Home > Companies > C-Suite On Deck > Q&A with Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadMD

Q&A with Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadMD

Q&A with Andrea Lechner-Becker
Andrea Lechner-Becker, Chief Marketing Officer at LeadMD is an experienced Marketing and Sales Executive with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry.

Skilled in Business Process, Marketo, Sales, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and IT Service Management, Andrea is also a strong business development professional and a storyteller.

MEDIA 7: What inspired you to get into marketing?
ANDREA LECHNER: Frankly, not having better options. I originally attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse thinking I’d major in Archaeology. I wanted to be Indiana Jones! But, after visiting the archaeology building – i.e. the cold, dark basement of the science building – where a girl sat to piece together pieces of an old Native American vase, I knew archaeology was not going to be the right path for me. And so, without being good at science and a major in art or art history was unlikely to pay my bills, I decided to go into “business”. I originally registered as a management major, but took my first marketing class and thought it was more interesting and switched my sophomore year. That was pretty much it. I’d never been involved in business classes or DECA in high school – I didn’t really know what to do or what jobs in marketing were even possible. I dumb lucked myself into it really.

M7: As a storyteller, do you relate the brand to a story or story to the brand?
AL: Both? Neither? I think there are stories in every brand, because there are people working on the brand and people engaging with the brand and people using what the brand creates. People, most often a single person, are at the heart of great stories.
You can start with the “point” of the story you’re trying to tell. Say you have a software that help accountants better create reports for board meetings. It’s likely you’ll want to tell a success story about an accountant getting promoted to CFO in part because your software helped better communicate their work product to the board. You could have the idea for that and go looking for that story in your customers. OR, you could hear that story, and say, “That’s amazing!” and share it with customers, partners and internal people. Stories are all around us – the most important thing is to keep your ears and eyes open for finding them.


"People, most often a single person, are at the heart of great stories. Stories are all around us – the most important thing is to keep your ears and eyes open for finding them."

M7: LeadMD has been named as Marketo’s platinum service partner. What are the core values that drive the company to be a leading marketing firm?
AL: About two years ago, we got to the size where we had to really dedicate some time to defining our core values. We got into a room with everyone in the company and talked about what it feels like to work at LeadMD. We decided on the following values, which all start with “We” because we’re a tribe and succeed together with our clients:

1. We over me. Our people will drop almost anything to help another member of the tribe and our clients. We are a performance organization and aim to ease the lives of those around us with valuable contribution.
2. We stand in your shoes. Empathy is so critical to our success internally and externally.
3. We are better than yesterday. Marketing is a discipline that must be creative and iterative. We don’t know everything, but we strategize, plan, do, review and optimize constantly. Together, we figure out what will garner the best results.
4. We believe in transparency. Transparency is function of trust. Trust is a function of reliability, competency, communication, authority and predictability. Our clients trust us with their vision and that's an honor we take seriously.
5. We have fun in everything we do. We like our tribe and our clients and we do cool sh*t together. It’s fun work.




"Until you execute learnings, test them and see if and how they work, none of it means anything. If in doubt, do something."

M7: What distinguishes LeadMD from the rest in creating predictable and sustainable revenue operations for enterprise brands?
AL: Our value to our clients is our ability to integrate strategic objectives with all the day-to-day actions of teams of people. We are great at rolling our sleeves up and truly creating scale around these elements that ultimately impact the organization as a whole. The results our clients see are things like, a technology company generating a $15 million lift in pipeline within 90 days and a medical device company generating $5 million in revenue in six months (which is like one month in healthcare timelines) in a typically down quarter. Ultimately, the work we collaborate with clients on, impacts the business in more revenue, faster.


M7: How does LeadMD’s methodology facilitate organizations in delivering exceptional outcomes that they desire?
AL: This may fall more under philosophy than methodology, but we work with leaders unwilling to maintain the status quo. We call them Catalysts. We work with people eager and willing to act to change a current poor performing outcome in their organization. We can help, but we are never going to be able to impact the types of outcomes we’re used to without internal champions and rainmakers. Our outcomes are in large part due to the fearless nature of our clients.


