Freya Ward (00:56.564)
So welcome to B2B Marketers Off the Record with one of our founding guests, Christina Mitine She is the Senior Go-to-Market Leader at Amazon Web Services. And who better to introduce herself than Christina?
Christina Mitine (01:12.125)
Freya, thanks so much for having me. I’m excited to be here with you today. I have been in the go-to-market and business development space for nearly a decade, started my career in sales at Oracle, and have had a pretty cross-functional perspective that I’m excited to dive into with you during our time today. And I’m in San Francisco, California.
Freya Ward (01:33.599)
Thank you Christina. I’m so happy to have you on the pod and thank you so much for being one of our founding guests Let’s get to know you a little bit better So Christina one thing we like to do at the beginning of the B2B marketers off the record podcast is play on a little bit of nostalgia So tell me you’ve been in B2B marketing and business development for many years without telling me I’ll go first. I’m gonna say printed business cards
Christina Mitine (02:00.221)
You took mine from me. was going to say the same, I think back to changing each time I job title change, I would have to go print out new ones, make sure it was the right company logo and font. And now we have LinkedIn QR codes and contacts that you can just share through Bluetooth.
Freya Ward (02:19.805)
It’s amazing, isn’t it? Although there was something so proud about any promotion or job change, getting that printed 250 cards. I’m not sure what anyone was ever gonna do with 250 cards. But I think my mom’s, I gave my first business cards out to my friends and family. I think my mom’s probably still got mine on her fridge somewhere.
Christina Mitine (02:40.559)
I think my brother was the first one who got mine and I actually think it’s still on his desk, so
Freya Ward (02:46.839)
I love that.
Christina Mitine (02:46.929)
it lives on somewhere.
Freya Ward (02:49.501)
I love that. So tell us a little bit about your journey. know that kind of where you’re at now or how we met Christina was through one of the many communities that you’re involved in that’s all about empowering women in revenue, in tech, in leadership. How did your journey start? How did you get into marketing and business development in the very first place?
Christina Mitine (03:12.371)
You know, I think for me it really came down to human connection. I was not at all thinking about starting my career in tech. My background is in the sciences with a public health and medical background. And stepping into sales at first, then moving to product marketing just really stood out. And I realized very quickly I loved.
Christina Mitine (03:38.067)
revenue generating activities. I liked figuring out how does our brand and design appeal to customers and partners and over time it really evolved into this cross-functional perspective that has landed being in the go-to-market and business development space that intersects in such an interesting way with both sales and marketing and to the community piece that you called out, think such a important part of my career and growth has been through different
Christina Mitine (04:06.247)
networks, especially those focused on women in tech and leadership development. So we met through women in revenue and I’ve been involved with a few others locally here, like women in AI and women at AWS at my own company. And I think that also within itself has weaved into why so many of these initiatives and the B2B marketing and go-to-market space is so important.
Freya Ward (04:28.647)
completely agree and I mean I’m so impressed I don’t know how you do it you must not sleep because you are everywhere you’re at events you’re building that community and that kind of it’s relationships really isn’t it as you mentioned how you kind of got into it in the first place it’s being curious about people but then you’ve also got the analytical arm and the data scientist backed arm as well it’s so impressive Christina I just don’t know how you do it it’s wild
Christina Mitine (04:59.248)
I will say some good yoga, tennis, and coffee. A lot of coffee or Earl Grey tea really help in the process.
Freya Ward (05:08.319)
So talk to me a little bit then about being in the kind B2B marketing, the B2B tech space. Is there one single belief that you’ve changed your mind on in the last 12 months?
Christina Mitine (05:23.186)
I think for a while, many of us and myself included thought that scale was the primary driver in B2B marketing, right? The more touch points, the more channels, the more you are theoretically covering and reaching out to folks in your space. And when I started my career in sales, it was that exact playbook. was send a huge campaign, send out a lot of emails.
Christina Mitine (05:52.008)
Hope that someone answers your phone call or your email. And I think at that time it worked. And I think in the last even three months, let alone 12, with more AI driven motions, you have to be thinking about signal driven, intent driven outreach and campaigns and touch points more so than.
Christina Mitine (06:17.364)
these high volume plays. So I think for me, the shift has really been instead of how do I reach the maximum number of people, it’s how do I reach the right people or person at the right time and in a very intentional and targeted way through the correct platform or platforms.
