B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks Kalungi

In B2B SaaS, the expectations for a $10,000/mo marketing team are totally different from a $100,000/mo one. 
As a Founder, CEO, COO or CMO, you need a way to know:
• How do I forecast the amount of lead gen and revenue results to expect?
• How large a marketing team do I really need?
B2B SaaS companies move through predictable stages of marketing focus, cost and size (as described in the popular T2D3 book). With people cost being a majority of the cost involved, every hire needs to be well worth the investment.
B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks is one of the most respected voices in the SaaS industry. It is hosted by two leading marketing and revenue growth experts for software:
Stijn Hendrikse: Author of T2D3 CMO Masterclass & Book, Founder of KalungiBrian Graf: CEO of KalungiBefore you spend a single dollar on building a marketing team, you need to know how much is “just right.” Leaders who are tasked – directly or indirectly – with budgeting and reporting oversight for growing SaaS revenue, like CFOs and COOs (as well as their fractional counterparts) can struggle how to get this marketing function right at first. 
Where to point the effort? How quick to move? How far to go? There are GTM priorities, bandwidth, competitors, frictions, multiple focuses to consider. Some things yield quick returns and others create deep trends that will need time to unfold.
If all expectations are correct, results get delivered as promised and the revenue arrives on schedule. Any needed course corrections get identified and made early. If not, you could be in for a rough journey.
Top founders and COOs in B2B SaaS inspect what they expect. This episode will help you know what to expect so you will be inspecting the right things and getting what you expect!Resources shared in this episode:
Kalungi - Calculate your marketing budgetStijn Hendrikse - A guide to sales strategy & performance management Stijn Hendrikse - How to coach B2B sales teamsStijn Hendrikse - How to present marketing reports to your board (w/ template)Template - Define your marketing and sales lifecycle stagesT2D3 CMO MasterclassSubmit and vote on our podcast topicsABOUT B2B SAAS MARKETING SNACKSSince 2020, The B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks Podcast has offered software company founders, investors and leadership a fresh source of insights into building a complete and efficient engine for growth.
Meet our Marketing Snacks Podcast Hosts: 
Stijn Hendrikse: Author of T2D3 Masterclass & Book, Founder of KalungiAs a serial entrepreneur and marketing leader, Stijn has contributed to the success of 20+ startups as a C-level executive, including Chief Revenue Officer of Acumatica, CEO of MightyCall, a SaaS contact center solution, and leading the initial global Go-to-Market for Atera, a B2B SaaS Unicorn. Before focusing on startups, Stijn led global SMB Marketing and B2B Product Marketing for Microsoft’s Office platform.Brian Graf: CEO of KalungiAs CEO of Kalungi, Brian provides high-level strategy, tactical execution, and business leadership expertise to drive long-term growth for B2B SaaS. Brian has successfully led clients in all aspects of marketing growth, from positioning and messaging to event support, product announcements, and channel-spend optimizations, generating qualified leads and brand awareness for clients while prioritizing ROI. Before Kalungi, Brian worked in television advertising, specializing in business intelligence and campaign optimization, and earned his MBA at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business with a focus in finance and marketing.Visit Kalungi.com to learn more about growing your B2B SaaS company.

Many sales forecasts are inaccurate. Let's make yours more predictable:

1. Ground your projections in actual data instead of feelings. 
Many forecasts are based on opinion rather than actual data. If you’ve been in business for 3 or more months, you likely have access to data you can use. Let’s say you had 20 demos and 2 closed-won deals in the past three months—with this information, you can start to build a picture of your conversion rates. Roughly 10% of your demos convert to closed-won deals. And you can use that number as a starting point to calculate pipeline stage probabilities and weighted pipeline metrics based on actual historical data.

