Last week, I shared the 6 most common founder-led sales demo mistakes.

We talked about feature dumping, weak discovery, lack of structure, presentation over conversation, weak next steps, and losing momentum during the buying process.

And yes, all of those things matter.

But there’s one more fundamental layer above all of this:

Even the best demo techniques break if the GTM foundation is unclear.

Because after reviewing dozens of founder-led demos across B2B SaaS and AI companies, I’ve noticed something:

Most weak demos are actually not demo problems. They’re GTM problems.

Whenever I start working with founders on their GTM, there are usually two assets I review first:

1. The homepage

2. The sales demo

Because both immediately reveal the quality of the GTM foundation.

Within minutes, you can usually tell:

• whether the ICP is clear

• whether the positioning makes sense

• whether the messaging resonates

• whether the sales process is structured

• and whether the GTM motion is focused or chaotic

The homepage shows how you communicate value asynchronously.

The demo shows how you communicate it in real time.

And both expose the same thing:

👉 The clarity of your GTM.

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Sales Demo Quality is Usually a Reflection of GTM Quality

Most founders treat demos like an isolated sales skill.

But sales demo quality is usually downstream from GTM quality.

Here’s the pattern I see over and over:

Weak demos are often just symptoms.

The real issue usually sits upstream in the GTM foundation.

What Research Consistently Shows

The more I work with founders on GTM, the more I notice how directly GTM clarity impacts demo quality.

And interestingly, a lot of sales research points in the same direction:

Gartner found that B2B buyers spend only 17% of their buying journey meeting potential suppliers.
→ Your demo needs immediate clarity and relevance.

Gartner also found that 73% of B2B buyers actively avoid vendors with irrelevant outreach.

→ The same happens inside generic demos.

Gong’s analysis of winning sales conversations found that top-performing reps consistently create more balanced conversations instead of long monologues.

→ Great demos are conversations, not presentations.

In other words:

Great demos are usually not just a presentation advantage.

They’re often the result of strong GTM clarity upstream.

👉 The B2B SaaS Sales Demo Toolbox for founders & sales teams

After reviewing 100+ demos over the past few years, I’ve consolidated everything I’ve learned into a practical B2B SaaS Sales Demo Toolbox.

Fix your sales demos

(50% OFF with the code ‘mrrunlocked50’)

Great Demos Are Operationalized GTM

The best founder-led demos are usually just clear.

Great demos are operationalized GTM clarity:

• who the buyer is

• what painful workflow they solve

• what triggers the buying process

• which objections matter

• how to guide the buying journey

The demo simply becomes the live expression of that clarity.

You can usually break great demos down into 4 GTM layers.

The 4 GTM Layers Inside Great Demos

1️⃣ ICP Clarity

You know exactly who your product is for.

❌ Weak demos try to serve everyone.

✅ Strong demos feel highly relevant to one specific buyer.

You notice this especially during discovery.

Do buyers see you as an expert?

Because you:

• ask deep questions

• understand their workflow

• challenge assumptions

• share strong POVs

• recognize patterns across companies

Or does the discovery stay superficial?

You also see ICP clarity during the demo itself.

Can you adapt the demo to their actual use case?

Or is every buyer getting the same generic product tour?

The strongest demos usually focus on:

• one painful workflow

• one core use case

• one transformation

Weak demos try to justify the product by showing every single feature.

2️⃣ Positioning Clarity

You explain:

• what the product is

• what painful workflow it replaces

• why it’s different

You especially notice positioning quality when buyers ask:

“How are you different from X?”

Every serious buyer compares you against their current solution.

Do you have:

• a clear positioning anchor?

• a differentiated narrative?

Or do you start listing features?

The best demos don’t just explain the product.

They frame the market.

They help buyers understand:

• why the current solution is broken

• why existing alternatives fall short

• and why this approach is fundamentally different

That’s positioning clarity in action.

3️⃣ Messaging Clarity

You already know:

• the dominant status quo

• the top objections

• the language buyers use

So the demo feels aligned with their reality.

A surprising amount of demos fail because founders simply don’t speak the language of their buyers.

Can you explain the product in a way your ICP understands?

Or do you rely on:

• internal terminology

• technical explanations

• vague AI buzzwords

• feature language

Strong messaging creates:

“Yes — that’s exactly our problem.”

Weak messaging creates cognitive friction.

The buyer understands the features.

But they never fully understand:

• why it matters

• why now

• or why this is better than the status quo

4️⃣ Sales Process Clarity

You guide the conversation.

Weak demos end with:

“Let me know what you think.”

Strong demos:

• define next steps

• create momentum

• drive decisions forward

One of the biggest things demos reveal is whether there is an actual sales process behind them.

Whenever I ask founders to walk me through their process, this is where things often become blurry.

They say things like:

“Usually we do a demo… sometimes another call… sometimes a trial…”

That’s not a repeatable process yet.

For example:

Do you run a 2-step process (discovery and demo call) or a 1-step process (disco-demo)?

There’s no universally right answer.

But you need to be intentional about it.

What actually happens after the demo?

• a 14-day free trial?

• a pilot?

• a pricing review call?