Freya Ward (06:37.979)
it’s so interesting. A lot of the people in our space that I speak with, they’ve really shifted from that quantity over quality piece and they’re leaning much more into the qualitative metrics and actually making sure that although you know the
Freya Ward (06:55.603)
B2B Buying Committee has expanded, it’s bigger than it’s ever been. Making sure that you’re reaching the right people at the right time with the right messaging, be that in partnership programs or that could be in trade shows and events, there’s so many different places. But that informed outreach I think is so much more important now. And like you rightly said, Christina.
Freya Ward (07:18.853)
kind of fast-tracked by AI. It’s almost, AI has made it possible to do everything at scale, but actually we’re all tasked as marketing professionals in this space and business development professionals not to just target everybody because you can target everybody and actually we’ve got to cut through the noise now and it’s got to resonate. How are you seeing that translate then into kind of B2B buyers behaviors? What shifts are you seeing in that space?
Christina Mitine (07:49.564)
I think the biggest shift is realizing that your buyer is typically coming into the first conversation, knowing a lot about you, your product or service or offering and your team. Like self-education has just accelerated so much and
Christina Mitine (08:13.928)
By the time, in my experience, a buyer is engaging with your team, whether it’s your marketing team, your sales team, your product team, they’ve already done the research, read all of the documentation or had their own tools process it. They know what your competitor offers and they’re coming in with pretty targeted questions. And I find that that’s where the shift is. And what I hear a lot is this move towards wanting
Christina Mitine (08:43.487)
quick responses, self-service, starting or testing, and then bringing in that, we hear the term human in the loop, and really having that interaction with your marketers or your go-to-market folks or your sales teams. think that’s one piece. Another thing that I think is interesting too is for so long, you’ve probably heard of like, BANT the sales process, and I think we would think, okay, who’s the…
Christina Mitine (09:12.498)
decision maker who carries the budget. And now I find that it’s such a cross-functional and holistic experience across teams and your actual builders and developers and even engineers are speaking to.
Christina Mitine (09:29.33)
the decision process in their company. And I think we as marketers and leaders have to talk to several people to be on the same page. Because I think if you just go in and you think, okay, I’ve now validated this with this person and the budget is aligned and that’s it, you’re missing out on the people that are actually going to be spending the time implementing this. And they have their own preconceived notions and sometimes documentation doesn’t come up.
Christina Mitine (09:58.996)
the right way or you only get a partial view. So I really think like my headline is your buyer in the B2B space will already know so much about you. If your outreach to them is generic, like we talked about before, I think they’ll really question like how good your product or your offering is because oftentimes people want that last step of how can I come to a human if I’m having a problem because the product
Christina Mitine (10:28.678)
already hits everything that they’re looking.
Freya Ward (10:32.287)
us.
Freya Ward (10:32.755)
That’s such an interesting point and I think you articulate it so well. It’s also about a shift in messaging, think, isn’t it? And making sure that you’re talking to the challenges that that individual or group of individuals has in using or the benefit, you know, the flip side of it, the benefit. If you’re speaking to the finance department, for example, and you’re looking to displace a competitor, then you need to talk about the benefit from overheads, the benefit on cost efficiency.
Freya Ward (11:02.689)
Freya Ward (11:03.05)
savings, things like that, but if you’re talking to the engineer or the developer you need to talk about time efficiencies or whatever it is that your product lends to that individual.
Freya Ward (11:14.623)
It’s just, for me, it’s going full circle, right? It’s coming back to good marketing 101 and knowing your customer. And not just the person that signs the I.O. or the S.O.W. whatever it might be, or the S.L.A. Not just that individual, but everyone that’s gonna be an evaluator in the consideration stage, people that you don’t even know are sat at the table and actually have an influence now.
Christina Mitine (11:44.38)
Yeah, and there’s so much to be said about references and anecdotes from peers in your space. I think that lands, and I hear that so much from other companies like us that you’re working with. What’s the scale that you’re seeing? What can you do for us as a brand and how can we partner with you?
Christina Mitine (12:07.556)
And I find that the way that we have to have these conversations and the people we even have to bring in from our own side is variably shifting to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Freya Ward (12:18.493)
Yeah, that’s interesting. Do you think a lot of it comes down to it’s almost like trust based selling, isn’t it? It’s AI is and the the introduction of the self serve customer at the end of the day that’s got access to all of these resources. It’s all eroding that trust. So there needs to be people that are adaptable with a wide skill set, whether that you know, customer facing but
Christina Mitine (12:32.392)
Okay.
