The Transaction

Craig Rosenberg & Matt Amundson | B2B Sales & Marketing Experts - Hosts of The Transaction
  • 5.0 (7)
  • BUSINESS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Welcome to The Transaction. The #1 Go-To-Market podcast on the planet. Hosts Craig Rosenberg and Matt Amundson, two legendary go-to-market leaders in their own right, talk weekly with the best sales, marketing, operations, and product leaders in the B2B SaaS world to understand what's working in the new playbook of the post-ZIRP market. But Craig, Matt, and their guests don't just talk theoretically, they share the stories and actionable tips, tactics, and strategies behind what's driving revenue growth that you can take and implement in your own go-to-market roles. Whether you're a Chief Revenue Officer leading a B2B SaaS sales and marketing organization, a marketing leader trying to drive bigger outcomes with your demand gen team, or a new sales rep, you'll learn and laugh every episode. From ABM to PLG, from MEDDIC to MEDDPICC, the world of business is constantly evolving. We’ll cover the who, what, where, when, why and most importantly how you get… The Transaction. About Your Hosts Craig Rosenberg is the Chief Platform Officer at Scale Venture Partners. He is a seasoned expert in B2B revenue growth, helping SaaS companies transition from founder-led growth to becoming high-growth Go-To-Market machines. Previously, Craig was a Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner and co-founder of TOPO Inc., a research and advisory firm acquired by Gartner in 2020. Craig thinks Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Matt Amundson is the Chief Marketing Officer of DuploCloud. He is also an advisor for companies such as Sendoso and Salesloft. Prior to DuploCloud, Matt spent time as an Executive In Residence with Scale Venture Partners and led marketing departments at Census, Very Good Security, and Everstring, to name a few. Matt thinks Die Hard 2 is better than Die Hard. The Transaction is produced by Sam Guertin.

  1. How the Most Successful B2B Marketing Teams are Winning with Omar Akhtar, Founder of Benchmarker - Ep 72

    JAN 20

    How the Most Successful B2B Marketing Teams are Winning with Omar Akhtar, Founder of Benchmarker - Ep 72

    Surprise: Doing ‘more with less’, doesn’t actually work in B2B marketing, and today’s guest has the data to show it. Omar Akhtar is the Founder and Principal Analyst of Benchmarker and the Director of Content at UserTesting. Omar joins co-hosts Matt Amundson & Craig Rosenberg to dive into the B2B marketing data from Benchmarker’s latest survey, why the most successful companies are spending more on brand than demand, and how events have emerged as one of the top growth channels in go-to-market. Plus, Omar digs into when to prioritize paid versus organic channels in your marketing mix. Also, Craig outlines the plans for his kid’s booze-fueled birthday party, Matt laughs at an inopportune moment, and Producer Sam says ‘raccoon’.  Critical Takeaways Doing more with less is dead. You can’t cut your way to growth. Marketing leaders need to choose between efficient growth or exponential growth and spend accordingly. The companies that are actually hitting or exceeding their targets are spending at least the same, if not more, on brand as they are on demand. The companies that are performing the worst are overspending on demand over brand marketing.When new account growth is the priority, marketing teams should lean into paid search and paid social even though they’re expensive, because these paid channels can deliver faster growth and can outperform organic channels for reach.Dinners and small events can be great, but you can easily ruin them by being overly pushy and sales-y. If someone is talking product before anyone’s had a drink, you need to nip that in the bud. Also, some consultants can be pitchy, so invite them selectively.SaaS marketers are great at deploying amazing new tactics; however, on the whole, they lack a strong foundation in the marketing basics. Before you learn about the next bleeding-edge tool, take a minute to brush up on the building blocks, like positioning, targeting, and messaging. Chapters 00:00 - Episode Preview 01:23 - Introducing Omar Akhtar, The Founder of Benchmarker 03:54 - A Perilously Precipitous Sales Call 06:01 - How Omar Moved From Rockstar to B2B Marketing Analyst 12:26 - Craig’s Dog Crashes the Party in Multiple Ways 13:32 - What Benchmarker’s Data has Revealed about Successful B2B Marketing Teams 21:26 - Why the Best Marketing Teams are Spending More on Brand Marketing 23:56 - Where Content Marketing Fits in the Modern B2B Marketing Mix 30:34 - Events & Small Dinners are Converting Like Crazy, but Please Don’t Overdo Them 37:24 - No Amount of Great Marketing Can Overcome a Crap Product, Have a Good Product & Execute the Basics of Marketing Well 44:11 - What Makes Clay’s Marketing So Special 50:21 - How Gong Survived the Latest SalesTech Revolution & is Now Thriving Join our Newsletter to never miss an episode & get bonus content: https://thetransaction.substack.com/ Epic Quotes “ This idea that we used to have for a long time, where you have to do more with less doesn't hold true anymore, because you can't cut your way to growth anymore.” - Omar Akhtar“We’re really in a B2B SaaS recession.” - Omar Akhtar Connect with Omar LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarbilalakhtar/ Benchmarker Website: https://www.benchmarkerdata.com/ UserTesting Website: https://www.usertesting.com/  Shoutouts Amy Holtzman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aholtzman/ Amy’s Episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/crafting-an-exceptional-event-marketing?r=3iae7z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Udi Ledergor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/udiledergor/ Chris Orlob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisorlob/ Chris’s Episode:  https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/solving-the-go-to-market-skills-crisis?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Jon Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonmiller2/ Jon’s Episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/building-trust-and-reputation-in?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web  Love the show? Give us a shoutout on LinkedIn and tell us what you loved!

