Monica Gauba

What a GTM OS platform should focus on first and foremost… 🤔 Market problem that a business wants to solve! Too many orgs focus their GTM on revenue generation and “strategies” for revenue regeneration. Any GTM org that is not grounded on the market problem is not going to meet its objectives. The market problem and market strategy will drive everything else. I have seen this too many times where the focus is purely on sales and revenue. Had products climb G2 rankings in terms of customer reviews but growth was still hart to find. 🔎 That is why about 75% of products that are introduced fail to meet viable, profitable scale and are ultimately withdrawn from the market. My goal with GTM OS is to develop a lean and agile methodology/system for GTM leveraging the foundation of a robust GTM strategy - just the essential components that should be adopted by every org of every size - blended with the magic of data & AI (for transparency and efficiency). Some things that GTM Practitioners get wrong and that must be fixed for GTM orgs: GTM cannot start with defining the process or playbooks for revenue generation teams or  identifying sources of revenue or demand generation. It must start with defining what is happening in the market. You cannot define ICP before assessing the market opportunity and market landscape with direct and indirect competitors. Technically nothing is stopping you from defining ICP without that, but it most certainly can lead you down the wrong path. Understand first what the avenues are for achieving growth given the market focus - are you going to penetrate existing market, develop a new one, develop a new product or need to educate the market on a new concept - and how that maps to the product value prop for the market before defining metrics with which you measure success. Your metrics will depend on your growth strategy you pick. The alignment around metrics is not the hard part but alignment on what is the product, who is it for and how will we grow it and what competencies and resources you need is the hard nut to crack. Figure out your market strategy, ICP, product value prop, positioning, growth strategy, channels for messaging, and why you, and you have the building blocks of a solid GTM OS. The rest are details that can be executed with automation. Love to hear your thoughts 👇 #connectedgtm #gtm #b2b #productmarketing #sales

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Navigating AI with the Maturity Model in Revenue Organizations Over the last several weeks, I've been crafting a conceptual framework at RevShoppe, focusing on AI integration within revenue teams. Drawing on discussions with Manny Medina to refine my ideas, we've developed an AI maturity model that offers a structured framework, segmented into four progressive quadrants, each representing a unique blend of human and AI involvement. This model isn't merely about adopting AI; it provides a lens through which organizations can initially approach and think about AI integration. It addresses essential questions such as "How do I introduce AI into my sales organization?", "When is the right time to consider AI for my business?", and "Where can AI deliver the most significant impact, ROI, or improvement in sales efficiency?" In a field quickly becoming crowded with emerging "AI companies," this framework aims to guide your strategic planning and initial considerations for effectively integrating AI within your organization. Each quadrant not only signifies the level of AI integration but also guides organizations on the pathway from initial adoption to full autonomy.  Think of this 2x2 as both: ▶ A roadmap on how to get the most out of AI in the GTM organization ▶ A maturity model to figure out how advanced your organization is in harnessing the full power of AI and getting the benefits of efficiency and productivity (as well as understanding AI’s capabilities today) The model is to be consumed in a Z pattern beginning with Human-Led, Human Assisted where most organizations are today, moving through AI Assisted to AI-led, and eventually shifting full workflows to AI making more time for the human seller and managers to do the things we are uniquely competent at. This approach ensures that your organization can adapt as AI becomes capable of handling more complex functions, seamlessly transitioning tasks from human to machine as the technology advances. Over the next 4 posts I will be getting into the details of what each of the 4 stages mean, what it takes to progress from one to the next, and how to measure the impact of AI maturity and adoption in your organization In the meantime, I would love your feedback breaking down AI maturity with this framework. #AI #AIMaturity #RevShoppe #Salestransformation

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Too many partner teams mistake their biggest weakness for a strength. Too much art, too much 'trusting your gut,' too much perception. In most organizations, the partnerships team is by far the least data-driven in GTM. There’s more data available for partner teams than ever before. Why do we acquire all these data tools if we don’t use them properly? Crossbeam, Reveal, Tackle, Workspan, your PRM… they all generate loads of data on top of all the data you have in your CRM. Is creating a Salesforce report, manually checking Crossbeam, or some dashboard in our PRM that we make our teams look at really the best we can do? What we need to become better at in partnerships is using signals to understand: - Who wants to work with us - Who needs us - Who likes and trusts us - Who can add the most value - Who is willing to help - Who is about to become inactive - Who has which strengths You might be surprised but most companies have all of this data but don’t realize it or don’t use it. So the partner team relies on their gut feelings, wastes time on the wrong tasks, and overlooks opportunities to drive revenue. It’s time we stop thinking that we’ll be fine if we don’t change the way we work and actually leverage all the data at our disposal. So here’s my prediction: Signal-based partner teams will be the ones who come out on top. They’re the ones that embrace all the first and second-party data at their disposal. They’ll turn that data into better relationships, more focused work, and more revenue. Those who remain in the 'we’ll be fine, we’ve always done this manually' camp will struggle increasingly.

