Metrics that Measure Up

Aviv Canaani is the Chief Revenue Officer at Datarails who recently transformed their Go-to-Market motion to be primarily inbound from the traditional outbound motion. During today's episode Aviv and our host, Ray Rike dive deep into multiple GTM strategies and measurements including:Top performance measurements for a B2B SaaS CROThe catalyst for transitioning to an "inbound GTM motion"The ROI for an Inbound vs Outbound GTM motionLeveraging Social Media to build awareness with the Office of FinanceMeasuring ROI in content and media investmentsAviv was initially the head of Marketing and then took overall responsibility for Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success. Soon thereafter, he quickly realized that they needed to increase the efficiency of their Go-to-Market investments and associated processes. But before we dive into the transition from a 90% outbound strategy, we discussed the top metrics for CROs.First, Aviv highlighted that CAC efficiency, as measured by the CAC Payback Period (CPP) where they have decreased the CAC Payback Period by 50% is a TOP metric for CROs. One of the first topics we discussed was the primary "input signals" to decrease the payback period. One of the things Aviv highlighted is that increasing the quality of leads that are provided to AEs was a good first place to start. The ultimate goal was that AEs could spend the majority of their time on selling and closing opportunities, versus doing cold outbound prospecting.Another key tactic was to ensure he had a very predictable way to know for each dollar investment in Go-to-Market, what the expected outcomes as measured by new customer ARR could be generated. Using a "waterfall" methodology, Aviv knows that for every dollar of Marketing spend what are the predictable outcomes as measured by meetings, opportunities, new customers, and the associated new ARR.By having a predictable model, Aviv can go to the CFO and confidently show what the ROI is for every dollar invested in Marketing, they can begin to allocate more to brand building which will have more impact in a few quarters versus just measuring the short-term ROI on Demand investments.Next, we dove into the transition from a primarily outbound GTM motion to primarily an inbound GTM motion. First, in 2022, even though SDRs were hitting their "meeting goals" they were not converting to customers. As a result, they increased the focus on "high intent" leads which increased the efficiency of the GTM investments. One of the primary measurements they used to validate the inbound focus, they found a 3x-4x higher win rate, and a shorter sales cycle all leading to increased GTM efficiency.What is the primary source for 90% of new ARR coming from inbound? First, they brought on a team of B2C Marketing professionals who used paid search, paid media, and social media strategies to drive higher intent inbounds. This even included the use of Instagram and TikTok...to reach the Office of Finance! In addition, they focused on SEO and even a podcast to get their brand and message in front of finance executives. Now that the brand has been enhanced through the media investments will over time also increase the efficiency of the outbound activities.Another strategy was to divide outbound and inbound SDRs, and in fact, a majority of the outbound SDRs are now located in the Philippines which maintained effectiveness and increased efficiency as measured by outputs (New ARR) versus inputs (SDR investments).If you are a B2B SaaS CFO or GTM leader, this conversation with Aviv is full of ideas, insights, and successful experiences in evolving the GTM playbook!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode of the “Metrics that Measure Up” Podcast features James D. Wilton, Author of Capturing Value - The Definitive Guide to Transforming SaaS Pricing and Unshackling Growth and Managing Partner, MonevateDuring our conversation we covered four primary topics with James:Actual Value versus Perceived Value - which matters mostPrice Metric Evaluation CriteriaInnovative Monetization StrategiesMeasuring a Customer’s Willingness to PayIf you are considering changing your existing pricing model and/or introducing new pricing for either an existing or new product - like a new AI module, this conversation is loaded with great ideas and insights into the different pricing models being used in the B2B SaaS industry!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

SaaS Pricing is evolving to better align the value received to the pricing model. The trend to using new pricing models including Usage-Base Pricing, Value-Based Pricing and Outcome-Based Pricing is evolving quickly and Bill provides his insights into the current trends and future of SaaS and AI pricing.During the episode Bill and Ray discuss several trends including:The top trends in SaaS pricingHow SaaS companies are adapting their pricing modelsThe risks and rewards of changing pricing modelsOverview of the FAST "Pricing Page" FrameworkBill’s crystal ball on where AI pricing is headedIf you are evaluating evolving your SaaS pricing model - this is a highly informative and instructive conversation.