Gina Passarelli

About Gina Passarelli

I thought I wanted to work in HR out of college. Why? I’m really not sure. I’m a people person? But shortly into my first Marketing Communications role at 3Com back in the mid-90s, I was hooked. And it wasn’t the “glamorous” trade show travel or the very large advertising budgets that got me. It was my first messaging/branding meeting. 3Com VPs, agency creative types, product marketing managers and me around a table trying to answer questions like “Who are our most valued customers?”, “What are their business-critical needs?”, “How can we relate and convince them of our ability to serve them?\". This work was exciting and important – and in the end we would succeed or fail based on how well we blended the art and science of marketing into an effective mix that spoke to customers and enticed them to engage. This work NEVER gets boring. I have been fortunate over the past 20 years to dive into so many flavors of marketing – be it product, channel, field, small business, enterprise, strategic-account – as well as all areas of the marketing mix from Events and Channel Incentive Programs to Advertising and PR, to Digital and Social Media Engagement. And the fun for me has always been about answering those big questions, tying our business goals to the customer needs, and executing with a purpose. Oh.and doing it all alongside some amazingly smart, creative and fun people. I do love people, after all! Specialties: Customer-Driven Thinking and Results, Social Selling, Demand Generation, Strategic Planning, Program & Vendor Management, Field Marketing, Writing/Messaging, Executive Engagement, Online & Offline StrategiesPassions: Living in the moment with gratitude, watching my teens turn into adults, yoga, the human side of tech, fitness, music and Lake Tahoe.

Experience

1. Social Selling Lead, Americas Growth Marketing

   Cisco

   Aug 2016 — Present · Reno, NV, US

   My current charter within Americas Marketing at Cisco is to give our Americas-based sellers the tools, training and confidence they need to bring social media into their sales approach. Our customers are in the drivers seat in terms of their buying process. My goal is that every Cisco seller takes this fact to heart and gains the ability to meet and serve their customers via the channels they prefer. With the help of a growing community of digitally savvy sellers and marketers at Cisco, I believe this year we will take our already customer-centric culture to a whole new level.

Education

• San Jose State University

  BS