SaaS Backwards - Reverse Engineering SaaS Success
Join us as we interview CEOs and CMOs of fast-growing SaaS firms to reveal what they are doing that’s working, and lessons learned from things that didn’t work as planned. These deep conversations dive into the dynamic world of SaaS B2B marketing, go-to-market strategies, and the SaaS business model. Content focuses on the pragmatic as well as strategic, providing a well-rounded diet for those running SaaS firms today. Hosted by Ken Lempit, Austin Lawrence Group’s president and chief business builder, who brings over 30 years of experience and expertise in helping software companies grow and their founders achieve their visions.
SaaS Backwards - Reverse Engineering SaaS Success
Ep. 37 - A clean slate for demand generation – MJ Peters, VP of Marketing for CoLab Software.
Having been with Refine Labs, MJ Peters knew how to sniff out the opportunity to work with a company that gets marketing.
Now four months into her new gig as the VP of Marketing for CoLab Software, MJ talks about building a demand gen first marketing model where marketing is measuring only Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) and Sales Accepted Opportunities (SAOs) as opposed to anything further up the funnel (like MQLs, content downloads, etc.) that’s normally tracked in the lead gen model.
That’s still hard to do—the industry has problem awareness (engineer tools live on a desktop making it hard to collaborate efficiently) but making the case to do anything about it is still a tough sell.
And it takes time. Demand gen happens more slowly than lead gen because you’re measuring lagging metrics instead of leading indicators.
Leadership has the stomach for it though. They’ve invested heavily in customer research, and MJ sees the opportunity to create a category for “Design Engagement Systems” where people would eventually search more on that term, leading right to them.
Given that most companies aren’t working with a blank slate, MJ also has advice for those that want to make the shift but can’t turn lead gen off overnight.
And as long as they’re open minded, the right marketing leader can have a big impact.
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Thanks for listening to the SaaS Backwards Podcast, brought to you by Austin Lawrence Group. We help SaaS firms reduce churn, accelerate sales, and generate demand. Learn more at AustinLawrence.com.
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