💡 Joris van der Waart, CMO at Lumosa, shares invaluable insights on building brand trust and the critical importance of deeply understanding the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). He highlights the ongoing decline of trust within B2B relationships and emphasizes that marketers must rebuild it through authentic dialogue and genuine curiosity. Drawing from his experiences, Joris illustrates how direct, unfiltered engagement with customers and internal teams strengthens relationships and sharpens marketing strategies. 💡

"Trust is a basic need, and trust is also about feeling. When your intentions are pure and good, and you are authentic, really close to yourself and genuinely interested in helping your customer, people feel that and respond to it." - Joris van der Waart

This conversation explores the profound transformation when businesses shift from mere familiarity to truly knowing their customers by asking the right questions and being proactively involved. Joris advocates bridging internal communication gaps and fostering sincere involvement inside and outside the organization. His strategic approach demonstrates how prioritizing transparency and continuous conversation elevates customer satisfaction and aligns teams around common goals, creating a culture of trust and authentic interaction in B2B leadership.

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💡 Barbara Toens, Global CMO at Gantrex, brings her pricing PhD and global B2B experience to this in-depth discussion. She explains how marketing earns its C-Suite seat by ensuring every decision starts with deep customer understanding. Barbara shares best practices for VOC calls, cross-functional alignment, and transforming marketing from a cost center to a growth engine. 💡

“When marketing leads customer conversations, we transition from vendor to trusted long-term partner.” – Barbara Toens

In this episode, Barbara Toens explores the strategic role of marketing in driving profitable growth through customer-centric leadership, voice-of-customer initiatives, and value-based pricing. She also learned how CMOs can influence cross-functional teams, build trusted customer partnerships, and move beyond transactional marketing to measurable business impact.

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💡 Luna Shirley, CRO at ROI Hunter, challenges the obsession with hypergrowth and its hidden costs. She shares industry data showing 73% of revenue stems from existing clients and explains why Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is critical. She also discusses how focusing on customer success and team wellbeing leads to sustainable profitability.💡

“We need to understand what lies behind sustainable growth. It is profitability and reasonable growth momentum. Profitability allows you to retain the freedom to make the right and necessary decisions, while reasonable growth momentum enables you to continue investing in your people and your clients.” - Luna Shirley

Luna uncovers that a people-first approach, AI readiness, and retention strategies can drive sustainable growth. With firsthand lessons from leading ROI Hunter through a turnaround, she delivers hard-earned insights CROs can use today.

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