Jen Allen-Knuth

Founder, DemandJen | Sales Trainer & SKO Keynote Speaker | Dog Rescue Advocate

I help B2B revenue teams stop losing pipeline to buyer status quo. I'm a former Enterprise seller who carried quota for 18 years, closing 7-figure deals with Fortune 500 brands. Now, I run DemandJen, a sales-training firm trusted by Autodesk, GE, G2, IBM, Bloomberg, Instructure, Sprout Social, and more.

From conference stages to company Sales kickoffs, I'm known for:

- Buyer-Centric Frameworks – Practical playbooks for defeating buyer status quo in outbound pipeline generation, running executive-level discovery, building a point of view on cost of inaction (COI), and gaining consensus with larger Enterprise buying groups. 

- Story-First Messaging – Techniques that replace product pitches with problem-centric narratives that buyers remember.

- Engaging Delivery – A direct, humorous style that keeps even your most tenured reps taking notes.

Featured in Forbes, Sales Hacker, and 200+ podcasts, I combine real-world stories with data-driven insight to move audiences from inspiration to application. When I'm not on the road, you’ll find me in the Chicago suburbs chasing my 4 rescue dogs and 4 step-kids.

Head of DemandJen

Delivering SKO keynotes & virtual workshops that won't put your teams to sleep.

B2B Sales & Marketing teams have tried to earn buyer time and attention with a strategy of "more". 

More dials.
More emails.
More content.
More "value" and ROI.

But, 2023 showed us "more" is expensive and no competition against today's risk-averse B2B buying teams.

Instead of motivating the team to do “more”, I help empower teams to defeat customer status
quo and to make their sales conversations a competitive advantage.

Meet Elsie ❤️

This 5 year old sweetheart LOVES every human and dog she meets. 

At 5 years old, she’s past all that puppy mischief, but still has plenty of joy and tail wags to share. 

She’s gentle, loving, and ready for a home with someone who will love her as much as she loves them. 

Not sure if you’re ready to adopt? Foster her! It’s completely free. 

Photo credit: Nicholas I. Knuth 📸 

Available at Many Paws Global Rescue in Palatine, IL.

(PS - if you’re looking for Saturday plans, I’ll be at Buffalo Creek Brewery in Long Grove, IL for a Many Paws adoption event today from noon-3. Come meet your future sidekick ❤️)

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NB Marketing

I partner with B2B companies to build and execute GTM programs that drive real pipeline and revenue. That includes:

- Running full-scale webinar and virtual event programs, from strategy to follow-up

- Leading in-person field events, pre-event outreach, onsite support, and post-event reporting

- Building ABM programs from the ground up or improving what’s already running

- Creating influencer and creator strategies tied directly to pipeline goals

- Supporting demand gen and content strategy across the funnel

- Reporting on performance and helping teams understand what’s working (and what’s not)

- Acting as a brand evangelist at events, on podcasts, and across LinkedIn

- Helping founders and teams grow their personal brands to drive real business impact

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all model.

Some clients bring me in to lead one area. Others tap into multiple. I flex based on what will move the needle the fastest.

Founder

Reachdesk

Events & ABM

Navattic

I play an important role in shaping their B2B marketing and Go-to-Market strategies, which laid the foundation for my work at TACK.

Key Contributions:

→ Developed GTM Strategies: Helped design and implement Go-to-Market that drive growth and customer engagement.

→ Optimized B2B Marketing Efforts: Advised on B2B marketing campaigns, leading to improved lead generation and conversion rates.

Marketing Advisor

Limelight

B2B Creators should be able to monetize their offerings more easily.

And with Limelight, now they can :)

Advisor

Underscore VC

Underscore Core Community member serving as a valued advisor to Underscore portfolio companies.

Core Partner

TACK

I co-founded TACK with a mission to revolutionize Go-to-Market strategies by putting people first. 

Our approach is designed to modernize how businesses connect with their audience, ensuring every interaction is human-centric and impactful. 

Here’s how we’re making a difference:

→ Created a seven-step approach that shifts companies from a company-first to a People-first strategy.

→ Built and Scaled TACK’s Three Pillars:

TACK Network: A GTM media network producing original content and authentic stories to support the brightest minds in B2B Go-to-Market.

TACK Insider: A membership community offering marketers and entrepreneurs access to hundreds of resources, weekly masterclasses, and personalized coaching.

TACK GTM: An on-demand services firm that partners with CEOs, Founders, and Marketing Leaders to design and implement People-first GTM strategies, driving growth and revenue.

Chief Customer Officer & Co-Founder

The Anonymous Marketer Podcast

This is The Anonymous Marketer. A podcast where we tackle the 
biggest questions from the B2B marketing community. 

But instead of bringing on guests for a quick chat, every question 
comes from an anonymous source. 

These are the questions B2B marketers have but are afraid to 
ask.

Let’s start the conversation.