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Wondering how to merge PLG and SLG for maximum impact? Japna Sethi talks about how they made this work at companies like Dropbox, Productboard, and Calendly. She calls it "defining the API" between the two growth motions so the right PLG leads get passed on to your sales team and shares the details on the approaches at the companies she has worked. For the full episode: https://lnkd.in/d-2ZAvir

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Most teams go about customer discovery backward. They: - Start by soliciting feedback about their solution - Then, they explore the problems their solution might address - Then, they work toward a clear definition of the customer There are so, so many problems with this approach, but they all lead to the same place: building features customers either don't want or aren't willing to pay for (or pay enough for). The good news is that there is a right order to go in: 1. First, clearly define your customer using externally identifiable characteristics (call these your "qualification criteria") 2. Then, through a series of discovery interviews (that exclude any conversation about your solution), develop an understanding of the customer's problems (iterate on a Need Narrative for this part) 3. Only proceed past steps 1 and 2 once you are extremely confident that anyone meeting your qualification criteria will agree that they share the same top, painful problem as the others. If you are not, continue interviewing people until every time someone meets your qualification criteria, they also confirm they have the same top problems. 4. Test solution ideas by using a Solution Statement. Iterate on the solution statement until 80% or more of the interviewees confirm they want the solution and would pay for it. 5. Then test the pricing model 6. Then test pricing Important: ↳Focus on one stage at a time. #CustomerDiscovery #CustomerFocus Video by GrowthMatch

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Data is irrefutable, but the insights are debatable. Getting from Seed to Series A is not hard; it's excruciatingly painful. All of the following need to be in place: 1. Found strong evidence of PMF within your core customer segment 2. Figured out GTM strategy and distribution channels. 3. Effectively allocated capital for growth whilst reserving capital to raise a new round 4. Build a smooth enough operation that allows you to step aside from your organization to go raise capital. 5. Execute a flawless fundraising process that you are doing for the (statistically) first time in your life 6. Assemble a strong team without the proper resources in a highly competitive talent market. But Marcial, look! Graduation rates went from 37% to 12%. - 37% is high because a "small" pool of Seed Rounds got Series As during the bull market frenzy. These companies will struggle with their Series Bs. - 12% is low because of the huge volume of Seed rounds completed in Q4'21 and Q1'22, which will not amount to anything. If I had a message to entrepreneurs: Building a massive tech company remains similarly as difficult as previous vintages. Money will continue to flow to companies with signals that they are building the 'next big thing'. Do not misread the data thinking, "now it's harder, so I'll avoid raising", because if you are building an outlier company, you shouldn't be concerned with averages. Disclaimer: I haven't built shit yet, so not speaking from experience.

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The salad 🥗 of commercial leadership titles is a pure festival 🕺, but what does it tell us about GTM strategy? TL;DR: CROs aren't better named Sales Executives, but cross function GTM leaders. While they are seemingly growing into that role from Sales leadership, there is a strong argument for CMOs, CCOs as well as RevOps leaders to snatch that spot in the future. Two very interesting conversations are happening right now, which Sam Jacobs, Asad Zaman, AJ Bruno and Kathleen Booth brought together on the last Topline episode. 1️⃣ What is a CRO (Chief Revenue Officer)? 2️⃣ Who in the commercial leadership squad is best suited for that gig? Lets first look at what a CRO actually is. More than ever, we are aiming to bring true alignment to all GTM functions. What becomes a tangible need once your teams outgrow the daily handshake has been amplified in the PEG (Proficient Efficient Growth) era we are finding ourselves in. It's simply not possible to run a revenue engine which is heavily disconnected from each other, steering on siloed metrics and definitions of What Good Looks Like. The CRO is tasked to bring all that together. They should have a deep understanding of the product & market, expertise in leading complex teams and have an outstanding connect to their customers. But that's more for 2️⃣. The thing is: Not all CROs are born the same way or fill in the same position at each company at each growth stage. As always: It depends. In order to find our way into a discussion on what a CRO is, I've outlined possible shapes of GTM leadership. 💡 Product Market Fit: The CEO drives most of the GTM, is intensively close to customers & product and finds PMF. The transition from this stage to the next is the transition from founder led sales to a Sales team. So for now, the CEO is on their own. 📈 Go To Market Fit: An organisation starts to shape, which is led by the CEO. They take the role of the CRO as they lead all GTM functions in the business. Each function builds out their own teams as specialisation needs to happen in order to serve the customer along their journey. As the CEO has lots of other things on their plate, this is a natural breaking point in the endeavour to keep these departments from building silos. 🔥 Scale-Up Fit: We are far beyond $10M ARR and proper organisations have formed. This is the point where we might realise that we have built a beast of org, productivity and alignment goes down. CROs get their first real - and important - role here by taking over New Business as well as Existing Business. They might also take the CMO role, but there are lots of reasons to keeping that separate for now. 🚀 Grown-Up Fit: We might be around IPO. The organisation is mature enough that the CEO moves completely out of the picture concerning GTM and a President takes over what we would now call CRO. How do you structure your GTM leadership team? #saas #cro #marketing #revenue

