The Stack

In this episode, Brandon Healey, VP of Sales & Marketing at SumoQuote, tells the story of SumoQuote's agile journey from a functional solution within a roofing company to a standalone SaaS success acquired by Job Nimbus.

Brandon dives deep into how SumoQuote, leveraging industry insights and strategic sales approaches, achieved an impressive 33% conversion rate from free trial to new customer. He sheds light on using the free trial model. He emphasizes the importance of critical metrics such as MQL input, demo attendance, and net revenue retention to assess growth and customer satisfaction. 

Focusing on these quantitative indicators has allowed SumoQuote to perfect its market positioning and enhance product love, as evidenced by a high net promoter score.

Main Takeaways

• SumoQuote's free trial model is the cornerstone of its customer acquisition strategy, boasting an impressive 33% conversion rate to new customers.
• Key metrics like top-of-funnel MQLs, trial-to-customer conversion, demo attendance, and net revenue retention are crucial in assessing company growth and sales efficiency.
• Transitioning to Webflow empowered SumoQuote to elevate brand visibility and streamline partner page creation, leading to substantial year-over-year growth.
• Despite resource constraints, a sophisticated tech stack featuring Close CRM integration and Customer.io enabled their lean team to deploy robust automation and workflows.
• The acquisition by JobNimbus marks a strategic merger that propels SumoQuote towards greater industry dominance.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode

• SumoQuote
• Webflow
• Close CRM
• Customer.io
• Zapier
• Sparkpost
• Twilio
• SaasQuatch
• PartnerStack

Join us next time as we journey to the bleeding edge of the modern tech stack. You’ll hear from real experts on how to nail your strategy, build a revenue machine, and take your sales to the next level.

Understanding B2B attribution can feel overwhelming with the array of tools, platforms, and models. While attribution isn't a cure-all for marketing issues, it's a crucial optimization tool. Approaching it with realistic goals can effectively steer marketing investments.

Industry experts Andy Caron, President of Revenue Pulse, Drew Smith, Co-founder and CEO of Attributa, and Steffen Hedebrandt, Co-founder and CMO of Dreamdata, share strategies and what to watch out for in 2024.

Main Takeaways

• Define clear goals for your attribution efforts, focusing on the tools and the desired outcomes for your organization.
• Start simple with the resources you have, gradually building towards more sophisticated tracking and analysis processes.
• Balance quantitative data with qualitative feedback to encapsulate the effectiveness of challenging-to-measure channels.
• Prepare for the future by innovating within the landscape of first-party data collection, always prioritizing user consent and privacy.
• Equip your team with statistics and data interpretation knowledge to maximize your attribution data's impact.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode:

• Marketo
• Dreamdata
• UTM.io
• HubSpot

On this Panel:

Andy Caron, President of Revenue Pulse

Andy Caron has been an influential figure in the Marketo community since 2012, passionate about marketing operations, attribution, and system integrations. She values mentoring the next generation of marketers and is dedicated to training and coaching her teams.

Drew Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of Attributa

Drew is currently the Founder and CEO of Attribute, a consulting firm specializing in attribution and marketing analytics. Before Attributa, Drew worked in consulting and in-house marketing roles, including time with LeadMD.

Steffen Hedebrandt, Co-Founder and CMO of Dreamdata

Steffen has an exceptional growth mindset, is data-driven by heart, and loves all parts of scaling businesses. He’s a notorious growth hacker. With his successful track record of scaling businesses and building teams at Upwork and Airtame, Steffen truly knows firsthand the pain points of rapidly scaling marketing and growth. Today, Steffen serves as the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer

Nylas has sidelined Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) in their strategies. But what does this mean?

In this episode, Mallory Lee, VP of Revenue Operations at Nylas, shares her insights on how Nylas challenges the traditional concept of Product Qualified Leads (PQLs).

Instead, it focuses on user engagement and identifying high-return users to drive enterprise-level adoption. A growth strategy that revolves around product usage.

Mallory emphasizes the importance of users trying the product before making a purchase.

This approach is particularly relevant for developers who prefer to experience the product firsthand rather than talk to sales.