Host

Airmeet

Senior Director of ELG (Event-Led Growth) & Evangelism

Alyce

Director of Evangelism & Customer Marketing

Director of Field, Community, and Partner Marketing

Director of ABM

Goldcast

Strategic Advisor

Generic GTM is dead → Go to my featured section for actionable GTM insights and elevate your marketing game 🔥| Co-Founder of TACK | Creating the category of People-first GTM 👥| 13+ Years in B2B Marketing 📈

I help B2B companies build go-to-market strategies that prioritize real connection because relationships, not just reach, drive growth.

After 14 years in B2B marketing, I’ve led field marketing, demand gen, community, and influencer programs. I know what works, what doesn’t, and what’s changed.

Too many companies still treat buyers like leads. That’s not how modern GTM works.

I’ve helped 35+ B2B brands shift from transactional tactics to connection-driven growth, building scalable strategies, launching communities, running 30+ webinars, and rolling out on-demand models that replaced bloated in-house teams.

Today, I work directly with brands, founders, and marketers to build go-to-market engines that scale—without the spam.

What I do:
→ Build integrated campaign strategies that drive pipeline
→ Coach creators and brands on influencer marketing
→ Design community-led and field programs that actually work
→ Speak on GTM, content, and creator-led growth
→ Act as a fractional marketing leader or advisor

📚 Author of B2B Influencer Marketing: Work With Creators to Generate Authentic and Effective Marketing (Kogan Page, 2025)

👋 Let’s work together: DM me or visit https://linktr.ee/NickBMarketing

Nick Bennett

Most B2B companies spend $50K on events and forget the $500 that actually converts.

I watched a client blow their entire Q4 budget on a massive booth.
Premium location. Fancy screens. Full swag suite.

They got 47 badge scans.
3 follow-up calls.
Zero pipeline.

Meanwhile, I spent $500 on coffee cards the week before the same event.

Sent them to 20 target accounts with a simple note:
"I'll be at [Event]. Would love to buy you an actual coffee and chat about [specific challenge]."

18 showed up.
12 booked follow-ups.
4 became opportunities.
2 closed within 90 days.

Here's what most companies miss about event ROI:

➜ The magic happens in the 1:1 moments, not the booth traffic
➜ Pre-event outreach beats post-event follow-up every time
➜ A $25 coffee card outperforms a $2,500 dinner

My exact pre-event playbook:

1. **Three weeks out:** Pull the attendee list, match it to your ICP
2. **Two weeks out:** Send personalized gifts to top 20-30 targets
3. **One week out:** Follow up with calendar links for specific time slots
4. **Day of:** Skip the booth duty, focus on booked meetings
5. **Day after:** Send thank-you gifts to no-shows with "sorry we missed you"

The math is stupid simple:

Traditional event spend: $50K ÷ 3 opportunities = $16,666 per opp
Smart gifting approach: $500 ÷ 4 opportunities = $125 per opp

You don't need a bigger booth.
You need a better strategy.

And maybe some coffee cards.

15+ Year Marketing Leader turned Founder | I Help B2B Companies Generate Real Pipeline

I was the CMO's favorite marketer. I was also completely useless.

Sounds weird, right?

But for three years, that was me.

First one in the office. Last one out.
Every sales request? "Nick's on it."
Every fire drill? "Get Nick."
Every random idea at 4:47 PM on Friday? "Nick won't mind."

My calendar looked like a game of Tetris.
My to-do list had its own to-do list.
And my boss loved me for it.

"You're so reliable," she'd say.
"I can always count on you."

Meanwhile, I couldn't point to a single campaign that actually moved revenue.

Not one.

Because I was too busy being busy.

Too buried in execution to ask why.
Too reactive to build anything strategic.
Too afraid that saying no meant I wasn't valuable.

The breaking point came during a pipeline review.

Sales was struggling. The CEO was pissed.
And when they pulled up marketing's contribution?

Crickets.

All those late nights. All those "quick favors."
None of it mattered.

I'd been so focused on being helpful that I forgot to be effective.

That meeting stung. Bad.

But it also woke me up.

The next week, I did something that felt career-ending at the time:

I said no to a sales event request.

Not maybe. Not "let me see what I can do."

Just no.

"I need to focus on the product launch campaign. That's what'll actually drive pipeline this quarter."

The silence on that call was deafening.

But you know what?

The product launch crushed it.
We hit 127% of our pipeline target.
And suddenly, sales wasn't asking for random stuff anymore.

They were asking what I thought we should do.

Turns out being selective isn't selfish.
It's strategic.

Being intentional isn't lazy.
It's leadership.

And saying no isn't career suicide.
It's the only way to say yes to what actually matters.

These days, I work with multiple clients.
I protect my time like it's worth something.
Because it is.

And nobody calls me reliable anymore.

They call me effective.

That's the difference.

My 7-year-old just asked me what I do for work.

"I help companies tell better stories," I said.

She thought for a second.

"So you lie?"

I almost spit out my coffee.

"No, I help them explain things better."

"But if they need help explaining, maybe they're not doing good things."

Damn.

She's 7.

And she just nailed what's wrong with 90% of B2B marketing.

We've gotten so good at "storytelling" that we forgot the part where you need something real to talk about.

