Building meaningful connections with individuals using different channels can be more effective than running an ABM program that only provides a shallow understanding of what’s happening within an account. In this week’s SaaS Backwards podcast episode, we spoke with Dmitri Lisitski, Co-Founder and CEO at Influ2 , a person-based advertising platform that allows you to reach specific people within target accounts and see who interacts with your ads. Dmitri takes us behind the scenes and discusses ...
Oct 11, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 40
We often emphasize the importance of understanding what’s being talked about in sales conversations to shape content strategy and tell unique, compelling stories. In this week's SaaS Backwards podcast episode, we talk with Parthi Loganathan, Founder and CEO of Letterdrop , a platform designed to help companies do just that. Parthi explains how Letterdrop’s AI assists companies in creating content that resonates with more buyers by leveraging the language their customers actually use, cutting dow...
Sep 20, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 39
The ability to leverage data and prioritize sales and marketing efforts is essential to the success of enterprises with broad addressable markets. Recognizing the struggles enterprises face in managing vast amounts of data, this week’s SaaS Backwards podcast guest Elio Narciso, saw an opportunity to improve how sales reps identify targets and prioritize their efforts. Elio is the Co-founder and CEO of Scalestack , an all-in-one data enrichment, prioritization, and activation platform that allows...
Sep 13, 2024•36 min
Consolidating sales and marketing into the office of the CRO might be a controversial topic, but it can be healthy for demand and sales functions to become enmeshed. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards podcast, our guest Cliff Simon, CRO of Carabiner Group , explains how aligning demand and sales functions can create a more cohesive and effective go-to-market strategy. Cliff shares his belief that companies need to have a unified leader at the very top of everything go-to-market. He breaks dow...
Sep 06, 2024•27 min•Season 3Ep. 37
With all the current tools and technology available to salespeople, many have naturally slipped into a less personal approach than what used to be the norm. As a result, their calls and emails are ignored, and they struggle to get quality leads. This highlights the need to go “back to the future,” or back to the basics, and adopt a personality-driven, people-forward sales approach to cut through the noise. In this episode, we spoke with Alex Grace, the founder and CEO of Velocity Sales Consultin...
Aug 30, 2024•36 min•Season 3Ep. 36
According to this year’s B2B TrustRadius Buying Disconnect Report , where they surveyed 200 B2B brands and over 2000 tech buyers, 2024 is the “year of the brand crisis.” Across the board, brands are spending 38% on brand marketing and 53% on demand, which is understandable given the shorter time frame to justify ROI. The problem is that buyers make decisions based largely on who they’re familiar with, so those who have established recognition and trust over time will be the winners. In this epis...
Aug 23, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 35
In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we spoke with Steve Oriola, CEO of Unbounce , a landing page platform empowering marketers by combining their expertise with AI insights to create and optimize high-converting marketing campaigns. Steve discussed Unbounce’s recent acquisition of Insightly , a robust CRM with advanced AI and machine learning capabilities that addresses the needs of mid-sized organizations. He explained how this merger aims to break down silos between marketing and sa...
Aug 09, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 34
Paid advertising is often one of the largest budget items for SaaS companies, making it a critical channel for facilitating sales and driving growth. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we flipped the script and had our very own Ken Lempit, President and Chief Business Builder at Austin Lawrence Group, as the guest. Ken shared his insights on the challenges SaaS companies face in achieving capital efficiency in their go-to-market strategies, particularly focusing on advertising. Our c...
Jul 26, 2024•29 min•Season 3Ep. 33
To drive sales and growth, SaaS companies need to have clear messaging, target the right prospects, and leverage industry expertise. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we spoke with Will Robinson, CEO of Encapture , a platform specializing in intelligent document processing for industries like banking, lending, and insurance. Will discussed the challenges associated with selling to highly regulated banking institutions and his strategies for overcoming them, emphasizing the importanc...
Jul 19, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 32
Listen, assess, plan, execute, iterate. This week’s podcast guest Janet Jaiswal outlines these as the essential steps in developing and implementing successful marketing strategies in the SaaS industry. Janet Jaiswal is Blueshift 's Global VP of Marketing and has 20 years of experience in B2B SaaS marketing, working with companies like IBM, eBay, and PayPal. In this episode of SaaS Backwards, she discusses her expertise in scaling companies through effective go-to-market strategies and the impor...
