Sage Marketing Founder and CEO Sarit Lamerovich has been a work culture maverick for years. After 20+ years in executive marketing positions at leading hi-tech companies like RadWin, Dane, and Verint, she leveraged her extensive experience to found Sage Marketing, a unique marketing entity that offers CMO-as-a-service to startups that have raised >$5M. Sage’s team of seasoned marketing executives actually becomes the marketing department for their clients, enabling startups to access the corporate world's professional, well-thought-out marketing activities.
Flexible, result-driven work has been part of the company’s DNA from day one, long before the pandemic forced other companies to rethink the way they work. “I missed so much of my children’s lives sitting in offices of hi-tech companies,” says Lamerovich. “My vision in founding Sage was both professional, to maximize access to marketing professionalism, but also to give a top-notch marketing execs better work-life balance.” Sage Marketing never had offices – the team has always worked either from home or from clients’ offices. Early on, they even worked from Lamerovich’s home. “I cooked, we all took our shoes off,” she chuckles. But as her team grew to 17 marketing professionals, she needed better options.
Like other CEOs, Lamerovich has felt the impact of the Great Resignation and the intense competition for talent in tech. “You don’t interview candidates nowadays, they interview you. They demand high salaries, regardless of their experience. It’s actually made the entire industry more mediocre. Companies often contact Sage for help after hiring an inexperienced CMO who isn’t able to deliver,” she says.
It’s also made it harder for her to attract talent. As a small company, she can’t offer candidates popular startup perks like options or a high-end car. Instead, she offers candidates access to her passion for marketing, the company’s commitment to professionalism, and the intimate, flexible, supportive work culture. The option to work from home also used to be a selling point for Sage. However, it’s become standard during COVID-19, so Sage had to be creative. Anywell is part of their strategy. “Anywell’s offering fit our needs like a glove,” she says. “It’s a perfect match for the way we work–it gives my team a solution when they’re working alone, when they’re meeting a client, or even when they want to collaborate with other team members. It’s a smart, sophisticated solution, exactly what I was looking for.”
Lamerovich believes that flexible, hybrid work solutions are here to stay, even after the pandemic. “People have learned that you can work from anywhere, even from abroad,” she says. “Or that you don’t necessarily have to travel for everything, you can work with internationally from your home office. They won’t go back to how things were before.” But she believes that the work culture of the future will have to offer better options than working from home in pajamas. “Face-to-face interaction is important, it makes you feel vibrant,” she explains. “When I work at a cafe, I meet people–potential clients, potential employees, and even colleagues. It’s like a network. It feels like an adventure–who am I going to meet today? It’s fun. And as an employer, I know I have to be creative to retain employees, keep them curious, and engaged. Retention is a huge HR challenge for most employers today. We’re actually opening an employer branding branch to help companies really hone their message about what they offer employees. Anywell is a great option to add.”
Managing a dispersed workforce is also challenging for companies like Sage. With anywell, Lamerovich has gained more transparency, better tools to understand how her staff works. “I think the solution is brilliant,” she summarizes.
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