It is increasingly hard to win the minds and hearts in an increasingly competitive SaaS arena. People now use so many different SaaS apps they won't tolerate bad UX and learn each in detail.
This is why it is more mission-critical than ever to activate the users we acquired and lead them toward their optimal user experience.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
Standard popups, emails, and push notifications get ignored.
Best-in-class SaaS companies use personalized onboarding experiences.
However, not everyone has Amazon or Netflix machine learning capacities for mass personalization.
How can you build meaningful, personalized product activation experiences for users that will make their day instead of annoy them?
James Evans, co-founder and CEO of CommandBar, an AI-powered User Assistance platform used by Clearbit, AngelList, Convertkit, Hashicorp, Gusto, 6sense, Netlify, Launchdarkly and many others. The team served 20M end users in merely four years, supported by $24M capital from Insight, Itai Tsiddon, Thrive, and YC.
James and I discussed the future of activation and how to craft Go-to-market strategies for AI-first products.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-evans-7086b3126/
James shared his thoughts on positioning and category creation on Kyle Poyar’s Substack Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/category-creation
CommandBar’s pitch deck (also featured by TechCrunch): https://www.commandbar.com/blog/commandbars-seed-deck/
How James thinks about pricing for SaaS AI products: https://www.commandbar.com/blog/ai-saas-pricing/
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GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
If you work on B2B solutions, you will want to build an audience on LinkedIn. Adam Robinson grew his LinkedIn audience from 0 to 80k Followers in 18 months.
Adam Robinson is CEO at Retention.com and RB2B. Just 12 weeks after its launch, RB2B, a tool that helps B2B businesses identify anonymous website visitors, crossed $800,000 in ARR - 100% organically.
Many founders, growth experts, and product managers I speak with can quickly come up with 101 reasons why they should not be doing what Adam did. I presented Adam with some potential objections, and he addressed all of them.
Links:
https://gtmstrategist.substack.com/p/how-to-win-the-linkedin-game-fair
https://www.rb2b.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/retentionadam/
https://www.youtube.com/@retentiondotcom
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GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/majavoje/
https://gtmstrategist.substack.com/
Ivana Todorovic is the founder of AuthoredUp, the beloved tool for LinkedIn content creators.
Ivana and her team are obsessed with the quality of the product. They run periodical research in which they analyze millions of LinkedIn posts to create independent LinkedIn algorithm reports and make their product even more awesome.
In this episode, we’ll explore how to organize your LinkedIn content creation process. Let’s make your posts resonate with your target audience and fit content creation into your busy schedule.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivanatodorovic/
23 Proven LinkedIn Hooks Template
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GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/majavoje/
https://gtmstrategist.substack.com/
Try Landbot - AI-powered chatbot at https://bit.ly/3WMzEWk
Imagine you have to explain your GTM strategy to a room full of high school students. How would you simplify it to make it both engaging and understandable for them?
In this solo episode, I simplified GTM strategy for you. Based on a field test from 100 founders, I created a template that will lead you to actionable insights in 60 minutes.
Get the GTM Power Hour template here: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVK-mFlnQ=/
All frameworks and a 350-page book on GTM with examples are available here: https://gtmstrategist.com/.
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Try Landbot - AI-powered chatbot at https://bit.ly/3WMzEWk
Bruno Estrella is Head of Growth at Clay, a company that offers data enrichment and outbound features. More than 30,000 GTM teams use Clay. Prior to this, Bruno was Director of Marketing at Webflow, a popular low-or-no-code website builder that is a product-led business. Webflow grew to 9 figures in ARR and raised +300M. Interestingly, Bruno started his career in content marketing and paid digital, giving him a comprehensive understanding of the entire spectrum of GTM Motions. In this episode, we focused on outbound, which is often undervalued. We discussed whether there is some bias we should overcome or if we should simply learn how to sell better before we can sell at scale? Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunoestrella/ https://www.clay.com/?via=299452 -- GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
Aakash Gupta is an EPIC Product and Growth leader. He has vast experience in product leadership roles at hyper-growing companies such as affirm, EPIC games, and Apollo.io, where he rose to VP of Product at $1.6B Series C. He also has a mega-popular Substack (109K followers) and LinkedIn, where he has more than 200K followers. I love to joke that all the other 4Ps of marketing spend money, and pricing makes it. So why do so many people shy away from it? In this episode, we discussed pricing and packaging hands-on using examples. Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aagupta/ - Aakash on LinkedIn (205K) https://www.news.aakashg.com/ - Aakash’s Substack (109K) https://twitter.com/aakashg0?lang=en - Aakash on X The Ultimate Guide to B2B SaaS Pricing & Packaging (https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/ultimate-guide-b2b-saas-pricing) -- GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
Jason Knight is a product management consultant and fractional CPO. He is the host of "One Knight in Product" podcast and the accompanying community. We discussed product management, consulting, fractional roles, how to get the best value out of consultants/advisors/mentors/experts, and how to go solo if you want to. Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-knight/ https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/ https://twitter.com/onejasonknight https://oneknightinproduct.substack.com/ The article about fractional leadership: https://oneknightinproduct.substack.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-fractional -- GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
If you are a B2B company, it is almost inevitable that one of your top 3 GTM motions will either be cold outreach or account-based sales. It just works.
