Somewhere, in a meeting room you’re not in, a team is deciding whether to renew your software. Their leader goes around the table: “Who uses this the most? Do we keep it?” And the answer that carries the room? Doesn’t always come from the person who signed the contract. For B2B SaaS companies that grow by land and expand, that room decides everything. Sell your first 5 licences. Then 5 more. And 5 more. Because once you’ve landed the account, the hardest and most expensive part is behind you....
7 days ago • 4 min read
I got my bum kicked. It was a Saturday afternoon in March 2016. Cambridge, UK. I was sitting on the benches of an indoor sports center, watching two people play tennis. Others were there too, but a deafening silence hung in the air, like everyone holding their breath. Except…for the sound of a bell. Each time the tennis ball hit the floor, it made a ding, then a smack as the player sent it back over the net. Two exceptionally talented tennis players, returning every shot. Except this was no...
14 days ago • 2 min read
When I was a kid, family road trips meant my dad pulling over the car and taking out this map booklet. Then running his finger along the page, trying to figure out where we were. We always knew where we were going. But without visibility into the route, wrong turns happened early. And by the time we pulled over to check? We'd already lost too much time. The trip felt harder than it needed to be. Sometimes we'd arrive exhausted, wondering if it was worth the drive. Sometimes we'd turn back to...
21 days ago • 5 min read
Going from pure SLG into a hybrid product-led company is one of the most exciting moves a senior sales leader can make. And also one of the most…disorienting. The skills are mastered. The track record is earned. But…something feels temporarily off. It's the quiet anxiety of knowing you've done so much just to get here...but sensing something still isn't quite fitting yet. Something that needs…recalibrating. Like a compass adjusting to a new environment. The needle is still working. It just...
28 days ago • 3 min read
“I don't know if that's the right move or not,” a seasoned sales exec shared with me. They'd just joined a hybrid product-led company. They've got decades of SLG experience and a track record to match. And the opportunity here? Mouthwatering. The product reached 8-figure ARR in just two years. With no formal sales motion. Which means that's just the appetizer. With the right enterprise play? There's a lot more on the dining table. So the hypothesis forms quickly: let the PLG motion handle the...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
From the mid-2000s to the late 2010s, showing a hockey-stick growth chart of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) was how marketing executives proved to investors and the Board that their lead-generation engine was working. Remember those charts? I certainly do. Because I created and presented decks to rooms filled with suits and ties. Decks that included the most beautiful, jaw-dropping, convincing hockey stick you could ever imagine. Because if MQLs were growing quarter over quarter, everyone...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Here's a question I get often from Heads of Marketing: “What do I actually do with my MQL tracking once we start implementing a hybrid motion?” Marketing teams don't flip a switch. They can't. They can't stop MQL tracking on Friday night and start tracking Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) on Monday morning. Because the whole org runs on MQLs. They can't just abandon it. But there is a smoother way. And I've found it's one most in the industry never talk about. Because everyone is focused on...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
You're at a party and someone asks, what do you do? You give them the simple version: VP Product at W.Head of Growth at X.SVP of Revenue at Y.CMO at Z. Clean, easy, understood. But behind that title? Years of complexity, judgment calls, hard-won lessons. And the missed family dinners, the 3 a.m. lying in bed running the problem through your head, the weekends that were supposed to be with the kids that disappeared into work. It's the gap between how it sounds and what it truly takes to...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Next. Next. Next. Done. I bet you've done this too. Clicked through a product tooltip onboarding tour just to make it disappear and get on with your actual work. Pssst! Lean in and let me tell you a secret: Unashamedly, so have I. And guess who else? Many of your prospects. In my work with B2B SaaS companies making the transition from pure SLG to Hybrid PLG, I've seen this same pattern repeatedly. They build a free trial. They invest in a beautiful UX built on clean design, intuitive...
2 months ago • 3 min read