Ben Smith ??的动态

In today's high-stakes SaaS landscape, the traditional divide between marketing and sales isn't just outdated, but destructive to growth. Marketing can no longer simply "throw leads over the wall" and expect sales to close them, while sales can't operate in isolation from the narrative marketing crafts. Think of your funnel not as a handoff point, but as a synchronised dance where both teams move in perfect harmony. Marketing shapes the story, crafting compelling narratives that resonate with prospects' pain points, while sales amplifies these messages through personalised demonstrations and solution mapping. The magic happens when both teams align their messaging, share insights in real-time, and work from the same playbook. Marketing's content strategy should directly inform sales conversations, while sales feedback should shape marketing's approach. By breaking down these silos, we're not just creating a funnel, we're orchestrating a seamless journey that transforms curious prospects into passionate advocates. The companies that master this alignment aren't just hitting their numbers; they're redefining what's possible in B2B growth. It's time to stop thinking in terms of "marketing leads" and "sales opportunities," and start thinking about creating unified customer experiences that drive unstoppable momentum. #saas #marketing #sales #growth

SaaS marketers — your internal teams are an often untapped resource for ideas, messaging direction, and market insight. But most are doing it wrong. Why? They ask for marketing ideas. As soon as you frame it this way, you put your non-marketer colleagues in the wrong mindset. They try to think like you - like a marketer. But it’s unnatural to them. They lose their authenticity and you’ll struggle to get the output you’re looking for. Instead, immerse yourself in their world. Shadow them and join their meetings. Go into observation mode. Listen to what they’re talking about and why they’re talking about it. Use their real-world experiences as a resource. This isn’t an extensive list, but some of the teams you can leverage by shadowing them are: Sales ? What language do prospects use, what challenges do they face today, which are the most common? ? How do sales sell the product to prospects and how do prospects respond?? ? What are common objections and how do sales handle them? Product ? Get deeper product knowledge, the pains it solves and competitive differentiation ? Understand the most used areas of the product/most valuable features ? Understand product roadmap, future capabilities and the pains it solves Customer Success ? What do customers value most in the relationship/what unexpected value do customers get that they didn’t expect? ? Which customer segments are the most successful and deliver the highest LTV? ? Understand why customers churn or get stuck with the product & where educational resources might be needed to aid retention Tap into the different teams across your business and you’ll cut out the guesswork and get the raw insights you need to create or improve marketing initiatives. #saasmarketing #b2bmarketingstrategy #marketinsights #messaging #demandgeneration

Hot take: Mediocre, feature-focused messaging throughout the entire customer journey outperforms scattered, benefit-aligned messaging across the funnel. If you don’t have alignment across every prospect and customer touchpoint, it doesn’t matter how impactful your messaging is – it won’t matter. This is the harshest reality of Product Marketing and why so many of our campaigns and sales plays fail. What companies often end up with, even with high-quality messaging: ?? Product & development gives everyone the side eye and Slack snark anytime anyone outside of their organization talks about product requirements and features. ?? ?? Marketing focuses on page visits, open rates, and MQLs. Lack of conversion is a sales problem. ? Enablement training and assets gather dust in the LMS. Instead, Sales gets a list of features from the prospect and asks product to commit to delivering those to close the sale. ?? Customer Success gets the customer to log in, reset their password and wishes them the best. ?? Non-existent digital onboarding or, even worse, marketing promotions masquerading as onboarding and adoption communication. Real alignment looks like: ?? Product & development working together with product marketing, sales, marketing & customer success to build the features and functionality that help customers realize the value. ?? ?Product Marketing developing comprehensive, tested messaging and go-to-market strategies emphasizing value the target segment will spend money towards. ?? Marketing trusting the messaging and building an awareness, education decision funnel around the value proposition. ??Sales connecting the value directly to the specific customer pain points. ?? ?? ?Customer success setting up customers to realize the value as quickly as possible. ??? ?And digital onboarding and adoption strategies aligned to guide customers on their time and terms. But alignment & true coordination don’t just happen. It requires Product Marketing to build trust and be viewed as the epicenter of the go-to-market strategy & execution. While it’s difficult and can take considerable time, the results are very real. At Progress ShareFile, we’ve realized a 5x increase in revenue for our focused, coordinated sales plays across the customer journey. The secret sauce is the alignment, not the messaging. #productmarketing #salesplays #alignment #teamworkmakesthedreamwork #leadership #productmarketingleaders

Here's your playbook for creating a GTM strategy that works in 2025.

