Product-led GROWTH Services FOR Agile Companies
We put you in front of the best prospects, educate them on your unique value, and make them your customers.
You don’t need more salespeople, prospects prefer to do their own research. Instead, work with us. We have the prospect database, we can improve your customer journey, and we can help create and syndicate compelling content.
Outbound Marketing
Acquisitions
Venture Marketing
Our Lists
Our Pricing
Case Studies
Our Partners and Clients
Private Equity
Commercial
Technology
We Deliver Prospects and Move Them Through Your Journey at Scale
Enabling Self-Directed Prospects – Our Three Step Approach
Step One
Effective Website That Speeds the Journey
- Engaging/modern home page
- Clear positioning and supportive messaging
- Transparent Pricing Pages
- Effective and thorough competitive comparison
- Learning Academy – YouTube Videos, Product Articles, Downloadable PDFs etc.
- Engaging, self-directed product/service tutorials
Step Two
Helpful, “Thought Leadership” Content
- Cover each part of the funnel
- Unique, provocative, insightful
- Have an opinion, take a stand, reveal experience
- Research-driven is best
- Podcast interviews, tradeshow speaking, short books
Step Three
Effective, Broad, and Persistent Syndication
- Get messages into the inbox and stay there
- Email is cheapest and highest return channel
- Use free channels whenever possible (i.e. LinkedIn groups, trade group forums, etc.)
- Stick to a manageable communication schedule
Calculate the Value of Improving Your Customer Journey
See what happens when you increase your pitch/demo count, increase your close rate, reduce churn, toggle your product price, etc.
20
%
0 %
100 %
5
0
100
$ 5000
$ 0
$ 100000
$ 50000
$ 0
$ 250000
5
yrs
1 yrs
10 yrs
[yr1clientrev]*[acl]
$
Pitch/Demo ROI
([demomonthly]*12)*[democlose]*.01*[yr1clientrev]
$
((([demomonthly]*12)*[democlose]*.01*[yr1clientrev])/[currentrev])*100
%
([demomonthly]*12)*[democlose]*.01*[alcv]
$
((([demomonthly]*12)*[democlose]*.01*[alcv])
/[marketingbudget])*100
%
Venture Marketing Economics
For growing companies that are light on cash and strong on promise
Requirements – The Company must be generating revenue, have an established product/service with a short list of satisfied clients (product-market fit), and the capacity to grow (solid onboarding and CX).
- Execute go-to-market w/o capital raise
- No change to existing equity
- Experienced marketing team
- Flexible marketing agreement – revenue share or commission structure
- Ability to purchase any content from Scale Partners for use on your own website
Venture Marketing: What is it?
- The purpose of venture marketing is to provide early-stage or small companies, with little investment capital, access to an outsourced marketing team to get through the initial stages of go-to-market and revenue build.
- The concept is straightforward – the Scale team can take one of two approaches – a revenue split or commission structure. In a revenue split, we work closely with the company to recreate the website, positioning, messaging, customer journey etc., and then simply split all new revenue. In the commission structure, we create our own marketing platform/website, we build our own databases, and conduct our own direct marketing, and then receive a commission for each sale.
- There is a shadow equity component. It is structured as a Termination Fee. Specifically, the company will have the option to buyout the contract at any time but must pay a termination fee to Scale Partners if/when the Company seeks to bring marketing in house, sell the Company etc. If the partnership works well, our termination fee grows as we increase our sales.
General Process
- Education process – Company conducts full marketing due diligence with our team
- Decide on a deal structure – either a revenue share or a commission structure.
- Establish lead accountability and enable transparency – All lead flow (revenue share or commission structure) will be captured in a CRM system and either be passed from Scale to the Company (in the case of a commission arrangement), or accessed directly by the company in the forms submissions etc. (revenue share structure). Scale will have access to that CRM system to monitor progress, KPIs etc.
