Pat Morrell

Yesterday, I ran a GTMsession for GTMfund portfolio company founders and their executive teams with the brand and content marketing legend, Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈. (🤔 GTM what now? GTMfund… GTMnow…) Yes, we have more words attached to the acronym GTM, though not widely talked about since they’re internal. GTMsessions are monthly private digital live sessions on various go-to-market topics, led by an executive operator who is an expert in the field. They’re available to GTMfund portfolio companies and their executive teams. Being closed-door and not open to the public, these sessions allow any and all questions to be comfortably asked, the conversation tailored to be hyper-specific to startups and their current concerns, questions, etc. We didn't even get through half of the moderated points that I had prepared because the questions for Udi just kept rolling in (a good thing, that's the point of these sessions). Udi dropped some 🔥 insights that we’ll share more on later, but for now, Stan Rymkiewicz nailed summarizing key takeaways on how Gong thinks about content creation and distribution that I've dropped in the comments. One key pain point discussed in the session was the challenge of keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of content marketing. It often feels like by the time one strategy is implemented, its effectiveness has already diminished. So, what’s next? How do you stay ahead of the curve? Since GTMsessions are private, their recordings aren’t shared openly. However, the feedback was so phenomenal that we knew other revenue leaders could benefit from the conversation. If you’re a revenue leader looking to understand the future of content marketing and stay ahead of the curve: Join me for a GTMnow digital live event with Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈 , Jon Miller, and Pete Lorenco. You'll learn from them how to stay two steps ahead and walk away with content tactics and inspiration. 🗓 June 18th at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST 👉 To register: https://lnkd.in/gsdsai23 (pictured here: two passionate hand talkers 👋 )

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I partnered with Kyle Poyar this week to uncover 10 PLG plays that can enhance your customer engagement, streamline processes, and drive revenue growth. Even if your company doesn't identify as Product-Led Growth (PLG), these are strategies from PLG that ANY company should be incorporating. Full post in today's GTM Newsletter by GTMnow, I’ll pop the link in the comments. The TL;DR: 1. Interactive demo on the website 2. Replace hard feature gates and paywalls with soft gates 3. Incorporate a usage-based component to pricing 4. Leverage product data to drive customer outcomes 5. Offer trials for new features 6. Correlate product usage with revenue growth 7. Automate resource-intensive processes with AI 8. Implement smart email nurture cadences 9. Build and leverage power user communities 10. Offer starter packages or proof of concepts ✍️

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I jokingly refered to Rod Gallagher, Ed.D as the "Kevin Bacon" of #professionalservices because you can connect him to most people in 6 degrees or less, but with all of Rod's experience and educational accomplishments I think Neil deGrasse Tyson is probably a better comparison. It was amazing to have Rod on this episode of "Pain in the SaaS." It was such a great conversation with valuable insights for anyone that is looking to learn, first hand, how to automate their services sales process end-to-end. This is Pain in the SaaS...

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If something in your sales process isn't working, you need to look 1-2 stages back for root cause. If we aren't converting initial meetings into next steps> are we targeting right personas and is our messaging aligned with our buyers priorities and problems? If we are getting stuck in proposal > did we do the right discovery? If we are getting slammed for discounts at the end > did we build a compelling value discussion before we got into commercials? If something isn't working, the answer is almost always 1-2 stages back.

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Going bigger and bigger with our virtual events. We're partnering with RevGenius to get things going with a 💥 . 🏄‍♂️ Scott Leese, Taylor Safford and Aaron McReynolds are going to be talking productivity in sales and focusing on leading indicators for success. Since learning about the overall negative term "Managing for Results," I've been obsessed with figuring out how to manage people (sales is easily one of the most aligned roles for this, but CS, Dev, Marketing works great too) There should be better aligned rewards for focusing on leading indicators instead of the lagging ones. When Scott came on the podcast, I felt like his eyes lit up when we talked about the importance of focusing on revenue generating activities as apposed to just closed revenue. And Taylor was one of the earliest hires at Qualtrics that built productivity frameworks for himself and his team - leading to MASSIVE results. We also had Taylor on the Great Day in Sales podcast and he shared his story. This should be an incredible live webinar. Not to mention Aaron McReynolds will be on as well to offer his insights and what he's learned from turning sales productivity into an incredible saas product. Register! Link in the comments 🤙 #10PointProductivity #GTM #Events #SalesAndMarketing

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The most common thing I'm hearing from companies right now is low 'early stage' deal conversion. TOFU stagnation. If you are speaking to companies within your ICP and struggling to translate demand into pipeline, there's one thing I'm seeing more than anything else that is the root cause of why. You're finding pain.... but you're not building on it. Certainly not quantifying it. It's not enough to just find it. It'll end up with no action.

