"Nobody is focused on creating demand. No metrics support demand creation. Everything is about being sales-centric and marketing supporting sales. And the truth is, the only way that you win big, is by going out there and creating demand..." - Chris Walker

In this episode, Chris breaks down why companies don't focus on creating demand and instead put all their energy into capturing demand. After laying the groundwork for why companies don't do it, he breaks down why whoever creates the demand, wins.

Earlier this week we leaked the wait-list landing page for Refine Labs' new IP warehouse, "The Vault". With one post (and a comment on another post) we received over 1,000 submissions from B2B professionals with titles like; VP of Marketing, CMO, and CRO. We also received some interesting responses in the comments:

"Is that a FORM on the landing page?!"

"6 fields? Really?"

In this episode, Chris will clear up any misconception about forms, because it's not forms that are inherently bad, it's the intent behind them that is used.

Refine Labs just came off our company offsite in San Diego where nearly 100 team members showed up to meet and collaborate in person for the first time since joining Refine Labs. It was an experience that really highlighted the amazing culture that has been established here and a perfect opportunity to talk about how the culture has been built. In this episode, Chris answers questions that were sourced from the community on how to establish and grow a culture that makes employees want to build a career at your company.

Marketing Ops is evolving. With so many marketing technologies on the market, strong marketing ops professionals are no longer thinking strictly about the tactical role out of these new technologies. They are becoming strategic advisors on how teams can not only implement software but choose and use specific tools to best achieve the overall goal. In this episode, Chris sits down with Sara McNamara, Senior Manager of Marketing Operations at Slack, to discuss: What about operations is strategic, the best way to roll out new marketing technology, measuring marketing success, and more.

Refine Labs is breaking the mold twice in today's episode. First, we are extremely proud to announce that Refine Labs has instituted a living minimum wage of $75,000/year. A study was done by Princeton showing that $75,000 is the number where people can live comfortably and still have money left over to save. Second, we're breaking the DGL format and doing a full episode of AMA this week. Chris covered questions ranging everywhere from content-led community, to offsite learnings, to event content strategy, to career advice, and more.

Modern go-to-market is changing. In decades past, customers needed sales teams to educate them on product. They welcomed sales professionals to look under the hood and pitch them on how their product could best be used in their organization. But in 2022 the buyer's mindset has changed. They now have the ability to do the research. They have the ability to talk with industry peers and discover these things on their own. So where does that leave sales in the modern B2B GTM? In this episode, Chris talks about how marketing and sales can work toward a common goal in educating buyers and the new role sales professionals will play as industry subject matter experts.

There are two things that can completely change the trajectory of your company's growth: Content and a unique perspective on your market. Unfortunately, there are several, easily overcome, obstacles that entrepreneurs face: They don't believe they have a unique perspective, they don't think they have the means to create meaningful content, they give up way to early, and so on. In this episode, Chris spoke to a room of small business entrepreneurs on how to overcome these obstacles, start creating the best content in your niche, build community around that content, and use it all to grow your small business.

Product-led growth is "all the rage" as a B2B go-to-market strategy right now. But how do you adopt PLG if you're already running an enterprise outbound strategy? Can you start putting PLG motions into place without going straight to a free trial or free version motion? How do you run a PLG and enterprise acquisition model in tandem? What role does pricing play in a PLG motion? These are all topics covered in today's interview with PLG-expert, Kyle Poyar.

CEOs, founders, and executive-level SMEs are some of the most powerful voices your brand has at its disposal. So why don't more marketing teams take advantage of the top-tier minds in their organizations? The most common answer among executives is "I don't have time". The real answer is that they don't make it a priority. People often ask how Refine Labs gets so much traction on LinkedIn or on the State of Demand Podcast. The answer: Senior leadership sets the tone and shows what "good" looks like by creating content in dark social channels regularly. The rest of the team sees that and follows suit. In this episode, Chris talks about how he finds time to be active inside dark social channels while still managing the day-to-day responsibilities of a CEO in a rapid-growth company.

There has never been a better time to be a B2B marketing. Gone are the days where marketing teams primary KPI is sending the sales team unqualified MQLs. Sales VPs and CROs reach out to Refine Labs everyday asking us to help fix their marketing. Marketing's goal in 2022 is educating the buyer before the buyer ever talks to a sales person, which makes marketing extremely powerful. Buyers having knowledge of the product before they talk to sales means that sales gets to talk to buyers with high intent every single time. In this episode, Chris dives in on the new role of marketing and why were in the golden age of marketing right now!