Susan Jacobs, Creating Buzz Around Dental Insurance

October 26th, 2020

Susan Jacobs is the SVP of Marketing at Beam Dental, an insurance technology startup that provides its members with a complimentary smart toothbrush for tracking brushing behavior. She started her career in non-profit, pursued an MBA to enhance her Marketing chops, held consulting roles at both Booz Allen Hamilton and McKinsey, and was most recently the Senior Vice President and Global Brand Leader at Hertz.

In this feature, Susan shares with us the benefits of starting a career in non-profit, what she learned at Indiana’s Kelley School of Business, what attracted her to consulting and her advice for switching between consulting and industry. Read along to soak up her incredible career advice for ambitious women, such as yourself.

Early Career

You received your undergraduate degree in Economics from Salem College. How did your studies affect your early career?

I think Economics is a great foundation for anyone interested in working in business - in my mind, no other discipline provides as much context, logic, and explanation for why markets (and, ultimately, people) work the way they do. It’s a great foundation for anything else you want to pursue. For me personally, I grew up always wanting to become a doctor, so I went to college assuming I would study pre-Med. In my first semester of my freshman year I took an Intro to Macroeconomics class, fell in love, and never looked back!

You started off your career in Economic Development. What skills from your first job have you carried with you?

I worked for an economic development nonprofit in North Carolina and my job was to help put together tax and other financial incentives to attract businesses and developers to the area, in order to spur economic development and improve the tax base long term. Our particular focus was on recruiting artists, gallery owners, restaurateurs, and mixed use developers to improve urban areas through arts and culture. Starting my career in nonprofit helped me learn not only how to be resourceful and scrappy, but also that there is never a job too big or too small.

After almost 5 years of working for the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership, you decided to pursue an MBA at Indiana’s Kelley School of Business. What inspired you to return to school, and what was your biggest takeaway from the experience?

I would highly recommend pursuing an MBA for anyone who is thinking about it. For me, I knew I wanted to pursue marketing and going back to school made sense not only because Kelley has a nationally-renowned consumer marketing program, but also for the hands-on experience the school offers and its vast alumni network across the globe. Kelley in particular places a high emphasis on the analytical sides of Marketing - the science, in addition to the art - and the role that Marketing as a function can play in driving both the top and bottom lines of a company. One small (but useful) thing that has always stuck with me was a saying from a “category marketing” class - Stock Outs Mean Walk Outs - meaning, if you run out of product or can’t get it in front of a customer for any reason, you have likely lost them forever. It’s a simple but important reminder that distribution is everything.

Post-MBA, you joined Booz Allen Hamilton as a Senior Consultant in the Strategy & Operations Group. What attracted you to Consulting?

I’ve had the opportunity to work in the consulting industry twice - first for Booz Allen Hamilton right after business school, and second with McKinsey & Company in the middle of my career. What I love about consulting is how it challenges you to look holistically and cross-functionally at a problem and understand the interconnectedness of how businesses work in order to really drive solutions. I loved the project-based nature of consulting work, and the impact that you can have is practically bar-none. It definitely prepares you well for the general management track and any role with revenue delivery or P&L responsibility. In many ways, it’s almost like going to business school a second (or third!) time.

Hertz

After switching from Consulting to Industry and back, you joined Hertz - where you most recently served as Senior Vice President and Global Brand Leader for the Dollar, Thrifty, and Firefly brands. What attracted you to Hertz, and how did your previous experience help you turnaround the brands?

When I joined Hertz, it was a turnaround situation focused on restoring top line growth in a highly commoditized (and also highly competitive) sector of the travel industry. I had responsibility for the value brands in the portfolio which were in the most competitive tier of the market. I joined because it was an opportunity to join a fast-paced turnaround that viewed Marketing as a revenue driver and key enabler of the turnaround strategy, which was being led by one of the few female CEOs in the Fortune 500. Being able to leverage both a consulting background as well as consumer marketing definitely came in handy - we were able to drive double-digit revenue growth in an industry that typically only grows at GDP levels, and improve our net promoter score and brand loyalty at the same time.

Beam

This Fall you transitioned from your role at Hertz to a position as SVP of Marketing at Beam Dental, an insurance technology startup that provides its members with a complimentary smart toothbrush for tracking brushing behavior. What are you most looking forward to as you tackle this new opportunity?

I feel so fortunate to be joining Beam at such an exciting time for the company and during such a period of tremendous growth. Beam is the first digitally-native dental insurer, with a connected toothbrush that tracks your brushing behavior and gives discounts on your insurance based on how well you brush. No other insurer is doing what we do in the connected technology space, and no other connected device manufacturer connects your health to insurance savings like we do. My first challenge at Beam is to build out and scale our Marketing department to drive awareness of, and loyalty to, a brand that is one of the fast growing companies in healthcare.

Advice

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?

One lesson I have learned many times is to raise your hand for opportunities that you may not have initially considered but that check boxes for intentional things you want to accomplish in your career. Be thoughtful about what you want out of your career and go for those experiences (could be leading people, managing a large budget, running a brand, etc) rather than the jobs or roles traditional career-pathing would say you are “supposed” to have. By being more intentional about the experiences you want to gain, versus the path you take to get there, you will build a more solid career.

What is your advice for women looking to switch between consulting and industry?

Be deliberate and thoughtful about how and when you make the switch, and the types of opportunities that are most interesting to you. For me personally, I wanted line-of-business operating jobs with revenue responsibility - those aren’t necessarily easy to come by, so you have to be purposeful and patient.

Who is one woman you aspire to be like?

There are several female CEOs that I have always admired - Mary Barra and Deanna Mulligan are two. At Hertz I had the chance to work for Kathy Marinello - her career and track record are incredibly impressive on their own, but who she is as a person is even more so - I always admired her grace, strength, kindness, and empathy, even during the toughest times.