HANG IN THERE!

Between Exit Five and some companies that I am involved with I can tell you that right now stress and burnout in marketing is higher than I've ever noticed in my career (so at least the last 10 years). And it makes sense as to why: the economy slumping, leads to fewer companies wanting to spend, marketing gets cut in all different areas, and we're being asked to do more with less and we're stressed / burned out / questioning what we're doing and re-visiting your career path.

Hang in there.

Almost across the board this is the case right now. With the exception of AI companies, most B2B SaaS companies are have a tough go of it. 

But maybe there's an opportunity for you to learn something new and acquire new skills during this time. Zoom out and look at your career - will you work at this one company in this one industry for the rest of your life? Probably not. So even if things aren't going great, can you take the longer term view and see what you can be learning right now? Can you think of it as you're being paid (hopefully...) to acquire new skills? Maybe you've never done a rebrand before but now you're being asked to do one one a shoestring budget. Great. Figure out how to get it done. Maybe you're selling to a new ICP and a new customer that you don't have experience writing for. Great. Maybe now you can add other layer to your depths as a writer and content creator. Maybe your boss is an absolute pain in the butt but the CEO is great and the company is in a great market. Can you learn from others around you in the company and in your industry and just ignore the PITA boss for a bit?

Take a minute to zoom out, think about your career, and see the next 6-12 months as "skills acquisition" and see where it takes you. Continue to work in your current job, but see it is they are paying you for your development and maybe that can change how you think about your day-to-day job for the time being, especially if company growth has slowed.

Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected]
Exit Five on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exitfive/
Exit Five on Twitter: https://twitter.com/exit5marketing

***

This episode is brought to you by Demandwell. This episode is brought to you by Demandwell. Demandwell is the best SEO solution for B2B SaaS marketers. They’ve helped customers like Lessonly drive 40% of their revenue from organic search. And they helped Terminus’s make organic search their number one source of demos. Get your free keyword feasibility assessment today at demandwell.com/keywords.

Thanks to our 2023 presenting sponsors Demandwell, Jasper, and Zapier.

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

• They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
• Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
• Visit hatch.fm to learn more

Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected]
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership

***

Today’s episode is brought to you by Walnut.

Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?

Come on, today’s buyers don’t want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.

That’s where Walnut comes in.

Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond.

That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.

And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what’s actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.

Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA?

Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!