I see it everywhere:

➜ The startup with 3 customers and "market-leading" positioning
➜ The enterprise software that's "revolutionizing" manual data entry
➜ The consulting firm that's "transforming businesses" by running the same playbook from 2015

My daughter's right.

If you need a storyteller to make your product sound good, maybe the problem isn't the story.

Maybe it's the product.

The best marketing I've ever done?

It was for companies that solved real problems.

No gymnastics required.

Just clarity.

"We help sales teams follow their CRM processes" beats "We're democratizing revenue intelligence through AI-powered workflow optimization."

Every time.

Kids see through the BS because they haven't learned to be polite about it yet.

Maybe we should hire more 7-year-olds as consultants.

Or just remember what it was like to think that clearly.

Honest out-of-office messages we all want to send:

What I write:
"I'm out of office until Monday. For urgent matters, please contact..."

What I want to write:
"I'm not checking email. Neither are you. We both know this isn't urgent."

---

What I write:
"Thank you for your message. I'll respond when I return."

What I want to write:
"Bold of you to email me at 4:47pm on a Friday."

---

What I write:
"I'm currently traveling with limited access to email."

What I want to write:
"I have full access. I'm just choosing my kids over your 'quick question.'"

---

What I write:
"For immediate assistance, please reach out to my colleague."

What I want to write:
"For immediate assistance, please figure it out yourself like an adult."

---

What I write:
"I'll be back in the office Monday, November 18th."

What I want to write:
"I'll be back Monday. But emotionally? Tuesday afternoon at best."

---

We spend so much time crafting polite lies.

When really, we all just want boundaries that stick.

Happy Friday & enjoy the weekend. 

Turn on that OOO.

And actually mean it this time.

15+ Year B2B Marketing Leader Turned Founder | ABM, Field Marketing & Events, Influencer Marketing & More | DM Me to Learn More

I've been tracking LinkedIn DM patterns for 6 years.

Not the exact numbers. But the weird behaviors people have before reaching out.

Like this guy who DMd me last week. Says he's been following me since early 2020.

Since I started posting basically.

Never liked a post. Never commented. Nothing.

Just... watching. For almost 5 years.

Then my random post about being useless despite being the CMO's favorite? That's what made him reach out.

Not my frameworks. Not my playbooks. Not the stuff I spent hours on.

The throwaway post I wrote in 10 minutes while annoyed.

"This is exactly my situation. Can we talk?"

This happens constantly.

I'll post about some GTM thing and get a DM about something completely different.

"Saw your post about ABM. BTW we need help with our entire marketing org. You available?"

Or my favorite:

"I never do this but I've been reading your stuff for like 3 years and we just fired our agency and I'm desperate."

I never do this but...

Dude, you're literally doing the thing LinkedIn was built for. Connecting with people who might help your business.

But we've made it weird somehow.

People feel guilty about reaching out. Like they're bothering me by potentially paying me money to solve their problems.

Meanwhile I'm over here specifically putting "DM me" in my headline.

The wild part is what actually triggers the DM.

It's never the post I think will drive business.

The post with 3 reactions where I admit I don't know something? Five DMs.

The post with hundreds of reactions about some framework? Cricket sounds.

Because people don't hire frameworks.

They hire humans who get their specific mess.

And they need to trust you first. Which apparently takes watching you show up for years before they work up the courage to type "hey."

Some lurker reading this has been following me since 2021. Has my posts saved. Thinks about reaching out every few weeks.

But doesn't.

Because... I don't know why actually.

Fear? Timing? Waiting for permission?

Look, half my business comes from people who finally said "screw it" and sent the DM they'd been thinking about for months.

The other half comes from people who responded to my DMs checking in on them.

That's it. That's the whole business model.

Show up. Share what's real. Stay consistent.

Eventually the right people reach out.

Not because you're the best.

But because you're the one they trust.

And trust takes time. Like, way more time than you think.

But it's worth it.

Because when someone's been watching you for 4 years, they don't need convincing.

They just need to know you're available.

I never took a GTM course. Here's my free 17-point playbook:

Spent $0 on certifications.
Made every mistake possible.
Built GTM strategies for 50+ B2B companies.

These aren't theories. They're scars.

**THE FOUNDATION (Before You Burn Cash)**

1. Your ICP isn't "everyone who could buy." It's the 20% who buy fast and stay forever.

2. Product-market fit is binary. You either have people begging for your solution or you don't. Stop pretending maybes are yeses.

3. If sales and marketing hate each other, you don't have a GTM strategy. You have two departments playing different sports.

**THE REALITY CHECK**

4. Your competition isn't who you think. It's Excel, email, and "doing nothing."

5. Nobody cares about your features. They care about their Monday morning problems.

6. "We're like Uber for X" isn't positioning. It's lazy.

7. Your pricing model reveals your strategy. Complicated pricing = confused strategy.

**THE EXECUTION**

8. Week 1 pipeline matters more than Year 1 projections. Start with 10 target accounts, not 10,000.

9. Your first 10 customers should come from founders selling. Not SDRs. Not ads. Founders.

10. One channel that works beats five channels that might work. Pick. Focus. Double down.

11. Content without distribution is a diary entry. Distribution without content is spam. You need both.

**THE HARD TRUTHS**

12. If your CAC payback is over 12 months in B2B, you're running a charity.

13. "Enterprise ready" is what you say when you can't close SMBs.