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📣 - Alert to all senior sales and revenue operations leaders! A major new product update from the Lative team! 💪 We've added powerful and easy-to-use sales target and quota planning tools that integrate top-down revenue planning with bottoms-up operational data.   Some highlights of what's in this release: - Set revenue targets and apply seasonality expectations using real data for higher accuracy - Customize and fine-tune quota assignments across levels and dimensions to optimize target achievement - Use a unified dashboard to track sales team performance and capacity against targets and identify gaps in real-time Check out the post linked below for more details and screen captures so that you can see how Lative helps bring top-down revenue planning together with bottoms-up performance and capacity analysis. If you have any questions or are interested to learn more, feel free to DM me.   #RevOps #SalesPlanning #SalesStrategy #StrategicPlanning

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2🔑-- Alignment + Customer Obsessed The full SalesIntel.io podcast drops tomorrow but here's a sneak preview.... 🗝 Alignment You must get aligned on your metrics. If you're not all working toward the same goal, how can you expect success. 🗝 Customer Obsessed There are a lot of companies who talk about being customer-centric but do your action speak louder than your words. Can your customers articulate how you've delighted or exceeded their expectations? This will lead to referrals and help with partnerships! What is your favorite tip to unlock growth? #randispeaks #sales #GTM

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Whether you're dipping your toes into SaaS acquisitions or looking to expand, understanding the diverse buyer profiles is key. Here's a quick rundown of SaaS acquirers by purchase price to identify where you fit and how to strategize: // <$250k: Side Hustlers: Look for low-maintenance, simple products. Ideal businesses demand <20 hours weekly and minimal support. // <$500k: First-Time Acquirers: With a technical/GTM background, focus on businesses matching your skills, requiring less than $500k capital. // $500k-$1M: Professional Portfolio Acquirers: Experienced? Aim for stable, recurring revenue businesses, managing 5-10 companies with 15-30% EBITDA margins. Serial Acquirers & Niche Specialists: Quick scalability or niche alignment is key, targeting businesses for growth and a perfect fit. // Over $1M: Corporate Integrators & Small Financial Sponsors: Major players seek strategic alignment, investing $3M-$10M for a 20-30% ROI. /Industry Consolidators & Strategic Diversifiers: Focus on efficiencies, market dominance, or diversifying through innovative models. A Reminder: Micro SaaS is a unique field — untouched by Institutional Private Equity and Strategics below $5M ARR, presenting a lucrative avenue for those ready to play smart. Which profile resonates with you? Whether you're aiming to buy, grow, or sell, positioning yourself correctly in the Micro SaaS universe is crucial. 👉 For a deeper dive into each buyer profile and strategic insights tailored to your journey, connect with us at Skaling Ventures. Link to substance in bio... #MicroSaaS #SaaSAcquisitions #StartupGrowth #SkalingVentures

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In the latest episode of Market Mastery, Dan Fantasia highlighted an intriguing trend among his customers: companies are reducing the number of SDRs per AE. Dan attributes this shift to increased technology adoption. Modern prospecting technologies have significantly improved SDR efficiency, allowing companies to enhance productivity per head and effectively support AE teams with fewer SDRs. Catch the full episode wherever you get your podcasts!

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For B2B businesses there’s a correlation between how few/many paying customers you currently have and how many ICPs you should actively target. Especially if your ACV is greater than $50,000. ⬇️Less active customers = more target ICPs ⬆️More active customers = less target ICPs Unless you have an active customer density that validates your ICP hypothesis (and yes, it’s a hypothesis no matter how certain you think you are), it’s critical to test horizontally before committing vertically. #gtm #b2b #gotomarket

