Paul Denham

Agency founders, Is your agency marketing not producing the results you want?  It might be because you lack empathy. Here's a question: do you actually care about the people you're marketing to? If so, what's the evidence? Here's the thing... Your buyers don't want to be sold to.  They want to be understood. With care and empathy, you take the time to understand your buyer's specific problem—not a generic version of the problem. Specifics matter; when you know the specifics, your buyers will notice. CQ --------------------------- I'm Corey Quinn 🎯 Click my name + follow + 🔔 I help agency owners specialize in a vertical market. #agencygrowth #deepspecialization #positioning

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Ebsta published the H1 Update to our B2B Sales Benchmark Report in July, but one chapter didn't make the deadline. Now you can get your copy at GTM2024. The missing chapter focuses on personas, engagement and relationships and their power in the sales process. Come to our stand to collect your copy, but be quick, as there are only 100 copies available. #GTM2024 #revops #revenueintelligence

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Revolutionise Your SaaS Growth Strategy with AI-Powered Lead Scoring Growth in SaaS isn’t just about getting more leads—it’s about finding the right ones. As competition ramps up and acquisition costs rise, the pressure is on to identify leads with the highest potential to convert and stick around. Traditional lead scoring might get you part of the way, but it often feels like painting by numbers, capturing only the basics of who might be interested. This is where AI-driven lead scoring steps in, and it’s reshaping how SaaS companies approach growth. With AI, lead scoring shifts from simple guesswork to a nuanced understanding of each prospect. Instead of just checking boxes, AI digs into behavioural data, tracking engagement signals and building predictive insights that help you identify high-value leads long before your competitors. Here’s why it matters: Reduced Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): With budgets tightening, every dollar spent needs to count. AI-driven lead scoring lets you zero in on leads with a strong likelihood to convert, reducing waste and directing resources where they make the most impact. Improved Revenue Predictability: One of the hardest things in SaaS is forecasting revenue with any real accuracy. With AI working behind the scenes, your pipeline fills with quality leads, not just volume, making it easier to predict revenue and achieve more consistent growth. Higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Beyond closing the deal, AI helps you identify leads likely to stay with you for the long haul, leading to a customer base that’s not only loyal but also valuable over time. AI’s advantage is that it’s always learning, evolving alongside your data. It’s not limited by static criteria but instead adapts to new patterns, ensuring your lead scoring stays relevant and accurate. Imagine a sales team focused entirely on high-potential leads, a CAC that’s under control, and revenue projections that don’t require squinting to make sense of. This isn’t wishful thinking—it’s what AI-driven lead scoring offers SaaS companies today. This week, I’ll dig into the practicalities of using AI for lead scoring, from understanding the types of data it leverages to how it fits seamlessly with your existing systems. Imagine the power of a sales team that’s equipped to focus on leads worth their time and effort, with revenue streams you can count on. Tomorrow, I’ll break down how AI analyses leads with surgical precision and why data is the backbone of every successful lead-scoring strategy. #SaaS #LeadScoring #AI #GrowthStrategy #kAIzen #OaaS #OutcomeAsAService #TheAllyMethod™ #PrincipledSelling® https://lnkd.in/eJF4mFYq

