B2B demand and pipeline · Episode 24 · Season 2 · ·
Building Data-Literate Teams, SQL-Aligned Metrics and Global B2B Demand Generation
Timo Weis, Global Head of Growth at Infosys, on why he questions the metric in every new marketing role he takes, why he hires for the combination of analytical and creative thinking, and how he runs demand generation across a professional services firm operating in 56 countries.
Timo Weis, Global Head of Growth, Infosys. In conversation with John Horsley.
Building Data-Literate Teams, SQL-Aligned Metrics and Global B2B Demand Generation
0:0041:00Why the first thing a new CMO should do is question the metric, and why analytical creativity is the rarest and most valuable skill in marketing
Timo Weis is German-Australian, has moved continents seven or eight times, and currently runs global growth for Infosys in New York after building the global digital marketing team at Akamai Technologies. The common thread across a career that has spanned Adobe, MediaCom, Akamai, and Infosys is a conviction that marketing is fundamentally an empirical discipline: test something, measure it rigorously, do more of what works, and carry the learnings into everything you do not test.
In this conversation Weis explains the hiring framework he uses to find people who combine analytical rigour with creative judgment, the metric question he asks in every new role before doing anything else, and the challenge of aligning marketing metrics with sales outcomes in a professional services company where sales cycles can last two years. His answer to the metric question is almost always the same: the metric being used by marketing does not align with the metric being used by sales, and until it does, marketing will generate activity that sales cannot use.
What is your approach to building high-performance marketing teams?
“The most important thing for me is that people have an understanding of data and that they can read the data in the right way. Marketing for me is all about data. It is basically having a look at one test versus the other, determine what works best, and just do more of the best. For me it is very important that I ask questions which show me that people are street smart. I give them a report and they can tell me what to do next. Or I give them two sets of creative and they tell me which they prefer and why.”
Weis is describing a hiring test that assesses both analytical and creative judgment simultaneously. The report question tests whether a candidate can move from data to implication, the what to the so what. The creative preference question tests whether they can articulate a judgment rather than just expressing a preference. The combination of the two is what Weis calls the analytical creative unicorn, the rare person who is genuinely rigorous about both measurement and expression.
What is the first thing you do in a new marketing role?
“In every single business when I came on board, the first thing I always questioned was whether we are using the right metric. Because most of the times, the marketing metric does not necessarily align with a sales metric. As marketers for a B2B company, you can create a lot of leads. If the leads do not have the quality the sales team expects, those leads are worthless.”
The metric question is Weis's version of a standard operating procedure for entering a new organisation. Before changing anything about the programmes, the channels, the content, or the team, he establishes whether the measure of success is the right one. In his experience, the answer is almost always no. Marketing is being measured on something that does not translate into the commercial outcomes the business needs, and the first structural change required is to the metric, not the tactics.
How do you align marketing and sales metrics in a B2B environment?
“Ideally, you optimise towards SQLs. If the sales cycles are short, it is even better to optimise towards revenue. But for most of the companies I was working for, the sales cycles are like one and a half, two years long. So you cannot really optimise towards revenue.”
The two-year sales cycle creates a practical measurement challenge: you cannot wait two years to know whether a marketing programme is working. SQL generation is the leading indicator that is close enough to commercial reality to be meaningful while still being observable within a planning cycle. Weis describes the alignment process as a structural conversation with sales about what a good opportunity looks like, baking those criteria into lead scoring, and then measuring marketing's contribution to SQL generation rather than MQL volume.
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Become a Voice →Why is diversity a creative advantage in marketing teams?
“I think it is important that you have diversity in the team. I was working with people from all around the world. We had people from APAC, from Europe, from the States, from South America. It was really a multinational team and that was one of the best work experiences I had all around the world because there was so much input coming from every single person. Everyone had a different way of thinking about things. That combined approach just created the best campaigns.”
Weis's argument for diversity is not primarily ethical but creative. Teams with diverse perspectives do not just reflect a broader range of human experience, they generate a broader range of hypotheses about what will work. Different cultural backgrounds, different professional histories, and different demographic contexts produce different creative judgments. When those different judgments are in conversation with each other, the output is more rigorous and more creative than what any homogeneous team would produce.
How do you approach demand generation for a global professional services firm?
“Especially for B2B, it is incredibly important that you talk to sales. And in every single business, when I came on board, the first thing I always questioned was if we are using the right metric. Marketing metrics do not necessarily align with sales metrics. You can create a lot of leads. If the leads do not have the quality the sales team expects, those leads are worthless.”
Global demand generation for a professional services firm like Infosys requires a level of localisation that makes the alignment question more complex than in a product company. Different markets have different buying norms, different competitive landscapes, and different seniority of buyer. The metric alignment challenge is compounded by the fact that sales teams in different regions may have different definitions of what a good opportunity looks like, requiring marketing to work at both the global and regional level simultaneously.
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Read the full transcript
Lightly edited for readability
John Horsley It would be great if you could briefly introduce Infosys.
Timo Weis Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We help our clients in over 56 countries to plan and execute their digital transformation journey. We have 40 years of experience. We offer comprehensive IT solutions, business consulting, and outsourcing services. Our AI-first approach and agile digital solutions set us apart.
John Horsley Walk me through your career journey.
Timo Weis I moved quite a lot. I moved continents I think seven or eight times. It all started in Germany. After I sold my first business, I wanted to learn to surf and learn to speak English. I ended up in Australia for 11 years. Started at Aegis Media, went to Adobe, MediaCom in New York, and then Akamai Technologies where we built out the global digital marketing team. After that I switched to Infosys.
John Horsley What is your approach to building high-performance teams?
Timo Weis The most important thing for me is that people have an understanding of data and can read the data in the right way. Marketing for me is all about data. It is basically having a look at one test versus the other, determine what works best, and do more of the best. I give them a report and they can tell me what to do next with it. Or I give them two sets of creative and they tell me which they prefer and why. If it is the right one or not does not matter. I just wanted to understand their thinking process.
John Horsley How do you foster a culture of innovation?
Timo Weis I think it is important that you have diversity in the team. In Australia I was working with people from all around the world, APAC, Europe, the States, South America. It was really a multinational team and that was one of the best work experiences I had because there was so much input from every single person. Everyone had a different way of thinking. That combined approach just created the best campaigns.
John Horsley How do you align marketing with sales?
Timo Weis In every single business when I came on board, the first thing I always questioned was if we are using the right metric. Because most of the times, the marketing metric does not necessarily align with a sales metric. As marketers for a B2B company, you can create a lot of leads. If the leads do not have the quality the sales team expects, these leads are worthless. Ideally you optimise towards SQLs. For most of the companies I was working for, the sales cycles are like one and a half, two years long. So you cannot really optimise towards revenue.
