GTM 88: Know Your Numbers to Create Alignment and Unlock Scale with Kyle Lacy

Kyle Lacy spent the last 17 years building, scaling, failing, and winning in high-growth software. He is currently serving the Jellyfish team as their CMO, and before joining the Jellyfish ‘bloom’, He had the pleasure of building a company called Lessonly, employing over 230 people and changed the lives of many more after the acquisition. He has also been fortunate to lead teams at Seismic, OpenView, Salesforce, and ExactTarget. Most importantly, he is the father of two wonderful boys, an energetic dog, and one too many books on World War II.

Discussed in this Episode:

  • Aligning marketing and sales is crucial for the success of a company, and marketers should focus on numbers and pipeline models from the early stages.
  • Creativity in marketing should be balanced with alignment to sales goals and objectives.
  • Building personal brands can be beneficial, but it’s important to be mindful of what is shared on social media and how it may impact professional relationships.
  • When choosing advisors, look for individuals with relevant experience in the stage and industry of your company.
  • Curated dinners and high-quality content are effective strategies for building relationships and engaging prospects and customers.

Highlights:

(04:37) The importance of pipeline models and numbers for early-stage companies.

(06:23) How Kyle gains equal footing with sales leaders

(08:01) Winning over individual sales reps

(09:57) Balancing proactive and reactive marketing

(11:45) The story of winning a 7-figure deal against an incumbent

(15:39) Using donor-choose gift cards in the sales process

(17:00) Converting prospects by asking for feedback and interviews

(18:18) Building a personal brand as a marketer

(21:27) A personal branding misstep that got Kyle in trouble

(24:30) What to look for when bringing on company advisors

(29:10) A widely held belief Kyle thinks is BS

(32:41) A marketing tactic that’s working well now

(34:55) Using Lego sets in the sales process

(36:07) Roles Kyle is hiring for at Jellyfish

(31:12) One thing revenue leaders believe to be true that Kyle thinks is bull$***.

(34:51) One thing that is working for Kyle in go-to-market right now.

Guest Speaker Links (Kyle Lacy):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy/

Host Speaker Links (Scott Barker):
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ssbarker/
Newsletter: thegtmnewsletter.substack.com/

Sponsors:

  • Brought to you by PocusPocus turns data into revenue. Combine all product usage and intent signals your team needs to prioritize the best opportunities and take quick action. Pocus helps you build pipeline based on real buying signals, not your team’s best guess (whether it’s landing new logos or expanding existing ones). With Pocus, go-to-market teams at Asana, Canva, Miro, and Loom save 10+ hours a week digging through data to find and close deals with confidence. Create focus for your team with Pocus – see it in action by requesting a demo Pocus dot com slash demo. 
  • Brought to you by SynchSynch is a single platform for all of your Sales & Sales Ops tooling. From using natural language to build dashboards that will make your RevOps lead jealous, to getting forecasting, pipeline management, and lead routing from a single vendor, Synch allows you to spend more time driving the business forward. For more information, head over to withsynch.com.

The GTM Podcast
Don’t miss The GTM Podcast dropping every Tuesday discussing true stories and experiences including trials and tribulations in the Go-To-Market world.

Before helping found GTMfund, Scott spent 4 years at Outreach as Director of Strategic Engagement. He was in charge of aligning key relationships with VCs, BoDs, ecosystem partners and community members to drive revenue and strategic initiatives across Outreach. Scott initially ran revenue/partnerships for Sales Hacker (which was acquired by Outreach in 2018). Prior to Sales Hacker, he led and built outbound Business Development teams at Payfirma and MediaValet. Scott also advises for a number of high growth start-ups and is the host/author of The GTM Podcast and The GTM Newsletter. At GTMfund, Scott leads all fundraising efforts and runs the media arm of the firm. He’s also responsible for assessing investments, team management, LP/community relationships and GTM support for founders.

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