Michelle Tresemer of Foundations First: 5 Tips for Your B2B Marketing Strategy

An Interview With Stephanie Hood, Editor of TheCMO

Iterate — If what you’re working on is better than what’s live, push your changes live. Don’t wait for perfection. That will never happen. Shoot for 1% improvement/movement to your goal across the entire organization. After that, keep pushing out the 1% improvements over and over again. This is what’s meant by “growth marketing” — you’re constantly in a state of learning. This is how organizations leapfrog the competition. It’s not often by a huge transformation. It’s more often a matter of small, constant, improvements.

The B2B marketing landscape is a complex and evolving space, with its unique challenges and opportunities. Navigating it effectively requires well-thought-out strategies and insightful tactics. With a myriad of digital channels available, what are the best ways to connect, engage, and convert potential business clients? As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Tresemer.

Michelle Tresemer, a seasoned fractional CMO, pioneered a framework used by companies to optimize marketing for consistent results and minimize wasteful spending. Over the past two decades, she has collaborated with over 130 clients around the world. She is currently nearing completion of her first doctorate degree.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share your personal backstory with us?

As a young child, my dolls didn’t have tea parties. They had board meetings. I’m sure my mother thought I was a bit weird when she found me making little briefcases and power suits for my dolls. As I got older, I tested out all sorts of ways to make money. From designing holiday cards and bookmarks, to convincing my brothers to pay me to put away their laundry and wash their cars, I saw opportunity everywhere. I loved business. I loved creating products and service packages. Aside from that, I also adored gaming and was an early adopter of MMORPGs even with dial-up and before MMORPG was a thing. In short, I am a multipotentialite nerd. There are very few things that do not interest me. Marketing is a perfect career choice for me because I get to work with clients in all sorts of industries; every challenge is unique. Marketing is also part creative and part analytical. I find learning about the latest marketing tech thrilling, as well as talking about communicating through brand messaging. I’m comfortable coding websites just as much as building a content strategy. I am a marketing generalist through and through. Despite the cliché, I am a lifelong learner; I’m currently pursuing my Doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership from University of Southern California.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Before meeting Suzanne Longstreet, I had no idea how much my mindset was holding me back in business and life. People often talk about mindset as a woo-woo psychological hack. I dismissed the concept at first. But then I met Suzanne in a business coaching group a few years back and she explained the neuroscience behind this ethereal “mindset” concept. It made complete sense to me and unlocked a reservoir of energy, enthusiasm, and hope for the future. Most of my fears melted away and I’m now able to put myself out there in an authentic way that feels good. Hiding my personality wasn’t just exhausting, it was also hurting my business. Being a business owner challenges your self-confidence and self-efficacy in ways that only other entrepreneurs would understand. Suzanne helped me strengthen those weak skills.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Where should I go?” -Alice.

“That depends on where you want to end up.” — The Cheshire Cat.

― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

I’m always trying to divide my energy between being a wife, mother, business owner, daughter, thought leader, creator, and more. We all divide our energy to some extent. We each have power and control in our lives and businesses, but the trick is putting all our energy into a single path. When it comes to business, the more we can focus our resources on an end goal, the more progress we’ll make. That is one of the hardest things for me, and my clients, to do — choose what that end goal should look like. Sometimes it’s hard to admit to ourselves what we really want. But as soon as we accept it, everything starts to align and happen. Some people call this a vision board, some call it manifesting. I call it living a strategic life, or living your best life, and a life with purpose.

Can you share with us three strengths, skills, or characteristics that helped you to reach this place in your career? How can others actively build these areas within themselves?

The first is curiosity. At some point as we grow up, we start to lose our sense of curiosity. As children, we find fascination and beauty in anything from a plant to a snail to a rock. We ask a million questions about each one and soak in the information. As an adult, however, it’s harder to set aside distractions to focus intently on the small things. But I have found that it is the small things that bring the most joy. I lost my ability to pay attention to these little wonders for a long time until I took up photography as a hobby. Looking at the world through a camera helps focus my energy on being present and appreciating a slice of the world at a given time. Photography adds a tremendous perspective to how I approach life.

The second is spunk. Born with weird wiring, I always desire to try new things. Even if it is hard. I have no expectations for succeeding, I simply love trying things for the sake of trying them. Whether that’s taking snowboarding lessons at 35 years old, auditing a computer science course, learning to paint, or writing a children’s book. For me, the journey is the adventure. It allows me the flexibility to change course without a lot of emotional baggage attached. As you can imagine, this is helpful as a business owner.

Lastly, I’m tech savvy. Perhaps a more tactical skill is the ability to understand new tech quickly. I approach everything as a new tool that I get to learn how to use. This skill also ties into my curiosity. If I’m learning a brand-new CRM system, I want to explore and see what each of the buttons and fields do. I’ve worked with innumerable people who don’t approach tech with this mindset. Because of that, tech is a struggle for them. Tech is iterative and changes all the time. It will never be perfect, and I don’t expect it to be. I always recommend that if you get the opportunity to try some new tech, don’t take a tutorial and just start clicking around. Explore for yourself. Get comfortable with where things are. This type of discovery makes a huge difference in the learning curve.

