Ross Cranwell

What we were promised: a unified ops function for all GTM teams. 😎 What we got: a new name for sales ops. 😔 The labels aren’t really the issue here. It’s the fact that alignment across functional ops teams still seems elusive in many companies. These are some common objections to creating a unified RevOps function: 😰 Functional leaders are worried about their ops teams becoming less responsive 😰 MOPS and CS Ops worry about getting swallowed up by Sales Ops and losing autonomy  😰 Marketing and CS worry their needs won’t be prioritized if RevOps reports to a sales leader These concerns are legitimate and need to be addressed. But they don’t change one simple reality: a lack of alignment among operational teams is usually just a mirror of the lack of alignment among the GTM functions. And these silos harm business performance. Instead of focusing on the challenges, let’s look at what a business can GAIN when ops teams are strongly aligned or unified: 🗺️ A holistic view across the entire revenue process ⚖️ Initiatives prioritized by business impact rather than executive fiat 🥰  A more unified and seamless customer experience 💰 More efficient tech spend with fewer redundant tools 🤝 All revenue teams rowing in the same direction 🤗 Pooled ops resources and mutual support 💪 A stronger ops function that can manage performance rather than just close tickets These teams DO exist, and this week on RevOps FM, I spoke with Julia Kim, who leads one of them at Electric. Julia leads a very mature RevOps function that supports marketing, sales, CS, and partnerships. Not only does this org structure work—her team is a driving force behind the business, which wasn’t at all the case when ops teams were embedded in their functions. In this episode, Julia shares: • The scope and structure of her team • How they plan and prioritize • How they balance running the business as usual with innovation and strategy • How RevOps can have different objectives at different stages of maturity • How she finds efficiencies across the tech stack • And much more Episode link in the comments 👇 —--- P.S. a unified function is one way to achieve alignment, but I don’t suggest it’s the only way. At my company, for example, my team supports marketing and BDR Ops and reports into marketing, while all other ops teams are centralized. This still works very well because a) The marketing leader also reports to the COO, ensuring consistent priorities b) Marketing ops still works closely with other ops teams, has regular cadences, shared OKRs, etc. So the key factors here are a centralized reporting structure and close collaboration. P.P.S. I feel like I've seen the meme I used before somewhere. If you created it first please raise your hand and I'll gladly give credit 😊

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Solved... Franchise: Location finder requires users to manually search for locations, with results listed alphabetically. In addition, your brand does not rank for local intent search terms. DevHub: Build a geolocating map that lead users to corresponding robust local #franchisee microsites for a unified user experience, with conversion forward calls to action i.e. call, appointment, form fill, chat. #franchise #digitalmarketing #devhub  

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🧪 CRO Case Study Ep. 43 Check out how we increased revenue by $56K/month with strategic collection page optimizations, resulting in higher revenue per session and substantial growth for our client. The Results: + $56,285 per month + $675,420 per year (forecasted) + $0.28 revenue per session (Bookmark This!)

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AdAttributionKit: Unpacking Apple’s new ad attribution framework AAK unifies Apple’s various advertising attribution frameworks under a single umbrella product name and extends SKAdNetwork in meaningful ways, including with support for re-engagement and alternative app marketplaces. These are substantive improvements. But impediments to adoption remain: IP-based attribution is still widely viewed as a suitable alternative to Apple’s native iOS attribution framework, meaning that platform tools like Conversion APIs will take adoption priority.

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Simon highlighted an essential stat: The average B2B SaaS sales cycle is 84 days, nearly three months (HubSpot Research). For many it's even longer, sometimes closer to 12+ months. So imagine your #analytics #data only goes back 30 days? It would be useless wouldn't it? Yet that's essentially what you get with #GA4. Most users aren't aware but the lookback window for first source attribution in GA4 is a maximum of 30 days!? It makes tracking the value of blog posts / content marketing campaigns or any top of funnel activities pretty much impossible. The attribution in GA4 will probably tell you the channel responsible for that conversion was a bottom of funnel PPC click. To really understand the value of your top of funnel activities, you need a specific #attribution solution which doesn't have unnecessary limits built in to the models.