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been the foundation for larger companies dating back to the introduction of SAP R-3 in the late nineties. Sandeep Chopra, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Everest Systems says that ERP vendors have lost their "customer focus" and believes their is a large opportunity to re-invent ERP in the cloud to help companies run their business more efficiently. Introducing Next Generation ERP to the SaaS industry is the first step.During today's episode our host Ray Rike and Sandeep discuss the next era of ERP includingThe need for a next generation ERP platformAdvantage of leading edge technology to re-engineer business processesWhat stage of company should evaluate ERPOffice of Finance use cases for leveraging AIBenefits of integrating accounting, billing and planning in one platformIf you are currently a Quick Books user and/or are evaluating the benefits of an integrated accounting, billing, revenue management and planning platform this conversation is full of interesting ideas and business reasons to consider this strategy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Rule of X is a recently published SaaS metric that factors in the relevant importance of growth rate and operating profitability for B2B SaaS companies. Sam Bondy is the co-author of this metric and shares the catalyst for creating the metric, the latest trends and how the Rule of X impacts Enterprise Value to Revenue multiples.Sam joined me as a speaker at the recent SaaS Metrics Palooza to provide the details behind the metric and why it is an important metric that helps to evolve the traditional Rule of 40 metric.This episode is part of the "SaaS Metrics Palooza" re-load series on the Metric that Measure Up podcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

SaaS buyers complete ~70% of the buying process before they speak to a vendor's sales organization. As a result more and more SaaS companies are leveraging interactive product demonstrations on their website which is the topic of today's episode. Natalie Marcotullio, Head of Growth at Navattic discusses their recent "State of Interactive Product Demonstrations" with our host Ray Rike where they cover multiple topics including:The State of Interactive Product DemonstrationsTo Gate or Not to Gate - what is the best practiceMeasuring the Impact of “Self-Directed” Interactive DemonstrationsIn 2024, almost 12% of SaaS companies are providing interactive product demonstrations on their website which is an increase from 9.3% in 2023. Surprisingly, 73% of interactive demonstrations are not gated, and one primary reason is that non-gated interactive demonstrations have a 10% higher engagement rate.How do we measure engagement on interactive demonstrations? Natalie highlighted four: 1) Number of users who get past step one of the demo; 2) Number of users who complete the demo; 3) Users who click at least one CTA to an external resource and; 4) time spent on the interactive demonstration.Of course, at the end of the day measuring the outcomes from an investment in an interactive demo is critical, and the top two metrics that Natalie recommends include the number of qualified leads and win rate from those leads and users who engaged with the interactive demonstration.If you are looking for new ways to engage with your target buyers and ensure your product is initially understood and evaluated by potential buyers, this is a great conversation to understand how to introduce and leverage the power of self-guided, interactive demonstrations on your website!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The possibilities of combining AI with the collective intelligence from hundreds of B2B companies to increase their customer acquisition efficiency are limitless. Stephen Messer, Founder and CEO of Collective[I] shares his unique insights into how the potential is becoming a reality for many B2B companies. During today's episode, Stephen and our host, Ray Rike will cover the following topics:The vision behind founding Collective[I] and the Economic Foundation ModelWhy buyer’s historic behavior is more important than a selling processThe challenges and benefits of a “give to get” collective for go-to-market data sharingIf you have ever used Waze to identify the shortest time from where you are to where you need to go, you understand the value of "collective intelligence". When you start to think about being able to understand which companies are most likely to buy your product and/or to understand why a specific customer buys, and who are the key decision makers you need to engage with, the possibilities that come to mind are limitless!Stephen shares how a Neural Network (AI) is being applied to Go-to-Market data to help B2B companies materially increase the ROI on their customer acquisition investments.Stephen shares how his experience founding LinkShare and the concept of affiliate networks is foundational to Collective[I]. Over 10 years ago, Stephen identified that salespeople create a new "roadmap" for every new opportunity. He envisioned building a network where everyone shares their sales process data anonymously so that the collective group can benefit from the collective wisdom generated by the group.The result was building one large neural network and creating an economic foundation model trained on how buyers buy from real-world processes.One of the fundamental premises is that companies cannot build their own neural network and thus not build their own foundational model - as they do not have the insights required into how new target companies actually buy.If you are responsible for leading a B2B Sales team, rely upon a sales team to achieve your financial plan, or are an individual sales professional who would like to know more about how a target customer or existing prospect buys, this conversation is one of the most thought-provoking discussions that we have had on the Metrics that Measure Up podcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

