Sam Kuehnle’s Post

I've helped 50+ SaaS companies implement a marketing strategy for today's world, and there's 1 thing I've found that indicates if it'll be successful: (and it has nothing to do with the marketing strategy itself) *Expectation setting* The best thing you can do for yourself and this new strategy is to CLEARLY set expectations with leadership. AKA what to expect, when to expect it, and how to validate if we are on/off track. I like to do this in two ways. 1) Timeline The first way is by giving an overview of the timeline for this shift, but still in an easy-to-understand way for non-marketers. Getting started (days 1-30) Experiment (days 31-90) Validate + iterate (days 91-180) Scale + iterate (days 181+) The key here is setting expectations that it's going to take one QUARTER to get experimental results and ANOTHER quarter from there to validate our findings before we're able to get ready to scale. 2) What to watch The second way to successfully set expectations with your leadership team is to tell them EXACTLY what we will be watching to understand if things are working and when we will be watching for those signals. The first thing you’ll notice is that we’re aligning these KPIs with the 4 stages of the timeline we walked through moments ago. The second thing to notice is that we are calling these KPIs (key performance indicators), not goals. Our goal is to increase revenue from marketing. Like the name states, KPIs are indicators that we’re on track to hitting our desired goal. Getting started (days 1-30) Historical performance will continue (remember: we’re getting things in place here, not executing). Experiment (days 31-90) # new users (direct + branded) to website # visits to high-intent pages ICP engagement % on social channels you’re active on # “leads” from paid search + paid social* (if previous strategy was lead gen, this will decrease) Cost per lead* (if previous strategy was lead gen, this will increase) *Note: It is ok and EXPECTED if the above two go that direction - we’re focusing on downfunnel impact Validate + iterate (days 91-180) # high-intent handraisers “How did you hear about us?” responses referencing the new tactics/mediums you’re using BDR/AE feedback on if ICP has heard of your company before (will change from “Who are you and where are you calling from?” to “Ohh yeah, I’ve heard of your company before, I love your content!” # discovery calls completed Conversion % of handraiser > discovery call completed Conversion % of discovery call completed > qualified opportunity Scale + iterate (days 181+) # qualified opportunities $ qualified pipeline Win rate HDYHAU responses referencing word of mouth Sales cycle length $ revenue Advertising customer acquisition costs (CAC) Advertising CAC payback period Pro tip: turn the KPI bullets at each stage into checkboxes so you can show them the exact progress you’re making as you move along the new journey #marketing

Friday health thoughts: Are you stuck? In a funk? Wheels spinning but you aren't getting anywhere? Go change your scenery Step away from your computer and... Go for a walk Head to the gym Take a shower Play with your dog Take your kid to the park Call a parent or grandparent Go for a bike ride Grab a fiction book + read a chapter or two Meditate Then come back to where you left off when you're in a better headspace and watch how much easier things become. #fridayhealththoughts

I love data. I could geek out on data all day long. More specifically, I love to use data to support what we should AND shouldn’t be doing. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do here with your leadership team. Instead of blindly guessing at what we should be doing, following the current “best practice”, or mirroring what our competitors are doing, let’s use our own data to inform what we should do. To blend or not to blend, that is the question If Shakespeare was a marketer in 2024, I fully believe he would’ve asked his leadership team that question. Most companies use a “blended” story for each team (and sometimes even the entire company 😅): Marketing produced X at Y%, generating $Z.ZZ return Sales produced A at B%, generating $C.CC return The problem with this approach is that you’re using an average of a series of averages. This is a BIG no-no. And this plays into exactly what we should be doing - looking at the full story to understand what’s going on. So that means taking the Marketing “bucket” and breaking it down by the core channels, such as lead gen, inbound, events, referrals, etc. I’m going to keep it simple here and focus on the first two, but you can and should do this for as many channels that you currently use or historically used. This is where the fun begins as you’re now able to see how the different channels play out for driving new business. And this is where you’ll likely start to see some questions like the ones in the yellow text boxes of the image come up from your leadership team: *Lightbulb moment initiated* Congratulations, you’ve now shown that not all marketing efforts and channels are equal at driving new business. The strategy and tactics you use will all play out differently not just based on a binary yes/no if you use certain channels, but will vary based on the investment level in each, how well they’re executed, and so on. This example is VERY common. With this data, you are able to show your leadership team exactly how your current marketing strategy + channels are (or aren’t) performing. If you continue to focus on lead gen, you’ll simply see the above lead gen results on a larger (read: inefficient) scale. But if you focused more on inbound, what would that look like with 2x, 3x, or 5x the resources applied? The beauty is they don’t need to be net new resources, but can be reallocated from lead gen, meaning you spend the same amount, but each dollar goes drastically farther in driving qualified pipeline and future revenue.

