Today Stijn introduces a topic he is passionate about: slides in internal marketing reviews. He posits that not only do you not need them, but also they waste valuable time and resources. Instead, your internal meetings should be data driven. Simple data promotes productive and necessary conversations, and too often the marketing function does not discuss the most essential data on a regular basis. Do you agree? More inside. 

Today we get into the nitty gritty of Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). In episode 16 we talked about how to verify your ICP, but didn’t address the basics. After viewer feedback, today we revisit the topic to answer important questions about ICP. We discuss what it is, why you need it, how to come up with it, what it should look like, and how to use it. 

Some specific conversations within the episode include how to use your existing CRM data to better outline your ICP, using segmentation models based on market and product maturity, and mistakes we often see marketers make with their ICPs. 

Continuation of episode 24. Today we continue the conversation from episode 24 on pricing and packaging. We begin with an examination of freemium vs. try-buy and their specific use cases. We address how to set a price and where to start. Lastly we discuss price increases for SaaS products.

Pricing and packaging is one of the most important aspects of a SaaS business. Without calculated prices and packages that align with your customers, you will lose out on ROI and sour against the competition. Not only do you need to provide the right value, but also you need to effectively monetize it. Value based pricing is key here - give the buyer attractive choices on your terms, instead of following market trends. 

Today we take a deep dive into the many factors that go into pricing and packaging, with discussions centered around ARPU, pricing units, value based pricing. We answer the fundamental question: How do you price and package your SaaS offering? 

Next episode will be part 2. 

In today’s episode, Mike and Stijn discuss product led growth and sales led growth through an illustrative metaphor of hunting vs. gathering. 

If huge, high monetary value accounts are elephants (high ARPU), then the executive or relationship driven sales teams are the expert hunters. If low value, but plentiful accounts are berries and low hanging fruit (low ARPU), then the teams that build content and the inbound apparatus are gatherers. 

What’s the right go-to-market? How these different strategies of growing your company work and why they work, grievances we often see, and more inside.

Link to transcript and hunting vs. gathering graphic: Transcript and Graphic 

Strong testimonials are your important piece of content. A testimonial from a happy customer means a lot more than a list of product features coming from your marketing team. Anything you can say, a customer can say better.

Today we give you an overview of why testimonials are so important, how you should use them, and tactical advice on how to gather them. We even include a 28-question tactical playbook on how to guide a customer testimonial conversation. 

2 simple ways of gathering testimonials we’ve found to be especially successful are: 

1. Turning problems into praise. If you receive questions about problems in your product or service, be diligent about helping solve their problems and using that feedback to improve the product. Build a relationship. Then, when the customer is HAPPY, it’s a perfect time to gently ask for a review.  
2. Proactively reach out to customers. Ask your customers if their experience with your product has been successful. If they answer yes, it’s a great time to ask them for a testimonial. If they answer no, it’s a great time to ask why and build a better relationship. 

Today we dive into the subtleties of board meetings, and offer a framework for how you should leverage them as a marketing leader, founder, or CEO. 

We talk about what boards are for - how can they help you? What do the members want out of the meetings (and the company)? 

We also talk about how to interact with the board, and how to prepare for meetings. What should your presentation include? What questions should you be prepared to answer? What questions should you ask? 

One key takeaway is “don’t lead with your chin.” In other words, don’t offer up non-board level details or conversations to the board. Board conversations should be very selective, and oftentimes what is valuable to you may not be to the board. 

Some of the questions Stijn answers in this episode:

• How can boards help you as a marketer? 
• What should each stakeholder get from the meetings? 
• What three marketing slides should you bring to the meeting?
• Which questions do you always need to be prepared to answer?
• What should you ask from the board?

How much money should a B2B SaaS company be spending on marketing? 

The answer is “it depends”, but there are a few ways to get a solid calculation. 

Today, with our special guest Brian Graf, we discuss the four factors you should consider when trying to create your marketing budget: product maturity, market maturity, growth targets, and growth velocity. We also share the methodology behind our new and improved budget calculator for early-stage B2B SaaS companies. 

It’s easy to want to throw money at marketing to get results, but that’s not always the best plan. Sometimes it’s best to not spend any money at all and focus on your product or nailing your go-to-market strategy. 

To comprehensively understand what a company’s budget should be, we pull data from four major categories: Company Attributes such as current ARR (i.e. annual recurring revenue, average contract value and referenceable accounts), Growth Targets (i.e. how much and how fast do you want to grow?), Market Attributes (i.e. how aware is your market and how much competition do you have?), and Existing Foundation (what are you starting with?).

Today we get into the weeds of what working with marketing agencies should look like as a rapidly growing B2B SaaS company. We discuss the functions agencies should be performing for your business throughout its early growth stages. We address how to structure KPIs around both short and long term metrics so agencies are accountable for both quick wins and sustainable growth. We also give a ballpark marketing budget figure for software companies between $1-$10 million in ARR, and discuss why we started Kalungi, the niche it fits, and the types of problems it strives to solve.

Part 2 of Ep. 17. Customer (or Contact) Relationship Managers (CRM) are an invaluable resource but can quickly turn into a complex and costly mess if they’re not managed properly or set up to be used by all of your teams (Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, etc). Effective marketing leaders can be hard to find, and as your company and product evolve over time, the things you need from your marketing leader evolve too. Knowing where, when, and how to match skills with your company’s maturity stage can be complicated and daunting. These and other common marketing mistakes are addressed in today's episode.