Main Takeaways:

• Moving away from relying on traditional PQLs, Nylas focuses on engaging every user directly with the product.
• Mallory recognizes the importance of building a strong user base through personalized interactions and experiences to encourage customer retention and expansion.
• NRR is a critical metric, ensuring existing customers find value in the services, expand their usage, and contribute to sustainable revenue growth.
• Leveraging agile and flexible marketing tools and solutions allows adaptation to meet customers' needs.
• Traditional marketing tools in the emerging PLG landscape may not work, requiring adaptive and nimble solutions to support marketing strategies.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode:

• Nylas: A powerful email, calendar, and contacts API used to integrate email functionality into applications.
• Woopra: Provides real-time customer analytics and insights, helping Nylas understand user behavior and make data-driven decisions.
• Segment: Enables Nylas to capture product touchpoints across various platforms and devices, allowing her to analyze user interactions and improve user experiences.
• MadKudu: Calculates a score to identify meaningful touchpoints, helping prioritize and personalize customer interactions.
• Inflection.io: Provides targeted messaging at the opportune moment to drive activation, retention, and expansion, resulting in valuable aha moments and increased customer revenue.
• Gong: Gong provides conversation analytics for sales teams, helping them gain insights from customer interactions and improve sales performance.
• Fivetran: Fivetran automates data pipeline workflows to collect and analyze data from multiple sources.
• Vitally: Vitally is a customer success platform that tracks and manages customer health, ensuring long-term satisfaction and retention.
• Salesforce: Used to manage customer relationships, track sales activities, and drive business growth.
• Drift: Drift is a conversational marketing platform that helps engage and convert website visitors into customers through personalized messaging.
• Marketo: Marketo is a marketing automation platform Mallory uses to streamline and optimize her marketing campaigns, driving lead generation and customer engagement.

Step into the dynamic world of smart home devices and discover Daan's expert insights on striking the perfect balance between strategic marketing, consumer experience, and technical adoption.

In this episode, Daan Goossens, VP of Growth at Mysa, shows us how his calculated approach to SMS strategy and discounting has significantly contributed to Mysa's bottom line.

By understanding and leveraging its unique position within the smart thermostat market, Mysa navigated the challenges of traditional compatibility issues, crafted a distinct brand identity, and expanded DTC and B2B omnichannel reach.

Main Takeaways:

• Mysa uses a tech stack including Google Tag Manager, Segment, Amplitude, and Customer.io to process and gain insights from user data, from the website to app usage.
• Analyzing effort, payoff, and consumer impact is vital in crafting effective marketing strategies.
• In-app messaging, email, and SMS are optimized by understanding the customer journey and avoiding the overuse of these channels to maintain positive customer relationships.
• Direct conversations with customers and targeted post-purchase surveys are invaluable for gaining qualitative insights that inform marketing strategy adjustments.
• Careful discount management and a strategic SMS approach can significantly improve net revenue without alienating customers.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode:

• Mysa
• Shopify
• Contentful
• Google Tag Manager
• Segment
• Amplitude
• Customer.io
• LittleData
• Lucky Orange
• Typeform
• Zapier

Traditional paradigms in the rapidly changing landscape of B2B enterprises are being challenged by the emergence of a potent growth model – Product-Led Growth (PLG).

So, what is PLG, and how can B2B companies harness its power to stay afloat, thrive, and drive customer-centricity in an increasingly competitive market?

In this episode, Dan invites a lineup of product experts, including Aaron Bird, CEO at Inflection, Francis Brero, Chief Product Officer at MadKudu, and Laura Schaffer, VP of Growth at Amplitude. They will explore the PLG paradigm in-depth, uncovering the strategies and insights shared by industry leaders to illuminate its significance and unravel the enigma that is PLG.

Main Takeaways

• PLG has reshaped traditional sales processes, but it isn't a one-size-fits-all solution and may not suit highly complex products.
• Understanding the distinction between user engagement within the product and executive decision-making is crucial for successful PLG implementation.
• Product analytics is fundamental in PLG to track user behavior accurately and effectively and tailor engagement strategies.
• Craft highly relevant self-serve experiences by utilizing product analytics, aligning user onboarding with intent, and leveraging data for strategic decisions.
• There are diverse opinions on limiting signups to professional emails in PLG, weighing against spam risks and resource management.
• For B2B offerings with complexities, provide demo accounts and sidecar products to introduce guests to the full product suite in a nuanced way.
• Sales in a PLG motion come into play when identifying users' readiness to transition into paying customers, faceted in a customer success approach.
• Foster a sales force that excels at guiding customers through the product, not just the deal, by seamlessly integrating sales and product experiences.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode:

• Amplitude
• MadKudu
• Inflection.io
• HubSpot
• Marketo
• UTM.io
• Superhuman

Join us next time as we journey to the bleeding edge of the modern tech stack.  You’ll hear from real experts on how to nail your strategy, build a revenue machine, and take your sales to the next level.

The right data analysis tools can significantly increase decision-making agility and accessibility for all business stakeholders. Centralizing sales channel data is crucial for a seamless omnichannel experience. By using reverse ETL activation, companies can revolutionize data utilization to enhance customer engagement proactively.

Maxime Lagresle is the Head of Data at Veronica Beard, a contemporary fashion brand known for trailblazing in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) space. Maxime evolved from building the initial tools as the company's first data hire to growing the data team and liaising with business stakeholders on their requirements.

