Mark Weijers

I recently talked to a CRO who is stuck finding GTM-Fit (again). CAC:Payback doesn't make sense for his growth channels. And the efficient channels aren't big enough for growth. So Mikkel and I did an Episode on how you can get un-stuck, covering these areas: 1. Outcompete on differentiation This sometimes smells like "product-market it" but positioning can unlock a completely new trajectory. 2. Outcompete on GTM Your competitors might shy away from PLG, Outbound or Events. On paper, those might not be a fit, but in a competitive setup they might. 3. Outcompete on Cash While you think you are strapped for cash, your competitors are very likely in the same or worse situation. Check out the episode here: https://lnkd.in/eFD-yn7p

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Curious about the State of Nordic SaaS Pricing? Valueships and SaaSiest scanned 1700 pricing pages and created a complex report about it with very interesting findings. Here's some examples of insights the report is packed with: 💡 Pricing strategies of Nordic B2B SaaS companies   💡 Insights from analyzing 1700 pricing pages that you can use when determining your pricing strategy.   💡 How many plans should you have on your pricing page 💡 Analysis of price lists, plans, currencies, add-ons, plan durations, and user-based pricing.  💡 + more... Excited to contribute to the report, with a bunch of other SaaS experts: Taija Engman, Ingrid Bonde Akerlind, Liza Collin, Ulrik Lehrskov-Schmidt, Anders Hilmansson, Kristoffer Cedfors, Robin Daniels, Maciej Wilczyński, Krzysztof Szyszkiewicz, Thomas Sjöberg, Daniel Nackovski 🙌 Curious to read? I put the link to the report in the comments! #B2BSaaS #pricing

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7 Tips for #SaaS #salespeople trying to reach me: - I am not a decision-maker in our company. Tip: use LinkedIn to find the right people at Hopkins Oy. - I was never interested in lowering the costs; I just wanted to increase the revenue. Your tool needs to help me with this. - Don't try to pitch your tool by saying it will enable me to work with more customers. Every consultant prefers fewer high-value customers. - Don't pitch your tool by saying it will make roles X and Y unnecessary. No one wants to be replaced with a SaaS tool. - Your 30-day free trials are useless. I need at least six months but prefer "free forever for personal / limited use". - Switching the tool is usually not worth the trouble because of switching costs. - If you can't compare your tool with your competitors, I will have to test all of them, which will be costly. ❤️ Follow me for more posts about #digitalanalytics in the #realworld!

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I've heard a lot about sales strategy many times. In most cases, these were just cool presentations that no one looked at again after the show. A sales strategy is not just about writing numbers on the third slide; it's work that needs to be controlled. Today, Oleksii Sinichenko and I talked about the strategies used by most sales departments, from very primitive to complex ones. Add +1 hour to your calendar for viewing, and it will help you review the typical mistakes when planning your plans. https://lnkd.in/dnZ_Z3jd Thank you!

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Is the end of static whitepapers, sales presentations, and websites in B2B coming up? I believe there’s a real chance.🪦 Yesterday, I attended the Scandinavia Creative AI Summit. The event was packed with quality speakers - something you rarely experience at conferences. Kudos to Lars Bastholm and the team for putting it together. Highly recommend attending next time. Now, back to the potential “death of static whitepapers, sales presentations, and websites.” One presentation especially stood out to me: Matthieu Lorrain from Google Deepmind on the concept of 'Liquid Content'. Essentially, liquid content—or liquid stories—are dynamic. Stories that are not fixed and distributed to the users, but adapt in real-time based on the user’s actions, preferences, and context. To give an example, it’s easy to see the potential in gaming. Imagine being able to influence how a game unfolds based on whether you are in the mood to be a 'macho badass' or a 'sophisticated gentleman'. The game will not be a fixed story—it will be fluid, changing based on how you prefer to play. But that’s why 'Liquid content' excites me off work. How about my work with B2B marketing? How does the possibilities of ‘Liquid content’ affect the communication we put out? Personally, it is rare that I find a whitepaper, sales presentation, brochure and so on that answers the question I truly have. Even when you find the good ones, you are still left with a lot of questions or insights you like to know more about. With the current ‘static stories’, we are not addressing all our customers communication needs. 𝙇𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩. It allows the user to shape the story to their needs. Imagine a prospect interacting with your "Liquid content format". "Liquid content format" right now because I do believe we would need to challenge the typical formats we use today. Let’s take a product video as an example: • If the prospect is just starting their research, the video story would focus on broader business challenges and opportunities. • If they express that they focus on specific pain points, the video story adapts to highlight how the product solves them. • If further down the journey, they need approval from a technical engineer, the video story shifts to emphasize technical features. • And once they’ve bought the product, the video story could evolve to offer tips on implementation and achieving results. Exciting, right? In BirdsAtFive we are already working with experiments and trying to get our head around how and what these technical opportunities mean for B2B content in the future. Is the end of static whitepapers coming soon? No one knows for sure. But a big part of me 'as a buyer' is rooting for it. Stefanie Malika Brandt Mads Haupt Toft David Borch-Kongshaug Torben Møhring Madsen Marius Skarpeid Mikkel Holmkvist Selch Jonas Munk Nuttaphon Art Jindakum Sebastian Gudmand-Høyer Marlene Rau Nicole Stensgaard Jens Bjørn Koustrup Nielsen

