Sales & Marketing Synergy

Shane Hunt:

Hello everyone, and welcome to this edition of The Marketing Insights Podcast. I'm Shane Hunt, Dean of the College of Business at Idaho State University, and Michael C. Rutgers, professor of marketing. And I'm thrilled to be joined today by my guest from Cisco, Bryan Bedford. Bryan, welcome to the show.

Bryan Bedford:

I am honored to be here, my friend. Great, let's have some fun.

Shane Hunt:

Well, Bryan, let's just start. I always like to start by this, you're one of the new executive perspectives that we feature in our upcoming textbook. Just start by talking a little bit about your career, what you do at Cisco. Cisco is obviously a massive company, a massive brand. Talk a little bit about your role there.

Bryan Bedford:

Yeah, so Cisco's a Fortune 20 technology company, really powering the internet that you see today, from social media, to data centers, to connected fan experience, to retail. We touch it all, and really are the B2B business that powers that.

I've had a 25-year career spanning the world of sports, and new media, and content, and broadcast, and now sports technology. And I get to do that at Cisco, as Industry Director at Cisco. So I cover retail, hospitality, sports and entertainment, media content, and so forth. So all the fun, cool industries that we like to talk about, I get to spend every day blessed to do that, and get to hang out with some amazing customers. So it's a lot of fun.

Shane Hunt:

Well, Bryan, we talk a lot about sales and marketing. Obviously, you oversee a huge operation there and what it is. Are there any sales and marketing trends that you're seeing right now, that you think are particularly impactful, or things that you'd want people to know about?

Bryan Bedford:

Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is that sales and marketing need to be like hand in glove. They're not disparate. I literally just got off a call with our field marketing organization. And I was messaging back and forth with our global sponsorship team. Like, I talk to them every day of the week. How we leverage assets, leverage their insights, leverage communications to make us effective in the field and with our customers, is certainly impactful.

And then from a sales perspective, understanding what you need, and empowering your sales team to be effective and utilize those tools, all of that is comprehensive. So to me, they are, again, hand in glove. You have to have both of them, and you have to understand what you need, and you have to have a plan and be thoughtful about how you leverage that.

And so, for us in sales, we are talking to sales. Today, I've already sent a note to work on internal comms on a product release. I've talked to global sponsorship, I've talked to my field marketing organization. That has just happened in the last two and a half hours. And I have a sales quota, and a sales number, and literally we have 1200 sales staff in our organization, in just one segment of Cisco.

So can't tell you how important it is, and how they are, literally, they're business partners inside of a company and an organization like ours.

Shane Hunt:

Bryan, why do you think, this is something that's fascinating, when I work with a lot of companies, I see a lot of places where it's not hand in glove, right? Why do you think that there are so many issues with that relationship at organizations?

Bryan Bedford:

Well, it's a good question. I mean, building culture is an important piece of the puzzle. And I've always been, I think part of my sports background allows me to think that way. But I think you've got to have... It starts with just making sure everybody's on the same page, and that you have a strategy that everybody could understand.

And again, I go back to a call that I had earlier today, which was, "Hey, I'm going to give you a preview of what we're thinking about. Do you have feedback?" And the answer to that was, "This is really helpful. Even though what you're building is not fully baked, it helps me understand how I can do my job to help you be successful."

So I think it starts with communicating, sharing. Not everybody does that. That's part of what has been a tenet of my career. Is sharing that kind of information. I think when you do that, and you're strategically planning, and over communicating, you have the best results. I think if you try to stay in your swim lanes completely, without collaborating, you get into some of those spots that you're talking about.

The other way to think about it is, think of, like in sales, internally, marketing is my customer. And inverse, marketing should think about sales as their customer. And if you're thinking about each other as the customer, so to speak, as an internal operating model, then you want your customer to be successful. And so, I want marketing to look like studs. I want them to look awesome, and they should want me to sell a whole lot of product. Right?

Shane Hunt:

Absolutely.

Bryan Bedford:

And so if we have a shared vision of success, then we're ultimately going to win for our end customers, and in our case, our partners that sell with us as well. So that's just a mindset thing. And I think if you build that upfront, and you think through that from a strategic perspective, you're going to have a lot of success down the road.

