Are You Search Result Ready? Ann Minooka on GEO & the LLM Buying Future

0:00Our guest today knows how to win in high stakes moments. If you do everything very well 100 % of the time, that means you have not tried hard enough. You have not taken risks. Anne Manuka, the CMO of Synopsys, she's reinvented brands for relevance and turned complex tech into stories that the world actually understands. We are a leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems. Everything that we use today have silicon components, car fabs, the doorbells. AI is actually powered by silicon. Anything you name it is made by using Synopsys technology. Customers are now finding your products through ChatGPT prompts.

0:40They're in Reddit looking for things. There's going to now be agent to agent buying probably very soon. AI created so many opportunities for marketing to be more innovative. When we ran demand generation, 70 % of the opportunities that we found, they're net new. Oh, okay. So if you can connect those dots, you can basically create a predictable model where you say at this budget scenario, I can expect to generate X million dollars of sales pipeline, which can translate to Y million dollars of revenue. In this world that AI is quickly changing everything, how are you setting your team and especially new marketers up for success?

1:22My playbook is that you need to. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Marketing Trends. I'm your host Stephanie Postles, the CEO and founder of Mission.org and Relevant.com. And welcome to Marketing Trends. Thanks for having me. I have not talked to a CMO like you. You have been in this very technical space. You've been through all these acquisitions. You have a different way of thinking about leading and being a part of acquisitions and M &A. And so I'm really excited for the conversation today. Yeah, I'm excited to have my very first podcast with you. I think it's going to be fun. I can't believe this is your first one.

2:02Yes. So I would love just to start for you to explain Synopsys, just so people can understand what kind of company you're leading marketing for. So Synopsys is one of the most important companies you've never heard of. So we are a leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems. What does that mean is that our products and software are used to build chips everywhere. So I would say every chip, almost every silicon chip out there is made by using Synopsys technologies. So we are really fundamental in this whole era of pervasive intelligence in all the technology innovations. Now we're ranked number 12 in revenue among global software companies.

2:52So we are 40 years old, almost 40 years old. So in the 40 years, we've really been a driving force for all the technology innovations from the era of PC to mobile to cloud to today AI. So I want to drill in on the pervasive intelligence. Tell me more about that just so I know I'm understanding it correctly. So this is really kind of the part of the brand narrative, corporate narrative that I developed, I led the development when I joined the company. So when I joined Synopsys, we were known as an EDA company, an IP company, largely because our focus target audience were the engineering, design engineers and design architects.

3:40But as we broaden our markets, we want it to be known more by the investors, by people who are not super technical. Right. And so we have to build a narrative that help them understand the importance of the company and why we matter in today's world. So we frame this narrative around the era of pervasive intelligence. And that is the society that we're living in today. What does that mean? This means that in this era is driven by three major trends. One is AI, proliferation of AI. We see it everywhere today, right? But AI is actually powered by silicon. So that's the second pillar is the silicon proliferation.

4:29Everything that we use today have silicon components in it. Our car fabs, the doorbells, and anything you name it has components of electronics in there, chips in there. So that's the second pillar. So AI proliferation and silicon proliferation. The third is software-defined systems. This means that the products today are defined based on the software workloads, whereas before you have the limitation of whatever hardware you have, you put it together, you create the products with the best functionality that the hardware are available for. But today you can define products based on what you want to do from a software standpoint.

5:18So those are what we define in this era of pervasive intelligence is really driven by just three major pillars, AI, proliferation of silicon everywhere, and software-defined systems. So one example of software-defined systems is an EV, right? You define the features of the product through software, and then you develop the products and components after that. So why is this message important? This narrative really help all of our employees when we go out and talk, our leaders, when we go out and talk about the importance of our company is that all of these trends, this era is powered by Synopsys.

