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Elissa Fink was CMO at Tableau from $5M to $1B ARR.?? When she talks, I listen. She says that "every demand touch is a brand touch." This simple but powerful insight changed how I think about marketing. She settled the "brand vs demand" debate that plagues so many marketing leaders, explaining the false choice. Elissa was my guest for episode 1 of the PeerSignal podcast. What you'll learn in our conversation: -- Why "pipeline is permission" for marketing leaders. -- The "3 Types of Fires" framework for marketing problems (Trash Can ??? > Dumpster ?? > House Fire ??). -- How to preserve brand integrity through hypergrowth. -- What separates great CMOs from the rest. -- How to communicate effectively with your board. My take-aways: 1?? "Marketing is not IF, THEN, ELSE" The B2B buyer journey isn't linear. It's messy and unpredictable. Your prospect might see an airport ad, hear about you at dinner, then get retargeted online. Not everything can be attributed. If you only invest in perfectly trackable channels, you miss all the leverage. 2?? Make your customer the hero, not your product "Don't ask your customer to do you a favor. It's not their job to sell your software." Instead, promote THEIR success and make THEM the hero. The reflection on your brand will be 10x more powerful than trying to make their story about your product. 3?? B2B brands should evoke FEELINGS Yes, even in B2B tech! Elissa insists that great brands provoke emotional responses. The data backs this up too - their community-led approach at Tableau created evangelists, not just customers. 4?? Every touchpoint matters At all times, you're communicating your brand from the customer's POV. Is it consistent? Is it how you want to show up? The webinar, the outbound email, the lead nurture flow - they all leave a mark. This episode kicks off my new PeerSignal podcast series where I'm interviewing go-to-market leaders on what works and the principles behind them. Full Interview: -- Substack: https://lnkd.in/gXdDkmB7 -- Spotify: https://lnkd.in/grzpcfe6 -- Apple: https://lnkd.in/gD6KmRPS #marketing #sales

Everyone has a take on AI. This space is moving and changing so fast it's giving me whiplash. It's exciting for startups, disruptive for incumbents, and VCs are giddy. But it's creating a mess for software buyers. To help make sense of this chaos, I aggregated 26 market maps from top VCs and analysts. This deck showcases my favorites and includes links to each source. A few patterns emerging from the noise: LLMs have become the new foundation layer. -- OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere have become big names. -- Big Tech is pouring billions into the race (Meta Llama, Google Gemini, etc). -- Wildcards like Deepseek show the foundation layer is still evolving AI-Native applications are exploding in every industry ?? -- Synthesia, Cursor, Cresta, Harvey, ElevenLabs and 100+ others have rocketed to unicorn status. -- Thousands of startups are launching AI Agents, Co-Pilots, and assistants every month. -- The pace of growth is stunning, and often with smaller teams. Traditional SaaS is reinventing itself ?? -- 61% of SaaS companies we track now prominently feature AI on their website. -- Category leaders like Notion, Intercom, and Zapier have transformed into AI-first products.? -- Pricing models are in flux as companies experiment with new types of outcome-based, or usage-based approaches to selling "work" instead of "access" as Kyle Poyar says. The "unknown unknowns" may be the biggest story yet to unfold. This leaves buyers in an challenging position – navigating a landscape that changes weekly, with limited benchmarks for comparison. For GTM leaders, the challenge is equally daunting. You can't just slap "AI" on your website and expect growth. The same fundamentals will apply, but the bar is higher than ever before. I'm going to be studying how AI impacts GTM strategies. More research coming via PeerSignal.org. #AI #SaaS #marketing