2. Maintain good deal stage hygiene.

Data hygiene always suffers when changes are made to pipeline stage names, conversion rate assumptions, or entry/exit criteria. This typically happens when sales or marketing leadership changes. If a stage is added or removed, it can have many downstream effects on reporting and conversion rate assumptions. The best way to avoid this is by being thoughtful and deliberate when building your deal stages—and sticking to them. Here are some best practices for deal stage setup: 
Only keep the necessary stages. 3–7 stages should cover most B2B scenarios. Too many stages can make upkeep harder for your sales team.Don’t allow for "parking lot" stages. Don't create stages that collect stalled deals. A typical example of this is “Discovery call no-show.” Instead of a unique deal stage, that should be converted to a property with a Yes/No value.Make stage entry/exit criteria discrete. Binary (yes/no) criteria should determine deal entry into each stage. For example, “Stage 1: Demo call scheduled” is clear, well-defined, and verifiable. A deal can only enter this stage if a prospect has a scheduled demo call calendar event with your sales rep. This is much more concrete than Stage 1: “Demoing,” which leaves room for ambiguity and subjective interpretation.Deals should only travel in one direction. Deals should never move backward in your funnel—you can’t ‘un-present’ a demo or proposal. Install rules to close out stalled deals (which inflate your pipeline), but never move deals backward.Percentage closure forecasts from stage to stage should be meaningful. For example, if a deal moves from Stage 1 to Stage 2, the change in the forecasted close rate should be significant—15% or more. If the forecast difference between two different stages is small (5%–10%), consider combining them into a single stage.Hold salespeople accountable for accurate data. What often seems like unimportant data entry has important implications for analyzing your marketing efforts, funnel dynamics, and ICP strategies.____
Links shared in this episode:
Stijn Hendrikse - A guide to sales strategy & performance management Stijn Hendrikse - How to coach B2B sales teamsMike Northfield - How to define an MQL for B2B SaaSTemplate - Define your marketing and sales lifecycle stagesT2D3 CMO MasterclassSubmit and vote on our podcast topics

A simple 4-step approach to get your goals back on track:
Define the problem. Write it down—be specific. Make sure everyone agrees on the problem. This step is incomplete until everyone interprets the problem in the same way.Uncover the ~real~ root cause. People often jump too quickly to conclusions and favor obvious explanations for symptoms. Most problems are nuanced with many contributing factors. Try to unpack all of the potential causes.Document all possible solutions. Once you’ve uncovered the root cause, go from theory to execution. List out all of the things you can do to move the needle.Build the plan and execute. Prioritize your to-do list and get after it. ____
Links shared in this episode:
T2D3 CMO Masterclass: t2d3.pro/masterclassSubmit and vote on our podcast topics: kalungi.com/podcast

Jason Fried (37Signals) recently published an open challenge to the software subscription model—their stance is that customers should once again be able to buy and own software products. To pay for them once and own the source code.

We discuss both models' pros and cons and speculate why Jason and the 37Signals teams introduced this strategy and manifesto. Here are some of our key takeaways:
In the last few years, many software companies were able to get away with neglecting the second “s” in SaaS (service). But given the state of the tech industry, that’s now sometimes a determinant factor in whether or not someone continues using a product. We talk more about this in episode 44.Whether you sell software in a subscription model or through one-time version purchases or pay-per-update, there will almost always be a need for product innovation and support—to help customers succeed with the product and to maintain compatibility with hardware and browser changes. That can be paid for in service subscription fees (hence, the term, SaaS), or in other ways: for example, you could buy and own a software product, but the tradeoff is that you may need to coordinate and pay for server space, technical expertise to maintain it, and you’re stuck with a single version. The software world has trended toward the first model the last 10 years, but now people are starting to challenge this concept. For many products that aren’t consistently improving (or, in some cases, becoming bloated or harder to use)—customers often wonder, “What am I paying a continuous subscription for?” Supporting a pay-once model is an interesting positioning and differentiation play—and could be one of the underlying components of 37Signals’ strategy. For customers who’ve ever felt burned by the traditional SaaS model, a product that supports a pay-once philosophy could help you stand out from the competition.___
Links shared in this episode:
37Signals manifesto: once.comT2D3 CMO Masterclass: t2d3.pro/masterclassSubmit and vote on our podcast topics: kalungi.com/podcast

