Saved links

HubSpot ABM campaign process explained: best practices ensured 🧡 A HubSpot ABM campaign contains loads of moving parts. Planning and executing them in the right order is tricky, especially the first time ⚒️ That’s why I’ve captured the step-by-step process in this carousel and in a HubSpot ABM campaign blueprint that I’ve been optimizing for the past 7 years Learn all the HubSpot ABM campaign best practices ✅ Discover the tips, tactics, and tools to implement a HubSpot campaign flow that will yield real results > meetings landed and deals closed 💸 This carousel is based on insights from the full HubSpot ABM campaign blueprint video, which you can find here: https://lnkd.in/eQJzddtu Have an interest in the high-resolution blueprint? Come find me in the DM or the comment section! You wouldn’t be the first person to request it: 275+ account-based marketers and GTM strategists have already received the blueprint. If you already implement HubSpot ABM campaigns like a pro, give me your rawest feedback or share your top tips 🙏 PS: Save this post for later implementation! #ABM #HubSpot #B2B

How specific should your startup’s positioning be? It’s one of the most important (and misunderstood) part of early-stage growth. ❌ Too broad, and no one gets what you do. ❌ Too narrow, and you risk ignoring too much of the market. So how do you strike the right balance? For most startups, there are two key moves: 1. Build your SAM-Level Positioning This is how you explain your product clearly across multiple segments. It’s more specific than a big, visionary TAM play -- but still leaves room to grow and experiment. It’s perfect for: • Early homepages • Intro slides in your sales deck • Content to build broad understanding 2. Layer in SOM-Level Positioning This is your focused, high-precision messaging for specific segments. You’ll use it in: • Use-case landing pages • Persona-driven campaigns • Personalized sales materials It’s the highest-performing positioning in go-to-market. But it’s also the most expensive -- so only double down once it’s proven to work. - - - Take Airtable as an example: They started with broad TAM positioning: “Organize everything.” Then they shifted to SAM positioning: “We’re a better spreadsheet.” Today, they run multiple GTM motions built around SOM-level segment messaging (ex: “Solutions for marketing teams”). #positioning #b2b #marketing

The top 10 symptoms of an economically fragile consulting firm. Over the past years, Florian Heinrichs and I have worked with close to 100 consulting firms and practices/verticals, ranging from around 30-40 to more than 1,000 consultants. Different sectors. Different countries/regions. Different services. Different leadership teams. Yet the commercial challenges are remarkably consistent across the globe. The firms often believe they have a sales, pricing, or marketing problem. But, in our experience, those are usually symptoms of a weaker consulting value model. The patterns repeat: - Customisation-heavy. Every proposal starts from scratch. - Senior people remain heavily involved throughout the sales and delivery process (reworking proposals, persuading prospects, long negotiation cycles,...) - Buyers compare fees more than value. - New client win rates remain inconsistent despite strong relationships. - Delivery quality varies from project to project. - Knowledge remains with individuals rather than compounding across the firm. - New consultants take too long to become commercially productive (too much variance). - Scope discussions become commercial persuasion instead of outcome discussions. - Margins come under increasing pressure as complexity grows. - AI creates cost pressure rather than a competitive advantage. These symptoms rarely exist in isolation. They reinforce each other because they all originate from the same weak commercial foundation. What we’ve found is that stronger consulting firms redesign the system underneath the symptoms. They become more deliberate about the business problems they solve, the outcomes they repeatedly create, the expertise they want to compound, and the way they package and commercialise that expertise. That is where consulting proposition design starts. From there, repeatability increases, proof becomes stronger, buyer confidence grows, value monetisation improves, and pricing power follows. The wake-up call is simple. Most consulting firms spend enormous amounts of energy treating the symptoms. Very few redesign the commercial system that keeps producing them. | 10 comments on LinkedIn

