SaaS Backwards - Reverse Engineering SaaS Success

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Steve Brothers, CEO of Splashmetrics --  With 77% of millennial buyers avoiding sales interactions until they’ve already made a purchase decision, buyers are consistently clear about what they need: fast, personalized, and self-directed answers.  Yet vendors stubbornly stick to outdated practices, forcing buyers into their processes rather than meeting them where they are....

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Beth McHugh, Fractional Product Leader --  When deals stall, buying committees often default to doing nothing. Why? Because they didn’t all agree that the problem was worth solving.  In this episode, Beth McHugh explains why pain points alone rarely drive action and how the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) methodology identifies the “struggling moments” that compel prospects to move...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Bob Moesta, Author of “Demand-Side Sales 101” In this episode, Bob Moesta, author of Demand-Side Sales 101 , reveals why uncovering your customers’ “struggling moments” is the single most efficient step for any business. Whether it’s product development, marketing, or sales, understanding the root causes behind why customers make a change transforms every decision you make....

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Peter Cohan, Author of “Great Demo!” Have you ever walked into a software demo, hoping to learn something new, only to sit through a “Harbor Tour” of irrelevant features?  You’re not alone – and neither are your prospects. Peter Cohan, author of Great Demo! , joined us on the SaaS Backwards Podcast to unpack the biggest demo mistakes SaaS teams make: ❌ Starting with the ho...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Randy Likas, Head of North America Go-to-Market at Nektar Traditional marketing tactics are losing their edge, with MQLs falling short as costly, outdated signals of real buyer intent. In this week’s episode, we explore tactics for CROs to tackle the “great ignore” with guest Randy Likas, Head of North America Go-to-Market at Nektar , a revenue efficiency platform that unif...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Isabelle Papoulias, Fractional GTM & Business Operations Executive Pipeline isn't just a metric—it's a team sport. But when marketing, sales and customer success work in silos, it creates a fractured buyer journey and practically guarantees you’ll miss opportunities. So, who should be responsible for driving this cross-functional alignment? In this episode, fr...

Send us Fan Mail Guest: Warren Zenna, Founder of The CRO Collective  Scaling a SaaS company is no walk in the park.  At a certain point, operational complexity demands more than just growth—it demands cross-functional alignment. Enter the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). In this episode, we dive into the evolving role of the CRO with expert Warren Zenna, founder of The CRO Collective and Zenna Consult...

Send us Fan Mail Pricing and packaging can either bog down your go-to-market engine or fuel it to peak performance. This week’s SaaS Backwards podcast features Dan Balcauski, Founder and Chief Pricing Officer at Product Tranquility , a consultancy that helps high-volume B2B SaaS CEOs define pricing and packaging for new products.  In this episode, Dan discusses the critical role pricing plays in a...

Send us Fan Mail Gifting can be a powerful outbound strategy that captures attention far more effectively than an email.  In this week’s SaaS Backwards podcast episode, we spoke with Kris Rudeegraap, Co-CEO and Co-Founder at Sendoso , a gifting and direct mail platform that helps revenue teams 6x second call rates, double win rates, and close deals 29% faster. Kris shared how his background in sof...

Send us Fan Mail Building meaningful connections with individuals using different channels can be more effective than running an ABM program that only provides a shallow understanding of what’s happening within an account.  In this week’s SaaS Backwards podcast episode, we spoke with Dmitri Lisitski, Co-Founder and CEO at Influ2 , a person-based advertising platform that allows you to reach specif...

Send us Fan Mail We often emphasize the importance of understanding what’s being talked about in sales conversations to shape content strategy and tell unique, compelling stories. In this week's SaaS Backwards podcast episode, we talk with Parthi Loganathan, Founder and CEO of Letterdrop , a platform designed to help companies do just that. Parthi explains how Letterdrop’s AI assists companie...

Send us Fan Mail The ability to leverage data and prioritize sales and marketing efforts is essential to the success of enterprises with broad addressable markets. Recognizing the struggles enterprises face in managing vast amounts of data, this week’s SaaS Backwards podcast guest Elio Narciso, saw an opportunity to improve how sales reps identify targets and prioritize their efforts. Elio is the...