Google has always guarded its search ranking factors. But thanks to the recent antitrust suit between the DOJ and Google, we now get a glimpse into the inner workings of their ranking systems through previously confidential internal documents. 
Here’s what we’ve confirmed about the process so far:Whenever new content is published and indexed on the internet, Google’s goal is to (as fast as possible) understand how relevant it is for searchers using its engine.
Google uses three main factors of a document (or article) to do this:
- Body - What a document says about itself (i.e., what do the URL, meta title, meta description, and body text signal about the content—will this be relevant for any existing search terms?)- Anchor - What the web says about the document (i.e., which other websites link to the document, do they also have authority in the same domain, what words are used in the hyperlink?) - User interactions - How readers respond to a document (i.e., clicks on the website, time spent on the result, clicks beyond the result page, subsequent searches, etc.) 
User interactions are the most critical ranking factor. If users show they're satisfied with the content delivered by a particular search query, Google further strengthens the relationship between the two. Here are some of the ways a user can signal satisfaction with the delivered content:
- The user stays on the page- The user clicks through to other pages from the result content- The user doesn’t leave the page and returns to Google to continue their search (Google sees this kind of behavior—a bounce—as an indicator that they didn't get what they came for).
The first few days after your content is indexed are critical. Google will ‘test’ your content with select audiences and search queries it thinks could match. It will continue to serve the content if user response signals are good. If user response is poor, it will deprioritize it or experiment with its delivery in alternate search queries. 
Content that summarizes information won’t cut it anymore. There are tools for that now. Content that will win will take information and add specificity, insights, and real-world examples that can only be gained from experience.
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Links shared in this episode:
Eric Hoffer - philosopher and master of original thoughtSearch Engine Land article - 7 must-see Google Search ranking documents in antitrust trial exhibitsT2D3 CMO Masterclass: t2d3.pro/masterclassSubmit and vote on our podcast topics: kalungi.com/podcast

Our best practices for presenting your marketing plan to the board of directors as companies are in the thick of 2024 planning.

General guidelines:

First, there are general guidelines you should always keep in mind when presenting your plan to the board:
Come prepared - Don’t present plans that aren’t pressure tested. If you ask for money, be ready to answer questions about the specifics—results, how you’ll get there, data behind your hypotheses. 
Lead with the red - You’re not expected to be perfect at your job, but you do need to show that you’re the perfect person for your job. There will always be things that don’t go according to plan—you need to differentiate between what's relevant and irrelevant. Leading with things that can be done better can give you credibility. Don’t hide things that aren't working right now.
Come with solutions - Prioritize and propose solutions for the things that didn’t go well. There are many ways to add revenue to the bottom line without creating new leads or MQLs. Think about other levers you can pull to impact revenue—here are 50+ examples to consider.
Adopt a GTM mindset - Approach these conversations with the perspective that you are a go-to-market leader, not just a marketing leader. Everything in your company is intertwined. Ensure you're aligned with (and supporting) your other GTM leaders—Sales, Product, Success, etc.—in their efforts. Don’t present a marketing plan; present a holistic go-to-market approach and demonstrate how marketing’s role fits into it.
Presenting your plan to the board.

Your goal at the board meeting is to get alignment between the board and the CEO on three core metrics:
Overall growth target - Your company’s reasonable growth aspiration. Consider what’s happening in the overall market and category you play in. This number gives you a foundation to forecast what you need to generate from your funnel.
Net-revenue retention (NRR) - What will your revenue look like after expansions, upsells, churn, and contractions? For context, 2–3% churn is best-in-class. Aim for NRR above 100%.
Profitability - What's the balance between growth and the cost of that growth? For every dollar that you spend, what will get returned?____

Links shared in this episode:
The Ansoff Matrix exercise for aligning your team around your growth priorities50+ growth lever examples for your go-to-market plan Jason Lemkin’s C10/C60/C90 frameworkT2D3 CMO MasterclassSuggest a topic for our podcast____
About B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks

B2B SaaS Marketing Snacks (BSMS) is a podcast produced by Kalungi that simplifies complex marketing topics in small bites. Hosted by Mike Northfield, Kalungi’s Chief Evangelist, and Stijn Hendrikse, Kalungi’s co-founder.

Kalungi is a marketing agency that works with early-stage software startups. Kalungi is an instant-on marketing department that builds and deploys go-to markets for early-stage B2B SaaS companies using T2D3 methodologies. Clients get access to a strategic marketing leader that can be held accountable to results and is supported by a team of tactical marketing specialists.