Lisa Sharapata, VP Marketing, Brand and Demand at MindTickle, is an accomplished marketing executive with global experience across brand strategy, demand generation, customer experience, product marketing, and sales enablement. She thrives on creating winning go-to-market strategies, building brands from the inside-out, growing teams, and leading. Her sweet spot is developing and executing game-changing programs that build awareness, generate demand, and grow the lifetime value of the customer.
Believe in yourself. If you don’t, who will?
MEDIA 7: What inspired you to pursue a career in marketing? What has your professional journey been like?
LISA SHARAPATA: Well, I actually wanted to be an Astronaut growing up! After attending Space Camp and taking some really hard Physics courses I quickly realized I wasn’t cut out for it and transferred into Graphic Design. After spending a few years on the agency side, I got sick of making logos bigger, changing fonts and not thinking about the person you’re selling to. I moved in-house to gain more control over the strategy and process.
I quickly fell in love with developing the brand, messaging, and designing meaningful experiences. Building a strategy and working with sales to execute it is really rewarding. I love being able to use my creative and analytical skills to create meaningful outcomes.
M7: How does MindTickle accelerate ramp time and improve performance using data-driven readiness for sales teams?
LS: While every company has its own version of ramping up sellers and onboarding, sales readiness and optimized seller performance are the result of a data-driven approach to not only onboarding but also ongoing “ever boarding”: training, practice, coaching, buyer engagement, and remediation. At MindTickle, we partner with companies to build readiness strategies that leverage data to help sellers be ready to perform at the moment of truth and ultimately, deliver more revenue.
Community is the new event! We are in the early stages of planning our own community.
M7: How do you ensure that your sales team understands and presents your software to the potential clients in an engaging manner?
LS: Embracing a learning culture is imperative. At MindTickle, we strive to do this with our own sales team as well as with customers to maximize seller credibility by focusing on solution selling and communication skills. We help sellers deliver on-point product and company messaging through virtual role-plays, simulated sales scenarios and instant AI-based feedback.
M7: For marketing, what channels do you think are most relevant to your business? How do you use each channel differently?
LS: Success using channels is dependent on multiple things. I believe in designing great experiences based on the intent data and predictive analytics. Once you know what an account is looking for and what stage they are in you can determine the best approach and channel for outreach.
For example, if an account is in an early stage and just starting to show “signs of life” searching for a keyword like “ramp time” I would use “ramp time” focused display ads and email to drive them to a designated landing page with educational content on how to improve ramp time and a chatbot ready to steer them in the right direction. BDRs do outreach or possibly use ‘gifting’ to book a meeting.
If an account is in a later “Decision making” stage and searching for “ramp time” and let’s say they have already been to our landing page we’d use LinkedIn, send them case studies, we might have our AEs send direct mail to try and get a meeting. Or, if they go back to the landing page, it’s dynamic and the content will change to a later stage and the bot would ping the AE to try and book a meeting.
Bottom line: “Brand drives demand, but only the best experiences win.”
Brand drives demand, but only the best experiences win.
M7: What do you believe are the top three marketing challenges that you have faced in the post COVID-19 era? How did you overcome them?
LS: 1. No live events. Community is the new event! We are in the early stages of planning our own community. In the meantime, we’re getting involved in other established communities such as Revenue Collective, Rev Genius, and Sales Enablement society.
2. Remote. I think this is a given. In MindTickle’s case, it’s becoming positive. MindTickle is set up to enable remote teams at scale. Not only has the transition is easy, but it’s helping our business grow. And I’m seeing digital transformations happen at warp speed in all industries. Now that we are working from a “work from everywhere world” we are redoing our brand and product messaging to fit within this new era.
3. Human connection. People buy from people they like [It’s not B2B or B2C, it's P2P]! It’s hard to recreate meeting people in person. The next best thing is to do your homework. Take cues from people's LinkedIn profiles, zoom background, etc. Be real. Find creative ways to connect with people and make meaningful experiences to forge that connection virtually.
M7: When you are not working, what are you usually doing? Would you like to share your hobbies with us?
LS: I love spending time with my family, you’ll usually find me hanging out on the soccer field, at a dance competition, or going for a walk with my dog.
M7: What is your advice to women who want to pursue a career in marketing?
LS: Believe in yourself. If you don’t, who will? And build your network.