Today, we sat down with Martin Webster, Senior Vice President at Marketing Analysts Inc., to discuss Marketing Analysts, defining success, and whether concerns about AI are warranted or not.
Martin, you’ve been with Marketing Analysts for more than 10 years total now, how would you describe your role and how do you identify success?
My role is in marketing and sales. Specifically, I’ve transformed our sales materials and helped inform sales and engagement strategy. My gauge of success is the health of the business, the number of new logos we engage with, and more importantly, are we helping our clients be successful in their roles. That part is really important to me. For me, it is not enough just to present a client with a report and call it a day. I want the way we work with our clients to have a positive impact on how they are viewed within their organization. We do this by helping them stay informed, advancing their expertise, and coming up with creative research solutions that other companies may not want to deal with.
How do you feel your skillset lends itself to the team working together and meeting the company objectives?
A lot of how I operate was informed by my time in the USMC where I served for 4 years. Instilled in me was the notion that you can’t stop moving. You have to move forward which sometimes requires us to become creative and remain persistent. The benefit to our clients is that this persistence leads to interesting solutions to challenging business problems. For Marketing Analysts, this helps create a nimble environment where we quickly respond to client challenges.
I wasn’t aware of your military service. What was your job in the Marines?
I was a combat videographer and broadcaster stationed in Okinawa, Japan. I did double duty as cohost of the morning radio show as well as producing the nightly newscast.
Do you feel like broadcasting and news reporting helped you learn how to break down high-level information into more easily digestible pieces for clients?
If you distilled the job down to its most basic function, it was about retelling information in an approachable, compelling way. What we do as market researchers is not much different. The source of the data comes from a different place, but the job is to talk about that data in a way that informs the audience so they can make strategic decisions.
Is there an area of the company that you are looking to grow more?
The marketing side and by extension, sales. Marketing becoming a larger focus for our operations helps gives us a larger, more consistent presence. It allows us to focus the conversation in new ways that better connect with our current and future clients.
What should we be concerned about related to AI?
AI is a tricky one. The way that we engaged with AI yesterday is different than how we engage with it today and will certainly be different than how we engage with it tomorrow. It is tough to know where it’s going but I do believe that it is a positive thing. If we learn how to engage with AI and how to integrate it into our workflows, it can make our product better. It can make us more efficient.
There are clear signs that there are opportunities with AI. It’s up to us to find the ways that we can build them into our workflow and not reflexively be scared that it’s going to do something negative to us. It’s like any new technology, it behooves us not to be the old dog that doesn’t learn new tricks. We all have to be willing to learn, especially in an industry that is tech-driven and these days a lot of us are in a field that is, at least in part, tech-driven.
What are some things you like to do outside of work?
My partner, Anna, and I enjoy camping and hiking. I’m also a hobbyist lock picker and like to roll some dice when I get together with friends for Dungeons and Dragons. Our family includes Anna’s teenage twin daughters, our dog, Sassy, and our cat, Mia. The girls are heading off to college at the end of the summer so Anna and I are exploring some ideas to keep us busy with a quieter house. Anyone have any thoughts about pickleball? We also like to do volunteer work with the local community group we have in our neighborhood.
If you’d like to reach out to Martin to discuss doing business with Marketing Analysts, Inc., tap this link to get in touch with him directly. We’d love to hear what concerns you have and see how we can help!
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