    56 min
  2. “The Who is Everything” with Kathy Macchi, Co-Founder of Inverta - Ep 71

    JAN 8

    “The Who is Everything” with Kathy Macchi, Co-Founder of Inverta - Ep 71

    For our first episode of the new year, we’re thrilled to welcome special guest Kathy Macchi,  the Executive Vice President, Innovation & Co-Founder at Inverta. Kathy joins co-hosts Craig Rosenberg & Matt Amundson to discuss where so many go-to-market leaders go wrong with their segmentation, why your message matters more than the channel you deliver it through, and how to design a successful mid-market marketing org amidst massive pressure for budget cuts. Also, Craig bemoans eating vegetables, Matt gives an update on Craig’s health, and some may have been kidnapped at Producer Sam’s house.  Critical Takeaways Before chasing hyper-specifc and fancy AI tools, codify ICP, targeting, messaging, and what “good” outreach looks like. Then use AI to scale research and execution (with humans judging output), instead of hoping automation will invent strategy from scratch.If the account list is wrong, everything downstream gets harder (sales cycle, conversion, retention, even CSM load). Institutionalize segmentation by use case and continuously prune/refresh the target universe instead of debating tactics in the abstract.Stop obsessing over which channels you’re using and start focusing more on whether you have something worth saying to a specific buyer group. Then should ship that personalized, relevant message across every relevant channel as an integrated system, not as disconnected one-off campaigns. Chapters 00:00 Harrowing Health Foods, Rave Recaps, & Tennis Talk08:30 Introducing Kathy Macchi, Co-founder at Inverta 12:40 The Business Concerns Coming up In CMO Councils, Primarily AI & Budget Cuts 18:43 Why Cultivating Good Taste Transcends AI Advancements & Solving The Problem Before Adding AI Tools 30:27 AI's Impact on B2B Marketing Jobs and Economy 32:37 Rethinking Marketing and Business Processes with AI 34:06 The Role of Effective Targeting for Account-Based Marketing in the AI-era 37:02 Effective Use of AI in Marketing 42:13 Messaging + B2B Marketing Channel Strategies and Multi-Channel Marketing 53:04 B2B Sales and Territory Planning Join our Newsletter to never miss an episode & get bonus content: https://thetransaction.substack.com/ Epic Quotes “The who is everything” - Kathy Macchi“ We forgot that early pipeline, until you figure it out, costs money.  It costs money and you're going to fail.” - Craig Rosenberg Connect with Kathy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathy-macchi-aa148b/ Inverta Website: https://www.inverta.com/  Shoutouts Geoffrey Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreyamoore/ Jason Lemkin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmlemkin/ Carlos AlcarazDavid Boskovic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dboskovic/ Our Episode with David: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/building-an-ai-first-go-to-marketOmar Akhtar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarbilalakhtar/ Love the show? Give us a shoutout on LinkedIn and tell us what you loved!