Fun fact: when a prospect officially enters “the buyer’s journey”, they aren’t starting from scratch. More importantly, not every company gets an equal chance at winning that potential business. But why? Simple: when a company finally recognizes that it’s time to solve for this pain or need to grow in a certain way, they already have a handful of companies in mind that can help them achieve this. A study conducted by Bain and Google in 2022 highlighted the massive insight that 9 out of 10 B2B purchases that are made go with a vendor they already had in mind before officially starting the “traditional” buyer’s journey. Think about it - information is EVERYWHERE and very easily accessible now. Rewind 20, 30, even 40 years ago, and that information could only be acquired through an RFP, at an event, by having the provider “call” on you or, even scarier, faxed to you 😱. AKA, sellers had all the power. Now fast forward back to today and you’re only ever a search query, conversation, podcast, video, etc. away from getting the information you were seeking. And if the seller doesn’t provide that information easily or transparently, the prospect simply finds another alternative (aka one of your competitors) that has that information readily available for them. AKA, buyers now have the power. So now it’s up to you as a marketer to help your leadership team understand this shift in power dynamics and position your company in a way that will help you succeed moving forward. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is one snippet from a larger newsletter sent out last Saturday via Substack tackling part 2 of 3 on how to get leadership buy-in as a marketer. Link to the article (or to subscribe) can be found on my profile. And yes, it's 100% free.

Friday health thoughts: 5 surprising health benefits of coffee ...because who doesn't want 5 more reasons to justify their caffeine fix 😂 1) You're less likely to develop heart failure Studies have shown that drinking 1-2 cups of coffee per day may help keep heart failure at bay 2) You may decrease your risk of getting Alzheimer's disease or dementia Studies have found that the caffeine in two cups of coffee may help protect you from these conditions. Research noted that for individuals 65 or older and drank 2-3 cups of coffee per day were less likely than their lower coffee intake counterparts to develop these conditions. 3) You're more likely to live longer Coffee drinkers are less likely to die from some of the most common causes of death, such as: heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney disease 4) It helps increase athletic performance Drinking coffee before exercise, notably caffeinated coffee, helps to increase endurance and decreases perceived exertion levels 5) It helps keep you happy (and at a lower risk of depression) Multiple studies have found direct links between coffee consumption and a lowered risk of developing depression - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On that note, off to go brew another cup of coffee ☕ #fridayhealththoughts

If I never received another unsolicited, cold-pitch DM from someone I've never met, engaged with, or added value to me in any way, I would be absolutely ok with that

