slowing growth rates and rising inefficiency. What’s more, the B2B landscape has become so complex that no one person, no matter how smart or experienced, can ever know enough to be a world-class B2B growth leade...