And most companies that I train, mainly technical founders, would like to avoid it at all costs.
They find it cringe. No one likes to be rejected, and finding high-quality resources to do it yourself is hard.
I asked Matúš Kučera, a seasoned B2B sales expert and a Head of Delivery / Partner of SALESDOCk, to review my top 3 offers and give me feedback on how to improve them.
Matúš helped me realize which offers are more profitable for me, how long it would take me to deliver on the promise, and what I should be pushing more of. He also consulted me on pricing models.
I liked his input so much that I wanted to bring his wisdom to the GTM Strategist podcast. I hope you will benefit from listening to Matúš as much as I did.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matus-kucera-1a166426/
https://www.salesdock.com/sales-academy GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
Eleanor Thompson is Founder & Principal Consultant at Branchworks, a London-based consultancy specializing in partnerships. In this episode, Eleanor will help us navigate the wonderful world of “stronger together” and share tactics on how to develop successful and sustainable partnerships.
Eleanor has a strong portfolio of building partnerships for tech companies. She built 10 partner programs for over $50m of ARR and successfully activated over 100 partnerships. Prior to setting up Branchworks, Eleanor worked with a range of companies, including Microsoft, Softcat, Blue Prism & Fivetran.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleanorthompson10/
GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/majavoje/
https://gtmstrategist.substack.com/
Meet Maja every THU at 18:00 CET - Register for free office hours here: https://forms.gle/w9WXUWRkSTbWR2tX6
Andrej Peršolja is a positioning expert who helps tech companies create a clear and compelling message for their products. Andrej believes products fail not because the product is bad, but because the product is miscommunicated and users don’t see the value in it.
He worked with more than 200 companies so far, including names like the LinkedIn superstar Richard van der Blom.
Andrej aims to make company positioning practical with his proprietary positioning framework that focuses on executing tangible tests leading to a sustainable and growing funnel.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/apersolja/
https://tidycal.com/tangible-growth/discovery-call
https://miro.com/miroverse/startup-positioning-framework-template/
Sign up for a live positioning roast by Andrej: https://forms.gle/cgVtqsUedu1hNyn16
GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/majavoje/
https://gtmstrategist.substack.com/
Meet Maja every THU at 18:00 CET - Register for free office hours here: https://forms.gle/w9WXUWRkSTbWR2tX6
Guillaume Moubeche is the founder & CEO of Lempire, a company that turns ambitious businesses into BIG names. His most famous product, lemlist, which he co-founded in 2018 with only $1 000, revolutionized email prospecting. Lempire went from 0 to a $150M valuation in 3.5 years bootstrapped. It is currently at $23M in ARR and has already helped 100,000+ people all over the world build and grow profitable businesses. In 2022 Guillaume published a best-selling book “The $150M Secret” where he shared his entrepreneurial journey and the secrets behind his business strategy. In this episode of Maja Voje's GTM Strategist Podcast, we discussed how to build a bootstrapped empire, how to create a $150 million business from Europe, and how to be a kick-ass in sales as a founder. Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/profit-led-growth/https://www.lemlist.com/ https://www.lempire.com/ The $150M Secret book: https://amzn.to/4bAuIJ7 https://www.instagram.com/guillaume_moubeche/?hl=en Masterclass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og6PgGUy-5w GTM Strategist: https://gtmstrategist.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/majavoje/ https://gtmstrategist.substack.com/
Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt is one of the world's leading experts in B2B SaaS pricing. He is the preferred pricing partner of organizations such as Microsoft Western Europe, SamsungNEXT, Intel IGNITE, SAP.io, Bosch Growth, and many leading private equity and VC funds.
Ulrik also wrote a best-selling book The Pricing Roadmap. He helped over 150 clients in the past 7 years.
In this episode, he helps us understand how to test willingness to pay in the go-to-market stage and how to optimize pricing.
Links:
Ulrik on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulriklehrskovschmidt/
The Pricing Roadmap book: https://amzn.to/47EJ5sx
https://www.willingnesstopay.com/
GTM Strategist:
https://gtmstrategist.com/
In this episode, we will uncover how to get to mysterious Product Market Fit, how to measure it, and how building in public helps to get to it faster.
With us is Enzo Avigo. He is a brilliant Product Leader who has worked at stellar companies such as Intercom, Zalando, N26, and many more.
Now, Enzo is a co-founder and CEO of the next-generation analytics tool for B2B SaaS - June.so.
