The Modern Strategic Partner: Why the Best Growth Teams Think Beyond Marketing in the Age of AI

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Links and Resources

• Top KPIs Every CMO Should Track To Prove Marketing’s ROI
• ICP in Marketing: The Executive Guide to Better Targeting and Pipeline Growth
• 15 Rules of Sales Analytics for a Pristine Pipeline: Separating Genuine Opportunities from Illusions

Transcript

[0:13] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of the AI Machines and Marketer Show. We all know how AI is reshaping the way marketing work gets done. A task that used to take more than an hour to complete can now be done in minutes. And in fact, teams have more access to customer, campaign, and revenue data than ever before. But this also gives rise to a very important question — if AI is handling more of the execution work, what should marketers and agencies focus on next? Well, ladies and gentlemen, the answer lies in thinking beyond content, campaigns, and lead generation, because today growth teams are expected to know much more about the customer, about the sales process, the business goals, the company’s revenue targets. And in that spirit, we’ve chosen today’s topic: the modern strategic partner — why the best growth teams think beyond marketing in the age of AI. And to clear the air and throw some light on this topic, we’re joined by a very seasoned speaker who will walk us through a few prominent questions — like what it takes for a marketer to be your strongest growth partner, how AI is helping us make better decisions, and most importantly, what agencies should do to stay valuable in the future. Without much further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Khushboo Sharma, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Growth Natives. Hello, Khushboo. Welcome.

[2:04] Khushboo Sharma

Thank you. Glad to be here.

[2:06] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

So Khushboo, I believe this is your first time as a guest on the AI Machines and Marketer Show. And on this show we dissect every area AI touches. You bring years of expertise to the table — your work both with and without AI. So, how is work today?

[2:26] Khushboo Sharma

Oh, well — with AI, work has been pretty amazing, I would say. I wouldn’t say that as marketers we’re struggling a lot. In fact, we’re fusing with AI quite a lot, to make the work both more human-centric and more AI-centric at the same time.

[2:44] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Right, OK. Then I think I can call that a good start, because you seem very energetic today. So — are you ready for our podcast? OK, so ladies and gentlemen, let’s get started with our first segment. So Khushboo, my first question to you: as AI takes over more marketing execution, how should the role of the growth marketer evolve beyond generating leads and running campaigns?

[3:18] Khushboo Sharma

I think we’ve been asking the wrong question — of ourselves as marketers, and of our clients as well. The question has always been: where are we going to generate leads from, why are we generating leads, how is AI helping us generate leads. In fact, we should be asking more questions about our segment. AI can never tell you the detailed information about your segment — for example, what is your client profile, your ideal customer profile? How do we target them? What should the target messaging be? AI can write content, for sure — but it needs to understand the value of the business as well. So rather than focusing on demand generation these days, we should be focusing more on growth generation — on how to create more growth with our clients, alongside demand generation.

[4:13] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

OK. So Khushboo, with faster access to customer, campaign, and revenue data, how can a growth marketer use AI to make better business decisions, rather than just generating more content?

[4:28] Khushboo Sharma

Oh, that’s a very nice question. I would say that for ages — even before AI — we’ve been generating content as a valuable asset to run our marketing promotions, and to create more assets. With AI, I guess we can do more of that fusion work I mentioned. AI can definitely help with that. You should be aware of how AI can help you create more awareness around your brand and your offering — how we can build a higher-volume pipeline, for example, or how targeting your ideal customers with the right message can give you proper conversions, and, more importantly, valuable conversions. Because nowadays, generation is not as important as creating high value. So we should know how to leverage AI as growth marketers to create that high-value, high-velocity pipeline, so that it helps generate more business, gives us more opportunities, and helps us close more opportunities — and makes our clients much happier. AI is there for everyone, but it works best for those who know how to use it efficiently, in the right direction. Not just to create content, but to create value, I would say.

[5:57] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

So Khushboo, this takes me to our next question. As execution becomes easier to automate, what must an agency bring to the table to become a true strategic partner?

[6:12] Khushboo Sharma

I think agencies these days need to embrace this shift, because it’s the biggest shift we’ve seen in our industry. Clients don’t wake up thinking, “oh, I need SEO.” They wake up thinking, “I need more revenue.” “I need more valuable customers.” “I need growth in my business.” And that’s where we as growth marketers come into the picture — with the help of AI, showing how we can generate that value and bring that to their table. So I believe that with the proper strategy and proper integration of AI, what we can build is far better than what we could build without it — because, like I said earlier, it’s a fusion. And agencies these days thrive on those conversations, on that kind of strategy — they’d rather be sitting in boardroom discussions with the client than just presenting the monthly campaign performance. So being involved at the leadership level, and preparing strategy, is what will help growth marketers create a more valuable asset for their clients as an agency.