• stakeholder alignment?

• security review?

Strong demos create momentum because the next steps are already designed.

Founder-Led Demos Are How You Discover GTM Fit

Founder-led sales matters so much early on.

Not because founders are magically better salespeople.

But demos are where GTM learning happens fastest.

Do you remember the 3 stages to reach €1M ARR?

If you don’t switch to Focus Mode, you will constantly switch between:

• ICPs

• narratives

• use cases

This means, different messaging, different way to position your product, different competitors you need to outperform, different way they buy products, different language they use, different expectations they have….the list goes on.

But if you switch into FOCUS MODE, you create repeatability around your GTM.

❌ You stop improvising every call.

✅And start building a real GTM playbook.

The 3 Demo Stages from €0 → €1M ARR

Stage 1 — Hustle Mode (€0 → €100k ARR)

Goal: Learn.

At this stage, demos help you discover:

• who actually buys

• which use case resonates

• what objections repeat

• what buyers care about

• what language converts

The goal is not efficiency.

The goal is pattern recognition.

At this stage, messy demos are normal.

Because you are still discovering:

• the ICP

• the positioning

• the messaging

• the process

Stage 2 — Focus Mode (€100k → €1M ARR)

Goal: Create repeatability.

Now patterns emerge:

• same ICP

• same trigger

• same objections

• same narrative

• same next steps

This is where:

• demo structure improves

• messaging sharpens

• win rates increase

• sales cycles shorten

You’re no longer improvising every call.

You’re building a GTM playbook.

This is usually where demos start feeling more confident and more focused.

Stage 3 — Expansion Mode (€1M+ ARR)

Goal: Operationalize and scale.

Now the founder’s job becomes building a sales team, enabling, coaching, and consistently optimizing the process.

You can scale demos because the GTM playbook is clear.

Okay, that’s it for today.

Now you know how GTM clarity impacts your demo quality.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

1️⃣ Free GTM Foundation Library
→ 50+ resources (guides, templates, frameworks)

2️⃣ 7-day GTM Clarity Sprint
→ 360° GTM assessment + 6-month action plan: Your GTM Blindspots revealed

3️⃣ 1:1 GTM Advisory
→ Work directly with me to build your GTM

📢 Attio — the AI-native CRM for GTM

Attio is the AI-native CRM with built-in enrichment, flexible workflows, and fast setup. Connect your email and calendar, and Attio instantly builds your CRM.

Their new “Ask Attio” agent changes how you run your CRM: Prep for calls in seconds, update fields automatically, get deal summaries with one click

Start now

📢 Codewords — Words in, working agents out

CodeWords is the AI-powered automation platform that turns plain English into production-ready workflows. Describe what you want automated, and Cody builds, tests, and deploys it for you — no code, no canvas, no maintenance.

• Build workflows by chatting with Cody

• Connect to 2,800+ apps like Slack, Gmail, Notion, HubSpot, and Google Sheets

• Let Cody debug, optimise, and keep everything running 24/7

Launch your working agent for free

Hey - it’s Alex.

Over the past few months, I have reviewed 50+ founder-led demos across B2B SaaS and AI companies.

And honestly?

The same patterns repeat over and over.

Most founders don’t lose deals because of a weak product.

They lose deals because they lose control of the buying process.

❌ No structure.

❌ Weak discovery.

❌ Feature dumping.

❌ Presentation.

❌ No clear next step.

And all of them lead to the same problem:

❌ Lost momentum.

That’s the real job of a great demo (Not presenting features).

Because a great sales demo is:

✅ a decision-making conversation

✅ creating buying momentum.

So today, I’ll break down the 6 most common sales demo mistakes I see and how to fix them.

👉 The B2B SaaS Sales Demo Toolbox for founders & sales teams
(50% OFF with the code ‘mrrunlocked50’).

After reviewing 100+ demos over the past few years, I’ve consolidated everything I’ve learned into a practical B2B SaaS Sales Demo Toolbox.

Fix your sales demos

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ The BOFU Content Playbook 2026

✅ 8 Founder-led Signal-Based Outbound Campaigns

✅ How to turn Granola into your full-cycle sales engine using SPICED

What Great Sales Demos Actually Do

I believe great demos follow a very simple chain:

If one breaks, the deal slows down.

Weak discovery? → Low relevance.

Low relevance? → Less engagement.

Less engagement?→ Less buying momentum.

Once momentum disappears, deals stall.

1️⃣ No Structure → You Lose Control

One of the biggest patterns across the reviews:

❌ missing agenda

❌ missing outcome framing

❌ abrupt transitions

❌ rushing the last 5 minutes

❌ no time reserved for next steps

Then suddenly:

“I’ll send you something.”

And this is exactly why I keep repeating:

If you skip steps, you lose control.
If you lose control, you lose deals.

How to fix it

Follow the golden 10-step Demo structure every single time:

1. Intro

2. Time Check

3. Agenda

4. Discovery

5. Buy-In Summary

6. High-level Product Framing

7. Tailored Demo

8. Pricing

9. Recap

10. Next Steps

Simple framing example:

“By the end, we’ll know if this is a fit or not — and if yes, what the best next step is.”

