Gradual

GTM Strategy, Advisor to CEO

“Jill’s unmatched expertise in sales, community building, partnerships, and ecosystems has been pivotal in shaping our product vision and go-to-market strategy. Her unique insights and strategic connections have unlocked new opportunities and accelerated our growth.” – Jerry Li, CEO & Founder

Gradual is a community platform that centralizes all community experiences, driving product adoption and deeper customer relationships.

Strategic Advisor

Stage 2 Capital

Stage 2 Capital invests in early-stage B2B software companies and sits shoulder-to-shoulder with leadership teams to operationalize sustainable revenue growth. We provide expertise and capital to help companies scale. 

Our LP base of 500+ seasoned GTM executives is matched with the strategic and operational needs of our portfolio companies. We involve our network in 100% of our investments, which often includes joining a portfolio company as an executive, board member, or advisor.

In 2018, I helped raise our $15 million Fund I from LPs at Asana, Atlassian, Box, Gong, HubSpot, Okta, Slack, Salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, Toast, Twilio, Workday, Snowflake, Zoom, and many others.

$15m Fund I, LP, and Associate Member
$80m Fund II, LP
$150m Fund III, LP

GTM Advisor & LP

Klue

GTM Advisor

Competitive Enablement platform that combines market, competitor, and buyer insights.

Raised $81 million from top VCs including Salesforce Ventures, Tiger Global, Craft, and OMERS Ventures.

Advisor

Folloze

Advisor to the CEO

Enterprise customers include Adobe, Autodesk, DocuSign, Okta, VMware, UiPath, Cisco, and ServiceNow. 

Integration partners feature 6Sense, Demandbase, Marketo, Outreach, Qualified, and Salesforce.

nearbound.com

Assisted in the design, launch, and growth of the Nearbound category at Reveal. In June 2024, Reveal merged with Crossbeam, with the unified focus now on driving Ecosystem-Led Growth.

While outbound interrupts and inbound attracts, nearbound surrounds.

Nearbound is essential because buyer behavior has shifted from the ‘How’ economy to the ‘Who’ economy. Buyers now ask, ‘Who can help me solve X?’ and seek out trusted nodes in their network.

Strategy & Champion

Guild

Advisor to the B2B GTM team.

On a mission to unlock opportunity for America’s workforce. When opportunity is as evenly distributed as talent, everyone benefits. Individuals rise, companies grow, and our economy thrives.

In June 2022, Guild raised a $175 million Series F funding round at a $4.4 billion valuation. The round was led by prominent investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Cowboy Ventures, Emerson Collective, General Catalyst, GSV, ICONIQ, Redpoint, Workday Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Oprah Winfrey.

GTM Advisor

LoopVOC

Voice of the Customer software for B2B SaaS Companies. Advisor to CEO & Founder.

Affinio

Member Board of Directors

Sales for Life

Advisor & Partner

Nudge.ai

Acquired by Affinity, a relationship intelligence platform.

Advisory Board Member & Investor

23 years in B2B SaaS Go-To-Market at Salesforce, Eloqua, HubSpot, Marketo. Customer Obsessed. Partner Obsessed. Living-In-Market. LinkedIn Member #320,966

Majored in Customer. Minored in Go-To-Market. Live in-Market. 

24 years in B2B SaaS. Early employee at Salesforce (first 100), Eloqua (#13), HubSpot Advisor (2014-2016), Marketo (2018).

Love startups, especially category creators.

Born Sales. Bred Marketing. Building Partnerships. 

I spent six years in management consulting, 52 quarters in software sales at Salesforce and Eloqua, six years doing professional speaking, 2018 reporting to the CEO of Marketo (acquired by Adobe for $4.75B), Limited Partner "LP" and GTM Advisor at Stage 2 Capital and GTM Fund. 

I started investing in 2012 and maintain my personal portfolio of investments in sales and marketing technology startups. I also started advising startups in 2012 and joined my first Board of Directors in 2016. Four of the companies I've advised have had successful exits -- HubSpot, Accompany, DataRPM, and PartnerHacker. 

My work keeps me focused on the changing B2B buying environment and what revenue teams need to do to evolve their culture, skills, processes, data, and technology. 

