“The Who is Everything” with Kathy Macchi, Co-Founder of Inverta - Ep 71

For our first episode of the new year, we’re thrilled to welcome special guest Kathy Macchi, the Executive Vice President, Innovation & Co-Founder at Inverta.

Kathy joins co-hosts Craig Rosenberg & Matt Amundson to discuss where so many go-to-market leaders go wrong with their segmentation, why your message matters more than the channel you deliver it through, and how to design a successful mid-market marketing org amidst massive pressure for budget cuts.

Also, Craig bemoans eating vegetables, Matt gives an update on Craig’s health, and some may have been kidnapped at Producer Sam’s house.

Critical Takeaways

• Before chasing hyper-specifc and fancy AI tools, codify ICP, targeting, messaging, and what “good” outreach looks like. Then use AI to scale research and execution (with humans judging output), instead of hoping automation will invent strategy from scratch.
• If the account list is wrong, everything downstream gets harder (sales cycle, conversion, retention, even CSM load). Institutionalize segmentation by use case and continuously prune/refresh the target universe instead of debating tactics in the abstract.
• Stop obsessing over which channels you’re using and start focusing more on whether you have something worth saying to a specific buyer group. Then should ship that personalized, relevant message across every relevant channel as an integrated system, not as disconnected one-off campaigns.

Chapters

00:00 Harrowing Health Foods, Rave Recaps, & Tennis Talk
08:30 Introducing Kathy Macchi, Co-founder at Inverta

12:40 The Business Concerns Coming up In CMO Councils, Primarily AI & Budget Cuts

18:43 Why Cultivating Good Taste Transcends AI Advancements & Solving The Problem Before Adding AI Tools

30:27 AI's Impact on B2B Marketing Jobs and Economy

32:37 Rethinking Marketing and Business Processes with AI

34:06 The Role of Effective Targeting for Account-Based Marketing in the AI-era

37:02 Effective Use of AI in Marketing

42:13 Messaging + B2B Marketing Channel Strategies and Multi-Channel Marketing

53:04 B2B Sales and Territory Planning

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Epic Quotes

• “The who is everything” - Kathy Macchi
• “ We forgot that early pipeline, until you figure it out, costs money. It costs money and you're going to fail.” - Craig Rosenberg

Connect with Kathy

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-macchi-aa148b/
• Inverta Website: https://www.inverta.com/

Shoutouts

• Geoffrey Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreyamoore/
• Jason Lemkin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmlemkin/
• Carlos Alcaraz
• David Boskovic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dboskovic/
• Our Episode with David: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/building-an-ai-first-go-to-market
• Omar Akhtar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarbilalakhtar/

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