Uncovering the Future of Talent Management | Emily Northway from CV Partner

Emily Northway: Doing great, thank you. And yourself?

Ernesto: I’m doing great. Thank you so much for asking. Well, it’s nice to have you on, and I’m sure our listeners are tuning in, wondering what CV Partner is all about. So let’s kick it off with that. Emily, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Emily: Yes. CV Partner services professional services. So think of the Big Five. What we’re doing is housing all of their different talents. For example, EY has thousands of different consultants, and they need a place to house all of those consultants’ resumes, CVs, and case studies in order to win more bids. Instead of using Word or PDF files, we offer a solution where bid managers can find and put forward the best talent for the proposals at hand.

Ernesto: That’s really nice to hear. So that way our listeners can get a good understanding of CV Partner. What would you say is that key problem that you guys like to solve for clients?

Emily: Yes, we save 50% of their time when they are looking for the right people to send forward for their bids and proposals. Usually, that process means digging through PDF files and Word files, putting together the perfect proposal. With our tool, they can search and find. So say they need someone with ten years of experience in consulting; they can search that in the tool and then put forward the best talent for the job at hand. They can send it in much faster than they would if they had to search for that in a more manual way.

Ernesto: That’s time-saving, right? I think in today’s world, that’s what everybody’s looking for. So, great to hear that, Emily.

Emily: Yes.

Ernesto: Cool. So, would you say there is a vertical segment or ideal ICP that CV Partner likes to go for?

Emily: Yes. We are based in Oslo, Norway, and a lot of our customers are here in Europe, but we’re now currently focusing our efforts on North America. Our biggest customer is actually in the US, and they are a construction company, enterprise size. So we’re looking to find similar customers within construction, engineering, IT management consulting, and, of course, we also service law firms as well.

Ernesto: Okay, perfect. Awesome. Say I was in a law firm and looking for a solution like this. How would I usually find out about CV Partner? Is there a top client acquisition channel for you guys?

Emily: Yes. Actually, word of mouth, interestingly enough, has been one of our biggest channels for growth in Europe, and we’re hoping for the same thing over in North America. We see that our solution is very niche, and once one consultant or law firm is using it and a person from that law firm moves, they’re more than likely to move CV Partner with them. So that has been kind of an ode to our product, which is really nice for us to see and hear. So, word of mouth being number one, and then I would say paid and organic search is number two.

Ernesto: Great to hear that. So that way our listeners who are tuned in could go out and visit you, they could always check you out at cvpartner.com. What role does the website play for client acquisition?

Emily: We do have a few different lead gen forms there. The first one is to book a demo, and the second is to download our white papers. That being said, we are going through a rebrand. We are changing our name, and that will be shared in a few months’ time. We see that the name CV Partner—CV, for our American friends, means resume—and now that we’re focusing our efforts in North America, we’ll be changing our name, which means we will be changing our website. Hopefully, our website can also act as more of a channel to attract inbound leads more than it does today.

Ernesto: Definitely an important change there. So, is there any tools or tips or methods that you would recommend to our listeners as far as website lead generation?

Emily: Yes. Our CRM that we’re using now is HubSpot, and we just implemented that a few months ago. There are tons of different tools, obviously, that you can integrate with HubSpot, which is fantastic. There have been a few in particular that I’m checking into now with account-based marketing. The jury is out on that one, but if anyone has suggestions, we are open to them—please send them to me on my LinkedIn. Regarding tools that are working for us, we are using LinkedIn as an organic tool. I’m putting forward our employees’ faces instead of using it for company information. We’re showing the people behind the technology instead of just posting about, “Oh, we have a new AI feature.” We’ll say, “Meet Nikolai. He has been working for three months on implementing the AI feature. He also loves dogs and golfs in his free time.” So putting the human aspect into the tech has worked really well for us. We’ve also seen that we’re trying things a bit differently with our inbound leads. We’ve tested calling people directly after they have downloaded a bottom-of-funnel whitepaper. So, right after they’ve submitted the form to download, our sales team has called them. Usually, that’s not something we would normally do, but it has resulted in some sales for us.

Ernesto: That’s really important. If they’re already downloading it and your sales team is reaching out, that’s a good strategy. So great to hear that from you and sharing that with our listeners today. Thanks a lot, Emily.

Emily: Yeah, of course.

Ernesto: Well, let’s switch gears a little bit, Emily, and let’s talk about you as a leader. You being the senior marketing manager there for CV Partner, what are some key tasks you like to focus on in your day-to-day?