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📉 Only 7% of Small to Mid-Size Businesses Have a Solid Sales Foundation Our latest 2024 Sales Xceleration State of Sales Report reveals critical insights into the state of sales infrastructure among small to mid-size businesses. Here’s the breakdown: PERCENTAGE OF BUSINESSES:  • 1% scored 350-400 (Level 5: Solid sales infrastructure in place, minor adjustments may be needed) ✅  • 6% scored 300-349 (Level 4: Many sales infrastructure components in place, some additional components needed) 🔄  • 17% scored 250-299 (Level 3: Basic sales infrastructure components in place, additional components needed to maximize sales) 🛠️  • 22% scored 150-249 (Level 2: Few sales infrastructure components in place, considerable action needed to maximize sales) ⚠️  • 54% scored 0-149 (Level 1: All or most sales infrastructure components missing, sales generation is severely impacted) 🚨 These statistics highlight the urgent need for businesses to strengthen their sales foundations. 📩 Contact me if you would like to learn more and receive a copy of our 2024 State of Sales report. #SalesXceleration #StateOfSales #SmallBusiness #MidSizeBusiness #SalesInfrastructure #BusinessGrowth #SalesStrategy

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My #1 insight on top-performing CROs: The greatest CROs I know aren’t obsessed with revenue. They're focused on leading indicators. Things like NPS, customer feedback/satisfaction, team efficiency, and engagement are their true north. Revenue follows when you nail the fundamentals. It's tempting to chase immediate gains, but sustainable success comes from building something people love. Metrics that capture whether or not you're doing that (ideally in realtime) are the ones to chase.

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At Vena our CORE and that's the C in our core values starts with Customer Trust. What does this mean? It means you deliver on your promise, every promise. You operate from a customer-first point of view. Every action is taken with an empathetic lens through your customers eyes. You prioritize your customer and future customers first. It doesn't always mean they are right but it does mean their needs are the right priority, and the first priority. So many companies say they are customer-centric, but when brands and companies are called to task, they often start with what's easiest, best, most convenient for them or of concern for them. It starts with their goals, their teams and their challenges. Things go wrong, s*it happens but how you show up when it does go astray is what matters. And as a consumer, buyer and leader, I experience the failures of customer-centricity everyday. As a professional, I aim to start and finish with empathy in service of those we set out to help; our customer. It's that simple. Where do you start from? Make sure it's not yourself. 🌱 #customerfirst #values #leadership

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GTM professionals drive themselves to extreme lengths. The rewards in software sales are substantial, so it's no surprise. This obsession with high-performance often means personal financial planning is ignored. The impact? More tax -> less income kept. Less growth -> less wealth created, less income for your future. Opportunities missed -> hard-work undone. The most painful example we see is old pensions. Whilst you're grinding away to earn as much as you can to provide for your future, your funds are languishing in poor performing strategies. How is that right? Here's one we found this week... Senior IC Looking to access funds in 10 years 100% invested in a 'cautious' fund This 'cautious' fund has an ongoing charge of 1.0%, and has failed to beat inflation over the last 5 years. Over the last 5 years, this individual has not made any real returns. Their wealth has gone backwards. This will never sit right with us. CTA: Where are your old pensions? How are they invested? Do you have enough saved for retirement?

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After a decade of running revenue and $4T under management, here are the 5 biggest learnings to help your company create, convert and close more revenue:

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Looking forward to joining this discussion this afternoon on How to Connect with Buyers in 2024- reminder of the details here! ________ Almost every market that SaaS vendors sell to is incredibly crowded and competitive right now. So how do you stand out, cut through the noise and engage your potential buyers? According to the latest research from Insight Revenue the biggest area of improvement is in connect unique insights to your prospects. Right now “Only 6% of GTM Teams believe that their messages communicate unique insights on how they solve the customer’s problems” 🤯 How can you expect to build trust and credibility when you can't convey something of value?! One problem here is that most businesses still don't know how to define their ICP properly, which means they end up with generic messaging that doesn't resonate with anyone. Which is why I'm super excited to be invited to join this webinar with Mark Walker Florence Broderick and Nicola Anderson: How to Connect with Buyers in 2024 Join us TODAY, Thu May 16 1-2pm BST as we dive into: - How to create a useful ICP - Generating impactful insights - Enabling your teams to use them - Applying messaging frameworks - Tooling to improve efficiency - Tried and tested tactics for boosting awareness Not to be missed if you're trying to stand out from the crowd! #b2b #revenue #growth #saas #sales #marketing

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Your buyers are on a journey that starts long before they reach out to you. Most buyers have already researched potential solutions to their unique problems. They want social proof, and they know where to get it. Sites like G2 exist to strengthen the confidence a buyer can have by seeing actual reviews for software from actual customers. So, by adding interactive demos to your G2 profile, you have an additional leg up on the competition and more evidence for your future champion to take back to their buying team. Take 5 minutes to learn how to let customer see your fantastic product through G2! #buyerenablement #consensus #demoautomation #testimonial #voiceofthecustomer

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