Martech Interview with Brian Gilman, Chief Marketing Officer at IntelePeer

Brian Gilman, CMO at IntelePeer talks about how IntelePeer intertwines CX and CPaaS industries and has an agnostic approach to AI in businesses.

The internet has given customers immediate access to a global marketplace of sellers vying for eyeballs.

1. How has the journey from being a product marketer to being a CMO been?
My transition from product marketing to CMO has been smooth since joining IntelePeer. I have been fortunate in my career, having worked for product marketing lead teams. As a result, my teams weren’t only involved in road mapping and product launches, but we were also actively involved in all aspects of go-to-market strategies, including demand generation, digital marketing, and analyst and public relations. It gave me a strong set of fundamentals to work from.
As CMO, I still believe in a product marketing-centric organization, although my views have changed. While products are still important, they must deliver on a technical expectation; I have become less product and more solution-centric. To succeed in technology, your product can’t just work for the business it is sold to, it has to deliver on the complex needs of THEIR customers and their journey interacting with the business.

2. How are CX and CPaaS intertwined? In which industry are you seeing the most development with customer experience?
In today’s customer-centric market, CX and CPaaS are inseparable. Recently, customer expectations rely solely on the interactions with businesses they buy from, and their loyalty to that business is significantly lower than ever.

The internet has given customers immediate access to a global marketplace of sellers vying for eyeballs.

In this world of immediacy and aggressive pricing, one thing that customers still care about is CX. Can I…
Interact with the business in the channel that I want, when I want? Phone, Email, Chat, SMS, Social
Easily access information I need in a timely matter?
Self-serve critical information without having to speak to an agent (Tracking information, account balances, etc)
Easily get to the right agent for matters that require a more complex solution.
All the touchpoints above involve some level of CPaaS capability. Everyday examples of potential CPaaS interactions for customers include SMS notifications, click-to-call, IVR capabilities, secure payments, and chatbots. As a result, companies have to evolve how they approach CX with many of the above solutions deemed as “table stakes” these days, and customers will abandon a brand for a better experience elsewhere.
Industries that have been evolving rapidly are retail, finance, and insurance, as the competitive landscape in these spaces has become digital-first and has seen the most transition in how customers interact.

3. Within the digital space, some small businesses may be missing out on leveraging technology to create personalized experiences with their consumers. How can these smaller businesses compete?
CPaaS has long been seen as a technology accessible to larger companies with substantial developer capabilities, and as a result, small businesses lost. One of the main reasons I joined IntelePeer was the accessibility of our CPaaS platform. IntelePeer’s approach to low-code/no-code CPaaS allows smaller businesses and larger ones with little communications development skills to participate actively and thrive in a digital-first economy.

4. How should businesses approach brand loyalty and the customer experience in the martech space?
We are at a critical point in most industries when it comes to brand loyalty. Ease of access to options has put brand loyalty at risk for many companies across multiple industries. The easiest way to build brand loyalty is to differentiate through the service you deliver.

• Are you easy to do business with?
• Can I access my data how and when I want?
• Are you providing me with the value I need to want to continue service with you?

The martech space is very crowded, and differences from one provider to the next are sometimes hard to identify. To best get and keep up business, companies need to understand the journey as CMO, our pressures, and how their product can best serve our needs. You will win if you can provide value in addressing my journey and the best experience with your brand regarding data access, ease of use, and support.

5. How do you think AI and analytics are changing the CPaaS domain? What’s the USP of IntelePeer?
I don’t think AI and analytics are changing the CPaaS domain, they are just becoming more relevant. As businesses introduce more touchpoints to customers and the number of touchpoints increases between customers and businesses, the need for better AI is critical.
IntelePeer takes an agnostic approach to AI as businesses will all have different needs around the topic of AI. Various AI engines will be better fitted for organizations based on vertical market or use cases, so allowing customers access to these platforms is paramount to ensure customer success.
That said, almost as important as the AI engine is a singular view of the customer. If businesses have customer data sitting in silos, the best AI in the world will not provide a positive customer experience.

6. How does omnichannel communication enable better workflows? Could you tell us more about IntelePeer’s Marketplace as it was awarded the Best Innovation in Customer Experience by Enterprise Connect?
In my opinion, any customer communication needs to be looked at as omnichannel. Customers rarely have a singular touchpoint with a business through a voice-only interaction. On average, a consumer will have seven touchpoints with your business. These interactions can be difficult to build without the appropriate developer resources. IntelePeer has been building these interactions for customers for years and wanted to further our mission of making customer service automation easier for companies to implement. Our Marketplace is an easily accessible, no-code marketplace where customers can take our pre-built solutions and implement them in minutes, not months. These pre-built applications can also be “unhooked,” where the customer can take the pre-built application and open the workflow up in our SmartFlows tool to be further customized for the 10%-15% of a specific application to a company’s workflow.

7. What is the impact of COVID-19 on the global CPaaS Market?
COVID dramatically accelerated the need for CPaaS solutions globally. The time that people were quarantined forced significant changes in how they consumed goods and services. Yes, online retailing is an obvious area where the need for better CX solutions grew significantly, but many other vertical markets were impacted during and post-COVID. Banking, healthcare, and insurance saw significant increases in CPaaS usage as things like telehealth, online banking, and remote incident appraisals became part of normal, everyday life. The changes seen by COVID were not a moment in time but changes that will last well into the future.

8. How has marketing as a career helped you grow personally and professionally?
Marketing has been instrumental in my career only because of the people that helped mentor me. Early in my marketing career, I was taught the concept of “Big M” Marketing. The concept was simple… marketing may not be the lead, but when done right, marketing has a seat at most tables within an organization, whether it be the product, sales, HR, etc. It helped me always think bigger than the task at hand and always wear many hats.

9. What’s your favorite part about working at IntelePeer?
My favorite part of working at IntelePeer is the culture that a company of this size provides. I have worked at both small and large companies, but IntelePeer has a very unique culture that is fun to work in and allows me to grow personally and professionally.

10. What movie/book has inspired you recently?
I recently read “Can’t Hurt Me.” It is a book by David Goggins, the only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller. He set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him “The Fittest (Real) Man in America.” The book tells his amazing life story and how most of us only tap into 40% of our capabilities. His story talks about how one can push past the 40% rule and gives a path for people to push past pain and fear to reach their full potential. As a former distance runner, I find his story and approach to conquering physical limits amazing.

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