David Thompson is the CMO at Freshworks, one of the world’s fastest-growing SaaS customer engagement companies. He previously served as the CMO of WebEx, where he named the company, positioned it for IPO, and a subsequent buyout by Cisco. He also pioneered the high-velocity sales model and named it “Sales 2.0.”

In this interview with David, we talk to him about:

• Learnings from the days at WebEx
• Importance of branding for startups and companies 
• Measuring the success of branding efforts
• Must-haves vs good-to-haves while building a brand
• Importance of persona-based marketing for high-velocity sales
• Change in sales landscape since the launch of Sales 2.0 in 2005
• Change in the relationship between marketing and sales changed over the years
• Catering to the data-driven informed buyer
• Leveraging brand in selling