A structured demo feels calmer. More professional. More trustworthy.

And ultimately, makes you more confident.

2️⃣ Weak Discovery → Generic Demo

This is probably the biggest mistake I see.

Founders ask 3–4 surface-level questions…

…and then immediately jump into screen share.

The result?

❌ A generic demo that could have been shown to literally anyone.

❌ Less engagement from the buyer (as parts are not relevant to them)

❌ Cognitive overload for the buyer (as they need to translate your product features into how this might fix their problem and fit into their workflow)

And yes, I know you think now:

“Prospects just want to see the product.”

No.

Prospects want relevance. And relevance comes from discovery.

That’s why one of the core rules in my sales demos is:

Discovery creates relevance.
Relevance creates engagement.
Engagement creates momentum.

Across almost all demo reviews, the same discovery gaps were repeated:

❌ no deep understanding of the current workflow

❌ no quantified impact

❌ no urgency (“Why now?”)

❌ no decision process and stakeholder clarity

How to fix it

Run proper SPICED discovery before demoing anything:

Situation

“Walk me through how you handle [workflow] today — end to end.”

Pain

“What’s the most frustrating or time-consuming part?”

Impact (Quantify)

“How long does this take per week/customer/task..?”

“What happens when this breaks?”

Critical Event

“Why are you looking for a solution now?”

Decision

“Who else is involved in the decision?”

I’m not saying that you need to cover all of these points in the discovery section of the demo, but all points need to be addressed throughout your demo call.

And ‘Situation’ and ‘Pain’ need to be discovered before any product demo.

3️⃣ No Buy-In Summary Before the Demo

This is massively underrated.

As said above, most founders do a ‘discovery’…but never validate whether they actually understood the buyer correctly.

So the prospect stays passive.

And the demo lands weak because the buyer never fully bought into:

• the problem

• the urgency

• or your framing of the situation.

One of the strongest patterns across the coaching reviews:

❌ no summarizing

❌ no validation from the prospect

❌ abrupt shift into demo

How to fix it

Before showing the product, always do a Buy-In Summary.

Summarize:

• their current workflow/ current solution

• top pains

• desired outcome

• quantified impact

• urgency

Something like:

“Let me quickly recap what I heard, and you tell me if I got this right.

You’re [ICP / role] at [Company]. Today you’re using [current solution / workaround] to do [JTBD].

The main challenges are:

• [Pain #1]

• [Pain #2]

• [Pain #3]

This results in [impact: time, cost, risk, missed opportunity]. And the reason this matters now is [critical event].

Did I miss anything important?”

“If that’s accurate, I’ll show you only the parts that matter for those priorities — and ignore the rest.”

And most importantly: WAIT.

Let them confirm.

This is the transition from: discovery → into demo.

If they don’t confirm, go back to discovery:

“If they don’t agree with your summary → do not demo, instead go back to discovery.”

That’s such an important rule.

4️⃣ Feature Dumping Instead of Tailored Demos

This kills demos all the time.

Founders think:

“The more features I show, the more value they’ll see.”

Usually, the opposite happens. More features ≠ more value.

The buyer gets overwhelmed.

Momentum slows down because they now need to mentally translate:

• your features

• into their workflow

• into their business impact

And most buyers never do that translation themselves.

In more than 65% of the demos I reviewed, the same issues:

❌ broad platform tours

❌ showing 10+ features

❌ no prioritization

❌ no connection to actual pain and current way of working

One coaching note summarized it perfectly:

“3 focused workflows would have been stronger than a broad platform tour.”

How to fix it

✅ Show fewer features.

✅ Go deeper.

✅ Connect features with their pain points.

The best demos repeat the same loop:

1. Re-anchor to their pain

2. Show one core capability

3. Share one short customer story

4. Ask one concrete engagement question

Example:

“You mentioned onboarding of new team members is painful.
Here’s how other HR teams use (productname) to reduce the manual workload, as (productname) automatically creates user accounts for new team members.”

Then ask:

“Would this replace your need to manually keeping track of user accounts in your spreadsheet?”

That’s a tailored demo.

Not a product tour.

5️⃣ Weak Storytelling & No Proof

This one can make your demo 10x better.

Storytelling creates belief.

Buyers don’t buy software just because of features. They need to believe you.

They buy when they believe:

• this problem matters

• your solution actually works

• companies like them succeeded with it

Without proof, demos stay theoretical.

With proof, buyers start imagining themselves succeeding with your product.

Common patterns I see:

❌ no customer story

❌ no proof point

❌ no before vs after

❌ no quantified outcome

❌ not connected to the actual workflow/data of the customer

How to fix it

The best demos use short customer stories throughout the demo.

I believe there are a few ways you can use:

✅ Take their real data/workflow

“Let’s quickly take your set-up, so you can imagine how [feature] would work for you”

So instead of a generic demo, use their reality.

✅ Use customer stories

“A company similar to you, [customer / ICP], used this to [result], saving [X].”

