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ving spent the better part of my career in tech B2B marketing, I count my lucky stars because of all the positive energy right now. At the same time, as I set about looking for my next challenge, I found myself smack in the middle of the reality we all face: With so much choice, how do you choose anything at all? What I did was to reach out to my network. Through conversations ranging across the globe and all over the marketing map, I saw a pattern emerge. No matter where they are on their paths, my friends are building on a few key fundamentals. Naturally, as a Marketer, I synthesized this wisdom into what I see as The 4 P’s of why I joined TechTarget.
Think about Product: Will you be delivering real value to markets and customers?
If any of you watch Silicon Valley on HBO, you know it’s kind of like looking in a funhouse mirror: It’s all about truths well-twisted. And yet I really believe that even if we aren’t “changing the world” by making great products, we are really changing things for the better. That’s why TechTarget’s highly profitable and mature enough to already be public. At the same time, we remain nimble and entrepreneurial — bringing out a raft of new products this year better than anything we’ve ever done. We continue to do great content. We offer the very latest abilities to connect buyers and sellers at every point along the customer journey. And now we provide specific, fact-based help with everything from strategy to action to comprehensive optimization. All of it is based on real, actionable intent data that fits into customers’ workflows where and how they need it. Right now, I see TechTarget coming together as an unrivaled value proposition for the industry. That’s something I want to be a part of.
Think about Potential: Can you achieve Win-Wins, for the company and yourself?
Whether we’re in a Marketing renaissance or an industry bubble, with over 2000 software and quasi-software packages vying for attention, you’ve got to agree there’s plenty of smoke fogging up the crystal ball. My advice is to seek out solutions and partners that can deliver value on day one. That’s where you’ll find the best potential to realize your own objectives. To get where you’re going, I think it’s best to choose those who can complement your own abilities all along your personal journey. I chose TechTarget because I know the value and difficulties of good content — in our content businesses, we’re continuously evolving to meet changing topical needs. I chose TechTarget because as a Marketer I always need better insight and capability. In our Marketing and Sales businesses, we’re getting better and better at addressing practitioner needs like these every day. And to make sure I maximize my impact on pipeline and revenue, I want real Intent data that I can act on immediately. That’s what we have – the real stuff – usable out-of-the-box right now. This and more adds up to why I’m 10X confident we’ve found the win-win approach – the potential – necessary to deliver outstandingly for all our stakeholders.
Think about Purpose: Everyone’s better when something matters to them.
I keep learning about greatness by coming at it from at it from least two directions: I try to study both the achievement and the path followed to get there. Since Gladwell’s Outliers, I’ve been listening to Angela Lee Duckworth and Anders Ericsson on how people achieve big things. There’s proof that to reach new heights, you’ve got to both envision the outcome and then be very purposeful about how you pursue it. At TechTarget, our purpose is to help tech buyers and sellers come together around solutions to business needs. Every day we’re working with users to make our content the best it can be; we’re continuously refining our products, making them more powerful and useful. That’s how we’ve created such a truly virtuous circle: A healthy business where we do good things for people and they reward us for the help. We fully expect that by doubling down on this formula we can double their and our own achievements. I stick to Marketing as my career choice for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that it provides so many ways to add value. As a Marketer, I’ve discovered that TechTarget is purpose-built to leverage my skills and life-long interest in all things B2B Tech.
Think about People: Machines can do, but only people and teams truly create.
We’re not being hired anymore just to produce outputs. We’re expected to drive outcomes. That takes creative thinking. And the thirst for better outcomes never lets up, so we all need to get comfortable around continuous change. Delivering change means much more than doing the work right in front of us. We need integrative skills. We need the energy, honesty and empathy to see things broadly first, then to talk about them and work through any and all obstacles. Today’s reality won’t be easy for everyone – we’re extraordinarily lucky at TechTarget to have the right kind of people in force. We’re diverse, open, lively and action-oriented. It’s a “see, think, do” environment focused on shared goals and tolerant of experimentation. In my own process landing here, from late-night phone conversations to face-to-face working sessions, I quickly established that I could fit into the team – both with the people who built the company and the people powering clients’ business outcomes every day. Above all else, of all the possible reasons to go to work every morning, there’s none better than liking the folks you’ll be working with on delivering the future!
John Steinert is the CMO of TechTarget (@TechTargetCMO) where unique purchase intent data solutions are powering the marketing approaches of 100s of technology vendors to the audiences they serve.
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