****If you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, don't send a generic invite.****

Jill Rowley

Freshworks

Reporting to the Chief Customer & Marketing Officer, responsible for establishing a new organization focused on developing customer-led growth initiatives to support customers across their entire journey with Freshworks from product adoption, retention, advocacy and ultimately creating customers for life. My teams’s remit includes the following functions:

- Lifecycle & Retention Marketing
- Customer Advocacy
- Community
- Customer Education
- Voice of Customer
- Customer Comms

Vice President of Customer Engagement

Product Marketing Alliance

Course creator & instructor for several Customer Marketing & Advocacy courses across Product Marketing Alliance, Customer Success Collective, and Customer Marketing Alliance including:

📖 Customer Advocacy Certified Masters
📚 Customer Advocacy Strategic Framework
🎖 The Customer Retention Blueprint
🛠 The Customer Advocacy Martech Toolkit
🔢 Customer Advocacy Metrics Advanced

Course Instructor

Reporting directly to the Chief Customer Engagement & Marketing Officer responsible for the following areas: 

- Customer Experience
- Voice of the Customer Programs
- Customer Marketing & Advocacy
- Retention Marketing
- Customer Communications

Sr. Director of Global Customer Engagement

Leading a newly formed organization responsible for reimagining global customer engagement programs across F5. My team's remit includes:
- Customer Marketing & Advocacy
- Experiential Marketing 
- Customer Communications

Sr. Director of Customer Advocacy & Experiential Marketing

California State University - East Bay

Advisor for California State University, East Bay's Customer Experience (CX) Program. Customer Experience has never been more important in shaping the ways organizations transform their businesses and serve their customers. As an Advisor for the program, I will provide ongoing feedback, thought leadership and industry experience in how we can continue to reimagine the CX discipline while also learning from my peers.

Advisor, Customer Experience (CX) Program

Captivate Collective

Vision Board Member helping to drive awareness of Customer Marketing and Advocacy industry best practices and resources to help practitioners thrive in their careers.

CMA Vision Board Member

Adobe

LEADER IN CUSTOMER ADVOCACY 
♦ Responsible for driving customer advocacy initiatives across the entire Adobe Experience Cloud business. This includes overseeing: 
- Experience Makers
- Community
- Adobe User Groups (AUGs)
- Peer Generated Reviews 
- Adobe Champions
- Experience Makers Leadership Roundtables
- Customer Stories (Case Studies & Video Testimonials)
- Adobe Experience Maker Awards
- And much more

♦ Concept-to-completion driver for the Advocate Nation program, bringing together key customers to drive advocacy for Adobe; 50% growth within the first 90 days of launch; 25% advocate growth YOY

♦ Customized premium executive customer programs such as the Executive Advisory Board (EAB) including high touch in-person strategic engagements with 15-20 executive customers for feedback and knowledge sharing

♦ YoY event execution for Adobe Summit conference including supporting speaker selection, community engagement, Experience Maker Awards, and ancillary customer events & programs 

♦ Positively transformed an elite group of customer  advocates into brand ambassadors to promote product adoption, knowledge sharing and best practices to help customers thrive

ACHIEVEMENTS: 
(1) #1 on the TOP25 Customer Marketing & Advocacy Influencers
(2) FINALIST: Executive Leader of a Community Team
(3) FINALIST: Community of The Year
(4) WINNER: Advocate Marketer of The Year
(5) WINNER: Advocate Marketing Program of The Year
(6) FINALIST: Biggest Impact on Customer Experience
(7) WINNER: Best in Class Customer Advocacy Program
(8) WINNER: Exceptional Customer Advocacy Alignment

Global Head of Customer Advocacy

LEADER IN CUSTOMER ADVOCACY 
♦ Concept-to-completion driver for the Advocate Nation program since 2018, bringing together key customers to drive advocacy for Marketo; 50% growth within the first 90 days of launch.

♦ Oversee core advocacy programs including Marketo User Groups (MUGs), Voice of the Customer (3rd Party Reviews & customer feedback), reference program, customer case studies and video testimonials, Purple Select (Influitive online community), and more.

♦ Customized premium executive customer programs such as the Executive Advisory Board (EAB) including a 2-day retreat in Napa Valley, CA with top 15 strategic customers for knowledge sharing; successfully created agenda, selected board members, gathered pre & post feedback for internal consumption and utilization of concepts

♦ Executed event management functions at the Marketing Nation at Adobe Summit conference (16,000+ conference) including speaker selection, Revvie Awards application process, ancillary customer events & programs 

♦ Positively transformed 40 elite MARKETO customers as brand ambassadors to promote product adoption, knowledge sharing and best practices for the MARKETO Champions Program

ACHIEVEMENTS: 
(1) Winner of 2 industry awards for best in class customer advocacy programs; (2) Advocate Nation (50% growth within the first 90 days); (3) Marketo Champion (4x increase in the number of applicants YOY); (4) Fearless 50 program; (5) Executive Advisory Board (6) Reference Program (Tens of Millions in Impacted Revenue YOY)

Head of Customer Advocacy (Marketo, an Adobe Company)

LEADER IN CUSTOMER ADVOCACY 
♦ Concept-to-completion driver for the Advocate Nation program since 2018, bringing together key customers to drive advocacy for Marketo; 50% growth within the first 90 days of launch.