14. Your GTM motion should be boring. Boring scales. Clever dies.

**THE MULTIPLIERS**

15. Customer success is GTM. Your best leads come from happy customers, not cold outreach.

16. Speed beats perfection. A decent strategy today beats a perfect strategy next quarter.

17. Fire fast. Hire slow. The wrong GTM hire costs you 6-9 months, not just their salary.

**The Meta-Lesson:**

GTM isn't about frameworks or methodologies.

It's about talking to customers until your ears bleed.
Then building exactly what they're already trying to buy.

Everything else is just noise.

Save your $5K course money.
Spend it on plane tickets to visit customers instead.

That's the only GTM education that matters.

Why I turn down $20K/month retainers.

Sounds insane, right?

But I've learned something after taking on too many big-ticket clients who weren't ready to change.

Money doesn't fix misalignment.

I used to chase every high-value deal. Someone waves $20K/month in front of you, you take it. That's just math.

Except it's not.

Because what they're really buying is someone to blame when nothing changes.

They want you to own their problems without giving you the power to fix them. They need board deck fodder. A line item that shows they're "doing something" about their broken GTM.

Meanwhile you're writing strategies nobody reads. Running workshops nobody implements. Sending Slack messages into the void.

I spent six months doing this once. Made great money. Delivered zero impact.

Know what that does to you?

Makes you feel like a fraud.

Because you are one.

You're not doing marketing. You're just billing hours.

These days I'm brutal about qualification.

Not "do they have budget?"

But "will they actually do the work?"

Big difference.

The clients I work with now pay less. But every single week something ships. Something changes. Something moves forward.

Real campaigns launch. Real pipeline gets built. Real revenue happens.

I can point to actual stuff that happened because I showed up and did the work.

Not strategy decks. Not frameworks. Not advisory hours.

Just marketing that works.

That's worth more than any retainer.

I'm a marketer. I do marketing. If you're not ready for someone to actually get in your HubSpot and build things, I'm not your guy.

Even if you're waving $20K/month at me.

Your best business development strategy isn't saying yes to everything.

It's saying no to the wrong things.

Especially when they pay well.

Had a client burning $50K/month targeting enterprise companies.

Zero pipeline.

I made them pull their last 20 closed deals from their CRM.

Not a single enterprise logo. Not one.

Their biggest deal? 200-person startup that just raised Series B.
Their fastest close? Another Series B.
Their only renewal? Also Series B.

But they're out here cosplaying enterprise sales. Writing 60-page RFP responses for companies that'll never buy. Running campaigns targeting Fortune 500 VPs who don't know they exist.

Meanwhile Series B companies are literally begging for their solution.

Here's exactly how to find your real ICP:

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 1: 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 20-30 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀

Pull this data:
- Company name
- Employee count (from their website, not LinkedIn)
- Industry
- Actual title of person who signed
- Title of your main champion
- What triggered them to look for a solution
- Days from first touch to close
- Deal size

Dump it in a spreadsheet. Takes 2 hours max.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 2: 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗲

For this client, 75% of revenue came from companies 6-12 months post-Series B.

Why? That's when they hire their first real marketing ops person. That person walks in, sees the duct tape and prayers tech stack, and immediately starts googling solutions.

Every. Single. Time.

The marketing ops person was the champion. Their VP was the signer. The trigger was always the Series B.

That's an ICP. Specific. Repeatable. Real.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 3: 𝗥𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵

We killed their enterprise campaigns. All of them.

Instead:
- Built a list of every Series B from the last 12 months (Crunchbase export)
- Found the marketing ops person at each one (Sales Navigator)
- Created content about "scaling marketing ops post-Series B"
- Ran 20-person dinners called "The Series B Marketing Ops Survival Guide"
- SDRs only called these exact people

No spray and pray. Just laser focus on who actually buys.

Four months later: $1.2M in pipeline from Series B companies.

Your ICP isn't who you want to sell to.

It's who actually gives you money.

Big difference.

Most of you are chasing logos that'll never buy while ignoring the ones desperately trying to give you money.

This week I'm breaking down the five fundamentals everyone gets wrong.

Today was ICP. Tomorrow: Why your events are just burning cash.

Then webinars people actually show up for, ABM that drives pipeline, and influencer programs that aren't just gifting and praying.

Real stuff from real client work.

Save this. Do the exercise. Pull your last 20 deals tomorrow morning.

I guarantee you're selling to someone you didn't expect.

And ignoring the ones who actually need you.

When Mark decided to go back in-house after 2 years building TACK together, I understood completely.

Great opportunity. Perfect timing for him.

We'd built something incredible together. Amazing clients. Solid reputation.

But now I had a choice.

Find another partner.
Join a company.
Or bet on myself.

For about 48 hours, I wasn't sure which way to go.

