Andrew Barbuto’s Post

When I need to achieve results in sales, I run this thought experiment. I say to myself: "Imagine the market that you are currently targeting had a TAM (total addressable market) of 500 companies" Would you read "Predictable Revenue" by Aaron Ross, run those 500 companies through a standard multichannel campaign - 7 emails, 6 cold calls, 5 cold LinkedIn messages - and call it quits? No? Well, many teams are still doing this. And one of the problem is in the mindset. There needs to exist a mindset that states: I will close companies from my target market. I just need to find the way. I will send emails, use dynamic images, write personalised messages, build relationships on LinkedIn, contribute in places where Buyer Persona spends their time (Quora, Slack groups, Facebook groups, Discord groups, Whatsup groups), get genuinely interested in helping them achieve their goals, use video prospecting, send letters, send creative gifts, etc. All analytics needs to lead to closing. If it's not, then you need to learn from it. Then use what you learned to introduce a change. Then repeat. #sales #saas #saasstartups

8 Tactics to Grow Your MSP Series (6/8) ✔️ Invest in this ONE growth activity... and it's not sales! 🚑 Your investment in this growth activity is a reflection of your ambition! The default move for most MSPs looking to grow is to hire a salesperson. We love salespeople; we have our own, but it's not the best first move for an MSP! The way we buy, whether B2C or B2B is significantly different now than it was ten years ago or even five years ago! Your prospects will do +80% of their buying in the dark, which means you're either going to get lucky to be a name on a shortlist or you're simply not going to be on the list at all. You need creative and engaging content to be front of mind throughout the whole buying process, so the number one investment you can make is content-led marketing. More specifically, a content-driven demand strategy. I am not talking about the $100 a month syndicated content flaunted by so-called "MSP Growth Experts," selfie videos, or anecdotal LinkedIn-like-baiting stories. I am talking about actual quality content that your prospects will find engaging. Here's what you need to do... 1️⃣ Create a 12-month content plan. 2️⃣ Create original content that is specific and targeted at your customer profiles. 3️⃣ Be consistent in your distribution. 4️⃣ Re-format and distribute it across the channels where your prospects are engaging! 5️⃣ Stay focused on the topics and themes you want to cover. Don't digress. 6️⃣ Create content funnels and CTAs that convert readers into warm leads. 7️⃣ Trust the process. It takes time, but it works. 8️⃣ If you can't hire... Outsource! But don't DIY. You will start but never finish! 9️⃣ Invest in a CRM. Whether you hire our outsource, all MSPs need to be focused on content. Create messaging about what you want to be known for. What you are experts in. How you solve genuine sector-specific problems. What is going to set you apart from the competition in your specific sectors? #msp #marketing #technology #it

Why does nobody in Growth speak about Competitive Intelligence? 🤯 Let's face it, most of the time such efforts are being neglected due to heavy workloads or given to interns.   But they shouldn't be! Why? 👉 You understand your competitors' positioning and messaging. 👉 You become aware of competitors' growth strategies. 👉 You can learn about market needs. But most importantly 👉 Becoming aware if they start running ads on your brand name - can be any other strategy or 👉 If they are executing a new feature or a product launch I think just makes sense for you as a growth person to start following the market a bit more and to communicate it more often with the rest of your company. The results? Better content creation, better ad strategies, better ways of retaining customers, and lastly better ways to support your sales team. Don't make your growth journey harder, just start creating processes around it. #b2bmarketing #competitiveintelligence #growth #saaS

🔍 Looking to identify companies most likely to switch to a better SaaS tool? Here are some of the signals I find easiest to spot, helping you focus on the best leads to approach: 1️⃣ Rapid Growth: Growing companies often announce new investments, expansions into new markets, or significant hires. You can find this information in press releases and here on LinkedIn. 2️⃣ Support Issues: Public complaints about inefficient support, negative comments, or unsatisfied customer reviews on platforms like Reclame AQUI and G2 can indicate support issues prompting companies to consider new solutions. 3️⃣ Market Innovations: Innovation-focused companies typically share new initiatives, strategic partnerships, product launches, or industry event participation. Look for these updates in press releases, corporate blogs, posts in social media, and recent news about the company on Google. 👽 Out-of-the-box Tip: Changing business needs, such as strategic direction shifts, adoption of new technologies, or the need for integration with other tools, may prompt companies to seek new solutions. Use Similarweb to discover newly integrated tools on a company's website. Let me know if you consider other signals besides these so we can help each other. 👇 #LeadGeneration #B2BSales #SaaS #SalesStrategy #BusinessGrowth #MarketExpansion #Innovation #CustomerSupport #BusinessDevelopment

Marketing will NEVER fix a broken business strategy. It doesn’t matter… ❌ How many reps you hire. ❌ How many marketers you fire. ❌ How much money you throw at ads. You’re going nowhere with a broken strategy. Truth is, sales & marketing are easy scapegoats when the “quick-fixes” don’t pay off. No business is growing from quick changes to the homepage, hiring more reps to go after "MQLs", and pitch slapping at every opportunity. These wild expectations only lead to trouble. Every company must nail the basics. 1) Research — Getting into the field & meeting customers regularly. Listening, more listening, and trying to understand their worldview today. Then, using that insight to drive your strategy. 2) Segmentation — Not trying to serve anyone and everyone today. Being clear about who you’re creating (perceived) value for and why. Aligning the rest of the business accordingly. 3) Positioning — Creating & communicating a clear value prop to a segment that values this the most. 4) Focus — Executing on 2-3 key things. Not setting impossible growth targets with investors and failing to execute well. Clear drivers. 5) Metrics — Measuring the right stuff. CAC, sales velocity, unit metrics that make good business sense. Not last-click attribution. 6) Product — A product that solves real problems today. Not another undifferentiated commodity in a crowded category. The bar is on the floor today. Because the majority fail to execute a fraction of the above. Stop the urgency, quick fixes, and silver bullet hunting. Get back to the basics. #saas #marketing PS. A big red flag is when you hear leadership say things like: “the marketing team will dictate the overall success of the company”. We're in it together.