Which skills are you still trying to grow now?

I’m currently working toward completion of my first doctorate degree. Soon I will earn my Doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership from University of Southern California (USC). I’m fascinated by how change happens. The neuroscience behind leadership and how company culture affects innovation captivates me. Discovering how organizations change challenges me to understand human behavior in a deep and meaningful way. For example, why people do what they do in an organizational structure is a game changer for how I approach my consulting. I am now figuring out how to incorporate those theoretical frameworks into my own programs. I can provide a client the most perfect marketing strategy ever made, but if they don’t know how to execute it, aren’t motivated to execute it, or they simply don’t have the organizational infrastructure to see it through, then even the best strategy will fail.

Let’s talk about B2B marketing. Can you share some insights into how you perceive the current landscape of B2B marketing?

Despite the media attention on the emergence of AI, I’m seeing a revival of person-to-person business. I don’t know if people are tired of the glitz and glamor of fancy marketing campaigns, but it seems that the more human relationships are paying off. It’s time to remember that business is done by people. While it’s business-to-business, it’s also human-to-human.

How have recent market trends and changes influenced your approach to outperforming competitors?

Inflation and business deals that hinge on fed announcements opened my eyes to human connection. Nothing can replace authentic human relationships. Real relationships and authentic interactions ease fears and encourage long term partnerships. In times of uncertainty, it’s critical to nurture relationships. The days of churning and burning B2B clients is over. For me, it’s time to refocus on loyalty and relationships. This means concentrating on the bottom of the funnel in the customer journey and all the way through the customer experience. Marketing can absolutely be involved in the entire customer journey. Oftentimes the marketing department will have creative ideas on how to continue to delight customers and build loyalty. Not only are these ideas new and refreshing, they also help develop that vital relationship piece.

B2B buying cycles can often be lengthy and complex. How do you maintain engagement and nurture leads throughout the various stages of the buyer’s journey?

Easy. I put the prospect at the center of discussions. I discover what they need right now. I ask what they struggle with in their day-to-day lives. Doing so means ditching the cookie cutter funnels and caring about the prospects. I put on my empathy hat and serve!

Personalization is gaining prominence in B2B marketing. What are some ways marketers can effectively leverage data to deliver personalized experiences?

The most important step is to make caring part of the company culture. This change in culture needs to come from leadership. And when I say caring culture, I’m not talking about trying to prove someone else’s feelings. The truth is in the data. Data can provide insights on how you show that you care.

Here’s what I mean. When I receive cookie cutter emails, it is clear to me that the salesperson never looked me up and has no idea who I am. They don’t even know how or why I’m struggling. That is not caring culture. It’s hard to remember that the number of leads you have represent actual humans. Sometimes you must take that list, no matter how big it is, and start looking at every single experience. Once you go through them one at a time, you’ll discover what questions to ask of your dataset.

That’s the fun part of data, you must know what to ask. Data is all about asking the right questions. Caring culture is determining what your leads need based on those answers, and then delivering upon those needs.

ABM has also gained traction for its personalized approach to targeting high-value accounts. What advice would you give to fellow B2B marketers looking to adopt this strategy?

Again, having a culture of caring goes a long way. One where you genuinely care about your prospect and understanding their specific needs. Through this lens, it’s much easier to brainstorm meaningful ways to engage with the decision makers, stakeholders, etc..

ABM involves a lot of creativity. You want to stand out. You can accomplish this by treating each prospective company in a unique way. Trying to build cookie cutter approaches to ABM is a mistake. You must remember that B2B is also person-to-person. You’re going to have a champion contact at your target company — don’t dismiss them and ask to talk to the decision-maker right away. How about work with the champion to pitch the solution together? Sometimes we just get in our own way to “make the sale” and end up angering people in the process.

Fantastic. Here is the primary question of our interview. What are 5 Tips for Your B2B Marketing Strategy to Help You Beat Competitors? Please share a story or example for each.

1 . Decide what you really, really want.

What you really want will determine the path you need to take to get there. If you want to get acquired by Microsoft, that means a very different marketing strategy than if you plan on leaving the company to your grandkids. I’m astounded that my number one challenge with clients is getting leadership to agree on what they really want. If you love language like I do, look up the etymology of the word “decide.” It means to cut off everything that’s not important. For businesses, this means taking an honest look at your products, your people, your finances, etc., and cutting out everything that isn’t important to help you reach your goal. The companies I see struggling year after year refuse to draw a line in the sand. They talk about the same issues they were talking about five years ago.

2 . Commit to the path. Burn the ships.