Shane Hunt:

Bryan, you talked about, I mean, obviously Cisco is one of the leading technology companies in the history of the world. Right now, there are so many changes. Whether that be from AI, whether that be from global shifts, and demographic shifts, and all these things. What's something that you think that a young marketer or a young salesperson listening to this should be really excited about?

Bryan Bedford:

Well, I mean, I just think technology in general is just, it always evolves. I mean, I remember... I'll give a funny, cute story here. When I came to Cisco, the iPhone didn't exist.

Shane Hunt:

Yep.

Bryan Bedford:

Right? A high definition television was $4,000. That was 13 years ago. Right? I mean, I can go to Target, or Costco, or Sam's, or any other place. I probably [inaudible 00:06:10] 7-Eleven and get a TV for 300 bucks now. Right? I mean, it's become a commodity.

So I just think in general, technology is now part of, it's a societal element that interacts everything that we do. You may not think about it, but a lot of people think, I've heard people say, "That company X does," whatever, "distribution or manufacturing," but really, they're ultimately becoming a technology company. You hear that now, where all of these companies, they have to be thinking about technology in every single thing that they do.

And so, what that does if I'm a young person is, that's a career path that I can be in for 20, 30, 40 years of my life. Because, if you learn to adapt, and evolve, and think about it, and are able to be nimble as things change, you can have long-term, sustained career. It's not an area that is going to go away.

Now, the technology may change. God bless our friends at BlackBerry. The technology sometimes changes. And I mean, we loved that little spin wheel on that phone. That thing was awesome. But technology, the technology changed, but technology didn't change. Right?

Shane Hunt:

No.

Bryan Bedford:

We're getting more sophisticated, we're getting more predictable. AI and machine learning has really been around for a while, but we're getting more advanced. That's going to introduce new ideas, new concepts, new intelligence.

And so I just think, in general, it's an exciting career to be in. It also allows you to marry technology with your passion. You might be really interested in music. Okay, back when we were in high school, it was like, "Let's go figure out how to break into Napster," or something like that. [inaudible 00:08:25].

And so, I just think... Or if you're really into healthcare, okay, how can you transform healthcare with technology? Or if you're really into automotives, you mean this guy named Elon Musk, he's done a couple of things, right? You can take passions, and apply those with technology, and always be inventing new things in new areas.

So I love it because I've been blessed that, for almost 25 years, I've been able to stitch my passion around hospitality, retail, sports, media, and tie it to technology. I didn't know that was going to be exactly how it worked. I knew that I wanted to be attached to my passion, and I've used technology as the vehicle to continue to do that.

Shane Hunt:

No, Bryan, that's amazing, my friend. And the last question, I heard you speak to a group of marketing students. We have a lot of marketing students across the country that listen to this podcast. My final question is, just what advice would you have for them? As marketing students in universities and colleges across the country, what advice would you have for them?

Bryan Bedford:

Yeah. Well, I'll repeat what I told your class, which is become a really good writer. I just really believe that writing, you need to learn to write, and not send memes and emojis. I love emojis, and I love a really good meme, but we got to communicate.

And the people that are the generation above you, or the generation above that, you need to learn how to write. So writing, I think is critical. It's critical. It allows you to be a really good communicator. And I think just communication in general is really important.

And so, if you can become a good writer, then you can become a good auditory speaker, then you can become a good communicator. You can shake a firm hand, you can have eye contact. Those are all things that I think in the kids that are 15 to 25, that's not as comfortable, because you're used to having a phone in your hand.

And so, becoming a good communicator, start with the written word first, and then become good. Don't let mom and dad order your Chicken McNuggets, learn how to become a good communicator. Those are really critical things. They help you. Don't be afraid of sailing. Learn how to sell. Learn how to make mistakes in selling. It's okay. Work hard. Volunteer to internships. Don't think you know it all. Find a mentor. Ask a lot of questions. And then work really freaking hard.

Shane Hunt:

And I think, Bryan, I think that is a wonderful formula for success, my friend. And I thank you so much, Bryan. Thank you for joining us today on the show.

Bryan Bedford:

Love it. Thanks, brother.

Shane Hunt:

Hey, thank you so much. And thank you all for listening to this edition of the Marketing Insights Podcast. We look forward to visiting next time. Hope everybody has a great day. And we'll talk to you soon.