6:02Because to build AI, to build more chips, to build AI software-defined systems, you need a very critical component, which is the design solutions that is provided by Synopsys. Okay. I think I understood most of that. So you came in as the CMO into Synopsys, and they were essentially only marketing to very technical people. And then you came in and said, hey, we need to make sure our storytelling here connects with these investors, connects with other people. Yes. What did that, because I think this is a playbook you've run before at some of the previous companies that you did this with. So what does that look like with like shifting the entire brand narrative for a company that's 40 years old?

6:43It's not easy for sure. But I think the really important thing is our leadership team, our CEO really embraced this change. In fact, he advocated for a change. And also, I think our markets that we're playing in are changing. We're expanding our markets. So traditionally, we are majority of our customers were in semiconductor companies. Right. So they all know us. Many of the design engineers, when they were in school, they use our tools to learn. Right. How to design silicons. But our customer base has expanded to silicon system companies, companies like EVs. EVs, right? Like with system company, I mean, any kind of intelligent product consumers actually touch and use.

7:32For example, a autonomous car, a drone, a robot, all of these things are intelligent systems. These companies in the past, they never built their own chips, right? So they would buy silicon, then use whatever is available and build their products. But today they build their own chips. So this is a new kind of audience that we're not known, that they not know us. So in order for us to help them understand that we are a good partner, a strategic partner to them, we need to help them understand how we can help solve their business pain points. That's why we need to elevate our brand, talk about the importance of our technology in this new world that we live in.

8:21So what are some of your storytelling tactics that you do to resonate with this new audience? And like, are you coming in and rewriting specific artifacts as part of your playbook? Like we got to have our new promise. We have to have our new visual system. Yeah. I'd love to hear kind of like your playbook when you come in. You first need to understand your customers, right? The audience that you want to promote to. So, you know, you have the investor community, you have the existing customer community within the customers, you have the engineers, you have the decision makers, and then you have potential employees and prospective employees.

9:01They have varying degree of understanding of our technology, right? So just thinking about that is your positioning needs to be high level enough that everybody can understand. And so in the past, we say we are, you know, an EDA and IP company. Immediately, you're limiting the percentage of the audience that understand what that is, right? Like what is EDA? Right. I don't know. Exactly. So I think you want to frame the positioning in a way to help people understand what you offer to the industry, right? So the first thing we did was I let the transition from EDA IP focus positioning to silicon to system design solutions, because that's what we do.

9:50You know, we provide design solutions for the silicon and we provide design solutions for the systems, right? So silicon and systems. So that's kind of how I think about this. And then you need to think about, so we talk about what is the value proposition for our customers. So to do that, I actually got all of our e-staff together. We had two days of workshop. We talked about various topics and the customer care about, you know, what we, the values we deliver, our product differentiation, et cetera, et cetera. From that, we developed this value proposition, which is, you know, what we do is to, we maximize our customers' R &D capabilities.

10:40That's what we do because our technology allows them to design chips faster and more efficiently, cost efficiently. So that's essentially what we do. So the playbook is, it's really important to get all the e-staff on board with this. So we have the beginning, sort of the roundtable discussions with e-staff is very important. From there, I distract all the key messages from those discussions. Then I create this playbook. And then from there, I go and talk to each one of the e-staff members to get their feedback. And then we come back with the final solution. I think it's really important to do this because it's really important to bring everybody along and also hear everybody's feedback because everybody has different perspectives based on who they engage with.

11:36You know, people that are more customer focused or investor focused, they have different perspectives. Right. So we bring those perspectives in and then we come up with the final solution because it's really important that people feel like their opinions are heard. They're part of the solution. Otherwise, you could create the best brand architecture, positioning, messaging you want. Nobody will want to use it. And so bring them along to your way of thinking is really important. Amazing. OK, so how long have you been at Synopsys now? Almost two years. Okay. And when did, so from the time that you came in, decide we need to shift the narrative here.