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Is Salesforce Unbundling SaaS Pricing?🤷‍♀️ Feature Feast and Ai Agents will lead to the great unbundling of SaaS Products. And Pricing to go with it! Let’s get into it. But first, a few principles: Guiding Principles: 1. Most SaaS Products are (hidden) Platforms 2. Most SaaS Features are (hidden) Products 3. Most SaaS Features are Closed-Source. Let’s use one of the biggest SaaS companies… Salesforce…as an example. Salesforce has: 1. Twelve or so main Products. 2. Over 200 Key Features 3. Mainly Closed-Sourced Features But, it is worth noting that Salesforce also has an App-Store like AppExchange. It allows 3rd party apps like Zapier to interact with Salesforce users. And this AppExchange points to the future. But let’s go back to the Products are Platforms point. A Platform’s goal is to create an efficient market by reducing transaction costs. (Sangeet Paul Choudary) Most would agree that the MarTech/SalesTech SaaS landscape is insane. And costly: - Complexity is a cost. - Integration is a cost. - $Cost is a cost. 😂 So? Products are innovations that solve problems. But. If Salesforce solved all of its ICP’s problems… There’d be a lot less of the 1,000+ SalesTech tools out there. Ok. Why are there so many tools? There are so many tools because customers are creating their own innovative product bundles. Their very own MarTech stack: - With Features from Salesforce. - With Features from Gong. - With Features from Salesloft. - With Features…! That’s why we have great websites like ‘BuiltWith’, which lets you become a web voyeur. If we love to spy on competitors' tech-stacks and are willing to pay…then there’s a market. So what’s the point? We’re already in a Feature Feast. Ai Agents will further accelerate Feature bloat. Salesforce is already a platform. But as SGP says, it will need to find a product in its platform. Like Spotify, that product may well be playlists. B2B MarTech Playlists. 🤔 The optimal tech set-up for ‘X’ niche ICP. This will contain both Salesforce features and other ‘best-in-class’ open-source features. MarTech influencers (yes, that’s a thing now 🤣) could also make a bit of cash selling tech (config) templates too!!! Nothing strengthens a platform moat more than users making money off of it! And finally. 🙌 If Salesforce allows its customers to bundle its own and external features…then features must be individually priced. Yes. Features are Products. And they deserved to be priced, too! Ps. Salesforce is already talking up their Ai agent features. …Their ‘Agent Feature Force’ 💪 #Pricing #Monetization

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'Dark Funnel' - It's a concept that 3rd party Intent platforms have spent a lot, to push into the general B2B Marketer's consciousness for a numbers of years. But I think it can confuse people into conflating engagement with likelihood to purchase. If you put enough effort into content, you'll get a lot of engagement. The internet is noisy, but I'll bet there's surprisingly little high-quality content in your space. But just because you're getting engagement, doesn't mean these leads should be in your 'funnel'. It's all too easy to leave the top of your funnel (which should be a full named TAM list of every good-fit account) flapping open in the wind, letting in poor-fit accounts that poison the gullet of the sales beast, destroy conversion rates and morale and make execs lose confidence in marketing. A while ago, I hosted a podcast mini-series of the @B2B Futures Podcast with Joaquin Dominguez Lucchini on the connections between B2C Luxury and B2B Marketing. We had B2B Marketers as guests of course like the wonderful Jennifer Johnson, PMP® of Deel, Shelagh McManus of Cybereason, Kathryn E. Strachan of CopyHouse, Sam K. of Beyond Encryption, Andrew Davies at Paddle, Claire Pitman-Massie of Ping Identity. Plus people who had spend their lives in the Luxury Consumer world such as Charles Stephenson, Dip CII of Burgess & Schaeffer Yachting , Chris Davies and Sonia Hobbs of Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. We quickly learned that Luxury consumer marketing has invested years of research and a lot of time and money developing techniques to weed out people that consume huge amounts of luxury consumer-goods content, without ever buying! So let's learn the same lesson: just because a contact or an account is consuming your content enthusiastically, does not mean they are actually capable of becoming a customer. However much they may want to be! Often their employer is structurally, financially or culturally incompatible with your product, and that engagement is just noise, it shouldn't be anywhere near your 'funnel'. As a B2B Marketer, even if your market size is tens of thousands of companies, having a named target list of accounts shouldn't be some future 'ABM 1:Many' concept, it should be the foundation on which you build. Once you know which businesses are fundamentally a good fit, all content engagement from relevant job titles in that base should, of course, be measured and acted upon to tailor nurture email sequences and trigger SDR calls. Maybe it's useful to think of any engagement from your named account list you're not currently tracking as 'Dark Funnel'. But don't let the phrase be an excuse for getting excited over engagement from poor-fit accounts.

