In my experience, marketing teams work best when they understand the business first—and the channels second.
That mindset shaped how I built and led the marketing team at Spireon.
Start With the Business, Not the Channels
Instead of building a channel-based marketing team, we organized around the business.
I hired three marketing managers—one focused on vehicle finance, one on SMB, and one on enterprise. Each became deeply embedded in their segment, partnering closely with sales and product. They owned planning, execution, and results for their business unit. That clarity alone eliminated a lot of friction and finger-pointing.
Shared Services That Actually Help
Once we had strong segment owners in place, we built shared services to support them—not slow them down.
We already had a strong designer, who stepped into a Creative Director role and set the brand foundation for our move to a branded house. He balanced consistency with flexibility, making sure each segment could still speak clearly to its ICP.
As we grew, we added copywriting, digital and UX design, development, SEM, technical writing, events, and marketing operations. We also brought in freelancers and agency partners where it made sense—especially for PR, design, and video.
The goal was simple: give the segment leads everything they needed to execute well without reinventing the wheel every time.
Staying Close to the Work
As teams scale, leaders can get too far away from execution. I’ve always been intentional about staying close enough to the work to understand timing, tradeoffs, and real constraints.
At Spireon, that meant:
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Jumping in when teams needed momentum or support
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Knowing how long things actually take to get done
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Helping teams test ideas quickly and learn from them
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Removing blockers before they turned into delays
Each marketing manager ran their own “war room,” mapping plans and priorities on the wall and leading cross-functional meetings with product marketing and sales. My role was to guide, challenge, and support—without becoming the bottleneck.
Feedback Loops Matter
High-performing teams don’t operate on assumptions.
We launched an NPS program to better understand customer sentiment across each segment and used those insights to shape messaging and priorities. We worked with analysts to get Spireon positioned on the Gartner Magic Quadrant, and built strong internal communication rhythms—CEO newsletters, intranet updates, and quarterly business reviews that were honest about both wins and gaps.
Those conversations made the team stronger.
What This Approach Delivered
This structure helped us:
- Maintain leadership in vehicle finance
- Grow SMB into a top-three solution
- Become the fastest-growing enterprise trailer solution
- Scale to 2.4 million subscribers
- Keep marketing churn under 1%
Just as important, we built a team that trusted each other, stayed engaged, and grew with the business.
And that’s where real, lasting value comes from.