Or:

“We have a few other [customer types] with also [attributes] who now run their [core workflow] with [your product], and they mainly value X”

✅ Compare to the current way

“Okay, imagine you’re doing your [workflow/task/job to be done], so instead of now doing with [current way of working], you can [better way with your product]”

Or:

“A lot of teams switched from [competitor tool] to [your product] because they ...”

✅ Reference something they mentioned earlier

“You mentioned earlier that [person X] struggles with [pain point]. This feature will enable you to finally have a single source for your KPIs — something your [specific people/team members] can all trust.”

It’s social proof. It’s trust. It will help you close deals.

P.S. Use your existing customers proactively throughout the sales process:

• During the demo (see above)

• added as case studies in the follow-up email

• optional: offer prospects a talk with your existing customers

6️⃣ Passive Closing → Dead Pipeline

This is another huge pattern I see when reviewing sales demos.

Founders end demos with:

“Happy to send a trial.”

“Okay talk internally and then send me an email about next steps.”

“I’ll send some information later via email.”

That way, you lose control of the next steps.

❌ No calendar invites.

❌ Waiting for the buyer to “get back to us.”

❌ No mutual action plan / suggested next steps

How to fix it

Own the next step.

Your job is to guide them throughout the process.

Remember, you sell your product every day. You know what’s the best way to evaluate your product.

So guide them.

✅ Important: The next steps always need to be mutually agreed upon.

Based on their current situation, urgency, and decision process, you suggest the next best step. These can be steps like:

• 14-day free trial starting next Monday

• product deep dive with XY team

• Technical deep dive

• business case/pricing review call

• Onboarding Kick Off

Then you need to get their buy-in for this.

Say something like:

“Before we wrap up, let me propose the cleanest next step.

Based on deals like yours, what works best is [next step — e.g. technical deep dive / stakeholder call / pilot].

The goal would be to [clear outcome].

I have [Option A] or [Option B] — which works better?”

Every single demo should end with:

✅ a clear recommendation

✅ a calendar invite

✅ defined stakeholders

✅ timeline

✅ success criteria

One of my favorite recommendations:

“Every demo ends with a calendar invite.”

Additional relevant content

👉 Meeting Note Taker Templates for Discovery and Demo Call (applying SPICED)

👉 Email Templates for Demo Call Follow Ups

Final Thought

After reviewing 100+ demos over the last few years, I think great demos are mostly about:

✅ structure

✅ relevance

✅ engagement

✅ belief

✅ momentum

The best founders don’t present software.

They guide buying decisions.

And the founders who create the most buying momentum…
usually win the deal.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

1️⃣ Free GTM Foundation Library
→ 50+ resources (guides, templates, frameworks)

2️⃣ GTM Audit
→ 360° assessment + 6-month action plan: Your GTM Blindspots revealed

3️⃣ 1:1 GTM Advisory
→ Work directly with me to build your GTM

You sometimes join a meeting and more notetakers are in the room than humans.

Today, we share how you can turn your meeting notes into fuel for your sales engine.

We will cover:

1. Discovery Call Analysis & Coaching

2. Demo Call Debrief & Coaching

3. Email Follow Ups

4. Objection Patterns

5. Customer Quote Library and LinkedIn post ideas

All powered by SPICED.

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ The BOFU Content Playbook 2026

✅ 8 Founder-led Signal-Based Outbound Campaigns

✅ The GTM Playbook to €1M ARR

A quick word from our sponsor

I include only sponsors I would personally recommend. If you’re interested in reaching 28,000+ SaaS operators, sponsor the next newsletter.

📢 Granola — The AI notepad for people in back-to-back meetings

Most AI note-takers just transcribe meetings and send summaries afterward. Granola is different: it’s an AI notepad.

• You start with a simple notepad and write down what matters to you while Granola transcribes in the background.

• After the meeting, Granola combines the transcript with your notes to generate summaries, action items, and next steps from your perspective.

• Then you can chat with your notes. Use Recipes (pre-made prompts) to draft follow-up emails, pull decisions, prep meetings, or turn conversations into real work in seconds.

Think of it as a super-smart notes app that actually understands your meetings.

Get Granola 3 months for free

📢 Codewords — Words in, working agents out

CodeWords is the AI-powered automation platform that turns plain English into production-ready workflows. Describe what you want automated, and Cody builds, tests, and deploys it for you — no code, no canvas, no maintenance.

Then put your operations on autopilot:

• Build workflows by chatting with Cody; ship automations in minutes, not weeks

• Connect to 2,800+ apps like Slack, Gmail, Notion, HubSpot, and Google Sheets

• Let Cody debug, optimise, and keep everything running 24/7 while you sleep

Ready to turn your repetitive tasks into a self-running system?

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SPICED is great. Most founders use it once in discovery. Then the information dies.

By the time CS does the kickoff, nobody remembers why the customer bought.

The fix isn’t discipline. It’s a system.

Remember: SPICED is a sales methodology, not a meeting or discovery framework. It’s the backbone across the full sales process.

Meaning:

• Discovery → uncover SPICED

• Demo → validate SPICED

• Handoff → transfer SPICED

• Kickoff → reconfirm SPICED

Here’s how to make SPICED stick across your critical meetings, using Granola as your information layer.

