The B2B Innovator Awards were created to celebrate the most progressive marketing and sales practitioners pushing the envelope to effectively engage prospective customers and meet their buyers’ needs in the age of digital transformation.
The Awards honor innovators who:
- Helped break new ground and/or drive specific results within their company;
- Successfully implemented of the innovative strategy or concept — especially related to performance marketing and driving revenue;
- Creatively and effectively engaged prospective buyers and met buyers’ needs; and
- Conceptualized and/or launched a specific and innovative B2B strategy, campaign or idea.
Though the competition was stiff, 13 practitioners were selected and honored at the 2023 B2B Sales & Marketing Exchange in Boston. This year’s winners include:
Data Scientist & Operations Optimizers: Juan Zambrano
Juan Zambrano is currently the VP of Marketing & Customer Experience at Safra National Bank. He’s a seasoned B2B marketer that’s known for his growth hacking skills and passion for marketing, with expertise that spans across lead generation, user experience and conversion rate optimization. With a rich experience working with corporations of different scales, Juan has guided multiple brands to achieve their advertising objectives. He currently specializes in fintech and martech within the financial sector, striving to deliver a unique client experience.
C-Suite Strategy: Christopher Rack
Christopher Rack, MRP’s CEO, thrives on solving complex problems and transforming challenges into opportunities. With more than 16 years of experience in B2B sales and marketing technology, Rack steered multiple high-growth organizations and guided clients through dynamic business landscapes. A central focus of his career and passion has been to address the pressing issues faced by B2B marketers.
Sales Drivers: Annie Solomon
As Marketing Manager of SurePoint Technologies, Annie Solomon led the brand awareness, lead generation and demand generation efforts that followed SurePoint’s acquisition of Coyote Analytics by driving brand awareness across multiple channels including advertising, social media, email, blogs and the website. Solomon focused on promoting the benefits and multiple ways that Coyote Analytics Cloud can help law firms better run their business and empower their users. Among other impressive results, the launch drove more than 70 opportunities generated, totaling $2.2 million dollars.
Buyer-Focused Marketers: Sara Coffey
Sara Coffey, SurePoint Technologies’ Director of Marketing, led a dynamic integrated marketing campaign called “Leading the Way.” The goal of the campaign was to provide practical guidance and a framework for success into how growth-oriented law firms can leverage technology to set themselves apart and lead the way in the business of law. The campaign helped amplify SurePoint’s thought leadership across the legal industry. Moreover, Coffey’s approach enabled law firms to learn strategies for thriving and growing in the post-pandemic world.
B2B Technologists: Tori Forte
Tori Forte, Sr. Director of Marketing Technology at OneTrust, has successfully spearheaded the implementation of innovative marketing technology to support the consolidation of performance reporting and analysis across multiple business units at OneTrust. Forte’s visionary leadership has aligned her executive team on a common set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and enabled streamlined decision-making processes. Notably, her recent use of ORM Technologies’ marketing analytics platform has revolutionized data insights by aggregating information from multiple business units into a single, comprehensive view.
B2B Vanguards: Kankana Shukla
Kankana Shukla, Specialist of Data Science at Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), developed more than 25 propensity and attrition models in support of the targeting and segmentation work needed to improve sales and marketing effectiveness. Additionally, Shukla took a more active role in D&B’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs. In particular, she has taken a greater and more active committee member role in the company’s Women in Support of Empowerment, Equality & Excellence (WISE) group.
Vertical Virtuosos: Neil Honaker
Neil Honaker was well-suited to move into sales operations role when he joined Essity more than eight years ago. Over his time with Essity, Neil led the company in a “reboot” of Salesforce that pivoted its focus from traditional CRM tasks, such as opportunity and account management, to leveraging the platform as a driver of innovation and customer success. He then managed data/analytic projects from concept to final delivery across a range of use cases from data governance, sales enablement and change management. Currently, he holds the position of Data Hygiene/Data Privacy Manager at the company.
Generation Z Trailblazers: Hang Nguyen
Hang Nguyen is the Sr. Marketing Operation Manager at Fidelity Labs, which is Fidelity Investments’ innovation incubator. With a strong background in marketing operations and a passion for technical operations, Nguyen is responsible for strategizing and revamping the current marketing automation system. From establishing a new funnel stage mechanism, refreshing scoring and funnel progression models to building an Air Traffic Controller for inbound activity handling and management, Hang breaks new ground and drives results within Fidelity Labs.
Account Targeters & Strategists: Chris Atwood
Chris Atwood is a leader in leveraging research, analytics, market segmentation and developing/deploying optimal marketing strategies for ITA Group, where he serves as Strategic Marketing Demand Gen & Martech Leader. He is ABM certified, leads the account-based strategy and develops, implements and tracks all KPIs for ITA Group. In one year, Atwood drove the organization to key milestones, including a 28% reduction in cost per lead, 20% increase in leads generated year-to-year, 100% of sales accepted leads target, 40% improvement in paid campaign leads meeting the company’s ideal customer profile and 118% of target for marketing generated/influenced contacts included on sales qualified opportunities.
Diversity & Inclusion Champions: Vonya Alleyne
Vonya Alleyne is the Chief People Officer of Segra, where she works to make the company a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Outside of Segra, she supports DE&I initiatives in surrounding communities. In 2022, Alleyne’s team facilitated 50 women being hired, 21 women receiving promotions, 12 people of color being promoted and 60 more hired. Women were 28% of all new hires, and people of color were 34% of new hires in the same year. So far in 2023, 33 women have been hired and 14 people of color have been promoted, with 30% of all promotions going to women.
SMB Maestros: David Oliva
Since David Oliva has been General Manager for Organomation, the company has achieved record high domestic instrument sales, which can be attributed to his innovative strategies. Domestic sale growth and expansion into new international markets has enabled the company to survive a dramatic downturn in one territory, which previously equated for 65% of total unit volume several years ago. Oliva’s ability to quickly recognize changing markets and optimize new sales tactics has been a huge factor in Organomation’s steady sales incline.
Marketing Mentors: Sarah Hospelhorn
As CMO of BigID, Sarah Hospelhorn fosters a culture of continuous innovation within the marketing team. By staying ahead of the curve, embracing emerging technologies and exploring new marketing channels, she leads the team to consistently deliver cutting-edge campaigns that resonate with its target audience and outperform industry benchmarks. In addition, Sarah consistently champions the visibility of women within the company by promoting their achievements and contributions and providing mentorship. She highlights female leaders in internal communications, organized speaking opportunities and ensures that women are represented in decision-making processes.
Content, Creative & Execution: Lisa Ames
When Lisa Ames was hired as Norwest’s first CMO in 2022, she had already identified one of the highest priorities in her new role: “Give Norwest the powerful brand it deserves.” Ames was inspired to capture, reflect and amplify the founder-focused values that were deeply embedded in the Norwest spirit. The cornerstone of the brand concept was the authentic photography that the company’s adopted across key touchpoints such as its new website, social campaigns, video content and the wall of vinyl record albums at its headquarters featuring portfolio leaders.
If that’s not enough awards for you, we’re now accepting nominations for the 2024 Killer Content Awards (KCAs)! The KCAs are designed to honor the brands that embrace creativity to drive real results. Nominate your content now!