I had a great conversation with a sales leader at a custom development agency earlier. We were talking shop and some of the struggles of driving top-of-funnel demand. Referrals were a huge driver but are slowing down. Their networks are getting tapped out. We had a verbal whiteboard session trying to come up with ideas on how to drive demand. We talked about the ICP, buying signals, compelling events, messaging.. the usual. What it all boiled down to is sticking to the foundational basics. Not just sticking to them but being consistent with them. Maybe that's the shiny "new" sales method. Perhaps slap "ai" on it.... Want to destroy your quota and crush your revenue targets? This new method will take your team to the nth level! Consistency.ai. Once you get it started, you can't stop it! 😂 Anyway... before you start panicking and going down the rabbit holes of what needs to change or finding a new tool or method, look back at what worked. Has the market really changed that much or did you? Don't neglect the foundation for the shiny (unless you want to buy my Consistency.ai platform 😁 ) #salesbasics #founder #salescoaching

With rising customer acquisition costs and more competition than ever, the most successful companies double down on the OG tactics. Here are 3 OG GTM strategies you should be implementing: 1. Partnerships: Partnerships and BD have become a lost art in SaaS, but now, there is a renewed focus on building strategic partnerships and alliances… even for early stage companies that actually drive revenue strategically. 2. Direct Mail: A cold email has an open rate of 10%. A paid AD has an engagement rate of 1.1%. A FedEx envelope sent to your ideal customer has an open rate of 99%. 3. Referral Marketing: Your current customers know your future customers. Engaging and mobilizing your best customers to introduce these future customers yields higher conversion rates, higher LTV, and faster deal cycles. These strategies may be labeled ‘Old School’ but they continue to prove their effectiveness. If you’re a SaaS Founder looking to revamp your Go-To-Market strategy, grab a complimentary copy of my 5-Point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide. Follow the link in the comments below (choose recent comments in the dropdown if you don’t see it.) 👇

Is “Sales + Marketing” actually the TRUE LOVE? It is said: Sales and Marketing should be aligned, but is that true? YES IT IS, the golden age when one department could work without collaboration has gone! But what exactly does ALIGNMENT mean? Here are my thoughts about it: Everything starts from the definition of the Ideal Customer → For both Teams, they must be the same: Who might be attracted faster and Who will faster agree with a deal. Decision stage or Buying Journey Qualification → If Sales and marketing work closely, every Sales Reps know what precisely a prospect is looking for at that particular moment and They have everything from Marketing to nurture…guide Prospects from that stage to the next one (purchase decision) End the Last one Fast Feedback Loop: For many businesses, the Disqualification Rate is the quickest way to understand if the marketing actions were successful or not, and If Sales reps provide feedback as soon as possible Marketing can turn them off or Increase that flow PS. Keep in mind that All departments work to generate customers/money for a business nothing else. Hiring an External Expert (Me) will SAVE YOU a lot of Money. Book a call today Anton Zelenin: https://bit.ly/46wV23I  #azgrowthgroup #antonzelenin #digitalmarketing #digitalstrategy #marketingstrategy #marketingtips #marketingtricks #marketingconsultant #marketingdigital #strategyconsulting

Our oldest client has been with us for 12 years, and the average # of months retained of our current client roster is 30 months. Here's how we keep retention so high: 1)We are not order-takers Our Account Managers are trained as well-rounded marketers & advisors. They are not robots that just execute an SOP. Our staff looks at a client's end goal and helps them craft a plan to get to that goal. They will tell clients "no" when needed, and keep a firm but kind hand when guiding them to the results they ultimately want. If you hire a firm that just turns ads on and off, you're set up to fail. ^ a lot of firms fall into the trap of just training the SOP because as you scale you just need people to execute a playbook, but it hurts retention in the long run when you don't have a "real marketer" working an account. 2) We look down the funnel to get a full picture. Sometimes running ads and generating leads isn't all you need to achieve your growth goals. You need a team that tracks the data up and down the board from Leads > Appointments > Show Rates > SQLs > Sales. By having a team that's looking at your system as a whole, you can pinpoint where the leaks are in your system. Maybe your show rate to appointments is low because you didn't have all the notification options activated, and your staff isn't getting as many at-bats as possible. You need someone who is looking at the campaign with a critical eye at all times. 3) We Build It All We write the copy, create the images, build the landing pages, write the emails, build the automations, do the optimizations, do the reporting, and so on. By building and running the entire system, we gain more control over the end result. You can hire a cheap firm that simply manages the ads, and hand them over the creatives "You think will work"...But at that point, you just hired an order taker, not a strategic advisor. Do we have clients who come and go after 3 months, sure, who doesn't? But the overwhelming majority stay for the long haul because we become part of their team and help them steer their campaigns in the right direction.