Barbara Ryan, Field Marketing & ABM Manager at Chargebee, shares her playbook for B2B marketing. She discusses the critical need for sales alignment, how to deliver personalisation at scale, and why the future lies in creating the “human moment” in a digital world.
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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Measure Success by Sales Enablement: The most valuable metric isn’t on a dashboard; it’s a sales leader confirming your marketing campaign directly helped them close a deal.
- Solve for Personalisation at Scale: Modern marketers’ most significant challenge and opportunity is to deliver tailored, personal experiences to buyers even as the business grows rapidly.
- Start Broad, Befriend Sales, and Execute: Build your career by gaining generalist skills, learning directly from the sales team on the front lines, and prioritising fast execution and iteration over perfection.
Can you tell us a little bit about you, Barbara, and your role at Chargebee?
My name is Barbara Ryan, and I am a Field Marketing and ABM Manager at Chargebee, based in Adelaide, Australia. My role recently shifted from a Regional Marketing role to a Field and ABM role to be more focused on pipeline generation. My main focus is on generating high-quality pipelines in the ANZ and APAC regions.
My role sits between strategy and execution, building campaigns and go-to-market motions for prospects and customers. A key aspect of our culture at Chargebee is the strong alignment between sales and marketing. We are seen as one team, not two separate functions. Sales sees us as a partner, and we are always aligned with their goals, ensuring we support them in pursuing the best accounts to drive business growth.
How did you get into marketing?
Many years ago, I asked my mum what she thought I was good at, and she pointed out that I was bubbly, loved variety, and was fascinated by different brands. She suggested I look into advertisements. I studied it at university, which focused on the agency side, but after two years, I knew my path was marketing.
I’m originally from Brazil, and after finishing my studies and working there, I moved to Australia. My career has always been in marketing; it has been a very linear path for me. I started in general marketing roles, which gave me a broad range of experiences and different perspectives on what marketing truly is, which has been invaluable in getting me to where I am today.
What is your primary field marketing focus at the moment?
I am laser-focused on driving demand and pipeline for our sales teams, especially within Australia’s SaaS and digital B2C space. This means running campaigns, field events, and integrated campaigns that don’t just create awareness but also have conversions and pipeline attribution.
One of our best-converting tactics is direct mail, but it’s highly targeted at our Marketing Qualified Accounts (MQAs). We know these accounts have an existing need, so getting our solution in front of them is a very effective outbound initiative for our sales reps.
On the field side, since Australia is a relatively new market for Chargebee, we are focused on building brand awareness through personalised field experiences, CXO roundtables, and roadshow events targeting customers and key prospects.
How do you define success in field marketing?
For me, success is more than just the numbers on a dashboard. The greatest satisfaction comes from having a conversation with a sales leader who says, “Barbara, that campaign helped. We closed a deal because you invited that account to a roundtable or sent them a direct mail piece.” Knowing that your work is truly helping someone else succeed in their job is the ultimate measure of success.
Of course, influencing and generating pipeline and delivering a strong return on investment are key metrics. However, achieving strong internal alignment is also a significant success factor. It’s not a one-person job, and success is defined by more than just numbers.
What are the biggest challenges field marketers face today?
The biggest challenges are balancing scaling with personalisation and dealing with attribution.
Firstly, businesses want to scale and sell more, but buyers expect a tailored, personalised experience today. They expect you to understand their business and its unique challenges. The challenge is to deliver that personalised touch even as you grow.
Secondly, attribution is a significant challenge in our data-obsessed environment. Everything we do is data-based. To address this, we are working to ensure our reports use a W-shaped attribution model. This way, even if it’s just one touchpoint, we can show that marketing was there and contributed to the deal, which is crucial for showcasing our efforts and value.
How does your company stay ahead of its competitors in terms of marketing?
We see challenges as opportunities. The challenge of personalisation is an opportunity for us to be different from our competitors. We focus on how we can solve problems for our prospects, not by just selling a product, but by working with them as an extension of their business. We do this through educational content, such as maturity assessment reports that show businesses how they compare to their peers and how Chargebee can help.
One of the things I love about Chargebee is that we are not afraid to experiment. If I have a creative idea for a new way to generate demand, I will get support if it aligns with our goals. Marketing is never a linear curve; it’s about experimenting, understanding how the market is evolving, and adapting to the changing needs of the businesses you are trying to serve.
What is the biggest opportunity for field marketers today that might not have been available in the past?
Three significant opportunities: technology, data access, and remote work.
- Technology: We now have advanced tools, especially AI, for targeting, personalising, and tracking like never before. Automation allows us to streamline admin work and focus more on strategic, creative tasks.
- Data Access: The data we have today allows us to understand our prospects and customers fully, making our marketing efforts more effective.
- Remote Work has been a game-changer. It allows businesses to access global talent and marketers like me to run global programmes with local expertise, all from my base in Australia.
What does the future of marketing look like?
The future will be hyper-personalised, data-informed, and community-driven. People want to be known, and they want to hear from and be around their peers.
AI will be a key partner, helping marketers become more efficient and strategic rather than something to be feared. Finally, the core of field marketing will be about creating the “human moment” in a digital-first world. Post-COVID, there is a deep craving for meaningful, in-person connections, and the field marketer’s job is to bring those moments to life.
What career advice would you give to anyone starting in the marketing industry?
I have three key pieces of advice. First, “start broad, go deep later.” Working in general marketing roles early in my career gave me a crucial end-to-end understanding of the function, which helped me find what I truly enjoy.
Second, make friends with sales. You will learn far more from a conversation with a sales rep about what’s happening on the ground than from any textbook. Understanding their world is the most important thing you can do.
Third, do something. Don’t get stuck trying to make everything perfect. Something is always better than nothing. Learn fast, ship fast, and keep iterating.
What is a piece of traditional leadership advice that doesn’t apply to modern field marketers?
The old advice to “stay in your lane.” In today’s fast-paced, interconnected world, you will miss the boat if you do that. You need to break silos and partner with other functions like sales, product, and customer success. To do your job better, you need to collaborate and understand that valuable knowledge can come from people who are not marketers.
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