Then the emails started coming in.

"Hey, we'd love to keep working with you."

"Can we continue our engagement?"

"When can you start with us?"

The clients wanted to continue.

With me.

That vote of confidence changed everything.

See, when you're part of a great partnership (and Mark was the best partner I could've asked for), you sometimes forget your individual value.

You credit the success to the team.
The synergy.
The combination.

Which is usually right.

But transitions force you to rediscover what you bring to the table.

Not better. Not worse.

Just different.

I see so many people stuck because they're waiting for perfect conditions:

➜ The ideal co-founder
➜ The complete team  
➜ The right moment

But sometimes growth comes from unexpected transitions.

Mark going back in-house wasn't an ending.

It was two new beginnings.

Him crushing it in his new role.
Me discovering I could build something solo.

Both paths equally valid.
Both of us winning in different ways.

Six months later, we both made the right choice.

He's killing it in-house.
I'm busier than ever solo.

And we still talk and share wins.

Because great partnerships don't have to last forever to be successful.

Sometimes they're meant to launch you toward what's next.

And that transition you're scared of?

Might be exactly what you both need.

8 things I'm thankful for this year:

1. Clients who don't need 62 slides to make a decision.

The ones who've been reading my stuff for years and just want to get started. No discovery deck. No stakeholder alignment. Just people who trust me to fix their broken GTM.

2. My 4pm hard stop.

Three kids who don't care about my pipeline metrics. They just want snacks and someone to blame for the mess they definitely didn't make.

Best daily reminder that none of this matters as much as we pretend it does.

3. Building something my kids can be proud of.

I grew up watching my parents grind themselves into the ground. 60-hour weeks were normal. Being present was optional.

My kids see me close the laptop at 4. They see me say no to calls during dinner. They see work has boundaries.

That's the real legacy I'm building.

4. The lurkers.

55,000 followers. Maybe 200 who actually comment. The rest of you have been here since 2020. Just... watching.

You're weird. But you're my weird. And half my business comes from you finally DMing after 3 years.

5. Bad clients who taught me good lessons.

The ones who wanted me to own their problems without power to fix them. Who paid well but made me feel like a fraud.

They taught me that $20K/month from the wrong client costs more than it pays.

6. Constraints that forced clarity.

Not having unlimited budget. Or time. Or resources. Because when you can't do everything, you get brilliant at the right things.

My best work happens before 4pm. Because it has to.

7. Actually doing marketing.

Not strategy decks. Not frameworks. Just stuff that ships and drives pipeline.

With people who get that simple beats complex. That done beats perfect. That showing up beats showing off.

8. Teaching my kids that success isn't about the hustle.

It's about knowing when to close the laptop. When to say no. When enough is enough.

Working from home means they see it all. The wins, the frustrations, the actual work. But mostly they see that dad's office door opens at 4pm. Every day.

Maybe they'll grow up thinking balance is normal. Not something you figure out after burning out three times.

That'd be worth more than any exit.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone trying to build something better than what we inherited.

For our kids. For ourselves. For the people counting on us to show up as whole humans, not just productivity machines.

We made it. Somehow.

Client spent $300K on events last year.

Zero attribution. Zero process. Zero idea what worked.

Just vibes and prayer.

They'd show up, scan badges, ship leads to sales, then move on to the next event.

Sales would call once, maybe twice. Mark them as "bad timing" in the CRM.

Rinse and repeat every quarter.

Meanwhile the CMO's asking why events don't drive pipeline.

Because you don't have an event system. You have an event habit.

Here's the actual system we built that fixed it:

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 1: 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀

Forget the 28 page strategy deck collecting dust.

We put everything on a single Notion page:
- Sarah owns pre-event outreach
- Mike owns day-of meetings  
- Jennifer owns follow-up
- We only talk about [one specific problem] this quarter
- Success = meetings booked, not badges scanned

That's it. Everyone knows their job.

First event with this system? 3x the pipeline. Same event as last year. Same budget. Just clarity on who does what.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 2: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 30-60-90 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝘁𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳

30 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲:
Sales picks 20 dream accounts. Not 200. Twenty.
Marketing makes something useful for those 20.
SDRs actually reach out to humans at those companies.
Book coffee chats. Real ones.

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳:
Skip the booth shifts. Take the meetings you booked.
Write down what they actually said. Not "good convo."
Connect on LinkedIn while you're literally still talking.
Lock in next steps before they leave.

𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 (𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀):
Week 1: Send them the video you promised
Week 2: Send content about their actual problem
Week 3: CEO reaches out if they ghosted
Week 4: Either they're in pipeline or they're not

60 days later: Check what actually happened
90 days later: Decide if we're doing this again

Most teams are already planning the next event by day 3. That's why nothing ever improves.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 3: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 (𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴)

Q1: Run this system for 2 events. Document everything.
Q2: Run it for 4 events. Same playbook.
Q3: Run it for 8 events. Train someone else to own it.
Q4: You're running 12+ events with the same system.

We took a client from 4 events to 24 events using this exact process.