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Spend $30k, make $1.3M in ARR. The essential checklist you need to maximise event ROI. 60% of leadership believe that events are the most critical marketing channel for achieving business goals But without proper planning, they can be a huge waste of resources. So to make sure that doesn’t happen to your agency, Here are the 9 steps you need to take. 1/ Goals → Get specific on your desired outcome → And aim for more than brand awareness → eg. number of MQLS, pipeline generated & deals won 2/ Measuring success and ROI → Split leads into: Leads and MQLs → Split deals into: Created and Won → Calculate event ROI: deals vs investment 3/ Event selection → Choose the right event for your goals → Min $500 for attendee tickets to avoid tyre kickers → Aim for events with 1000+ attendees, with high % of your ICP 4/ Pre-event → The earlier you prep, the better the success → Early booking = better rates + location + speaking time → Have a timeline for prep (details included in my full resource) 5/ Speaking slot → Use paper forms to gather leads data (It’s old school but works best) → Educational talk (don’t sell!) plus free value packed CTA 10 minutes in (push traffic to your booth) → End the talk with a 5-10 min Q&A 6/ At the booth → 1 marketer for logistics so salespeople can focus on selling & prospecting → Staff booth with 3+ quality salespeople to start conversations with passersby → Ask prospects to fill out a paper form and follow up on leads while still at the event 7/ Downtime → Ask the team to walk around sharing merch to start conversations → Assign 1-2 people to after-hours social events, others follow up leads → Study and use the event agenda to your advantage 8/ Follow up → Follow up with leads within 24 hours to secure event ROI → Send high-value insights and nurture them with value → Monitor data and calculate event cost 9/ Wrapping up → Follow these steps to make incredible returns → I’ve typically spent around $30k for each event → And returned $1-2M in annual revenue Crazy returns when you use this channel correctly and integrate events into your wider sales and marketing strategy. It takes a lot of work to maximise event outcomes (don't just sponsor & event and hope for leads to turn up). This checklist is just the beginning. Are you interested in getting your agency more than brand awareness at events? Comment “ROI” and I’ll send across the full checklist. PS Connect with me first to speed up the process.

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As a B2B content marketer, I have come to this realisation that we have to let buyers come to us. There’s no ‘actionable content’ that pushes someone to say ‘yes, this ebook is right. I want this solution.’ Content, when done right, has a compounding effect. And we absolutely have no idea, let me put it this way, we will never have a clue, about which content piece moves which buyer to come to us as a demo request—until the buyer tells us. Buying journey is far more complex than our (sellers) ego is letting us believe.

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Solo ABM practitioners are → struggling to stay afloat. Here are 5 disturbing patterns that our Benchmark Audits have uncovered. To set the stage, these practitioners: ▶ Were hired to lead the end-to-end strategy + execution of their org’s first or second attempt at implementing an ABM strategy ▶ Have typically been in their roles for 1 - 2.5 years ▶ Are the only dedicated ABM headcount in orgs that are around the range of $75M - $750M ARR 5 ALARMING TRENDS WE ARE SEEING: 1. Simultaneously running 1:1 and 1:Many ABM strategies with one ABMer: ↳ Trying to leverage both Enterprise ABM (1:1, 1:Few) and Growth ABM (Tier 1, 2, 3) at the same time. Neither approach ends up receiving the proper attention it deserves, and is leaving practitioners overwhelmed and in a constant state of “reactive” vs. “proactive”. 2. Unrealistic expectations with insignificant budget: ↳ Expectations for high account coverage, mixed with the task of implementing 1:1 and 1:Many as a team of ONE with little-to-no dedicated budget. ↳ These orgs are running the traditional playbook where an “ABM pilot” is leveraged to test results before scaling. 3. Forced into tracking both lead generation AND account-based metrics: ↳ Leadership holds the ABM program accountable to BOTH the legacy MQL volume-based metrics and account-based metrics simultaneously. Internal teams know that account-based metrics are a better solution, but their C-suite / VCs / PE firm / Board isn’t bought in (yet). 4. Pressure to cover more accounts than resources allow: ↳ The depth of personalization and resources required to cover 1200 accounts in a Growth ABM strategy + 10 accounts in a 1:1 Enterprise ABM strategy is not realistic for ONE person. They are being pressed to increase coverage from all angles; C-suite, Sales, VP of Marketing. 5. Pursuing net-new AND expansion accounts: ↳ The need to cover both and create a “one-size-fits-all” strategy for an account list that’s already too large. You cannot treat the strategy for expanding existing customers and generating net-new customers the same - yet they are being pushed to do so. TAKEAWAY This is one of the hardest GTM roles… They are typically under-resourced, held to unrealistic expectations and legacy metrics → all while simultaneously rallying and enabling all revenue teams around a *new* Account-Based GTM strategy. #b2bmarketing #abm #accountbasedmarketing #b2b

