Marketing teams for B2B tech serve a lot of different stakeholders ... sales, product, finance and more.  Yet often these stakeholders get frustrated at a lack of communication, responsiveness or value created from their marketing counterparts.

Internal stakeholder surveys are a new approach to treating these teams like customers and surveying them to incentivize your marketing team to deliver better results.

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🦥 SaaS CMO Pro
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Official website: https://www.saascmopro.com/

============================= 
📷 Full 150+ item gear listing
============================= 
I can’t list all the gear in the YouTube description (would be waaaay too long) but you can find everything on the official SaaS CMO Pro website below. 👇 
 
https://www.saascmopro.com/gear

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🎥 Key items in Zoom/Youtube setup 
============================= 
Camera: https://amzn.to/4c594Md
Lens: https://amzn.to/3LL2XBY
Mic: https://amzn.to/3SxF7gE
Prompter: https://amzn.to/4cidkYT
Key & fill light: https://amzn.to/3SwDvnv

Purchases made through these affiliate links earn a commission, helping to support my channel at no additional cost to you.

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

What the heck is political capital?  And how can you use it to your advantage to get stuff done in a SaaS or AI company?

I dive into both those questions today and walk you through some practical ways to leverage political capital for good.

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🦥 SaaS CMO Pro
=============================
Official website: https://www.saascmopro.com/

============================= 
📷 Full 150+ item gear listing
============================= 
I can’t list all the gear in the YouTube description (would be waaaay too long) but you can find everything on the official SaaS CMO Pro website below. 👇 
 
https://www.saascmopro.com/gear

============================= 
🎥 Key items in Zoom/Youtube setup 
============================= 
Camera: https://amzn.to/4c594Md
Lens: https://amzn.to/3LL2XBY
Mic: https://amzn.to/3SxF7gE
Prompter: https://amzn.to/4cidkYT
Key & fill light: https://amzn.to/3SwDvnv

Purchases made through these affiliate links earn a commission, helping to support my channel at no additional cost to you.

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

Today I'm diving into a question I often hear from founders: How did Slack grow so fast? What was the key factor that really made the difference?

I was fortunate enough to get an inside view of Slack from the early days, joining as CMO around employee #50. During my time there, I built out the marketing team and eventually led sales, customer success, and support.

In this episode, I want to share some of the most effective growth strategies we used—practical approaches that I genuinely believe contributed significantly to Slack's rapid growth. My goal is simply to pass along insights that might help you in your own journey.

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🦥 Videos Mentioned
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https://youtu.be/Oz39Iqi058k
https://youtu.be/-KG4TIy5wXk
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFhqt_82AGLqM_XRLLqHqbsLHrA6rlSX_
https://youtu.be/FcQ-Qxdvq_8
https://youtu.be/ph701u2hzUg
https://youtube.com/shorts/diqywu7N41k
https://youtu.be/Ur-muLcga5s
https://youtu.be/lAR7Jrj9DSE

============================= 
🦥 SaaS CMO Pro
=============================
Official website: https://www.saascmopro.com/

============================= 
📷 Full 150+ item gear listing
============================= 
I can’t list all the gear in the YouTube description (would be waaaay too long) but you can find everything on the official SaaS CMO Pro website below. 👇 
 
https://www.saascmopro.com/gear

============================= 
🎥 Key items in Zoom/Youtube setup 
============================= 
Camera: https://amzn.to/4c594Md
Lens: https://amzn.to/3LL2XBY
Mic: https://amzn.to/3SxF7gE
Prompter: https://amzn.to/4cidkYT
Key & fill light: https://amzn.to/3SwDvnv

Purchases made through these affiliate links earn a commission, helping to support my channel at no additional cost to you.

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

Big believer in Product Led Growth?  In charge of implementing PLG at your company?  Well you are most likely going to encounter some stiff resistance.  Not everyone drinks the PLG juice and you may have some internal stakeholders (sales, finance, board members, c-suite) who actively try to keep the status quo and are afraid of what PLG might mean.

I walk you through 5 proven strategies to identify internal resistance and smash through it.  Look, implementing a PLG initiative is a LOT easier if you build it out when you are in the early stages (seed, series A).  When you get past that you will have to fight through a ton of inertia and stakeholders who want to keep the status quo. 

Save yourself some stress and come in equipped to learn how to identify resistance, why they think this way and equip yourself to bring that beautiful PLG baby to life.

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🦥 SaaS CMO Pro
=============================
Official website: https://www.saascmopro.com/

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

Something has been bothering me recently

New AI startups using old marketing & sales playbooks

Skipping straight to the enterprise

Cold calling and cold e-mails

AI spam

Top down sales

Mindless press releases

Trying to buy off analysts

Long deal cycles

Looks and sounds like everyone else

No one knows about their startup



I’ve been trying to work with more seed AI startups to break this pattern

Normally I don’t get involved in seed stage

But this is often where the GTM playbook gets cemented

AI startups are seeing MASSIVE amounts of competitors

Dozens per space

Built an AI autonomous customer support agent?