♦ Oversee core advocacy programs including Marketo User Groups (MUGs), Voice of the Customer (3rd Party Reviews & customer feedback, reference program, customer case studies and video testimonials, Purple Select (Influitive online community), and more.
  
♦ Customized premium executive customer programs such as the Executive Advisory Board (EAB) including a 2-day retreat in Napa Valley, CA with top 15 strategic customers for knowledge sharing; successfully created agenda, selected board members, gathered pre & post feedback for internal consumption and utilization of concepts

♦ Executed event management functions at the Marketing Nation at Adobe Summit conference including speaker selection, Revvie Awards application process, ancillary customer events & programs  

♦ Positively transformed 60 elite MARKETO customers as brand ambassadors to promote product adoption, knowledge sharing and best practices for the MARKETO Champions Program

ACHIEVEMENTS: 
(1) Winner of 2 industry awards for best in class customer advocacy programs; (2) Advocate Nation (50% growth within the first 90 days); (3) Marketo Champion (4x increase in the number of applicants YOY); (4) Fearless 50 program; (5) Executive Advisory Board (6) Reference Program ($9.5+ Million in Impacted Revenue)

Senior Manager, Customer Marketing (Marketo, an Adobe Company)

Marketo, an Adobe Company

LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP & EVENT MANAGEMENT (MARKETING NATION SUMMIT)
♦ Orchestrated the Summit from inception-to-success, with 3x the number of executive attendees from 2016 and a goal to blend discussion of industry drivers, marketing strategy & operations, and thought leadership

♦ Surpassed the 500 executive attendee goal with nearly 1,000 registrations, and confirmed attendance of 600+ CMOs, achieving 15% of total attendance within a 90 day time frame

♦ Announced 2017 events: “Summit in a box” City tour, Exec Luncheons & Dinners and Executive Advisory Board Retreat

♦ Customized premium executive customer marketing programs such as the Executive Advisory Board (EAB) including a 2-day retreat in Pebble Beach, CA with top 15 strategic customers for knowledge sharing; successfully created agenda, selected board members, gathered pre & post feedback for internal consumption and utilization of concepts

ACHIEVEMENTS: 
(1) Marketing Nation Summit Executive VIP Experience (Drove 1k CMOs); (2) Marketing Nation Roadshows (2x increase in reg & attendance) (3) Executive Advisory Board (4) Marketo Champions (60 Person Elite Advocate Program) (5) Reference Program ($8+ Million in Impacted Revenue)

♦ Executed event management functions at the Marketing Nation Roadshow (Boston, Chicago, London); created agenda, selected speakers, drove attendance and worked with keynote speaker Seth Godin–73% attendance rate

♦ Positively transformed 60 elite MARKETO customers as brand ambassadors to promote product adoption, knowledge sharing and best practices for the MARKETO Champions Program

♦ Concept-to-completion driver for Executive Experience since 2017, 4 day event: Oversaw all aspects of transformational marketing, strategic communications and business optimization event in collaboration with thought leaders & influencers while successfully driving approximately 10% of conference attendance

♦ Delivered accelerated lead generation, client advocacy & event management

Senior Manager, Customer Marketing

NetBase Solutions, Inc.

CUSTOMER LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT | CLIENT ADVOCACY & RETENTION MARKETING 
♦ Perform an integral marketing management role while executing customer retention & advocacy operations, defining the customer value proposition and life cycle journey for various customer segments

♦ Work closely with celebrity and thought leaders such as Ayesha Curry (Food Network Star) Jeannie Mai (Co-Host of The Real), Robert Tercek (TED X Speaker), etc.

