Why Your Brand Promise Is Failing (And How to Fix It) | Suryadeep Verma, CMO of Comviva

New episode with Suryadeep Verma, Chief Marketing Officer at Comviva, a 25-year-old company serving telecom operators across 100+ countries with digital payment platforms and martech solutions. From navigating global B2B complexities to building marketing engines that span diverse emerging markets, this is the strategic playbook for enterprise marketing at scale.

What you'll learn:

🔸 Why the biggest B2B marketing challenge isn't choosing channels. It's getting your entire organization to live your brand promise

🔸 The 3-pillar marketing approach that works across 100+ countries (social drumbeat, analyst relations, account-based marketing)

🔸 Why activity-based metrics beat revenue attribution for ABM success in complex enterprise sales

🔸 How to navigate B2B decision-making by engaging both CXOs and user communities through forums and "success meets"

🔸 The shift from white papers to sharp one-pagers in the AI content era

🔸 Why stakeholder management isn't relationship management—it's about adding value to challenges

🔸 How to commission industry studies that engage your community and drive original thought leadership

🔸 The skills future CMOs need: continuous curiosity and business alignment over pure marketing expertise

Where to find Suryadeep Verma

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suryadeepv/

Where to find Jaydip Sikdar

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaydipsikdar/

• X: https://x.com/jaydipsikdar

Timestamp:

00:00 Introduction

02:33 Navigating B2B Marketing Challenges

07:43 Building a Global Brand

09:56 Prioritizing B2B Marketing Functions

13:34 Engaging Decision Makers in B2B

17:02 Thought Leadership in the AI Era

20:04 Aligning Marketing and Sales

23:48 Building a Full-Stack Marketing Team

26:23 Leveraging Technology in Marketing

27:56 AI as a Force Multiplier

34:46 Skills for Future CMOs

40:53 Continuous Learning and Industry Engagement

Some key takeaways:

1. Brand building happens at every touchpoint, not just marketing communications. Your delivery experience, sales process, and employee interactions all define your brand promise.

2. For global enterprise marketing, focus on three pillars: A consistent social media drumbeat for visibility, analyst relations for third-party validation, and account-based marketing for customer advocacy.

3. Measure ABM through activities (accounts touched, stakeholders engaged) rather than direct revenue attribution, especially in complex 6+ month sales cycles serving millions of end customers.

4. Modern thought leadership requires community engagement. Commission studies with 100+ decision makers, then circle insights back to create original, relevant content.

5. CMO success comes from being "the bridge" between business and marketing teams, translating customer insights into strategic priorities while processing collective ideation.

6. AI is shifting content from long-form to personalized, real-time experiences. Focus on using AI to refine your thoughts rather than replace them entirely.

7. Future CMOs need continuous curiosity over expertise—what you're doing now will be redundant in 5-7 years, so stay hungry and business-aligned.

Referenced:

Comviva: https://www.comviva.com/ - 25-year-old fintech and martech platform serving telecom operators globally

Bharti Airtel: Original parent company and anchor client

HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/ - Primary CRM platform

ZoomInfo: https://www.zoominfo.com/ - Database and prospecting tool

6sense: https://6sense.com/ - Intent-based marketing platform

Navattic: https://navattic.com/ - Product demo platform

LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Account-based marketing and outreach