Martech Interview with Head of Global Marketing & Marketing Services, Televerde – Deanna Ransom

Deanna Ransom from Televerde talks about the rising significance of data in the sales tech & Martech industry for optimized marketing campaigns & customer engagement

“The experience and content drives the lasting impression and emotional connection which is key to building trust and continued engagement.”

1. Tell us about your role at Televerde.
I’m the Head of Global Marketing and Marketing Services at Televerde. My role is a triple reward in that I get to:
• Evolve and share our brand products and services;
• Enable omni-channel human touch integrated marketing and sales to power the brands of our clients while generating insights, pipeline and revenue for them; and
• Partner across the leadership team and the entire company to ensure marketing is generating revenue while also supporting Televerde’s purpose to help transform 10,000 lives over the next decade.
The short version is, to me, it’s an honor, a challenge and a source of great joy to run marketing at Televerde.

2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
My journey to Televerde is an interesting one. I’ve been in technology for more than 25 years starting in ERP software sales at QAD. From there, I moved onto Information Builders where I made the transition from sales to marketing. From Information Builders, I moved on to a couple of start-up technology companies and then landed at Business Objects which was acquired by SAP. It was at SAP where I first connected with Televerde. The consistent results Televerde delivered in terms of quality leads, engagement and revenue was impressive. I was also amazed how dedicated the Televerde team to ensure that I hit my business goals. When you couple that with the company’s transformative business model, I became a big fan. As I continued to move my career forward, I brought the Televerde relationship with me to both logistics software provider Transporeon and to Clarivate Analytics where I oversaw global demand. In total, I spent 11 years as a consistently impressed Televerde customer.

Now, as Televerde has evolved into a tech-driven, human leveraged provider serving the end-to-end needs of marketing and sales, it’s fitting that I get to start the next chapter of my career at Televerde. I now get to help Televerde reach its business and growth goals while powering conscious capitalism and supporting second chance hiring.

3. How do you think technology is updating the marketing sector?
Technology has upgraded the business value, measure and scalability of Marketing. Smart marketers and marketing leaders leverage technology and data for engagement, experiences, competitive advantage and so much more. Marketing is more effective if you can see the numbers that support the data and technology provides a clear picture of those numbers.

4. How has a data-driven approached empowered marketing organizations?
Data has empowered marketing organizations to:
• Challenge the status quo;
• Establish credibility as a trusted partner for the growth and continuity of the business; and
• Create more meaningful relationships and engagements with customers, prospects and alliances.

Being data-driven has enabled marketing organizations to shift from being viewed as cost centers to strategic growth drivers.

5. Can you explain how your services help with buyer’s engagement?
Absolutely! We specialize in technology powered omni-channel personalized experiences leveraging the human touch throughout the journey. We’ve hand-picked our technology stack extensively and continually train our team. We focus on delivering value and results for our client partners. By combining our best of breed technology with the human touch, we are consistently delivering higher more meaningful experiences, conversions, and accelerated and increased pipeline with strong revenue growth.

6. What are your predictions about the future of the martech sector?
My prediction is that investment will continue to grow but we may begin to see some consolidation of vendors with similar technologies. Some consolidation may be forced by unfortunate economic factors and some may be acquisitions to build out larger offerings. With more than 8,000 martech solutions in play, my perspective and experience is vendor consolidation will likely be on the horizon.

7. What digital innovation in sales technology will mark 2020?
I believe 2020 will be marked as the year of virtual and social selling thanks to the challenges posed by both the COVID-19 pandemic and economic challenges. Innovation will come from the wide embrace and adoption of tools in the sales stack to support the shift towards more virtual and social selling.

8. How do you prepare for an AI-Centric world?
What a great question! I think it’s more about how to operate within an AI-Centric world more than it is to prepare since AI is here and built into most of the technologies we use today like Alexa and Siri If a person or an organization has not yet accepted and embraced AI, what may be a great starting point could be to research and identify ways to benefit from AI. It’s also important to look at any challenges AI may pose so you’re prepared to handle them as well.

9. What are the major developments you are planning at Televerde?
Televerde is an exciting company and there is so much my team and I can focus on. The three major areas of development that I’ve identified so far are:
a. Create a heightened focus on customers and ABM marketing. Televerde has traditionally been a great partner to customers and prospects alike always by wanting to add value – and doing a good job at it. By truly focusing, engaging with and serving our customers, we are able to ensure we can pivot with them as their needs evolve.
b. Benchmark, measure and optimize. Again, Televerde has always done a great job measuring and analyzing performance internally, as well as for our customers. The opportunity here exists is to use all of the insights across industries and then to hold it up against external benchmarks, ensuring data-driven optimizations for both customers and us. We’re basically sitting on a gold mind of amazing insights that I am now focused on benchmarking and using in a variety of ways.
c. Personalization of content. As prospects and customers crave more personalized experiences, providing the right content personalized with their need in the moment is a top priority.

The experience and content drives the lasting impression and emotional connection which is key to building trust and continued engagement.

10. Tell us about your team and how it supports you.
My team is amazing and remarkably agile, which is a pretty big deal. Leaders oftentimes share visions and I am no different. In many cases when a leader’s vision is different than what has traditionally been done, you can have disconnect, resistance and quiet rebellion. Therefore, I don’t just communicate my vision. I make sure to gather feedback so that their trust in me and our vision increases. Open communication allows everyone to own their piece of the puzzle and feel connected to the vision as we teak and refine based on continual feedback.

My team also carries a very high sense of urgency and adaptability. This is important because marketing is anything but stagnant. Change is constant and new priorities or opportunities are disrupters that should shift your motions. My team doesn’t get stuck in why we’re changing something; they ask and then pivot, which is tremendous. It supports the core objective of meeting business goals and being a strategic partner to the entire business. I will be successful because of my team – they are a strategic partner both to me and the entire business.

11. What movie inspires you the most?
I have to say Just Mercy. It is tragic to have your life stolen wrongfully because of the lies, manipulation and deficit of others. However, what is awe-inspiring is not just the tireless collaborative work across divides that it took to get Walter McMillian released; the awe is that after his tragedy he took up an education platform to call attention to a challenge of epic human atrocity. He didn’t stay a victim and went to work to make a difference for others. Criminal injustice takes place every day and how you face and respond to that injustice can have a world changing effect and that is truly inspiring to me.

12. Can you give us a glance of the applications you use on your phone?
Of course! My go to apps of late have been: Redfin, Instacart, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Word Mocha and Word Stacks. You really can see what a person is thinking about by glancing at their go to apps.

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