Sameer, Director of Marketing at Qentelli, shares his playbook for a new era of marketing leadership. He discusses the shift from a support function to a decision-driver, why success is measured by how well you equip sales, and the marketer’s core role as an “integrator.”
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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Marketing is a Decision-Driver, Not a Support Function. The modern marketing leader has moved from “behind the curtains” to the front line, driving revenue and strategy alongside the C-suite.
- Success is Measured by How Well You Equip the Sales Team. The goal isn’t just launching campaigns; it’s providing sales with enough “ammunition” to win the discussion in the very first meeting.
- The Future is a Blend of Human + AI. AI will automate and predict, but the heart of marketing will always be the uniquely human skills of storytelling, empathy, and creativity.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Qentelli.
My name is Sameer, and I’m the Director of Marketing at Qentelli. My role doesn’t work in silos; I manage everything from the creative strategy to the business outcomes, covering all aspects of end-to-end marketing.
One of the main reasons I was brought into Qentelli was to change the perception of the brand. Qentelli has predominantly been known as a DevOps company, but we are now much more than that. We are building next-gen technologies, working with large-scale companies, and operating on an AI-first native model. My role is to drive that new brand message, alongside driving business outcomes.
What is your main marketing focus at the moment?
Like every marketer, I have a set of goals. My current focus is twofold. The first is evolving our brand. We recently went through a complete rebrand, and making sure that new brand reaches the right audience in the market is one of my main focuses.
The second focus is to bring in revenue. Revenue doesn’t just come from customers; it also comes from our people. Every new hire is a form of revenue for us. So, strengthening our employer brand and ensuring our entire organisation is aligned with the message we put out in the market is very important.
How do you define success in marketing?
Success for me is not about how many campaigns we push out or how many events we do. My primary success metric is how well we have equipped the sales team. Success is when we provide enough ammunition for our sales team to go into the first meeting and crack the discussion right away. That is the major success metric for me.
What would you say is the biggest challenge marketers face today?
The biggest challenge is the volume of outreach everyone receives. Every leader, every salesperson, gets hundreds of emails. Cutting through that noise and getting in touch with the end customer by showing how you stand apart from your competitors is becoming more challenging every day. Knowing exactly who to target, when to show up, and how to create something authentic is the need of the hour.
What’s the most successful event or engagement piece you’ve hosted, and why?
The most successful was our recent “Ambitious Futures” project, which was tied to our rebrand. We are a 10-year-old company that has been identified in a certain way (as a DevOps company). This project was about changing that brand structure to a new vision of “growing together”—our clients growing with us, and our employees growing with us. We did a global launch from our Hyderabad office with a live telecast to our global audience. I think that was one of the major and most successful events I’ve done recently.
What career advice would you give to anybody starting in the marketing industry?
Don’t be scared of AI and new technologies. To use AI effectively, you need the human understanding of what output it can give. The most important things are to stay curious and adaptable to these changes. It’s not enough to just produce out-of-the-box ideas; you have to produce ideas that are relevant and will help you grow personally.
What’s a piece of traditional leadership advice that you believe doesn’t apply to modern CMOs?
A few years back, marketing was seen as a support function. Marketing leaders were told, “You are authorised to do this, so you just need to do this.” That has completely changed.
The new-age marketing leader drives decisions. We sit at the table with the sales team, we understand the technicalities with the delivery team, and we drive the entire engagement. We generate revenue. We are now in the front line of the services and solutions we provide, not kept behind the curtains.
What do you believe is the biggest opportunity for marketing directors or CMOs today?
Honestly, the biggest opportunity is the ability to connect creativity with data in real time. With AI and analytics, we can measure and adjust instantly. In the past, you’d launch a campaign and just hope it worked. Now, I can test, learn, scale, do A/B testing, and prove ROI in the boardroom. That is a major opportunity for us as marketers.
What does the future of marketing look like?
I hate to say it again and again, but the future is human plus AI. AI will help us automate, personalise, and predict, which are major decision-making skills in business. But the heart of marketing will always boil down to the human element: storytelling, empathy, and creativity. The winner will be the one who is ready to amalgamate both.
How would you describe the role of the CMO or marketing director in one word, and why?
If I have to put it in one word, I would say Integrator.
By that, what I mean is you integrate the brand with revenue, creativity with data, and customer needs with business goals. We bridge the gap between the company’s goals, a customer’s requirements, and an employee’s vision. That is what a new-age marketing director or CMO is.
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