Deals Don’t Die: How Jessica Primanzon from SolarWinds Brings Them Back to Life

When sales and marketing are in sync, good things happen. But when that alignment is rooted in mutual trust, creative collaboration, and shared goals, the results can be transformational.

Jessica Primanzon, Director of Global Thought Leadership Content Marketing at SolarWinds—and a longtime friend of REQ and former client—knows this firsthand. In a previous role at a leading ERP software company, Jessica spearheaded a campaign called “Wake the Dead,” targeting deals that had previously been lost to competitors. What made the effort stand out wasn’t just the concept—it was how she worked hand-in-hand with sales, created candid collateral that cut through the usual marketing fluff, and ultimately re-engaged prospects at just the right moment. She’s since taken those learnings and applied them to her work at SolarWinds—with equally impressive results.

In this Q&A, Jessica shares how the campaign came to life, why honest content drives better sales outcomes, and what it takes to build a high-functioning partnership between sales and marketing.

Q: What was the inspiration behind the "Wake the Dead" campaign?

Jessica Primanzon

At my former company, we sold ERP software—big-ticket, mission-critical systems that handle a business’s accounting and finance operations. These are notoriously complex and time-consuming to implement, which means that once a system is in place, customers are reluctant to switch—even if they’re unhappy.

We realized we were losing deals to competitors that we knew weren’t actually going to solve the customer’s underlying problems. In many cases, we suspected the choice came down to pricing, smoother salesmanship, or just inertia. So I created the "Wake the Dead" campaign to revisit those closed-lost deals—specifically the ones lost to direct competitors.

We timed our outreach at key points: around the 11-month mark and the 23-month mark, assuming most contracts were one to three years. I manually pulled lists of lost deals based on contract timelines and created a monthly cadence to deliver these lists to sales.

To motivate participation, I offered a spiff—an additional bonus outside of regular compensation—ranging from $50 to $250 per opportunity, as long as the lead was pursued and approved by sales leadership. It wasn’t a massive investment, but the campaign generated $2.1 million in pipeline and $1.2 million in closed-won revenue.

Q: What kind of materials did you provide to support the campaign?

Jessica Primanzon

I built out a full suite of sales enablement assets: call scripts, follow-up emails, and competitor-specific brochures. One point of tension was around how we approached those brochures. The product marketing manager originally wanted to use a classic checkbox comparison—our product on the left, the competitor on the right, and all the boxes checked in our column.

But I pushed back on that. Those kinds of documents feel disingenuous. If your product really did everything better, the buyer would’ve already chosen you. Instead, I argued for—and won—collateral that acknowledged where the competitor might have an edge, while still clearly positioning where our solution delivered more value. That honesty gave the sales team better talking points and ultimately helped rebuild trust with prospects.

Q: What advice do you have for marketers trying to avoid “marketing speak” and connect more authentically?

Jessica Primanzon

Start with two things: data and pain points. Those should guide everything. What does the data tell you about what’s actually resonating? What are the true challenges keeping your audience up at night? That’s where your messaging should begin.

Once you have that foundation, you can layer in brand voice and positioning. But the heart of your content needs to be real—grounded in the customer’s experience. In my experience, when I’ve tried to guess what matters most, I’ve usually been wrong. You have to stay close to your customers, your sales team, and your data.

Q: What made this campaign successful beyond the content itself?

Jessica Primanzon

Sales buy-in. Without it, this would’ve gone nowhere. I could have emailed the prospects myself, but it wouldn’t have worked. This only worked because sales leadership believed in it and helped drive accountability across the team.

I delivered leads monthly and followed up to track progress—who had reached out, who hadn’t, what was converting. Some reps got more leads than others depending on what was in their historical pipeline, and that required managing expectations, too. But once a few deals started converting, momentum kicked in. The skeptics got on board when they saw it was working.

Q: You mentioned a strong sales-marketing relationship. What does that look like in practice?

Jessica Primanzon

Over-communication is key. I treat my sales partners like an extension of my team. That means regular check-ins, sharing updates on campaign performance, looping them into planning conversations early, and being transparent about what’s working—and what’s not.

It’s also about consistency. When I ran the "Wake the Dead" campaign, I followed up every week with status reports: who got leads, who followed up, and where we saw traction. That level of visibility kept everyone accountable and helped build trust over time.

More than anything, it’s about listening. Sales often has the clearest line to what customers are feeling and what messaging actually lands. If you build a rhythm of listening and responding, rather than dictating from the marketing side, you become true collaborators. And that’s when the magic happens.

Jessica’s “Wake the Dead” campaign is proof that when sales and marketing align around a shared goal—with the right assets, trust, and tenacity—it’s possible to turn past losses into major wins. Her honest approach to sales enablement content and clear-eyed focus on the customer experience offer a playbook that any marketer can learn from.

Inspired by Jessica’s approach? Whether you’re looking to energize sales enablement, craft credible content, or earn meaningful media, we’re here to help. Let’s talk: https://req.co/contact