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Share your thoughts on customer marketing tools on Mary Green’s poll!

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Wondering where B2B SaaS buyers pause in their decision-making journey? Wynter's 2024 B2B SaaS Buyer’s Report provides some answers. Key findings: 💢 Brand matters. ↪ 58% of execs rely on their peers to create a shortlist. ↪ 78% only shortlist 3 vendors. 💢 Buyers self-educate. ↪ 91% come to a meeting already familiar with the vendor by researching the vendor’s website and using interactive demos. 💢 Combine PLG with SLG. ↪ 50% of buyers prefer buying through a sales motion. ↪ Sales presentation, demos, and 3rd party reviews add the most value in the buying decision-making process. The report provides more evidence that B2B product teams need to: 🔥 Leverage the Why (Mission) and What (Vision) to nurture trust and motivate word-of-mouth socialization and positive reviews. 🔥 Demonstrate empthy to foster a community by developing Mission, Vision, and Strategy, Roadmap, and Positioning from the perspective of customers so they can easily relate how the product helps them achieve progress toward targeted outcomes, overcome problems, and create value. 🔥 Show customers the story of the product through self-service access to interactive demos to propel PLG and complement SLG. Link to report: https://lnkd.in/eY57U7tx

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Maybe the most important skill for enterprise sales and CS is the ability to quickly connect the dots. The very best can hear or read disparate pieces of information and construct them into a coherent value narrative then make this relevant to different stakeholders. Often on the fly.

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B2B GTM teams usually have one of three pressing challenges to growing revenue. 1️⃣ Pipeline Affinity Not being able to repeatedly drive new opportunities to your sales pipeline. This usually stems from either not knowing your ICP or not nailing your first demand channel. The early signs of this show when messaging and content are NOT resonating with your ICP top-of-funnel. - No paid, organic, or dark social engagement from your ICP - Inbound demo velocity is low You fix this by optimizing your content and distribution strategy to empower B2B buyers with the information they'd find online or from peers anyway, price/product transparency, and any other value-added information that would be an objection during the sales process. 2️⃣ Pipeline Activation Getting initial traction, but not being able to convert and activate opportunities through the sales process. Two huge issues we’ve seen that cause this: -Not reaching out to leads quickly -Treating all leads from all sources the same There’s a window of opportunity when your prospect has piqued interest, and it's critical to get a demo scheduled ASAP. Secondly, if you don't have your sales pipeline mapped out by source to see which sources drive the most closed won deals, you'll treat low-intent leads and declared-intent leads the exact same. A recipe for disaster! 3️⃣ Retention The focus for many B2B companies is new acquisition, new acquisition, new acquisition, but do not place that same degree of intensity and emphasis on customer retention. There’s a compounding effect of recurring customers who stay with you long enough to break even and become profitable. If more B2B companies put more emphasis on customer marketing, they’d uncover a treasure trove of untapped revenue. TL;DR: Three biggest challenges for B2B GTM teams trying to grow revenue: 1. Not enough people interested (no traction to drive demo requests or free trials) 2. Not enough engagement from the current pipeline 3. Too many customers churning