♦ Maintained full accountability for supervising end-to-end online content, case studies, video and website design while formulating all business agendas including 33 various segments focused on improving brand recognition, product expansion, and industry leadership for the inaugural NetBase LIVE 2016 event

♦ Architected promotional strategies, videos and cross-functional partnerships to increase brand exposure, target market engagement and product expansion 

♦ Organize social intelligence programs including the NetBase All-Star Academy from concept-to-completion and drove revenue generation while exceeding expectations in alignment with executive-level requirements

♦ Generated over $2.5M in business pipeline within limited timelines, utilized relationship management abilities to exceed company goals and achieve 30% of company’s actionable business referrals through MQL 

♦ Increased client engagements by 25% and maximized retention rates to 90%

♦ Pioneered development of 1st ever Net Promoter Score & advisory board programs for customer marketing, renewals and up-sells; increased customer satisfaction by 250%

♦ Cultivate and optimize customer retention strategies in alignment with industry best practices to maximize average customer value, minimize customer attrition & improve customer lifetime value

♦ Increase up sells and reduce churn for new products by 15-20% of total 12M renewal volume by proactively addressing all customer inquiries

♦ Successfully launched and on-boarded 70% of client base to enhance online community

★ Senior Marketing Manager, Customer Retention & Advocacy

CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT | CLIENT ADVOCACY & RETENTION | DIGITAL MARKETING 
♦ Perform an integral marketing management role while executing customer retention & advocacy operations and defining the customer value proposition as well as life cycle journey for customer segments

♦ Cultivate customer retention strategies in alignment with industry best practices to maximize average customer value, minimize customer attrition, improve customer lifetime value and acquire new customers while building long-term relationships with existing clientele 

♦ Generated $1M+ in business pipeline within limited timelines and utilized relationship management abilities to exceed company goals through 30% of company’s actionable business referrals via MQL 

♦ Increased client engagements 25% and maximized retention rates to 90%

♦ Execute Customer Life Cycle Management, Customer Retention Strategies, Customer Loyalty, and Customer Relationship Management

♦ Pioneered 1st ever Net Promoter Score & advisory board programs for customer marketing, renewals and up-sells; increased customer satisfaction by 250%

♦ Increase up sells and reduce churn for new products by 15-20% of total 12M renewal volume

♦ Manage online & offline marketing functions to elevate company’s digital expertise, presence & effectiveness while collaborating cross-functionally with talented teams

♦ Accelerate lead generation and client advocacy while reducing the sales life cycles through strategically planning and executing event marketing programs

♦ Successfully launched and on-boarded 70% of client base to enhance online community

♦ Employed customer lifetime value strategies and aided business development through new customer acquisition, brand referral & retention, and agency customer renewal / re-qualification

♦ Enhance brand image through design of influencer partner programs that drive sales and increase client co-marketing participation

♦ Utilize CRM, SalesForce & social media to determine campaign viability

★ Marketing Manager, Customer Retention & Advocacy

Breakthrough Solutions Inc.

DIGITAL MARKETING | SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING | ADVOCATE MARKETING
♦ Developed innovative omni-channel marketing programs to build brand awareness, drive demand and retain clients for life. This included social media marketing, paid social, event marketing, influencer marketing, SEO, offline campaigns and more.

♦ Successfully enhanced readership to over 15 million through exclusive, innovative and unique social media marketing strategies across Facebook & Business, The Big G & Business, LI & Business, and Tweeting & Business

♦ Organically built Twitter following of 100k+, achieved Alexa rank of 200k, maximized Klout score of 80, and acquired 75% referral traffic through social media and organic search

♦ Acquire in-depth and industry leading Digital & Social Media Marketing acumen through professional coaching and mentorship from industry thought leaders including Mari Smith, Mike Stelzner, Tony Robbins, Brian Solis, Jason Falls, and Jay Baer

Digital Marketing Consultant

Quorum

BRANDING & ADVERTISING | SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING | CAMPAIGN PLANNING
♦ Conceptualized, designed, developed and executed online marketing strategies to maximize digital/online campaigns and programs to meet strategic goals focused on revenue growth and ROI

♦ Performed strategic planning and execution of online marketing campaigns which increased in-site and referral traffic by 400% while enabling a 30% increase in new revenue opportunities

♦ Developed advocacy marketing programs resulting in 86% engagement among customer/partner base & increased 4.5/5 star reviews (Spiceworks) by 1350%; secured new references to reduce sales cycles from months to weeks

♦ Managed valued marketing channels and supported clientele with lead generation which included organic SEO, paid search, email marketing, and social media guerrilla marketing

♦ Enhanced community outreach through customer retention strategies such as social media marketing, capturing customer data, email marketing, cultivating customer loyalty schemes and delivering target-market focused services	

♦ Utilized advanced CRM techniques, benchmarking research & analysis, and KPI metrics to enhance websites 

♦ Strategically designed and managed webinars, whitepapers, infographics and case studies in alignment with customer expectations to enhance online presence within the SMB IT space

★ Online Marketing Manager

★ Kevin Lau is a customer marketing and advocacy expert with 13+ years of experience in leading and executing customer-led growth initiatives across various industries and markets. He is currently the Vice President of Customer Engagement at Freshworks, a leading provider of cloud-based customer and employee engagement software.