    1h 4m
  3. Escaping B2B SaaS Dashboard Hell with Ray Rike & Dave Kellogg - Ep 70

    12/08/2025

    Escaping B2B SaaS Dashboard Hell with Ray Rike & Dave Kellogg - Ep 70

    If you feel like your pipeline is broken, your CAC is bloated, and your dashboards are lying to you… you’re FAR from the only one.  Joining the show are the Metrics Brothers, Ray Rike and Dave Kellogg! Ray is the Founder & Chief Evangelism Officer of Benchmarkit, Host of Metrics That Measure Up, a Founding Member of the SaaS Metrics Standards Board, and is an LP at Stage 2 Capital. Dave co-hosts The Metrics Brothers Podcast, writes the incomparable ‘Kellblog’, and is an EIR at Balderton Capital. Dave and Ray join co-hosts Matt Amundson and Craig Rosenberg to discuss the importance of brand investment in the AI age, overcoming the pipeline generation crisis in B2B SaaS, and how GTM leaders can drain the “metrics swamp.” Plus, Dave divulges which SaaS metrics he finds loathsome and Ray shares his unique method for calculating Marketing CAC. Also, Craig airs an ambrosia-related grievance, Matt unveils an old school tactic he’s still using, and Producer Sam falsely announces an exclusive scoop on The Transaction.  Critical Takeaways Treat answer engine optimization (AEO) as a real channel, not a buzzword. As answer engines and generative AI search tools aggregate from dozens of sources but surface only a few. Meaning that you either show up in the top 2-3 responses or you effectively disappear. Teams should build use-case-level content, distribute it widely, and make it novel enough that answer engines want to quote it, while also building their own audience (newsletter, podcast, communities) so they’re not fully dependent on Google’s (or ChatGPT’s) algorithm.Inbound hand-raisers are a much better primary brand KPI than ‘share of voice’ measurements. Watch what percent of qualified pipeline and new ARR comes from inbound hand-raisers. GTM leaders should explicitly target a higher share of pipeline from inbound, track its close rates and ACVs versus outbound, and use that to justify continued brand and content investment.Focus more on the number of opportunities and cost per opportunity, not just total pipe. Revenue teams should watch both volume and dollars by source, so they can see, for example, whether brand-driven inbound is generating fewer but much better-quality opportunities and adjust their mix and SLAs accordingly.If you want overall efficiency, use Marketing CAC (sales + marketing over new ARR); if you want to compare programs, use pipeline generated divided by demand-gen program spend only. GTM leaders should keep CAC reserved for the full go-to-market machine, then use pipe-to-spend for campaign and channel decisions, excluding fixed headcount so they understand the ROI of the next incremental dollar.Sales and marketing leaders must acknowledge the current “pipeline crisis” in B2B SaaS, characterized by insufficient pipeline coverage and declining efficiency. Teams should track both the volume and cost of pipeline generated, and forecast pipeline coverage across all sources (marketing, SDRs, alliances, PLG, etc.) early and often.Aligning on metrics is a long-term, iterative process that requires persistence and cross-functional buy-in.  Chapters 00:00 Episode Preview 01:48 Introducing Ray Rike and Dave Kellogg, The Metrics Brothers 05:40 How GTM Leaders can Escape from their ‘Dashboard Hell’ 11:08 Which Metrics Matter to Your Board 18:37 Overcoming The B2B SaaS Pipeline Crisis 24:38 The Difference Between Search Engine Optimization & Answer Engine Optimization 29:52 Why Brand Still Matters in the age of AI & How to Measure Brand 45:21 Why B2B Marketers Need to Measure both Opportunity Count & Cost Per Opportunity 47:38 Why Pipeline Coverage Ratio is so Critical for B2B SaaS Startups 51:21 Examining Tantalus & The Cultural Impact of Ambrosia in All of Its Forms Join our Newsletter to get bonus content & never miss an episode: https://thetransaction.substack.com/ Epic Quotes “The faster growing companies actually are spending more on brand than on demand.” - Ray Rike“ My least favorite SaaS metric? Rolling four-quarter pipeline.” - Dave Kellogg“ Branding is marketing without a call to action.” - Dave Kellogg Connect with Ray & Dave Ray’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayrike/ Dave’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelloggdave/ The Metrics Brother Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-metrics-brothers-fka-saas-talk/id1687214133 Metrics that Measure Up Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/metrics-that-measure-up/id1525571613 Benchmarkit Website: https://www.benchmarkit.ai/ Dave’s Blog: https://kellblog.com/ Balderton Capital: https://www.balderton.com/  Shoutouts Ray’s first Episode on The Transaction: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/harnessing-the-magic-of-metrics-with Avinash Kaushik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akaushik/ Avinash’s Newsletter: https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/marketing-analytics-intersect-newsletter/ Avinash’s SEO vs AEO article: https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ai-age-marketing-bye-seo-hello-aeo/ Omar Akhtar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarbilalakhtar/ Benchmarker: https://www.benchmarkerdata.com/ Exit Five: https://www.exitfive.com/ Our Episode with Dave Gerhardt: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/ai-idea-starters-influencers-and Carilu Dietrich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cariludietrich/ Our Episode with Carilu: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/advisor-avengers-assembling-your Jon Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonmiller2/ Our Episode with Jon: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/building-trust-and-reputation-in Udi Ledergor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/udiledergor/ Bill Macaitis:

    56 min
  4. Account Management is Your Startup’s Growth Department with Alex Raymond, Founder of AMplify - Ep 69

    11/18/2025

    Account Management is Your Startup’s Growth Department with Alex Raymond, Founder of AMplify - Ep 69

    With so much attention within the go-to-market world paid to marketing and sales, account management, which is arguably just as important, rarely gets its due. Alex Raymond is the Founder of AMplify and Host of the Account Management Secrets podcast. Alex joins co-hosts Matt Amundson and Craig Rosenberg for the first major discussion on the podcast of account management and its crucial role in growing revenue and overall company value for SaaS vendors.  Plus, Alex breaks down how CROs should organize their team, what types of people make for the best account managers, and why in-depth stakeholder mapping of customer accounts is so critical to growing revenue.  Also, Craig mixes up country singers, Matt discovers a great path, and Producer Sam compares someone’s comment to military ordinance.  Critical Takeaways Account management should be positioned as the "growth department" of your company, responsible for driving profitable revenue from existing customers. Shift the mindset from reactive support to proactive growth, ensuring account managers are empowered and resourced to expand accounts, not just retain them.Start building account management capabilities early, even before you hit $10M in revenue, so you can learn from customers, reduce churn, and set the foundation for compounding growth. Don’t wait until churn or customer growth becomes a problem you’re hearing about in your board meetings.Ambiguity about who owns customer growth leads to missed opportunities. Great account managers are creative problem solvers with strong business sense, often with consulting backgrounds. They should be able to see the big picture, ask insightful questions, and build long-term relationships, rather than just focusing on renewals or incremental expansions. PS: former consultants make for great AMs.Build Robust Stakeholder Maps and Engage at Multiple Levels.Vendors need to actually do QBRs (Quarterly Business Reviews). Go talk to your darn customers.Chapters 00:00 - Episode Preview 01:00 - Trouble with Tickets 03:44 - Introducing Alex Raymond, Founder of AMplify 05:59 - The Role of Account Management in The Growth of B2B Startups 12:27 - The Power of Exponential Thinking for Entrepreneurs 16:01 - A Quick Sidebar about Business Events and Dining in Boulder 19:31 - Why Account Management is a Revenue Function & When Your Startup Needs Account Managers 29:15 - Where Account Management Should Fit in Your Revenue Team’s Organizational Design  36:26 - What To Look for When Hiring Great Account Managers 42:03 - When Account Managers Should Be Brought into New Deals 49:13 - Developing Complex Stakeholder Maps for Customer Accounts Join our Newsletter to never miss an episode & get bonus content: https://thetransaction.substack.com/ Epic Quotes “ The CRO should be managing the entirety of their revenue cycle, not just some slice of it.” - Alex Raymond“ Land and expand has never been more important than it is right now.” - Alex Raymond“ I just never, ever want to be a CEO.” - Matt Amundson Connect with Alex LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afraymond/ Website: https://www.amplifyam.com/ Podcast: https://www.amplifyam.com/podcast  Shoutouts Craig’s Episode on Alex’s Podcast: https://www.amplifyam.com/account-management-secrets/why-post-sale-is-still-broken-and-what-to-do-about-it-craig-rosenberg Mike Rapp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelrapp-intelepeer/ Alex’s Episode with Mike Rapp: https://www.amplifyam.com/account-management-secrets/serve-retain-sell-how-account-management-builds-revenue-leaders-mike-rapp  Dr. Benjamin Hardy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbenjaminhardy/  Conscious Entrepreneur Summit: https://consciousentrepreneur.us/ The Science of Scaling by Dr. Benjamin Hardy & Blake Erickson: https://a.co/d/eTUlHeV 10x is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy: https://a.co/d/1kf8tSe  Love the show? Give us a shoutout on LinkedIn and tell us what you loved!