June.so was admitted to Y Combinator, won the Data & Analytics Golden Kitty award on Product Hunt, and was the fastest-growing app based on the Twilio Segment data in 2022.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/enzoa/
Enzo's brand new YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@enzoavigo
VIP list for Enzo’s upcoming book: https://growthjam.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=852899896faba4e48a3de6941&id=5b123fd824
GTM Strategist:
Passionate about simplicity and good practical UX thinking, Thomas Fry has been the first designer at multiple start-ups, where he specialized in solving the problems faced when building and scaling your product. He’s worked with companies in multiple industries, such as Numarqe, ClearStake and Trustology (subsidiary of BitPanda).
In this episode, Thomas explains how understanding your product market fit, talking directly with your customers and optimizing your Time to Value is crucial for growing your business. When markets are this competitive, genuine customer research and user-led design create the USP to make you stand out to both customers and investors.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-fry/
Tom’s Portfolio: https://www.builtbyhumans.xyz/tom-fry
GTM Strategist:
Allan Dib is a serial entrepreneur, rebellious marketer, technology expert, consultant, and bestselling author.
A couple of years ago, I fell in love with the simplicity of his model 1-Page Marketing Plan, which is brilliant for GTM companies.
It covers all the parts of the customer journey and is easy to grasp, especially for busy founders and product people who do not want or have time to study marketing for a semester.
Allan is preparing to issue a new book in 2024, The Lean Marketing.
In our chat today, we will briefly present the model, comment on some relevant trends in marketing and sales that inspired his new book, and bring you tactical tips on how to win the hearts and minds of customers in the age of fierce competition and AI.
Allan’s links mentioned in the episode:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/allandib/
https://www.amazon.com/1-Page-Marketing-Plan-Customers-Money-ebook/
Upcoming book: https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Marketing-leads-profit-marketing-ebook/dp/B0CQ6T5KBY/ --
Get GTM Strategist book from $9.99: https://gtmstrategist.com/
GTM Strategist Substack: https://gtmstrategist.substack.com/
Maja Voje on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/majavoje/
Alexander Estner helps SaaS founders to hit the first €1 million in ARR. He is based in Munich, Germany, and has more than 10 years of experience in SaaS and marketplaces, from being the first employee of a fast-growing SaaS-enabled marketplace to being a Co-founder of a SaaS startup.
It is interesting to learn how founders and GTM practitioners bump into similar mistakes and biases on their GTM paths.
With Alex, we discussed mental barriers, misconceptions, and tackled other myths such as:
“We do not have any competition”
“Free trial will fix everything”
“Our ICP (ideal customer profile) is everyone, from solopreneurs to enterprises”
“We do not care about the churn; acquisition is what matters”
“We need to have a free plan to grow faster”
Links:
Alexander on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexander-estner
Alexander’s Ideal Customer Profile Framework template on Miro: https://miro.com/miroverse/customer-profile-framework-saas-template/
Startup Business Tips Newsletter
Get a GTM Strategist book: from $9.99 https://gtmstrategist.com/
GTM Strategist Substack: https://gtmstrategist.substack.com/
Maja Voje on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/majavoje/
Pierre-Jean Hillion is a growth manager at BlaBlaCar, the world's leading community-based travel network. He studied growth and product marketing at Reforge.
Today, we will tackle the art and science of Growth Loops and reveal how they can elevate your GTM journey.
When building a platform that needs supply and demand, where and how do you start? What are your best bets, and how do you tackle it from there?
Pierre-Jean also shared a couple of snippets from his personal brand-building journey. In a year of content creation, he grew an audience of over 3000 Substack subscribers and a strong 10K audience on LinkedIn. He does all his content by himself.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pierre-jean-hillion-growth/
https://thegrowthmind.substack.com/
Get my best-selling book GTM Strategist on Amazon: https://a.co/d/1Rgwkce
Tania Kefs is a co-founder and CEO of Jurnee. Previously, she led customer success and business development at the European unicorn Aircall, a cloud-based call center software. She was the first employee there.
Tania and I talked about the sales-led growth approach and how to do cold outreach when you are just starting.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tania-kefs/
Get my best-selling book GTM Strategist on Amazon: https://a.co/d/1Rgwkce
Dr. Else van der Berg is a product leader who has worked with over 20 startups and scale-ups, from bootstrapped to VC-backed. She is an expert on customer discovery and using research methods like a boss.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-else-van-der-berg-42b8b6a2/
https://elsevanderberg.substack.com/
This podcast is supported by and recorded on Riverside - https://riverside.fm
Get my best-selling book GTM Strategist on Amazon: https://a.co/d/1Rgwkce
Anthony Pierri is a co-founder of Fletch PMM and a kick-ass messaging expert.
In GTM not only product superiority, but also how you present it to the audiences makes or breaks your GTM objectives.
Anthony will tell us his secrets to presenting your product in a way to win the hearts and minds of your target audience. It is not just what you say - but how you say it, too.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonypierri/
https://www.growthunhinged.com/p/how-to-write-a-saas-homepage
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heyrobk/
This podcast is supported by and recorded on Riverside - https://riverside.fm
Get my best-selling book GTM Strategist on Amazon: https://a.co/d/1Rgwkce