Colton Pond

Special feature post in The GTM Newsletter today: Kyle Poyar broke down 10 “PLG plays” that every company should implement - even if they’re *NOT PLG*. Kyle consistently shares exceptional content around PLG, growth and pricing. It was a ton of fun collaborating and seeing his breakdown. The first point is an interactive demo on the website. The fourth point is to leverage product data to drive customer outcomes. This fourth point I found particularly interesting. The CRM is the "source of truth" for go-to-market teams, but often lacks product analytics to provide customer behavior understanding from in-product activities without human or sales rep involvement. But in reality, even non-PLG companies can use this data to assess customer health and tailor sales conversations. I'll drop the link to the details on these 10, including examples and screenshots 👇 -- The GTM Newsletter is a weekly newsletter by GTMfund's media brand, GTMnow, that goes out to over 50k revenue leaders who are scaling their companies and careers. If you aren't already subscribed, you can do so through the Substack post in the comments.

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There are two ways to solve gaps in signal-based selling. Only one is guaranteed to work at scale. 1) Revenue Enablement Provide continuous training for (a) every new hire who joins a team and (b) every 6 months to refresh reps on essential information, workflows, and processes. Many factors can impact the effectiveness of enablement activities (from the comprehensiveness of training materials to the trainer’s institutional knowledge, to how closely the individual reps were paying attention that day). Enablement only becomes harder as more people and processes are added to the mix because there are so many moving parts. 2) Revenue Operations Through automation, RevOps can reduce gaps — especially from human error — that cause friction or inaction among reps. Specifically, end-to-end automation. Most common “automations” in signal-based selling usually don’t go far enough. Therefore teams are overly reliant on enablement touchpoints to stay aligned. Ex: A champion moves to a new role and this is automatically updated in Salesforce This automation gets the process from point A to point B, but still relies on multiple human touches from B to Z. End-to-end automation ensures that essential tasks throughout an entire workflow are set up to keep the process moving toward an end goal. It anticipates gaps and opportunities for human error from point A to point Z (meeting booked). Ex: A champion moves to a new role, the CRM record is updated, a rep is notified, and a multi-step persona-specific email sequence is triggered. Would every rep follow this process if it was entirely manual (even with enablement training)? Probably not. That’s why every signal play should be accompanied by clear workflows enabled with end-to-end automation. The play can scale with your team. Signals without action are just noise for reps. Automation guarantees signals get actioned.

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Most B2B companies are realizing they need to update / uplevel / rethink their growth plays. THAT is what Aaron Owens and I will be sharing research, strategies, and a proven framework about tomorrow at the GTM road show event here in Boston! If you’re interested in something similar for your company/team — reach out. We can run a workshop with and for you. Intelligent Demand GTM Partners #B2BGTM #SmarterGrowthPlays

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It's pointless to set monthly financial targets if you don't have quarterly goals. And you can't have useful quarterly goals without annual goals. So my question to the DTC brands out there is - have you created an annual plan? If not, you shouldn't be creating a monthly plan. Why? Because a plan that ladders up to nothing leads to nowhere. Are you on a road to nowhere? Want some direction on how to create a road to somewhere? DM me. I'm not just a Fractional CFO, I'm also an EOS coach and I can point you towards a goal setting system that will work for you.

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"Sales cycles are too long" is something co's complain about a lot. Co's often overestimate *their* impact on it (sales aggressiveness, materials, etc.) & underestimate the deal champion's impact on it (their own internal challenges, etc.). Worth thinking about how you can make your deal champion's life easier. If they seem convinced, ask them what they need to get others on board. Scheduling collagues for a call about some tech they won't personally benefit from but need to sign off on is *hard*. That's potentially months of your sales cycle right there. I don't think there's a clear solution to a lot of this but it's worth thinking about.

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There is so much go-to-market knowledge bottled within the best operators and it's incredible to see people continue to knowledge share more and more. Since I get to pour over great go-to-market content as part of GTMnow (so grateful), I'm constantly finding interesting gems of go-to-market insight from A+ operators. Earlier today Scott Barker posted about how almost everything he's learned through the years has been through posts, books, newsletters, podcasts, videos or mentorship. That wouldn't be possible without people kindly taking the time to sit down, write out their hard-found lessons/insights and share them. This kind of knowledge sharing elevates individuals and the industry as a whole. It really can be a way to pay it forward. In an effort to help amplify learnings and insights that operators have so kindly taken the time to sit down and document for others, I wanted to highlight 4 recent pieces that are in my saved file: ▪ Todd Busler on how to compensate your first sales hire as an early stage startup: https://lnkd.in/ghQaUhAt ▪Jason Widup created a full LinkedIn industries definition list (a spreadsheet that you can actually download and use for yourself!) to help with campaign strategy: https://lnkd.in/g4fzt-x8 ▪Kaylee Edmondson wrote a piece on ways to extend the shelf life of events (linked the post): https://lnkd.in/gvTG83_X ▪Holly Chen shared on all things around mastering branding, pricing and customer success for AI startups in a podcast episode: https://lnkd.in/g_JgwTnK

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Just funnel hacked all of my competitors. Biggest flaw I found? No customization. They get on calls without knowing who they’re on a call with. They’re asking questions that can be answered by a 5-minute profile overview. If you’re selling a low ticket or DWY program then go ahead, be like them. If you have a service and charge north of $3k, do some research. You’ll appear more professional and close more deals as a result of being better prepared.