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📚 An integrated revenue playbook to create and capture demand from prospects and customers is directly derived from Understanding the market challenge and use case Painting 🎨 a complete ICP profile, Defining a value proposition for the market, Defining a unique selling point, Positioning the product in the market compared to alternatives, 📣 All of the above are inputs into the message you create for the market to generate awareness, build credibility, and move deals forward regardless of the channel you want to target. If you need to see all of the above in one place - fully automated for you so that your product marketing team can tell the whole story for your business in minutes and your sales teams can build their playbook? DM me to learn about the #GTMOS we are building at SureRev.AI #connectedgtm #productmarketing #gtmstrategy #AI

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Here’s how I simplify any business for scalable cashflow 💸 Most businesses overcomplicate things, but scaling doesn’t have to be hard. Here’s the checklist I use to streamline everything: 1️⃣ Specialist Standpoint. Be the go-to expert. Narrow focus = higher value. 🎯 2️⃣ Commitment to Core Competency: Stick to what you do best, and do it consistently. 🛠️ 3️⃣ Predictable Path to Purchase: Make it easy for customers to buy. No friction. 🛒 4️⃣ Repeatable Directive for Deliverables: Processes that run like clockwork, every time. ⏰ 5️⃣ Prepayment & Repeat Payment: Get paid upfront and keep the cash flowing. 💰 Keep it simple, keep it scalable.

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Want to turn your sales funnel into a conversion machine? Here's how I 10x'd my results: 1. Top of funnel: Cast a wide net, but be selective ◾ Use data to identify your ideal customer profile. ◾ Create compelling content that resonates with their pain points. ◾ Leverage social proof to build instant credibility. 2. Middle of funnel: Nurture like a pro ◾ Personalize your follow-ups based on prospect behavior. ◾ Offer value at every touchpoint (think exclusive insights, not just product info). ◾ Use automation wisely, but keep it human. 3. Bottom of funnel: Remove friction, amplify desire ◾ Simplify your pricing structure. ◾ Offer a risk-reversal guarantee. ◾ Create urgency without being pushy (limited-time bonuses work wonders). 4. Post-purchase: Turn customers into evangelists ◾ Exceed expectations with your onboarding process. ◾ Implement a referral program with genuine incentives. ◾ Continuously gather and act on feedback. 🔑 Key Takeaway: Your funnel is a living entity. Test, measure, and optimize relentlessly. What's your biggest challenge in optimizing your sales funnel? Drop a comment below, and let's troubleshoot together! #Sales #SalesStrategy #ConversionOptimization #BusinessGrowth

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Why does your marketing strategy flop? 🤔 - Pushing too hard? - Lacking uniqueness? - Offering something feeble? - Forgetting to add value? - Speaking to the wrong crowd? - Messaging misses the mark? - No transformation in sight? - Creating a dreadful user experience? I don't pretend to have answers to all questions, just opening the debate here 😅 #marketing #marketingstrategy #cmo #cmoinsights #fractionalCMO #fractionalleadership #marketinginsights #digital marketing #digitalmarketingstrategy

