136 posts
Content marketing and outbound both generate B2B pipeline — but on completely different timelines, economics, and through different mechanisms. Content is slow to build, fast to scale, and compounds over time. Outbound is fast to start, requires consistent execution, and doesn't compound without a memory architecture. Most B2B companies need both.
Most B2B lead generation campaigns produce leads that don't close. Not because the campaign failed — because it generated the wrong kind of interest from the wrong kind of people at the wrong stage of the buying cycle. Here's the specific diagnosis and what actually fixes it.
Self-serve and sales-led are the two primary B2B GTM models. Self-serve lets the product drive acquisition — users sign up, get value, and convert without talking to sales. Sales-led requires a human to close every deal. The right model depends on ACV, product complexity, and time-to-value.
A value proposition is a clear statement of what your product does, for whom, and why they should choose it over alternatives. A strong value proposition is specific, outcome-focused, and written for the buyer's perspective — not the seller's.
Product-market fit is the point where a product satisfies a real market need well enough that customers buy it, use it, and tell others about it without being pushed. Before PMF, growth requires forcing. After PMF, growth has pull.
B2B SaaS (Business-to-Business Software as a Service) is software sold to businesses on a subscription basis, delivered over the internet. The subscription model, recurring revenue, and the need to sell to organisations rather than individuals define most of the strategic decisions in a B2B SaaS company.
A cold email is an unsolicited email sent to a prospect with whom the sender has no prior relationship. In B2B sales, cold email is the primary outbound channel for initiating contact with potential customers at scale — lower friction than cold calling, higher volume than LinkedIn.
Sales operations (sales ops) is the function that manages the infrastructure, processes, and data that enable a sales team to operate effectively. It's often confused with RevOps — but sales ops is specifically focused on the sales function, not the full go-to-market.
Account-based selling (ABS) is a sales strategy where reps focus on a defined set of high-value accounts rather than working a broad list of leads. It's the sales execution layer of an account-based GTM strategy — where marketing runs ABM, sales runs ABS, and both target the same named accounts.
Outbound sales is the motion where the seller initiates contact with potential customers — through cold email, cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, or direct mail — rather than waiting for them to come inbound. It's the proactive counterpart to inbound, and the primary pipeline source for most B2B companies before content and SEO mature.
I've built GTM teams across multiple ventures. Every one had the same failure mode: the team couldn't run without me in the middle. Here's what I'd do differently — and the three things I'd never skip again.
HubSpot is the default B2B CRM and marketing platform. Ektie is an AI GTM team that includes its own CRM. They're not the same category — but they're frequently evaluated against each other by small B2B teams trying to decide how to run their go-to-market.