    59 min
  5. Agentic AI VS ABM & AI Pricing Explained with Gabe Larsen, Chief Revenue Officer of Signals - Ep 68

    10/31/2025

    Agentic AI VS ABM & AI Pricing Explained with Gabe Larsen, Chief Revenue Officer of Signals - Ep 68

    The immense hype around AI agents is positively palpable, but is there value in adopting an army of AI minions today or is the promise of agentic AI still fictitious pulp? Here to help illuminate and elucidate the role of AI agents is Gabe Larsen, the Chief Revenue Officer at Signals and the former Chief Marketing Officer of Kustomer.  Gabe joins co-hosts Matt Amundson and Craig Rosenberg for a deep dive into how agentic AI coupled with signal-based marketing succeeds in go to market where Account-Based Marketing failed in its execution. We get into whether startups should build or buy the tools they need, which new metrics your board might be looking for, and what customers really want to hear about from vendors. Plus, Gabe bids goodbye to the age of software tools while welcoming in the AI-powered teammate economy. Also, Craig vehemently denies accusations of scowling, Matt shares his preferences on the intricacies of the English language, and Producer Sam asks a dumb question. Critical Takeaways Agentic AI tools need to provide omni-channel execution in order to offer real value and impact to sales and marketing teams. The combination of Signals + Agents outperforms Account-Based Marketing in the way it has been traditionally deployed. However, the core ideas of ABM, such as Ideal Customer Profiles, Target Accounts, Personalization, etc., still hold true. In fact, the advances in AI-powered martech have now made the original promise and vision of ABM possible.In the build vs buy debate, much of what has been built and is being built in-house is far too brittle to accommodate the regular use of a revenue team. You don’t want your whole custom-built workflow to break every time someone makes a minor change to something as small as an email subject line. However, the solutions that are going to succeed and ultimately be bought must be capable of handling the custom needs and workflows of the users. If the available tools are too rigid for customers, then they will look to build their own workarounds, solutions, and eventually, replacement tools.As the “customization economy” takes hold, go-to-market teams should seek vendors that offer flexible, customizable solutions rather than rigid, templatized products. From the vendor side, take note that buyers are gravitating toward platforms that allow them to tailor workflows to their unique needs, and if you fail to provide this flexibility, you will be left behind.Customers crave real guidance from vendors, not just hype about the new features you added. The most successful vendors will be those who offer clear, prescriptive playbooks and best practices (Think HubSpot or Marketo).Chapters 00:00 - Episode Preview 02:16 - Introducing Gabe Larsen, the Chief Revenue Officer of Signals 04:53 - Learning The Costly Difference between Michael and Michelle  09:23 - Catastrophic Sales Kickoff Stories 14:26 - The Dim Sum Disaster 17:29 - Why Signals-based Marketing + AI Agents are outperforming Traditional Account-Based Marketing 26:15 - Builders versus Buyers & Why Tools are Out and Teammates are In 31:56 - The Role of AI in Modern B2B Marketing 45:01 - The Future of AI-Powered Workforces 48:14 - An AI Vendor's Perspective on Pricing for AI Tools & AI Agents Sign up for our Newsletter: https://thetransaction.substack.com/ Epic Quotes “The market’s separating into builders and buyers and I think we’re establishing more buyers.” - Gabe Larsen“ Tools are gone, teammates are in.” - Gabe Larsen “This is the customization economy” - Craig Rosenberg Connect with Gabe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabelarsen/ Signals Website: https://getsignals.ai/  Shoutouts David Boskovic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dboskovic/ David’s Boskovic’s episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/building-an-ai-first-go-to-market Love the show? Give us a shoutout on LinkedIn and tell us what you loved!

    56 min
  6. Re-Examining Account-Based Marketing in the AI-Powered Era with Davis Potter, CEO of ForgeX - Ep 67

    10/17/2025

    Re-Examining Account-Based Marketing in the AI-Powered Era with Davis Potter, CEO of ForgeX - Ep 67