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When Maja Voje gives you a compliment, you 1. take a screenshot and 2. post about it So you decided to get direct customer feedback... Whether it’s for customer research or beta testing, the first question you should answer: ▶ Whose feedback do I want? And then often the second question is: ▶ How do I get them to opt in? Many companies throw an Amazon gift card on it and call it a day. Maja’s point was — don’t. The best people to get feedback from will gladly give it to you for free. My take? That’s exactly why you probably shouldn’t. Let’s go back to the two questions ☝️ Do you only want feedback from your fanpals or do you want feedback that reflects a larger customer base? Where we agree - there’s a better way to get responses than with a generic gift card. My take: ▶ no incentive: will only give you insights on your best ICP ▶ product related incentive: might get those folks to actually love and use your product more 💛 (Maja's post is linked in the comments).

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Only 6 out of 10 Ecom Founders/Growth marketers know their conversion rate 😳 I used to find this very surprizing but I have started to come to terms with it. Because ROAS is directly connected with the amount of money they spend and that gets associated with how much revenue did that generate. On the other hand conversion rate which is extremely important KPI becames a subset of the bigger picture. While at high-level looking only at ROAS is ok but when a brand gets serious about optimizations and increasing their ROI, a small increase in conversion rate with same amount of money spend, can multiply the revenue. And this should be the real aim of every D2C brand.

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Interesting book by Maja Voje. 📖 This summer we started to revamp our product market strategy to create a better fit and value for our customers at senzemo. Her book definitely gave us insights for our internal discussions as we try to build a new roadmap. 🧭 Here are some key takeaways from this process (that I personally deem important): 1. Know your ICP. Have in mind the type of issue you are trying to solve for them. Know their position in the decision-making. 2. Create a better product market fit. Like Steve Jobs said, we must start from the customer experience backward to the technology, not the other way around. 3. Play on your strengths. If customers are there, you're good at it and competitors aren't you're probably in the right ballpark. — Thanks for creating such an easy-to-understand and concise go-to-market book that we can apply in our B2B growing tech industry😌 #gotomarket #strategy #senzemo #iot #lorawan

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Great list of AI tools to help build your pipeline from Lanny M. Heiz!

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"My Webinar only got 30 signups 🙃 " A statement I hear quite a lot and is often perceived as a negative result. But ask yourself this: Is it really easier to get 30 sales dialogues booked on your calendar 🤔 ? Many companies try Webinars out and give up due to "dissapointing" results but I have to say I mostly see this going wrong from the "managing expectations" side rather than the actual result side. Think about it, you have 30 people in a virtual room that specifically tune-in to listen to the topic that resonates with them and you're an expert on. This is a great way to build trust which is paid back at the point where timing is right for that customer. You've displayed yourself as a key knowledge bearer of the subject that interests them and there is no safer feeling for buyers than knowing they buy from someone that understands what they care about! 😎 Go host some webinars 🚀

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In B2B SaaS, sales "best practices" don’t always work. Our CEO, Niclas Lilja, recently joined Dan Balcauski on SaaS Scaling Secrets to explain how Younium does things differently: keep it simple, stay efficient, and cut to the chase. When it comes to sales, we focus on three steps: 1. Understand the problem quickly 2. Present the solution 3. Done. 🎤 Niclas emphasized that if your offer doesn’t match what the prospect expects, you’re off track. It's not about impressing them—it's about being upfront and cutting ties early if you're not the right fit. 🎧 Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/dSirgUUV

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This course is brilliant for brand managers

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“Coming from B2C, I realised that B2B marketing is just a support function”, a Swedish CMO told me. Many B2B companies STILL think that Marketing's role is to assist Sales. Supporting those doing the "real work". 👉 Marketing is not your PowerPoint factory. It should be your revenue driver instead. The power has shifted from sellers to buyers. Your audience has full control of their own buying process. They ask peers for opinions, do their own research, and come to conclusions before you even realise they're looking to buy. They consume B2B content in places you can't track: organic social, podcasts and word of mouth. Sales is no longer the best way of creating demand with this evolved audience. Marketing is. And your team is competent enough to be judged by the revenue it contributes to, not just the slides it designs. B2B companies that see revenue growth is a team sport will emerge as winners. The others will not be missed. 🤷🏼‍♂️ #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration

