Growth Marketing with Cody Lee from Summit Partners | S02 E03

Hello everyone and welcome to New Breed's Adding Value podcast. My name is Guido and I'm the manager of Acquisition and Strategy at New Breed. For those of you who don't know, New Breed is a revenue management firm focused on helping B2B companies grow and expand their business. And we do this by following the inbound methodology, which at its core is about adding value before extracting value. So the goal of this podcast is to bring you stories of how people add value to their customers, their company, and the individuals around them. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, give us a five star rating and check out the rest of our content on newbreedmarketing.com today. I'm excited to have Cody Lee, the Vice president of Summit Partners Peak Performance Group, join the podcast. I'm really excited for you to take the time to join today and welcome to the podcast.

Thanks, Guido. Happy to be here.

Awesome. This is actually the first interview that I've done since the coronavirus outbreak started about two months ago. We had to focus our attention on other priorities, so I wasn't able to devote as much time to the podcast as I would have liked. But the first question I have to ask is, what's your work from home setup like?

Well, you know, my work from home setup is actually pretty good, mostly because I actually work from home a few days a week regularly, so I was pretty set up. I've got a 40 inch monitor which is a must have external keyboard and a mouse. And you know, I've also got a carpal tunnel brace for my wrist, so I'm good to go.

Oh, that's great. I don't have any kind of carpal tunnel brace or anything like that, but I do have a nice desk that I got set up recently. I'm actually recording right now though from my closet. I'm taking some advice from NPR because I've listened to them a decent amount and when they're on location, going into closets actually provides a lot of good soundproofing. So trying to keep away from the distractions of the animals that are in the house and make sure that we have good audio quality for the episode.

Yeah, you sound amazing.

Great, great. It's working well then. So first thing I want to get into is a bit about your background in Summit Partners. Can you talk about what Summit Partners does and what your role is there?

Yeah, absolutely. So Summit Partners is a private equity firm. We invest in three different kind of sectors. One is healthcare, one's technology, and one is growth products and services, which is everything from business services, e commerce, fintech. So we have quite a breadth. There's about 100 companies in our portfolio that we've actively invested in and I'm on their team of operational advisors called the Peak Performance Group. There's about six or seven of us and essentially we're a free on demand resource for our portfolio companies. We advise them in areas like sales and go to market, marketing, pricing, operations, infrastructure and product. So I am a functional expert in marketing and digital. So every day of the week I'm talking to different companies in our portfolio, essentially helping and advising their CMOs and marketing teams. Take it to the next level.

That's awesome. How did you get into that? What was the background that you had before getting started at Summit?

Yeah, it's been a really interesting journey. I like to describe it as the journey from poetry to private equity because I actually majored in poetry in college and I started out as a copywriter, but I got into digital. I worked for a lead generation firm for software companies on their paid search team. And I got that job by saying a paid search ad is kind of like a sonnet. We're trying to connect with the audience, entice their click, persuade them to take an action. And that at its root is a lot of what poetry, creative writing and psychology is trying to do. But most recently, prior to Summit, I actually co founded a marketing consultancy and three of our clients were portfolio companies of Summit Partners. And so that's how I got introduced to the great work that Summit does. And when I learned that they had their own team that does this for their entire portfolio, that was something I was really, really interested in. And I joined full time at Summit about a year ago.

That's awesome. And it's so interesting to hear that you had a background on the writing and communication side of things. There's so many other skill sets that get valued within marketing, but we've noticed both with our own employees and working with clients, that communication and copywriting are critical to everything that you're going to be doing from a marketing standpoint. And I've seen a lot of people take that skill set and grow their careers with it in very different ways. I'm interested to know though, was there any point where you were working in your career prior to joining Summit where you thought to yourself, I'm really interested in getting into private equity? Or did that just come about naturally?

It came about naturally. I would say that I didn't even really know about private equity five years ago. Obviously you hear about Big VC firms and investing in tech and the growth of software and things like that. But I didn't really know that that was something that I was going to end up in. But when I found it, it really connected with me because it's in many ways helped to be an engine of the economy of businesses. Right. We help fast growing companies accelerate their growth, which means accelerate the value that they provide to the world. Right. Like a company grows because it is providing value. Like the podcast here. And so I really connected with that. From a mission standpoint, we get to help phenomenal companies, phenomenal teams, continue what they're doing and be a true partner in their growth.