Instead of getting just a transcript of your call, each template produces a structured call summary you can paste straight into your CRM (in SPICED style).

Below you will find 2 templates:

1. Discovery Call SPICED Template

2. Demo Call SPICED Template

With those 2 templates applied to your sales calls, you will:

✅ collect better structured insights about your customers
✅ feed your CRM with richer information
✅ write better email follow-ups & optimize your sales process
✅ understand your ICP much better
✅ optimize your positioning and messaging
✅ write better (LinkedIn) content
✅ write better outbound messages

SPICED Meeting Template for Discovery Call

Copy and paste the text below into your Granola Template.

Meeting Context

Sections

Here’s how this looks inside your Granola account.

SPICED Meeting Template for Demo Call

Meeting Context

Sections

To make it easier for you, we also created 9 SPICED recipes.

9 SPICED Recipes for Granola

Now, let’s have a look at some prompts (recipes) that help you get deeper insights about your customers and calls.

→ Discovery Call Analysis
→ Discovery Call Coaching
→ Discovery Follow-Up Email

→ Demo Call Debrief
→ Demo Call Coaching
→ Post Demo Follow Up Email

→ Objection Patterns
→ Customer Quote Library
→ LinkedIn Post Ideas

Each recipe includes the name, type (single or multiple meeting), and the prompt to paste.

Get access to the Full SPICED Guide, including all templates + recipes.

Get SPICED Granola Guide (FREE)

Summary

Most teams already have the conversations. They just don’t use them.

SPICED gives you the structure.
Granola makes it stick.

The combination turns every call into:

• better deals

• better positioning

• better content

• better decisions

Not because you worked more.

Because you stopped losing the information you already had.

👉 Get the full SPICED guide (all templates + recipes).

Use it on your next 5 calls.

You’ll immediately see where your deals break.

And where they actually close.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

If you’re somewhere between €0 → €1M ARR, I can help you with your GTM.

1️⃣ Free GTM Foundation Library
→ 50+ resources (guides, templates, frameworks)

2️⃣ GTM Audit
→ 360° assessment + 6-month action plan: Your GTM Blindspots revealed

3️⃣ 1:1 GTM Advisory
→ Work directly with me to build your GTM

AI made content easier to produce. But harder to win with.

Working with founders on their GTM foundation, BOFU content is almost always a core part of the execution we bet on.

Because in 2026, it’s not just about ranking on Google anymore.

It’s about shaping what buyers and AI agents believe about your category.

That’s why I invited content marketing expert Ugi, Founder of Contentmonk, to MRR Unlocked.

He’ll show you how to create BOFU content that ranks, converts, and gets cited by AI.

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ 8 Founder-led Signal-Based Outbound Campaigns

✅ The GTM Playbook to €1M ARR

✅ The Partnership Guide for SaaS/AI Founders

A quick word from our sponsor

I include only sponsors I would personally recommend. If you’re interested in reaching 28,000+ SaaS operators, sponsor the next newsletter.

📢 Contentmonk — all-in-one AI visibility, SEO, and content platform

ContentMonk helps you track your AI visibility & SEO rankings, identify gaps & opportunities for improvement, and create high-quality content that ranks and converts.

Try 7 days for free

📢 Attio — the AI-native CRM for GTM

I’ve got some free advice on building a strong GTM foundation for your SaaS: your CRM should be doing more of the work.

Attio is the AI CRM that shifts from a passive system of record to an active collaborator. Connect your email and calendar, and it instantly builds your CRM with enriched data and complete context. Then Ask Attio anything:

• Which deals haven’t had a touchpoint in two weeks?

• What’s the best demo angle for my call this afternoon?

• What should I follow up on from my meetings today?

Fast-growing teams like Granola, Lightdash, and Wispr Flow are already running on it. Ask more from CRM. Ask Attio.

Try for free

So the stage is yours Ugi - let’s get into it. 👇👇

It was week two since we wrote an amazing BOFU article for our client, Certificial, for their brand-new blog.

After 14 days, the article ranked on page 1 of Google - position #4 in the US, for one of the highest-intent keywords in their category. No backlinks. New blog.

A few days later, Claude was already citing our content and taking information from the article we wrote when answering questions about competitors.

In less than 20 days, one article helped them:

• Bring high-quality SQLs into the pipeline

• Influence how AI talks about competitors

Now, if only one article could deliver these amazing results, can you imagine the power of 20,30 or even more BOFU articles?

In the next chapters, you’re going to see a brutally actionable strategy and process to:

• Write 30+ high-quality and converting BOFU articles in 2-3 days

• Rank them in weeks without wasting your time building backlinks

• Get mentioned by AI as the best alternative to your competitors

• Shape how AI talks about your competitors and the software landscape.

Let’s get started.

Why BOFU content is the #1 moat in 2026

Whenever I start working with a new client, I write articles targeting the highest-intent keywords and prompts.

Why? Getting them SQLs or user sign-ups is only the tip of the iceberg.

The real power of BOFU content lies in:

1. Catching existing demand (way cheaper and faster than generating new demand).

2. Ability to influence how customers, and most importantly, AI assistants, talk about the software landscape in your category.