Emily: It’s a big mix between both the operational and the strategic, which keeps things really interesting, but it can also at times be a bit overwhelming. We’re a small team of three. I have a product marketer based in the UK, and I have a graphic designer based in Denmark. Myself, I’m in Oslo, Norway. So as you can imagine, it is a lot of Slack calls and communication over text, but we keep everything very focused by having our Monday morning meetings. We are using Notion to keep all of our projects and tasks in order. It’s a lot of fun working with a dispersed team, but I would say my biggest focus now is keeping track of what we’re doing and ensuring our priorities align with the company goals, helping us move forward and gain traction in North America.

Ernesto: Important. Great to hear that. So in the meantime, how do you stay up to date with all the news in the marketing world, as far as strategies, trends, and news? Is there a preferred channel that you like to go with?

Emily: Yes, I love using LinkedIn. I follow a few thought leaders there. I’m also really into different podcasts. Lately, a lot of my time has been spent on how to build productive teams since we’re looking at growing our team within the next few months from three to four, five, and eventually six. Some of the podcasts I’ve been listening to—my favorite one as of late is HBR. They have quick, easy podcasts you can listen to on the way to work. The last one I listened to was about being a young, incoming leader, so I could really resonate with that. This is the first time I’ve been in charge of a team, as well as being in charge of operational tasks. So just hearing from other people who are kind of going through the same things as me and having almost someone that I felt like I was sparring with, but it was just over a podcast, yeah, really resonated.

Ernesto: Absolutely. Great, thank you so much for sharing that with us and for our listeners. Let’s jump into our next section, then, Emily, which is our rapid-fire question round. Are you ready for that?

Emily: I’m ready.

Ernesto: First up, what is the last book that you read?

Emily: The last book? It’s called “Hidden: The Science of Achieving Greater Things” by Adam Grant. This was actually recommended to me by my coach, my business coach.

Ernesto: That’s a great read. Next up, what is one single thing that CV Partner is focused on at the moment the most?

Emily: We are most focused on growing into Canada. We just opened up offices in Toronto. So we are hiring BDRs, marketing, and customer success. If anyone is looking to join a pretty international team with Nordic roots, check us out. We have lots of open positions.

Ernesto: You guys heard it. Next, if there were no boundaries in technology, what would be that one thing that you would want to have fixed for your role as a marketer?

Emily: That’s a tough one. I would say my biggest challenge right now is effectively tracking and attributing marketing efforts. I think a lot of other marketers can probably relate to that. It is the age-old tale of how do we prove that marketing’s efforts are making a difference? Because a lot of things take time to start to see results, and especially with complex sales cycles that take a long time, we want to be able to prove that our efforts are worth it. So if there were no boundaries in tech, I would want to have a real-time attribution system that integrates data from marketing and sales and then gives us insights on what’s working and what’s not for the customer journey.

Ernesto: Definitely important. Next, if there’s one repetitive task that you could automate, what would that be?

Emily: I would prioritize automating the process of lead qualification and scoring. Whether that be with advanced machine learning algorithms or predictive analysis, I would automate the identification of leads that we should be focusing on based on their behaviors. That would save a ton of time and resources for us.

Ernesto: Great. If somebody has that, reach out to Emily.

Emily: Yes.

Ernesto: Finally, Emily, you have a lot of experience already in the marketing world. What is that one piece of advice that you would give yourself if you were to restart your journey as a marketer today?

Emily: I would prioritize continuous learning. Having worked in startups for the past few years, it’s really easy to get caught up in the speed of things and checking things off the list. But being able to prioritize continuous learning and stay on top of the trends—everything is moving at such a rapid pace—I think that would be the number one thing. Staying curious, adaptable, and open to feedback. I think for the most part I have, but looking back, I would have liked to maybe start sparring with other people who have done what I’m trying to do sooner.

Ernesto: Absolutely. Some great advice, not just for you but for our listeners as well. Emily, I really appreciate you being on with us today. But before we end, I want to give you the last word. If someone forgets everything about the interview today, what is the one thing they should remember about CV Partner?

Emily: They should remember that if they are looking to save more time when submitting bids and proposals, to check us out. We’re ready to help. It’s a niche solution, but it can make a big difference.

Ernesto: Definitely check them out at cvpartner.com. Spend less time, win more.

Emily: You got it, Ernesto.

Ernesto: Awesome. Well, Emily, thank you so much for being on with us today. To our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in, and I’m looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks a lot, Emily.

Emily: Likewise. Thank you, Ernesto.