That's so great. And it's cool to see that private equity is starting to take that step of really working with their clients to be kind of hand in hand in their growth. I know some other venture capital firms out there that might not get into that side of things as much. They just do the investments to let the companies run. But you guys are actually working really hands on. That's fascinating. So what are some of the types of companies that you actually get to work with day to day? What are the challenges that they're facing? What pain points do they have and how do you help solve for them?

Yeah, it's a diverse set of companies. You got health care, you've got tech, you've got E Commerce. We're also global, so we invest in North America as well as Europe. We have an office in London. And so when I'm speaking with different people, a lot of what I'm trying to do is find patterns that can be applicable no matter what your go to market is, no matter what your industry is. Here are frameworks and ways of organizing that can help in multiple areas. So a lot of times one of the main problems that I'm helping with is hiring talent and organizational design. Right. So you know, you might have three marketers on the team right now and you've got great ambitious growth plans over the next three years. You know, how does that marketing team look going forward? What type of individuals should you add to that team? What are their profiles look like? How do you interview them, how do you hire them, how do you train them? And how does that compare to working with an agency or an outsourced resource like New Breed, which in many cases is the right move too. So I'm making a lot of connections. I'd say I try to be kind of a connector to the great things that everyone's doing in the portfolio as well as to trusted third party resources that they can count on.

How do you go about trying to help companies identify those third party resources to go with? Do you have a network that you are already working with to try to recommend them to, or do you do some of that evaluation on your own?

Sometimes, yeah, I try to build the network kind of opportunistically, I'll say. But as anyone does, if your eyes are open, you can spot good work. And we have such a broad portfolio, a lot of times it's hey, who are you working with? Do you like them? Do you not like them? If you like them, why let me introduce myself to them and make connections if that's the way to go. And other times I get emails and cold outreach and pitched a lot. Right. And so it's listening and kind of vetting that. But the best vouch that I can have is someone has done great work in the portfolio already and then I can introduce them with confidence.

That's awesome. So apart from just helping companies build that structure and find the talent that they need to get work done, what are some of the actual strategies and tactics that you help clients in your portfolio implement that have the highest leverage to help them achieve ROI through their digital marketing efforts?

Yeah, it's a great question. You know, it's kind of an ironic answer for a guy who started in copywriting. But, you know, data is just so critical. So a lot of times, you know, one of the things that we're helping is how are the marketing programs and metrics aligned with business metrics and outcomes? What's the full funnel from impression to customer to renewal to loyalty? Right. What does that engine look like? And if there is one, what are the areas that we can double down on or improve? If there's not one, how can we go about building it and addressing either gaps or strategies to make it something that's replicable so that marketing can really be a growth accelerator that's tied in with what the business is trying to do. As opposed to just being an awareness engine or focusing on top of funnel or checking a box of yeah, I know, we need marketing, right? We want to make that connection across the entire company to show the value that marketing can provide and make sure that it is providing value.

That's one of the most important things that I think that there is to do as a marketing leader is to not just figure out like what should we be doing, but why do we need to be doing this? How is this going to be benefiting us from a metric standpoint? Because at the end of the day, marketing should not just be this brand awareness play. It shouldn't just be to help people understand who you are. With all of the information that we have available to us today, you should be able to track that contact's journey that leads journey from initial awareness all the way to closing as a customer. And if you can measure those critical transition points along the way and figure out how to improve them over time by shifting your strategy, it's so important and helpful to actually move the needle and provide value to the companies that you're working for. So it's great that you, it's great that you guys are taking that type of data driven approach to doing marketing today. So how, if anything, because there's so much that's changing today, how have the conversations that you've had shifted during this time, if at all?

Yeah, well, you know, one of the great things about marketing, the only constant is change. Change right now is just more rapid than it usually is, but it's all about agility and not just responding or, sorry, not just reacting, which is kind of automatic, but responding which is more thoughtful. And so a lot of times it's looking at a case by case basis. What's the context of your business, of your customers, of your prospects? Everyone's different. You know, even within a specific sector, there's differences. And so it's knowing what those differences are, respecting them, learning about them, and then having the right mix of response, whether it's, you know, offensive strategies, defensive strategies, you know, looking forward to the future, responding now. There's a lot of different approaches that can be taken. And as long as we're being thoughtful, measured and responding appropriately, we're going to be positioned well. But it's certainly a challenge. Guido. It's like every company is different. And so I wish there was a one size fits all. But that's where I go back to those patterns. And sometimes the patterns are questions. What are you seeing in your funnel? How are your customer conversations changing? How are your metrics changing on the front end? What happened when airlines stopped doing advertising? Did our supply on digital go way up and our demand go down? And now we've got Facebook for 50% off CPMs. Okay, what does that mean? So there's been a lot of those kinds of questions and then partnering to find the solutions together. Because I don't have all the answers right. Exactly. No one does. So I've been really encouraged by the level of thought leadership that's emerged around now. And all the people who are Trying to help each other and just having conversations like this, it sometimes can spark an idea or just be that piece of connection that we need.

