Heather Harlos is the Global VP of Marketing Programs & Enablement at Coro, a cybersecurity platform for small and midsize businesses. She grew up in the technology space, moving from distribution and product management into marketing, with experience across events, content, web development, and customer relationships.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• [03:00] How AI is changing buyer behavior and what it means for B2B marketing
• [05:00] Why Reddit, backlinks, and credibility matter when AI recommends your brand
• [08:00] How Coro uses an AI agent to find Reddit conversations worth joining
• [11:00] What it takes to run AI agents: a dedicated person, not a side project
• [18:00] Why communities and face-to-face interactions are becoming essential again
• [21:00] How old-school games helped a tight budget stand out at a major event
• [26:00] Why starting local beats blowing your budget on big events
• [31:00] How AI changes the job of every marketer
  

In this episode…

Your next buyer might ask ChatGPT before they ever visit your website. And the answer might come from Reddit, not your latest campaign.

For marketing leaders at B2B technology and IT services companies, that changes where you need to show up. Heather Harlos and Carlos break down how to earn visibility and trust when buyers, and the AI tools they ask, turn to communities for answers. You’ll hear how Coro uses an AI agent to find Reddit conversations worth joining, why its technical experts give advice instead of pitching, and why even the best AI agents need a human in the loop. Letting it run the show without adult supervision is another. Turns out buyers feel the same way: the more digital buying gets, the more they want real conversations. From a retro gaming booth that stood out without a massive budget to local meetups that don’t require big sponsorships, Heather makes the case for earning attention instead of buying it. Because AI may change how buyers discover you. It doesn’t change why they trust you.

Resources from this episode:

• Carlos Corredor on LinkedIn
• Condor Agency
• Heather Harlos on LinkedIn

Quotable Moments:

• “They’re looking for credibility, they’re looking for references, for back linking, for other people to also mention you.”
• “The one rule we did give them was absolutely do not sell, only give advice.”
• “You can’t run the whole thing without a human.”
• “People still wanna know who they’re buying from. They still wanna shake your hand.”
• “So it shouldn’t be able to act without a human saying, ‘Yes, you can do this.’”

Action Steps:

1. Look beyond Google. Find out where AI engines and buyers are getting their answers. Build credibility through relevant communities, expert authors, and backlinks.
2. Join the conversation. Don’t hijack it. Use AI to find relevant Reddit threads, then let your technical experts provide useful advice. No sales pitch.
3. Put a human at the gate. Give AI agents clear guardrails and an owner. Review anything that could hurt the brand or cost real money.
4. Make events worth remembering. Skip the generic booth experience. Give people a reason to stop, stay, and have a conversation.
5. Start local. Then earn the bigger budget. Join meetups, partner with sales reps, and test smaller gatherings before committing to expensive events.

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Condor, a pipeline measurement and generation firm for B2B services.

Does your marketing team feel stretched thin doing campaigns, research, landing pages, reports, and somehow it’s still not enough?

More pipeline. Less noise.

Condor helps you turn all the marketing efforts no one sees into pipeline no one can ignore.

Learn more at condoragency.com.