GTM Live

A lot of marketers are sold on modern demand gen, but they don't know how to institute change internally. We know this because the most asked question we get is, "How do you transition from lead gen to  demand gen?" If that sounds like you, you're in luck. We invited Alice de Courcy, CMO at Cognism, to talk about how she implemented this change internally. What makes this even mo...

We talk a lot about using qualitative insights to drive better strategic decisions in marketing and go-to-market. But the truth is, this works in all areas of the business. Some people call it “acting on gut feelings”, but in reality, it’s not gut feeling. It’s getting feedback that can’t be measured in a spreadsheet and put your learnings into practice. In this episode, Chris talks about how he p...

At Refine Labs we've been implementing our proprietary Go-To-Market framework, Pipe, with over 50 of the fastest growing B2B SaaS companies out there. Because of that, we have access to arguably the best data set in the business which gives us a very unique perspective into how to execute successful go-to-market strategies. In this episode, Chris spends a full hour answering questions from the...

Most marketing teams are running an old playbook; lead gen campaigns, trade show sponsorships, content syndication, gated content, etc. Once considered "best practice", these tactics have quickly become outdated as the world consumes information differently and digital transformations continue to ramp. In this episode, Chris talks about how to phase out tactics that no longer work and ho...

Refine Labs just crossed over 100 team members and it only took about two years. Growing a business is a learning curve no matter what, but scaling quickly comes with a laundry list of lessons. In this episode, Chris talks about the journey and key learnings from an independent consultant to 100 employees and working with some of the best-known SaaS companies in B2B.

When most B2B companies think about content they think about blogs, ebooks, and webinars. Social media posts are sprinkled on top and in most cases not even grouped into the company's content strategy. The problem with that is it's not customer-centric. Buyers spend time on social media, in communities, and building relationships with peers in their industry they can trust. They're no...

Marketing is evolving. While most marketing teams are still spending their time and resources writing blogs and running webinars, forward-thinking marketers are figuring out how they can create an unfair advantage for their business. In this episode, Chris dives into just that as he talks about what the goal of marketing is as a sub-function of GTM and what it means to be buyer-centric in modern m...

We've been seeing a lot of buzz about the TOPO "Double Funnel" lately. But what exactly is it? And is it worth implementing or is it just another shiny object that sounds good in theory, but breaks down in practice? In this episode, Chris breaks down what the double funnel is, how it works, and the reasons you should think twice about implementing it into your go-to-market strategy.

Creating a culture where people are not only allowed to test and fail but encouraged to, is a necessity for innovation. But how do you create a culture that breeds innovation? The short answer is—it starts at the top. The CEO sets the stage for what will (and won't) be tolerated and leads by doing to set the example for the rest of the org. In this episode, Chris talks about how Refine Labs ha...

What do B2B brands have to do stand out as more and more companies adopt demand generation strategies? First, most companies are still running the old playbook, and even though they’re calling what they do demand gen, it’s still lead gen. Companies who truly want to stand out running a demand gen playbook should focus on three things: Having a deep understanding of your customers Having subject ma...

Most B2B marketing strategies are reactive. They spend a lot of money to show up once the customer is in a buying motion. But the problem with that strategy is that it becomes way more difficult to stand out in the crowd. Buyer's don't know who you are until they're ready to pull the trigger and they have no idea what sets you apart. In this episode, Chris talks about how companies can...

Employees have more power than ever in the employer/employee relationship and it's because most companies are still playing from a legacy playbook. The best companies are attracting top-tier talent because they are becoming destination organizations. "Price's Law" is the mentality that 50% of the work at a normal organization is done by the square root of the total employees. For...

We started doing Demand Gen Live back in March of 2020 with an audience of 15 people. Two years later, we're still doing Demand Gen Live weekly to an audience of 100+ and many of the original 15 are still showing up weekly. We brought back the OG co-host, Gaetano DiNardi, for episode 100 to talk about SEO vs. Brand. With top Google content becoming more and more about optimization and less abo...

Community is a powerful tool in scaling a company. Marketo demonstrated just how powerful community was in B2B when they built Marketing Nation. It was one of the first communities of its kind in B2B and is one of the major factors that led to their domination in the CRM market. Today we're talking with Sarah Kennedy Ellis, former CMO at Marketo, and current VP of Global Growth & Demand at...

We talk a lot about tactical execution on State of Demand Gen. But there’s another side of your marketing strategy that is just as important—your brand story. Your brand’s story is the backbone of your marketing strategy. It’s what creates deep loyalty to your brand over competitors. In this episode, we welcome back Dave Gerhardt to talk about the importance of building a story around your brand.

There has never been a better time to be a top-tier marketer. Demand is high and supply is low. But how do you become one of the top 1%? In this episode, Chris goes through his top 6 pieces of advice for marketers that are trying to become the best. These are all tips that he implemented himself and attributes to his own success and the success of Refine Labs.

Creating content in-house gives you a massive advantage in the market. Yet, content creation is still one of the most outsourced items for in-house marketing teams. When you outsource your content creation (and organic distribution) you lose key advantages. The first is that you don't give your in-house subject matter experts the ability to speak your company's unique value prop or opinion...

Modern demand gen practices have not yet been adopted by many companies in the EMEA region. In this episode of State of Demand Gen, Chris talks with Adam Holmgren on what companies across the pond need to do to get started using modern demand gen and how it can positively impact their business.

Pipeline velocity isn't just about pipeline creation. Pipeline velocity uses 3 historical metrics (win rate, ACV, and sales cycle length) to forecast forward. Most companies only look at pipeline creation. They don't look at sales cycle length. They don't look at win rates or conversation rates. And they don't look at ACVs. The beauty of pipeline velocity is that in order to drive...

B2B SaaS companies have been running the same lead generation marketing strategy for over a decade now—create a gated piece of content, collect low intent leads, and have your sales team follow up. This practice may have been necessary 10 years ago, but with the advancement in how buyers consume content and increasingly tight privacy laws, smart marketing teams are challenging the status quo and t...

The goal of B2B paid social ads should be to communicate a single idea to your audience, not to move them from "who is this company" to demo.  Companies waste millions of dollars every year by spending their budget on ads that fail to produce meaningful results because they don't tell the right story. In this episode, Chris gets super tactical on how to run effective campaigns that p...

Capturing demand works hand in hand with generating demand, but it’s something that companies often overlook. When you’ve created enough demand that a customer is ready to buy, that buying process needs the best experience possible if you want them to move to closed-won. In this episode, Chris goes back to basics and talks about what to do after you've generated enough demand to move a prospec...

In this episode, we pulled together some of the greatest hits of our talks on The Attribution Mirage. We start with an early episode of Demand Gen Live where we began experimenting with required open text fields comparing where customers said they found us and what software was telling us. After the explanation of the initial experiment and results, we skip forward several months where we share 20...

Most B2B companies know how to do sales. Most of them do not, however, know how to run a modern marketing strategy designed for creating demand, capturing demand, and funnel optimization. Companies are still running the same go-to-market strategy they were running in 2011 by pumping up MQLs and other vanity metrics that require more sales headcount with less results. In this episode, Chris talks t...

Winning in dark social requires a well-executed content strategy. Part of executing a content strategy successfully means that it's scalable. But scaling content efficiently is something that most companies fail to do. That's where stacking growth comes into play. It's at the foundation of dark social because it's what allows you to distribute your content across multiple platforms...