    The vast majority of companies that think they are running ABM (Account-Based Marketing) are not actually running ABM. Not only that, they wouldn’t recognize a real ABM strategy if one came up and slapped them in the face with a stack of direct mailers. Davis Potter is the CEO & Co-Founder of ForgeX, a research and advisory firm that helps B2B companies modernize their Account-Based Go To Market and AI strategies. Davis joins co-hosts Matt Amundson and Craig Rosenberg for an exploration of the current state of ABM (Account-Based Marketing), what it takes to drive impact of using AI in GTM Execution, and how to right-size the B2B marketing tactics to each account.  Also, Craig uses a ‘Matt-ism’, Matt distinguishes cuddling from canoodling, and Producer Sam fixes a problem with his face.  Critical Takeaways There are three core account-based marketing models: Enterprise ABM (1:1 and 1:few), Growth ABM (1:many at scale), and Deal Acceleration (targeted support for individual opps).Shift from short, one-off marketing campaigns to holistic, always-on programs that run continuously throughout the year. Build a playbook of ABM tactics (e.g., webinars, executive dinners, personalized landing pages, LinkedIn ads) and deploy them based on account tier and industry segment. This enables ongoing engagement and better adapts to complex B2B buying cycles.Select and tier accounts based on informed revenue potential, not just logo desirability or gut feel. Analyze first, second, and third-party signals, as well as customer LTV and microsegments, to prioritize accounts for deeper personalization and resource allocation. For example, reserve direct mail and executive engagement for tier one, while using scalable digital tactics for lower tiers.Unify your target account lists across sales, marketing, and customer success to drive alignment and efficiency. Instead of each function working from separate lists, create a single Go-To-Market account portfolio informed by revenue potential and engagement signals. AI can dramatically accelerate research, content personalization, and account list building, but only if you have a clear strategy first. Many companies are underutilizing AI or using it without a defined goal, leading to mediocre results.Chapters 00:00 - Introducing Davis Potter, Founder of ForgeX 08:00 - Quick Coldplay Concert Conundrum Recap 10:00 - Davis’ first ABM Webinar horror story 16:00 - Redefining Account-Based Marketing: Beyond the traditional pyramid 18:00 - A new ABM segmentation model 24:00 - The case for a unified Go-To-Market account portfolio 27:00 - Growth ABM tactics that actually scale 31:00 - Where AI fits into an ABM strategy  (and where it doesn’t) 39:00 - How shadow AI is reshaping GTM 45:00 - Reporting, the board deck problem, and the MQL hangover 49:00 - What your Revenue Team needs to measure in modern ABM 53:00 - Replacing the Market Qualified Lead industrial complex Join our Newsletter to never miss an episode & get bonus content: https://thetransaction.substack.com/ Epic Quotes “One practitioner can't cover 50 accounts and actually leverage one-to-one.” - Davis Potter Connect with Davis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davispotter62/ ForgeX Website: https://www.forgex.ai/ Revenue Xchange: https://open.spotify.com/show/7v2449do8UGuLAbilezi29?si=1a56c9a9a18d4550  Shoutouts DemandbaseSangram Vajre: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangramvajre/Sam McKenna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samsalesli/ Sam McKenna’s Episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/social-selling-secrets-to-supercharge Dan Gottlieb: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpgottlieb/ Dan Gottlieb’s Episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/triple-t-pov-with-dan-gottlieb?r=3iae7z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false Kerry Cunningham: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrycunningham/ Jon Miller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonmiller2/ Jon Miller’s Episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/building-trust-and-reputation-in

    55 min
  7. The Full Analyst Relations Playbook for SaaS Startups with Rachel Dines - Ep 66

