How B2B CMOs are reacting to tech stock pressure, possible slowdowns

The CMO Coffee Talk community includes marketing leaders from a wide variety of industries, with the largest contingent coming from the tech, SaaS and cloud computing worlds.

So it was little surprise that the start of last week's Friday sessions began with a discussion of the past few days tech stock valuation shrinkage and its implications for not just tech but all companies in the months and quarters ahead.

How will it impact the hiring market? Deal cycles? Budgets?

Below are chat highlights covering these and many more areas of interest, concern and yes proactive strategy from B2B's leading marketing executives.

If you are a B2B CMO or head of marketing and want to join a community of ~1,600 of your peers, let me know!

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The market bubble on hiring is bursting.?It's going to be a supply market - it's already started.

Creating pipeline is our number one goal and it's way slower/harder than last year.

I think hunker down is the new #

In Q1, renewals saved us but new business was very soft.

#hunkerdownmanagecash

The market all of a sudden REALLY cares about free cash flow

We are watching what the market conditions will do to the cost of capital, too.

Deals slower to close

CFOs: gimme that budget back!

Sales cycles are getting longer

Don’t cut sales don’t cut product...but everything else...

With higher interest rates and equity markets down the cost of capital should be impacted significantly

We’re about to see a bull whip effect where inventory finally comes back up but now demand is down

Working on 3 scenario plan and budget for the rest of the year regarding spend and cash preservation

This HBR has some evidence for that argument … https://hbr.org/2009/04/how-to-market-in-a-downturn-2

If you go back and look at the Great Depression, Post (cereal) doubled down on marketing spend, leap frogged the current leader and came out and moved ahead to take over the market.

The grass is always greener— like our kids, sometime folks need to learn by experience

Align to the revenue process vs the marketing activities!

Focus on alignment, operational efficiency, and bust the silos!

Demonstrate how marketing enables sales and sales productivity in so many ways

Make sure you are laser focused on your metrics

We have a fiduciary responsibility to improve efficiency during these times, we’re all doing things we don’t “have to do.” Deliver a plan that is the MVP to achieve targets but make it clear that future performance is at risk.

With any cut in marketing budget - show direct effect on reduced sales support/reduced lead pipeline/etc?and effect on competitive position

Focus on your customers!

Revisit your Tiered accounts with a tailwinds/headwinds lens

One of things I did was to stop reporting on MQLs at all. We (sales and marketing) report on SQOs together. Of course, we track their sources, but the SQO is the rallying cry.

Think there's something to be said for, as Chief Market Officer, watch how targets & current customers are responding to the economic news. Could be land & expand activities (ABM or multithreading activities etc.) could use more investment than money on extra reps for Net New logos. – It's a conversation highly dependent on your buyer (lg. enterprise vs. SMB), but worth showing up smart to the finance folks

To quote Malcolm Gladwell: “innovators [MARKETERS, my add] need to be disagreeable. By disagreeable, I don’t mean obnoxious or unpleasant. I mean that on that fifth dimension of the Big Five personality inventory, “agreeableness,” they tend to be on the far end of the continuum. They are people willing to take social risks—to do things that others might disapprove of.”

Be a leader, be proactive, don’t wait to be told the answer to the question!!

Double-down on hiring in the hopes that others slow?

Hopefully hiring is easier

Agree hiring and retention may stable out

There are some theories that with inflation, people are coming out of early retirement and we will see an easing in the labor market.

The grass isn't always greener. The brown spots just move.

We used to say the grass is always greener on the other side of the septic tank

Even stable industries are impacted by downturns.

The friends I have who are raising are definitely seeing lower valuations (which is probably good bc they got HOLY SHIT for a while)

Plan for the worst but keep foot on the gas.

We are seeing valuations going down, slowly, but going down, not anywhere near 2020/early 2021.

Our investors see this as an opportunity. "If there is M&A you think you need to do, this could be a very good time, depending on the financial position of the target"???

We're just going through financing and there is an urgency not just on our side but actually on the side of the finance company to get the deal done ASAP.

We are experiencing the same: guidance to be more prudent about spend.

In the process of raising and $$ still out there for right market

From the opposite perspective, as a board member, my goal will be to encourage my companies to develop more of an inbound flywheel (product snacks, smart content, thoughtful SEO, super-compelling self-tour).

I'm looking at inflation vs recession as dueling banjos and popping popcorn to watch

We’re proactively remodeling our cost structure and break even timelines. Then have to stare at it and figure out what to do

To a certain extent this is business as usual. We've been living in this uncertainty since 2020 and are somehow adapting to this being the norm.

I would argue that folks that went through dot com career busts still came out ahead in the end. That still counts as a pedigree when recruiters look at a resume.

Good businesses will continue to get funded even if its a down round, which actually isn't the end of the world if you have a 10yr horizon

What do we think the impact of the economy on our cost of customer acquisition for B2B enterprise?

Focus on the existing customer base is the guidance we got from our board

We are looking at diff scenarios.?Likely slowing hiring.?Updating positioning - “we help companies drive top line/bottom line - do more with the same/less.”?And we are talking to employees about what’s going on, we’ve got money in the bank and not planning/needing to raise for a bit.”

Definitely having the growth versus profitability. That does then mean we have to re-evaluate compensation and even reverse share options bonus's if we don't exit on the expected timeline.

I've been through many booms and busts. I found that there is a lot of innovation for new tech, and it allows companies to become for efficient and effective (read that as you will). But it's not a bad process for companies to go through. But you need a strong leadership team and Board

History is full of stories of companies that invested in the downturns and grew out quicker. So if you can find a way to double down, you’ll win!

Best time to invest and grow if your financials are solid.