Didn't hire anyone new. Didn't buy fancy software. Just ran the same plays over and over.

Year 1: $800K spend, $400K pipeline
Year 2: $800K spend, $3.2M pipeline (same 8 events)
Year 3: $1.2M spend, $7.1M pipeline (scaled to 24 events)

The math is stupid but it works.

Because once you have a system, you just... run it more.

Your problem isn't that events don't work.

It's that you're starting from scratch every damn time.

This week I'm fixing the fundamentals everyone screws up.

Yesterday was ICP. Today was events. Tomorrow: Webinars people actually watch.

Try this for your next event. One playbook. 20 accounts. Actual follow-up.

Watch what happens when you stop winging it.

I hired someone from Google once. They lasted 3 months.

Not because they were bad.

Because I hired a logo instead of a marketer.

Here's the thing about hiring:

Most companies get starstruck by the wrong stuff.

They see "Ex-Meta" or "10 years in SaaS" and stop thinking.

Like those brands are some guarantee of performance.

They're not.

I've made every hiring mistake possible. 
Hired for pedigree. Hired for industry experience. Hired for culture fit.

And missed the only things that actually matter.

Here's what I look for now:

➜ Show me what you shipped, not where you worked
I don't care if you were at Amazon.
I care what you actually built there.

One candidate showed me a campaign that generated $2M in pipeline.
At a 50-person startup nobody heard of.

Guess who got the job.

➜ Tell me about a time you had no budget
Big company marketers often struggle at startups.

Why?

They're used to throwing money at problems.

The best marketers I know can drive results with $500 and some duct tape.

If they've never had to get scrappy, they'll struggle when resources get tight.

➜ Walk me through your biggest failure
Not the humble brag version.
The real one.

The campaign that tanked.
The strategy that backfired.
The budget you burned.

Then tell me what you learned.

Because marketers who've never failed hard haven't pushed hard enough.

➜ Show me how you think, not what you know
I gave every candidate the same exercise (paid ofc lol because it's silly to require people to do unpaid work):

"Our pipeline is down 30%. You have 90 days and $50K. What's your plan?"

The best answers aren't perfect.
They're thoughtful.

They ask smart questions.
They challenge assumptions.
They think in systems, not tactics.

➜ Prove you can move fast
Marketing moves at startup speed now.

Even at big companies.

If someone needs 6 meetings to make a decision, they're dead weight.

I look for people who shipped something last week.
Not last quarter.

The harsh truth?

Your industry experience is overrated.
Your big company background might be a liability.
Your certifications mean nothing if you can't ship.

What matters:

Results you can prove.
Problems you've solved.
Speed you can sustain.

Stop hiring resumes.

Start hiring proof.

20 year reunion tonight. Class of 2005.

We're old AF.

20 things from high school (2001-2005) my kids will never understand:

1. Burning the perfect mix CD. 3 hours for 18 songs to flow just right.

2. Your AIM away message being your entire personality. ~𝘉𝘳𝘉 𝘨𝘖𝘪𝘕𝘨 2 𝘵𝘏𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘓𝘓~

3. Waiting for your crush to sign on. That door opening sound still hits different.

4. Calling someones house and asking their parents if they were home. Pure terror.

5. T9 texting under your desk. Typing hey without looking: 4-4-3-3-9-9-9.

6. Racing home to catch TRL. Voting 100 times to keep your video at #1.

7. Downloading one song on Limewire. Three hours later: definitely wasnt a virus.

8. Your MySpace Top 8 causing actual drama. Moving someone from spot 3 to spot 7 = social murder.

9. Disposable cameras at school dances. Wait a week to see if any photos turned out. They didnt.

10. MapQuest directions printed out. Miss one turn and youre lost forever.

11. Blockbuster Friday nights. All the good movies gone.

12. Wearing your basketball shorts over your regular shorts. Fashion genius.

13. Popped collars. Sometimes two at once. Dark times.

14. CD player skipping every bump. AA batteries were currency.

15. Passing notes folded into impossible origami footballs.

16. LiveJournal posts that were just public therapy sessions.

17. Recording songs off the radio. DJ talking over the intro ruined EVERYTHING.

18. Razr flip phones. That satisfying SNAP when you hung up.

19. Facebook requiring a college email. So exclusive.

20. Actually wondering what people were up to. No updates. Just mystery.

My oldest thinks Im ancient.

Wait you couldnt just text them?
You had to REWIND movies?
The internet made noise?

They'll never know getting kicked offline because mom needed the phone.

Or fitting your whole life into 160 characters.

Or memorizing every word to that Eminem song because what else was there to do.

Tonight I'll see people I havent talked to since we thought Xanga was the future.

We'll pretend we havent been Facebook stalking for 15 years.

Someone will bring up that kid who burned a CD of just Who Let the Dogs Out 18 times.

We'll feel old as hell.

But man. Those were good times.

When social media meant writing on someones actual wall with a Sharpie.

When going viral meant everyone in third period knew by lunch.

When you had to actually show up to know what happened.

Class of 2005, we made it.

Even if our backs hurt now and we're in bed by 10.

