IN THIS ISSUE
Today's Driven introduces a new look and a somewhat different format.
This issue brings more information and insights of the kind you're likely to need as you look ahead to 2021.
We lead with 3 articles about marketing and then move to product and sales.
- How to be an effective marketing leader, for chief marketing offers and VPs of marketing
- How to choose the right Jobs To Be Done messaging framework for your business
- The grim outlook for trade shows and events in 2021
- How enterprise SaaS companies can adopt product-led growth strategies
- How to forecast and plan the number of sellers you'll need in 2021
- Don't underestimate the need – or opportunity – for enterprise sales teams in 2021
Let's dive in.
MARKETING | OPERATIONS
How to be an effective marketing leader
"What is the ultimate cost of not effectively executing your marketing agenda? If you are a senior marketing leader, then it's your job. In the worst case, it's your career."
Chief marketing officers (CMOs) have the shortest tenure of any job in the C-suite.
The need to understand the role of the CMO or VP marketing is equally strong whether you...
- Aspire to be a CMO or VP marketing
- Want to improve your performance in either of those roles
- Plan to hire a senior marketing leader.
A short new book called The Next CMO: A Guide to Operational Marketing Excellence (2020) teaches you how to succeed in the role. It's a fast and easy read.
Written by three former CMOs, the book offers practical, specific guidance on three key points:
- How to link marketing initiatives to high-level corporate goals
- How to create an effective marketing plan
- How to measure and report return on investment (ROI) for marketing initiatives.
You can download a PDF of the 174-page book at no charge here.
Or you can buy it on Amazon in a paperback or Kindle version.
The authors, Peter Mahoney, Scott Todaro, and Dan Faulkner, now work for Plannuh, a software company that provides marketing planning and reporting systems.
Related:
What CEOs Want From Marketing. Michael Brenner. Marketing Insider Group, September 2020.
CMO Compensation Trends. CMO Council. 2020.
hubspotusercontent00.net
MARKETING | RESEARCH
How to choose the right the Jobs To Be Done framework to tune your messaging and product strategy
"Customers don't care about your product. They care about what it helps them do."
Because of Covid-19, many companies have shifted their buying priorities.
You may find that your SaaS product messaging is out of step with what customers now want from a product like yours.
In 2019, for example, revenue growth was a high priority for buyers. This year, cost reduction is a top priority.
If your messaging still touts growth, it's out of step with what most customers want.
Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) can help you achieve the right messaging for your products. It can also help you adjust your product strategy.
JTBD offers a framework for conducting and applying qualitative research you conduct through interviews with customers and prospects.
But there are at least 3 "flavors" of JTBD methods, each offering variations in approach.
The author, Andrea F. Hill, first published the article in 2017. She recently posted it to Medium without changes.
But don't worry. The information is still current.
And it will save you hours of research if you're interested in JTBD.
Hill's article summarizes the differences in the various JTBD flavors. The insights it shares will help you choose the right flavor for your business.
medium.com
MARKETING | COMMUNICATIONS | EVENTS
Don't expect to attend many in-person trade shows or conferences in 2021
The U.S. trade show market alone will see exhibition spending drop by $10 billion this year, a 64-percent decline compared to 2019.
This is among the sober findings of a recent report from PwC about the projected recovery of the trade show and events industry.
They don't expect it to return to its 2019 levels until at least 2024 – if then.
Takeaway: If trade shows and events have been important to your company in the past, you can reallocate your budgets to other marketing activities in 2021.
statista.com
SALES & SELLING | OPERATIONS
How to forecast and plan the number of sales reps you'll need in 2021
"Projecting the year-end ARR or next set of hires no longer follows the simple equation of taking last year’s number and multiplying by 2 or 3."
In a recent blog post, founding partner Jay Po of Stage 2 Capital explains how to use what he calls a bottom-up growth model to plan for sales capacity.
Related: Download the Bottoms Up Growth Model, a spreadsheet from Stage2 Capital, at no charge.
stage2.capital
SALES & SELLING | EXECUTION | SKILLS
In planning for 2021, don't underestimate the need – or opportunity – for top-notch enterprise selling
"Customers are leaning on sellers to help them learn about new solutions and make sense of all the information out there."
In complex buying decisions, sellers are more valuable than ever.
So notes Gartner analyst Hank Barnes, in responding to what he sees is the increasingly prevalent idea that enterprise sales teams are in decline.
But the expectations of technology buyers are high, according to a recent Gartner survey research.
Related: How Tech Service Providers Can Increase the Odds of Closing High-Quality Deals.. This one-hour webinar with Hank Barnes explores findings from a recent Gartner research study on enterprise technology buying.
linkedin.com
PRODUCT STRATEGY
How enterprise SaaS companies can adopt Product-Led Growth to reduce CAC and increase profit
"When you move to PLG model, you're going to be looking at somebody very different in the organization..."
Product-Led Growth (PLG) has many advantages over traditional enterprise SaaS sales.
Among them, customer acquisition cost (CAC) is much lower because PLG sales rely less on sellers and more on product design and marketing.
In this podcast interview, host Omer Khan asks venture capitalist Blake Bartlett how enterprise SaaS companies might introduce PLG offerings.
Bartlett works for OpenView Partners. He coined the phrase product-led growth.
The transition to PLG isn't easy for enterprise SaaS companies, Bartlett acknowledges. But it can be very profitable.
It's a matter of changing your mindset and focus.
An enterprise SaaS company might start with a new mobile app that offers rank-and-file employees a more convenient, productive way to work.
That's a big change because enterprise SaaS companies are accustomed to targeting senior executives.
HubSpot made an incremental shift from enterprise to PLG products. They started with small, experimental PLG products called Signals or Sidekick. Both aimed at sellers rather than marketers.
HubSpot then expanded into a freemium CRM product, which they integrated with their marketing automation systems.
The interview, on The SaaS Podcast Episode 263, took place in mid 2020. It runs for just over 44 minutes. You can read a transcript if you prefer.
Related: Foundations of Product-Led Growth. Omer Khan interviews Wes Bush, founder of the Product-Led Institute. The SaaS Podcast. Episode 251.
saasclub.io
ABOUT DRIVEN
Driven is a fortnightly digest for busy revenue leaders in business-to-business SaaS. It's most useful if your company sells higher-ticket products that require moderate to heavy involvement of professional sales people.
Driven is here to help you achieve your goals, overcome your challenges, solve problems, and become a better version of yourself.
You'll find an online archive of back issues 12 through 43 at this link.
A word about links, commissions, and endorsements
When I provide links to articles from vendors, does it imply an endorsement?
Only of their content. Not of their products or services.
If I recommend a service or a book, it’s because I think it’s likely to help you. Period.
I get nothing from providing links to any commercial service, including the books for which I provide a link to Amazon.
That may change. I’ll tell you when it does.