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🧪 CRO Case Study Episode 40 Check Out How We Enhanced Urgency and Mobile Experience on Product Detail Pages. The numbers: +$24K monthly revenue +$288K forecasted annually (Save this!)

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After a short hiatus from Linkedin, I’ll be back to posting. Glad to see prospects discover the best tool out there for ad inspirations and creative analytics Atria AI

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If an advertiser is spending profitably on a small portfolio of the largest advertising channels already --- which almost all are with some significant percentage of total budget -- and wants to consider a new channel, they have to determine whether that same amount of incremental spend would deteriorate the performance of their existing campaigns, and whether that degradation would be worth the added cost of managing a new channel. As uncomfortable as it might seem, most user acquisition teams would be better off operating only on the largest channels — concentrating their spend, developing channel specialization, and minimizing their analytical overhead — versus having their team’s attention and time spread across a wider array of channels with a longer-tailed distribution of ad spend and revenue.

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Launching ShowStop 🚀 Over the past six months, we've conducted hundreds of interviews and pilot tests with DTC brands, marketers, and SMB agencies. We've discovered that there's a super strong demand for managing and repurposing existing creative assets, like revisiting old footage (images or videos) to keep things fresh and trendy, rather than relying solely on net new AI video. In response, we're excited to introduce ShowStop—a dedicated MarTech SaaS designed to repurpose your best media into new, conversion-focused video ads automatically using AI. ShowStop generates multiple variations instantly, testing every element from the hook to the CTA, and puts creative control back in the hands of paid marketers. CreateIn will remain a separate innovation tool for AI video storytelling. We are soft launching ShowStop on Product Hunt today! Check it out at Product Hunt (https://lnkd.in/gSTkK-FX) and feel free to sign up for our waitlist at showstop.ai!

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5 Series A & B B2B SaaS Startups wasted up to 85% of specific budgets in the same four ways. After a slew of audits over the last few weeks, here are the most frequent issues I uncovered. Search Terms Report 1️⃣ First: Search terms are different than keywords. Search terms are the actual searches that trigger your target keywords. Broad keywords are the crux of this issue but Phrase match can get you in trouble too. ⚠️ Problem: a B2B Lead Data SaaS (like Apollo)) targeting phrase match keyword “B2B Data” showed most for the search term “b2b audience data.”  ☢️ Effect: Off-target terms like this led to 25% wasted spend in the account ⚒️ Fix: Adding extra words for context, uploading lifecycle data so algos can optimize for valuable conv., tightening match types and/or diligent management of negative terms. Keywords Spending Under The Radar 1️⃣ First: Accounts these days have so many keywords, the prevalence of broad, automated bidding and lacking control in today’s Google Ads allow these to slip through the cracks. ⚠️ Problem: A construction management software was targeting terms like “job costing software” and “best job costing tool” (in broad match). Broad + max conversion strategies couldn’t find conv. with that targeting. ☢️ Effect: Of the top 10 highest spending keywords, 3 had no conversions and 2 had cost/conv 400%+ higher than average cost/conv. ⚒️ Fix: Pause those keywords. If it’s important to show for those keywords, move them to their own campaign, shift them to phrase or exact and use manual bidding. Incomplete Conversion Tracking 1️⃣ First: Automated conversion strategies require quality conversion tracking to produce quality results. ⚠️ Problem: The same construction management software was only tracking trials and demos. Therefore, their 100% automated strategies had no feedback as to the quality of the leads and was optimizing for cheap conversions rather than valuable ones ☢️ Effect: Cost/Conversion was an acceptable number, however, cost/opp and cost/customer were too low to justify channel efforts.  ⚒️ Fix: Connect lifecycle stages and values from CRM back to Google Ads. Then, optimize for value over cost/conv. Campaign Settings 1️⃣ First: Google has sneaky ways of spending your money without you knowing. ⚠️ Problem: An AI Document Processing company was using retargeting audiences to reclaim value from previous clicks. However, Google had turned on ‘Optimized Targeting’ allowing campaigns to target people outside of those audiences. ☢️ Effect: Optimized targeting audiences spent 85% of retargeting budget, overriding the campaign’s goals.  ⚒️ Fix: In ad group settings, turn off ‘Optimized Targeting’ If your B2B SaaS is struggling with justifying your PPC budget, address these tips. There are 10 other key strategic factors that I look at when I do an audit (not to mention case-by-case issues). If your SaaS could benefit from one of these audits, mention ‘Audit’ in the comments. #B2B #SaaS #PPC #GoogleAds

