We have moved from recession territory into a full blown crisis.
We can't control the world around us, but we can control how we respond.
I'm helping a lot of SaaS companies through this difficult time and here's some thoughts.
*Review Marketing Impact*
Marketing budgets are about to get heavily scrutinized. Now is the time to audit your Marketing.
No more looking at metrics like cost per lead and MQLs generated - but actual revenue.
Your dashboard should include the following to determine Marketing effectiveness:
Marketing qualified pipeline, Marketing revenue contribution, win rate and sales cycle length compared to other sources, Marketing qualified average ARR, and Marketing customer acquisition cost.
Now you can compare against outbound and channel.
If you identify shortcoming that need to be addressed this isn't bad news you can start to fix it.
*Talk With Customers*
You need to be talking with as many customers as possible.
This is a very difficult time for everyone.
Reach out to customers in non-sales situations, put relationships ahead of revenue. Learn as much as you can.
Ask what you can do for them during this difficult time?
If bad news is coming they will probably let you know at least - and now you have early visibility into potential churn.
*Plan for the Future*
Here's the reality.
There is opportunity, but too many are focused on the short term.
Your competition is looking 3 months out, but if you look 24 months out you might see a completely different landscape.
Here's my prediction.
We're going to see a massive shift away from the traditional Marketing and Sales playbook.
Sales outbounding has slowly been losing its effectiveness. Your buyer's want to talk with Sales later and later in the buying cycle.
Traditional Marketing of creating whitepapers to generate leads and MQLs will die. No one wants to download your whitepaper so they can be dropped into a Marketing or Sales cadence.
These MQLs are closing at less than 1% anyways.
The new reality is going to be audience-focused.
It will be creating content with no asks, no gates, no email required.
You'll need to create so much value for free that you become top of mind in your category.
You can play defense right now - or you can play offense. If you play offense watch your entire perspective change.
*I'm Here to Help*
I'm dedicating my week to helping SaaS companies rethink their Demand Gen strategy and help your Marketing team find ways to drive revenue to make sure Q2 and beyond is successful.
No sales asks, no pitches, no sign up required. I just want to help as many SaaS companies and Marketing teams as possible.
Let me know if you want to talk, and I'll send over my calendar link.