Robert Tas, CMO at Pegasystems, reveals how marketers should be using tech and his biggest challenges as a CMO
Q: How did you get in to marketing in the first place?
I don’t think I ever thought I would be a marketer, but I was always fascinated with the process of how companies would bring their products to market. I started my career on the sales side, in the technology area. I became the general manager then I started my own company. And when you start your own company you have to learn how to market pretty quickly.
Q: With so much technology available to marketers and businesses as a whole, do you think many brands are harnessing tech?
I think some are better than others. Obviously the digital natives and the Googles and Amazons are probably ahead of the curve in terms of utilising it, it’s in their DNA. I think traditional organisations are learning how to adopt it and how to change the way they act.
Most marketing, from a bank for example, would be: ‘Do you want a credit card? Do you want another one?’ It’s not understanding who you are, not understanding the context of your life or your interests. All those things are factors in the relationship process and I think real businesses and real people that embrace this have an opportunity to build those life-long relationships. That’s the evolution that we want.
Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge for CMOs today?
There are three things that always come to my mind and the first one is the speed at which things are changing. The second piece is the new skills that are needed in marketing that weren’t a necessity in the past: digital analytics, content, social, video, mobile. I think that skill-set gap is a big one. And then finally, it is really understanding the real-time nature of the world. We can no longer do campaign planning that is a year ahead of time. You can do a little bit but you really have to be ready to respond to unexpected things and changing customer journeys. You have got to organise marketing really differently around the customer than you have in the past.
Q: What is the best professional advice you have ever been given?
Never stop learning. I find sometimes people are afraid of learning. I don’t think you should stop, you should always listen, have an open heart, open mind and really take in everybody around you. And the other one is challenge yourself. I never went to college and I started working as a little kid. I learnt by working with some great people and here I am today. I was fortunate to have opportunities and I listened to others and I believed in myself.
Q: What are your plans for the next 12 months?
I think for us we have to continue to help the customer’s buying journey. Our number one focus is building content and tools and things to help them through that journey in a way that helps them find the information in a format they want, when they want it and where they want it.
