"Nobody is focused on creating demand. No metrics support demand creation. Everything is about being sales-centric and marketing supporting sales. And the truth is, the only way that you win big, is by going out there and creating demand..." - Chris Walker In this episode, Chris breaks down why companies don't focus on creating demand and instead put all their energy into capturing demand. After laying the groundwork for why companies don't do it, he breaks down why whoever creates the demand, w...
May 07, 2022•1 hr
Earlier this week we leaked the wait-list landing page for Refine Labs' new IP warehouse, "The Vault". With one post (and a comment on another post) we received over 1,000 submissions from B2B professionals with titles like; VP of Marketing, CMO, and CRO. We also received some interesting responses in the comments: "Is that a FORM on the landing page?!" "6 fields? Really?" In this episode, Chris will clear up any misconception about forms, because it's not forms that are inherently bad, it's the...
May 04, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Refine Labs just came off our company offsite in San Diego where nearly 100 team members showed up to meet and collaborate in person for the first time since joining Refine Labs. It was an experience that really highlighted the amazing culture that has been established here and a perfect opportunity to talk about how the culture has been built. In this episode, Chris answers questions that were sourced from the community on how to establish and grow a culture that makes employees want to build a...
May 01, 2022•16 min
Marketing Ops is evolving. With so many marketing technologies on the market, strong marketing ops professionals are no longer thinking strictly about the tactical role out of these new technologies. They are becoming strategic advisors on how teams can not only implement software but choose and use specific tools to best achieve the overall goal. In this episode, Chris sits down with Sara McNamara, Senior Manager of Marketing Operations at Slack, to discuss: What about operations is strategic, ...
Apr 29, 2022•51 min
Refine Labs is breaking the mold twice in today's episode. First, we are extremely proud to announce that Refine Labs has instituted a living minimum wage of $75,000/year. A study was done by Princeton showing that $75,000 is the number where people can live comfortably and still have money left over to save. Second, we're breaking the DGL format and doing a full episode of AMA this week. Chris covered questions ranging everywhere from content-led community, to offsite learnings, to event conten...
Apr 27, 2022•1 hr 24 min
Modern go-to-market is changing. In decades past, customers needed sales teams to educate them on product. They welcomed sales professionals to look under the hood and pitch them on how their product could best be used in their organization. But in 2022 the buyer's mindset has changed. They now have the ability to do the research. They have the ability to talk with industry peers and discover these things on their own. So where does that leave sales in the modern B2B GTM? In this episode, Chris ...
Apr 24, 2022•46 min
There are two things that can completely change the trajectory of your company's growth: Content and a unique perspective on your market. Unfortunately, there are several, easily overcome, obstacles that entrepreneurs face: They don't believe they have a unique perspective, they don't think they have the means to create meaningful content, they give up way to early, and so on. In this episode, Chris spoke to a room of small business entrepreneurs on how to overcome these obstacles, start creatin...
Apr 22, 2022•45 min
Product-led growth is "all the rage" as a B2B go-to-market strategy right now. But how do you adopt PLG if you're already running an enterprise outbound strategy? Can you start putting PLG motions into place without going straight to a free trial or free version motion? How do you run a PLG and enterprise acquisition model in tandem? What role does pricing play in a PLG motion? These are all topics covered in today's interview with PLG-expert, Kyle Poyar.
Apr 20, 2022•51 min
CEOs, founders, and executive-level SMEs are some of the most powerful voices your brand has at its disposal. So why don't more marketing teams take advantage of the top-tier minds in their organizations? The most common answer among executives is "I don't have time". The real answer is that they don't make it a priority. People often ask how Refine Labs gets so much traction on LinkedIn or on the State of Demand Podcast. The answer: Senior leadership sets the tone and shows what "good" looks li...
Apr 17, 2022•55 min
There has never been a better time to be a B2B marketing. Gone are the days where marketing teams primary KPI is sending the sales team unqualified MQLs. Sales VPs and CROs reach out to Refine Labs everyday asking us to help fix their marketing. Marketing's goal in 2022 is educating the buyer before the buyer ever talks to a sales person, which makes marketing extremely powerful. Buyers having knowledge of the product before they talk to sales means that sales gets to talk to buyers with high in...