"Learning is about connective tissue and being able to connect new things to things that already make sense to you. Just do it. It’ll not only make you a better employee or entrepreneur, it’ll also make you a better person."

M7: You have co-founded an e-learning firm, Six Bricks. What was the learning experience from it and how has this accelerated your career journey?
AL: The learning experiences from that piece of my career are far too numerous to name in this QA. The best way I could sum them up is to say that doing something new will always hold value. As a long-time consultant, I’ve had lots of ideas about what professionals in sales and marketing could or should do. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts, attended SaaStr’s annual conference and brought ideas back. But, until you execute on them, test them and see if and how they work, none of it means anything. If in doubt, do something.


M7: Going with the story of your book ‘Sixty Days Left’, how does exploring new marketing trends and making informed decisions create a fortune for any enterprise?
AL:��I’m a big advocate for everyone, even executives, to explore trends and the news of their discipline at a fairly deep level. Just knowing artificial intelligence as a thing is “good” but not great. Lean in. Read opinions from people who have worked in artificial intelligence for years, who study it in a university setting, who can really break it down. The first AI article I read was really technical and I barely understood it, but I kept doing it and kept learning. Learning is about connective tissue and being able to connect new things to things that already make sense to you. Just do it. It’ll not only make you a better employee or entrepreneur, it’ll also make you a better person. Follow leaders like Bill Gates with book recommendations and actually read those things – again, it’ll just make you a better, more well-rounded and ultimately happier human.


M7: What is your superpower?
AL: Curiosity. I am interested in everything. And everyone. Everyone has a story and I love hearing them. I learn a lot from that and have more stories to tell and more knowledge to connect new knowledge to.

ABOUT LEADMD

LeadMD is the #1 performance marketing consultancy that leverages best-in-class technology to make your vision actionable and your outcomes measurable. Breaking down the typical siloes of technology and strategy, LeadMD collaborates with clients to increase revenues, align teams and engage ideal customers. We’ve helped more than 3,500 high-growth companies succeed by building revenue engines that scale on top of marketing and sales platforms like Marketo, Adobe, Salesforce.com and dozens of others. For more information, visit www.leadmd.com or email us at go@leadmd.com

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Minimize the Cost and Downtime of Disaster With Scale Computing's Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Planning Service

PR Newswire | October 25, 2023

Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, today announced its Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BCDR) Planning Service, designed to help organizations establish a comprehensive, regulated plan for responding to unforeseen downtime. The service provides Scale Computing customers and partners with the tools, guidance, and resources to create a playbook for data backup and recovery, enabling businesses to endure a disaster scenario with minimal loss. Scale Computing also recently announced that it is a finalist for the Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Project of the Year in the 2023 SDC Awards for its work with Austrian managed service provider GiGaNet and its long-time partner the Zillertaler Gletscherbahn group. Voting for the SDC Awards is open at sdcawards.com/vote until November 10th, 2023. Data breaches are one of the biggest and most costly contributors to downtime for businesses. In 2023, the average cost of a data breach globally reached an all-time high of $4.45 million, a 15.3% increase from 2020. Simultaneously, the average length of business disruption following a ransomware attack in the United States reached 24 days last year, up 60% from just two years prior — a significant increase when downtime costs exceed $300,000 per hour for over 90% of mid-sized and large enterprises. For more than half of those businesses, the hourly outage costs range from $1 million to over $5 million. Recovery from an outage adds additional expense from which many enterprises are unable to bounce back. "Disaster can strike at any time, and every organization needs a consistently regulated playbook for how the business will respond — from action plans to recovery plans for bringing online the mission-critical servers businesses depend on," said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder, Scale Computing. "Knowing what systems need to be protected, planning for the ability to recover them, and having a full action plan for recovery should be at the forefront of every IT department's agenda, at the beginning of any infrastructure addition. With Scale Computing Platform, the plan for disaster recovery starts before equipment is even put into production, so IT leaders have a plan in place from day one that they can enact to ensure their business stays up and running, with minimal loss, should disaster strike. Our Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Planning Service enables businesses to proactively classify systems based on their importance and implement a robust action plan, ensuring that our customers' and partners' critical systems are protected, validated, tested, and ready for recovery at any time." Whether a minor data loss or a business-wide shutdown, having a well-defined business continuity strategy is crucial to minimize financial impact, ensure continuous employee productivity, meet compliance and regulatory requirements, decrease liability obligations, reduce downtime, and minimize the risk of negative exposure. Scale Computing's BCDR Planning Service includes planning, deployment, documentation creation, and disaster recovery testing, covering every aspect to keep businesses prepared and resilient. The service is offered to Scale Computing Platform customers, which brings simplicity, high availability, and scalability together to replace existing infrastructure for running virtual machines with an easy-to-manage, fully integrated platform that allows organizations to run applications regardless of hardware requirements. About Scale Computing Scale Computing is a leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Using patented HyperCore™ technology, Scale Computing Platform automatically identifies, mitigates, and corrects infrastructure problems in real-time, enabling applications to achieve maximum uptime, even when local IT resources and staff are scarce. Edge Computing is the fastest-growing area of IT infrastructure, and industry analysts have named Scale Computing an outperformer and leader in the space, including being named the #1 edge computing vendor by CRN. Scale Computing's products are sold by thousands of value-added resellers, integrators, and service providers worldwide.