Max emphasizes the value of creating omnichannel customers who engage with online and offline channels. His work includes powerful ETL and reverse ETL processes, enabling the brand to manage advertising audiences and create personalized omnichannel experiences.

He also provides insights into his data stack, including integrating Segment, setting up a cloud data warehouse with BigQuery, leveraging DBT for transformation, and using Sigma Computing for BI. As the brand eyes international expansion, the push for sophisticated data usage continues, with initiatives like reverse ETL and media mix modeling at the forefront.

Main Takeaways

• Omnichannel customers are approximately three times more valuable than those who shop through a single channel, spotlighting the importance of integrated customer experience.
• Veronica Beard uses a robust data stack comprising tools like Segment, BigQuery, and Sigma Computing to centralize, analyze, and activate customer data.
• Agility in the BI tool selection proved crucial for Veronica Beard, with Sigma Computing being selected for its easy adoption by business stakeholders.
• Veronica Beard is exploring media mix modeling with open-source tools from Meta to triangulate marketing effectiveness in a post-iOS 14 world.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode:

• BigQuery
• FiveTran
• Segment
• Skypad
• Shopify
• 6Sense*
• Sigma Computing
• DBT
• Looker
• Metaplane
• Klayvio
• HighTouch
• Robin from Meta
• Geolift from Meta
• Attentive Mobile
• Google Cloud Platform

Quontic has made a remarkable shift towards embracing qualitative insights, recognizing the importance of humanizing the brand. It's not about abandoning data or experimentation; instead, it's about finding a balance.

Aaron Wollner, the CMO of Quontic Bank, shares insights on leveraging technology to create a seamless customer experience. He talks about the power of social proof and the role of testing in driving D2C growth. He emphasizes humanizing the brand, utilizing data analytics, and collecting customer feedback. Aaron also discusses how data analytics can drive performance and impact and how Quontic Bank sets itself apart in digital banking.

Main Takeaways

• Aaron prioritizes humanizing the Quantic Bank brand, delivering personalized and engaging experiences to build strong customer connections.
• The bank's approach is rooted in a culture of testing and experimentation, leading to improved conversion rates and a seamless customer journey.
• Quontic leverages tools such as HubSpot, Rakuten Affiliate Network, and Wevo to optimize marketing efforts and gather valuable customer feedback, enabling data-driven decision-making.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode

• HubSpot: HubSpot is a powerful inbound marketing and sales software that helps businesses attract, engage, and delight customers. Quontic uses HubSpot for lead generation, customer relationship management, and marketing automation.
• Trustpilot: Trustpilot is an online platform allowing businesses to collect and manage customer reviews.
• Microsoft 365: Microsoft 365 is a productivity tool suite with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications. Aaron uses Microsoft 365 for document creation, data analysis, and presentation.
• PowerBI: PowerBI is a business analytics tool that provides interactive visualizations and business intelligence capabilities. Aaron uses PowerBI to analyze data and generate insights for decision-making.
• Rakuten Affiliate Network: Rakuten Affiliate Network is an affiliate marketing platform that connects advertisers with publishers. Quontic uses the Rakuten Affiliate Network to drive traffic and generate sales through affiliate partnerships.
• Wevo: Wevo is a platform that uses artificial intelligence to optimize digital experiences and conversions. Quontic uses Wevo to improve website performance and increase conversion rates.
• Google Optimize (RIP): Google Optimize was a website optimization tool that allowed businesses to conduct A/B tests and personalize user experiences. Aaron used Google Optimize to test and optimize website content for better user engagement.

The B2B SaaS landscape is always shifting, and it's crucial to have a comprehensive strategy in place. When everyone is cutting tech costs, you need a new way to appeal to buyers. One approach that has proven to be highly effective is multithreading, a method that involves engaging multiple stakeholders within an organization to drive sales and revenue. 

In this episode, Trinity Nguyen, VP of Marketing at User Gems, successfully implements a multithreading strategy and achieves impressive results. She’s overcome the challenges of inconsistent messaging, customer confusion, and potential over-communication.

These issues can harm customer relationships and brand reputation, especially when engaging multiple decision-makers in a client's organization. Trinity discusses these challenges and how she brings her multithreaded approach to life.

