No Forms. No Spam. No Cold Calls.

CHAPTER 3BUILDING THE CUSTOMER–FIRST TECH STACK

In Chapter 2, we took a step back from the nitty-gritty of our bold new plan to talk about who is best suited to champion it. And as you read, I'm quite passionate about the fact that CMOs are the perfect people to lead the charge. It's clear to me that it's time for us—the chief market officers—to transform how we treat our prospects (aka future customers). It's time for us to pivot to playing offense and establish ourselves as the experts who will pave the road to a new, more effective approach to customer engagement. (Imagine my impassioned fist-shake here!)

To be clear, I know that the changes I'm describing in this book aren't small or easy. But I also know that they're 100 percent necessary if we're serious about treating customers differently and reaping the benefits that come from putting customers first.

In theory, customer-first sales and marketing isn't a difficult idea to get behind. After all, who's going to defend practices that piss off our customers and prospects, right? For me, as I've explained, the customer-first approach starts with no forms, no spam, and no cold calls—because we know that those practices don't just drive people crazy, but they also drive them deeper into the Dark Funnel™. And that makes it even more challenging to know when they're in-market and ready to engage.

So we know the risks of providing a bad customer experience. And I explained in Chapter 1 what a crappy customer experience looks ...