★ In his role, he is responsible for establishing a new organization that supports the entire Freshworks customer journey from product adoption, retention, advocacy, to ultimately creating customers for life. He leads a team of professionals across lifecycle and retention marketing, customer advocacy, community, customer education,  voice of customer, and customer communications. 

★ His core competencies include customer experience, voice of the customer, customer marketing and advocacy, retention marketing, lifecycle marketing, and customer communications. 

★ Kevin is also a course creator and instructor for several customer marketing and advocacy courses across various platforms and communities. He is passionate about empowering customers to achieve their goals and become brand advocates. 

★ Kevin has won multiple industry awards and recognition for his innovative and impactful customer engagement programs and strategies including:  

🏆 WINNER: TOP100 CMA Influencers (2024)

🏆 WINNER: Fearless 50 (2023)

🏆 WINNER: Exceptional Advocacy Practice (2022)

🏆 FINALIST: Advocacy Impact (2022)

🏆 WINNER: TOP25 CMA Influencers (2022)

🏆 FINALIST: Community of the Year (2020)

🏆 FINALIST: Exec Leader of a Community Team (2020)

🏆 WINNER: Advocate Marketer of The Year (2019)

🏆 WINNER: Advocacy Program of The Year (2019)

🏆 FINALIST: Biggest Impact on CX (2019)

🏆 WINNER: Best in Class Advocacy Program (2018)

🏆 WINNER: Exceptional Advocacy Alignment (2018)

Kevin Lau

𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 ≠ 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗰𝘆.
Say it louder.
For the people in the back.

For years, I watched these two get mashed into one job.

Someone asks, "What does customer marketing do?"

And someone answers, "Oh, they run our advocacy program."

No.

𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿. 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲.

Here's the hierarchy:
 • Customer-Led Growth → The operating system
 • Customer Marketing → One engine inside it
 • Advocacy → One pillar inside Customer Marketing

When you conflate customer marketing with advocacy, you shrink the function.

You become the "case study team."

The "reference request team."

The "can you find me a customer for this webinar" team.

I've lived this.

I've said yes to the random asks.

I've chased quotes like they were strategy.

Advocacy is important. But it's not the whole job.

Advocacy is proof.

Customer marketing is progress.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲𝘀:
→ Lifecycle programs that drive adoption
→ Customer education that reduces churn
→ Community that builds stickiness
→ Voice of customer that informs product
→ Executive engagement that unlocks expansion
→ AND advocacy that creates proof

𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗴𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺.

Not because we finally explain it well enough.

Because companies will need the FULL customer marketing engine to survive.

If you're a customer marketer tired of being called the "case study person" — this is your year to reframe it.

What's the #1 thing people get wrong about your role?

I help customer marketers prove their value | VP Customer Marketing @ Freshworks | ex-F5, Adobe, Marketo, Google

You already know I’m a collector at heart.

Lego. Marvel. All the things and more.

My latest pickup that came right in time for the holidays: the new Sentinel from X-Men ’97.

If you haven’t watched season 1 yet it’s gold.

Zoe for size comparison only. 🥳

No alternative text description for this image

Here's what I'm not doing in 2026: begging for budget.

For 15 years, I've watched customer marketing prove itself over and over.

We drive retention. We fuel expansion. We create the proof that closes deals.

And still, every planning season, we're asked to defend our headcount.

Here's the truth: I don't have it all figured out.

I don't have perfect attribution. I don't have a dashboard that answers every question. I don't have a CFO who wakes up thinking about advocacy.

But I'm done letting that be an excuse.

2026 is the year I stop explaining and start showing.

Speaking their language. NRR. Pipeline influence. CAC payback.

Showing, not telling. Dashboards, not decks. Even imperfect ones.

Aligning to their goals, not mine. Even when it's uncomfortable.

You don't need perfect data to stop apologizing.

You need the conviction to show up like a growth function anyway.

What's one thing you're not doing in 2026?

I almost didn't start.
I almost didn't post.
I almost didn't ship.

At the beginning of 2025, I told myself I would write on LinkedIn every day.

Then the doubts crept in. Not the loud kind. The quiet kind. The kind that sounds like logic.

