AiThority Interview with Shelley Morrison, VP, Demand Center at Domo

Hi Shelley, please tell us about your current role at Domo and how you reached here?  

I was brought on board to architect and operationalize a Global Demand Center to scale our digital marketing efforts. Before joining Domo, my professional expertise came from the agency side, where I honed my skills working with tech clients of all sizes. In my previous role at Yesler B2B, part of Accenture Interactive, I reimagined how we sold to and served our customers, unifying Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success into a single organization focused on a growth strategy to help our clients drive results in their businesses. Before I moved into that role, I built the Digital Media arm of that same agency from the ground up, and then expanded the offering into Analytics to create an end-to-end demand solution to serve our clients. Leveraging my expertise in all of these areas has been crucial to moving into the role of creating and running a Demand Center. I know what Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing all need and expect to get out of it.

Could you tell us how working with large tech companies helped you scale your expertise in demand center programs?  

Having worked with companies in all phases of building demand, and all levels of complexity, I’ve had first-hand experience seeing what has worked and what has not, and why. Add into that the immense number of MarTech out there, it was necessary to keep my finger on the pulse of that landscape and identify the right choices for my past clients’ needs. Every large tech company approaches their demand differently for what works for their business, there is no cookie cutter approach. Establishing demand programs for some of the biggest brands allows me to bring the valuable expertise I acquired working on those variety of programs when creating a demand engine designed for growth and scale at Domo. I also love building things! Whether it’s demand gen engines or entire solutions or reimagining operations: working with many large tech companies allowed me to do that.

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How have demand centers evolved through the pandemic months? What kind of challenges did you meet in these months in your revenue generation tactics? 

The shift from running in-person type events to a virtual setting, executed within the Demand Center, became a huge focus. As Zoom fatigue became a real thing and it was clear getting back to any sense of normalcy was a long way out, we had to get creative and evolve our thinking around how to engage with our prospects and make it worth their time to join us.  We’re still evolving these types of events, as what worked six months ago doesn’t have the same impact now. Digital, as a whole, is constantly changing, and the pandemic has only sped up the need for quick and agile pivots within demand activities. 

Your personal milestone for 2021 in a still male-dominated BI industry: 

I’m incredibly excited for the opportunity we have here at Domo, and to build onto the great work of our Digital Marketing team, by adding new tactics, processes and measurement to accelerate and scale our demand efforts and ensure that our digital investments are maximized.

Your predictions on the role of demand centers in B2B tech for 2021:  

The humanization of marketing efforts will be imperative in 2021, which means truly personalized programs are essential. The Demand Center will serve as the hub to roll out these types of campaigns, engaging with the audience on their own terms, ensuring a cohesive customer journey and experience, and making sure we are truly speaking to them it a way that matters to their experience. More than ever, how we connect with our audiences and our offers have to be high value enough to cut through the digital noise and show how we can help make their jobs easier.

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Which technologies influence the evolution of demand centers: 

What technology doesn’t have the ability to influence it in some way! The real key to using tech in demand centers is understanding what you are trying to accomplish, and how you can benefit from what you have in place and what gaps you have. The biggest mistake I’ve seen tech companies making is their inability to evolve their MarTech stack beyond what they have in place, whether that is finding tech that can truly grow with them, tech that can plug into what they have make to give them more data visibility across their organization, or ensuring their employees are using what they have in place to the full scale of its ability. Keeping on top of these three elements is how tech can influence a demand center and how it continues to evolve.

A piece of advice for every young female professional looking to build a career in B2B Tech industry:

I have more than one piece of advice to give! Do not be afraid to speak up, whether you have an idea or think a different path forward on a project is needed or whatever it may be. Always advocate for yourself, you have to be your own biggest fan. Even as you rise up the ranks, take the time to mentor younger female professionals, and work to promote other women to have a seat at the same table as you. There’s plenty of room for all of us. And lastly, take care of your health, both physical and mental, and make the time to step away from work to recharge.

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Thank you, Shelley! That was fun and we hope to see you back on AiThority.com soon.