In a time when marketers are navigating shifting buyer behaviors, new AI-powered tools, and the increasing pressure to do more with less, the best insights often come from those in the arena. The ones balancing creativity, technology, and revenue impact in real time.

That’s why I was excited to sit down with Lucas Welch, VP of Global Corporate Marketing at Highspot. We talked about what it really takes to build trust, scale content, and keep storytelling at the heart of every interaction, especially in a world that’s evolving faster than most of us can predict.

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Roli Saxena: Thank you, Lucas, for agreeing to this conversation! You’ve emphasized the power of integrated storytelling and community in marketing strategies. Could you share an example from your time at Highspot where this approach significantly impacted a campaign’s success?

Lucas Welch: First, I think it’s important we aim to describe things as plainly as possible. One of my favorite quotes is from The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” So, when I say integrated storytelling, I mean all channels, at all stages of buyer engagement, across all functions pushing a message through those channels—connecting to create a cohesive experience for the audience—with the goal being resonance and relevance.

As for community, I mean creating an environment that spans virtual, async, and in-person experiences in which people who share interests, goals, and challenges learn from each other. At Highspot, our Marketing and Design teams partnered on a powerful concept at the outset of 2024—Enable the Impossible. This rallying cry for go-to-market teams became the narrative thread across all we did, from content through to the theme of our customer conference, Spark, where our guest keynote Amy Purdy—literally, the personification of this theme—delivered a speech that received a standing ovation. The end result was Marketing delivered 140% of our pipeline goal in that year.

Roli: That’s an incredible example of tying brand narrative to tangible results. Another challenge marketers are navigating today is the changing content landscape, especially with AI in the mix. Highspot aims for a 70/30 mix of educational to promotional content. How are you using tools like AI-generated summaries to support that mix, whether it's accelerating content creation, improving discoverability, or helping sellers and marketers get more out of each asset? And how do you decide what balance drives both brand authority and product visibility?

Lucas: One of Highspot’s “guiding principles” of how we work is learn it all—as in, stay curious and open-minded so we can learn, grow, and uncover the best ideas. I think this is an incredibly exciting time for marketing teams because really, no one has AI—or what AI is doing to business-to-business buying—figured out.

So yes, in general, we’ve aimed for 70% “buyer enablement” content that helps our audience educate themselves so we can help them, build trust, and gain affinity, and 30% promotional. But maybe that will shift. We’re seeing AI summaries in search change web traffic, LLMs change research behavior, and AI change how we work.

What I do believe is we’ve moved past the “AI will take your job” to “the next person up who is great at AI will take your job if you aren’t using AI to scale, innovate, learn, and create.” I think that’s a challenge we can all embrace and rise to—use AI as a true partner to tighten document reviews, improve ad copy, rapidly test and iterate messages, take a horizontal message into vertical markets, and who knows what else?

Roli: Learning and evolving is such a powerful mindset, especially when you're trying to create a culture that thrives on growth. 

You’ve said before that “feedback is respect.” How do you cultivate a culture where constructive criticism is embraced and leads to team growth?

Lucas: I was raised that the three most important words in the English language are “please” and “thank you.” You can’t have a constructive, positive cycle of growth and improvement through feedback if people fear it and the interactions within or across teams are antagonistic. No one is too busy to say “please” and “thank you.” So simple and yet so underused.

I aspire to use what those words represent—we’re all equal, everyone’s time is valuable, and no one is above the work to be done—to create an environment where my team, my peers, my partners, and I all seek out feedback because we know it is coming from a place of respect for each other. We are mutually pursuing our best, we want the best outcome for each other, and from that respect, we are willing to spend the time to clearly deliver feedback that is kind and direct.

Roli: I love that framing, and it’s especially important in a world where trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. In a world where data privacy can make or break brand trust, what’s your approach to communicating transparency and building long-term credibility with customers and prospects?

Lucas: In B2B marketing, I think by now most of us know the game—unless you only use incognito mode, never fill out a form, never go to an event, and never take a call, then at some point, you’re giving a vendor your contact information.

A mentor of mine once told me great marketing really boils down to building enough credibility and value with someone that they’ll give you their mobile number. I took that to heart—are we offering enough value in everything we give you without asking for your contact information that, ultimately, you’ll voluntarily give it to us knowing we’ll use it, but use it with respect, consideration, and an always-on eye toward personal value.

Do we hit the mark all the time? No. Is it a never-ending tension between driving pipeline and being thoughtful? Absolutely. Do I have the perfect formula? Nope. But I hope by being real that we don’t—and at the same time, showing we’re trying to deliver value whether you give us your info or not—we can earn trust over time by showing and proving.

Roli: That long-term approach really resonates. As we think about evolving strategies, I’d love to hear how AI is shaping your marketing at a higher level. How is Highspot evolving its overall marketing strategy to stay competitive and customer-centric? And where does RollWorks fit into that strategy, whether in targeting, personalization, or scaling your go-to-market efforts?

Lucas: RollWorks underpins a lot of what I just talked about—understanding what our audience cares about on their terms, meeting them where they are, doing so without aggressively asking for contact info, personalizing everything to the umpteenth degree, separating signal from noise, and using that intel to continually learn and refine.

I'll give you two examples. In an AI-driven world, I actually think human-to-human connection becomes even more important—and harder to create. We use RollWorks to see what topics our key accounts are surging on, and then build field events and webinars around those themes. It helps us create integrated experiences that feel personal and bring like-minded people together. I know that sounds a little buzzwordy, but it connects back to the point I made earlier: using insight to drive relevance and connection.

The second piece is how RollWorks helps us understand what’s trending across regions, segments, and industries within our account base. That lets us further tailor what we serve to each audience, making every interaction as relevant as possible. At the end of the day, our goal is to deliver value whether or not someone engages with us—and RollWorks gives us the signals and platform to do that in a way that’s credible, trustworthy, and aligned with how people want to engage.

Roli: I especially appreciate how you’re thinking about trust as something earned over time, not just captured in a campaign. It’s refreshing to hear a perspective that balances ambition with humility and focuses on delivering value whether someone converts or not.

Before we wrap, let’s end on a lighter note. If AI could take over one annoying task in your workday or life, what would it be and why?

Lucas: Calendaring. I manage my own calendar and am likely too precious about it. I’ve never been able to leap to Calendly or other similar tools because giving up that control is beyond me at this point. If I could train AI to think about time the way I do—know my rhythms, where I can flex, where I can’t, what must stay, what can be moved, and so on—and then propose a weekly calendar to me each Monday, that would be magic. 

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What I appreciated most in this conversation with Lucas was the clarity of intention. Whether it's building trust through content, creating space for feedback, or using AI to deepen human connection, the focus stays on delivering value.

In a fast-changing landscape, that kind of grounded approach is what sets great marketing teams apart. Thank you to Lucas and the Highspot team for sharing your insights and reminding us what it means to lead with purpose.