12:19What have you seen since then? Like when did maybe the new narrative go into market? Yeah. And what's happened since? So the new, so I actually created this new positioning, new narrative and the new art brand framework fairly quickly within the first two months of me joining the company, which is actually even by my own standard is very fast. Yeah, that's fast. Yes, because at that time, I think I barely knew anybody, you know, only just no names. And, you know, so the reason why we had to do it very quickly when I got hired was three months before our CEO took on the new role of CEO, right? So he, as a scene, was the COO.

13:06He was going to be the CEO in three months. And I said, you know, when he became the CEO, that was the really critical moment where he could go out and explain his vision for the company, our new brand positioning and, you know, our own new mission statement. So that's the reason why we really fast track this. So I think since then, I've definitely seen our narratives being repeated. First of all, our executive team has done a really great job keeping the message consistent. You know, when they go out to different speaking engagements, they really make sure that they leverage all these statements and they stay on message with the corporate narrative.

13:59And Sussing himself has been a very strong advocate. So we definitely see our message, our language being adopted by our investors, by the media. You know, even our employees get very excited because now they hear and see us, you know, showing up many places than before. Have you seen anything with new customers coming in who are now like, oh, I know how you can help me where before I didn't know? Yes. What does revenue look like? Yeah, we definitely have. The cohort that would really influence the most is the decision makers audience within our existing customers. If you think that the engineers, they know our tools very well, they know how to use them.

14:44But decision maker level, I think for the most part, they didn't really understand how much technology, how much innovation we have to deliver in order to continue to give them the best tools for them to use. And so that value proposition is very important for them to understand. So lots of promotion is around building that high level awareness within the decision maker community and also helping our investors understand why we're so important, why they should pay attention, why we matter in today's fast moving world of innovation. So it's cool that you've done this so many times. Yes. I mean, I would love to quickly tell a story when you were at Synaptics.

15:31Yes. Synaptics. Yes. Like when you came in there and how you came into a company that was saying they were a touchpad company. And you were like, oh, that's a little old school. I don't know if it should be a touchpad company more. I would love for you to quickly share that story just to show how this playbook you have is repeatable. And you've been bringing it into these really large companies and completely transforming them. Yeah. Actually, that project was very exciting. That was actually the moment when I realized the power of positioning and branding really mattered. So when I joined Synaptics, it was known as a touchpad company, right?

16:08They produce touchpads for laptops. But that was also the time when the iPhone, the mobile phone business was taking off, right? The era of mobile. And Synaptics brand did not seem as a fresh or modern or high-tech image because touchpad has been around forever, right? So we wanted to refresh that brand. So we worked again with the executive staff, you know, did workshops and had input sessions, came up with the positioning of Synaptics as a human interface company. So that actually, it was a very important positioning because, you know, when you define the company as human interface, it kind of helped to provide you a vision for what areas, other areas you can go into, right?

17:09Because human interface has their many element, our six senses. And so that touch is one element. Subsequently, because we have that positioning, we actually made several acquisitions of like audio, technology company, voice recognition, video, visual. So you kind of started to look at opportunities in all of the human interface areas. I think I was actually looking at their website. It's been a long time now. And they are still using human interface, except they're saying, you know, human interface integrated with AI, right? So of course, everybody's AI company. But it's really great to see that positioning still relevant in today's world.

18:00Yeah, that's some good work you put in there. Yeah. I would love to shift the conversation into a demand generation conversation because I thought you mentioned something very fascinating how when you came into Synopsys, I think, you had so many of the Fortune 500 companies probably and you were talking to team members and they're like, we already work with all them. We've already got all the clients. Like, we're good. I'd love to hear how you tackled this and like what you came into and how you adjusted it. Yeah, as I mentioned to you in the beginning, you know, Synopsys software and solutions are used in almost every silicon chip made, right?