Apr 15, 2022•52 min
Content creation is the keystone to creating demand in dark social, but there are several mistakes teams make when trying to implement a content strategy: - Not having a framework in place to create and distribute regular content - Trying to do too much in the beginning - Giving up on channels too early - The list goes on Many times these mistakes are rooted in teams trying to execute tactics before they have a solid strategy in place. In this episode, Chris talks about his journey with content ...
Apr 13, 2022•1 hr 23 min
A lot of marketers are sold on modern demand gen, but they don't know how to institute change internally. We know this because the most asked question we get is, "How do you transition from lead gen to demand gen?" If that sounds like you, you're in luck. We invited Alice de Courcy, CMO at Cognism, to talk about how she implemented this change internally. What makes this even more powerful is that Alice is a recent convert from lead gen to demand gen herself. In this episode, she will go into wh...
Apr 08, 2022•46 min
We talk a lot about using qualitative insights to drive better strategic decisions in marketing and go-to-market. But the truth is, this works in all areas of the business. Some people call it “acting on gut feelings”, but in reality, it’s not gut feeling. It’s getting feedback that can’t be measured in a spreadsheet and put your learnings into practice. In this episode, Chris talks about how he puts qualitative insights to work with customers, strategy, and even culture and hiring.
Apr 06, 2022•1 hr 11 min
At Refine Labs we've been implementing our proprietary Go-To-Market framework, Pipe, with over 50 of the fastest growing B2B SaaS companies out there. Because of that, we have access to arguably the best data set in the business which gives us a very unique perspective into how to execute successful go-to-market strategies. In this episode, Chris spends a full hour answering questions from the community members of Revenue Era ranging from: - What is the role of an agency partner? - How should yo...
Apr 03, 2022•52 min
Most marketing teams are running an old playbook; lead gen campaigns, trade show sponsorships, content syndication, gated content, etc. Once considered "best practice", these tactics have quickly become outdated as the world consumes information differently and digital transformations continue to ramp. In this episode, Chris talks about how to phase out tactics that no longer work and how to transition that budget into a new, modern way of doing demand generation.
Apr 01, 2022•34 min
Refine Labs just crossed over 100 team members and it only took about two years. Growing a business is a learning curve no matter what, but scaling quickly comes with a laundry list of lessons. In this episode, Chris talks about the journey and key learnings from an independent consultant to 100 employees and working with some of the best-known SaaS companies in B2B.
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 24 min
When most B2B companies think about content they think about blogs, ebooks, and webinars. Social media posts are sprinkled on top and in most cases not even grouped into the company's content strategy. The problem with that is it's not customer-centric. Buyers spend time on social media, in communities, and building relationships with peers in their industry they can trust. They're no longer finding blog content from a google search, signing up for your newsletter, and downloading all your ebook...
Mar 27, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Marketing is evolving. While most marketing teams are still spending their time and resources writing blogs and running webinars, forward-thinking marketers are figuring out how they can create an unfair advantage for their business. In this episode, Chris dives into just that as he talks about what the goal of marketing is as a sub-function of GTM and what it means to be buyer-centric in modern marketing.
Mar 25, 2022•55 min
We've been seeing a lot of buzz about the TOPO "Double Funnel" lately. But what exactly is it? And is it worth implementing or is it just another shiny object that sounds good in theory, but breaks down in practice? In this episode, Chris breaks down what the double funnel is, how it works, and the reasons you should think twice about implementing it into your go-to-market strategy.
Mar 23, 2022•1 hr 31 min
Creating a culture where people are not only allowed to test and fail but encouraged to, is a necessity for innovation. But how do you create a culture that breeds innovation? The short answer is—it starts at the top. The CEO sets the stage for what will (and won't) be tolerated and leads by doing to set the example for the rest of the org. In this episode, Chris talks about how Refine Labs has become a talent destination by combining innovation and culture.
