Episode 86

086 Zee Jeremic - Transforming Funnel Performance

In the latest episode of the SaaS Fuel™ Expert Series, Jeff is joined by Zee Jeremic, founder and CEO of MASS Engines, as they dive into transforming funnel performance. The focus is on revenue operations, which is responsible for aligning sales and marketing to deliver better conversions and more revenue to the organization.

Zee emphasizes the importance of measuring the lead generation process, conducting a buyer journey mapping exercise, and using attribution to measure ROI on various investments.

Tune in to discover new strategies and insights for revenue growth in SaaS businesses!

Key Takeaways

[00:00:33] Maximize sales velocity to accelerate growth.

[00:08:03] Buyers Google for solutions, not sales reps.

[00:12:28] Big companies resist change, and miss opportunities.

[00:13:58] Measuring & managing funnel advances business performance.

[00:18:42] Sales and marketing are different teams. Minimize sales involvement. Analyze and engage with opportunities.

[00:24:38] Content is key for educating buyers.

[00:27:48] Buyer journey examined to improve content.

[00:31:51] Understanding Attribution for effective marketing investments.

[00:34:25] New marketing measurement challenges traditional strategies.

[00:40:56] AI can optimize conversions with good data.

[00:42:26] "Good content answers buyer's challenges, provides solution"

Tweetable Quotes

"It's about understanding every stage of your sales cycle, understanding and identifying where the friction lies. And tirelessly working on solutions to reduce that friction and speed things up, make it easy for the buyer." — Jeff Mains 00:00:33

"Adaptation is change and people hate change. And large organizations, as collections of people hate change, and so this is where you start like anything else. " — Zee Jeremic 00:12:28

"It's a content game. And when we look at what companies are still doing, companies are still stuck in doing marketing from like 2010 when we're talking, it's all about content." — Zee Jeremic 00:24:38

“Good way to learn a little bit about we'll get a little hint from sales around who they want to talk to and what do they usually say when sales are talking to them." — Zee Jeremic 00:27:48

"It's about having richer data sets that you can examine to get insight around what the value is of some of the investments that we're making." — Zee Jeremic 00:31:51

"It's not about attributing every single thing and making it perfect. It's about getting a richer data set that you can actually start making some decisions on." — Zee Jeremic 00:34:25

"Productivity Tips for Beginners": "The easy solution is, oh, I need to go buy some software to do this. But it really starts with the simple things first and last. I think that's really good." — Jeff Mains 00:35:35

"Revenue operations will become kind of the de facto in most organizations. It'll come through by merging marketing and sales operations." — Zee Jeremic 00:37:06

Making it About Them, Not About Us": "They're definitely empowered and making it about them. I think you're right. That's really the future is making marketing about them, not about us and products and how awesome we are, but about the real problem to be solved and what the options are for them." — Jeff Mains 00:43:22

SaaS Leadership Lessons

1. Embrace Revenue Operations: SaaS leaders should build revenue operations teams that align sales and marketing to deliver increased revenue. Revenue operations are responsible for revenue enablement and systematic revenue growth. By building revenue operations teams, SaaS leaders can build marketing and sales teams that will grow organically to meet the needs of their SaaS business.

2. Measure Marketing Effectiveness: SaaS leaders should measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns by tracking the first and last point of interaction before engaging with a sale. By using attribution techniques, marketers can transform a part of their budget from a cost center to a profit center. The goal is to get a richer data set to make better decisions, starting with tracking the first and last point of interaction before engagement with a sale.

3. Prioritize Customer Understanding: SaaS leaders should prioritize understanding their buyers and their buyer journey. One way to gain insights is by conducting buyer journey mapping exercises, which reveal insights into the buyer profile, sales opportunities, industry, website engagement data, and customer feedback.

4. Understand your buyer: Great marketers always try to understand their buyer and their buyer journey. Conducting a buyer journey mapping exercise can help gain insights into the buyer profile, sales opportunities, industry, website engagement data, and customer feedback.

5. Measuring and attributing marketing success is necessary: Measuring marketing success is crucial for SaaS companies, but attribution can be challenging. By using attribution, marketers can transform a part of their budget from a cost center to a profit center. With advancements in digital technology, it's now possible to measure attribution more accurately.

6. Adaptation and change are difficult for large companies: Large organizations can be slower to adopt newer approaches. Change and adaptation can be difficult because people dislike change. However, larger companies have larger funnels and an increase in conversions could result in a bigger ROI.

7. Conduct regular handoff efficiency analyses: The biggest opportunity for improvement is in the handoff between marketing and sales, where inefficiencies often occur. Regular handoff efficiency analyses can help identify areas of friction and find solutions to accelerate growth.

8. Prioritize content marketing: To generate effective content, understand the problem that the buyer is facing and create content that educates and informs, not advertises. Creating relevant and engaging content that speaks to the buyer's challenges sets you apart from competitors and ensures they will spend time engaging with it.

9. Speed up sales velocity: It's necessary to constantly improve the sales process by identifying areas of friction and finding solutions to accelerate growth. Measuring and managing the lead generation process can increase conversions and improve handoff efficiency between marketing and sales.

Guest Resources

Zee Jeremic (Linkedin): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremicz/

Zee Jeremic (Twitter): https://twitter.com/jeremicz

MASS Engines (Website): https://www.massengines.com/

Resources Mentioned

MASS Engines (Website): https://www.massengines.com/

Forrester: https://www.forrester.com/

Gartner: https://www.gartner.com/en

Episode Sponsor

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