Matt McGhie

ABM is actually a really dumb concept. But it exists because we seem to have forgotten that on the receiving end of every email and ad is another person with legitimate needs and concerns. Instead, we enroll 15,000 people into a sequence asking for a quick 15-minute chat. Not recognizing that we ask people to use the budgets they have been entrusted to use well on us. Not recognizing that a bad investment could end up costing someone their job. Not recognizing that investments HAVE to generate a real return. So I wish ABM didn't exist. Because that would mean all marketing programs would actually care about the customers.

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There's a critical distinction between positioning early-stage and growth-stage B2B tech products that I worry people don't understand. In the early days, positioning a product on capabilities alone is enough. You align your product to what buyers want, dig in, and get your business off the ground. But once you hit scale, the rules change. Having differentiated capabilities is great, but capabilities alone rarely lift a company to the top of its category. Here's what I think does: -Differentiated product capabilities ...plus a combination of some or all of these: -Differentiated credibility -Differentiated convenience -Differentiated cost A product that is easier to trust, easier to buy, and delivers more value for the dollar is far better positioned than a product that only has differentiated capabilities. Category leaders know this. It's how they build formidable moats. But I absolutely think challengers can win this way, too. I witness it daily.

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Does your CEO really want to know how many MQLs and SQLs your marketing produced this month? Probably not. Today's marketing playbook vastly differs from the one that worked so well two years ago, including what gets reported internally. I was recently invited to speak to the Arizona Innovation Marketing Association, and I chose to discuss how my marketing playbook has changed. In my talk, which I titled, "The Rebellion of ROI: Why It's Time to Throw Out Traditional Marketing Playbooks," I shared five game-changing shifts forcing a complete rethink of the playbooks we used two, even five years ago. And the first big shift is to admit your CEO doesn't care about MQL's or SQL's. I call it a shift because they used to care about them. Not that long ago, marketing teams were being told Sales needs more "top of funnel LEADS." So Marketers created a bunch of gated assets and threw a gazillion "Marketing-Qualified Leads" over the wall to Sales. Except they quickly learned that someone downloading an eBook is almost never ready to book a sales demo. And in the end, while Marketing could claim success by generating thousands of leads, CEO's and CFO's were focused on driving revenue, not leads. This led to questions like "so how many leads do we need to produce $X in revenue?" In Q2 of last year, I stopped reporting lead numbers. The traditional "MQL" was simply too disconnected from revenue. At the same time, we also took the radical step of ungating all of our assets, which naturally caused our lead count to plunge. Instead, I shifted to reporting inbound pipeline and outbound pipeline produced through marketing outreach efforts (our SDR sits in Marketing, not Sales). The only leading indicator we report is inbound demo requests. Guess what? I've not been asked for MQL or SQL counts in more than a year. The reality is investors are no longer funding growth without profitability, so aligning our marketing efforts to revenue helped prove that our modest marketing investments are producing pipeline. Reporting on pipeline also enables us to report Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) tied to pipeline and revenue (10X and 29X respectively for last year). How has your marketing reporting changed in the last two years?

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🚀 Did you know? Face-to-face interactions at trade shows generate 77% higher close rates than any other channel. Yet most sales teams are leaving money on the table. Why? ... ... ... Because they're approaching trade shows all wrong. You're not alone if you've felt overwhelmed by massive exhibit halls and struggled to connect with the right decision-makers. But what if there was a better way? Imagine walking into your next trade show: • With a pre-qualified list of prospects who WANT to meet you • Knowing exactly which booths to visit (and when) • Armed with conversation starters that resonate with your ideal clients It's not just a fantasy. It's a proven strategy for trade show success. By shifting your approach, you can: ✅ Speak to more decision-makers ✅ Generate higher-quality leads ✅ Close deals faster The result? More sales opportunities and a clear ROI on your trade show investment. No more aimless wandering. No more time wasted on tire-kickers. …Just targeted conversations with the right people at the right time. Ready to transform your trade show experience from a necessary expense into a powerful growth driver? Book an appointment via the link in my profile and I'll share some easy wins you can try at your next event. 🔥 What's your biggest trade show challenge? Share below or tag a colleague who needs to up their game! #TradeShowSuccess #B2BSales #SalesStrategy

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New product idea for ambitious marketers. Are you in or out? I call it “Profit-led Marketing.” Somewhere along the way, we overcomplicated good mktg. We got lost in vanity metrics: top-line rev, in-platform ROAS, etc. Mktg is hard, but the path is simple: 1) Gross Profit = Sales - Cost of Delivery 2) Cont. Profit = Gross Profit – Mktg 3) Net Profit = Cont. Profit – Fixed 4) If Cont. Profit > Fixed, scale 5) If it helps Net Profit, keep scaling 6) If it hurts Net Profit, spend less; find better Mktg 7) If Cont. Profit < Fixed, cut Delivery, Mktg, & Fixed 8) If Cont. Profit > Fixed, scale; but stay lean always 👊 -- If we build a dead-simple SaaS w Profit-led Mktg updates, would you buy it? Everything you need, on one iPhone screen. Let me know why/why not 🚀