How to Test a Consulting Value Proposition With Three Simple Questions? Many consulting firms believe they already have a clear proposition. However, we’ve learned to be cautious about that assumption, because what is often called a proposition is still just a polished description of services and areas of expertise. It may sound professional, but it often leaves the buyer with the hardest question: “So what does this mean for us?” That is where many propositions quietly fail. Being clear about services is easy. Being clear about value is much harder. When the buyer has to translate the service description into relevance, outcomes, risk reduction, and internal confidence, the consulting firm has already created unnecessary friction. In this article, Florian Heinrichs shares three simple questions we use to test whether a consulting value proposition is doing real commercial work or merely describing the work. https://lnkd.in/dnaiEYEF

I always hated the common definitions of “Product Market Fit”. They read more like fortune cookies than actual definitions. Most of them are some rephrasing of: “When you’ve built something people want” I think founders need something more actionable. We’ve worked with 600+ startups (all with different levels of fit), and we often use this model to help them understand just how much PMF they actually have… (see image) - - - Here’s our definition: 👉 “PMF is when you can repeatably find, sell, serve, and retain customers with the same Job-to-be-Done” And here’s a breakdown of our model introducing the 2 types of fit and the 4 supporting pillars. --- Go-to-Market Fit --- 🟧 Find → Can you consistently get in front of your ideal customers? This pillar boils down to selecting and executing the right channels and tactics to reach and engage prospects. This can take different shapes depending on your business model. For PLG companies, this means getting people to your homepage. For Sales-Led companies, this means getting a meeting. 🟩 Sell → Can you consistently close deals with your ICP? This pillar is about selecting and executing the right sales model along with developing the right offer. Again, closing deals can mean different things for different business models. For PLG, this means getting a site visitor to sign up. For Sales-Led, this means getting a prospect to sign a contract. --- Problem-Solution Fit --- 🟦 Serve → Can you consistently get customers to value? This pillar is about selecting and executing the right delivery model to get your customers off and running with your product. This can be self serve, white glove services, using partners, or some combination of these. 🟪 Retain → Can you get customers to stick around? This pillar is about selecting and executing the right support model for growing your customers success with your product. This function can also act as input for course correcting other pillars to reach product market fit - It’s here where you really start to see whether the other pillars are actually working. - - - Founders often think that because they have a few customers using their product that they’ve found PMF. But when we pressure test their business with this framework, we often find only partial progress towards real PMF. We recommend founders give this model a try with their own startup. And be honest about your progress! (specifically on how repeatable your operations are across these pillars.) | 25 comments on LinkedIn

You could reach PMF 6-12 months faster, if you spend 100% of your time talking to early adopters.That’s 20-40% of your runway. So why aren’t more founders in mfg tech/ industrial AI doing it? After writing the first two series, I noticed a gap: founders receive great feedback (you need more experience, more discovery, more qualification), but without the other side of the story, it becomes hard to execute. That’s why my new series will focus further into the factory floor. For this first post, I wanted to study if there’s a better way to allocate your time and energy to speed up the time to impact. A few highlights that might be interesting for you to take a further look: 1. Early believers are the only ones who will take a risk on new technology without proof, but they aren’t often in the mainstream channels. 2. Typical GTM advice on ICP/VP/pipeline might disproportionately attract mainstream buyers who are not ready to commit but quick to respond, ending up bringing noise to the pipeline and slowing down deployment. 3. Some traits that might allow you to think outside the box, and might help other founding AEs find the gap they are filling but not being noticed for. --- Thank you, Aaron Hudali, Anna Boyd, Babak Jahanmard, Glen Turley, Jason Conwell, Keith Lupton, Morgan Lin, Pete, Raven Chandler, Sabrina Paseman, Stuart Buckingham, Shuan, Trevor Lynn, Valentina Durand, Zach Uglevich, who shared how they actually evaluate new technology, and informed the early draft. Also, thank you, Simon Lancaster 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇵🇹, Vatsal Shah, for the endorsement on my last post. And to Kevin Leong, ing. for being my first reader, as always. | 10 comments on LinkedIn