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The two worst questions to ask during sales demos: 1) what questions do you have? 2) does that make sense? 10 questions to ask instead (that actually close deals): 1. How are you doing [x workflow] today? Ask this right before you demo a feature that helps with that workflow. It forces your buyer into a state of contrast: How they're doing it today vs. how they COULD do it with your product. 2. How does that compare to how you're doing it now? Same concept as the first question: Only this time, you ask AFTER you showcased the feature. Value comes from contrast. This works beautifully. 3. To what extent do you envision this being useful in your situation? This is a great, non-cheesy way to get them imagining using your product. 4. How do you see your team using that? Great question to ask decision makers who get VALUE from your product, but don't use it themselves. 5. To what degree is this resonating so far? Great 'mid point' demo question to ask. Far better than 'what questions do you have so far?' 6. To what extent do you see that solving [x problem they shared earlier]? This puts on a 'nail in the coffin' on a pain point they shared. Demo a piece of your product that solves it. Then ask that question. It creates mental 'closure' that what you do solves the problem they have. 7. What benefits do you see showing up in your world as a result of what I just showed you? Easy way to get them voicing the benefits without it sounding like you're trying to hard to make that happen. 8. Where do you want to double-click with a few questions? Notice this is the same as "What questions do you have?" Only, the difference in phrasing is a bit of a 'pattern interrupt.' It makes you seem different than other sellers. A good thing. 9. It seems like that resonated. What challenge is going on in your business that's making that resonate? When you sense you 'struck a chord' during your demo, stop and ask that question. You'll get a treasure-trove of pain and information. 10. It seems like what I just showed you doesn't resonate. Where am I missing the mark? Ask this when you feel you're OFF the mark. Get them talking when you sense you're off track. It's the only way to get BACK on track. - What questions would you add? P.S. If you're a SaaS seller and want to reach the next level of your financial success, give these 30 deal-closing scripts and strategies a try: https://lnkd.in/gZcrmSWE

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Sales & Marketing Alignment Checklist: 1. REALISTIC SHARED GOALS Don't default to acquisition of leads or net-new pipeline. Do this instead: ☑ Evaluate historical sales velocity (deal size, sales cycle and win-rate), broken down per net-new accounts vs expansion, and per tier (SMB, mid-market vs enterprise) ☑ Evaluate the expansion potential of current accounts ☑ Analyze your biggest churned deals ☑ Analyze the complete funnel and talk to marketing, SDR, AE and CSM functions to understand where the bottlenecks are in the sales process, and what is currently being missed to win and retain highest-value deals over the long time ☑ Based on this analysis, identify the biggest opportunities to achieve high-priority business objectives ☑ Define the shared goals for all your GTM teams E.g. increase net-new sales volume in mid-market segment by 30% and create a new program to expand at least five enterprise customers. 2. TARGET SEGMENTS & ACCOUNT CLUSTERS ☑ Export deals from the last year, segmented by the main use-case, industry and region ☑ Analyze sales velocity of the different segments ☑ Agree on the high priority segments 3. ACCOUNT QUALIFICATION & THE BUYING COMMITTEE ☑ Analyze 5 largest & 5 fastest won deals, and the 5 largest lost deals from the target segments - Collect common firmographics, technographics and other criteria to (dis)qualify accounts that you're more likely to win and retain - Identify people who played the role of champions, influencers, decision makers, blockers and power users ☑ Analyze these people to derive common target roles, profile keywords, responsibilities and KPIs 4. ACCOUNT PRIORITIZATION & THREE LISTS ☑ Define the criteria (related to relationship, revenue potential, brand awareness and product need evidence) to break target accounts into - Cluster ICP: vendor unaware, product need unknown - Future Pipeline: vendor aware, product need unknown - Active Focus: vendor aware, product need evidence strong ☑ Define data sources and tech to evaluate these criteria ☑ For each source, assign a responsible person and frequency 5. CLUSTER PROGRAMS & PLAYBOOKS ☑ For each list, define playbooks (channels, target buyer roles and concrete sales activities, marketing activities) aligned with the buyer journey stage, to: - Generate awareness and demand with Cluster ICP accounts - Build relationship and validate the product need with Future Pipeline accounts - Generate opportunities with Active Focus accounts ☑ Define clear timeline and responsibilities 6. PROGRAM TRACKING & MAINTENANCE ☑ Define KPIs and leading indicators and reporting cadence ☑ Establish regular pipeline review and account planning meetings ☑ Schedule joint retrospective and planning --- Most sales & marketing teams are aligned on paper, but in reality never work together. Use the above checklist to go from PowerPoint alignment, to real GTM and execution alignment. This is the biggest opportunity for most B2B teams in 2024.