I measured 47,000 impressions on a campaign once. My CFO asked me how much revenue it drove.

I had no idea.

That question haunted me for weeks.

Because I'd spent three months obsessing over every metric except the one that mattered.

Click-through rates? Tracked them.
Engagement scores? Built a whole dashboard.
Brand lift? Had the surveys to prove it.
Pipeline impact? 🦗

I thought I was being data-driven.

Turns out I was just being busy.

Here's what nobody told me early in my career:

The best marketers ignore most metrics.

Not because they're lazy.
Because they're focused.

They pick 2-3 numbers that actually connect to revenue:
➜ Qualified pipeline generated
➜ Deal velocity improvement  
➜ Customer acquisition cost

Everything else? It's just noise dressed up as insight.

I learned this the hard way during a board meeting.

The CEO pulled up our marketing metrics.
Pages and pages of green arrows pointing up.

"Great," he said. "So why is revenue flat?"

The room went silent.

That's when it clicked.

We'd built an entire reporting system around making ourselves look good.
Not around making the business grow.

The next quarter, I killed 80% of our dashboards.

Focused everything on pipeline contribution.
Made every campaign defend its existence with a revenue number.
Stopped celebrating vanity wins.

My team hated it at first.

"But what about brand awareness?"
"What about engagement?"
"What about our social metrics?"

Valid questions. Wrong priority.

Because here's the truth:

You can't deposit impressions.
You can't pay bills with engagement.
You can't grow a business on vanity metrics.

These days, when someone shows me a marketing report, I ask one question:

"How much revenue did this drive?"

If they can't answer, we're having the wrong conversation.

That CFO who stumped me years ago?
He did me a favor.

He taught me that being data-driven isn't about measuring everything.

It's about measuring what matters.

And what matters is what moves the business forward.

Not what makes marketing look smart.

389% engagement spike in 7 days.

People aren't just reading anymore.

They're saving. They're sending.

438 saves this week.
107 sends to colleagues.

You know what that tells me?

People don't save your frameworks.
They save your truth.

For a while, I played it safe on LinkedIn.

Professional insights. Marketing wisdom. Business advice that sounded smart.

Technically correct content that nobody remembered 5 minutes later.

Then I stopped writing for LinkedIn.

Started writing for humans.

My daughter calling me out for "lying" at work?
People saved that.

Admitting I was the CMO's favorite but completely useless?
People sent that to their teams.

The OOO messages we actually want to send?
People screenshot that.

Because they saw themselves in it.

The old way was comfortable.

Drop a case study. Share some metrics. Post a framework.

Nobody gets fired for that content.

But nobody remembers it either.

The new way feels exposed.

Shorter paragraphs that breathe.

Details that make it real. "4:47pm on a Friday." "$500 on coffee cards." "Organic Giggles."

Stories that start with tension, not teaching.

And most importantly:

Showing the mess, not just the lesson.

Because people don't connect with your polish.

They connect with your problems.

That 389% jump?

It's not because I became a better marketer.

It's because I became a worse robot.

And apparently, that's exactly what people needed to see.

We had every data signal imaginable. Our SDRs still couldn't book meetings.

CRM data? Check.
Intent signals? Check.
Usage analytics? Check.
Social activity feeds? Check.

47 different data sources telling us who to target.

Zero clarity on what to actually say to them.

One rep literally had 14 tabs open trying to piece together a single outreach message.

For a $250K opportunity.

Took him 37 minutes to write 4 sentences.

The prospect never responded.

I couldn't blame him.

We'd given him data overload, not intelligence.

So we built something different.

Fed all those signals into one AI model trained on:
- Our exact ICP parameters (not generic B2B)
- Our specific value props by persona
- Our actual customer language from closed-won deals

Now when a signal fires:

AI generates the message in 8 seconds.
Not generic "I noticed you visited our website" garbage.
But "Saw your team just expanded by 40% - that usually means [specific challenge we solve]."

Personalized to their exact moment.
In our voice.
Through their preferred channel.

Old way: 37 minutes per message. 2% reply rate.
New way: 8 seconds per message. 18% reply rate.

Our SDRs went from sending 15 messages a day to 150.

With 9x better response rates.

Not because they got better at writing.

Because we stopped making them cosplay as data scientists.

The truth about AI in GTM?

Generic AI is worthless.
"Personalization at scale" is an oxymoron.

But AI trained on YOUR:
- ICP patterns
- Messaging frameworks  
- Customer language
- Conversion data

That's not artificial intelligence.

That's amplified intelligence.

And it's exactly what Common Room enables with RoomieAI Spark.

Your data. Your voice. Your way.

Not another generic AI tool.

A GTM motion that actually sounds like you.

Just 100x faster.

#CommonRoomPartner

If your calendar’s always packed, that’s not a flex. It’s a red flag.

Most marketers I know feel like they’re sprinting all the time.

Back-to-back calls. Last-minute requests. A million to-dos.

And somehow… still feeling behind.

I used to think that was just part of the job.

Like, “Well yeah, of course I’m drowning. That means I’m valuable.”

