How to Structure and Lead a Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Org with Kelly Hopping

#255 Leadership | In this episode, Dave is joined by Kelly Hopping, CMO of Demandbase, a B2B company known for pioneering account-based marketing. Kelly leads a 70+ person marketing org that spans brand, demand gen, product marketing, events, and SDRs, and she shares exactly how she structures and operates that team to drive results.Dave and Kelly cover:How to design and run a full-funnel marketing team that includes SDRs, content, field, and brand, and keep them aligned on pipelineThe annual planning strategy Kelly uses to balance short-term targets with long-term positioning (including what changes quarter to quarter)How her team is using AI right now and what she’s doing personally to stay sharp as the pace of change acceleratesWhether you're a first-time CMO or just trying to scale your B2B marketing engine, this one is packed with insights from someone who’s operating at a high level.Timestamps(00:00) - – Intro (02:00) - – What Demandbase actually does (04:00) - – How the Demandbase marketing team is structured (06:30) - – Who owns what: brand, content, demand, SDRs (09:00) - – Account-based marketing + broad demand gen (11:30) - – What a CMO actually does at this stage (14:00) - – Kelly’s early CMO learning curve (17:00) - – Planning your first 90 days as a CMO (19:00) - – Balancing pipeline today vs. positioning for tomorrow (21:30) - – What changed between a bad Q4 and strong Q1 (25:00) - – How Kelly thinks about yearly pipeline pacing (28:00) - – Staying relevant in a fast-moving MarTech world (30:30) - – Why marketers need to work like product teams (34:00) - – “I am the ICP”: Why product marketing works better (35:30) - – Kelly’s #1 job as CMO: Make sales love marketing (38:00) - – Becoming a peer to product and revenue leaders (40:30) - – Best-performing channel right now: in-person events (42:00) - – Brand, attribution, and pipeline are all connected (43:30) - – How Kelly’s team is using AI today (45:00) - – The future of marketing roles in an AI-powered world (47:30) - – Why she’s still learning new AI tools herself (50:00) - – Why AI is fun again for marketers (51:00) - – Closing thoughts 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:Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, helping modern marketing teams build fully custom sites—no developer needed—that perform in AI search. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Markup AI - A content quality platform that scans your content against brand voice, preferred terms, messaging standards, and AI-search readiness before it goes live, right inside Google Docs. Learn more at markup.ai.Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/exitfive.Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.***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