SaaStr 095: Trello's JD Peterson on Why Now Is The Best But Hardest Time To Be A Marketer, How To Unify The Sales & Marketing Team & How The Role Of Data Effects Marketers Today

JD Peterson is CMO of Trello where he heads the company's marketing and customer service teams. A true child of Silicon Valley, J.D. has been helping startups for nearly 20 years.  Before Trello, he held positions as the CRO and interim CEO at Scripted, the VP of Marketing at Zendesk, and the VP of Products at Marketo. JD takes pride in building world-class teams, helping companies accelerate growth, and ensuring the customer remains at the center of every strategic effort.  

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How did JD make his slightly unconventional entrance into the world of SaaS?
• Having picked Marketo and Zendesk, what does JD assess when picking companies? Once picked, how does JD evaluate culture? How does JD measure this?
• How does JD approach lead qualification? How does JD measure the effectiveness of lead generation, revenue or amount of leads? How does JD unify the sales and marketing team?
• JD has previously said that now is ‘the best but hardest time to be a marketer’. Why is this and what is behind this thesis? What are the pros and cons of the data driven marketing world? What are the commonalities among the best marketeers?
• JD has seen many companies scale into hyper-growth, when does JD believe is the right time to hire and expand aggressively? What roles should be filled first? What does JD optimize for in the hiring process? When is the transition point needed to have a VP?

60 Second SaaStr

1. Is SaaS marketing B2B or B2C?
2. What does JD know now that he wishes he had known in the beginning?
3. Biggest mistake companies are enacting with their current marketing plans?

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Jason Lemkin

Harry Stebbings

SaaStr

JD Peterson