Hello and welcome to the Exit Five weekly newsletter - read by 19,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 3,500 other members at exitfive.com.
🎁 Send Your CFO This Study
“What’s the ROI of gifting?” - your CFO, probably
Based on anew study HockeyStack & Sendosojust did a study of 300+ B2B companies ($20M-$250M ARR) and their gifting programs, it’s…
A lot:
- 59x Pipeline impact
- 15x Revenue impact
- 26% win rate
Gifting can feel like a “nice to have,” but it isn’t.
Gifts are marketing performance multipliers because they are relationship multipliers.
If you want results like this from your marketing,send your CFO this study.
The Best Marketing Framework I've Ever Learned
I was sitting in a product demo earlier this year about to roll my eyes.
After this poor sales rep listed out what felt like the 734th feature their product had, my mind wandered off to the most valuable marketing framework I’ve ever learned…
…and one this demo could have benefited from.
It’s from April Dunford's book,Obviously Awesome,and I’ve shared it with so many people I’ve lost count… and now you, too.
Here are 3 simple steps you can take to map features to value, and have your customers desperate to buy your product:
Step 1: Map Out What Your Product Can Do
List out every feature and capability your product has. Every bell and whistle you can think of – get it on paper.
Example:
Step 2: Translate Features to Benefits
Once you have your handy-dandy list of features and capabilities – you can list out what each of those can do for your customers. Pull in sales, customer success, and product teams if you can – they have a totally different view of what customers care about and can be BEYOND helpful here.
Example:
- Benefit: Support that is always available for you
Step 3: Translate Benefits to Value
This is the hardest part – but it was such a lightbulb moment for me the first time I read April’s book.
Value takes benefit one step further, as April says, and puts them in the context of the goal the customer is trying to achieve, or problem they’re trying to solve.
It takes a bit of digging, but these questions can help:
- How does this make our customer’s life easier?
- What problems does it solve?
- Why should they care?
Example:
- Value: Your global team will have access to help across every time zone, even during a midnight crisis.
Once you start talking in terms of value over benefits… your customers will pay attention.
And if your sales reps start doing it in their meetings… well, let’s just say that call months ago might have ended in a closed won deal instead of me ghosting that poor rep.
P.S. This came to mind because of an amazing interview Dave did with April – as always let me know if you want me to send over the episode link.
There’s also the handiest graphic that goes with this exercise, but it’s only within April’s book. Let me know if you want to see the other examples by replying to this email… I read (and cherish) every one :)
Episode #163: Behind The Scenes of a Successful B2B Product Launch with Zach Roberts and Natalie Taylor
Dave is joined by Zach Roberts, founder of Break into Product Marketing, and Natalie Taylor, Head of Marketing at Capsule to share. their experiences and strategies for successful product launches in B2B.
Zach and Natalie cover:
-
- How to build a buyer-focused product launch by understanding and addressing your buyer’s key challenges
- The power of video content in creating engaging and effective product launch campaigns
- Best practices for collaborating with sales teams to develop impactful sales enablement materials
Or find it everywhere you listen by searching "exitfive" podcast.
Episode #164: Why Better Marketing Starts With Sales with Adam Goyette
Dave sits down with Adam Goyette, founder of Growth Union and a former marketing leader at G2 and Help Scout. Adam shares his insights from leading growth at top B2B companies to launching his own agency that helps startups scale by integrating holistic growth strategies.
Adam and Dave cover:
-
- How marketing can drive demos that aren’t qualified and how to fix it
- Why MQLs aren’t efficient incentives for marketing teams
- How to use feedback from Sales to create better marketing content
Or find it everywhere you listen by searching "exitfive" podcast.
Upcoming Events
How long should it take to respond to inbound leads? How should you re-engage no-shows? Are you leaving valuable leads hanging?
If you want more demo requests, and more of those requests to turn into revenue, join us for this Exit Five Live session on August 7th at 3pm EST. We’re teaming up with Josh Garrison, VP of Content Marketing at Apollo to break down the ultimate demo request flow for inbound leads.
In this session:
- Our experts will look at real demo request flows from Exit Five members, and get live feedback on how to improve it to drive more revenue
- Learn the ideal inbound lead flow and exactly how to set it up yourself
- Get your burning questions answered by Exit Five Founder Dave Gerhardt and VP of Content Marketing at Apollo
- Engage in the chat and share your ideas with fellow B2B marketers.
This session is open to anyone that works in B2B marketing, whether you’re an Exit Five member or not. We’ll record this session and share with everyone that registers, even if you can’t make it there live.
But Exit Five Live attendees know it’s better to come join if you can make it and participate in the chat, ask questions, and share your ideas with your peers in marketing.
RSVP Here
Open Roles
Who's Hiring Right Now?
HOT JOB OF THE WEEK: Brainlabs is hiring a Global CMO / EVP of Social - this is a unique opportunity to work alongside a CEO who "gets" marketing. This is the ideal opportunity for an Exit Five member who's smart, obsessed with social, and has a track record of building audiences on LinkedIn.
Sound like you? Even if you're not sure you meet all the top criteria, check it out and apply here.
Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:
- Drivepointis hiring a Demand Generation Manager.
- CLARA is hiring a Head of Product Marketing. Remote Role.
- OhMD is hiring a Demand Generation Marketer. $70-100k salary.
- Backbase B.V is hiring a Senior Director Demand Generation. Remote Role.
- HighByteis hiring a Demand Generation Manager.
Join us in exitfive
Because no one goes to school for B2B marketing. We have a private community + content site for marketing pros like you and me if you’re looking for a peer group and discussion forum to help you grow your career in B2B marketing.
Get feedback, campaign ideas, browse templates, videos, guides, get recommendations on agencies and vendors, find contractors and freelancers, vent about your boss, find new jobs and more.
We have a 7 day free trial so you can join 100% risk free.