Mar 18, 2022•50 min
What do B2B brands have to do stand out as more and more companies adopt demand generation strategies? First, most companies are still running the old playbook, and even though they’re calling what they do demand gen, it’s still lead gen. Companies who truly want to stand out running a demand gen playbook should focus on three things: Having a deep understanding of your customers Having subject matter expertise in-house Having a clear point of view In this episode, Chris talks about how to stand...
Mar 16, 2022•36 min
Most B2B marketing strategies are reactive. They spend a lot of money to show up once the customer is in a buying motion. But the problem with that strategy is that it becomes way more difficult to stand out in the crowd. Buyer's don't know who you are until they're ready to pull the trigger and they have no idea what sets you apart. In this episode, Chris talks about how companies can re-tool their marketing strategy to win in Dark Social so that you are proactively getting in front of future b...
Mar 13, 2022•37 min
Employees have more power than ever in the employer/employee relationship and it's because most companies are still playing from a legacy playbook. The best companies are attracting top-tier talent because they are becoming destination organizations. "Price's Law" is the mentality that 50% of the work at a normal organization is done by the square root of the total employees. For example, at a 50 person company, 7 people do 50% of the work. That makes it extremely difficult when one or more of t...
Mar 11, 2022•49 min
We started doing Demand Gen Live back in March of 2020 with an audience of 15 people. Two years later, we're still doing Demand Gen Live weekly to an audience of 100+ and many of the original 15 are still showing up weekly. We brought back the OG co-host, Gaetano DiNardi, for episode 100 to talk about SEO vs. Brand. With top Google content becoming more and more about optimization and less about content quality, people are going to communities like Reddit and private groups to get information. S...
Mar 09, 2022•1 hr 54 min
Community is a powerful tool in scaling a company. Marketo demonstrated just how powerful community was in B2B when they built Marketing Nation. It was one of the first communities of its kind in B2B and is one of the major factors that led to their domination in the CRM market. Today we're talking with Sarah Kennedy Ellis, former CMO at Marketo, and current VP of Global Growth & Demand at Google Cloud on how she used community to grow the company, as well as catapult her career.
Mar 06, 2022•55 min
We talk a lot about tactical execution on State of Demand Gen. But there’s another side of your marketing strategy that is just as important—your brand story. Your brand’s story is the backbone of your marketing strategy. It’s what creates deep loyalty to your brand over competitors. In this episode, we welcome back Dave Gerhardt to talk about the importance of building a story around your brand.
Mar 04, 2022•50 min
There has never been a better time to be a top-tier marketer. Demand is high and supply is low. But how do you become one of the top 1%? In this episode, Chris goes through his top 6 pieces of advice for marketers that are trying to become the best. These are all tips that he implemented himself and attributes to his own success and the success of Refine Labs.
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 15 min
Creating content in-house gives you a massive advantage in the market. Yet, content creation is still one of the most outsourced items for in-house marketing teams. When you outsource your content creation (and organic distribution) you lose key advantages. The first is that you don't give your in-house subject matter experts the ability to speak your company's unique value prop or opinions. The second is you aren't in the weeds on social media every day hearing what the market is saying about y...
Feb 27, 2022•49 min
Modern demand gen practices have not yet been adopted by many companies in the EMEA region. In this episode of State of Demand Gen, Chris talks with Adam Holmgren on what companies across the pond need to do to get started using modern demand gen and how it can positively impact their business.
Feb 25, 2022•40 min
Pipeline velocity isn't just about pipeline creation. Pipeline velocity uses 3 historical metrics (win rate, ACV, and sales cycle length) to forecast forward. Most companies only look at pipeline creation. They don't look at sales cycle length. They don't look at win rates or conversation rates. And they don't look at ACVs. The beauty of pipeline velocity is that in order to drive growth, you can play with any one of the metrics that are used to calculate it. In this episode, Chris dives deep in...
Feb 23, 2022•51 min