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Excited to welcome soo many techies to HEL and Slush this week! 🚀 If you see this face around stop by and say hi ⚡️ What can I help you with? ⭐️ All things Finnish startup ecosystem & who you should meet ⭐️ Climate & energy tech startups from Finland & all things green transition ⭐️ Marketing & Comms for different stages of growth ⭐️ PR (Media relations) as a growth & customer acquisition tool See you around ✨ #Slush2024 #Slush #climatetech #energytech #startups #finnishstartups #greentransition #energytransition #PR #growth #marketing #communications

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"We've tried everything. SEO, LinkedIn, and Google ads with some of the best agencies in Denmark supporting us." I get a variation of this with almost every CMO I talk to who wants to explore possibilities with SparkForce. Here's what they really say: - We poured a lot of money into tactics that don't work inside channels that work. - We ran outdated playbooks to collect email addresses and confused that for buyer intent. - We ran broad match keywords to get low CPCs but weren't considerate to the downstream metrics. - We tried to bring buyers in-market by pushing our agenda and telling our audience about the benefits and features of the product. So, now there's an apathetic feeling of having tried everything, but nothing worked Here's what they didn't try: 1. Do the ICP work Taken at face value, a lot of companies have an idea of their ICP - but usually, it's something like: - these 8 industries - 10-5000 employees - EMEA - Value prop: Save time and money 2. Talk to customers Before running anything, interview 5-10 customers to understand why they buy and what makes them tick. Understand why they buy, what they like, what words they use, how they evaluate this type of purchase, who needs to get involved in a purchase, and where they spend time online. 3. Understand category entry points A category entry point is the internal "trigger" that makes the ready to evaluate a purcahse. Usually a feeling. "I feel like our marketing could contribute mere" - SparkForce CEP. "I feel like we drop the ball too much" - Asana CEP. "I feel like our internal communication is full of friction" - Slack CEP. 4. Map the campaign NOW, we're ready to start thinking about the campaign. Where should we be advertising, what message do we go out with, to who and why should they consider our product? --- So many people get right into the operational and tactical execution. Too few start with the strategy. Get your foundational ducks in a row - then go to execution. #demandgen

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Learn more about the amazing #qlirocheckout and our amazing campaign😎 #composablepayments #payments Evelin Kaup #qliro #checkout

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Have you ever felt like the ads you see are reading your mind? It's not just a coincidence; it's the result of hyper-personalization driven by a deep understanding of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). When you know your ICP inside and out, you can craft campaigns that feel like they're speaking directly to each individual, addressing their unique needs at the perfect moment. It's no longer enough to just know who your targets are; you should understand why they are seeking your solutions and when they need them the most. Leveraging intent data allows you to delve deeper into your ICP, providing insights into the behavior and interests of your target audience. It reveals signals indicating when a prospect is actively researching or considering solutions related to your offerings. By combining your knowledge of your ICP with intent data, you can identify opportune moments to engage with prospects through hyper-personalized campaigns. Utilizing a comprehensive understanding of your ICP and real-time intent data, you can create campaigns that resonate deeply with your audience. Tailor your messaging to address specific pain points, highlight relevant solutions, and offer timely assistance. Whether through email, social media, or targeted ads, ensure that every interaction feels personalized and meaningful. Hyper-personalized campaigns have the power to capture your audience's attention and inspire action. When prospects feel understood and valued, they're more likely to engage with your content, explore your offerings, and ultimately convert into customers. By delivering relevant messages at the right moment, you can guide prospects through their buyer's journey with precision and efficacy.

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How to define your ICP in 5 steps Many startups make a critical mistake in their early stages — they try to reach everyone. The common misconception is that a broader audience means more potential customers, but the reality is quite the opposite. Focusing limited startup resources on a specific ICP will bring more success. Another common issue is that companies often define their Ideal Customer Profile based on who they think it should be (opinion driven), rather than who it actually is (data driven). They’ll need to be revisited every few quarters as your business evolves and your target audience shifts. Let’s dive in: Analyze Your Best Customers. The goal is to evaluate their common similarities. Think of it this way: imagine you have 1000 people from different companies in front of you. You need to think of a list of questions to filter out 990 of them. What are those questions? Create Detailed Profiles. Build comprehensive profiles for your ICP, covering demographics, technographics, trigger and pain points, and goals. Dashly have a great list in the end their ICP blog post (link in the comments) Build CRM foundations. You will need to see if your ICP moves the needle when it comes to pipeline. For that, you need to introduce various CRM fields to constantly track that. Check competition Go to g2 profiles of your top 5 competitors and see who is leaving them reviews, especially best ones. You can also see various breakdowns by company size, industry, geography etc. Test and Analyze. Please don't simply run paid ads and monitor the conversion rate. It seems simple and genius, but you can't test your ICP hypothesis like that! Modern buying journeys are way more complex and are never triggered by a single banner ad. Tools like Wynter might be helpful here. Tell me if I missed something

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