Beste keuze dit jaar: van eilandjes naar business units Waar we voorheen werkten in losse teams, van campagneteam tot influencerteam, draaien we sinds een half jaar met business units. Klantenteams waarin alle disciplines samenkomen: een influencer campaign managers, PR managers, social media managers en accountmanagers, allemaal in één klantenteam. En wat blijkt? Ze werken beter samen dan OOIT. Die eilandjes leken logisch, maar hadden ook hun grenzen. Met business units weten we precies wanneer een team vol zit en wanneer we nieuw talent moeten aannemen. Dus groei managen in plaats van er achteraan lopen. De nieuwe structuur bracht ook een nieuwe rol: de Business Unit Director. Geen manager die uitvoert, maar iemand die praktisch zijn eigen agency runt. Met eigen targets, eigen financiële verantwoordelijkheid en een echte ondernemersmentaliteit. Die geef ik ze ook echt mee, inclusief inzicht in de cijfers. Want als je alles blijft voorkauwen, leren mensen het nooit. Nu voelen ze: dit zijn mijn klanten, dit is mijn omzet en dit is hoe ik het ga waarmaken. Elke business unit heeft ook een accountmanager die klanten actief blijft verrassen met nieuwe ideeën. Iets wat Sophie en ik voorheen zelf deden. Ik stimuleer ze altijd om bij klanten op kantoor te zitten. Wat er bij het koffiezetapparaat of aan de lunchtafel wordt besproken, is vaak waardevoller dan welke briefing dan ook. PS: Over groei gesproken… We zijn op zoek naar een Account Director! Zin om ons team te versterken? De link naar de vacature vind je in de comments. | 11 comments on LinkedIn

Revenue Operations is evolving. We’re become the leading department in #AI implementation. Luckily for us, we’ve the background understanding in how commercial operations work. We know how to fix underlying data structures to enable AI to work. If you haven’t learnt how to leverage artificial intelligence to - enrich records - create personalised outreach - score contact and account intent - automate next steps on deals - auto generate proposals - build onboarding programs - score the health of clients You’ll find yourself behind. You’re right - not all business are ready for AI. Our insurance and financial services are certainly conscious of the data compliance. But - the SaaS and non- regulated service businesses are already building AI solutions. If you haven’t started, now is the time to connect your data sources to an LLM and start considering - how can I add value with AI. If you are not sure where to start, try using the ROQ framework I have developed

Most employees don’t lie awake worrying about their company’s revenue. The remit of a security director likely doesn’t include “increase revenue for the business.” These managers and directors are usually the most likely champion for a B2B sale... and yet we constantly market past them. The reason is simple: → when a deal dies because the final decision-maker didn’t believe the ROI story, we (mistakenly) believe the solution is to talk about revenue EARLIER in the journey. But this is fundamentally backwards. When executives don’t believe the revenue story, it’s not because you didn’t put it in the H1 of your website hero. The reason they didn’t believe it is because your company lacks credibility and has little to no brand equity. Because you aren’t well-known, you are perceived as a risk to adopt. And how do executives try to reduce the risk? They demand that you produce a believable story around ROI and revenue generation. But again, this is putting the cart before the horse. The way to fix this problem is to generate more brand equity and credibility - and the way to do THAT is by winning over more and more champions. You earn the right to the c-suite through mass love and adoration of the champion-level role. And when you discount the champion by only speaking the language of the C-suite, you end up alienating the very people who will create the brand equity you need to close the sale. The champion has been tasked to find a solution. They are the ones who shop. They are the ones you need to convince FIRST. Their blessing is what gets the C-suite to join the conversation. | 48 comments on LinkedIn

