Corporate Pay was recently acquired by Wright Express. Here, Corporate Pay’s head of product management and marketing, Jonathan Reynolds, reveals his current challenges and best advice
What was your first B2B-related job?
Providing support to a product team, whose remit was to sell card-related services to banks. This was my first taste of marketing and I was hooked.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
Being afforded the opportunity to think differently about things than I would in most other financial services roles.
Which B2B brand do you most admire?
GE – it has a massive range of services but always manages to make them relevant to each sector. It’s interesting to keep abreast of its developments and see how it rolls out each strategy.
Whose job would you like most?
Seb Coe!
What’s the best piece of marketing advice you’ve ever been given?
Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. It’s something that is always at the back of my mind when it comes to planning ahead and also when reviewing how things are working.
What is your proudest achievement? 
Actually working through a five-year plan – from beginning to end with success. It was very rewarding to be part of the planning stage and then see things come to fruition with great results. Too often, people move roles during implementation and then only end up seeing how something fared from the outside.
To succeed, a B2B marketer must…
Believe in their own abilities – or at least come across that way.
What’s the next big thing in B2B marketing?
Micro-level businesses and services tailored at niche markets.
Our jobs would be easier if…
We could keep sales happy.
What are the traits you most and least admire in yourself?
Over the years, I’ve come to admire (or at least recognise) my own determination. I’d also count myself as a very fair person and lastly, grateful. The trait I least admire is my lack of ability to just go with the flow sometimes.
My biggest extravagance is…
Pretending not to hear my children cry at night so my wife has to get up. A defunct tactic once she reads this.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
I overuse ‘clarity of vision’ because it works in a number of occasions, and on a number of levels.
What marketing challenge are you currently wrestling with?
Launching a new product into a fairly saturated market.
What was your last marketing epiphany?
That opportunities sometimes arise in the strangest places, especially when they come from the minds/voices of children.
Which marketing campaign or idea do you wish you’d thought of?
Mobile apps for business users – in effect reinventing with a twist.
Which marketing or business books would you recommend?
It’s not a business book but the diaries of Shackleton’s failed journey south have some extremely useful lessons on preparation, management and listening to advice.
Which individual has had the most influence on your career?
Sir Gerry Robinson.