SaaS company acquisition velocity will increase in 2025 and the role of marketplaces purpose built for buyer and sellers will become a must visit for both. If you are considering selling or buying a SaaS company, this discussion with Andrew Gazdecki, Founder and CEO at Acquire.com is a must listen. During the episode Andrew and our host, Ray Rike cover the following topics:The catalyst for founding Acquire.comThe trends in B2B SaaS start-up and early stage company acquisitionsTop lessons learned from the insights of hundreds of B2B SaaS acquisitionsSome of the key insights shared during the episode include:The value of preparing for the Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM)The importance of a discovery call with buyers prior to the Letter of Intent (LOI) The role of international buyers for U.S. companiesValuation expectations need to be realistic and reflect the current realityEBITDA is key for companies under $5M - know the current rangesDeal structures are widely varied - be open to different structuresGrowth Rate, Churn and Quality of Revenue are key metrics to highlightIf you are considering selling your SaaS company or a buyer thinking about buying an existing SaaS company, this conversation with Andrew Gazdecki, Founder and CEO of Acqiure.com is a must listen!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

HubSpot was an early mover in building a media asset inside a B2B SaaS company with the purchase of The Hustle in 2021. Rob Litterst is the Head of Growth for the HubSpot Media Network which has expanded far beyond those early days in building out their media network!During today's episode, Rob and Ray discuss many aspects of building, growing and measuring the business impact of a media asset within a B2B SaaS company including:The vision for building a media asset within a B2B SaaS Company Measuring the business impact of an internal media assetLessons learned from growing the HubSpot media networkIf you are a Chief Marketing Officer considering how or if to build a media brand within your B2B SaaS company, or a CFO or CEO considering approving the investment in developing media assets in our SaaS company, this conversation with some who have been involved in doing it at both ProfitWell (acquired by Paddle) and HubSpot provides insights that only come with the experiences of doing it in two of the industry's best examples!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

AI Monetization Strategies - Balancing Revenue and Adoption with Gary Survis and Ethan DeSilva, Insight Partners was a top rated session at SaaS Metrics Palooza '24 that is a can't miss conversation for anyone in SaaS interested in how B2B SaaS companies are introducing, pricing and monetizing AI functionality.Key points covered during this conversation include:Is it the time to charge existing customers moreAI Scalability Gap from individual tasks to cross-functional workflows is a challengeAdoption before MonetizationAs value increase the monetization strategy will evolveIf you are considering launching new AI functionality in your SaaS product or already have and are rethinking the pricing strategy this episode is a great listenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Poya Osgouei has been responsible for securing sponsorships for some of the largest B2B events including SaaStr, Lenny's and Friends Summit, Elevate by Plato and shares his insights on the future of B2B tech events.During this episode, Poya and Ray discuss the following topics:The state of B2B tech eventsThe future of B2B tech eventsCommunity, Brand or Revenue - the "why" behind B2B tech eventsThe Power of NetworkingThe ROI of B2B tech eventsIf you are considering hosting a b2b tech event, sponsoring a b2b tech event or attending a b2b tech event, this episode is chalked full of insights, perspectives and the return on investment thesis to consider.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As SaaS pricing evolves to be more variable in nature, such as in Usage-Based Pricing or Value-Based Pricing the requirements for a more flexible billing platform that also enhances the customer experience and also becomes a foundational component of financial reporting.Apurv Bansal, founder at Zenskar is converting that evolving need into a next generation billing platform. During this conversation with Apurv, our host Ray Rike covers the following topics with Apurv:The evolving nature of Usage-Based pricing and its Impact on Billing Software RequirementsThe role of customer experience in billing -Revenue Management - beyond manual processes and platformsRevenue Operations - The impact of Billing PlatformsRecent benchmarking research indicates that over 50% of B2B SaaS companies are leveraging some level of variable pricing, such as Usage-Based Pricing and Value-Based Pricing. If a company's billing is not based upon a flat-rate subscription model, such as a "seat-based" model, the vendor knows the # users BEFORE the next months or years invoice is being calculated - because it is based upon the contact.In a Usage-Based Pricing