GTM Effectiveness and Efficiency "The #1 issue for CEOs today is the continued decline in GTM performance." Do you know how much revenue an additional dollar of sales & marketing will produce? If you don't, maybe you have invested in marketing and revenue didn't change. Or you added a Go-To-Market motion and it failed? Who do you blame when you invest in sales and marketing and revenue doesn't changes? Here's a hint - don't blame the sellers or the marketers. The problem is you don't have a repeatable scalable selling motion(s). Don't start new campaigns until you know what is working and you have it modeled. Build a model for each of your GTM motions (small, medium, large enterprises, self service, named accounts, etc.). Use the model (yes it is math but it is simple math) to understand the effectiveness. Are the costs of acquiring the customer balanced by the revenue? What is the payback? If you understand the efficiency of your GTM motions, then you know where to invest and what to close down. Laying off people without knowing what's working is like driving blind in a rainstorm. Good results are unlikely and bad results are probable. Buying more tools and automating with AI is no different. Don't buy more marketing apps, don't try to scale up a process if it isn't efficient and profitable. Get repeatable success by first assessing your GTM engine. Treat sales and marketing as a process that can be measured. The entire process needs to be measured as an engine - this is not quota attainment and it is not MQLs. Then clear out unproductive processes and sales motions so that you can focus on what delivers results.

Think about a SaaS company with a new product feature. The marketing team runs targeted campaigns showcasing the feature’s benefits, generating tons of interest. But sales didn’t get the memo. Leads flood in, but sales teams aren’t equipped to close them, missing valuable opportunities. Now, picture the same scenario—but this time, sales and marketing are in sync. The marketing team not only creates demand but also shares insights with the sales team on the leads’ preferences and needs. Sales, equipped with the right data, turns those leads into long-term customers. This alignment creates?magic.?At StrategyWerks, we focus on ensuring that both teams are on the same page, from messaging to follow-ups. The result? Stronger conversions, happier customers, and a seamless brand experience. #SalesAndMarketingAlignment #SaaSMarketingTips #StrategyWerks #LeadConversionStrategy #TeamworkForSuccess #CustomerJourney

This one exercise will increase your close rates and drive revenue lift! It's all about nurturing those B2B leads, baby! In this video, I'll touch on why the exercise of creating a nurture workflow isn’t just smart; it’s how you spot bottlenecks and improve close rates. Collaboration leads to increased conversion; increased conversion leads to increased revenue! ? Quick steps: * ID lead touchpoints throughout your sales funnel * Map these touchpoints within your CRM * Connect with sales (what’s slowing deals?) * Add impactful marketing touchpoints (yes, even a surprise care package ??) Your leads want a seamless and value-driven journey. Make it happen! ?? Comment if you have a friction point in your sales team's funnel

I talk to a lot of early stage founders who are trying to figure out their go to market messaging. GTM messaging is built on a few foundational pieces, and I'll describe them below. First, what are you selling. It could be a single product, or it could be multiple, but document that first- these are our products and here's what they do. Next, it's who you're selling to- both buyer personas, user personas, and company profiles (which is known as your ICP or ideal customer profile.) This will eventually turn into cold outbound contact lists and account based marketing campaigns, basically who you want to see your messaging. Then you figure out use cases and value propositions. Your buyer is probably in some sort of pain, whether they're aware of that or not, so you want to be able to speak to that pain in your messaging. Then you figure out what the alternatives to your solution are, your competition. Why do you outshine them? Why have you earned the right to defeat them in a head to head sale? This has historically taken a lot of time- companies spend years on this. Octave is using AI to condense this process into a couple of minutes, and the results are pretty crazy. Zach Vidibor & Julian Tempelsman just shipped a Clay integration that floored me when I saw it- you can document your messaging elements in Octave, and then push the elements described above to Clay so that every single email or campaign makes a read on the fly as to the best messaging for a given prospect, based on your specific GTM lexicon. Check it out if you're trying to figure out your GTM messaging and are curious about Clay, I think this is the future of cold outbound.

Feature based product differentiation is dead. Look around—every product claims it’s a “game-changer” for revenue growth. Social media tools? Drives Revenue. Graphic design apps? Drives Revenue. It’s all starting to sound the same. And when most people talk about differentiation, they fall into one of two traps: 1?? they either cling to a single feature they think is better, or 2?? they lean on brand reputation because there’s nothing else to show. Here’s the reality: Neither of those work anymore. After years of selling to and marketing to large enterprises, I’ve learned that differentiation isn’t about features or even benefits. It’s about context—who you’re talking to and where you are in the sales cycle. At the start of a sales cycle for example, your brand reputation matters more than anything else. It’s not about features yet. It’s about trust—are you credible enough to even get a response? As the conversation moves forward, features become important, but only if they solve the customer’s problem the way they see it. It’s not about what your product does; it’s about how it aligns with their understanding of the problem and solution. Then, when you’re speaking to decision-makers, differentiation shifts again. They care about outcomes, what results they can expect from your product and ofcourse, social proof. Who else is using it? What’s the impact? And when you’re dealing with functional leaders like IT heads, it’s all about tech. How secure is your product? How easy is it to integrate? What’s under the hood? The point is, differentiation isn’t static. It changes based on who you’re talking to and what stage of the conversation you’re in. As product marketers, we can’t rely on feature lists or vague benefits. We need to equip sales teams with the tools to drive the conversation forward at every stage. Brand credibility opens doors. Feature alignment gets buy-in. Outcomes and technical capabilities close deals. The question is: Are you building differentiation for the entire journey—or just the first step? #marketing #productmarketing #B2B #enterprise