Most GTM teams approach ABM backwards 👇 They jump straight into campaigns without the strategic foundation. Then wonder why ABM feels like a waste of resources. Here’s the complete ABM framework that actually works: Step 1️⃣: ICP segmented into tiers Not just any accounts. Accounts where you can deliver the most value based on ACV potential. Traditionally 50K+ ACV, but with AI making teams more lean you can start from 25-50K onwards. Focus on accounts that fit your ICP and are already in market. Step 2️⃣: Map the full buying committee Multiple people involved means you need clarity on who matters. Translate the most relevant roles into buyer personas. This becomes the foundation for everything that follows. Step 3️⃣: Apply SPICED from Revenue Architecture Convert pain and impact into a messaging house. Goal → Challenge → Informational Need → Preempt Objections. This drives all your content and outreach. Step 4️⃣: Content brainstorm aligned to messaging Map content in a blueprint with clear phases. Education and awareness content tied directly to the job to be done. Marketing and sales coordinate their efforts through the blueprint. Step 5️⃣: Execute in three phases Phase 1: Strategic and tech setup Phase 2: Full warmup campaign Phase 3: Sales follow-up Capture everything in a task sheet so nothing falls through the cracks. Campaign level matters too. Start with 1:few campaigns rather than 1:1. Going too narrow too early means zero ROI if you miss. Prove the model first, then invest more as you narrow focus. The result? A coordinated effort between marketing and sales to identify target companies and build lasting relationships through personalized campaigns. This is how you turn ABM into predictable revenue growth. Swipe through the carousel for the full breakdown 👉 Want the ABM worksheet? Come find me in DM or the comments! PS: Save this post for later implementation! #ABM #GTM #SaaS

Stoppen met communiceren sloopt je merk: ‘Halveer gerust je marketingbudget, maar houd je mond niet’ De consument houdt de hand op de knip. Dat voel je overal. En dus gebeurt vaak hetzelfde: marketingbudgetten worden als eerste gehalveerd of geschrapt. Begrijpelijk. Minder omzet betekent minder ruimte voor uitgaven die lastig meetbaar zijn. Maar er is een groot verschil tussen minder reclame maken en stoppen met communiceren. Dat eerste is een keuze. Dat tweede sloopt je merk op lange termijn, stelt Jur Baart in zijn expertblog. Je leest de blog via de link in de comments. #mkb #ondernemen #marketingbudget

It’s crazy to me how many startups build their marketing programs ass backwards... They start with: Web Design. Visual Branding. Tactics (ie. newsletter, cold outbound, social) Tools. Copywriting. And then try to fold in ICP refinement and positioning strategy. 🥴 This is like going grocery shopping before deciding who’s coming for dinner and what’s on the menu. For some reason, they fail to realize that STRATEGY DICTATES EXECUTION. Even subtle changes to your positioning can drastically impact your marketing activities. 🟣 Discover your best customers are CFOs instead of marketers? Every piece of copy changes. 🟣 Realize your differentiation is “safest” instead of “fastest”? Your visual identity, messaging, and proof all change. 🟣 Narrow your ICP to manufacturing instead of B2B broadly? Half your marketing channels disappear overnight. 🟣 Learn customers buy after raising a Series A? Your entire outbound strategy revolves around funding signals. --- Founders and marketers I beg of you...Stop treating positioning like another marketing deliverable! It’s the blueprint your website, brand, copy, content, and campaigns are supposed to be built from. And marketing gets dramatically easier once you’ve made the handful of strategic decisions that everything else depends on. | 39 comments on LinkedIn

Writing by hand is beneficial for brain development and engagement.