Freya Ward (12:46.149)
know the product inside and out but being able to lean on those people internally as well and be like actually it’s a technical challenge here’s a product expert you know product matter expert that we’ll introduce for that point or maybe it’s a relationship challenge and actually they just want to know that there’s a partnership there
Freya Ward (13:04.797)
And it’s interesting that you mention around the referral piece because I do think that’s why platforms like Reddit and G2 and all of these things are starting to get more airtime in the B2B space.
Christina Mitine (13:16.699)
Yeah, I’ve definitely seen the same and it’s interesting to see commentary across different platforms and I do think that looking at those intense signals across Reddit, G2, LinkedIn, X, the list goes on.
Christina Mitine (13:34.15)
is really important because I do believe that’s where you’re going to hear in some ways the real time feedback positive and sometimes not so much but that’s what you need to really improve your message and then to what you mentioned that’s exactly how I see it. think you have to.
Christina Mitine (13:51.176)
go into a conversation and be prepared for the business and the engagement side and the executive level storytelling and what I like to call the art of the possible. But also very quickly be able to pivot or have the right person on your team that can talk to the tech and the product and the actual output and ROI on the investment from a more technical lens when needed.
Freya Ward (14:15.229)
Yeah,
Freya Ward (14:16.36)
we’ve got really educated buyers now. Like you said, right at the off, the biggest shift you’re seeing, or one of the biggest shifts you’re seeing is how educated buyers are. So you’ve got to be able to pull from that wheelhouse and go, this is gonna help get this over the line, or this is the kind of influence I need to make for this individual or their stakeholders.
Freya Ward (14:39.197)
With that in mind and the big shifts that we’re seeing on both buyer side but also channels and signals and everything else, what is a strategic bet that you think more marketing leaders will need to make over the next couple of years?
Christina Mitine (14:56.456)
I think there’s a few, but the one that really lands for me is thinking about your partner network. And what I mean by that is I believe the way to really be successful, especially in the marketing space and to really drive is to figure out who is within your network or your ecosystem that you can co-sell with and have that brand awareness.
Christina Mitine (15:22.898)
I like to think of it as either like a community partner or an ecosystem partner. And I’m already seeing that shift in the market. And you’re seeing this emphasis on partnerships and growth and the better together story. And I really think that that’s something that marketing leaders have to start thinking about, not even over the next couple of years, but now in the short term and then looking ahead.
Christina Mitine (15:51.538)
What does that look like and who are they investing in and working with, whether it’s to craft the message or it’s a similar customer profile or it’s offerings that are complimentary and they make sense to folks in that space.
Freya Ward (16:10.431)
it’s so true it’s so true because it’s you can lean on other people’s credibility in the trust they’ve already established in that partnership right and then it’s a it’s a it’s a form of referral but also you it well you summed it up perfectly it’s the better together type piece and
Freya Ward (16:32.199)
It’s interesting to see, you you work at a large enterprise tech company and you absolutely value the partnership piece, but I think it’s so transferable regardless of the size of the company and the size of the marketing department, for example.
Freya Ward (16:48.841)
There’s platforms I’ve started seeing that I think AI has fast tracked the production of them, but platforms where it almost matches you. It’s almost like Tinder, but for B2B tech companies. And it almost matches you with complimentary services and solutions from other vendors that you’re able to partner with. I was on a podcast a year or so ago and it was a comment that was made around…
Christina Mitine (16:59.027)
Yeah.
Freya Ward (17:14.013)
this partnership mentality. And since then, I’ve just seen so many of these products and solutions coming out, even for like startup businesses, it’s almost don’t start with nothing, work with another startup that’s complimentary to you that can work on that referral piece. Because if someone’s got a challenge this big and you’re able to fit there and another company and another company, then you know, is that holistic go to market piece. That again, if we’re focusing on
Freya Ward (17:43.401)
how AI is eroding trust and how buyers are more educated, having that ally in the space, or even as you said, kind of developed through communities and kind of natural networking spaces. It’s really interesting. I think we’re gonna see that come up more and more, like you said, in not even the next couple of years, but sooner than that.
Freya Ward (18:11.869)
Going back to kind of the basics of the B2B marketing and business development space, if there was one thing, and I’m sure there’s many, but if there was one thing that you could change, what would, what do you wish you could change about marketing?
Christina Mitine (18:31.973)
I would
Christina Mitine (18:33.513)
eliminate the barrier or artificial wall that exists between marketing and sales. think a lot of companies, regardless of size, whether you’re a startup or a large enterprise, are starting to do that and see that value. But when I think back over the time in my career that spanned sales and product marketing and even some executive communications and now when
Christina Mitine (19:01.172)
the technical go-to-market space I’m in, I think the way that you can build motions that actually work is by understanding both sides.