[7:39] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

This brings me to our next question. How deeply should a strategic partner understand a company’s ideal customer profile, business model, sales process, and revenue goals before recommending a growth strategy?

[7:56] Khushboo Sharma

Rajnish, I think my answer is very simple for this one. Deep enough that the client is able to have their agency sit in the leadership meeting — to discuss sales, to discuss progress in their QBR, to discuss every bit of the sales cycle they’ve been through, from the start of the journey — marketing qualified leads — all the way to winning the opportunity. I have an example for this one. It’s been about seven to nine years now that we’ve been working with one of our biggest clients in this industry, a skincare brand in Australia. I was personally handling this project many years ago. And when we started, it was COVID times — and trust me, the business was in very tough shape at that point, especially being in retail. You have to sell your skincare products to your audience, but it’s lockdown everywhere, and you can’t ship anything, right? Everything came to a standstill. And that’s where we, as an agency, helped the brand understand how effective e-commerce could be for them — irrespective of AI, because at that time AI wasn’t much of a thing. Even so, as their extended marketing team, we managed to bring their sales up by 200% growth — yes, in a single year. And that was a huge success, because as an agency, our team understood the project. We understood the client, we understood their ideal customers. We understood how their growth had progressed from the point we took over their marketing through to generating qualified customers. So that’s one of the biggest success stories for us. And I think it’s a beautiful example of the point that you, as an agency, need to be there for your client as an extended team — rather than working in silos, or as just an agency. You’re not a vendor. You’re their growth partner.

[10:25] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

That’s a hell of an answer. I don’t think I could have expected an answer in a simpler form. So, my next question to you, Khushboo. Growth depends on marketing, sales, customer success, product, finance, and operations working together. How can AI help these functions break down the silos and make more connected decisions?

[10:52] Khushboo Sharma

One thing I find very fascinating now is that everything is about data. And especially as growth marketers, we should be leaning heavily on data — because marketing is all about data. Sales gives you the objections, and insight into how you can target your ideal customer profiles — how you can reach the right customers with the right message. Customer success gives you adoption. When you have proper data from each department or function you’re working with in an agency, you can correlate it much better to understand the business. And that’s where AI can help. AI can identify the tactics. It can give you the ideas, it can give you the tactics — but when you feed it the data from each metric, it helps you translate all of it into one consolidated dashboard. So AI can give you a much better view of what the full marketing dashboard looks like, so that it can be easily presented to the leadership team — rather than just presented, like I said, in a campaign review meeting.

[12:13] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Right. So Khushboo, on that note — when marketing data is connected with sales and customer data, which metrics best demonstrate marketing’s real impact on pipeline, revenue, retention, and customer growth?

[12:31] Khushboo Sharma

I think what we’ve done over the years is lean heavily on the basic metrics to measure marketing success — click-through rates, impressions, open rates. Those were the old data metrics. I’m not saying they’re not important — they’re extremely important. But an executive or leadership team would prefer to see something more in your marketing dashboard. And you, as a growth marketer, should be able to present a much clearer picture and build a story around it: did those leads generate pipeline, and was that pipeline valuable? And I’ll give an example of what we’re doing recently for one of our clients — an AI software company with Salesforce implemented. In that project, rather than focusing on basic metrics like clicks, open rate, and impressions on paid ads, for example, we’re also checking how much value we generated through those ads. Let’s say we generated 10 leads last month — we need to know whether those 10 leads are actually qualifiable or not. So our sales team is also aligned with our agency’s marketing team on whether those leads are qualified enough — whether they’ve passed the sales qualification checklist the team has built. So the metrics have now changed completely, from the older, basic ones to more advanced ones that tell a story — the customer journey, from where it started to how it converted. So the old metrics are still there, but when you look at the bigger picture, new things have been added on top. And that makes a bigger difference.

[14:38] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Yes — because then the agency is sitting at the leadership table, right, not in the campaign review. So Khushboo, looking ahead — what will separate the agencies that become trusted business partners from those that remain replaceable execution providers in the age of AI?

[15:02] Khushboo Sharma

I think the agencies that thrive over the next decade won’t be valued for their AI stack. Because I believe every agency, every single one, will have their AI stack ready — and many already do. You’ll see a lot of agency websites have recently added new AI prompt-engineering services, talking about how good their prompt engineers are for Claude, for example. So over the next decade, agencies will have the stack ready. But the most important thing — whether we have that tech ready or not, whether we have that AI stack with us — is being much more conscious about how we’re helping our clients with it, how ready we are to implement those ideas with AI to deliver better revenue results for our clients, so that we’re not just sitting as a vendor for them, but acting as their extended leadership team. I won’t say marketing team — leadership team, because that’s where an agency’s strategic decisions will help their client generate more business.