18:39So that means all the semiconductor companies, they work with us and know us. But I always feel like because of the market spending, there is an opportunity to leverage demand generation to create broad awareness, to create, influence their preference and ultimately get into, turn that into a sales pipeline. I would say that, you know, the leadership team was very supportive of my thinking, but they, I don't think they were expecting any outcomes from it, right? So my passion is always being, you know, my background was, I was an engineer in the past. My engineering mindset always get me thinking about how to measure what I do in a more quantifiable way, tangible way.

19:35Right. So in the past, marketing was always measured by some superficial metrics of vanity metrics. But I wanted to get to the marketing dollars I spend, how that influence the sales pipeline. And so I've begun this journey by creating the MarTech infrastructure, building an infrastructure so we can make this happen. So we brought in some new capabilities to understand demand generation. So we started to run campaigns. Now, for one year now, it's been a one year, we have seen pretty impressive numbers in terms of the sales pipeline expansion, and which some of this has already led to design close one.

20:25So I am very happy with where we are. I can't tell you the numbers, but it's really good numbers. And so I think this becomes even more relevant as we combine with Ansys, right? We just finished this big acquisition of Ansys. So NSYS has a lot more customers than we do. And then I would say their sales cycle tend to be shorter, which means that demand generation programs can impact that even more. So on the classic synopsis side, as I mentioned, we're expanding our customers beyond the traditional customers of semiconductors. So those customers, the system customers, they don't necessarily know what offerings we have.

21:11So the demand generation is a really great way to reach them. Amazing. Okay. So what I'm hearing you say is that you also, you built your own tracking systems internally. You, okay. Because I don't know many companies that are like, we're building it all ourselves. Usually they're working with outside tools, but you guys built it yourself to make sure you understand demand gen. What tactics were you using that you've been most surprised by, or you're like, this is something we've been doing and it's working and I didn't even know if it would, or it was just a big bet. I would say we didn't really build our own MarTech tools.

21:44It's like the MarTech, you know, there are so many different elements. We didn't have a working MarTech infrastructure. We had like very basic things and they didn't really talk to each other. So I brought on a brilliant MarTech technologist who was able to make them all talk to each other. Right. So integrate these capabilities. And so now, you know, the MarTech tool that we use for demand generated tool, we use CRM is Marketo, right? We use Marketo. And so we create demand gen. And then now it's connected to the Salesforce tools. So we can see end to end from a demand generated all the way to a sales revenue close.

22:30So it's very exciting. The insights would be, I think, something that has been surprising to me is how quickly that our go-to-market team, our sales team, has really supported us and embraced this process. Because this is new to them. These are, you know, demand generation is not like huge revenue numbers, but they have been really embracing this process. And then one thing that is really interesting is that throughout this process now, we can see clearly insights of customers. We can see which customer is actually engaging with us, what subsequent activities they've done. And so we can better understand what our customers' needs are.

23:18And so the demand generator not only created pipelines, but it really gave us more in-depth intelligence in our customers and their needs. And we can have a method to reach out to them when they need us because we understand what they're looking for. So we can then serve them things that they need. Yeah, so I think the surprise, big surprise is this program, I think, not to me, but to many people are a leadership team, that it actually works. So good. That's amazing. So with Synopsys, a lot of these companies, it's more about account expansion, it sounds like, where you're like, they just don't know about all the other things we offer.

24:00With this new acquisition of Ansys, is that having you rethink your demand gen with maybe you're actually trying to find new customers now instead of just trying to expand account sizes? Even with the classic synopsis, when we ran demand generation, it's surprisingly that the 70 % of the opportunities that we found, they're net new. So they were not actually, yeah, because we, you know, there are lots of startups, right? There are many startups coming up. You hear AI startups all the time. And there are many companies need additional, not only EDA solutions, but IP. We are a number two IP provider.