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We market to humans... Yes we market to: ↗ Decision makers ↗ Platform users ↗ Champions ↗ Influencers ↗ Stakeholders ↗ Prospects ↗ Buyer personas ↗ Target accounts But we actually market to humans. So Tell STORIES Be ENGAGING Be FUNNY Be REAL

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People think personalized messaging + offer = success. No. It's isn't. Contextual messaging = success. If you're hitting your audience right on the pain point, you don't even need personalization & a good offer lMO.

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There is so much go-to-market knowledge bottled within the best operators. It's incredible to see people continue to document and knowledge share more and more. Since I get to pour over great go-to-market content as part of GTMnow (very grateful), I'm constantly finding interesting gems of go-to-market insight from A+ operators. In an effort to help amplify learnings and insights that operators have so kindly taken the time to sit down and document for others, highlighting 3 recent pieces that are in my saved file: ▪ Nick Tippmann 🏔️☁️ on mistakes to avoid on your journey from $1M to $10M ARR: https://lnkd.in/gDNR9RvU ▪Mark Huber, Kyle Lacy, Marcus Andrews and April Dunford on how to write stories your sales team will *actually* use: https://lnkd.in/gNyQCrCG ▪Kelly Hopping on the 3 pillars of a modern go-to-market executor: https://lnkd.in/gui6TQRm

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I was on a CMO Slack channel yesterday offering free templates to help marketers. I mentor a great deal and know that it is a challenging time where many need support. Within minutes on this channel I was berated by several high-profile marketers to post in a less-seen part of the channel and discounting the value and well-intention of my offering. I literally had to delete something free to then help no one. We have reached a low point in our society when being kind elicits an anger response. With this post I send out a HUGE HUG to dissipate the frustration of marketers around the globe. If you are a marketer having a hard time or you are witness to one that is struggling, please message me. Please comment if you are seeing this too and like/share this post to help me send support to marketers who have a really tough job right now or are on the market looking for their next opportunity.... #marketinglove #cmos #marketing #marketingjobs

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During peak periods, Klaviyo drives nearly $60 million in attributed value per hour. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) just four months away, now is the critical time to lay the groundwork for a supercharged Klaviyo BFCM strategy. Prioritise optimised live campaigns, a robust sender reputation, and impactful, engaging messages to set your brand apart. Read our ⚡ BFCM ⚡ prep guide to learn more: https://lnkd.in/ewravpBx #BFCM #EmailMarketing #Klaviyo #GrowthMarketing #PeakSeasonPrep #RetentionMarketing #CustomerEngagement #InboxOptimisation #Customerfirst #HolidayMarketing

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https://lnkd.in/gZ3s8ddj Hubleed updates this week: - add an administrative dashboard for qualifying leads. - Watches bet feeds on supported sites for high quality players. - Compares player names to telegram accounts or similarly named accounts. - Filters out low value players and places an alert for team members to cross promote them to other partnership sites. - Sends a message to any players who have authorized the bot if their account catches a rain or tip publicly. - Accept bet ID submission for challenges & tip those automatically. - Broadcast announcements for challenges 24/7 from a schedule. - Connect exchange and apps with discord. - Add a smart contract for managing funds. Want to partner with us? Send me a DM.

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One lesson I learned the hard way as a head of marketing… Without strong revenue / marketing operations partnership + support, you’re toast. If you can’t measure your team’s impact on opportunity creation, pipeline & revenue - or show what’s working & what isn’t, it’s only a matter of time before you find yourself in a whole world of hurt. It’s shocking how many companies under-invest in this critical area, that is literally the backbone of your entire business (RevOps!) So, if you find yourself in a situation where you aren’t getting the support you need to show impact + make good decisions, it’s time to stomp your feet and do whatever you have to do to get the resources you need now.

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At GoDaddy, we want our small business customers to grow their businesses however they can. I recently shared tips on how maximizing online social presence is an important way for small businesses to attract new customers and to increase sales. Tips to get in front of consumers, wherever they’re scrolling, include: finding the right channel distribution for your business, making the experience user friendly, and sharing an authentic brand presence. To read more, visit Small Business Currents.  #godaddy #smbs #socialcommerce

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I've been spending some time analyzing some tools to consolidate our marketing stack at OTO. After doing all the nerd-diligence, i spotted a trend that was basically staring me in the face at that point: Companies that think their product is best-in-class have the leverage needed to force you into multi-year commitments. Companies that know their product is best-in-class don't need to force you into multi-year commitments. Their confidence is reflected in flexible terms, trusting that their product's value will speak for itself and keep you coming back. They prioritize building genuine, long-term relationships over binding contracts and restrictive agreements. I've even tried looking at agreement structures before deep diving into the product and found that most hypotheses formed pretty much lined up. I don't think it's far-fetched to say that how a company - especially SaaS - structures their agreements, should reflect how the brand would like to be perceived.

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Can a private equity marketing agency be aligned with deal-based outcomes? Yes, if your marketing agency is also your buy-side search partner. Because many PE groups recognize that their investment in buy-side search engagements have no compounding benefit, more and more PE firms are wanting to build a flywheel effect by investing in proprietary marketing initiatives. Our agency has brought the two skills together, and all our marketing services offset the success fee of our buy-side search engagements. This helps us keep focused on the real outcome we're driving towards: closing deals. #marketing #privateequity #buyside

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I couldn't agree more Jon Miller! It's time to rethink the B2B marketing playbook. The old model of collecting leads with gated content doesn't work. And we have over-rotated on attribution, which breaks down rather than builds up the critical partnership between marketing and sales. It is also time to revisit brand! But that's not a simple task. Companies need to dig deep to define a white space that solves a pain point, articulate their right to win, and ensure their brand emotionally resonates and engenders loyalty. #brand #b2bmarketing #outwiththeold

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