    09/30/2025

    The Full Analyst Relations Playbook for SaaS Startups with Rachel Dines - Ep 66

    Rachel Dines is a B2B Marketing expert and advisor to multiple SaaS platforms, where she provides her specialty in deep tech companies with sales-led go-to-market motions. Rachel also writes a SubStack newsletter called Tech Dropout. Previously, Rachel was VP of Product and Technical Marketing at Chronosphere and a Forrester industry analyst turned product marketing leader. Rachel joins co-hosts Craig Rosenberg and Matt Amundson for a raucous romp through the world of building analyst relationships as a new SaaS vendor, the problem with startups having too many use cases, and why your B2B startup’s first marketing hire should really be a product marketer. Plus, Rachel reveals what happened when she gave a friend some less-than-amazing career advice. Also, Craig reveals his fondness for a certain slightly disparaging epithet, Matt releases his pent-up rage, and Producer Sam vows to make certain edits to the episode.  Critical Takeaways Building relationships with industry analysts at research firms, such as Gartner or Forrester, is only getting more important for B2B startups and scale ups. By the way, ‘building a relationship’ in this context is not code for just paying to play; we mean actually fostering real human connections with individual analysts, even before you think about paying a dime for a subscription for their firm.If you want your SaaS startup to show up in things like industry analyst reports and ‘magic quadrants’, start by finding and reviewing the evaluation criteria for those reports, which are publicly available. Bonus tip: try to get involved early when criteria are being set. For the ‘self scout’ of your product against the analyst’s criteria, bring in a few PMs (Product Managers) and SEs (Sales Engineers) to help you do a brutally honest self‑assessment, find weak spots, and see what shifts can be made. SEs are great resources to bring in because they are hyper aware of the critical issues with their own product and can provide clear-eyed insights.Pick one use case, one ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), and one persona to focus your go-to-market strategy on. Trying to be all things to all customers from day one is a recipe for dilution of your brand and burnout. Choosing one target (even if it feels narrow or imperfect) lets you focus your go-to-market resources, refine messaging, and build momentum for your company.Your first marketing hire should be a Product Marketer, not a demand gen specialist. Startups need someone who can define and refine messaging, narrative, positioning, not just pushing leads to sales. Without a clean story, demand gen spends often under‑deliver.With analysts, frequent light engagements, such as updates about new clients, features, saas founders turning over data, build familiarity and trust. Much of what shows up later in evaluations or quotes starts with these small, consistent touchpoints. Chapters 00:00 - Episode Preview 00:50 - Endearing Terms for The Wonderful People from Massachusetts 03:27 - Introducing Rachel Dines, Author & Go-To-Market Advisor (Plus, Former Forrester Analyst) 07:24 - A Quick Convo about Data Centers & The Mission Impossible Film Franchise 10:24 - Giving Your First Solo Presentation as an Analyst with a Heads Up 16:18 - Why Startups Need To Engage The Industry Analysts Early On 20:22 - How Startups Should Approach Their Initial Analyst Relations Strategy 29:35 - Matt Admits What Grinds His Gears 31:23 - What Early Stage Startups Can do to Become Number One in the Magic Quadrant 34:08 - Startups Should Start with One Segment, User, and Use Case 46:51 - Why Your First Marketing Hire Should be a Product Marketer 52:21 - Some not so great B2B Marketing career advice Join our Newsletter to never miss an episode & get bonus content: https://thetransaction.substack.com/ Epic Quotes “Focus, in the Go-To-Market side especially, is always the greatest Achilles heel of so many startups” - Rachel Dines“Pick a lane and win” - Matt Amundson“I can be bought for tiramisu” - Rachel Dines Connect with Rachel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdines/ Substack: https://racheldines.substack.com/ Website: https://www.racheldines.com/ How I Hacked the Moon: https://a.co/d/eSYYRWG  Shoutouts Scott Mersy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smersy/ Sam McKenna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samsalesli/ Sam McKenna’s Episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/social-selling-secrets-to-supercharge Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015)The Studio (Apple TV+)Last Week in AWS (Newsletter): https://www.lastweekinaws.com/ Corey Quinn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coquinn/ CursorWindsurfLovableChris Degnan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-degnan-524470/ SnowflakeDenise Persson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisepersson/  Love the show? Give us a shoutout on LinkedIn and tell us what you loved!

    1 hr
  8. Enabling Excellent B2B Sales Teams in the AI Era with Tom Murtaugh, Portfolio Operations Director at Nordic Capital - Ep 65

    09/10/2025

    Enabling Excellent B2B Sales Teams in the AI Era with Tom Murtaugh, Portfolio Operations Director at Nordic Capital - Ep 65