3. Shaping the narrative of how AI assistants talk about your competitors.

4. Testing messaging, positioning, and CTAs fast.

If you’re in a competitive market, BOFU content is one of the most reliable and scalable acquisition channels you can build.

Take the CRM industry, for example.

With a quick search for the 20 most popular brands, we can see that the total search volume exceeds 178.000.

That’s potentially almost 200.000 people looking to buy CRM software every single month. Now, on top of that, add all other keywords with different brands, or variations such as Competitor A vs Competitor B, etc., and we’re probably over 500.000 unique monthly searches.

If you’re in the CRM space and you do a good enough job, you’re probably looking at around 20.000+ high-intent visitors.

With our average conversion rate of 3%, that’s around 600+ new leads in the pipeline.

Three types of BOFU content you should focus on

In reality, there are only three types of content worth writing:

1. Alternative articles often focused on the keywords following the [Competitor] alternative/s format (such as HubSpot alternative, Pipedrive alternatives, etc).

2. Best category tools general guidelines on the best products in your industry (i.e., best lead generation tools; best software for cold email, etc.)

3. Direct comparisons content focused on the keywords that compare two or more competitors (i.e., Semrush vs Ahrefs or Semrush vs Ahrefs vs Moz).

These three formats cover the majority of high-intent searches — both in Google and in AI tools.

Now, let’s dive into the actionable step-by-step plan to write 30+ BOFU articles in 3 days, and start getting rankings and customers by week 2 (even if you’re not the writer or SEO specialist).

Step #1 - How to find the best BOFU topics & keywords to focus on

This step will take about 30 minutes, but it’s crucial to the success of this strategy.

List all your direct, relevant competitors. Make sure you compile the ultimate list of every major company you compete with (by main or complementary use case).

If you don’t have one, feel free to ask AI. Based on my experience, the best model for this task is the latest version of Claude Opus.

Here’s the prompt you can type:

Here’s a bit of a modified prompt example that I recently used for ourselves:

Once you have your list, it’s time to go back to Claude (you can use Sonnet or Haiku for this one), and write the following prompt.

You’ll now get a complete list of all possible BOFU keyword variations.

Copy the list and paste it into your Keyword Research tool of choice to check for search volume, keyword difficulty, and other data:

In less than 30 minutes, we now have a complete list of all relevant BOFU terms we need to attack to start getting more organic customers.

Now it’s time for quick prioritisation.

To be honest with you, if you have the will, time, and resources, my advice is to write one article for ALL keywords. Even though some keywords do not have search volume.

Why?

That doesn’t mean that some specific users are not searching for them. They probably are. They’re probably asking their AI assistants about different software comparisons.

And since few people target these keywords because they don’t have search volume, it’s very easy for you to rank fast and influence the AI narrative when answering questions about specific software comparisons.

If, on the other hand, you have limited resources, then I suggest choosing 20-30 most important keywords based on the search volume and keyword difficulty.

Prioritize keywords with the biggest volume and lowest difficulty.

But remember, do not stray from keywords with lower search volume, especially if they are direct competitors.

The same as we did here with our article on the best AirOps alternatives. As you can notice, one article is ranking for 15+ different keywords:

Step #2 - Research and prepare your knowledge base (Knowledge Base)

Before using AI to write BOFU content, you need two types of input:

1. Competitor research

2. Your own brand and product data

You must do research for each competitor before using AI to write content.

If you don’t do that and ask AI to do research while writing content, you’ll most likely end up with a bunch of false and hallucinated information, further hurting your credibility and not getting the results you need.

Competitor research

You need a clear, structured understanding of each competitor before generating content.

Use a prompt (Claude Opus model) like this for every competitor (new chat for each):

For the [category/user-specific information you need about each tool] syntax, put down any type of information your readers would love to understand about each tool, or information that will help them make a decision (especially information about specific things where you know that you’re better than your competitors).

To give you some practical idea, here’s what I used for our product, ContentMonk.

Once you do this, you’ll end up with an ultimate PDF covering everything you (or your AI writing software) needs to know about specific competitors, together with their pros, cons, and latest reviews.

Repeat the process for every competitor you’re planning to write about.

Collecting documents and research about your brand

To position your product correctly, AI also needs deep context about your company.

Prepare these documents:

• ICP persona overview and their Jobs to be done

• Messaging/Positioning guide and Brand Narrative - So AI can know how to position you inside content

• User Manual about your product/service

The most critical part here is the user manual. It’s a document that outlines every possible piece of information about your product, from its pricing to how to perform specific actions within it.

Think of it like a user manual you would get when buying a new dishwasher. Just this one is for your product and AI to better understand it.

You can use this prompt:

Make sure to use your knowledge base when writing the articles.

ContentMonk has a built-in knowledge base feature. In just a few simple clicks, you upload your documents and Contentmonk will use your documents to generate high-quality content full of your unique insights, but also automatically optimized for SEO and AEO.

Once you have both competitor research and your internal documents, you have everything needed to generate high-quality BOFU content that is accurate, differentiated, and conversion-focused.

Step #3 - Create SEO/AEO optimized & converting BOFU content

Now it’s time for the magic.