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2023 GTM strategies don't work. It's time for a new model to combat rising ad costs, dying conversion rates, cold outreach, etc. Enter, the Engaged Lead Activation (ELA) go to market strategy. Combine behavioral data, engagement rates, lead scoring, warm selling, and relational demos to convert leads at 30-50%. Put the dying strategies behind and try ELA for yourself! #b2bmarketing #b2bsales #marketinganalytics #revops

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Better data 👉 more deals. 🆕 Waterfall Enrichment + ABM Segmentation 🔒 Want early access to our BETA features? To close more deals, you need better data to: • Segment precisely • Find more contact points 2 new features ready for BETA testing. 💬 Comment below for early access! 🆕 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗘𝗡𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗛𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧: 70-90% Email Match Rate 🤯 No email, no contact. With this update, we find 70-90% of emails! We use 8+ email enrichment services, and LGM's email finder feature is 𝘂𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 and included in all plans. 🆕 𝗟𝗚𝗠 𝗙��𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥: ABM Segmentation Without the Hassle 🙌 Effective ABM segmentation improves reply rates. Integrated into LGM, available on all plans, 100% GDPR friendly. Want an early access to these features? Comment below, and I'll give you access tomorrow, whether you're a current user or starting a free trial today (link in the first comment). #Auomation #SalesGrowth #LeadGeneration #BetaTesting

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So HockeyStack recently published a new report on the efficiency of demand gen vs lead gen to generate revenue in B2B SaaS. Sample includes +$100M in ad spend from 87 SLG companies, $559M in pipeline and 270k MQLs. Most straightforward and obvious takeaway you can infer from the data in this screenshot is that, of course, demand gen motions are way more efficient than lead gen – especially when looking at the downstream metrics. Sure, lead gen gets 53% more MQLs at almost half the cost, but because of the more than 4x difference in the MQL:SQL ratio, as well as a slight difference in the SQL:CW ratio, demand gen ends up closing 3.8x more revenue,. The kicker to me though, is that even demand gen gets a "magic number" (net new ARR / cost of S&M spend) of 0.95 WITHOUT accounting for sales spend, just marketing. AKA, even with a demand gen motion, you don't even get to make your marketing spend profitable on its own. You put $1 in, and only get $0.95 out – with lead gen, it gets even worse (magic number of 0.34). This leads me to think that SLG motions need to be revisited before we try to make the shift from lead gen to demand gen. In other words, it doesn't matter how good your MQLs can be in terms of MQL:SQL ratio if, in order to get them to CW, you rely on a bloated sales team that will nuke your magic number and/or you can't drive the cost per MQL considerably down. Of course though, I'm inferring this without all the data, and it's likely that accounting for sales costs and LTV (not just net new ARR) might paint a different picture; but for now, GTM efficiency seems to clearly be at a really low point (especially considering the median magic number of 0.7x for public SaaS companies from 2015-21 vs 0.3x in Q123; source: S&P Global Market Intelligence). Excited to discuss this further with Chris Walker in a couple of weeks for our 12th episode of the FounderVideo podcast. #gtm #b2b #marketing #sales #gotomarket