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I’ve recorded over 265 episodes of Churn FM over the last 5 years and the ideal customer profile (ICP) was discussed in over 90 of them. Identifying and optimising your business around your ICP is by far one of the biggest impacts you can have on churn, retention, and growth overall for your business. In this week’s episode of Churn FM I chatted to Harrison Rose, CEO & Co-Founder of GoodFit and previous CSO & Co-Founder of Paddle. Harrison shared a data-driven approach to identifying your ICP that had a direct impact on the trajectory of Paddle and how you can use it to identify your ICP too. I loved this particular episode as over the last few months Leah Tharin and myself have been preparing a new course on Maven on "How to find your ideal customer profile in B2B SaaS" and even after all the research put into the course and our direct experience helping startups identify theirs, I still walked away with a couple of golden nuggets from this episode. The link to the episode is in the comments and if you give it a listen I’d love to hear your thoughts and any takeaways you leave with too! If you’re interested to learn more about the course, I wrote a guest post for Leah Tharin's Substack on "How to find your first ICP" that covers a lot of content from the course and is hopefully helpful in isolation too. Or if you prefer to check out the course, it also includes case studies, templates, and worksheets to help you support the process, and is now live on Maven with a 30% rebate (650$) for early adopters and is limited in size to test the material! The first cohort will be taking place between Sep 10 - Sep 17 and if you're interested to check it out it is linked in the comments below too. And hopefully if you read this far you’re a part of our ICP and we will welcome you as an early adopter of the course next month :) Happy ICP hunting!

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Right Revenue : Literally… when was the last time that you walked your rooms? Every single one of them…Some of the most successful hoteliers start here. Rooms are often categorised during inception and often just left that way for years and years. #hotels #hoteliers #hotelrevenue #revenuemanagement #hotelpricing #adr #hotelrooms #expertinsights Adrienne Hanna – George Titlow

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bout to drop a 24 page guide on tracking b2b sales triggers with Clay and AI 👁 there's a lot of trigger guides out there but they mostly just list triggers and don't explain how to track them in detail. mine does too, but I think they're a bit more diverse and interesting than most of the guides I've seen. I'm hoping to both inspire and inform people with this guide on how to find out when your buyers have an active project without spending thousands of dollars on one of the signal based selling tools I honestly believe building the infrastructure to track triggers yourself is a better way to go. If you want to be notified when it drops sign up for my mailing list on the link below. https://www.lazysales.xyz/

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5 steps to a 95% reply rate: 1) Optimum deliverability 2) Double validated data 3) Research your prospect 4) Kidnap their favourite pet 5) Use the CTA 'Want to see them again?' along side a picture. 🐱

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If you're spending more than a second to digest the proposed idea, your business is currently losing money, big time. For the majority of businesses, defining the ICP is similar to an open loop system acting as a Leaky Bucket. Close the loop with attributes of success derived from your top revenue contributors - your book of business.

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Most important Meta Advert metrics right now: - CPM (Cost per 1,000 impressions) - CTR (all) The percentage of impressions where a click occurred - Cost Per Result Focus on improving these. Win.

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5 steps to create irresistible offers. (use your LinkedIn posts to make $$) 1. Hypertarget your ICP • Identify a frustrating problem your customer faces • Highlight their pain & agitate the negative feeling • Do this with their fears, objections & FAQs too • Present your product/service as the solution 2. Demonstrate results • Turn case studies into before vs after story posts • Litter posts with examples of client results • Share testimonials (with names/videos) • Highlight client problems vs outcomes 3. Personalise messaging • Collect data or insights from your audience • Speak the language of your customers • Segment messaging based on intent • Lead with emotion-first outcomes 4. Create urgency • Leverage 'limited' time/availability (i.e. FOMO) • Emphasise how rare or special your offer is • Give a reward to incentivise quick action • Create waitlists in advance of launches 5. Have a clear CTA • Include only one call to action in each post • Ensure your profile is optimised for this • Have a clear & low-friction next step • Simplify the 'next steps' process Hi, I'm Shoaib 👋 A LinkedIn Personal Branding Pro. + Signed 130+ clients in under 3 years + Written 300+ viral LinkedIn posts + Generated £5.2M in revenue So my principles work. (They're based on data from 13,000+ posts). Want 1:1 LinkedIn coaching with me? DM me to find out more.

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