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Jason calls it out again with real life data. Organic growth using outbound GTM motion in SaaS is less efficient effcient. It's just reality of customer spending pullback across the whole sector. SaaS companies are either pulling back in GTM spend which is causing slower growth (and significant loss in valuation). The valuation death spiral that makes funding and exit even more difficult- and bootstrapping a whole lot less fun. Or they are investing MORE to maintain growth, but it's not working. That means less efficiency and poor return on capital. Thankfully most SaaS is seemingly living at a break even state. Well most. But this is only a survival and hope strategy. The Ostritch strategy if you will. I talk to a lot of Ostritch CEOs, happy to just have a job. Bold CEOs have strategy game. Partner up to find customers, use M&A to expand product lines and tap new markets, combine with competitors to unlock synergies that can be reinvested at higher scale. Do it when valuations of everyone are down. https://lnkd.in/gACnmMyc

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A poorly executed #customersuccess strategy will kill your #NRR for years to come. I've seen it first-hand too many times over the years. Here is how you deliver a well-executed CS strategy to drive great NRR and ultimately, business growth: 🛣️ 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝗗𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐞 & 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 The first step in any customer success strategy is understanding the full & dynamic revenue & customer journey. This means not just knowing what your customers do, but why they do it. How and why did they buy your services? How do they move through their journey with you (rarely ina straight line!)? By understanding their motivations, you can better anticipate their needs and deliver solutions that truly add value. And don't forget, the old-school customer journey is not the standard anymore, you need to use the full, dynamic revenue & customer journey to get the full picture. This stretches from pre-sale to post-sale and allows for the customer to move in and out of journey phases/stages dynamically. 📈 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 Customer success is not a reactive function. It's about being proactive, anticipating customer needs, and addressing them before they become issues. You have to ensure that your strategy is aligned around, and fosters, a proactive CS culture and process that allows your team to execute effectively. This not only improves customer satisfaction, but also reduces churn, and creates more expansion opportunities. Both key factors in improving NRR. 📊 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 In the #SaaS & #CS world, we have access to a wealth of data. By leveraging this data, we can make informed decisions that drive customer success. This could be anything from identifying usage patterns to predict churn, to understanding which features drive the most value for customers and beyond. And it needs to go beyond telemetry, usage etc. Also capture, track and understand customer goals and other qualitative data points. One problem is that this data is often siloed or hard to access, so make sure you have systems (like RevSetter) that can bridge that gap and allows CSMs to effectively action the data & insights. 🤝 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫-𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 Customer success should not be the responsibility of a single department. It should be ingrained in the company culture. When everyone in the organization understands the value of customer success, it becomes a strategic priority that drives business growth. This is why the dynamic revenue & customer journey, the engagement focus, and the proactive mindset are so important. When those are present - and a strategic & customer-centric approach is adopted by the CEO & leadership - the sky is the limit. Leverage these four building blocks and your CS strategy and execution will thank you for it ✅ *** 🛎️ If you enjoy my content, follow me for more ♻️ Repost to share with your network

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Product-Market Fit and Trust: Why the CEO and the rest of the C-Suite Must Rally Behind the CMO Last week, I shared in a post (https://lnkd.in/gV-tuPRP) a matrix exploring the critical relationship between Product-Market Fit (PMF) and Trust in B2B. These are two fundamental aspects at the core of marketing's mission. Today, I'm highlighting why these CMO-led initiatives demand active support from CEOs and the entire C-suite. A new report from CMO Huddles, "Underground Recession: The Hidden Strain on B2B CMOs" (https://lnkd.in/gTR7qb8C), shows tough realities like budget cuts and longer deal cycles. These symptoms point to deeper, strategic marketing challenges that impact the entire organization. My hypothesis is that B2B companies are struggling with foundational marketing challenges in PMF and/or customer trust. Here's why: ► Profitability Shift - "Growth at all costs" to sustainable profitability requires reassessing PMF. ► Evolving Buyer Expectations - B2B buyers prefer known entities and peer recommendations. ► AI Innovation - Rapid tech advancements need company-wide support, especially addressing data privacy concerns. Remember that just as we can't out-exercise a bad diet, we can't out-campaign a bad product-market fit. C-suite leaders must rally behind marketing to address PMF and trust-building. No company is immune; even tech giants are reassessing. Some key reasons to revisit PMF include: ► AI Integration ► Upmarket Expansion ► Augmenting with Product-Led Growth ► Regulatory Changes ► Post-Pandemic Market Evolution Marketing leaders are driving these critical conversations but need full C-suite engagement. The PMF and Trust matrix illustrates marketing's strategic impact on the entire business. Where does your company truly stand on PMF and Trust? How is your entire C-suite collaborating with marketing to adapt to these seismic B2B shifts? Note: I built the dynamic product-market fit vs trust matrix below using natural language with Claude Sonnet 3.5 artifacts. #MarketingStrategy #ProductMarketFit #CustomerTrust #AI #CMO GrowthPath Partners