Mm. You just sparked something in my mind that is really interesting in terms of how I. It seems like we aligned a little bit in the, in the way that we think about reporting. I've almost always looked at reporting as being in some ways a monitor. It should be to make sure that we're on pace, that we're going to hit the goals that we have. But ultimately, one of the best things that you can do with reporting is when you notice that a shift or a change is occurring in a particular area, asking why? And just digging into that question and just keep asking those questions to get to the root cause, to try to find the answer. Reporting at its essence, in a lot of ways is just a question asking exercise to get to the root issue of what could be affecting something. So you brought up our cost per click changed here. Why did that end up happening? What assumptions can we make about what's going on outside the industry that would have influenced this number in one way or the other? How can we then change that? There are all these questions that can come up or that should be coming up rather than just saying, oh, cost per Click changed by 10% this month and that's it. And we don't, we don't have an answer to that. We didn't dig in any further than that. Like, that's, that's not okay. But if you're able to get deeper, can really provide a lot of interesting insights into how you can shift strategies.

Yeah. Why and what now? Right. And so it's like the data is great only insofar as it informs behavior. And that's something that's so important. You know, it's great to have all your piping set up and you're able to monitor the metrics, but what do you do with it and how are you going to take action? And then also like you mentioned, there's so much value in just learning from the data. Right. Sometimes it's like you set up your marketing program and you're like, it's driving customers and revenue and that's the outcome and that's great. And obviously you want to be doing that profitably, but. But there's also all of this value in that data that you're getting. What you're learning about your customers qualitatively and quantitatively, what you're learning about the strategies in the market, the pulse. And that is just so valuable to Remember, because sometimes we take it for granted. Right. We just look at the metrics and kind of go about our business. And so I think mining that data, sharing it across the organization, there's so many opportunities with that. So I love that way of thinking about it.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I love getting into that side of things. And one of the great things about marketing too, from my perspective, is you get that data driven aspect, but then you also have this creative lens that you can bring to things too. So if we've identified a problem or a challenge that we want to solve because of how the data is informing us about where we need to focus our time and energy, you get to solve that problem more often than not in a creative way. So it brings both those perspectives to the opportunities that are presented to us, which is always interesting to me. So this actually kind of leads in nicely to the last question or one of the last questions I wanted to ask, which is what's your favorite part about what you get to do at Summit Partners and just in your career in general?

Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. And it's one of the reasons I'm, I'm really excited to be talking to you is because my, my favorite part about what I do is I add value. Right. And marketers have this amazing ability to bring their company and the change that their company wants to make to the world and to make those connections and to align the right prospect who's going to get value from your, from your business with your business and make that discovery and that connection. Because businesses fundamentally exist to add value in terms of how they're trying to help the world, how they're trying to help an individual, how they're trying to impact change globally. And so I love that aspect of marketing, of engaging with business, of engaging at a firm like Summit Partners, where we truly are trying to provide value and be a partner. So I just love that aspect about marketing. I read this great book last month by Seth Godin, his new book, this is Marketing. And if you haven't read it, I recommend it. And if anyone listening hasn't read it yet, pick it up. It's a quick read in quarantine, but it really gets to the essence of the marketer and gets to that purpose. And it's just, it was fired me up, honestly, when I, when I was reading and I was like, yes, this is why we exist, this is why we're here. And I just love that aspect of what I get to do every day.

That's so cool. I'll need to check out that book. Seth Godin's got some really great insights to be able to share. You said this is Marketing is the name of the book, right?

Yep, this is Marketing.

All caps, simple title. It's easy to remember.

Yeah.

Awesome. Well, I'll have to check that out, and I would definitely recommend that all our listeners check it out as well. I really enjoyed this conversation today. Cody, thank you so much for joining. We've got more great episodes on the way, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast so that you can get notified when our next episode comes out. In the meantime, check out newbreedmarketing.com for our other great resources. Thank you for joining and we'll see you next time.

Thanks, Guido.