"When you have these executive conversations, I will close out the conversation by saying, 'can I count on your support?' [...] you're going to find out fast who you're allies are; those allies are critical [...] the conversations about headcount, budget, support, become so much easier..."

In this episode of Customer Marketing Catch-up, Leslie Paterson, VP of Customer Advocacy & Engagement at BMC, talks to us about how you should approach executive conversations to set your customer marketing team up for success.

Key talking points:

  • What you should establish between yourself and your executive stakeholders when setting up a team
  • Main points to communicate the importance of supporting customer marketing and advocacy teams
  • Handling challenging or resistant executives
  • An example of a successful executive conversation that helped solidify a new team

About the guest:

Leslie Paterson is an innovative Customer Advocacy and Customer Engagement executive with proven experience building impactful and effective Customer Advocacy and Engagement programs.

She believes that the foundation of the program must be not only flexible, scalable and constantly innovative, but also be supported by every LOB within the organization at the highest levels.

With the combination of strong organizational support and the best team in the business the possibilities are limitless.

Our sponsor:

This podcast was brought to you by Influitive - find out more at influitive.com.

Influitive allows you to build a community of advocates and invite your customers, developers, partners, and employees to complete challenges, referrals, product reviews, social media posts, and more. As they complete these personalized and targeted challenges, they earn points, badges, and levels to redeem professional perks and privileges.

Join the conversation:

What did you think about this episode? Let us know, contact hello@customermarketingalliance.com, speak to us on our socials, or get involved with the discussion on the Customer Marketing Alliance Community Slack channel.

Got something to say on one of our podcasts, or know someone who would be a great guest? Get in touch, and contact our copywriter at eve@customermarketingalliance.com.