Positioning is more complicated AND less complicated than you think it is. It’s complicated because software is extremely amorphous. If you’re in B2B software, you’re not selling shoes. You’re selling a malleable tool that can look very different depending on who is behind the wheel. You’re trying to figure out an angle to help many diverse buyers understand what you’ve built and why it matters... without sounding vague and buzz-wordy. To make matters worse, your product itself is in a constant state of flux. With AI, you’re launching new features every week, and while it might look like a shoe today... it could easily look like a car tomorrow... ...and a plane the following week. It’s complicated. But on the simple side, you really just need to answer four questions: QUESTION 1: What is your product? There are two ways to answer this: A) State your product cateogry Once you name the product category you inhabit, you’ll have also explained what you’ve built. ”We’re an interaction design tool” (Figma) “We’re an issue tracking tool” (Linear) “We’re a marketing automation platform” (ActiveCampaign) B) State your leading use case Clearly state the exact scenario in which someone would use your product. In this way, you quickly answer the foundational question: “What is it?” Example: Super . so lets you build custom websites on top of Notion databases. QUESTION 2: Who is it for? Without getting too complicated, by answering “what is it” you’re also effectively answering “who is it for?” Take the example from Super from above: we’ve already narrowed the audience to people who are building with Notion. Or take the “issue tracking tool” example. There is a defined market for companies/teams that buy and use issue tracking tools. However, there are times when you’ll want to further segment this broad list into specific company types and departments. QUESTION 3: What does it replace? Your competitive alternatives depend on whether you’ve answered “what is it” with a product category or a use case. If you’ve answered that with a category, then your competitive alternatives are the other vendors in that category. If you’ve answered that with a use case, then your competitive alternatives are the other tools, methods, processes, etc. that your target segment uses to accomplish that task. QUESTION 4: Why are you better? Here’s where you need to talk about your differentiation. What makes you better than those alternatives? Usually, this will be a combination of features, capabilities, and benefits. | 51 comments on LinkedIn

If you’re a newcomer to B2B marketing, it can feel like you need to learn a new language! There are so many different phrases to remember, roles to learn, etc. It can feel extremely daunting. I’m here to make your life just a little easier - I’ve compiled a list of the most common phrases, positions, and concepts to help make your transition into B2B marketing a little easier 😊 Hope you find this helpful 🙏🏻 | 58 comments on LinkedIn

Revenue Architecture may offer a useful way to conceptualise a scalable go-to-market system, particularly for recurring-revenue business models. As set out by Jacco van der Kooij, the Revenue Architecture framework and Bowtie model treat revenue generation as a connected system spanning demand generation, lead nurturing/conversion and customer value management, rather than as a collection of functionally siloed activities. Marketing’s contribution to the system is most commonly associated with the front of the model: market and category development, brand building as well as demand generation and capture. In practice, however, marketing capabilities may also help to: * Shape propositions & offers * Design sales journeys * Optimise pipeline conversion * Contribute to onboarding & customer lifecycle management * Leverage buyer/customer signals to optimise retention & loyalty * Provide system-wide steering through integrated data management, measurement & insight generation Taken together, these capabilities may also help connect and enable the system’s different revenue motions. This wider scope may be consistent with customer-journey research (Lemon & Verhoef), suggesting that marketing can help shape customer experience and behaviour across multiple touchpoints beyond acquisition and conversion. It may also reflect a broader view of marketing as a capability connecting customers with products, service delivery and financial outcomes (see also Journal of Marketing article; link in sources). In summary, one approach is to organise marketing and deploy its capabilities across the Revenue Architecture framework and Bowtie model. This may help ensure that marketing contributes value from demand creation through conversion and customer value management, rather than concentrating its organisational role primarily around acquisition. The diagram below is an attempt to map this wider role. - - - Sources/further reading: - van der Kooij, Revenue Architecture (2023): https://lnkd.in/edZQbxeU - Lemon & Verhoef, Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey, Journal of Marketing (2016): https://lnkd.in/ejFcS8Pp - Moorman & Rust, The Role of Marketing, Journal of Marketing (1999): https://lnkd.in/ejYGkaNn

Studio Strauss is a visual artist’s website showcasing algorithmic art.

Exploit brokers pay $500,000 for a WordPress RCE vulnerability.

A personal account of rebuilding a home server.

A $120k bowling center system was replaced with $1,600 in ESP32s.