On Finding Her Voice — And Why You Should Help Your Customers Find Theirs
Guilda Hilaire — Director, Product Marketing, Salesforce
Guilda Hilaire is a Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce. She is an award-winning digital marketing thought leader, keynote speaker, and global board member of various organizations.
Guilda has more than 20 years of experience in marketing technology, including digital marketing operations, training, platform migration/implementation, and consulting. In her current role at Salesforce, she leads global community programs that reward, recognize, and educate top community experts and advocates for Salesforce Marketing Cloud. She is passionate about making learning accessible to everyone, from business executives to job seekers to students. She is committed to giving back to the community and mentoring the next generation of leaders.
Guilda lives in the Boston area with her daughter. In her spare time, she loves spending quality time with her family and friends, traveling, volunteering, cooking and working out.
Author’s Note: Guilda and I started at Aetna a few months apart in 2017. I had been hired to reshape Marketing’s digital strategy; she was hired to lead our marketing automation platforms. We struck up our first in-person conversation one morning at the office espresso machine. For the next 2 years, we worked together to modernize our Marketing Technology capabilities, finding ways to improve the digital experiences we offered our customers while continuously working to make our operations more efficient. Guilda moved on to greener pastures, but we have stayed in touch, meeting up at Boston Consulting Group alumni events. Her willingness to make time to speak with and mentor her former colleagues — years after her departure from Aetna — is just one measure of the kind of person she is. We caught up on Friday, December 5, 2023. Excerpts from our chat are below.
What do you remember about how we met?
I had just left Athena Health and started at Aetna. I was just trying to figure out my career. At the time I was reporting to a very strong leader - one of your peers. She really knew her sh*t. And I was hoping that the other people on the team would be just like that. People who would challenge the senior leaders of the organization about the way things should be done. So my manager introduced me to the broader team - and I met you.
When we first met, I was struck by your authenticity — a genuine way of looking at things from a different lens. I would be in meetings with you and I would see the way you would articulate the problem or solution — it made me want to emulate it. In corporate America, many leaders have this hard shell — it’s really hard to get a read on them. You didn’t have a hard shell — you were always human. You were always open to ideas, open to suggestions. When you’re a leader — you need to able to show that to your team and others so they could feel comfortable talking to you. And that’s what made you such a great leader in my eyes.
“I was just learning to use my voice. And I wanted to learn to use that voice with authority. You guys really helped me with that.”
What do you love about what you do?
When I started at Salesforce, my role wasn’t really defined for me. I defined it on my own because I knew what certain customers wanted. Before I joined Salesforce, I was a customer of Marketing Cloud for about 15 years. Back then, I wanted to talk to somebody about some of the challenges — for example, if I had deliverability issues and couldn’t get to my account executive or somebody with the knowledge. But there were also times I wanted to talk to somebody about my career trajectory in the Salesforce ecosystem — for example, speak at an event or host a technical webinar.
As a customer, I always wanted a “voice of me” in the organization. Now my role is just that! I’m Director of Product Marketing at Salesforce. My focus is Salesforce Marketing Cloud engagement. But I like to say I’m more like a Director of Customer Evangelism. I speak at conferences and events about the future of Marketing and AI and the importance of data. About the importance of strategy and team structure. But I also talk about the importance of career trajectory and owning your career.
“…Especially for women in the space — raising your hands and using your voice even when no one else is listening — creating your own space at a table that perhaps wasn’t meant for you.”
What’s something cool you’re working on?
At Salesforce, I lead a program called Marketing Champions. It has over 400 brand advocates from all over the globe focused on Marketing Cloud. I launched it back in 2019, and I continue to evolve and grow this program. Getting the program approved, being able to continue refining and building, maintaining the trust and the programming — all of this is near and dear to my heart. I’m constantly thinking of ways to build the community. We recently had this big event and 60 people from the program attended — I was very focused on thinking about who’s attending, the agenda, the meetings, and what we’re communicating to them.
What helps to maximize the impact of what you do?
One thing I’ve heard from Marketers is that they often feel like they’re alone. They’re really looking for a community, a sense of belonging. A feeling that somebody is listening to you. A space where you can be recognized for all your hard work. You can attend conferences and there’s somebody there helping and guiding you. So we continue to grow this program because for a lot of people — recognition matters, the feeling of belonging matters.
I still get up at 3 or 4 AM each morning. I have people WhatsApping, calling, texting me; I have meetings constantly. But I love it. I’m on LinkedIn and Twitter all the time, congratulating, following, liking, commenting. It’s a small way of rewarding people — its the highlight of their day when somebody gets certified, for example. That matters more to them than you could imagine. It matters to them that somebody’s out there looking out for their best interest.
“It’s not just about creating a program around a successful product. It’s actually creating a sense of community around the program. And that’s very different.”
Why does this work matter now?
“People learn from People.”
I do this program so that our customers have a little more knowledge about our offerings. We need to create more spaces for our customers to go on stage, share their knowledge and show the world how they’re using our products. As a customer, I’d rather hear from my peers than from anyone at the organization making the product — because they’re walking a mile in my shoes. I want to know what I’m buying, what I’m getting. When I buy with confidence, I’m a happier customer. Happy customers become better brand advocates for you. That’s why Customer Advocacy programs are so huge — and why I believe senior leadership should continue to invest in and support these efforts.
How might what you’re doing change the world?
When I get up on stage, there’s a story I love to tell. At a former employer, I was the only female at a table full of male developers and architects. I tried to tell them that a campaign about to go out would trigger multiple emails to the same customer — a really bad customer experience. But they wouldn’t listen. One morning at 4 AM, I just couldn’t sleep. So I put together a long email with screenshots, arrows, everything — and sent it to everybody working on this project. A couple of hours later my manager comes in. I didn’t know what she was going to say to me. But she said, “Good! Use your voice. If you don’t like something, speak up!” The guys got into the office — and they apologized to me! Because everything I had to say was right.
“I want people to walk away feeling like — wow, if she’s standing on stage as a single mom and she was able to do this — then I can do the same thing. I can send that email.”
I share my journey to help the quiet person sitting in the room afraid to say anything. Because they feel like they’re going to get pounded or people are going to talk over them. I want people to be empowered to speak up. We all have different ways of looking at things. Companies should want that diversity of thought, that diversity of opinion. You want to build teams where — if someone seems something that’s incorrect — they’re completely comfortable speaking up.
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