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Sometimes we work with some legendary marketers and Jon Miller is next level. I really enjoyed working with Jon when he was at Engagio and Demandbase when we had the privilege of calling him a Velocity client. The interview he has with Stan Woods is exceptional. Read it on our blog our the synopsis on our Velocity Partners page - honestly it is rich with nuggets, takeaways and a clear direction of travel for B2B marketers to put into practice. #b2bmarketing #b2bcontent #b2bCMOs #b2bCEOs

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The worst sales demos end with a whimper. The best sales demos end with a THUD. Here's 5 tips to end your demos with a bang and close more deals: 1. End on a high note (before it's comfortable). End earlier than you want to. When a demo is going well? You'll be inclined to keep going. Don't. Stop while you're on an upward swing. Pivot into a 'debrief' with your buyer. You'll use that momentum later. 2. Summarize what you've covered: Say this: "Let's recap what we've covered today." That phrase pulls your buyers attention. Their ears perk back up. Recap their problem. Recap your top few features. Recap their desired outcome. 3. Pivot to discussion. After the recap, ask this: "What excited you MOST today?" I've tested dozens of questions. This one works best for ending demos. Buyers talk about their hot buttons. Spend a minute unpacking those. 4. Dig in on the buying process. Don't end a demo without doing this. It's a wasted opportunity. "If I'm reading you right, it feels like this resonates. What steps do those involved need to take from here to make a confident yes or no decision on this?" Let them pour it all out. If you have time, follow up with: - Who would be involved in each of those steps? - What's driving the timeline to take those steps? - How do you think you'd fund a project like this? 5. Recommend firm (but flexible) next steps. Selling is an act of leadership. Weak salespeople look to the buyer. But you run this sales cycle all the time. And this is THEIR first time. YOU should lead THEM. Try this: "Based on what you've told me, I'd recommend we __________________." Now suggest: - WHAT the next steps should be - WHO should be involved - WHY that step. Ok. Do those five things at the end of each demo. Watch what happens. P.S. Here's 30 SaaS sales demo scripts you can swipe, steal, and copy to run demos that sell: https://lnkd.in/gZcrmSWE

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🧪 CRO Case Study Ep. 47 Check out how adding a free gift to our client’s product page boosted their annual revenue by $816K. This strategy can fire up your sales too! 🔥 The Results Breakdown: +$68,000 per month + $816,000 per year (forecasted) + $0.74 revenue per session (Bookmark this)

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Understanding Unit Economics in Your GTM Strategy Unit economics are the backbone of your Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy for early-stage startups. They clearly show your business's financial health and help you make informed decisions. Here's how they work: Pricing Strategy: Unit economics help you set the right price for your product or service. By understanding your costs and revenue per unit, you can ensure that your pricing covers your costs and allows you to profit. This is crucial for early-stage startups to establish a sustainable business model. 💰 Customer Acquisition: Unit economics help you evaluate the effectiveness of your customer acquisition channels. You can identify which channels are most cost-effective by comparing the cost of acquiring a customer (CAC) to the revenue generated from that customer (ARPU). This allows you to allocate your resources wisely and focus on the channels that bring the highest return on investment. Scalability: Positive unit economics are essential for scaling your business. If the revenue generated per unit exceeds the cost per unit, scaling can lead to increased profitability. However, scaling can result in even more significant losses if your unit economics are negative. It's essential to ensure that your unit economics are strong before scaling your business. Resource Allocation: Unit economics can help you allocate your resources effectively. For example, if you have a high CAC but a low churn rate, investing in customer retention efforts may be more cost-effective than acquisition. This can help maximize your customers' lifetime value and improve your overall profitability. Growth Strategy: Unit economics are key in shaping your growth strategy. If your unit economics are strong, you may pursue customer acquisition aggressively to capture market share. On the other hand, if your unit economics are weak, you may focus on improving efficiency and profitability before scaling. Consider it this way, unit economics are essential for early-stage startups to build sustainable and profitable businesses. By understanding your costs and revenue per unit, you can make informed decisions about pricing, customer acquisition, scalability, resource allocation, and growth strategy

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