Main Takeaways

• Usergems is a software that helps companies track key contacts and surface buying groups at target accounts.
• Personalized and concise messaging is crucial for effective multithreaded strategies.
• Tools like Lavender AI can help improve email effectiveness by providing scoring and optimization suggestions.
• Tracking job role changes can be a valuable way to identify new prospects and engage with them.
• Gifting can be an effective way to engage prospects and customers and build relationships.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode

• UserGems - Used to track changes in key audiences. UserGems tracks people’s job changes to trigger engagement campaigns with newly hired people.
• Salesforce - Sales CRM and the primary source of truth for UserGems.
• Outreach - Used for Sales, ABM, and Marketing outreach. UserGems uses Outreach to automate and personalize email sequences based on job changes, news mentions, and other triggers.
• Lavender.ai - AI email tool to help write better sales emails. UserGems uses Lavender.ai to generate personalized and engaging email copy at scale.
• Gong - Used to review sales calls to improve messaging. UserGems uses Gong to analyze sales conversations, identify best practices, and improve messaging.
• Laudable - Used to create testimonials from Gong calls. UserGems uses Laudable to create compelling customer testimonials from Gong call recordings.
• Postal - Gifting tool. UserGems uses Postal to send personalized gifts to prospects, customers, and partners to build stronger relationships.
• Orum - Sales call and AI autodialer tool. UserGems uses Orum to improve sales call efficiency, automate outreach, and connect with more prospects.

Join us next time as we journey to the bleeding edge of the modern tech stack.  You’ll hear from real experts on how to nail your strategy, build a revenue machine, and take your sales to the next level.

On Today’s Show:

Early-stage companies face numerous challenges, including a need for more resources and tools and uncertainty about the viability of their solution. Even worse, you may be building a product that customers don’t want.

In this episode, Jamie Bell, VP of Marketing at Workshop, shares the company's journey to find product-market fit and their focus on early growth. Once essentially a company intranet builder, Workshop now focuses on being more than just an internal email solution.

They position themselves as a broad internal marketing solution, actively listening to customer feedback and investing in their product roadmap to provide a comprehensive solution for internal communicators. This feedback loop has been critical to evolving their product.

Main Takeaways

• Workshop pivoted from building an intranet to focusing on internal email communications, which proved to be a more practical solution for their customers.
• The Happy Monday Club newsletter has been a successful content strategy, providing practical resources and positive narratives for internal communicators.
• Workshop's marketing strategy includes using free email templates, Google Ads, and targeted campaigns to reach their audience.
• Jamie suggests that attribution software alone is not sufficient. She recommends measuring marketing effectiveness through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Asana is Jamie's preferred project management tool, allowing her to stay organized and manage project requests effectively.

Tools Mentioned in this Episode

• Workshop
• Hubspot
• Apollo
• Asana
• Typeform
• Google Optimize
• Google Forms

Additional Video: TK Kader - Finding Product Market Fit for Saas Startups

Join us next time as we journey to the bleeding edge of the modern tech stack.  You’ll hear from real experts on how to nail your strategy, build a revenue machine, and take your sales to the next level.

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Intent data has become a pivotal tool for understanding and engaging with prospects. But how can marketers effectively harness its potential? Airmeet’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mark Kilens, has gone all in to understand and leverage intent data to get more prospects down the funnel.

But it's not just about data. Mark emphasizes the foundational importance of understanding your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This deep knowledge forms the bedrock of all marketing endeavors, ensuring that every campaign and every message resonates with the target audience.

Mark also touches on the art of proactive planning. In a world where misalignment can spell disaster for marketing campaigns, he underscores the need for consistent messaging and a unified vision. It's about foreseeing challenges, planning for them, and ensuring the entire team is on track.

In this episode, Mark discusses how he tracks over 75 engagement points and uses this data to grow the pipeline, increase revenue, and build customer loyalty. Airmeet is aggressively ramping up its go-to-market strategy and raising the bar using integrated campaigns to amplify brand awareness and engagement. Mark also explains why it's crucial to have a strategy before selecting the right tools.

Main Takeaways

• The importance of a well-defined ICP in guiding marketing efforts and ensuring meaningful engagement with prospects. Everything starts with a deep understanding of your Ideal Customer Profile. 
• Plan and be proactive to avoid most problems. One in particular is a lack of alignment and, as an extension of that, a lack of consistent messaging.
• Intent data can provide invaluable insights into customer behavior, allowing for more precise targeting and higher conversion rates.

Dan’s Top Tools

• HubSpot: A marketing and sales automation platform used by Airmeet to manage leads and campaigns.
• Salesloft: A comprehensive sales engagement platform designed to streamline and enhance the sales process through automation and analytics.
• Asana: A project management application designed to help teams organize and manage their work, projects, and tasks efficiently.
• Drift: A conversational marketing and sales platform that enables businesses to engage with and convert website visitors through real-time chat and automation.
• Mutiny: A personalized marketing platform that allows businesses to tailor their website content and experiences based on individual visitor data and preferences. 
• Airmeet: A platform for virtual summits, meetups & workshops with a social lounge to deliver a rich networking experience. 

Join us every week as we journey to the bleeding edge of the modern tech stack. You’ll hear from real experts on how to nail your strategy, build a revenue machine, and take your sales to the next level. 

Subscribe to The Stack Podcast