Decide on deal structure:
- Commission arrangement: leads can be subject to initial level of qualification (which can result in a higher commission rate); meetings will be set up in Company sales calendar for Company sales team; Scale will have access to the Company’s CRM system to track wins, close rates etc.
- Revenue Share arrangement: Scale will have access to current invoicing, list of current clients, and access to accounting statements, specifically customer receivable reports).
Venture Marketing: Calculate Some Potential Outcomes
Like any venture capital or growth equity investment, the possible deal structures are numerous. They range from a simple revenue share (see below) to a commission arrangement for new leads. Generally, we prefer revenue sharing as it aligns everyone’s interests and is the most transparent.
[currentrev]
$
$ 500000
250000
5000000
2
x
Used to calculate equity value. Higher growth rates should justify higher multiples. However, sub $1MM revenue companies rarely value at more than 2x revenue.
10
%
2
x
If you decide to bring your marketing in-house or sell the company, this gives the Scale team a shadow equity component This is meant to reward Scale for the risk taken at the outset.
20
%
Assumes a simple revenue share arrangement. Other arrangments are available.
Company Economics
[currentrev]*(1+([growthrate]/100))
[currentrev]*((1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100)))
[currentrev]*((1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100)))
([currentrev]*(1+([growthrate]/100)))*[revmultiple]
$
([currentrev]*((1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100)))])*[revmultiple]
$
([currentrev]*((1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100))))*[revmultiple]
$
Scale Partners Economics
([currentrev]*(1+([growthrate]/100)))*[scalerevshare]*.01
$
[currentrev]*((1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100)))*[scalerevshare]*.01
$
[currentrev]*((1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100)))*[scalerevshare]*.01
$
(([currentrev]*(1+([growthrate]/100)))*[scalerevshare]*.01)*[buyoutmultiple]
[currentrev]*((1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100)))*[scalerevshare]*.01*[buyoutmultiple]
([currentrev]*((1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100))*(1+([growthrate]/100)))*[scalerevshare]*.01)*[buyoutmultiple]
Outbound Marketing Program
Straightforward brand awareness and demand generation. We build a big database and then move your prospects through their buying journey fast and at scale. That’s what we have been doing for five decades.
Calculate the Cost of Your Outbound Marketing Effort
The size of the database is a function of the target market and how many leads/contacts are available in the given target market. We prefer to work with clients that have a minimum target market of 25k leads/contacts. We can give you a preliminary indication of how many leads (with the appropriate titles/positions) we think we can deliver and leverage in a campaign.
Website preparation is the key to driving good lead generation performance. It must be set up to deliver a robust and fast customer journey – transparent pricing, competitive comparisons, good product positioning and messaging, thought leadership content, and the ability to keep up with the demands of an aggressive go-to-market process. It is rare that any site is ready-to-go without some amount of positioning, messaging, and content work.
We generally recommend a campaign pace of at least 2 emails per month, although 1 campaign is completely reasonable if the content is high impact, thought leadership-oriented. 4 per month is best if content creation can keep pace.
Of all the campaign preparation steps, content creation requirements are the most variable (from company to company). We simply need to determine how much content you currently have, how fast can you repurpose existing content, create new content, create thought leadership content etc.
Cost Breakdown
[database]
$
mo.
[website]
$
mo.
[content]
$
mo.
[campaigns]
$
mo.
([content]+[website]+[database]+[campaigns])*[commitment]
$
per mo.
Note: this monthly fee does not include $2,000 set up fee, for all programs. This is to cover all email validation, email address set up, inbox setup, etc.
Create an Acquisition Program
An aggressive approach to tackling growth objectives
We can help you find an acquisition, and fund the purchase. Tap our massive database to target potential sellers of profitable add-on businesses.
[ninja_tables id=”4353″]
Helpful Resources
Marketing to the Self-Educating Prospect
Most leads are 80% educated by the time they get to your sales team.