model - the number of units required to create the bill/invoice needs to come from both the agreement and the "store of usage". This adds a significant level of nuance and complexity to the next generation of SaaS billing.When monthly invoicing is highly variable and dependent the latest usage - not only is calculating the monthly charges become more complex - the customer now needs a more detailed "customer usage report", which may also may need to be provided by user, by system or by whatever triggers a usage based trigger leading to a charge.If you are currently using or considering introducing a highly variable pricing model, and are considering both the infrastructure and the customer experience resulting from monthly invoices which vary materially based upon usage - this conversation is a highly informative and educational on the evolution of pricing models and the resultant billing technology required.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As B2B SaaS companies scale beyond $20M the complexity of their internal process, systems and SaaS metrics calculations become much more complex. As companies begin to consider a next round of financing and/or evaluate the strategic acquisition option, being able to quickly and reliably provide potential investors the metrics that matter to them is a key factor in how investors will determine not only the "if they will invest" but also "what the enterprise value" is.During this episode, Ray discusses the below topics with J.T. Cecchini, CEO of LevelUp Finance:SaaS Reporting RoadMap5x5 Reporting MatrixLevelUp Finance Valuation FrameworkA Reporting ScoreCardIf you are a CEO, CFO or Revenue Operations leader who is responsible for ensuring the financial reporting and metrics infrastructure, data and processes are ready to scale and stand up to the scrutiny of potential investors, this episode is a great listen!!!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Godard Abel, CEO of G2 and Chad Gold, CFO at G2 led a session at SaaS Metrics Palooza 24'. This is an audio only version of their fireside chat with Metrics that Measure Up host, Ray Rike.During this episode, Godard, Chad and Ray discuss the following topics:When does a company need to hire a CFOWhat is the partnership dynamics between a CEO and CFOWhat are the investor and board responsibilities for a CEO vs CFO at G2What metrics become more important as a company scales to $100M ARR and aboveIf you are a B2B SaaS company, you already know G2 and this conversation is a great opportunity to learn how they use metrics to lead the company to the next level of success!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Imagine a career journey starting as a software developer at NASA, then a B2C video service developer, moving on to the role of a general manager at game developer Zynga, and next heading to be the Head of Growth at Postmates - an early to food delivery service and now founding an FP&A platform company for the Office of Finance - that is the journey of Siqi Chen, Founder and CEO at Runway!During this conversation, we cover three topics with Siqi including:The catalyst for founding a B2B FP&A software companyThe evolution of the Office of FinanceThe importance of User Experience for B2B SoftwareSiqi highlighted his lack of comfort with company financials as a primary catalyst for founding a Financial Planning and Analysis software company. During Covid, Siqi was required to quickly "re-plan" his company financials to present to his VC investor, Andreessen Horowitz and began to understand the pain of existing financial planning processes and the associated software.One of the primary beliefs that Siqi brings to FP&A is that finance has historically been about reporting, but going into the future will become a strategic function and requires a deeper level of business understanding and the ability to model multiple possible scenarios to develop clarity of the path forward.Siqi highlighted the importance of providing the board a solid forward-looking plan, but also the ability to leverage real-time data across multiple systems to aid the decision-making process.  As a company evolves, the number of business systems increases materially and creates a real challenge in using spreadsheets to model business scenarios that depend upon data from multiple systems.Viewing a model as a "business simulation", using strategies from game development is a unique perspective that Siqi's experience in gaming company Zynga. One of the barriers in moving beyond Excel is that as companies scale, it is not about eliminating the use of Excel, it is about highlighting the existing pains of using Excel for financial modeling including the increasing challenges of ingesting data from multiple systems, collaboration across multiple departments and being able to plan on a segment by segment basis.Another challenge in growing companies is that every department has its own "excel model" to plan its function, which is great for a smaller company, but makes it almost impossible to bring 4 - 5 different department models together into one master "company plan".  