35 - Over-Prioritizing Sales Is Your SaaS Startup's Biggest Mistake With Chris Walker, CEO of Refine Labs

I'm a huge fan of Chris Walker. He's actually one of the main reasons I launched this podcast. Chris started a company - Refine Labs - a demand accelerator for B2B SaaS companies. Chris started a weekly event, Demand Gen Live, about 1 year ago and still going strong with 45+ attendees every week. Chris has 60k+ followers on LinkedIn. Most importantly, he's such an inspiration to all sorts of marketers, all different ages, and different walks of life, that all understand this idea of "the modern era of marketing has arrived" but know that so many companies are stuck doing things the old way.  We want to get out of the muck. So here's what we hit on: A bit more about Refine Labs and the types of customers he works with; What does marketing mean to you now and what has shifted for you over time; Seed/Series A B2B startups' biggest mistake is over-prioritizing sales; Series B+ B2B startups' biggest mistake; Why startup founders need to do their own marketing first; What kind of marketing leader needs to be hired early stage (HINT: the team should not be just one person); Brand (organic) vs. Demand (paid) marketing activities that are working really well for Refine Labs (HINT: for paid, deliver high-quality content instead of lead gen); #1 problem with focusing on SEO; Why are marketers still so frustrated at their startup and how it starts with the Marketing Mindset; Business challenges at Refine Labs; When you narrow your niche, your TAM is smaller but your marketing and growth is better; How do you keep your marketing fresh and avoid getting passive (HINT: it involves driving the narrative, being active on social, using intuition and listening, and experimenting); You need 1-2 things to work with your marketing and not a million things to drive growth; How Chris balances his LinkedIn thought leadership posts and activity within his work day; "I talk so that I can listen" - this is powerful and this is what Chris does; Mistakes that Chris has made and learned from; Top learnings from starting the company (HINT: know your strengths and weaknesses and hire accordingly); Chris shares something unique about his personal life (and it's not Kombucha!). You can find Chris on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chris-walker-41597028/ Find out more about Refine Labs: www.refinelabs.com For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov on Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgrBn-Y6P9o_OJ2lxHkWyg or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening!

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