Jul 12, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 31
A community can be a "cheat code" for rapid learning and career advancement, and this week’s guest knows that better than most. In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Kathleen Booth, SVP of Marketing and Growth at Pavilion , the world's largest private community for go-to-market leaders. Our conversation explores the concept of community-led growth and how Pavilion encourages this by providing a platform for members to grow their network, sharpen their skills, and develop lifelong...
Jul 05, 2024•43 min•Season 3Ep. 30
The transition from product-led growth (PLG) to an enterprise sales motion is a strategic shift that many SaaS companies are making in order to accelerate growth and enhance profitability. This transition is driven by a variety of factors, including the need to scale, reach new markets, and meet the evolving needs of customers. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we had the pleasure of hosting Juan Jaysingh, founder and CEO of Zingtree , an AI-enabled customer experience automation pl...
Jun 28, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 29
Transitioning from a Product-Led Growth (PLG) motion to an enterprise sales motion requires strategic alignment and effective change management within a SaaS Marketing team. In this week’s episode, we discussed the challenges and considerations in this transition with Karen Budell, the CMO of Totango + Catalyst , two SaaS software companies collaborating to drive sustainable revenue through customer relationships. Budell highlights the significance of grasping the nuances of the buyer's journey ...
Jun 21, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 28
SaaS entrepreneurs must be adaptable and willing to pivot based on feedback and market needs. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we spoke with Mo Hallaba, the CEO of Datawisp , a company that simplifies data analysis for business users. Mo discusses the challenges he faced in user acquisition for his gaming platform and how a networking group he started for the gaming industry led him to meet his current co-founders. Mo shares his unconventional journey from finance to entrepreneursh...
Jun 14, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 27
With the growing frustration among marketers with traditional pay-per-click and social media advertising, what can a SaaS CMO do to get their message in front of the right people at the right time? In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, Co-Founder and CEO of SparkToro Rand Fishkin joins us to discuss how they’re solving this problem by providing valuable data on where to reach target audiences outside major platforms like Google and Facebook. SparkToro is a market research and audience i...
Jun 07, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 26
Utilizing the network effect by onboarding partners of customers simultaneously can lead to organic growth and increased platform adoption in SaaS companies. In this episode, Doug Heckman, Chief Solutions Officer at Surefront , discusses how they leveraged the network effect to drive and accelerate the adoption of their collaborative platform. By providing a no-cost license to every partner of their customers and handling the onboarding and training process at their own expense, Surefront facili...
May 31, 2024•37 min•Season 3Ep. 25
The role of thought leadership is changing in content marketing, especially for SaaS companies. In this special episode hosted by Jason Myers, our usual host Ken Lempit, President and Chief Strategist of Austin Lawrence, takes the guest seat to dive deep into the evolving landscape of content marketing and thought leadership for SaaS companies. Ken and Jason discuss the shift towards creating high-quality, credible content that can truly engage and move prospects off their status quo, driven by ...
May 24, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 24
In SaaS companies, there’s a need for sales and marketing teams to work together closely toward common goals and understand each other’s perspectives. Amy Osmond Cook, co-founder and CMO at Fullcast recognizes this need. Fullcast’s platform ensures all teams can access the same data to establish seamless communication and strategic alignment, eliminating revenue pain points and improving overall business efficiency. In this episode, Amy shares her journey from running a marketing agency to co-fo...
May 17, 2024•34 min•Season 3Ep. 23
Building a strong foundation is essential for long-term business success, especially when faced with unexpected challenges. We spoke with Dave Dittenber, Co-Founder and CEO of BYOD , who faced the ultimate challenge with the unexpected passing of his Co-Founder, Frank Luijckx. He recounts the loss and emphasizes how Frank’s forward-thinking and meticulous planning had a lasting positive impact on the business’s trajectory and contributed to its continued success. In this episode, Dave shares his...
May 10, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 22
Building a business with the intention of a future sale requires meticulous planning and organization from the outset. In this episode, Payment Brokers Founder and CEO Jeremy Lessaris, a serial founder with multiple successful exits, emphasizes the importance of the early organization of books, records, contracts, and agreements as a critical factor in boosting valuation and streamlining the exit process. Jeremy also stresses the significance of maintaining a well-organized data room for due dil...