Christina Mitine (19:11.152)
For me, like being able to sit in the seller’s seat and hear what the customer is saying made it cohesive to understand when I moved to product marketing, what were the type of things that were important. And to me, I think when marketing and sales are one motion with
Christina Mitine (19:31.144)
at least a similar set of outcomes and goals, that’s when the model is moving in the right way. So honestly, I think to me that’s what I’m just like so passionate about. And if there’s a way to have the right sequence and to build the conversations together instead of as separate distinct functions, that would be like a win for everyone.
Freya Ward (19:56.573)
Yeah, I completely, completely agree. From someone that’s gone from a marketing position into sales and kind of the flip reverse, I completely agree with you. If we all just sang from the same hymn sheet and move towards that shared goal, shared objective, which most businesses, the end goal…
Freya Ward (20:17.659)
is the same but how you get there is very siloed it would be a completely completely different space and I’m sure that is shared far and wide within both the sales and marketing communities. Is there anything that you would
Freya Ward (20:34.723)
From your experience of kind of sitting in the sales side in customer success over to product marketing, all of those different roles that you’ve taken, is there a common thread or a common piece of advice that you would give or that you’ve carried with you through that to try and aid that alignment?
Christina Mitine (20:55.132)
I think for me, what I’ve always been very intentional about doing is when possible, bringing people along on a journey and offering someone on your product team or your marketing team to listen into a customer conversation, asking your marketers to be part of the planning conversations with events. And I think having these
Christina Mitine (21:19.898)
open lines of communication, even if it’s just a quick Slack message or an email thread, I find that you can’t always do that because obviously sometimes time is just against you. But when you can, I found for me that’s been the common thread throughout all of the roles I’ve been in and reminding everyone that, you know, our goal is, especially in customer facing roles is to give the customer the best experience and to really align on.
Christina Mitine (21:47.678)
that as the output instead of maybe more minor individual goals and how are we accelerating pipeline creation and revenue and in the end externally having the best relationship with our customers and partners.
Freya Ward (22:03.657)
comes full circle back to the people part.
Freya Ward (22:06.823)
right? And it’s remembering I think that you’re working with people and it’s almost cross marketing, internal marketing to a degree to build that camaraderie across the departments and that could be as simple as just buddying up with an SDR or it doesn’t even need to be in the senior sales leadership but shadowing and shadowing one another. I believe that every marketer should spend a day in sales shoes and every salesperson should set to spend a day in a marketer’s shoes.
Freya Ward (22:36.689)
Freya Ward (22:37.189)
just to see what it’s like not to say one is harder than the other or one is you know more stressful or anything like that but just to experience it because I think that experience is so valuable and it makes you see that the opposite department as an ally and through a different light I think
Freya Ward (23:02.119)
Okay so as you know we’re building out this podcast for marketers, by marketers essentially. Christina who should we invite to speak next on B2B Marketers Off the Record? It can be aspirational, you don’t necessarily have to know them but who do you think would be a great guest?
Christina Mitine (23:23.272)
The person that came to mind actually is Sarah Friar. She’s the CFO of OpenAI. And the reason I say that is I think she would have a very unique perspective on growth, trust, and demand in the industry. And I’ve been following her on LinkedIn and just the work that she’s doing also for women in this space and development. And I think it’s oftentimes overlooked the integration between CFOs, CMOs.
Christina Mitine (23:51.964)
and CRO, so I think her perspective could be really interesting for this group.
Freya Ward (23:56.837)
love that. Well Sarah if you’re listening we would love to have you on the pod and then a final question for you Christina is whether it’s Sarah or not what is one question you’d like the next guest to answer?
Christina Mitine (24:11.376)
I’d love to hear the perspective of where does brand and perception really sit in the growth equation for B2B marketers and leaders.
Freya Ward (24:23.327)
Excellent question. Thank you so much. And I look forward to asking it of our next guest. Well, Christina, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It’s amazing to have your perspective and your point of view and for you to spare us a little bit of your very busy schedule, supporting and empowering lots of women in the workplace, but also your very important and busy role at AWS as well in your senior leadership role in the go-to-market team.
Freya Ward (24:52.873)
We look forward to the recording and sharing it far and wide within the podcast space. And all that’s left for me to say is thank you so much.
Christina Mitine (25:01.588)
Freya, thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for having me on the podcast and I’m excited for all the continued growth ahead.
