Enosix CMO, who branded SAP Leonardo, talks martech strategy

Enosix CMO Shawn Reynolds launches tech, from startups to the brand rollout of SAP's Leonardo AI as marketing global vice president. At SAP-Salesforce integrator Enosix, Reynolds brings firsthand knowledge about marketing automation platforms to market the company's approach to connecting the popular ERP and CRM platforms.

In the latest installment of our occasional Q&A series in which we talk to chief marketing officers (CMOs) about how martech is changing their roles, Reynolds shares insider insights from the martech world and how it informs his latest campaign development.

You worked at SAP, a big vendor, and now the upstart Enosix. How are they the same, and how are they different?

Shawn Reynolds

Shawn Reynolds: I spent 10 years, almost to the day, at SAP, finding myself in marketing leadership positions. I did a variety of things. I led services marketing, which was a $6 billion piece of the business. I helped build the marketing strategy for cloud. I was on the SuccessFactors post-merger team to fold in market strategy. I led the SAP IoT go-to-market team responsible for establishing the justification for the board to invest $2 billion to build that business. And then I [led] the SAP Leonardo brand and led that marketing team.

What's most interesting about Enosix, the reason I joined, is that there's an enormous growth in the complexity of SAP's ecosystem and how they provide value to their customers. They've acquired $70 billion worth of innovation over the last nine years. Enosix brings a simple way to accelerate outcomes out of that innovation, which are getting more and more complex.

The customer experience technology wave elevates marketing above sales in some organizations, as opposed to a few years ago, when CRM put sales in the lead. How has that changed your job?

Reynolds: I don't think the visibility or value of the customer experience -- in the context of what marketers have within their reach -- has changed. Fifteen years ago, I was in London, going through 'customer experience management training.' One of the first companies I acquired [as global director at Cincom Systems], Synchrony, a customer experience management tool, was one of the early martech applications.

[Martech has] broken down the wall between sales and marketing.

Now, we have a complex martech landscape that provides a unique opportunity for just about any company in any industry or any segment that can manage the customer journey differently and expose the value of their brand throughout that journey. I think it's just wonderful. Every few months, you find out about some amazing new platform helping marketers create more value for their customers and, more importantly, build a relationship with them. It's broken down the wall between sales and marketing.

What insider advice do you have for fellow CMOs on using these platforms to get the most out of the investments they require, having worked at SAP and other tech companies in the sector?

Reynolds: Empower a marketing operations resource to constantly monitor this fast-changing ecosystem of martech. Build and perfect your demand management process by understanding your customer's journey; you have to give that equal attention.

I think you'll see that the most important role in marketing over the next few years will be marketing operations -- someone managing the innovation that will help deliver the value of the brand to the customer at the right moment.

This Q&A has been edited for clarity and conciseness.