A Growth Story: A Biography of Sorts

Sean Cox
Aug 29, 2024
3 min read

From tech start-ups to non-profits, I have authored the story and generated demand for ambitious organizations.

There has been a through-line in my last nearly decade of marketing work: the need to break through with limited resources. That crucible proved to be a training ground to better serve under-resourced marketing teams today — hence my business offerings.

Go-to-market strategy and marketing operations are a tidy way to summarize my experience. I take pride in executing in five main areas — digital marketing, content, data analytics, marketing technology, and vendor management — while operationalizing the activities for people who come after me.

See 'The List' section for a more comprehensive list of experience and skills.

Problem-Solving: Five Short Stories

"We don't have a way to send marketing emails." One of the first impactful opportunities at WorkJam was to identify, procure, integrate, and manage their first Marketing Automation Software. The Pardot (Salesforce Marketing Cloud) integration unlocked the foundation for 3rd party data tools and other technology tools to simplify and automate communication. This became the foundation for pipeline productivity.
"100+ media placements per year." I inherited a PR relationship that netted approximately 50 media placements per year. The breakthrough came when a team leader shared the motto: "PR is like baseball. If you get enough singles and doubles you win the game." By leaning into emotion and less on the technology itself, media placements peaked at 150+ in a single year. Reframing the story flooded industry sites and magazines with content while boosting content on our website.
"The BDR/SDR team no longer exists." With limited notice, my team was notified that the team that handled inbound requests and executed outbound campaigns was absolved. The mandate? Develop a process to examine and pass legitimate leads while holding onto the ones who need more education. In a matter of days, my team developed an operational solution paired with the content and automation required to keep prospects moving through the funnel.
"Retool to enable account-based marketing." As a B2B software company with a limited ICP, I helped retool operations to conduct account-based marketing. I built a model to rank 17,000 potential customers by key attributes and likelihood to buy (more than 850,000 data points). This informed marketing spend and was eventually paired with ABM technology to guide activity further.
"Build communities to market for us." Before working in SaaS technology, I worked with professional athletes — Von Miller, Derrick Johnson, Chad Greenway, Ryan Kerrigan, and other NFL veterans — to bring their non-profit foundations to life. The challenge? Every dollar spent to build awareness and fundraise could have been spent to serve the mission. The solution? Develop an ecosystem of media partners and business leaders in the community to evangelize amongst their personal and professional networks.