We’ve all seen cases where sales loses trust in marketing. I've spent the last 2.5 years studying one specific aspect of this problem. We call it the ICP Translation Gap. Most companies intuitively understand their ICP. But they struggle to translate that intuition into account lists, territories, scoring, and ad targeting that consistently bring in *real* ICP pipeline. In a mature GTM organization, this problem (their ICP Translation Gap) can cost them millions of dollars a year in wasted spend, time, and energy. The solution isn’t just buying Keyplay (sadly). It requires a data-driven methodology for defining, modeling, and testing your ICP. The big steps: 1?? DEFINE: Customer analysis + market insight. 2?? TRANSLATE: Model that assesses fit. 3?? TEST: A good model backtests. 4?? IMPROVE: Treat ICP as a program, not a project. Companies like Ashby, Thoropass, Hone, and Mutiny have used our methodology with awesome results. Things like 2.3x ACV, 90% outbound conversion lift, dramatically better cost per qualified opp from LinkedIn Ads. Plus trust and confidence. We started publishing this methodology today (for free). Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gF-_gBaw In 2025, we'll add more templates and resources to help GTM teams close their ICP translation gap, no matter what tools they use. What would you like to see expanded on next? #B2B #Marketing #Sales

For the love of annual planning, please make this chart before you lock in your 2025 targets. Lately I’ve been borderline obsessed with pointing out the?flaws?of the marketing qualified lead (#MQL) paradigm. If we’re ever going to find out what works, we need a?unified (and account-based) view?of go-to-market effectiveness. It starts with figuring out *exactly* where you stand with your target accounts in real-time. What this means: 1?? You know exactly how many accounts are in your ICP. 2?? You've *identified* the buyers at those accounts and can market to them. (This is easier than ever with next-gen GTM tooling.) 3?? You know how many are *aware* of you. They're consistently opening your emails, engaging with your ads, visiting your website, etc. 4?? You know how many are *interested*. These prospects are self-educating through interactive demos, signing up for a free account, attending a webinar, or viewing high-intent website pages. (Ideally these become high-intent leads for warm outbound.) 5?? You know how many are *considering* a purchase. (You can think of these are SQLs within your ICP, but they could be PQLs or self-service team buyers as well.) 6?? You know how many are *selecting* a vendor, meaning they're engaging in a buying process. (Typically translates to proposal stage.) 7?? You know how many have chosen your product, becoming a customer. (Of course, you can extend this framework post-purchase, too!) If you look at GTM effectiveness this way, it doesn't matter whether you invest more in PLG, automated outbound, SEO, paid ads, BDRs/SDRs, or something else entirely. What matters is that you ultimately reach the right people and turn them into customers. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/epMfYgER #marketing #abx

In the last 6 months, I've grown obsessed with the idea of unbundling ABM. Why? 1.) "ABM" became a tired buzzword.? -- Great concept, but too much vendor spin. 2.) Marketers are clamoring for simpler frameworks. -- E.g. See Kyle Poyar's ABX measurement post. 3.) There's growing skepticism about 6sense, especially in the mid-market. -- Not just Adam Robinson shitposting, the users too! ?? 4.) CMOs are buying 6sense just for "intent signals" (i.e NOT buying the whole ABM platform). -- Example: https://lnkd.in/gfScqrXU 5.) I saw the value of putting ICP strategy first, rather than spending $100K for the platform first! -- E.g. Mutiny's story: https://lnkd.in/gG5sB-Gs 6.) Dozens of wonderful modern tools have emerged to unbundle ABM. -- Signal aggregators and orchestrators are hot (e.g. Common Room, Clay, Warmly, UserGems ??) -- You can get best of breed 1P, 2P, and 3P signals (e.g. G2, Fibbler, Koala) -- ICP modeling & scoring has leveled up (i.e. Keyplay) -- Dozens of tools to help with focused ABM engagement and personalization so you can create a surround sound effect with your best accounts. Not every CMO agrees. Broad platforms work for some. But more modern GTM leaders are feeling this shift and moving to an unbundled ABM stack. i.e. They are pro ABM, but skeptical of “ABM Platforms.” To help you find the best modern tools for a strategy-first ABM approach, PeerSignal.org has started tracking this space. This post outlines our market map and framework. And you can get the full spreadsheet where we're tracking 48 players and will be continually adding more as we learn. Excited to keep pulling this thread in 2025. #ABM #marketing #sales