“We are witnessing a decided end to the era where sales reps were the channel; now they are merely a channel to customers. Sales leaders reluctant to acknowledge customers’ digital-first proclivities will be outpaced by competitors delivering significant value through digital- and omnichannel sales models, engaging customers in digitally rich learning and discovery.”
- Only 17% of the purchase journey is spent with sales reps
- Customers percieve little value in interacting with sales reps
How prospects are educating themselves (The Dark Funnel)
17%
…from your salespeople
27%
…independent online research
22%
…from independent buying groups
18%
…independent offline research
16%
…other
Thought Leadership: The Self-Educating Prospect
The message is clear – winning companies are those that give their prospects all the information they need to make fast, complete purchase evaluations
McKinsey
Trust Radius
Gartner
SalesIntel
Implications of Prospect Behavior – The Dark Funnel
Customers prefer to educate themselves (The Dark Funnel).
We all know this – In B2B, buyers are doing most (80%+) of their buying research independently, prior to talking to sales. This research is done on your website (if you are lucky), industry publications, social media, tradeshows, peers, etc.
Here is the good news: If your website is set up to allow potential customers to conduct their journey without leaving your site (or minimally), you win.
- Fewer salespeople
- Fewer, more productive demos (higher close rates)
- Shorter buying cycles
- Better Margins/Less customer churn
What do your prospects need to self-educate and move fast?
Clear Positioning
- State your sector
- State your superpower
- Identify an obtainable audience
- Identify competitors
- Use shared language in messaging
Helpful Content
- Demo videos
- Educational content
- Comparison content
- Onboarding content
- Case studies
Helpful Tools
- Learning Academy
- Pricing schema
- ROI Calculators
- Competitive comparison table
- Feature comparison table
Homepage Structure – Clear Positioning & Messaging
Get the basic elements across immediately
(click to view each example)
Nail the basics:
- Sector or Marketplace – same for all the examples above – smaller font
- Bold statement/Superpower/Position within sector – large font
- Messaging – communicate the positioning more completely with language that your target market uses
- Call-to-Action buttons – direct them to your most compelling selling tools – whitepaper, calculator, pricing, learning academy, recorded demo
Mistakes to avoid:
- Mysterious or no positioning – I don’t know what market you are in or what you do.
- Using the bold statement to simply repeat your sector or marketplace
- Call To Action buttons should be focused on learning tools that allow them to continue the journey on their own (recorded demos v. schedule a demo). Put the “book demo” button in the menu bar.
- Using stock images or images that aren’t specific to the industry
Examples
Bold Statement
We Do It All
Aggressive Call To Action
Compelling Offer
We Are World #1
We Are #1 in Our Space
We Own the Market
Best In Class
We Are The First
Try The Best
Intriguing Question
Aspirational Call To Action
Niche Market
Maxim
Visionary
Target Audience Praise
Leveraging Analytics to Measure Progress
We don’t guess, we connect your site and monitor your progress.
- Who is visiting and when
- Where are they coming from
- Are they new or returning
- What are the reading, which pages/content are working
- Define your “conversions”
- Which videos are working
- Which campaigns are working (using UTM codes)
Resources
Examples, How-To’s and Tools
Video Strategy Note: 80% of people say they typically switch freely between online search and YouTube while researching a purchase
YouTube Channel Examples
Snowflake’s Channel
Salesforce’s Channel
Qlik’s Channel
How to: Tables
See 70 Feature Tables
How to: Competitor Tables
How to: Pricing Tables
How To: Marketing & Tools
How to: Pricing Calculators
How to: Case Studies
How to: Video Testimonials
Our Favorite Resources
“An educated consumer is our best customer” Sy Syms
Positioning
Content Strategy
Content Execution
Channels
Category Creation
Get Started Now
Interested in venture marketing? Ready to start your outbound strategy? Looking to syndicate your content (lists)? Reach out to us and let us start a conversation.
Case Studies
Read Case Study
No posts found
Dynamic Popup Widget added to the page. (This message shows only inside of the editor.)
Loading…