#219: Strategy | ABM and AI for Outbound with Trinity Nguyen, CMO at UserGems

In this episode, Dave sits down with Trinity Nguyen, CMO at UserGems, to discuss her journey from first business hire to CMO, the role of product marketing in B2B, and how AI is transforming outbound sales. Trinity got started at UserGems’ by building their first website for free, then got hired as Head of Marketing and has shaped the company’s ABM strategy and demand generation playbook.Dave and Trinity cover:Why every startup should hire a product marketerHow to develop a strong vision and align with product teamsScaling outbound with AI-driven ABM and sales engagementTimestamps(00:00) - - Intro to Trinity (06:07) - - Why product marketing is the foundation of great B2B marketing (07:44) - - The importance of positioning and messaging in a competitive market (09:53) - - How Trinity rebuilt UserGems’ website for free before joining the company (11:10) - - Negotiating your role and setting the foundation for marketing (12:46) - - Why marketing should own SDRs and outbound prospecting (14:27) - - The early days of building demand gen at UserGems (16:05) - - Differentiation and positioning in a crowded market (18:10) - - Aligning marketing with product teams and company vision (20:00) - - Developing ICP and refining target accounts (22:45) - - Why outbound was the first major pipeline driver for UserGems (24:35) - - Transitioning from a startup to a growth-stage company (26:50) - - How UserGems runs ABM at scale (29:04) - - The AI shift in outbound marketing and its impact (32:16) - - AI for sales outreach and improving outbound efficiency (35:40) - - Why Trinity was initially skeptical about AI in outbound (38:23) - - Cutting spend while increasing pipeline with AI-driven outbound (41:07) - - The role of brand and inbound marketing in a demand gen playbook (43:19) - - Why traditional inbound marketing didn’t work for UserGems (45:05) - - Creating engaging demand gen campaigns (47:00) - - Final takeaways Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, letting modern marketing teams build fully custom sites that perform in AI search with no developer needed. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more