Cortés landed in Mexico in 1519 and burned the ships to truly commit to his mission. While that might be a bit drastic, the concept holds true. Once you have decided what you want, it’s time to align your actions to that path. This means being unapologetic about saying “no” to things that aren’t aligned. More importantly, and more difficult, is shutting down existing programs that are no longer aligned. My business coach would always tell me that “the team that got you here is not the team that will get you there.” When it comes to true commitment to your goal, you will likely have to let some people go. The skills you need might be different than what you have on staff. I’ve seen companies try to hold on to staff for years even though they know it’s the wrong skillset. The employee knows it. Leadership knows it. Yet they still don’t make the commitment to their goals.

3 . Focus.

As a business owner, I know how tempting it is to take a side quest. This is where a good integrator or COO comes in handy. What has helped me over the years is to redefine the word “strategy.” Think of it this way for everything that you do: is there a reason to do it? Here’s what I mean. I have seen companies make some odd decisions for questionable reasons. Maybe it’s because a niece who took a marketing class in college made a comment at a BBQ. Or, one I hear more frequently, someone from the leadership “met a guy” at a networking event that had an opinion about something. I’ve seen entire marketing programs shift because of this exact example…more than once. Keep your focus on your goal and don’t get distracted by random comments or ideas. I have a “parking garage” file where I put all the side quest ideas in order to limit distractions.

4 . Act.

Take intentional steps on the campaigns, tactics, and programs that will get you closer to your goal…the thing you really, really want. For every action, ask yourself how it’s going to contribute to getting you closer to your goal. Again, the goal needs to be the center of attention. In larger organizations that do a poor job of communicating the company goal down to the execution teams, things get tricky. The person writing the blog posts should know what the goal is so they can understand how they can use their skill to best contribute to it. Think about how you ask your execution specialists for tasks. Do you say, “write me a blog post about XYZ” or do you ask, “how can we use content marketing to reach XYZ objective?” Actions speak louder than words, so make sure your actions are intentional.

5 . Iterate.

If what you’re working on is better than what’s live, push your changes live. Don’t wait for perfection. That will never happen. Shoot for 1% improvement/movement to your goal across the entire organization. After that, keep pushing out the 1% improvements over and over again. This is what’s meant by “growth marketing” — you’re constantly in a state of learning. This is how organizations leapfrog the competition. It’s not often by a huge transformation. It’s more often a matter of small, constant, improvements.

How do you utilize data or AI to refine your B2B marketing approach, and what tools have been particularly impactful in gaining a competitive advantage?

I’ve recently started using AI to better understand the pain points of different target audiences. For example, I had a SaaS client that was drafting a landing page for a new vertical and we leveraged ChatGPT to help understand the primary pain points for the industry. We planned on testing out that messaging, but it gave us a place to start for consideration. I find AI tools invaluable for helping brainstorm ideas. It will often suggest something I hadn’t even thought about.

Which digital channels have you found most effective in reaching your target audience, and how do you optimize your presence across these channels to outshine competitors?

It’s not about individual digital channels. It’s about how a prospect experiences the brand across channels. Remarketing and retargeting work well when planned strategically to reinforce value propositions and credibility. But again, the kinds of content distributed across the channels is way more important than the channels used. Believe it or not, consistency is incredibly difficult to do. I tell my clients that they’ll know when they are finally starting to be consistent when they wake up utterly sick of their messaging. Consistency of quality, useful information works the best. Having a singular position in the marketplace and making sure people receive the same message no matter how they experience the brand, that’s marketing at its best.

Are there any underrated skills or qualities that you encourage others not to overlook?

Technical skills for marketers are critical. I encourage all marketers, no matter what their specialization, to learn the basics of html, CSS, computer science, and CRMs. Now with the popularity of AI, understanding how machine learning works is beneficial as well. Hands down, the best marketers I know understand how technology leverages their specialty and it gives them a fantastic edge. For that reason, if I had to do it over again, I would have double majored in computer science and psychology.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I have been toying with the idea of creating a Super PAC specifically to fund minority political campaigns at all levels of government. I truly believe we need a diversity of ideas for change to happen and we need a diverse group of people with a seat at the table. Not only do minorities need financial support, but they also need relational support to remove barriers to entry. I’d like to help with that.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I would love to share a meal with James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. I’d be delighted to talk to him about how to hack one’s environment to make habits much easier to build, particularly for the neurodiverse community. My dream would be to consult on his next book. Too often we try to change ourselves and feel a deep sense of failure when we can’t be consistent in little habits. But I’m finding that small changes to our environment can do the trick. I don’t know why we always try to blame ourselves instead of the environment. I see this with organizational red tape too. I’ve witnessed too many salespeople with excel spreadsheets on their desktop because the CRM system is so cumbersome. Instead of trying to change the behavior, let’s fix the CRM system. Sometimes it’s the environment and not the behavior that’s the problem.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

About The Interviewer: Stephanie Hood is the Editor of The CMO and holds vast marketing experience in industries spanning media, publishing, tech, fashion and travel/tourism. Throughout her career, she has led editorial and marketing teams and strategies for small and medium-sized businesses, consistently turning six-figure budgets into seven-figure profits. With a passion for storytelling, Stephanie enjoys connecting with the world’s top executives to share their secrets to business success. Curious what she’s uncovered? Read more at TheCMO.