Hence the requirement for a company-wide FP&A solution that can facilitate collaboration between every department in building a company-wide plan.Finally, we discussed how the learnings from the B2C world help in running a B2B company. First, Siqi highlighted that "unlearning" is a key trait as some strategies that work for building a consumer product do not easily translate into a B2B business. One of the key insights is the importance of speaking to the target users versus using your intuition. Another key un-learning is that the "users" of B2B software are typically NOT the buyers of the software, so the approach to both user experience and messaging must reflect the needs of the economic buyer and the users.If you care about measurements, care about data and are looking for a better way to manage business modeling and having real-time data available to facilitate decision making - this conversation with Siqi is a great listen!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bill MaCaitis the former Chief Revenue Officer at Slack, and previously the CMO at Slack, CMO at Zendesk, and SVP of Marketing at Salesforce joins our host Ray Rike to share the Marketing Metrics Framework he developed during his experience as a multiple time Chief Marketing Officer. During today's episode Bill and Ray discuss various topics including:Top lessons learned from Marketing leadership roles at category leadersCatalyst for developing a Marketing metrics framework with six categoriesPrioritizing Marketing metrics that the CEO and CFO care aboutStarting his career in more traditional B2C media brands, Bill learned the importance of brand, advertising, and awareness building; He then leveraged that experience in his first B2B Marketing leadership role at Salesforce which was the foundation for his roles as the Chief Marketing Office at Zendesk, Slack, and ultimately the Chief Revenue Officer at Slack.What were the lessons Bill learned at three leading SaaS companies? He started with a lesson he learned at his first company out of college, and that was learning how to drive efficient growth from day one. One of the first things Bill noticed in his first role in a B2B technology company was that Marketing was viewed primarily as a lead generation function. Bill believed that a great B2B company also needed to think about how to build a unique brand and infuse that brand into the voice of the company and the product. He brought that belief and experience into creating amazing brands at Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack.One of the questions Bill answered was how to measure ROI for Marketing investments into brand and awareness in a B2B company. Bill stated that CFOs want hard-hitting, ROI measurements that prove the return on Marketing investment. Brand may be harder to measure in the short term, but when you view a brand as impacting long term leads. Shorter term metrics to measure brand include unaided recall, aided recall, share of voice, and even brand sentiment.Bill then shared the six categories of metrics that best-in-class B2B Marketers should measure including:Funnel Metrics Brand Metrics Experience Metrics PLG Metrics (Product-Led Growth) Date-Driven Metrics Stakeholder Value Metrics If you are a B2B Marketing professional and are being asked to provide more details about the Metrics that Matter to the CEO and CFO, this conversation is a great listen!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brad van Leeuwen, Co-Founder and COO- Cledara has built a business helping 1,000 customers in over 30 countries manage their SaaS expenses. This provides Brad with a very unique insight into the state of the total spend in SaaS and the most recent SaaS purchasing trends.During today's episode, we cover four primary topics with Brad:State of SaaS Spend ManagementThe Impact of AI Native Software on SaaSThe Top AI Native CompaniesThe Impact on AI on Sales and MarketingThe first point Brad shared is that buyers are focused on increasing the relationships with their current vendors and the number of new SaaS solutions purchased has decreased by 50% over the last two years. In addition, existing buyers are looking to renew for longer periods and are looking to extend the agreement term in consideration of lower pricing. Thirdly, buyers are being much more discerning in what products they keep, and which they do not renew which increases the churn rate many SaaS vendors are experiencing.One data point Cledara captures is the SaaS momentum index which measures if companies are spending more or less on SaaS in the current year versus the previous year. For the 1H-24 the Index has stayed level at around 100 which means most buyers are not increasing their spend on SaaS products. This is confirmed by the lower growth guidance that many public SaaS companies are providing to the market.Is SaaS consolidation of point solutions happening in companies? The data says yes, companies are looking to consolidate multiple SaaS solutions into larger platforms, except native AI products which are leaning heavily towards point solutions.Next, we asked Brad how "AI purchasing" trends are evolving. Brad says the headlines are that companies are buying lots of different AI products, but when looking at what teams are really buying it starts with Marketing which is allocating 5% of their software purchases to AI. Sales is allocating about 1.3% of their budget to AI tools, but this is increasing quickly having increased from .3% in January 2024.Who is the primary decision maker when buying AI products? Based upon a survey of over 300 company CFOs, AI software is viewed as experimentation, and no tangible ROI has been delivered yet. At the same time, Cledara data shows that user