008 | Why SaaS Marketing is a Team Sport with Armen Najarian&Michael Cichon | Studio CMO - a podcast by Golden Spiral, Shaping Technology Marketing

The Episode in 60 Seconds

On this episode of Studio CMO, we sat down with Armen Najarian and Michael Cichon at RSA Conference 2020 — just a few weeks before everything shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Armen is CMO and Chief Identity Officer at Agari, where Michael is the VP of Marketing. The pair has known each other for more than a decade and shared stories from their Silicon Valley careers and lessons for gaining market traction and differentiation in the B2B tech space.

The interview delves into:

• How it all started with Armen and Michae
• The value of team chemistry
• Why marketers need to take a stan
• How to achieve internal alignment
• Why telling the same story matters

Our Guests

Armen Najarian is the CMO and Chief Identity Officer, and Michael Cichon is the VP of Digital at Agari. Agari’s mission is to protect digital communications to ensure humanity prevails over evil. Using predictive AI informed by global intelligence from around 2 trillion emails annually, the company protects enterprises against phishing, business email compromise (BEC) scams, and other advanced email threats.

Armen is a 15-year Silicon Valley veteran with deep experience scaling pre- and post-IPO cloud and security companies to successful shareholder outcomes. Before joining Agari, he was the CMO of ThreatMetrix, where he established the company as the category leader in the emerging digital identity space, culminating in acquisition by RELX Group/LexisNexis in February 2018. He also directed the go-to-market strategy for IBM’s SaaS portfolio and prior to that, spent five years with DemandTec, supporting its successful IPO and subsequent acquisition by IBM.

As VP of Marketing, Michael leads brand strategy and expression, content marketing, and the digital buyer’s journey across paid, earned, and own channels for Agari. Previously, he was VP of Digital and Content Marketing at ThreatMetrix and Digital Strategy Director at VMWare.

Show Notes

Register for Agari’s Trust Your Inbox webinar series, May 7 at 11:00 a.m. CT.

Attend Trust 2020: The Next-Generation Email Security Conference, a virtual event experience, May 5 - June 6.

Getting the Band Back Together

Armen and Michael go way back. Their relationship started in 2007 when Armen attempted to hire Michael for a product marketing role at DemandTec but couldn’t quite land him. Fast forward eight years and Armen brought Michael on at ThreatMetrix, where they worked together for almost three years before selling the company to IBM.

When Armen made the move to Agari in 2018, it only made sense for him to get the band back together — he hired Michael right away. Their origin story supports Armen’s #1 rule in B2B tech: always be recruiting.

 

Team Chemistry Is Everything

As evidenced by his persistence in recruiting and holding on to top talent, Armen points to team chemistry as essential for achieving marketing success.

“Having a team that can believe in each other and that inspires each other is table stakes to be able to scale a business.” - Armen Najarian

First, he said it’s important to define the roles you need, at least generally speaking. Then, you need to find people who can wear multiple hats, but still know how to swim in their own lanes, add value, and collaborate effectively.

Michael shared that you want hardworking leaders who can solve problems. Everyone needs to be a marketer, even if they specialize in a certain segment.

Marketers Take a Stand

To be a marketer, you have to be willing to stand for something that might not be clear, something that might have unconnected dots.

Agari is a mission-driven business and Armen makes a point to declare the company’s mission when interviewing candidates. It’s important to find people who will buy into the cause and promote the mission. This is the company’s true North Star and guides all storytelling. But, the way marketers make these stories come alive is an evolving thing.

“Does the world really need another white paper? Does the world really need another blog? And, and the answer is yes. Because there’s not a shortage of content. The shortage is great ideas, inspiring ideas, interesting ideas, solid thought processes.” - Michael Cichon

When the Sales Team Is Your Customer

After you’ve got your team and mission in place, next you need to achieve alignment. At Agari, this means getting the marketing team on the same page as their customers — the sales team. The company uses an OKR framework, which focuses on objectives and key results, to achieve this alignment.

“A rule of thumb is generally no more than four objectives and no more than three key results per objective at a corporate level and at a departmental level for the quarter or year…The OKR process is an exercise in minimizing your goals and then having very measurable results.” - Armen Najarian

Remember, You’re All Telling the Same Story

Michael added that it’s not just about aligning with sales. You also need alignment with your customer success team. He talks with them about how they describe Agari, in addition to getting buy-in from the sales team. Marketers also need to be in sales.

“It's one story and there's no one person that can cook it up all by themselves behind their desk.” - Michael Cichon

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