Who am I to write about this.

Is anyone even paying attention.

What if it's just noise.

I started anyway.

The doubts stayed. But the work started to stack.

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗻. 𝗧𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘆. 𝗙𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘆 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁.

Then in November, I launched my newsletter.

Same doubts. Louder this time.

What if no one subscribes.

What if I run out of things to say.

What if I'm just talking to myself.

I launched anyway.

Now we have 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝟰𝟯𝟬 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴.

Not massive. But real.

This week I got a reply that stopped me in my tracks:
"𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢 𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘱-𝘰𝘧-𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥."

Another said:
"𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨."

That's the whole point.

Not going viral. Not big numbers.

Helping one person lift their head out of the day-to-day and see what's possible.

Confidence didn't come first. Action did.

The doubts don't go away. You just stop handing them the keys.

To everyone who subscribed, commented, replied, or just read along quietly - thank you.

You made the doubts worth ignoring.

See you in 2026.

I thought calm was my weakness.
I was wrong. It was my edge.

At the beginning of 2025, I made a declaration: get my voice out there.

So I did three things:
 • Started writing on LinkedIn nearly every day
 • Launched a quarterly mentorship program
 • Started a newsletter in November

None of it was easy. All of it required grit, perseverance, and tenacity.

By the end of the year:
 • 430+ newsletter subscribers
 • ~$2K in paid subscriptions
 • 14K LinkedIn followers
 • 70K+ on X

But the biggest lesson wasn't reach or revenue.

It was this: 

I always thought being calm made me boring. Forgettable.

Then I started getting notes like this from a fellow VP:

"𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘐𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵."

Turns out, calm isn't boring. Calm is steadying.

The thing I dismissed about myself was the thing others valued most.

Today I'm sharing my full FY25 Year in Review - the wins, the hard lessons, what surprised me, and what I'm taking into 2026.

𝗠𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮: 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗢𝗜.

Link in comments.

Happy holidays to those celebrating. 🎄

Retention was always cheaper.
For years, we've been screaming it.
Leadership nodded. Then funded another SDR team.
Now the math is breaking.

Here's the pattern:

 1. CAC payback stretches past 24 months
 2. Net-new pipeline gets brutally expensive
 3. Win rates get squeezed by crowded categories
 4. Discounts get bigger to force deals through
 5. Sales cycles get longer
 6. New logos churn before they ever expand
 7. NDR becomes the board's favorite slide
 8. Churn turns into a growth problem, not a support problem
 9. The budget finally moves post-sale
 10. The teams without retention muscle scramble

𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗖𝗵𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀.

Not because leadership suddenly gets it.

Because the economics leave no other choice.

Here's what that means for customer marketing:
→ Post-sale stops being a nice-to-have
→ Retention becomes a growth metric, not a support metric
→ Customer marketing gets real headcount, real budget, real attention

The teams who've been building retention muscle for years will be ready.

Everyone else will pay the scramble tax.

Which camp are you in?

I didn't realize this for years.
Customer marketing was too random.
And 2026 will expose that.

I used to treat customer marketing like a bag of tricks.

A webinar here. A gift card there. A last-minute reference ask when the quarter got tight.

It felt busy. It looked like impact.

It was mostly noise.

In 2026, the teams that win will do one thing well:

They will build systems that make them more human.

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝟳 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲:
1️⃣ Churn finally gets the budget it deserves.
↪ Retention stops being the "CS problem" and becomes a board-level growth lever.

2️⃣ Customer marketing ≠ advocacy becomes mainstream.
↪ The job stops being "get me a review" and becomes "grow the customer."

3️⃣ Random acts of customer marketing die. Orchestrated systems win.
↪ One-off asks get replaced by repeatable journeys.

4️⃣ The tech stack consolidates.
↪ Teams pick fewer platforms and use them deeply.

5️⃣ The CM role splits: strategist or orchestrator.
↪ One sets the plan. The other builds the machine.

6️⃣ Post-sale becomes the primary growth engine.
↪ Expansion, retention, and usage become the safer bet.

7️⃣ Big communities shrink. Curated micro-circles win.
↪ Less broadcasting. More belonging.

Here's what I know for sure:

The tactics will evolve. The fundamentals won't.

AI can automate a reference request.

It can't build the relationship that makes a customer say yes.

The customer marketers who thrive in 2026 won't resist the change.

They'll use it to become even more human.

I break down all 7 predictions in this week's newsletter — including the research behind each one.

Link in comments.
Which prediction resonates most with you?

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The Battle

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Kevin Lau

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