1. Inside your ContentMonk account, go to Content Editorial, and click on the “+ New” button in the upper-right corner

2. A right-side modal will appear with the option to add instructions:

3. You can leave the headline empty and let ContentMonk decide, or you can use some of the following variations that we found convert the best (after writing 1000s of BOFU articles as an agency for other brands):

• X Best [Competitor] Alternatives in 2026 [In-depth Review]

• X Best [Competitor] Alternatives to [benefit/value; i.e. get more customers] [2026 Review]

• X Best [Competitor] Alternatives For Your Use Case [2026 In-depth Comparison]

4. The most important field here is Content Instructions - this is what we instruct ContentMonk to write. You can leave it blank or write less information to give more freedom to ContentMonk. If you want to have more control, then I suggest adding more information. In the section below, I’ll give you our best-performing instructions for different BOFU article types.

5. Leave the target word count blank, and add focused and secondary keywords:

6. Now click on Generate Brief, and in a few minutes, you’ll get a high-quality brief for your article.

7. Once the brief is ready, quickly look through it. If you did everything right so far, everything should look fine. But in case you want to make any suggestions, just click on the “Edit” button above and add your edits.

   Once you’re satisfied, click on the “Generate Article” button

8. And voila! After a few minutes, our article is ready. You can now play with it, add images, edit slightly, whatever you want. In most cases, article is 95% ready for publishing, but I always recommend giving it a quick look before going live.

And now, my friends, you have a complete, SEO and AEO optimized article ready to go live. In less than 15-20 minutes per article.

Repeat the process for every BOFU keyword you want to target, and quickly, in 2-3 days, you’ll have 20-30+ BOFU articles ready.

Below are the templates for content instructions you can copy/paste.

Content Instructions for different BOFU content types

Paste the following instructions into ContentMonk’s Content Instructions. Just replace the syntax with actual information and adapt the template to you.

Alternative Articles

When writing the article, for the insights, ContentMonk will first use the research documents you uploaded to your knowledge base. If some information is missing, it will search the web to find the needed information.

“Best [Category] Tools” Articles

This is the content instruction template you can paste inside ContentMonk to create “best category tools” article (i.e. 5 Best CRM tools, 10 best sales intelligence apps, etc):

Competitor A vs Competitor B

The idea for these articles is to compare two popular competitors in your space for different use cases, and subtly mention your tool in the use cases where it’s “better” than the two competitors that you’re better.

The template for this will require a bit more modification on your end, since you want to be in control of how your brand is mentioned in this article. Below is the “general example” you can use and build upon.

Before writing these, prepare all the use cases you want to compare the competitors on.

How to monitor and improve your BOFU content

To make this strategy work long-term, you need to track three things:

1. Google rankings
   → How your articles rank for your target BOFU keywords

2. AI visibility
   → Are you mentioned in AI answers for the prompts relevant to the BOFU content we wrote

3. Citations in AI answers
   → Is your BOFU content cited by AIs, and are you directing how AI speaks about you & competitors.

What prompts to track (BOFU AI visibility & AI influence)

For each article type, track the prompts your buyers are likely to ask AI tools.

For alternative articles:

• “What is the best [Competitor] alternative?”

• “What is the best [Competitor] alternative for [use case]?”

• “What’s the best [Competitor] alternative for small companies in Europe”.

For category articles:

• “What are the best [category] tools?”

• “What are the best [category] tools for [use case or ICP]?”

You can also send the list of articles you wrote to Claude, and ask it to generate a list of prompts (one by line) that follows the templates above.

Once the list is ready, it’s time to start tracking the prompts:

ContentMonk will now start analyzing what ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity answer when users ask them these questions.

How to track your BOFU SEO rankings

The process is similar to that for the prompt tracking: You add all your focused keywords

Now, in a few minutes, you’ll be able to see your and competitors’ rankings for the focused keywords:

How to improve your AI visibility and SEO rankings?

Once your content is live, improving it is straightforward:

• Identify where competitors rank higher than you

• Look at which articles AI assistants cite most often

• Update your content to be more complete, specific, and better structured

• Continuously refine messaging, comparisons, and positioning

Once you start tracking your prompts and keywords in ContentMonk, you can leave it to ContentMonk to suggest real-time updates you can make to your content to start ranking better or getting cited by AI.

ContentMonk will:

• Notify you whenever your articles drop in Google rankings or go stale at a specific position for too long

• Other articles similar to yours are frequently cited by AI

You’ll see these notifications in the Opportunities pages:

Once this happens, you have the option to let ContentMonk run research, analyze top-ranked articles, or top cited articles in AI, cross-reference these articles with your content, and suggest the exact updates you can make inside your content to make it better.

You can then accept or decline ContentMonk’s updates in one click:

This allows you to keep your content up-to-date and optimized for AEO/SEO without almost any effort from your side.

The bottom line & how to get started

So, here’s a quick recap of what you need to do to dominate BOFU terms in your niche in both AI answers and Google rankings:

• Identify relevant BOFU terms

• Run Competitive research

• Create a Knowledge Base

• Use one of the templates shared above to create SEO/AEO optimized BOFU content

• Expect to rank for your BOFU terms in 2-8 weeks (some backlinks in the meantime can definitely help)

• Start tracking your AI visibility and Google rankings

• Optimize your content ongoing

Good luck!

