The Revenue Cafe

Not all demand waterfalls are created equal. Elizabeth Sullivan, VP of Marketing at Discern, discusses how the reverse demand waterfalls must have multiple dimensions. She emphasizes that the assumptions you make should not be equal to the prior year's performance, as well as provides a detailed breakdown of why you should focus on conversion rates over win rates. 

Learn more about how to implement a reverse demand waterfall in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Rerun your model every month or quarter - Elizabeth: "If you continue with the same goals that you had set at the very beginning of the year, obviously there's a very low chance that you're actually going to hit your targets, so you've got to rerun the assumptions, re-enter your revenue goals based on what you've already closed, and then see what your new goals are."

You can find out more about Elizabeth in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-sullivan-92557b5a/

Marketing is underappreciated and undervalued in B2B organizations. Elizabeth Sullivan, VP of Marketing at Discern, talks about how marketing is seen as a cosmetic role and that marketers should demonstrate their impact on revenue. Learn more about the reverse demand waterfall in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

The demand waterfall is defined - Elizabeth: "The reverse demand waterfall is basically looking at your top-level revenue goals, looking at certain assumptions, such as your average selling price, conversion rates, win rates, and even sales cycle length, especially if you have a much longer sales cycle length in order to determine how many leads need to be generated at every stage of your marketing funnel, in addition to the pipeline being generated and originated from marketing activities as well as bookings."

You can find out more about Elizabeth in the link below: 

• LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-sullivan-92557b5a/

Titles don't mean sh*t if you don't have a leader that is thinking more holistically. Lorena Morales, Director of Global Digital Marketing Revenue Operations at JLL, shares how silos are not entirely bad and how unlearning this was key in making some regions of the world work well. 

Learn more about the value of unlearning and leadership in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Unlearning some notions about silos - Lorena: "Not every silo is damaging. There are some functional silos. So that was a relearning kind of experience where I needed to see that there were things that were working in some regions of the world that I shouldn't touch, because if I touch them, then I would break things that actually were working pretty well." 

You can find out more about Lorena in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moraleslorena/

The ability to unlearn things is what will take you further. Lorena Morales, Director of Global Digital Marketing Revenue Operations at JLL, shares how coachability and an open mind are essential for success.

Lorena dials in on how to create a customer-centric service by actually talking to your customers. Learn more about gap identification and coachability in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Success comes from being coachable to learn and unlearn things - Lorena: "We have to be coachable. We have to have an open mind always. Regardless of the size of the company, we need to develop the muscle of meaningful conversations with our customers. Basic, basic, basic, basic stuff, but that is going to take you a long way. I promise you that." 

Implement what works, not what was taught to you as true - Lorena: "Learn from the new teams that you have in front of you. Stop trying to implement what worked for someone else. It sounds repetitive, but it is true. Like the people that you hire, first of all, need to be smarter than you. But other than that, they are there to help you, so try to learn from them." 

You can find out more about Lorena in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moraleslorena/

Customer advocates can help you at every stage of the funnel. Mark Organ, CEO Coach at Categorynauts and author of The Messenger is The Message, returns to talk about the 3 ways you can motivate your advocates: exclusive tribe, meaningful impact, and social capital. Learn more about customer-powered marketing in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Provide feedback on meaningful impact - Mark: "Meaningful impact. People want to know how well they're doing. So if someone's generated a referral for your company, let them know that referral is now in a demo or that's now a closed deal."

"Or if they're out of the funnel, why they went out of the funnel. If they helped you write a story, how many hits has it had? How much impact has it had on your organization? If you give people that feedback, they're going to do a lot more activity." 

You can find out more about Mark Organ in the links below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markorgan/
• Email: [email protected]

Trust in brands is at an all-time low. Mark Organ, CEO Coach at Categorynauts and author of The Messenger is The Message, comes on the show to discuss the idea of a customer-powered enterprise. If you build a buying process that involves your customers, you create advocates who help in closing deals, build better products, and retain customers.

Learn more about creating an experience that your customers will talk about in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Advocates speak the language of customer ease - Mark: "If you've got people who are working for you, essentially for free, and they're really effective at their jobs, do you know why they're so effective at their jobs? Because they speak a special language and it's called customer ease. They speak customer ease really well. They understand customers better than your employees will ever understand customers." 

You can find out more about Mark Organ in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markorgan/

Create content for your target audience over search engines, not the other way around. Mike Aynsley, Director for Audience Strategy and Engagement at Hootsuite, shares how great content rewards both you and the end user, as well as how search marketing remains relevant despite the changing tech. 

Learn more about the value of high-quality content that solves human problems in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Get ideas from other people to keep content fresh - Mike: "You've got to be ahead of the next big thing. Talk to your teams, talk to your customers, what are people wondering about today? Tomorrow? And then you have to create content around that, and there's a really big opportunity there, so it's always going to be about humans. You're trying to solve human problems." 

You can find out more about Mike in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelaynsley/

SEO is not dead, but the days of keyword stuffing into mediocre content are definitely over. Mike Aynsley, Director for Audience Strategy and Engagement at Hootsuite, shares how to create an inbound strategy that is audience-led and evolves with tech, channels, and tactics. Learn more about the key principles of a future and AI-proof strategy in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Relevance and Readiness explained - Mike: "Number one, is the keyword relevant to your company's value proposition? If I'm having trouble with X, does that suggest I might find your product helpful? Number two, readiness to buy. Hootsuite, which is obviously where I work, is a social media management platform."

"So a search topic like how to use Twitter, that's in the right universe, that person cares about social media, but they're probably a long ways away from needing a powerful marketing tool. But if someone is searching for best social media tools, then that person is shopping."

Create original content that builds authority - Mike: "Another critical step to SEO success doesn't even happen on your website. Referring domains, other websites that cite and link to yours, is one of the most important ranking factors.

"It's a signal to search engines like Google that a particular site is an authority on a given topic. That is why valuable, original content is critical to success. You need to compel prospects and other publishers to not only click on your links but share them with their audiences."

You can find out more about Mike in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelaynsley/

Mike MacFarlane, President and Founder of 3MG, joins us to explain how to mesh the sales and PLG worlds together. First, you must really understand your requirements, define 2 to 3 key scenarios you need to accommodate, and buy with experience in hand. Learn more about the strategy for combining PLG and sales in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Have clear objectives and requirements for your product - Mike: "Going through and making an evaluation on a MarTech platform, making an evaluation on a campaign execution tool, before you even start going through and engaging in that sales process, take some time and sit down and figure out what are you trying to solve for?

"What are you hoping that these tools can do? Because the better you can articulate that in a sales process, the better you can articulate that as you're using a product, the more valuable that's going to be for you because you're obviously making a stronger decision."

You can find out more about Mike in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemacfarlane1/
• Normalize the Buying Process - https://www.3mg.ca/offer

Mike MacFarlane, President and Founder of 3MG, joins us to point out trends when people buy software—starting with a "contact us" form, the introduction to freemium or gated software, and community-based buying and referral.

He noticed that the traditional sales process is dying and that a strong product adoption plus experienced success equals success. Learn more about combining the powers of PLG and sales in this episode of Breadcrumbs Hot Takes Live by Revenue Cafe podcast.

HIGHLIGHT QUOTES

Information that makes buying decisions at the tip of their hands - Mike: "A lot of people will sometimes make buying decisions before they even raise their hand, just based on the fact that they're going out and getting additional information on their own, and that information is so readily available."

"You have strong product adoption through kind of the PLG side of things, which can obviously lead to success. and then on the side of that as well, you can also have experienced support."

You can find out more about Mike in the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemacfarlane1/