I’m pro ABM, but skeptical of “ABM Platforms” (e.g. 6sense). There’s another option emerging. Unbundled ABM. Buying an over-complicated, $100K+ platform that spits out “WTF-intent-QLs” is not the only way to launch an ABM strategy in 2025. Modern tools have emerged to help solve specific problems within the ABM workflow — account selection, account engagement, and account measurement. Now you can start with strategy. Then pick modern solutions for your specific needs. And you can do it with less cost, lower complexity, and more flexibility. We started highlighting this space a few weeks ago. Today we updated the spreadsheet and market map to include more vendors, more information on each company, and refined categories. A few updates... 1.) The map is changing fast. -- Thanks to this community, we discovered a 14 new tools and clarified our categories. All based on recommendations from trusted sources -- Our first version highlighted the rising stars like Keyplay, Warmly, Common Room, and more. -- We’ve now added AirTraffic Control, Tofu, The Swarm ??, Vector ?? and 10 others. -- We aren’t covering every single tool, just the ones that practitioners we trust recommend. (that being said, if we’re missing anyone, let us know!) 2.) Signals everywhere. -- Signal-based sales and marketing has a big application for ABM. Instead of a singular intent-centric platform, you have tons of options to collect, aggregate, and orchestrate signals.? -- In this version, we’ve tried to better delineate 3P, 2P, and 1P signal providers. -- We’ve combined Signal Aggregation + Orchestration — almost everyone who is aggregating signals is moving into orchestration (enabling action on those signals). 3.) This is movement is happening. -- Hundreds of marketing leaders, sales leaders, and RevOps professionals responded to our v1 and offered us more ideas and insights. -- Smart CMOs are realizing that you don’t need a $100k platform to run fundamentally-solid ABM. If you’re pro ABM but skeptical of “ABM Platforms,” this is for you. Spreadsheet link in the comments. The space is changing fast. We’ve got a solid start, but want to keep expanding this resource… What else should be included? #ABM #marketing #B2B

“Skip strategy, just buy the ABM platform!” $100K+. Sign here. Problem solved. Many B2B teams fell into this trap over the last decade. At first, they celebrated “WTF-intent-qualified leads,” but now the shine is off. ABM is a wonderful strategy. But it became a vendor category with “ABM Platforms” like 6sense. Over-priced platforms spun a fundamental B2B concept into a confusing technology category to justify their insane prices. Recently, smart CMOs are becoming weary of the platforms and their promises. i.e. They are pro ABM, but ABM platform skeptical. There’s another option emerging. Unbundled ABM. Modern tools have emerged to help solve specific problems within the ABM workflow — account selection, account engagement, and account measurement. Now you can start with strategy. Then pick modern solutions for your specific needs. And you can do it with less cost, lower complexity, and more flexibility. Today, we shared a work-in-progress market map to help you unbundle ABM. If you’re pro ABM but skeptical of “ABM Platforms,” this is for you. Spreadsheet link in the comments. This space is changing fast. We’ve got a solid start, but want to keep expanding this resource… Who else should be included? #ABM #marketing #B2B Tag any of you favorite modern ABM options here and we’ll evaluate them for the next version.

SaaS hiring appears to be coming back a bit. ? In the last 12 months, we've seen a 5% headcount increase for companies in our index. They employ ~1.45M people in aggregate today. ? Open jobs are up 28%. Note: This is based on ~5,000 B2B Software companies with 5 to 5,000 employees in the PeerSignal.org index, so it intentionally excludes big tech. ? Overall this is looking a bit more positive after the 2022-2023 SaaS correction. But it's a tale of two cities. ? Many top companies are growing fast. ? For example, in the Cloud 100, we saw a 66% y/y increase in open roles. Hot AI startups like Pinecone, Anthropic, and Glean are flying. Break-outs like Wiz have added hundreds of people. Newly minted unicorns like Chainguard are cranking. Plenty of SaaS growth stories. ? Meanwhile we see more startup shutdowns in Carta's data. ? And while 53% of companies in our index *increased* headcount over the last 12 months, we've seen 41% *decreased* in the same period (the other 6% are neutral). ? i.e. The net is positive, but it's not positive for everyone. ? I'll probably dig into this more and slice by stage, category, and other factors at the end of Q3. ? What would you like to see in our next report? #SaaS #hiring