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There's been a lot of knocks of late on intent data, generally, and - as one of the biggest players in the space - 6sense, specifically. Here, Scott Martinis does a deep dive on what he's learned. The whole thing is good, but here are two major a-ha's for me as it relates to sales teams I've worked with: 1.) You need really strong data as it relates to opportunity qualification. 2.) Ideally, you've got data sets of 200+ opportunities won in the past two years. Truth is, many of these new solutions rely on an algorithm, and the algo is only as good as the training data. 200+ opportunities won in the past 2 years isn't a small number for many businesses. Not at all uncommon for firms to close 1/3 of all opps, which means you'd need to generate 600 opps in 2 years, or approximately 1 per day. That's opps - not leads. Whenever we evaluate solutions, there's a natural tendency to ask questions about scaling up: How will it work if we add more seats, more APIs, more industries? This is a great reminder that in some cases you need to understand how well the solution scales down. Because sometimes the answer is, "Not well." #digitalmarketing #marketing #intentmarketing

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Friends of The Fitness Technology Summit, I said I would address my takeaway list from last week (post link below). First up, AI. My giveback here is to look into HubSpot for your clubs. Not only does HubSpot have tools to add to or completely replace your current CRM, but they also launched Breeze AI last month. Breeze brings AI into your sales, marketing, and operations and runs alongside your data. I use Breeze daily on our HubSpot account to make my life easier and improve our business operations. Last Friday, I had a big data clean-up project, and I could not get to work directly in Chat GPT, yet when I tried it in Breeze's CoPilot, bingo, I got exactly what I needed. SWETI Marketing is your HubSpot Diamond-level partner. We can run a no-nonsense demo for you, showing off Breeze and our fitness industry-specific CRM configurations. How can we help you? https://lnkd.in/ggiq9mPr https://lnkd.in/gKjAgwpw

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Narrow and focused >>>>> broad and vague 100/100 times. Of course, as your startup (or product line or service or etc) grows you need to broaden your audience, but that's where segment-specific ICPs and value propositions come in. The more specific you can get with your audience and value delivered the faster you will grow.

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I have two spots remaining for a seat in this Wednesday's Revenue Marketing Exchange discussion on AI: Moving from Employee Experimentation to Organizational Transformation. If you are a VP of Revenue Marketing or Growth Marketing and want to discuss this topic with 4 of your peers, RSVP to me. The discussion is taking place from 12:00 - 1:00 EDT. #aimarketing #revenuemarketing #growthmarketing

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We’re simplifying. Consolidating. And redefining what it means to build a People-first GTM strategy. Today’s newsletter is more than just another edition—it’s the first look at the future of TACK Insider. Here’s why simplicity wins in GTM and how we’re putting this into action for you. We’re merging Beehiiv and AudiencePlus into HubSpot—one unified platform to power our media network and community. Been a fun run with both, but for what we want to do this makes more sense. HubSpot will now be our all-in-one destination: part media network and part community, and all focused on helping you become a GTM leader. This change isn’t just about reducing tools—it’s about clarity, focus, and creating a space where everything you need is in one place. TACK Insider now features two clear tiers: Subscribers (free) and Pro Members (premium), giving you access to exactly what you need without the noise. Get actionable GTM strategies and tools every Sunday morning, designed to inspire and equip you for the week ahead. Each email will deliver tactical insights, curated resources, and exclusive tools—focused and valuable. By consolidating and simplifying, we’re not just reducing complexity—we’re building a platform designed to help you become a GTM leader. Everything we create now lives under one roof, from actionable advice to tools, templates, and a thriving community. Launching in December. :) Sneak peek at some of our figma. Sometimes, you just need to build it yourself! Check out today's edition for the new format. I dig it for sure.

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I’ve gotten 8 inbounds from CMOs in the last week. What are they asking me for? …… Content help “Do you have a really good content writer you’d recommend?” “I need to create so much content this quarter I need some extra help” I’m going to venture and say scaling content production (volume and speed) is one of the top priorities CMOs are grappling with! 💡 (Myself included 🙋🏻) #content #marketing

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I heard my new favorite term this week: "𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝘆𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘀" Where companies do handstands, backflips, and workarounds to get GTM pipeline/funnel data in a reportable format using Excel. If you're past Series A, >$10m ARR, and have ambitions to grow revenue/headcount/etc quickly, you shouldn't be living in spreadsheet hell and doing "excelympics." You really need reporting in your GTM systems to work and not perpetuate a process of: • Pulling loads of different reports into an Excel file • Doing a load of weird stuff to build a useful view of conversion/velocity • Having no one know actually how it works and no ability to repeat the process each month/quarter Put all that busy work into actually fixing the root problem: Your data and process (within CRM and MAP). #gtmoperations #revenueoperations #marketingoperations  

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It was so much fun to chat email and content marketing with my friend Benjamin Ard! We covered a lot during our 15-minute episode so if you're interested in learning a different way to approach email marketing, may I suggest taking 15 minutes to listen to the show? Ben asks such insightful and interesting questions that you should probably listen just for that reason alone. Also, the guys at Masset.ai are content wizards so you should be sure to check out what they can do to help your business. They're pretty impressive.