24:46And so they use our IP. So even within an automotive is relatively new. So all of these campaigns that we're running, we're seeing 60 to 70 % of the opportunities that we found are net new, which is really interesting. I think that's kind of a hot moment for our GTM team, actually. And then on the ANSYS side, definitely, I think ANSYS has already been driving a very sophisticated demand generation program. But I think together we can do a lot more. So what they don't have is the ability to link direct marketing dollars to the final output. So if you can connect those dots, it will be very important because then you can decide, you know, you can basically create a predictable model where you say at this budget scenario, I can expect to generate X dollars, million dollars of sales pipeline, which can translate to X million dollars, Y million dollars of revenue.

25:59So I am actually in the process of creating this model based on the data that we've generated so far. And so that's where I want to get to. I want to say, you know, if I have, let's just say,$10 million of campaign dollars, I can generate 30, you know,$50 million of sales pipeline, which translate into X million dollars of revenue. So that's something that I'm aiming to do. Cool. It sounds like a lot of your projects kind of start with intuitive knowing, and then you build systems afterwards to be like, look, here's the numbers now. But you have a lot of trust behind you. And people be like, okay, go try the thing.

26:41And then you prove it afterwards. You know, in the semiconductor space, right, like in the last three companies or four companies, I initiated demand generation. One is because me being an engineer in the past, I always wanted to see metrics, right? You know, and also want to make sure that marketing is not viewed as a cost center, but really is a, you know, a strong partner to the sales team. And so I've always been driven by designing this demand generation program. And in all of these companies, I have seen success. So it gave me confidence that when I came here at Synopsys, I could make it successful.

27:28And it was really great that Sassine has been a very strong supporter of this program, not only this program, everything we do in marketing. So good. So the space we're in now, and I'm hearing this from a lot of CMOs, it's kind of a weird in-between space because customers are now finding your products through ChatGPT prompts. They're in Reddit looking for things. There's going to now be agent-to-agent buying probably very soon where you're trying to figure out how does my website talk to an agent? How do I structure my product page in a way that gets found on ChatGPT? And with you now saying that a lot of your customers are actually net new, how are you thinking about your marketing activities in a way that's prepared for this new LLM agentic buying future that we're entering into?

28:17Yeah. Funny you asked that question. So I've been talking about this endlessly with my team. I still remember a few years ago when ChatGPP was announced and so I think within the first week I downloaded the app and I remember I was on vacation. I I was like playing with it and I was so fascinated by it. And then a few days later, I was, it got me thinking, how is this going to change the way search works? Right. So how is it going to change how we do demand generation? Right. And so ever since then, I've been on the quest to like finding out, like, are there articles on this? And I asked people, anybody that was in this space, I would ask, what are you, how you think about this?

29:06I think this is a really interesting place where I would say we have to be prepared for both the traditional wave of search, you know, the search engine optimization method and today. And I would say half the people probably come to our website that way. And the other half will come through this GEO, right? So generative search optimization. So we have to understand how we structure the website, how we structure campaigns in a way that can be surfaced. And this is a topic we are in deep, deep discussions on. I think, you know, what I learned, I haven't implemented this is for your website to be prepared for GEO.

29:52You have to create content in a way that is more easily consumable by the LLMs, right? This means that, you know, what do they like? They like FAQs, right? They like glossaries, they like tables, like not videos because it's very hard to analyze. Anything that is data driven, structured data, those things will be very helpful. So we're thinking about how do we do this? And I hear people say companies need to create shadow websites for the machines, right? So you have the ones for human, you have one for machines. I think it's a challenge for everyone today because we just had our acquisition. I am thinking about redesign our website.

30:39And so this is really top of mind. I don't have an answer yet. So in the past, when you design a website is you identify the personas, you go into like a deep study into their buying behavior, how the buying journey, then you design your website that way. So does it still work anymore? Not really, because I think personalization becomes more important, right? So we have tried this now, you know, if we have a, if somebody's come in, we tag them as an automotive customer, immediately they're served automotive content instead of going through the journey. It's good. People don't have that patience anymore.