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For Immediate Release: Exit Five on a Tear; B2B Media Business Posts Record Growth in the First Half of 2024 Burlington, VT -- Exit Five, the top community for B2B marketers that want to advance their skills and grow their careers, today announced record growth after the first half of 2024. Team Growth: From One to Five Exit Five entered the year with one person full-time (the same guy writing this press release; hey it's me Dave). Today, Exit Five has a full-time team of five with team members in Vermont, Arizona, Canada, Texas, and Massachusetts. It's all about the people; the business part is easy. And the people have made the biggest difference with Exit Five to date. There could be plans to hire more in 2025. Leading Through Content and Community Exit Five's business has two parts: content and community. On the content side, there's a popular podcast, newsletter, and webinar series. New contacts grew 43% to 20,224; more than 4,000 marketers registered for a webinar session in 1H, and the podcast grew 16% to 107,411 downloads. MRR growth for Exit Five's paid community followed this trend, growing 45% and overall revenue is on pace to grow 100% year over year. There are now 3,848 members in the community - up 42% vs. last year, and engagement continues to climb: monthly active users are up 71% vs. this time last year and now consistently hovers around 40% MAU. Exit Five also announced - and sold out - 200 tickets for the company's first in-person event September 11-12 in Burlington, VT called "Drive." *** Our mission at Exit Five is to help B2B marketers advance their skills and grow their careers. We do that through our content and community. Thanks to a 12 years in B2B SaaS working in marketing, and our growing team with Dan, Matt, Danielle, and Anna. For Press Inquiries: Reach out to Dave Gerhardt, from DG PR. To learn more about Exit Five and join the community, check out the company's website. *** Thanks for reading. I'm having a blast building this company, and I can promise you it's only the beginning. There's also a rumor that Exit Five might expand beyond Marketing in the future. But we can't confirm or deny that rumor right now.

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Some great takeaways for my partner Edward Chiu. This survey reinforces everything we are hearing from customers - Customer Success is an increasing investment with a focus on the effective growth of revenue. Our sole focus at Totango + Catalyst Software is building a platform to support this critical outcome.

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"[intense focus on] attribution not only leads to inaccurate findings, but also undermines the alignment between sales and marketing" It's so clear that winning in today's market requires finding "meaningful engagement signals" that typically come from "ungated content that informs, educates, and entertains." When you have 7-10 people in a buying committee, who each have "dozens of interactions with people, content, other customers, and friends before engaging... you can't capture those interactions," or attribute those to specific campaign plays. Stop trying to measure MQLs, and start finding out who is engaging. Phenomenal post & interview with Jon Miller.

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“You haven’t met the new me yet” 🎤”Happiness” by Taylor Swift In my opinion, the best SaaS newsletter 🔥 around is Clouded Judgment, the weekly email by Jamin Ball at Altimeter. Jamin captures the spirit of what’s happening in SaaS these days. Last week’s post about AI is 💪🏾: “This also brings up a (separate) conversation about the future of software. A lot of the value of these SaaS applications are in their “easy to use UIs.” For Zendesk, the product needs to be easy for a human to use. All the information they need to resolve a ticket needs to be at their fingertips. But if an AI agent is solving tickets, the UI becomes a whole lot less important… What becomes more important is the underlying data structure of the application. Is the data structure organized in a way that an AI agent can scan through it all, and quickly deliver the answer with low latency? The best end user experience will come from a better underlying data architecture, not an easy to use UI. The leading application vendors today have become systems of record that workflows are built around. A system of record is just a database. And the workflows will be carried out by agents and API calls.” Technology (beyond LLMs) is no longer differentiated. The only way to make product stand out is by domain expertise. Companies buy SaaS so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel 🛞. 10 years ago, everyone was talking about the “consumerization” of cloud software. The winning products were the ones with the best experiences. Now, it’s obvious that user experience is NECESSARY but NOT SUFFICIENT. Buyers are shifting billions of dollars in spend from beloved SaaS products to suites that may have subpar UX but better integration and total cost of ownership. AI is making this change much more significant. In a Generative-first world, AI is the new UI. And the only differentiation becomes the domain knowledge itself - embodied in the data model. For example, in #CustomerSuccess platforms, the long-term value is about understanding the space - what is a health score, what should be in a customer record, etc. The winners in software have always been - and will increasingly be - the one with the best data models. How are you shifting your product strategy from UI to AI and data models?

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