May 03, 2024•37 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Enterprise search has been around for quite some time, and it often conjures images of outdated intranet searches within the confines of an organization's internal networks. So how do you shift the focus from “old school” methods to a more dynamic, AI-powered approach that connects various applications, enabling intelligent query responses and contextually relevant summaries? That’s the gist of the conversation with Brandon Most, Head of Marketing at GoLinks. In this episode, he also delves into...
Apr 26, 2024•33 min•Season 3Ep. 20
With a startling low average tenure of 18 months, today’s Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is struggling. The pressure primarily stems from the need to drive growth in a capital-efficient manner. This includes rapidly accelerating revenue growth while managing and optimizing the cost of sales and marketing operations, often within a constrained budget or shifting economic conditions. It's this intense focus on both top-line growth and cost efficiency that’s contributing to the high turnover and short...
Apr 19, 2024•31 min•Season 3Ep. 19
We all know video is important to grow exposure, but creating enough is still challenging. The tools are complex, production is expensive, and it can be overwhelming just to come up with ideas. In this episode, Aug X Labs founder Jeremy Toeman talks about his personal frustration with the complex tools just to make basic videos that can be used on websites and in social media posts that led to the creation of the company. And their goal is to make video creation as simple as writing an email. Tr...
Apr 12, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 18
If you went to the doctor for a sore throat and she said, “Last time I had one, this is what helped me get better” versus “I looked at the clinical trial evidence for 5000 people with your symptoms in your age range, geographics, and background,” which of those solutions is more viable? That’s how Sahil Patel, CEO of Spiralyze views the world of A/B testing. Spiralyze crawls and scrapes 34,000 websites that A/B test to find the repeat winners, analyze why they won, and run those same tests for i...
Apr 05, 2024•32 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Feedback is not just a tool for improving products, but a strategic asset that can drive growth, innovation, and competitive advantage. In this episode, Satya Ganni, CEO of Beamer and Userflow , explains the importance of feedback in reducing churn in product-led SaaS companies. Feedback provides valuable insights into customer needs, preferences, and pain points, which makes it a critical component of product management success. By listening to customer feedback, Beamer is able to identify area...
Mar 29, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 16
In this episode, we delved into the transformative power of algorithms in business with Jason Radisson, CEO & founder of Movo , a platform that provides real-time scheduling flexibility and improved workforce management for large companies with frontline workers. Jason recounted his time at Harrah's Entertainment, where they used data to optimize customer interactions and significantly increase profitability over others on the strip. He explains how his background in algorithmic management h...
Mar 22, 2024•36 min•Season 3Ep. 15
As a startup with shaky product market fit, prospective customers often want to associate you with a mature category so they can determine where it might fit in their tech stack—or not. But for Warmly , the existing categories represented only a small subset of their capabilities—albeit cheaper than the mature tools. And they couldn’t just settle for being known as "Drift but cheaper.” In this episode, Alan Zhao details his transition from CTO to marketing chief, a move that was pivotal in steer...
Mar 15, 2024•38 min•Season 3Ep. 14
As a seasoned sales expert and popular sales podcaster, Brian Burns has more than a few opinions about how companies are selling to the enterprise today. Most notably, because reps haven’t been taught the difference, they try to make up for the lack of pipeline by increasing outreach activity. That may have worked in 2011 when the Predictable Revenue Model gained prominence (and our inboxes weren’t flooded with sales pitches). But today, the compartmentalization of prospecting and closing won’t ...
Mar 08, 2024•30 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Originally, the founders of Plytix set out to create an analytics platform for e-commerce that measured the performance of a product (instead of a website) so brands could see how end users interact with them, even when sold on a third-party website. But even after positive early traction and investment, they were stalled—many of the brands didn’t have their product information at the ready. So, they built a simple source of truth—a Product Information Management (PIM) so they could get access t...
Mar 01, 2024•36 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Having moved from a miserable culture in investment banking to an incredibly positive one at tech startup ZipRecruiter, Jonathan Fields learned early in his career the profound impact culture has on an organization. So inspired, in fact, that he and his co-founders worked nights and weekends to create a platform that could make those elements scalable and easy for companies to adopt. The result is Assembly , a platform that focuses on creating opportunities for coworkers to connect beyond work-r...
Feb 23, 2024•34 min