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Virtualized Environments

Vuzix Introduces Z100 Smart Glasses to Seamlessly Connect Workers with AI Optimization Tools

PR Newswire | January 10, 2024

Vuzix Corporation, a leading supplier of smart glasses and augmented reality (AR) technology and products, today announced the unveiling of Vuzix Z100 smart glasses, which will initially be offered as a developer's edition. Built using the Vuzix Ultralite OEM PlatformSM, these safety glasses-certified smart glasses are sleek and made for all day wear. Using them, workers get a human-centered connection to AI and work process applications, receiving critical updates, convenient workflow and task confirmations, and notifications in real time, all while wearing a pair of glasses that workers will enjoy having on. Vuzix Z100 smart glasses pair seamlessly via Bluetooth with Android or iOS IOT devices. They represent the first attractive, functional bridge between AI platform tools, where situational guidance can streamline workflows, and human workers can reap the benefits of a truly connected workplace. In addition to a lightweight AI interface, Vuzix Z100 glasses can augment the data feed from finger scanners, sensors, controllers, and other equipment with minimal native UI, making that data available in a new and highly accessible format. Tasks with sub-standard user feedback due to device or process limitations can now have their workflows displayed in the user's heads up display, providing human-centered outputs and real-time updates. Running up to 48 hours on a single charge, Vuzix Z100 smart glasses pack industry-defining heads-up waveguide technology into a sleek, fashionable form factor that weighs in at just 35 grams – the weight of a standard pair of glasses. Advanced monocular waveguide optics, combined with Vuzix' custom micro display engine, create a crisp, transparent, monochrome image that can deliver all the important information on a user's Android or iOS device, hands-free right before their eyes. Wearers get heads-up access to important task information, from language translation and closed captioning, to directions, to health and workout status, to messaging, workflow outputs and much more. Best of all, Vuzix Z100 smart glasses provide a sleek, attractive form factor that frontline employees will want to wear. "The Z100 takes enterprise use of AR smart glasses to the next level, providing workers with a hands-free wearable that is indistinguishable from a pair a standard glasses," said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix. "This rollout is in overwhelming response to interest expressed by enterprise customers in an attractive and light weight pair of smart glasses that can augment current workflows with AI optimization software. There are customers across numerous market verticals and use cases that we believe will embrace this product as fashionable and affordable productivity device that workers will enjoy wearing all day every day." About Vuzix Corporation Vuzix is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the enterprise, medical, defense and consumer markets. The Company's products include head-mounted smart personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high-quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays and augmented reality, as well OEM waveguide optical components and display engines. Vuzix holds more than 350 patents and patents pending and numerous IP licenses in the fields of optics, head-mounted displays, and augmented reality Video Eyewear field. Moviynt, an SAP Certified ERP SaaS logistics solution provider, is a Vuzix wholly owned subsidiary. The Company has won Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation for the years 2005 to 2024 and several wireless technology innovation awards among others. Founded in 1997, Vuzix is a public company with offices in: Rochester, NY; Munich, Germany; and Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan.

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