    Even with all the newest, shiniest AI tools out there, successful, sustainable B2B sales growth is still built on nailing the basic sales skills. To provide a refresher on those basic B2B sales skills and more, we’re thrilled to introduce Tom Murtaugh, the Portfolio Operations Director at Nordic Capital, a leading sector-specialist private equity firm. Tom joins co-hosts Craig Rosenberg and Matt Amundson to discuss the importance of maintaining deal control, why revenue leaders need to understand the key activities that drive outcomes, and how to get your sales managers up to speed as they become more valuable with the implementation of AI. Plus, Tom helps Craig and Matt perform an autopsy on the failure of the sales enablement movement. Also, Craig once again references TOPO and Matt gets envious of a warm male embrace while also imparting the joys of parenthood. Critical Takeaways What are the handful of activities that have a real impact on moving a deal forward for your company? While most organizations cannot empirically state which activities drive revenue, using modern data tools and call analysis, sales leaders can and should run correlation analyses to pinpoint and scale what top performers do.Sales leaders should be directly involved in late-stage enterprise deals, ensuring there is a clear, actionable joint execution plan for each opportunity. Top-down focus and hands-on deal reviews with sales leaders is critical to exceeding targets, even when the forecast looks grim. This level of engagement cannot be delegated or replaced by process alone.AI can accelerate analysis and experimentation, but it cannot define your core GTM motions or fix broken processes. If you haven’t figured out what works, AI will only amplify confusion. Go-To-Market leaders must first establish and validate the key behaviors and activities that move the needle before layering on automation or analytics. Sustainable revenue growth comes from robust GTM infrastructure, such as processes, platforms, and RevOps, that persist beyond any single CRO or sales leader.Sales enablement programs often fail when led by people without quota-carrying experience, devolving into classroom-style training that sellers reject. Shift to “sales excellence” roles, where former sales leaders who coach reps in the field, ride along on calls, and provide practical, trusted guidance. The most powerful enablement tools are those that let reps learn directly from top performers, such as reviewing Gong calls or shadowing high achievers. Tom shared that new reps who proactively sought out and emulated top sellers ramped faster and performed better. Make it easy for your team to access and learn from real sales conversations, not just static content.Chapters 00:00 - Episode Preview 03:51 - Introducing Tom Murtaugh, Portfolio Operations Director at Nordic Capital 10:09 - How Improving Deal Control Turned Around a Terrible Quarter for Collibra 21:02 - Understanding the Key Activities that Really Drive Outcomes in B2B Sales 28:21 - Why Training First Line Sales Managers Needs to be a Priority for B2B GTM Leaders 42:29 - Why the Sales Enablement Movement Ultimately Failed in Improving B2B Sales Orgs 51:21 - The Role of RevOps in Building a Sustainable Infrastructure for the Revenue Organization Sign up for our Newsletter: https://thetransaction.substack.com/ Epic Quotes “Any type of conversational analytics tool is the most powerful enablement tool that's out there right now, and people just need to use it.” - Tom Murtaugh“ Your sales manager is be going to become incredibly, even more important than they are today, because they're going to be the ones that even with a little bit of change, are going to have a lot of leverage over a lot of people.” - Tom Murtaugh Connect with Tom LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-murtaugh-1729b09/ Nordic Capital Website: https://www.nordiccapital.com/  Shoutouts Amanda Murtaugh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandabuck143/ Ralph Barsi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphbarsi/ Philip CardiNeil Harrington: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neildharrington/  Scott Albro: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottalbro/  Jeff Goree: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffgoree/ Andy Byrne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/byrneandy/ Michael Hargis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mhargis/ Pablo Dominguez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pabtexas/ Echo Valley on Apple TV+ Starring Sydney Sweeney & Julianne Moore (Only rated a 6.3/10 on IMDb) Love the show? Give us a shoutout on LinkedIn and tell us what you loved!

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About

Welcome to The Transaction. The #1 Go-To-Market podcast on the planet. Hosts Craig Rosenberg and Matt Amundson, two legendary go-to-market leaders in their own right, talk weekly with the best sales, marketing, operations, and product leaders in the B2B SaaS world to understand what's working in the new playbook of the post-ZIRP market. But Craig, Matt, and their guests don't just talk theoretically, they share the stories and actionable tips, tactics, and strategies behind what's driving revenue growth that you can take and implement in your own go-to-market roles. Whether you're a Chief Revenue Officer leading a B2B SaaS sales and marketing organization, a marketing leader trying to drive bigger outcomes with your demand gen team, or a new sales rep, you'll learn and laugh every episode. From ABM to PLG, from MEDDIC to MEDDPICC, the world of business is constantly evolving. We’ll cover the who, what, where, when, why and most importantly how you get… The Transaction. About Your Hosts Craig Rosenberg is the Chief Platform Officer at Scale Venture Partners. He is a seasoned expert in B2B revenue growth, helping SaaS companies transition from founder-led growth to becoming high-growth Go-To-Market machines. Previously, Craig was a Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner and co-founder of TOPO Inc., a research and advisory firm acquired by Gartner in 2020. Craig thinks Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Matt Amundson is the Chief Marketing Officer of DuploCloud. He is also an advisor for companies such as Sendoso and Salesloft. Prior to DuploCloud, Matt spent time as an Executive In Residence with Scale Venture Partners and led marketing departments at Census, Very Good Security, and Everstring, to name a few. Matt thinks Die Hard 2 is better than Die Hard. The Transaction is produced by Sam Guertin.

Information

  • Creator
    Craig Rosenberg & Matt Amundson | B2B Sales & Marketing Experts - Hosts of The Transaction
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    76
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © The Transaction
  • Show Website
    The Transaction