Guest: Warren Zenna, Founder of The CRO Collective Scaling a SaaS company is no walk in the park. At a certain point, operational complexity demands more than just growth—it demands cross-functional alignment. Enter the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).In this episode, we dive into the evolving role of the CRO with expert Warren Zenna, founder of The CRO Collective and Zenna Consulting Group, and host of the CRO Spotlight podcast.Warren unpacks why misalignment between Sales, Marketing, ...

Pricing and packaging can either bog down your go-to-market engine or fuel it to peak performance.This week’s SaaS Backwards podcast features Dan Balcauski, Founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility, a consultancy that helps high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products. In this episode, Dan discusses the critical role pricing plays in a SaaS business model and why leadership teams must view it as a dynamic lever, not a "set-it-and-forget-it" elem...

Gifting can be a powerful outbound strategy that captures attention far more effectively than an email. In this week’s SaaS Backwards podcast episode, we spoke with Kris Rudeegraap, Co-CEO and Co-Founder at Sendoso, a gifting and direct mail platform that helps revenue teams 6x second call rates, double win rates, and close deals 29% faster.Kris shared how his background in software sales and experience with gifting inspired him to create Sendoso. He provided insights into the company’s ...

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 disc...

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...

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...

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...

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 Consulti...

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. I...

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 ...

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 ...

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 imp...

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...

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 li...

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 a...

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 jo...

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 entrepreneurs...

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 aud...

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...

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 qu...

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-f...

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 shar...

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 ...

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 int...