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Michael Findling
Senior Principal Program Manager, Account Based Marketing at Red Hat
Professional Background
Michael Findling is a highly accomplished, process-driven marketing leader with extensive expertise in the highly competitive B2B SaaS landscape. Over the years, Michael has honed his ability to seamlessly integrate key business functions, particularly Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Customer Success, to form a cohesive growth strategy. His contributions to various organizations, particularly at the intersection of sales enablement, marketing operations, and customer engagement, showcase his ability to develop impactful marketing initiatives tailored to meet the needs of each unique organization.
With over a decade of hands-on experience in Enterprise Software, Michael's focus has predominantly been on crafting sophisticated go-to-market (GTM) strategies and spearheading comprehensive Account-Based Marketing (ABM) initiatives. His methodical approach has translated into substantial increases in pipeline generation, enhanced marketing capabilities, and robust customer relationships, leading to significant business success for the companies he has worked with.
Education and Achievements
Michael lay the foundation for his successful career by earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) from Boston University. This degree provided him with critical insights into business principles that he has effectively adapted in real-world scenarios, streamlining marketing processes within the organizations he has served. His educational background plays a significant role in establishing his expertise and knowledge in B2B marketing strategies.
Throughout his career, Michael has achieved notable accomplishments that showcase his prowess in various marketing roles:
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Strategic Account-Based Marketing (ABM/ABX) Implementation: One of Michael's most remarkable achievements was his ability to develop and execute end-to-end ABM frameworks that led to a remarkable 30% increase in pipeline generated and influenced within just 60 days. His success can be attributed to targeted channel tactics and personalized audience approaches that speak to the varying needs of clients.
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Sales Enablement & Leadership Collaboration: Michael has significantly enhanced the effectiveness of sales teams by creating and delivering tailored sales enablement programs to Enterprise Sales Leadership. This initiative resulted in a 20% uplift in engagement and a measurable reduction in churn risk within three months, proving his capacity for producing rapid results that support overall business development.
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Data-Driven Marketing Leadership and Operations: In recognition of the paramount importance of data in driving successful marketing strategies, Michael led extensive data audits and optimization processes that substantially improved CRM data integrity. His initiatives resulted in data quality enhancements of up to 80% and the development of best practices critical for marketing success.
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Budget Optimization & ROI Improvement: Michael's strategic management of a $7 million annual customer marketing budget underscores his ability to optimize resource allocation. His efforts led to a noteworthy 35% quarter-over-quarter increase in pipeline influence, showcasing his commitment to maximizing the returns on marketing investments.
Professional Expertise
Michael’s expertise extends to various core areas that are vital for comprehensive marketing success and organizational growth:
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Cross-Functional Collaboration: Demonstrating a unique ability to lead a team of 95 regional field marketers, Michael has facilitated customer-centric strategic planning by emphasizing the importance of cross-departmental communication and effective use of data analytics.
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Market Analyst and Strategist: His strong analytical skills allow Michael to conduct in-depth market research and evaluations, which inform and guide marketing strategies that align with sales objectives and broader business goals.
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Demand Generation & Reporting: Michael developed a comprehensive demand generation reporting framework that greatly improved the marketing team's capabilities in managing campaigns, mapping customer journeys, and effectively targeting marketing efforts. This innovation has led to improved lead nurturing and higher conversion rates.
Career Journey
Michael’s journey through various prestigious roles highlights his adaptability and commitment to continual learning and growth:
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Director of Digital Marketing & ABM at PRGX Global Inc.: In this capacity, Michael was instrumental in driving digital marketing initiatives and enhancing the company’s ABM strategy.
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Director of Account-Based Marketing at AMCS Group & Senior Principal Program Manager at Red Hat: His tenure in these roles played a critical part in refining the account-based marketing processes and ensuring a strategic alignment between marketing and sales initiatives.
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Global Marketing Operations Practice Leader at Salesforce: At Salesforce, Michael was integral in transforming marketing operations practices, bringing about efficiencies that optimized marketing efforts.
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Senior Manager of Enterprise Campaigns at Salesforce: His work here involved high-level campaign management that linked customer success with broader organizational objectives.
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Director of Demand Generation at Get Satisfaction & Senior Manager of Marketing & Communications at Crowd Factory: Both positions allowed Michael to leverage his marketing expertise towards driving demand generation initiatives.
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Global Online Marketing Manager at Embarcadero Technologies & Senior Manager of Online Marketing at SalemGlobal Internet: These roles provided him with indispensable experience in managing online marketing strategies conducive to elevating brand presence and targeting key market segments.
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Business Analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi: Early in his career, this position allowed him to develop fundamental business analysis skills that laid a strong groundwork for his future success in marketing.
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Learning Management Systems Strategist at Standard & Poor's & Learning and Professional Development Analyst at Goldman Sachs: Here, Michael's analytical capabilities shone, as he focused on refining learning management strategies and facilitating professional development initiatives.
Through these diverse roles across renowned organizations, Michael Findling has established himself as a thought leader in the B2B marketing sphere, making substantial contributions to each organization while consistently achieving remarkable outcomes. His unwavering commitment to continuous improvement and his adeptness at integrating marketing strategy with sales and operational processes are testaments to his expert status in the industry. As Michael continues his professional journey, his insights and innovative approaches to marketing will undoubtedly drive further advancements in the field of B2B SaaS marketing.
Achievements
- Strategic Account-Based Marketing (ABM/ABX) Implementation: Achieved a 30% increase in pipeline within 60 days.
- Sales Enablement & Leadership Collaboration: Enhanced sales team effectiveness with a 20% uplift in engagement.
- Data-Driven Marketing Leadership: Improved data quality by up to 80% through CRM audits.
- Budget Optimization: Managed $7M budget leading to a 35% increase in pipeline influence.
Location
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.