There are five dozen others you are competing against

My advice

Adopt modern, customer-centric playbook

Go where the eyeballs are (social, mobile, vertical video)

Deliver great experiences

Improve time to value

Use outcome based pricing

Reduce friction

Leverage seed and grow

Use northstar metrics like NPS, PQL, TTV, DAU

Educate and nurture

Embrace a mascot

Choose a color and use it everywhere in your website and product

Real life conferences to build connections

Social proof and more social proof

Focus on minting our promoters

Use customer quotes not marketing spin

Create delightful experiences

Do what you would want if you were a customer

Simple onboarding flows

Use AI first marketing tools that personalize and improve experiences

Do these and you WILL grow faster

Do these and you WILL grow more capital efficient

Do these and your customers WILL love you more

Do these and your customers WILL recommend you more

#Customer centric

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

Most people think promotions are all about performance—but like it or not, perception plays a role too. In this video, I dive into the surprising impact your outfit can have on your career growth as a B2B tech marketer. Does what you wear really matter? How do top marketers think about workplace dress codes? And can dressing a certain way actually help you get ahead?

I’ll share my own experiences, practical tips, and a few strategies successful professionals use to navigate office dress norms.

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🦥 SaaS CMO Pro
=============================
Official website: https://www.saascmopro.com/

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🚀 About Bill:
============================= 
Bill Macaitis is an advisor and board member guiding aspiring AI & SaaS unicorns/decacorns.  Bill works with companies to build out capital efficient go-to-market strategies and world class teams. Over his 30 year career Bill has achieved five successful exits and powered growth at three of the fastest-ever growing companies: Slack (CRO/CMO), Zendesk (CMO), and Salesforce (SVP of Marketing).

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

Learn how to use control groups to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts with precision. In this video, I’ll share practical examples from my time at Slack, Zendesk, and Salesforce, showing how control groups can help you evaluate ad campaigns, website changes, customer success initiatives, and more. Whether you’re a marketer, CEO, or VC, this simple yet powerful technique can save you money, improve decision-making, and provide definitive proof of ROI—all without expensive attribution tools. 

============================= 
🦥 SaaS CMO Pro
=============================
Official website: https://www.saascmopro.com/

============================= 
🚀 About Bill:
============================= 
Bill Macaitis is an advisor and board member guiding aspiring AI & SaaS unicorns/decacorns.  Bill works with companies to build out capital efficient go-to-market strategies and world class teams. Over his 30 year career Bill has achieved five successful exits and powered growth at three of the fastest-ever growing companies: Slack (CRO/CMO), Zendesk (CMO), and Salesforce (SVP of Marketing).

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

Every SaaS and AI founder is forced with this question early on ... should you skip the SMB segment and go straight to the enterprise?  I dive into the pros and cons here and lay my case for what I think is the clear answer.

============================= 
🦥 SaaS CMO Pro
=============================
Official website: https://www.saascmopro.com/

============================= 
🚀 About Bill:
============================= 
Bill Macaitis is an advisor and board member guiding aspiring AI & SaaS unicorns/decacorns.  Bill works with companies to build out capital efficient go-to-market strategies and world class teams. Over his 30 year career Bill has achieved five successful exits and powered growth at three of the fastest-ever growing companies: Slack (CRO/CMO), Zendesk (CMO), and Salesforce (SVP of Marketing).

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

When Are You at Your Best? 🔋

I didn’t always think about my peak energy hours—but once I did, it changed everything.

Here’s what worked for me:

1️⃣ Map Your Energy:
Take note of when you feel most productive and energized during the day. For me, it’s 8–10:30 AM. That’s when I tackle big projects or creative work.

2️⃣ Plan Around It:
Align your toughest tasks with those high-energy periods. Save low-energy times for simpler tasks or breaks.

3️⃣ Recharge Strategically:
I’m a sprinter, not a marathoner. After a focused sprint, I take breaks to reset before my next burst.

4️⃣ Set Tomorrow’s Goals Tonight:
Before bed, I stack-rank my top tasks for the next day. It keeps me focused and aligned with my energy levels.

💡 Some people thrive with steady energy all day, others (like me!) need to sprint and recharge.

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀

Learn how to identify and eliminate friction in your Product-Led Growth (PLG) strategy. From pricing and adoption friction to cognitive and invite friction, I’ll share actionable tips to help SaaS and AI companies grow faster and more efficiently. Perfect for founders, marketers, and product teams looking to accelerate growth. 🚀

============================= 
🦥 SaaS CMO Pro
=============================
Official website: https://www.saascmopro.com/

============================= 
🚀 About Bill:
============================= 
Bill Macaitis is an advisor and board member guiding aspiring AI & SaaS unicorns/decacorns.  Bill works with companies to build out capital efficient go-to-market strategies and world class teams. Over his 30 year career Bill has achieved five successful exits and powered growth at three of the fastest-ever growing companies: Slack (CRO/CMO), Zendesk (CMO), and Salesforce (SVP of Marketing).

Learn marketing + watch full video at 🚀 Saascmopro.com 🚀