SaaS Backwards - Reverse Engineering SaaS Success

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In this episode, we talked to Fred Rockwell, owner of the upcoming Ascent Conference in New York (Oct 30) about the advantages of attending events in-person, how they’ve changed in a post-covid world, and why he structures his events to create more bottom of the funnel opportunities through private invites. 

The SaaS Backwards Podcast is also excited to be the official podcast sponsor of the Ascent Conference and will be recording episodes at the show.

Key takeaways from this episode: 

• The importance of building connections in-person as opposed to only online.
• The challenges of bootstrapping a business and how to be resilient 
• How to remain relevant, even when the market changes rapidly.

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Effective messaging is paramount for SaaS companies to attract and convert the right types of customers. And according to this week’s guest Anthony Pierri, Partner with Fletch PMM, most are getting it wrong. 

• They try to speak to too many audiences at once.
• They use vague and broad statements that don’t resonate with anyone.
• They use wishy washy language. 

Today’s marketers have been influenced by big companies that prioritize branding and awareness, which won’t be an effective strategy for the cash-conscious startups.

Instead, companies should focus on product marketing and differentiation to clearly communicate their unique value proposition front and center on the homepage throughout all content.

Don’t miss this episode where Pierri outlines their process for that.

Key Takeaways:

• Why use case positioning is probably going to be the most effective for B2B SaaS.
• How to align your messaging to your target audience’s struggles and pain points.
• Why you should use specific benefits to differentiate.

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

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Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

Criminals have developed efficient business models that make it cost-effective to attack even small enterprises.

No company is too small, and the need for awareness and understanding of the evolving threat landscape, particularly with generative AI is at an all-time high.

But simply training staff not to click on this or not to write down their password on post-its isn’t going to be enough.

Our guest, Dr. James Norrie, CEO of CyberconIQ, realized that the key to changing behavior is through personalized education—and by understanding individuals unique characteristics, preferences, and vulnerabilities it becomes possible to tailor educational interventions.

Now with a rapid evolution in the marketplace, emerging SEC guidelines, and changes to NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) everybody is beginning to realize that when technology has created a problem, it can’t always be used to solve it.

Key Takeaways:

• The important difference between raising capital and running a business—they’re both full time jobs.
• Why the recent SEC Guidelines requiring the disclosure of material cybersecurity incidents and risk management, strategy and governance by public companies is important for all SaaS companies to map to. 
• Why they developed free training at techellect.com to enhance confidence in AI applications. 

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

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Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

As a Chiropractor, Brian Capra never intended to become a software developer—but it seems like something bigger was a play.

Because the healthcare system, particularly insurance companies, have historically been biased against chiropractic care, chiropractors must be more entrepreneurial. They must understand marketing, building relationships, sales, and managing a business to succeed.

And they often don’t understand the game that big insurance plays when it comes to delaying or denying payments.

Those frustrations led Capra to form a partnership with some individuals who had a technology solution for medical billing to create Genesis Chiropractic Software to provide chiropractors with a more efficient and effective way to manage their practices.

Key Takeaways:

• How streamlining processes and prioritizing training to enhance the customer experience will lead to more referrals.
• The importance of tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) like churn rate, growth rate, and customer satisfaction.
• Why you should be open-minded and aware of opportunities that come your way

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

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Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

The B2B world is different today, and (unfortunately) there’s no one formula that works across the board. It’s not outbound versus inbound. It’s not advertising versus content.

Every organization has a unique formula that will consistently drive meaningful conversations with targeted prospects.

Therefore, you'll never see a productive organization where there's a lot of animosity between marketing and sales leadership.

In this episode, Ben Page-Fort, who works with early and growth stage FinTechs to develop and execute go-to-market strategy, talks about how sales and marketing alignment is no longer a goal—it’s a must have.

And it’s all hands on deck to find the right formula because we’re all in the same boat.

Key Takeaways:

• Hiring for today (their skillsets match the current needs of the organization) and not by trying to anticipate future needs.
• The importance of setting qualitative goals and key performance indicators with all revenue growth stakeholders committing to driving results.
• When joining a new organization as a marketing or sales leader, it's important to understand and respect what is already working and avoid making drastic changes without fully understanding the existing strategies and successes. 

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

There’s nothing like an economic slow-down to thin the herd. Companies take longer to buy, consolidate resources, and rethink their go-to-market strategy.