2 simple questions to ask your leadership team to get them aligned with your marketing strategy “Life is too short to work for a CEO who doesn’t get marketing” You’ve more than likely heard this quote floating around on LinkedIn, especially in the B2B marketing circles. It’s a great quote and paints the best-case scenario for every marketer - working for a CEO or leadership team that simply gets marketing. While we’d all love to work for a CEO who gets marketing from day one, the reality is that more often than not, that’s the exception, not the norm. And it's our job to help them "get" marketing. 1) Would you rather hit your lead goal, but miss your pipeline goal? Or would you rather miss your lead goal, but hit your pipeline goal? Purpose: to get them to zoom out for a moment and explicitly say what’s more important to them - leads or pipeline. Any individual who makes it to a leadership position should be answering with missing the lead goal but hitting the pipeline goal. After all, pipeline and revenue are what keeps a business running, not leads. If you happen to have that member 1% in the room who says they’d rather hit the lead goal… …run, fast. That’s a sinking ship. 2) Tell me about the last purchase you helped make here. What brought it to your attention? How did you go about the path to purchase? Purpose: to get them to realize a LOT of untrackable items influenced their decision. Tell them to take their time, really think about this, and then go through everything that comes to mind - no detail is too small. And what you’ll hear are things like: 👯♂️ A peer of mine uses it 🎙️ I was listening to a podcast where it was mentioned 📱 I saw an ad of theirs on social media 💻 A post by their CEO was shared in our company’s Slack 👨💻 I did a google search on “best [category name] software” The list will go on, but what’s important to note and call out in the conversation here is that it’s a mix of both trackable AND untrackable items. Too many companies only focus on what can be tracked or lead to an immediate conversion. And unfortunately, that overemphasis comes at the expense of the activities that are driving the majority of your future business. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This came from part 1 of a 3-part series on getting leadership buy-in as a marketer that was sent out in my newsletter last Saturday. Join 100+ other marketers receiving this through the link in my profile (and yes, it's free)

Friday health thoughts: "Take care of y’all’s bodies. Take care of y’all’s chicken. Take care of y’all’s mental." Marshawn Lynch is hands down one of my favorite people in the world Would leave it all on the field to break over 5 tackles on his way to score a 50+ yard touchdown, then moments later be laughing + celebrating like it was no big deal From watching him play for years, to seeing what he's been up to in retirement, to re-watching this interview he gave at the end of his career, one thing became clear He finds joy in EVERYTHING he does and is absolutely unapologetic about it And I believe that comes from him having an incredibly strong understanding of one of life's most difficult questions to answer: Are you happy? In this interview, he simplified the best things that other players (or anyone, for that matter) can do for themselves to be set on a good path forward: 💪 Take care of your body 💰 Take care of your chicken (money) 🧠 Take care of your mental health You can rabbithole down each of those in a thousand different ways, but at a high level, your physical, mental, and financial health are three of the biggest contributors to your overall outlook on life + happiness #fridayhealththoughts

You'll never stand out if you're always following the herd or "best practice" In marketing: Copying your competitor(s) means you'll always be on the defensive, never innovating, and always competing for a bite of the last, smallest slice of the pie In job-seeking: Easy Apply means candidates can simply click a few buttons and have their application submitted in seconds, making you just another name in the stack The solution? Zig when others zag Competitors use blue ads with white text talking about ROI? Cool, let's make a funny video about what our market is struggling with daily Everyone's using Easy Apply to submit their application? Write a meaningful cover letter or shoot a quick video about why you want the job with THAT company specifically (s/o to Jason Fried + David Heinemeier Hansson's recent episode of Rework for reiterating from the Founder's POV that these AREN'T dead and can separate you from the pack) As markets become more and more commoditized and job postings are 2 clicks away from having an application submitted, differentiation becomes your superpower

"If you don't do this, I'm going to post about it on Facebook/Twitter" ^^ The adult version of toddlers throwing temper tantrums at the grocery store The infamous grocery store temper tantrum. The full-fledged meltdown that occurs when a toddler isn’t allowed to get that candy bar, snack, teddy bear, or whatever else it was that they had their eyes on. We’ve all experienced it - whether it was with your own children, saw it happen to other parents, or you were that toddler growing up. So what do you do? Do you cave in and give them the candy bar? Do you chastise them to get them to stop? Do you ignore it entirely? Turns out, how you approach these grocery store temper tantrums is the same exact way you handle the adult version of these temper tantrums when someone threatens to “go to social media” about some experience with your company. Do you cave in and give them what they want? Do you push back and argue with them? Do you ignore them entirely? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer that can be applied to every company. Big companies can afford to hold the line more. Small companies can’t afford to lose a cent of revenue. Strong brands have champions who will come to their support on social. Weak brands will see others pile on the post with more negative sentiment. Once you understand where you sit across various spectrums, you can determine the playbook for your company. And remember, it should also be adapted as time goes on and you move across spectrums. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Last Saturday, I went deep on this on Substack. If this is something you've struggled with or want to avoid in the future, hopefully this provides you with some ideas on how to handle them. samkuehnle(dot)substack(dot)com