Rethinking Marketing Strategy in the Tech Industry

What is your GTM strategy built on? The cool new motion that's popular this minute? Tons of research on users? Well, it should be built from a blueprint and this guest just so happens to know how to create said blueprint. 

Adam B. Needles, the CEO of ANNUITAS, joins Craig Rosenberg and Matt Amundson for a barn burner of an episode that starts off with Adam’s seriously spicy take that the CMO’s role is a major part of the problem in the current B2B buying experience (Sounds like someone got into the Commsor hot sauces). After unpacking that hot tamale, Adam shares some great insights on the three parts to setting up and monitoring your Go-To-Market Blueprint, why you need to educate your board on how you go to market, and what buyers actually want from sellers during their buying journey. As if that wasn’t enough to include in this edition, Adam also drops a great nugget that AI can’t cover up your poor GTM Strategy.

Pretty sure the B. in Adam’s name stands for B2B Badass or something like that based on this episode. (Yes, that was corny and stupid and yes, a human, albeit not a very bright one, wrote that)

Also, Craig reminisces about his viral, rebellious past and Matt sits in a corner and cries at the downfall of his fiefdom.

Critical Takeaways

• The three core components of a go-to-market blueprint are understanding the buyer's journey, identifying all relevant decision-making stakeholders, and grasping their content consumption habits. This helps in synchronizing b2b marketing and sales efforts to ensure value-added interactions at every touchpoint.
• Every b2b marketing touchpoint should focus on adding value to the prospect's journey. That means every email, meeting, and piece of content prospects receive serves a purpose and helps them arrive at a quality decision faster.
• Don’t treat your go-to-market plan as if it’s set in stone. You should regularly meet with crossfunctional leaders to review the gtm blueprint, examine your performance against that blueprint, and update your go to market strategy based on new data and insights. 

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Chapters

00:00 - Freeing The Funnelholic

07:18 - The Problematic Role of the Chief Marketing Officer for B2B companies

20:52 - Creating a Value-Added Demand Motion for Buyers

34:11 - Building Your Go-To-Market Blueprint

40:47 - How to Get Your Board… On Board

49:53 - Daring to Peek Outside of the Tech Industry

56:17 - Your B2B Go-To-Market Playbook Needs a Playbook

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Epic Quotes

• “ I don't think that AI is the solution to your bad go to market.” - Adam B. Needles
• “It's not about funnel management. It's really about just understanding where someone is in the journey.” - Adam B. Needles
• “If you don't have a clear sense of who owns what by stage, then nobody owns it.” - Adam B. Needles
• “ The new playbook is to have a playbook.” - Matt Amundson
• “ We talked about the CEO and COO, actually, now, the biggest education point for this change is board level.” - Craig Rosenberg

Connect with Adam

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abneedles/ 
• Website: https://www.annuitas.com/ 

Shoutouts

• Carlos Hidalgo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlosahidalgo/ 
• Jason Stewart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhstewart/ 
• Monotype
• Ninan Chacko: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninan-chacko-54b527/ 
• Bob Seiler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertjseiler/ 
• Schneider Electric
• Procter and Gamble
• QA Symphony
• Forrester
• Gartner
• Evan Kent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evankent/ 
• Salesloft
• Outreach
• HubSpot

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