[16:34] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Yeah, that’s the direction they need to grow in.

[16:37] Khushboo Sharma

Exactly, yes.

[16:39] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

OK, now, that’s a wrap for the first section. And I don’t think I could have expected the answers to be delivered in a simpler or more strategic way. That was an amazing conversation, Khushboo.

[16:53] Khushboo Sharma

Thank you.

[16:55] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

So let’s move ahead to our next segment — the rapid fire round. Are you ready?

[17:02] Khushboo Sharma

Yes, I am.

[17:07] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

So there will be 10 questions. You can answer in a word or a sentence. You’ll have 10 seconds for each.

[17:13] Khushboo Sharma

OK, I’ll try my best.

[17:15] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Let’s get started. One marketing task that AI should already be handling.

[17:25] Khushboo Sharma

I think it should be providing much better strategic advice — but mixed with human-centric knowledge as well. Human judgment is always a must.

[17:37] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

One decision that should never be left entirely to artificial intelligence.

[17:45] Khushboo Sharma

I would say content — though that’s my personal opinion. Content, mostly, because it needs to be verified.

[17:56] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

The most underrated quality of a strategic agency partner.

[18:01] Khushboo Sharma

I’d say the zeal to understand the business — the entrepreneurial mindset of every team involved in those strategic decisions.

[18:13] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Which function should marketing collaborate with more closely?

[18:18] Khushboo Sharma

Sales, for sure — because marketing and sales alignment has been the toughest game for many years, and it still is, even now that we have AI. It’s really about involving AI across both functions. So: marketing, sales, and AI, for sure.

[18:36] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

One sign that an agency does not truly understand its client’s business.

[18:42] Khushboo Sharma

I think it’s what we talked about earlier — taking rapid decisions. As an agency we need to understand the business much better first, and then take strategic decisions, rather than just acting immediately. It should be a systematic process — let’s not jump to a conclusion in the first or second meeting.

[19:07] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Which matters more: faster execution or better decision-making?

[19:12] Khushboo Sharma

I believe better decision-making, because it gives you a wider scope for delivering valuable results.

[19:20] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

One metric growth teams rely on too heavily.

[19:26] Khushboo Sharma

I’d say lead generation. In my opinion we should be focusing more on valuable lead generation than on volume.

[19:35] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

One question every agency should ask before recommending a campaign.

[19:41] Khushboo Sharma

Why are we doing this? There should always be a reason behind recommending a campaign. For example, we’ve studied their ideal customer profiles, we’ve studied the messaging they’ve been sending to those ICPs — and that’s why we’re recommending a campaign, whether it’s net new or evergreen.

[20:06] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Will smaller AI-enabled agencies outperform larger traditional agencies?

[20:14] Khushboo Sharma

I believe it depends on the scope of the business and the client’s requirements. Take a smaller AI-enabled agency — what if they don’t have a team capable of understanding the business, while the bigger traditional agency does have that team? AI is an extended tool, or a skill, that can be added and learned. Marketing is like that too — but it’s also something you gain through experience, and through working with your clients extensively. So there’s no right answer to who will outperform whom. It depends entirely on the team: their capability, their entrepreneurial skill, and their zeal to learn and improve things for the client.

[21:12] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Last one — answer in one sentence. What does the modern strategic partner look like?

[21:21] Khushboo Sharma

First of all, this is one of the most beautiful questions I get these days, because I really enjoy answering it. And this is absolutely my own opinion: we shouldn’t be working as a vendor for our clients. So the modern strategic partnership looks like an extended marketing team. It should genuinely be a partnership — you’re part of the leadership decisions, the strategic decisions, not just reporting how many clicks we delivered, or how a campaign performed. No — we should be providing much more strategic advice. That’s what a beautiful, entrepreneurial strategic partnership looks like. That’s what we should be aiming for.

[22:22] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

Well, that’s a wrap for our second section. What a conversation this has been — one of the best conversations I’ve had to date. One thing I’m taking away from this: AI may have taken over execution, and yes, AI executes at the fastest pace — but stronger decisions, business understanding, and human judgment will always prevail. The growth team will be the one aligning marketing with sales, product, and revenue goals for better business outcomes. Well, thank you so much, Khushboo, for joining us today. It really was a great conversation.

[23:07] Khushboo Sharma

You’re most welcome, Rajnish. Thank you for having me.

[23:09] Host (Rajnish Ranjan)

And how could we say goodbye without thanking our wonderful audience for being with us on the AI Machines and Marketer Show? Thank you for being with us. Until the next time we meet — keep learning, keep evolving. Thank you.

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