Digital Marketing Success: Interfunctional Coordination with Dawn Muller, CMO at Vitech
In this Performance Delivered episode, Steffen Horst interviews Dawn Muller, CMO at Vitech, about the vital role of inter-functional coordination in achieving digital marketing success. Dawn shares her marketing journey, extensive experience in B2B marketing within the tech and professional services sectors, and her position at Vitech.
The conversation explores the concept of market orientation, emphasizing the necessity of customer and competitor focus alongside inter-functional collaboration. Dawn highlights the importance of teamwork between sales and marketing and how organizations can enhance alignment and communication to improve marketing strategies, product development, and customer focus. Practical insights and emerging trends for SaaS companies are also discussed, offering valuable advice for establishing a successful inter-functional coordination framework.
In this episode, we will talk about:
• Introduction to Performance Delivered
• Meet Dawn Muller: CMO at ViTech
• Dawn’s Journey into Marketing
• Defining Interfunctional Coordination
• Ensuring Sales and Marketing Alignment
• Practical Implementation in SaaS Companies
• Future Trends and Recommendations
Transcript
00:00:00] Intro: This is Performance Delivered, Insider Secrets for Digital Marketing Success with Steffen Horst.
[00:00:11] Steffen Horst: In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the importance of interfunctional coordination. Here to speak with me is Don Muller, the CMO at Vitech, a company that empowers businesses with innovative solutions to address the complexities of the insurance and retirement industries. She was formerly Chief Marketing Officer at Sapphire and has served in marketing and communications positions with globally renowned companies, including Walters Kluver, IBM, Branson Young, and Deloitte.Dawn has a strong history of implementing innovative marketing strategies, cultivating valuable relationships, and delivering growth solutions. Her experience includes leading multifunctional teams, creating pioneering strategies to elevate brand presence, and developing go-to-market and business initiatives.
Dawn, welcome to the show.
[00:00:56] Dawn Mueller: Hi, Stefan. I’m really glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.
[00:00:59] Steffen Horst: Sure. Well, before we start talking about the importance of interfunctional
coordination, tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself. How did you get started in your career and what led you to becoming the CMO at Vitech?
[00:01:10] Dawn Mueller: Oh, sure. So, I fell into marketing kind of accidentally in my undergraduate studies, believe it or not. I was a communication major in undergraduate, and a friend of mine said, “Hey, we have elective credits. Let’s take a business administration minor.” I was kind of on the fence. I was involved with broadcasting, I was involved with public relations, so I wasn’t really convinced. I said, “All right, why not? We’ll do it.” One of the last classes I had was marketing, and it just sparked such an epiphany for me. I thought, “Oh my gosh, this is so amazing. All of the nuances and the different psychology and aspects of marketing and what goes into it.” And that’s when I said, “This is what I want to do for my career.” That was the only time I’ve ever had that kind of feeling.
That started me on a path of pursuing more information, both academically and professionally. And it has been a passion for me ever since. So, that’s how I got started.
[00:02:07] Steffen Horst: Well, that’s great.
[00:02:08] Dawn Mueller: Yeah, thanks. Throughout the course of my career, I’ve done some B2C, but I’ve really gravitated towards B2B. B2C has its own set of complexities, but I really enjoy the complexities in the B2B space, specifically around technology, professional services, and software, and software as a service. Through a sequence of events, I’ve learned that I can do a lot with a company that is in a growth phase and looking to scale. That’s what brought me to Vitech.
[00:02:40] Steffen Horst: Now, today we’re going to talk about the importance of interfunctional
coordination. Would you mind defining interfunctional coordination for the listeners?
[00:02:50] Dawn Mueller: Sure. I’m going to take a step back and then we’ll go forward on that, if that’s okay.
[00:02:55] Steffen Horst: Yeah, please.
[00:02:55] Dawn Mueller: So, Steffen, interfunctional coordination is one component of something called market orientation. People often say a company is market-oriented, but there is actually a specific term called market orientation. It was first popularized a couple of decades ago by two scholars, Narver and Slater. They discovered that if you have this structure, this framework that supports market orientation as a company, it means greater profitability.
Dialing into that, there are three components of a market-oriented company: customer orientation, competitor orientation, and interfunctional coordination. The other two don’t work without the interfunctional connectivity and coordination.
[00:03:58] Steffen Horst: So, let’s talk about intercompany coordination. What teams, in that concept, need to work closely together to create value?
[00:04:07] Dawn Mueller: I’m going to say this somewhat facetiously, but all of them. However, sales and marketing, sales, marketing, and finance, sales, marketing, finance, and IT, I would say those are all critical. But really, that sales and marketing relationship is absolutely crucial for interfunctional coordination.
We’ve all heard examples in large companies of silos existing: marketing is over here doing whatever marketing does, sales is over there knocking on doors and trying to sell. Sales says, “We need more people in sales to make things happen,” and marketing says, “We need to spend more money.” It’s because of that lack of interfunctional coordination that you hear things like that. So, the relationship between sales and marketing is key.
[00:04:50] Steffen Horst: So, how should companies go about ensuring that these two disciplines are properly aligned?
[00:04:57] Dawn Mueller: I think it really depends on the leadership they select, too. I think it’s respect for each function. Marketing shouldn’t be saying, “Hey, we do everything.” Sales shouldn’t be saying, “You wouldn’t have jobs without us.” There has to be mutual respect and professional maturity. It’s like a balance between offensive and defensive strategies in football. They work in concert, and that’s how sales and marketing need to work.
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