CMO John Busby Reveals How to Grow a Successful Career in Marketing

Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director John Busby was recently a guest on the B2B Mentors podcast, an interview show that features top industry experts who share proven strategies and actionable inspiration on business growth success.

John has more than 20 years of marketing experience at companies ranging from small start-ups like IQ Chart to multinational conglomerates like Amazon. Today, in addition to corporate marketing, he leads the content, editorial, research, video, and PR teams for the Consumer Guides division at Centerfield, which helps millions of in-market consumers choose and purchase the right product or service through brands like BroadbandNow and SafeHome.

In his B2B Mentors interview, John shares his tips for growing a successful marketing career. “Marketers are about solving other people’s pain,” he tells the podcast’s host Connor Dube. “So once you start a new job, spend as much time as you can empathizing with as many people as you can – all of your stakeholders internally and externally, because that will put you in the best possible position to be successful.”

When it comes to the most important skill for marketers, the debate team veteran states without hesitation, it’s learning how to persuade through data or evidence. “Focus on the problem you’re solving,” he says, “and then find out the killer data that helps you solve that problem.”

Want to cut through the noise? John admits that there are thousands of inside sales teams who are trying to sell him something and 95 percent of them are going about it the wrong way by not focusing on personalization. “If the subject is not right on point with what my challenge is, it’s going into my junk,” he says. “It’s really important to research your customers and have data sets that speak to a problem they have.”

Watch the full interview here to gain more great marketing insights from Centerfield’s CMO John Busby.