The Growth and Influence Podcast

It's common knowledge that B2B prospects won't talk to you or your sales team until they're 70 - 75% or more through their decision-making process. Meanwhile, B2B SaaS companies are spending 75 - 107% of new logo ARR on marketing, with most of it going to top of funnel lead generation. See the problem? There's an enormous gap between the money we dump into lead generation, and the step where we actually talk to these leads. This gap is enormous both in terms of the steps a lead must take to reach a sales call... And in the time that expires while a lead is in this gap. Let's talk about how to shorten this gap, and influence leads who are in it so they reach a sales call more frequently, and in a more qualified state.

Do your prospects feel like victims when you market to them? Is that what you want them to feel? This episode explores the meaning behind the word "solution", and what happens when we market our products as if it is going to solve a problem (which they almost never do - they are only a tool the prospect can use to solve the problem). Listen for some angles on this that you may not have considered before - and what it all means for your marketing.

This is a work in public episode. I started Profit Automation in Feb 2023 without having a complete vision for what I was building. I had been fired from my job in tech sales, and I knew I wanted to work in an environment where I had more control over my own destiny again... And that's about all I knew. In this episode, I share revenue details, what I've learned, and my own mindset, attitude, and execution strengths and limitations.

My 15-year old son thinks he may want to be a pilot... But he doesn't want to talk to my friend who just went through the process and crash landed a plane. He's just going to "get online and sign up." What has technology done to our muscles of resourcefulness and creation? It's paved the way to make many of our tasks more effortless, but it has also made us less capable of achieving anything that doesn't have a 3-step process and a submit button. In this episode, we talk about the lost art of resourcefulness.

In a world where your prospect won’t talk to you until they’re 70% done with their buying journey, and 77% of prospects won’t engage until after their own research... What we’re doing today in B2B SaaS is borderline insane. Bland, banal content created by a content team whose job is not to convert, but to produce volumes of content. The smartest marketers are creating ONE TO MANY selling opportunities. They do this by creating amazing content—but it’s not just a traditional blog post with a “Book a Demo” button on the top of the page. It’s not a recorded webinar that hopes to simply build some brand affinity so the prospect will remember them when they’re ready to engage. This episode will show you what they’re doing instead.

If there was a lead channel for your SaaS business where leads would: 1. Close 80% more often 2. Be more profitable and have MUCH lower CAC 3. Churn less often (probably) Would you want to use it? Of course you would! That channel is referrals. Jay Abraham, one of the most successful living marketers, identified 125 ways to get referrals, and says that using 3-4 of them consistently will change a business. Most companies are using 0, and nowhere is this more true than in SaaS. Let's talk about how getting more referrals.

B2B marketing, especially in the tech and SaaS industry, is shifting toward B2C. If you're a marketer, you've heard it you whole career - B2C marketers are better at getting attention, placing products, and generating sales. But B2B was a different beast, and comparisons seemed academic and pointless. Technology and social media have finally reached a tipping point where B2B buyers are influenced more by B2C style content than by B2B. B2B marketers MUST shift the way they do things if they want to stay relevant and grow successful companies. This episode will talk about 3 critical shifts: 1. Selling Results 2. Capturing Attention 3. Bundling Info Products

Today's episode is about personal branding - specifically mine. Over the last 18 months, I've been working on my brand to make it reflect the impact I really want to make outside of my personal life. I've learned that you can know who you are, but be bad at sharing that with others. This episode is a public definition of my brand. If you think that's weird, maybe it is - but I'd love your feedback. Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

Want to see the video version of this podcast? See it here: https://youtu.be/Ta_TdcBGng0 I'm making a predication that a marketing and growth tactic that only a very small number of companies are doing right now... Will quickly become a massive trend in how SaaS companies market to and acquire customers. If you're not paying attention to this, you should be.

For visuals, find this episode on YouTube also: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSYui1FCDhSGFlZbVMi6CtQ It's all about awareness. Most marketers are familiar with the awareness scale, especially as it applies to B2C marketing. It's essential to marketing to B2B prospects also. But is there an aggregate awareness level in your market as a whole that you should be aware of? And what does this have to do with the effectiveness of your branding efforts? Listen to this episode to find out.