Send us Fan Mail Consolidating sales and marketing into the office of the CRO might be a controversial topic, but it can be healthy for demand and sales functions to become enmeshed. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards podcast, our guest Cliff Simon, CRO of Carabiner Group , explains how aligning demand and sales functions can create a more cohesive and effective go-to-market strategy. Cliff sha...

Send us Fan Mail With all the current tools and technology available to salespeople, many have naturally slipped into a less personal approach than what used to be the norm. As a result, their calls and emails are ignored, and they struggle to get quality leads. This highlights the need to go “back to the future,” or back to the basics, and adopt a personality-driven, people-forward sales approach...

Send us Fan Mail According to this year’s B2B TrustRadius Buying Disconnect Report , where they surveyed 200 B2B brands and over 2000 tech buyers, 2024 is the “year of the brand crisis.” Across the board, brands are spending 38% on brand marketing and 53% on demand, which is understandable given the shorter time frame to justify ROI.  The problem is that buyers make decisions based largely on who...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we spoke with Steve Oriola, CEO of Unbounce , a landing page platform empowering marketers by combining their expertise with AI insights to create and optimize high-converting marketing campaigns.  Steve discussed Unbounce’s recent acquisition of Insightly , a robust CRM with advanced AI and machine learning capabilities that addresse...

Send us Fan Mail Paid advertising is often one of the largest budget items for SaaS companies, making it a critical channel for facilitating sales and driving growth. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we flipped the script and had our very own Ken Lempit, President and Chief Business Builder at Austin Lawrence Group, as the guest. Ken shared his insights on the challenges SaaS compani...

Send us Fan Mail To drive sales and growth, SaaS companies need to have clear messaging, target the right prospects, and leverage industry expertise. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we spoke with Will Robinson, CEO of Encapture , a platform specializing in intelligent document processing for industries like banking, lending, and insurance.  Will discussed the challenges associated w...

Send us Fan Mail Listen, assess, plan, execute, iterate. This week’s podcast guest Janet Jaiswal outlines these as the essential steps in developing and implementing successful marketing strategies in the SaaS industry. Janet Jaiswal is Blueshift 's Global VP of Marketing and has 20 years of experience in B2B SaaS marketing, working with companies like IBM, eBay, and PayPal.  In this episode...

Send us Fan Mail A community can be a "cheat code" for rapid learning and career advancement, and this week’s guest knows that better than most. In this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Kathleen Booth, SVP of Marketing and Growth at Pavilion , the world's largest private community for go-to-market leaders.  Our conversation explores the concept of community-led growth a...

Send us Fan Mail The transition from product-led growth (PLG) to an enterprise sales motion is a strategic shift that many SaaS companies are making in order to accelerate growth and enhance profitability.  This transition is driven by a variety of factors, including the need to scale, reach new markets, and meet the evolving needs of customers.  In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we h...

Send us Fan Mail Transitioning from a Product-Led Growth (PLG) motion to an enterprise sales motion requires strategic alignment and effective change management within a SaaS Marketing team. In this week’s episode, we discussed the challenges and considerations in this transition with Karen Budell, the CMO of Totango + Catalyst , two SaaS software companies collaborating to drive sustainable reven...

Send us Fan Mail SaaS entrepreneurs must be adaptable and willing to pivot based on feedback and market needs. In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, we spoke with Mo Hallaba, the CEO of Datawisp , a company that simplifies data analysis for business users. Mo discusses the challenges he faced in user acquisition for his gaming platform and how a networking group he started for the gaming...

Send us Fan Mail With the growing frustration among marketers with traditional pay-per-click and social media advertising, what can a SaaS CMO do to get their message in front of the right people at the right time? In this episode of the SaaS Backwards Podcast, Co-Founder and CEO of SparkToro Rand Fishkin joins us to discuss how they’re solving this problem by providing valuable data on where to r...

Send us Fan Mail Utilizing the network effect by onboarding partners of customers simultaneously can lead to organic growth and increased platform adoption in SaaS companies.  In this episode, Doug Heckman, Chief Solutions Officer at Surefront , discusses how they leveraged the network effect to drive and accelerate the adoption of their collaborative platform. By providing a no-cost license to ev...