Future Of Digital Payments And Its Impact On B2B Market

About the Guest

Sarah Gieringer is Chief of Staff & Head of Operations, Global Real-Time Payments at FIS. She serves as the Chief of Staff for FIS Impact Ventures, the investment and growth-stage development arm of FIS focused exclusively on accelerating next-generation disruptive businesses. Sarah comes to this role as a career Marketer starting out of Columbia Business School at world-class advertising agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, DDB, and Foote Cone & Belding, where she led accounts such as Procter & Gamble, Kraft, General Mills, and more. She then jumped to B2B marketing and the fast-paced world of Fintech on the client-side with First Data, eventually joining FIS.

Contact Sarah Gieringer

Key takeaways

• As a B2B marketer, you have to show up as a business partner for sales to see your value in generating qualified leads. If you don’t understand the business dynamics, you’re not going to be able to bring value to your team.
• In order to ensure we remain on the cutting edge of disruption, FIS created the division Sarah is now in, which focuses on investing in, nurturing, and building disruptive innovation that’s going to shape the future of Fintech.
• To succeed in disruption and in a new business division, you need a startup mindset, looking for ways to come to a “yes and” as opposed to a “no because.”
• Even though every generation has a slightly different relationship with money, there’s an ever-present, desperate need for frictionless, invisible payments.
• Leveraging analytics and intelligence tools are where you’re going to show your value as a B2B marketer.

Quotes

 “As a marketer, you’re really only as good as your ability to be brought into the business strategy.”

Highlights from the episode

Why is it important for marketers to learn the business?

Basic and even sophisticated marketing skills are only going to get you so far if you don’t know the business you’re marketing, especially in B2B. If you don’t understand the business dynamics, you’re not going to be able to bring value to your team. The sales team generates revenue, and the marketing team supports that. So, as a B2B marketer, you have to show up as a business partner for sales to see your value in generating qualified leads. It’s important to become connected to that key business strategist.

How has this helped you learn about disruption?

FIS is one of, if not the largest, fintech companies globally. In order to ensure we remain on the cutting edge of disruption, they created the division I’m now in, which focuses on investing in, nurturing, and building disruptive innovation that’s going to shape the future of Fintech. I’ve learned the importance of separating disruptive innovative work from the closer in, naturally-occurring innovation within the business. Disruptive innovation takes a startup mentality. 

How are financial services going to shift in the next few years?

Even though every generation has a slightly different relationship with money, there’s an ever-present, desperate need for frictionless, invisible payments. This is the area we’re focusing on. We’re investing in and building technologies that focus on accelerating the frictionless economy. 

What type of data or intelligence are you using to identify the right customers and reach out to them?

Demand Base is a very powerful tool we use. Leveraging analytics and intelligence tools are where you’re going to show your value. We implemented a very sophisticated ABM program at FIS that has turned the perceptions of marketing from “nice to have” to “critical partner.” 

Do you have any resources you recommend to the audience? 

I like to consume social psychology and human behavior books and resources, such as Brene Brown, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, Hidden Brain podcast, and Women at Work.

Other resources mentioned

Sapiens by Yuval Noah HarariSimon Sinek’s Ted Talk

Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller

Grit by Angela Duckworth