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“It’s between you and one other vendor.” After years in MarTech Intelligence, I know nothing fuels as much anxiety for vendors as a potential client uttering these words… So when you’re neck and neck for the contract, how do you edge out the competition? I recently sat down with the Operations Director at a $500M apparel and accessories retailer making this exact decision on a new CDP for one of their brands. Here are the factors he’s considering:  (Hint – save these insights to ace your next RFP!) >> CDP Option 1 << He likes how: - Easy to use - Straightforward - And effective it is And he loves its functionality: “It tags all the site stuff to help record customer interactions even if they’re anonymous. Then it works to de-anonymize them!” All in all, “it’s a great product for tracking and pushing data to the data warehouse,” he says. “Plus it’s at a great price.” But while he loves Option 1, the brand’s team is leaning toward a second option… >> CDP Option 2 << The brand’s team likes its: - Ability to test content across their site, - Collect effective data on consumer behavior, - And create a cohesive and compelling site experience. Because this brand is 100% D2C, the team cares less about de-anonymizing data and more about creating a compelling site experience with testing and customer insights. >> Bonus Considerations << Most of the retailer’s other brands are just 5-10% D2C and could all leverage CDP Option 1. Plus, one of his top goals for 2024 is to identify and quantify customer data in offline channels. So he naturally prefers Option 1. But Option 2 might be a better match for this brand’s unique CDP needs.  ___ How will this buyer decide? Ultimately, it’ll come down to the priority that takes first place for the brand and the overarching company. Tl;dr — Make sure you invest time in truly understanding your prospect's goals. Then use those insights to frame your MarTech’s value prop so it’s personally relevant to them. After working with 100s of buyers, I can tell you firsthand this is one of the best ways to win their RFP.

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Coming at you live from somewhere between Oregon and Washington! I'm on this wild ride called a "workcation" with my best friend. She's doing board meeting stuff, I'm slinging brand strategies, and it been amazing- 10/10 recommend- The highlights so far: SIYL team Nailed a branding presentation that had our team doing virtual high-fives this AM- Networked over dinner with my friend's peers - Proved that "out of office" doesn't mean "out of awesome ideas"- This morning I am going to go see a client! This whole work-from-anywhere gig? I love it. Sure, there's work. But there's also: Laughs between laptop sessions Impromptu brainstorms over breakfast The kind of conversations that don't happen in at home or in an office. If you can have a workcation- do it. It's like regular work, but with better views and amazing company. Still got a few days left on this PNW adventure. Who knows what'll happen next? EDWARD ARE YOU OUT THERE? Is anyone else mixing business with best friend time? I want to know about it.

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Most B2B marketing teams are lighting their budget on fire right now. Why? Because they're trying to be everything to everyone. In building your 2025 GTM plan, we've got to identify our best possible customers, or our marketing will fall flat. [Video: Watch how top B2B companies are fixing this 👇] Pro Tip: We use HubSpot to automate this entire process. Their customer journey analytics help us track which ICPs: -Convert fastest -Have lowest CAC -Generate highest LTV The math is simple: Narrow ICP = Better targeting = Higher conversion = More revenue DM me if you'd like to see how we implement this in HubSpot 👋 Time to stop spraying and praying.

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One of the most underutilized resources for SaaS companies is customer feedback. It’s more than just a tool for improving your product—it’s a direct line to understanding what your users really want and need. Listening to their experiences can reveal hidden opportunities for growth. Start by asking your users about their biggest pain points and how your product addresses them. You might be surprised at the insights you gather. Feedback loops also help build stronger relationships with your customers, showing them you’re invested in their success. Customer feedback is not just about solving problems; it’s about unlocking potential. How are you currently leveraging feedback in your SaaS journey?

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I was on a CMO Slack channel yesterday offering free templates to help marketers. I mentor a great deal and know that it is a challenging time where many need support. Within minutes on this channel I was berated by several high-profile marketers to post in a less-seen part of the channel and discounting the value and well-intention of my offering. I literally had to delete something free to then help no one. We have reached a low point in our society when being kind elicits an anger response. With this post I send out a HUGE HUG to dissipate the frustration of marketers around the globe. If you are a marketer having a hard time or you are witness to one that is struggling, please message me. Please comment if you are seeing this too and like/share this post to help me send support to marketers who have a really tough job right now or are on the market looking for their next opportunity.... #marketinglove #cmos #marketing #marketingjobs

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