Leslie Ferry never thought that she would be part of the world of marketing. However, as fate took some twists and turns, Ferry ended up as the Vice President of Marketing for Broadsoft. With experience working for corporations such as MCI and CareerBuilder, Ferry certainly has worked her way up the corporate ladder to be one of the best in her industry. Last week, Ferry sat down with WashingtonExec to discuss her background as an accountant, what her personal work ethic consists of and how she believes social media has changed the digital landscape.
WashingtonExec: Could you discuss your background and how it helped lead you to Broadsoft?
Leslie Ferry: Who would have ever thought that a bean counter would become a Marketing Executive? I took an accounting class my junior year of high school and from that time I knew I would be an accountant. Ensuring debits and credits balance is very logical to me. In the last six weeks of the year, we needed to manage the books of a t-shirt company. I was very interested in understanding how business decisions have an impact on the financial statements of a company. I went on to graduate from college with an accounting degree, although I never went into public accounting. I was always a corporate accountant. Within five years of graduating with a degree in the practice I had focused on for over 10 years now, a marketing manager at MCI asked me to join her product marketing team. I was flattered and confused all at the same time. I didn’t understand why someone in marketing would pick me, an accountant.
After a week of complete confusion I decided it must be fate and I made the leap to marketing and I haven’t looked back ever since. MCI was a phenomenal company in the 90’s, with an intensive focus on product marketing. I learned a tremendous amount about the importance of branding, market research, analyzing buying behaviors, all of which have served me well over the years.
I realized in 1999 that the Internet was probably not going to be a fad. That market dynamic, along with my desire to get experience with product targeted to enterprises, I left MCI to work for CareerBuilder. From there I held various positions with a couple of other SaaS Internet based companies before arriving at BroadSoft. Jim Tholen, BroadSoft’s CFO, and I had worked together at CareerBuilder and when they needed a head of Marketing he asked if I would be interested.
WashingtonExec: Please tell WashingtonExec a little bit about Broadsoft.
Leslie Ferry: BroadSoft is a longstanding start-up. The company was founded in 1998 by two telecommunication industry leaders with the foresight to know that telecommunication service providers would not be able to sustain two networks – their traditional circuit network and a robust IP-based data network. They knew these networks would need to converge and IP would be the network used for the delivery of what would initially be voice communications over broadband connectivity. The company has expanded to offer a broad-range of communication applications, from voice to video, text messaging, web collaboration, instant messaging and more.
WashingtonExec: What is your personal work ethic and how does this affect those you manage and to the extent applicable, the company culture?
Leslie Ferry: I am a typical Washington DC’er, which may or may not be good. I am a very dedicated employee who works hard to deliver on my areas of responsibility. I put in long hours, but I don’t necessarily equate long hours to quality for performance by my team. I can’t tell when my team gets to work or when they leave and I don’t really care. I respect their capabilities and just expect they will get the job done. We are an international company with customers in 65 countries, so everyone travels a fair amount. Such a dynamic culture requires respect and trust of your team, which I see throughout the organization.
WashingtonExec: What are some key tenets to your marketing philosophy and how do you apply those?
Leslie Ferry: The world has changed. With the explosion first of online media/advertising and now social media, the way you need to connect with customers and prospects has changed dramatically. If you are not willing to try new things, you will get left behind. One of the phrases I like the least is “we have always done it that way.” I am sure past approaches and campaigns were very successful, but that doesn’t guarantee that these same approaches will work in the future. You need to constantly test new approaches and communications paths in order to get heard in an increasing fragment world.
WashingtonExec: What are some challenges to managing marketing for a global company with diverse geographical and market considerations?
Leslie Ferry: There are both logistical and technique differences. Strictly from a logistical standpoint, you need to manage the varied time zones, from email deployments to hosting webinars, to determine the optimal time to communicate news announcements. From an approach and messaging standpoint, although the world is becoming flatter, there are still cultural differences that you need to respect. The way business is conducted in some countries varies from our, sometimes more aggressive methods in the US.
WashingtonExec: What do you like to do outside of work?
Leslie Ferry: I am a planner and I always need to have something to look forward to doing personally, whether at home or going to events. This is probably the way I balance my busy work-life, ensuring I have a busy personal-life. I love to entertain at my home, from planning a menu to the table setting to cooking the meal. I have a lot of family and friends in the area, including a brother-in-law who is a chef, so food is a big part of our lives. Also, for a female, I am a pretty big sports fan. I love going to sporting events and sports are really the only thing I watch on TV anymore.
WashingtonExec: How has social media changed the marketing landscape?
Leslie Ferry: To say social media has dramatically changed the marketing landscape is an understatement. Practically every individual now has a platform to share their likes and dislikes about your products or services, if they choose to use it. Conversations are interactive, not one-way anymore. If you think you can take a one-way messaging approach, that approach can backfire or at a minimum undermine the perceived value of the initiative. Social media is the new word-of-mouth outlet.
WashingtonExec: Is there something that you think most executives don’t understand about marketing? Or what is something you think everyone should understand about marketing?
Leslie Ferry: There still needs to be a little art, not all science. Online media offers a very analytical approach to marketing campaigns because of the ease of measuring an ROI. There are still unexplained factors impacting marketing campaign; influences that cannot be easily measured. Don’t be too quick to shut down “the duds” and test, test, test. It is always fascinating what message or approach breaks through. You need to be open-minded to some out-of-the-box approaches.