The 2024 Cloud 100 have a total valuation of $800B+. ? I always enjoy analyzing the winners. ? It’s a great lens into the market themes and GTM strategies that are driving modern SaaS. ? A few things stood out… — SaaS growth coming back? Open roles went from ~4,400 to ~7,300 Y/Y for this group. Same story with headcount growth (more net increases, fewer reductions). — PLG (again). 66% have a free plan or trial. 52% have transparent pricing. —Brands. B2Bs can build strong brands. All these companies have high web traffic. They have 250K LinkedIn followers on average. — AI (no surprise). Number of AI companies went from 9 to 15. AI integrated SaaS jumped from 28% to 71% In this article I shared all my graphs & analysis. ?? You can also download a spreadsheet with the full enriched Cloud 100 list to dig deeper and find relevant role models for your business. What stood out for you? #SaaS #B2B #marketing

Every SaaS CEO wants a spot on the Forbes Cloud 100 list. Let's study the newly released winners... To make it easy, I pulled the 2024 list into a spreadsheet and enriched it with some Keyplay growth and website signals. Full sheet here: peersignal.org/cloud100 For the analysis I compared the Cloud 100 to PeerSignal's B2B SaaS index for similar sized companies (300-5,000 employees). Winners stand-out on growth and valuation, but what else shows up? Take-aways from the 2024 list: 1.) More AI companies. -- Last year, 9% of winners were AI companies. This year it’s a whopping 15%.? -- OpenAI has the highest valuation, but they aren’t alone. New additions include Perplexity, Glean, Mistral AI. 2.) More AI integrated SaaS. -- AI is eating software. -- In 2023, 28% of Cloud 100 talked about AI in their main headlines and company description. -- In 2024, that number jumped to 71%. 3.) Hiring like it’s 2024. -- Even the Cloud 100 felt the 2022-2023 SaaS correction.? -- Last year, 33% of the Cloud 100 had *reduced* headcount over the previous 6 months. Only 55% had a net increase. 13% were neutral. -- This year is different. 80% have increased headcount in the previous 6 months, only 11% reduced. 9% are neutral. -- Open roles have increased massively. Up 66% Y/Y from ~4,400 to ~7,300 for this group. 4.) B2Bs with strong brands. -- They sell enterprise software (ie. they’re not Vuori or TikTok), but top cloud cos have increasingly big audiences and broad reach. -- 250K is the average LinkedIn followers. -- 86% have top 100K website traffic. 12% are 100K to 500K. 5.) PLG. -- Consistent with last year, PLG is commonplace in the Cloud 100. -- 66% have a free plan or free trial, 2.6x more than the comps. -- 52% have transparent pricing, a massive 5.2x more than their peers. -- Most of the PLG players this year are horizontal (dev tools, fintech, collaboration). 6.) Partners/ecosystems/integrations. -- Multiple clues that suggest Cloud 100 are investing in their ecosystem.? -- 74% have a Partners page, 1.7x the comparison group. -- 48% have a public API, 2.5x the comparison group -- 39% list multiple integrations, 3.2x the comparison group. -- This is consistent with last year’s list 7.) Security winners keep coming. -- 17% are in the security space. That's 2 more than AI. -- “Boring” problems = big money. -- Wiz was the highest ranked at #11 and is likely to climb after turning down $23B from Google. I hope the spreadsheet gives you some SaaS role models to explore more. I'd love to add more to this in the coming weeks. Today's PeerSignal.org newsletter has all the charts. What’s your take-away? #SaaS #B2B #startups #marketing