So why are companies doubling down on yesterday’s strategies?

Normally the host of SaaS Backwards, Ken Lempit, President of Austin Lawrence, sits in the guest seat this week to answer questions about how SaaS leaders need to approach marketing to engage today’s buyer.  

Key Takeaways from this episode:

• Demand generation involves both demand capture (or lead generation), which is a short-term focus, and demand creation, where you’re creating relationships over the long term with potential customers not yet in a buying motion.
• Creativity is back. With the proliferation of content and generative AI, it’s the creatives that are going to figure out how to stand out from the crowd. 
• Why all B2B SaaS marketers should read "The Challenger Customer" if they’re using thought leadership content. 

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

When a company starts out, verticalization may not be the best thing. In fact, today’s guest Corey Quinn, fractional CMO and GTM strategist prefers to work with companies who went broad first, since there’s value in exploring different verticals and learning the nuances in the different markets.

But at a certain point, verticalization becomes necessary to scale. It reduces complexity, improves marketing, and helps to differentiate from the competition.

In this episode, host Ken Lempit and Quinn discuss how to narrow down and exploit areas of specialization.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding your best fit customer by conducting qualitative and quantitative analyses of your business.
• The role of thought leadership content and the importance of ensuring subject matter expertise within the chosen vertical.
• Ensuring that your marketing efforts align with your sales process and provide valuable insights to potential customers during sales conversations. 

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

It’s never been harder for marketers generate an audience where you can have impact than it is today.

The media landscape has exploded and the number of choices we have as marketers has never been more varied.

In many ways, we’re now paying for the sins automating a process of building trust and relationships.

In this episode, Anthony Kennada, Co-Founder and CEO of Audience Plus talks with Ken about how the marketing pendulum is swinging back from marketing automation, inbound, and maximizing SEO to its original intent—creating value for an audience in a more authentic way.

Key takeaways:

• How to create the authentic content that B2B buyers care about today. 
• Why first party data will be crucial to personalize content and prove impact in the face of changing data privacy regulations and the decline of third-party cookies.
• How the shift towards owned media will help marketers regain control over their lead-to-revenue process and reduce reliance on third-party platforms and algorithms.

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

As martech SaaS founder, Steve McDonald acknowledges the tendency to believe that their product is so exceptional that customers will naturally flock to it.

But then reality sets in and you realize that maybe Shoeless Joe Jackson wasn’t whispering in your ear after all.

There’s a lot of risk for customers to invest in something new, and content marketing is the obvious way to build trust. But with the volume of noise out there today, your development process must be strategic, methodical, and efficient.

In this episode, Ken and Steve geek out on the role that content plays for today’s SaaS and how thought leadership actually works to spark conversations with prospective customers.

Key takeaways:

• Why podcasting is still an effective way to create thought leadership content efficiently and effectively.  
• Marketers should consider creating themed podcast series that focus on specific topics or industry challenges.
• Why it's important to invest in thought leadership that delivers customer insights early on to establish the company as an expert to spark conversations with prospects. 

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

When joining MadKudu as a Marketing VP, Shannon Curran knew they were so much more than a predictive lead scoring platform.

She wanted to shift the conversation from product-led growth (PLG) to a focus on hybrid funnels and revenue generation. And because it would be a huge challenge to cut through the noise in the MarTech/RevTech space, they engaged an external consultant to conduct research and help with the positioning process.

They explored the competitive landscape, market trends, and the company’s unique value proposition.

Through testing and feedback, they arrived at the positioning as a revenue automation intelligence engine, emphasizing the company's ability to predict and prioritize revenue-generating actions, automate revenue intelligence, and provide data-driven insights for go-to-market teams.

The repositioning efforts showed a 2X increase in demo conversions.

In this episode, Curran talks about: 

1. The importance of positioning before messaging and branding, as it provides a solid foundation for effective communication and differentiation in a crowded market.
2. Vetting new job opportunities: funding, understanding their key metrics (CAC, LTV, churn), board involvement, and the experience of the founders.
3. Using a test and learn approach to their messaging change by conducting bi-weekly tests on their website, paid advertising, and other channels to gather data and feedback. 

Other resources to check out:

Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.

The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.

And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. Valued at $20K in free consulting.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup