Frenemies - Where growth meets reality

Most B2B companies are drowning in signals right now. The question is whether they can tell which ones actually matter. In this episode of Frenemies, Julia sits down with Jillian Als, CMO of Leadfeeder: a platform that identifies who is visiting your website before a buyer has raised their hand. Jillian recently led Leadfeeder through a full rebrand from Dealfront back to Leadfeeder, published a m...

Most founder-led companies treat ICP as a demographic checklist. Joris van Kappen thinks that's where growth goes wrong. In this episode of Frenemies, Julia sits down with Joris van Kappen, founder of Accelor Hub, who has spent his career building, buying and selling companies before becoming a GTM consultant for founder-led B2B scale-ups between €1M and €10M ARR. His work sits at the interse...

Most marketing teams feel behind on AI. Dorothea Gam thinks that feeling is mostly wrong, and that the real risk is moving fast without thinking clearly. In this episode of Frenemies, Julia sits down with Dorothea Gamm, CMO at Mouseflow, a product analytics platform that sits very close to real customer behavior data. Dorothea has been at the forefront of integrating AI into Mouseflow's marke...

Most SaaS companies built their economics on a simple truth: the cost to serve the next customer is practically zero. AI is changing that and most companies don't see it coming. In this episode of Frenemies, Julia sits down with Roee Hartuv, Senior Pricing Advisor and Go-to-market expert at Willingness2Pay. Roee works with SaaS companies navigating one of the most urgent commercial challenges...

Most go-to-market playbooks are built for 30–90 day sales cycles. What happens when yours runs 1–2 years? In this episode of Frenemies, Julia sits down with Josephine Kleiner, Head of Sales at Vitus Cloud, a scale-up selling data management infrastructure into the construction industry. A complex, relationship-driven, and traditionally slow-to-adopt market where trust takes years to build, and the...

In this episode of Frenemies - where growth meets reality, I’m joined by Adam Holgren to unpack what actually drives growth in modern B2B and where many companies still get it wrong. We talk about the shift from product-led differentiation to brand and narrative, why “demand generation” might be misunderstood, and how attribution fits into a reality where buyer journeys are anything but linear. Fr...

Community is often treated as a marketing initiative. In reality, it’s much bigger than that. In this episode of Frenemies, I sit down with MC Silver, Head of Community & Events at Zensai and co-lead of Women of SaaS, to unpack why community is becoming a key driver across the entire B2B go-to-market motion. We talk about what companies are getting wrong, why community is often misunderstood,...

AI isn't just changing products - it's changing how companies build, grow, and compete. In this episode of Frenemies, Julia sits down with Michael Heiberg, CEO of Ocean.io, to explore how AI is fundamentally reshaping product development, go-to-market strategy, and company growth. From AI-driven productivity gains in engineering to the shift toward LLMs as the new user interface, Michael...

It's time to rethink Go-to-market and put the funnel to rest. In this episode of Frenemies, Julia sits down with Jennifer Montague, Senior Director of Go-To-Market at Verdane, to unpack what truly drives sustainable growth in B2B companies. Drawing on her experience in private equity and scaling SaaS businesses, Jennifer challenges the traditional funnel mindset and introduces the “bow tie” m...

We are close to the end of the year 2023 - time to get sh*t done! In this episode Julia talks about the facts and hacks to increase your productivity by improving your focus, prioritization, and consistency.  The topics discussed in this episode: What factors influence an individual's productivity? How do you improve your ability to focus? What are the best techniques to prioritize tasks? How...

Burnout - we all have heard the term, but what does it actually mean and how do you spot it? On this episode Julia Hartwig is joined by Sally Clarke, a burnout expert, author, and keynote speaker. Together they dive into the first signs of a burnout, the symptoms, and the actions you should take when you are spotting the first signs. Find Sally Clarke on LinkedIn Find Sally's books here

Account-based Marketing or ABM - everybody talks about, but should everybody invest in ABM? On this episode of Frenemies the Demand Generation and ABM expert Casper Rouchmann joins Julia to give his insights on when you should invest in ABM, how to get started, and what you need to know.  The topics discussed in this episode: Defining the resources and personalization you can allocate to ABM The 3...

Meetings - we all have them, and most likely way too many again. On this episode Julia Hartwig gives her insights on how to ensure that meetings are productive, efficient, and run just as long as needed. She goes through the 3 types of meetings (Recurring meetings, purpose meetings and brainstorms) and shares the guidelines she uses so that every participant gets the most out of meetings.

By now Julia Hartwig has recorded 25 episodes of Frenemies and interviewed 6 industry experts on the alignment between Sales and Marketing. On this episode Julia sums up what she has learned about Sales and Marketing alignment, why it is so important and the 4 building blocks of a strong alignment. She also talks about what she has personally learned in the first 25 episodes and gives an outlook o...

Stakeholder management - just a buzzword or a skill?  In episode 25 of Frenemies Julia Hartwig gives insights on how to excel at stakeholder management to progress in your role and career. Stakeholder management is a skill that is often underrated and yet extremely important in any kind of job, but even more so in B2B Sales and Marketing. Julia covers how to think of your day-to-day tasks and proj...

Sales and Marketing alignment is a passion topic for Laura Erdem, Sales leader at Dreamdata. That is why she joins Julia Hartwig for this episode to talk all about alignment. Where do you get started? Why should Sales care about alignment? How do you notice friction points? And most importantly: how do you prevent misalignment between Sales and Marketing?  The topics discussed in this episode: Wha...

Q4 just a few weeks away! Considering the general trends in the B2B industry this year Q4 is set to be a difficult one - budgets have been cut, the sales cycles are long, and the targets are high. On this episode of Frenemies Julia introduces a variety of initiatives for Marketing, Sales, Product, and Customer Success that actually create impact and can help you drive revenue in Q4 - and the upcom...

Too long; didn't listen edition: You didn't have time to listen to the full paid media deep dive? Listen to the key insights of Julia's paid media talk with Deivis Rupslaukis and learn how you choose paid media platforms, the difference between demand capture and demand creation, and most importantly: paid media tips any marketer should know.

Paid Media - the magic trick of B2B Marketing or just a standard tool to generate leads? In this episode of Frenemies Julia sits down with the Paid Media expert Deivis Rupslaukis to discuss how to create and execute a paid media strategy that generates revenue. Deivis is the founder of the paid media agency DERU Digital and has more than 7 years experience in digital marketing.  The topics discuss...

The current market is an employers' market making the fight for the perfect B2B leadership role even more competitive. That's why Julia Hartwig is joined by the brilliant Jillian Als on this episode. Jillian is a skilled B2B Marketing leader with more than 15 years of experience, passionate about Sales and Marketing alignment,  and currently looking for new opportunities. She shares her...

Creating teams that sell - that is the goal of any B2B company. But how do you get there? To uncover this, Julia Hartwig is joined by Martin Nyvang Mariussen, Partner at Kvadrant Consulting and Co-author of the book "Teams that Sell", in this episode of Frenemies. The topics covered in this episode: B2B teams depend more on collaboration now than ever before Should Sales be an individual...

In episode 19 of Frenemies Julia Hartwig is joined by Sara Leander-Pehrson, the CEO of Prezentor with more than 20 years of sales experience. Together Julia and Sara uncover why the CFO matters in B2B Sales and Marketing and reveal the results of the Sellers' readiness survey 2023 with more than 300 B2B sellers. They discuss what challenges sellers faced with in the buying process, effective...

In this episode Ahmet and Julia are joined by Marc Denier, the Co-founder of StageSet to talk startup. Together the three discuss how it is to found a startup in a difficult economy, how to prioritize between Sales, Marketing, and Product as well as how to land your first customer.  Topics discussed in this episode: Balancing responsibilities as a startup leader Making brainstorms productive Diffe...

Pricing - in today's B2B world buyers care about prices. So does the price have the power to make it or break it? It certainly does. That's why Julia Hartwig and Ahmet Albayrak talk pricing in this episode. How should you create a pricing strategy and how do you communicate price with buyers? This and many more are discussed in this episode on Frenemies - where Sales and Marketing sit do...

In this episode of Frenemies Julia is joined by Jillian Als, the VP of Marketing at Tricent. The two discuss how Marketing leaders can approach and ensure a close alignment between Sales and Marketing in B2B SaaS companies. They talk about their challenges they had working with Sales, the main benefits of a close alignment, and how their relationship with the Sales department has changed over the...