Chandar Pattabhiram is a seasoned marketing executive who brings to Coupa more than 25 years of experience in strategic marketing and management consulting. As Chief Marketing Officer, he is responsible for driving all aspects of worldwide marketing including strategic segment marketing, product marketing, growth marketing and corporate marketing.
Prior to joining Coupa, Pattabhiram was CMO at Marketo, where he was responsible for all aspects of marketing and in charge of positioning Marketo as the digital marketing industry’s innovation leader and the best solution for high-growth and enterprise businesses. Previously, Pattabhiram was head of worldwide marketing for Badgeville where he was part of the team that won multiple industry awards for innovative storytelling including the Best Platform-as-a-Service for 2013. Prior to that, Pattabhiram was vice president at IBM Cast Iron Systems where he was responsible for all product marketing and channel marketing efforts. In 2010, IBM acquired Cast Iron as a centerpiece of its Cloud strategy.
In this episode, we’re joined by Chandar Pattabhiram, CMO at Coupa. Chandar breaks the mold on demand generation, explaining why marketers should instead be thinking of it as “growth marketing” or “revenue generation” to align to marketers’ growing revenue responsibilities. Chandar illustrates his flywheel approach to marketing that goes far beyond the traditional funnel model.
“I don’t use the words ‘funnel’ or ‘demand gen.’ We call it revenue marketing, because why do any marketing unless it’s for revenue?”
“Your job in marketing is to find the fastest path to the most dollars for the sales organization. That’s the guiding principle at the end of the day.”
“Advocacy marketing is not them advocating for you, it’s you advocating for them. If you’re doing it well, you’re showcasing how your customers are driving transformational change in their organizations.”
“Your best salesperson is your customer. If you’ve done a good job of driving value, they’re going to do the selling for you.”
“I view our website as the most strategic weapon in marketing...I view it as a vehicle for conversation, not just one-way information dissemination. It can be a vehicle to start a conversation and move it forward in the journey. It’s an important asset for us in that way, and it’s a top lead-generation tool as well.”