Marketer Studied: Vol 4. Insights from BigCommerce former SVP of Marketing
Veronica Servantez shares lessons on technical marketing and growth mindset from her experience leading BigCommerce
Meet Veronica Servantez?
Each week, we sit down with a marketing leader to learn more about their careers, insights and accomplishments.?
This week, that marketing leader is Veronica Servantez, former SVP and CMO at BigCommerce, and one of few literature majors who’s run an engineering team. After starting her career in agency work, Veronica pivoted to a highly technical role in Product Marketing at the global cloud computing company Rackspace.?
Here are the need-to-knows about Veronica:?
Getting technical
Early in her career in her agency roles, Veronica was flying around the country working on major accounts like Chrysler and Verizon. Her career took a major turn when she traded her jet setting agency days for a regular commute from Austin to San Antonio to work for the global emerging full stack hosting provider Rackspace (pre-IPO) in a new technical role.?
“Rackspace was a bit of baptism by fire. It was jumping into the deep end of tech marketing and a giant departure from anything I had ever done before. I remember telling my husband, they might as well be speaking French in these meetings. And I don’t speak French. But that role at Rackspace was a real blessing that I accidentally fell into. It was the best learning experience and prepared me to become a B2B SaaS marketing leader by exposing me to the full tech stack across the world’s leading technology vendors, from networking to software. Rackspace expanded my creative experience from the agency days and taught me strategy—I learned how to develop messaging, positioning, and ICP profiles.
To give you an idea of it, for my first launch at Rackspace, they gave me an operating system. And I didn’t know what an OS was.
I’m not kidding when I say I printed out the manual for the 2008 Microsoft operating system, came home with a highlighter, and got to work.
I would get solutions engineers in a room for an hour to explain what an active directory was. I over rotated so much in those early days because I knew I had to get it right.?
It’s funny because I got us into beta with that OS and when they launched it at the big Microsoft event, Steve Ballmer (former CEO of Microsoft) mentioned us on the stage. I remember my boss came up to me and was like… Steve Ballmer? What have you been doing for the past six months?”
As an atypical product marketer, Veronica had a lot of learning to do. But she brought a unique approach to her work that ultimately ended up being her superpower.?
“For the first three to four years at Rackspace, it was very much the typical female leader experience where there’s some imposter syndrome. And then I sort of shook it off and said no, you’re still here and you’re outperforming people with technical backgrounds and pedigrees. So I really got my legs there. When I left after almost 12 years, I was one of five global solution area leaders driving significant go-to-markets for highly complex products. I was the only female solution area leader.
That time taught me to not be afraid of what I don’t know. I ask questions knowing that it doesn’t make me less of a leader, less of anything.
And outside of building general knowledge, asking the questions is an essential part of product marketing. Let’s say you’ve got the best AP—you have to ask about “the why.” What’s the value it adds? Is it going to provide scalability, cost savings, security? You might be excited about speeds and feeds but you have to have a firm grasp of the “why” and the “so what.”
Asking those questions and tying everything back to the customer (ICP) and the market helped me turn my perceived weakness of having a non-technical background into a strength.”
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A standout campaign
Of the many strategic, successful campaigns Veronica’s led, one in particular stands out.
“When I started at BigCommerce, there were no small business marketers. There was a web team and there was a digital team. So as Small Business VP, I told my digital and web team that we were going to talk to customers and to close-lost prospects. It was very basic stuff—we offered gift cards to get them to talk to us. I trained my small team of five people on what to ask and we started to tease out the insights. The learning we came up with was that not all small businesses are the same, and we are most likely to win, grow, and retain sophisticated small businesses.?
While competitors were doubling down on the lower end of the market with solo-preneurs and side-hustlers, BigCommerce was moving up into mid-market. So we wound up repositioning, updating our messaging and—because I was responsible for the sales function at that point—we constricted the lead flow to the sales team, focusing on closing more sophisticated small businesses .?
It was interesting to tell sellers who aren’t meeting their quota that we're going to give them fewer leads. But we started giving them leads that we thought mapped to the new ICP.
And instead of just looking at lead volume, our new KPI was the number of larger small businesses we’re pulling in.?
We were selling them enterprise plans. The low-end plan was $30/per month and the enterprise plan started at $1,000/month so it was a big difference. When we started that, we might have been selling three enterprise plans a month. After 12 months into it, we were doing 25 to 30 enterprise plans a month. So we increased that main KPI by 8-10x.? And it turned the business around. We went from just keeping the lights on in the small business unit to growing it by acquiring these customers that were actually sticking around.
So that changed the temperature in the room. It became a real bright spot and it’s something I’m super proud of. And it was just about rolling up your sleeves, going back to pretty basic stuff, getting the strategy right, and measuring the results correctly. That was probably my first significant win coming into BigCommerce.”
Advice and takeaways
Veronica’s career is overflowing with lessons. Here are a few that stand out:
1) Embrace Learning Outside Your Comfort Zone
Technical knowledge isn't about having all the answers—it's about being willing to learn. Veronica transformed her perceived weakness of a non-technical background into a strength by asking questions, diving deep into unfamiliar territories, and understanding the "why" behind product features.
As a marketer, challenge yourself to step outside your comfort zone. When faced with complex products or technical concepts, don't shy away. Instead, break down complex information, ask detailed questions, and focus on translating technical capabilities into clear customer value propositions.
2) Redefine Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Strategically
Sometimes, growth means being laser-focused on the right customers, not just any customers. Veronica's BigCommerce strategy demonstrated how repositioning from serving all small businesses to targeting sophisticated small businesses led to significant revenue transformation.
Take a critical look at your current customer base. Are you truly serving your most valuable segment? Consider narrowing your focus to customers who not only generate more revenue but also have higher retention potential. This might mean saying no to lower-value leads and redirecting resources to more strategic, high-potential customer segments.
3) Data-Driven Insights Trump Volume
Traditional marketing metrics can be misleading. Veronica's approach showed that reducing lead volume while increasing lead quality can dramatically improve business performance. By prioritizing meaningful metrics like enterprise plan conversions over raw lead numbers, she drove substantial revenue growth.
Reassess your marketing KPIs. Instead of celebrating high lead volumes, focus on metrics that truly reflect business impact—customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, and strategic segment penetration. Be prepared to make counterintuitive decisions that challenge existing processes but ultimately drive meaningful business results.
Stop pretending all customers are the same
1 周That reminds me of a conversation I had in Iraq one time. I was put in charge of this project, and at my first check-in with my (new) boss he asked what I'd done so far. I responded that I just finished reading the manual on it, and started to dive in to next steps and what not. He stopped me and said "wait, you read the manual? No one actually does that." It's amazing how much you can stand out (and how successful you can be) if you spend a bit of time studying those that came before you.