adoption is increasing dramatically being primarily driven by individual contributors which is not seen by the CFO.What are some of the most popular native AI solutions being purchased in 2024? Brad highlighted that Cledara customers are adopting 30-40 new vendors per month across their 1,000+ customers. Once the first customer adopts a particular AI native solution, Brad sees the virality happening very quickly across the customer base...but the issue is churn is happening almost as fast as new solution adoption.AI spend now comprises about 3.5% - 4% of total software spend to AI point solutions, which includes ChatGPT/OpenAI.What is the primary benefit of AI solutions? Brad highlighted that many of the tools bring everyone in a department up to the same level of capabilities. The challenge is when users are forced to increase their productivity/effectiveness beyond the baseline created by everyone using similar tools.Brad highlighted how he used ChatGPT to write an article on the top 100 AI solutions in less than 60 minutes, on a task that would have traditionally taken days. Finally, we asked Brad his perspective on how AI solutions can decrease the staff required to produce the same level of output. Brad believes that the increase in productivity delivered by using AI tools will not primarily lead to a decrease in the amount of employees - rather it will result in more output from the current staff leading to faster revenue growth or growth efficiency.If you are interested in how total SaaS spend is being impacted by the emergence of AI point solutions and/or how AI will impact productivity as measured by increased efficiency and effectiveness - this episode is a great listen!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kris Rudeegraap, co-founder and co-CEO at Sendoso viewed the emergence of Sales Engagement Platform technology as the beginning of the end for email based outbound demand generation for B2B Sales professionals. This catalyzed him to take the leap to cfound Sendoso, a next-generation direct mail and corporate gifting platform. In today's conversation, we will discuss the history and business impact of Sendoso and corporate gifting including:The catalyst for founding SendosoThe current State of Pipeline GenerationThe impact of corporate gifting on Pipeline GenerationThe impact of corporate gifting on Customer RetentionThe first question we discussed was the most surprising learning Kris has had as a first-time founder and CEO. Kris highlighted that even after 8 years he is still as passionate about the business and vision as ever, and he found that his background in Sales has been extremely valuable in both recruiting employees and raising over $150M in Venture Capital funding. Kris highlighted that there were several similarities between conducting a fundraising effort and enterprise-class sales. One of the advantages Kris felt he had due to his background in sales and that his "founder-led sales" efforts became direct inputs to the product roadmap.Next we pivoted to the reality of today's pipeline generation. First, Kris highlighted that with so many email sequencing tools and now AI tools to send emails that buyers are becoming numb to demand generation emails, as their inboxes become saturated.A common recommendation that Kris provided to any B2B Sales professional is to make every outreach, be it email or a corporate gift to ensure it is personalized to the target buyer. One advantage of corporate gifting is due to it being more expensive than sending an email, the majority of organizations and sales professionals are much more targeted and personalized when sending a "physical gift" to a target prospect.Kris shared that they use the power of AI to determine what type of physical gift would most resonate with different buyer types based upon function and/or title. Next we move onto the performance metrics behind the use of corporate gifting as a key component of pipeline generation programs.Kris shared that corporate gifting programs increase pipeline generation programs as measured by the following benchmarks from research by HockeyStack:3x increase in meeting rates6x increase in second-call rates1.84x increased win rates13% larger deals29% faster sales cycle lengthIf you are responsible for generating pipeline in your company, or for managing the budget allocation to grow revenue profitably, this conversation with Kris provides a lot of great insight into the Return on Investment of integrating corporate gifting into your new customer acquisition and customer retention programs.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How have product demonstrations evolved in today's buyer self-directed buying process? Andrea Wunderlich leads the product and customer marketing function at Maxio and recently introduced their virtual product tour. In today's self-directed buyer journey, it's good to break down how virtual product tours can be leveraged to serve the buyer, when and where they prefer.During this episode, several topics regarding launching a virtual product tour center include:The Genesis of the Maxio Virtual Tour CenterOvercoming concerns of competitors knowing about your product feature/functionThe opportunities and challenges of leveraging “open source” demonstration venues and channelsMeasuring the impact of buyer self-directed solution toursWhen should a product demonstration be used in a considered B2B selling