Myth Buster: FreshBooks’ Paul Cowan Debunks the Single-Source-of-Truth Myth
Why it’s next to impossible for marketers to obtain a single source of truth when it comes to their datasets
There’s a notion among marketers that the way to provide the best customer experience is to have the richest data. After all, to CMOs and most modern marketers, data is basically the key to unlocking customer success. But to provide those marquee customer experiences, there’s a myth swirling around that the only way to have success is if all your data sets live in one place. You need the mythical “single source of truth.” But is a single source of truth actually attainable in today’s oversaturated martech ecosystem? Paul Cowan is the CMO of FreshBooks, and he isn’t so sure.
“Having a single source of truth is next to impossible,” Cowan said. “I haven’t been in any organization where anybody has said, ‘Man, our data is in a perfect state. Here it is. Here’s our 360 view of the customer. We’re done, clap your hands and walk away. That doesn’t exist. You need to have your single source of truth in terms of what you believe success looks like, and everybody’s aligned to that…But I think being able to have that 360 view of the customer is the hard part.”
Aligning data goals and marketing goals is almost as difficult as properly aligning sales and marketing teams. But Cowan did have some thoughts on traits that marketers should possess in today’s competitive B2B environment.
“Marketers really need to understand the pains that sales go through, and often they don’t,” Cowan said. “They don’t get into the weeds of understanding what it’s like to go through the process. Where it works really well is if you get marketers who understand what it’s like to go through the sales process, who know how to pitch the product. If you can get marketers that are actually pretty good at selling, then that’s even better because then everybody understands the different types of frustrations and pain points.”
Cowan considers himself a builder of products and companies, and on a recent episode of Marketing Trends, Cowan joined host Jeremy Bergeron for a fun conversation on a host of topics, including how Cowan is helping to build alignment between Freshbooks’ marketing and sales team, and a robust data strategy to target an SMB market in dire need of reliable insights. Plus, the two cover how Freshbooks reorganized its marketing department to eliminate siloed segments.
To hear more from Cowan and Freshbooks, make sure you check out the full episode of Marketing Trends!
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