Nope. Turns out I was just distracted.

Here’s what changed everything:

I wrote a strategy doc.

Not a giant 20-pager.

Just a simple one:
→ What we’re saying
→ Who we’re saying it to
→ Where we’re saying it

That was it.

Suddenly, I could spot the junk work.

And say no without guilt.

The busy days got lighter. The needle-movers got louder. Pipeline finally started to grow.

Here’s the part nobody tells you:

Strategy isn’t the fancy thing you do after the real work.

It is the real work.

You don’t need more hours.

You need more clarity.

B2B Marketing Leader & Advisor | Author | GTM, ABM, and Events That Actually Convert

Having 3 kids completely changed how I work.

And doubled my output.

Every day at 4pm, I close my laptop.

Childcare ends. Three kids. Just how it worked out.

You'd think that would limit what I could build.

Instead, I'm working on the best projects of my career.

Here's what nobody tells you about constraints: They don't shrink your impact. They multiply it.

Before kids: I was the guy who'd take any meeting. 7am? Sure. 6pm on Friday? Why not. Weekend strategy session? I'll bring coffee.

Now: 4pm hard stop.

No explanation. No apology.

Just "Gotta run."

You know what happened?

I started shipping twice as much.

Because those constraints forced me to figure out what actually drives results.

Used to spend 3 hours going back and forth on a strategy doc. Now I write it in one pass and ship it. Done.

That "let's brainstorm" meeting that always ran over? Killed it. Send me your ideas in Slack. I'll tell you which ones we're doing.

Those "quick syncs" everyone loves? Dead. If it's not worth a real meeting, it's an email.

Actually, it's probably not even an email.

I work on more interesting projects now than I ever did with unlimited time.

Why?

Because I can't afford to waste a single hour on nonsense.

No politics. No process for process sake. No meetings about meetings.

Just pure execution on stuff that matters.

Maybe once or twice a week I'll jump back online at 9pm after bedtime. Handle whatever needs handling. Usually takes 30 minutes.

But that's strategic, not reactive.

My clients don't hire me for my availability.

They hire me for my clarity.

When you work till 4 you get crystal clear on what moves the needle.

When you can't do everything, you get brilliant at the right things.

I'm working with companies I couldn't have dreamed of two years ago.

Building strategies that actually ship.
Creating content that drives real pipeline.
Fixing GTM problems everyone else just talks about.

All before 4pm.

Because at 4pm sharp, someone needs a snack, someone needs homework help, and someone definitely needs a bath because... I don't even know what that is on their face.

And honestly?

That mystery substance is usually the highlight of my day.

The old me thought success meant being always on. Thought I was crushing it because I answered Slacks at 10pm.

What was I even doing?

The new me knows success means being fully present.

Present for the work that matters.
Present for the people who matter.

No overlap. No guilt. No compromise.

Okay, sometimes guilt. Like when I'm on a call and hear absolute chaos upstairs. But whatever.

Having 3 kids didn't limit my career.

It taught me what a career should actually look like.

And it looks nothing like what I thought it would.

It's December 2nd and I'm already losing the Elf on the Shelf battle.

Night 1: Our elf Chip came back. But plot twist - he brought TWINS. 

Baby elves. In our Christmas tree. Because apparently Chip had a busy year at the North Pole.

So now I'm moving THREE elves every night like some kind of festive puppet master who's also trying to run a business and remember to eat lunch.

Last night's masterpiece at 11:47pm after my brain was completely fried:

Made adoption papers. Official North Pole adoption certificate for "Holly & Bell" complete with Santa's signature that I forged while half asleep.

Raided the dollhouse for bunk beds. Set up a whole nursery.

My 7-year-old this morning: "Why did Chip adopt twins?"

Me, on 4 hours of sleep: "Sometimes life just happens, sweetie."

She just stared at me. Then at the elves. Then back at me.

"Dad, you look tired too."

Yeah kid. Yeah.

Tonight? No idea. Probably scrolling TikTok at 11pm looking for "easy elf ideas with twins" while questioning all my life choices.

This is year 3 of Elf on the Shelf. I see no end in sight. 

To all the parents crafting elaborate elf scenarios tonight while your laptop's still open with unfinished work:

I see you.

Tonight those elves are just moving one shelf over and calling it a day.

Solidarity.

You don’t have a CRM problem. You have a compliance problem.

40% of CRM processes fail.

Because reps don’t follow them.

They’re too busy.

Too bogged down.

Too annoyed to go hunting for documentation.

That’s where Tango comes in.

It sits on top of the tools reps already use.

No API headaches.

No platform switching.

No training meetings that get ignored 3 minutes later.

Just capture the process once…

➜ Tango turns it into a guided, step-by-step workflow
➜ Pins it inside your CRM, CPQ, email, wherever reps are working
➜ Lets reps follow it or automate it in real-time

So instead of RevOps hoping processes get followed...

Now they know they are.

And pipeline data? Actually accurate.

Stop building systems reps hate.

Start building workflows they actually use.

Try Tango → tango.ai

#TangoPartner

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The Battle

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