environment? Andrea highlighted the commonly used process of first doing a discovery call and then moving into a demonstration call. Over the past two years, corporate buyers have wanted a more "B2C" buying experience and the sooner the better is the time to show the basics of the software and then move into a more tailored demonstration once the vendor better understands the unique requirements of a specific customer. If 65% - 70% of the buyer's journey is completed before they speak to a salesperson - why not ensure the potential buyers can understand the basic feature/function of your software?The genesis of the Maxio Virtual Tour Center was introduced by a new marketing hire who highlighted the trend for B2B SaaS companies to offer a virtual product tour to ensure potential buyers do not "self-qualify out" before they see the details of the product's capability. Using video is an expensive option, and in addition as products evolve quickly the entire video often needs to be recorded again and again. A virtual product tour platform primarily uses product screen shots and if a feature evolves, only one screenshot needs to be updated, and it is automatically inserted into the existing virtual product tour.  A KEY criteria to make the virtual product tour successful was having a champion who was passionate about making the virtual environment a reality.Gated or non-gated virtual product tours? Andrea strongly believes that removing all friction to get potential buyers to engage early in the buying process is critical to ensure that many companies can understand the product's features and function. Experiencing the Maxio solution without having to engage with sales was a key criterion to providing a low-friction, non gated approach to the virtual product experience.One of the interesting findings was the product tour center is used more in the middle of the funnel, versus a top of funnel first-time experience. Maxio has found that the tour center is used and then shared more by potential customers after a first sales call. With the target buyers of both the CFO and the product leader thinking about how to monetize (bill) their product, the virtual tour center was a better way to get the majority of the buying committee members to understand the capabilities of the product.How to measure the business impact and value of a virtual product tour center? One of the hard things about trying something new is the long tail aspect of the virtual product tour. Andrea highlighted that expectations were set that this would be at least a six-month timeframe before the ROI could be validated and that with the virtual product tour being a lower-cost initiative, the longer term ROI was acceptable. Initially, the engagement rate was the primary measurement, and then over time (6+ months), they could look into their attribution tool to see how the virtual product tour users were converting into qualified pipeline and new ARR.If you have a SaaS product and you are looking for new, innovative ways to get the potential target buyers to understand how your product aligns with their unique requirements - this is a great conversation to hear!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Greg Galant, Founder and CEO at Muck Rack created the industry's first Public Relations (PR) marketplace for journalists looking for great articles and for the companies producing those topics interesting to a target audience.The catalyst for creating Muck RackOvercoming Friction between Marketing, PR Agencies, and the PressWhat role does the Press play in a Content Marketing Strategy The future of PR in the “AI” eraGreg's journey started in 2005 when he launched the Venture Voice podcast with amazing guests including Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Yelp Founder, and many more including Ed Williams, Founder Odeo - a first-generation podcast directory. The catalyst for starting a podcast was Greg's experience at CNN.com as an associate producer where he was looking for ways to download news stories from CNN onto his iPod.  In fact, the term podcast emanated from Apple and the iPod using RSS feeds to link to an audio clip.The above experience at CNN.com was the catalyst for creating his own podcast to highlight the stories of successful entrepreneurs. Venture Voice continued 2005 -2010 and Greg discontinued producing new episodes until Covid hit in 2020, and the additional free time created by being locked into his apartment stimulated Greg to restart the podcast with the first new episode guest - Mark Cuban!This experience highlighted the need for a website that could amplify those social media influencers that people should be following and an associated event named "The Shorty Awards".In 2009, Greg and his co-founder launched Muck Rack to help journalists find interesting founders and topics that would be great for their publications. At the same time, businesses started to use Muck Rack to identify those journalists they could pitch for an article that supported their business and increased their brand awareness.Today, Fortune 500 companies, publications, and journalists alike use Muck Rack as a match-making platform for public relations-centric content.If you are a fellow entrepreneur and love learning about other founders' journey to creating a new company or media asset, this conversation with Greg is a great listen!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.