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

If you’re somewhere between €0 → €1M ARR, I can help you with your GTM.

1️⃣ Free GTM Foundation Library

→ 50+ resources (guides, templates, frameworks)

2️⃣ GTM Audit

→ 360° assessment + 6-month action plan: Your GTM Blindspots revealed

3️⃣ 1:1 GTM Advisory

→ Work directly with me to build your GTM

I’ve noticed something across most early-stage teams.

My LinkedIn feed is full of:

“30+ tools to run GTM/outbound”

“How I orchestrate 50+ tools to book 20+ meetings per week.”

But here’s the problem: Most outbound doesn’t fail because of tools.

It fails because it’s random.

No trigger.
No timing.
No reason to reach out now.

So I don’t think (early-stage) founders need to orchestrate so many different tools.

So today, we break down 8 outbound campaigns that book you meetings, without using hundreds of different tools.

1. ICP Auto-connect campaign

2. LinkedIn content engagement campaign

3. New signups/demos booked campaign

4. Website visitor campaign

5. Customer lookalike campaign

6. Customers’ network (nearbound) campaign

7. Specific tech tool campaign

8. Value first campaign

You can run all these campaigns with Lemlist.

A quick word from our sponsor

I only include sponsors that I would recommend personally. If you’re interested in reaching 28,000+ SaaS operators, sponsor the next newsletter.

📢 lemlist — The outbound platform that books meetings, not bounces

lemlist is the multichannel outbound platform built for sales teams who need real pipeline, not just activity metrics.

• Connect intent signals, personalize at scale, and send sequences that actually get replies

• Build email + LinkedIn sequences in minutes, with AI that sounds like you

• Trigger outreach based on timing signals, not guesswork

• Track every reply, click, and booked call in one dashboard

Want to make your direct motion work before you try to scale it?

Try lemlist for free

4-Step System: Turn Insights into effective Outbound Campaigns

The two ingredients that make your outbound effective: Timing + Relevance

This means we use a signal (that is relevant for the contact) to reach out. The most powerful buying signals are often very specific to your market.

So step 1 is:

Think about relevant triggers that are a proxy for your product that might be relevant to them.

When you track the right signal:

1. Your message becomes relevant to your contact.

2. And it comes at the right time.

So let’s have a look at the 4 steps: Identify critical events, track signals, map pain, write messaging that converts.

Step 1: Identify Critical Events (From Sales Calls)

Listen for patterns that you hear in your sales calls. If you apply SPICED, watch out for the critical events mentioned:

• “We’re hiring fast”

• “We just implemented [Tool X]”

• “We’re expanding into a new market”

Step 2: Translate into Signals (Observable Triggers)

Think about trackable signals for these events. Something that you can observe from the outside. A proxy that timing is right:

• Hiring → Job postings / team growth

• New tool → Tech stack changes

• Expansion → New locations / languages

Here’s an overview of the signals that you can monitor with Lemlist, without using another tracking tool.

Step 3: Map the Pain (Why it matters)

This step is critical. Connect signals with related pain points:

• Hiring → Long ramp-up time for new hires

• New tool → Training and adoption are slow

• Expansion → Payment complexity increases

👉 This makes your outreach relevant

Step 4: Turn It into Messaging

Now you connect the dots: Signal + Pain. Build your outreach around it:

• “Saw you’re hiring fast — teams often struggle with [pain] at this stage…”

• “Noticed you implemented [Tool X] — many teams run into [gap]…”

• “Expanding into [market]? That’s usually where [problem] shows up…”

Signal-based messaging

Here are a few more examples of signal-based messaging.

So let’s have a look at the campaigns. 👇

Campaign 1: ICP Auto-connect

This one isn’t signal-based at all.

But it helps you build a relevant network on LinkedIn. Especially if you create content (Founder LinkedIn brand) and do (signal) based outreach via LinkedIn, it helps if you expand your network with ICP contacts.

You can connect with 100-200 contacts per week (depending on whether you are a free user or a premium/sales navigator user). Expect a 30% acceptance rate.

This means you add roughly 50 ICP contacts per week to your network - on autopilot.

Do this for 12 months, and you’ve added 2500+ ICP contacts to your network.

People who see your content will start to build trust and are more likely to engage with you when you reach out.

All you need to do is add the right ICP contacts to your Lemlist Auto Connect campaign.

You will have a few ways to add the contacts to the campaign:

1. Import from Sales Navigator

2. Adding contacts manually with the Lemlist Google Chrome extension

3. Use Lemlist native database

4. Push leads from third-party databases (Clay, Prospeo, Apollo)

5. Upload a CSV or Import from your CRM

This first campaign fits perfectly with Campaign 2.

Campaign 2: Engaged with your LinkedIn content

Lemlist makes it easy to track people who engaged with your LinkedIn content.

To make sure you only get relevant signals, you can define:

1. What type of engagement counts as a signal (like, comment, both)

2. Add filter criteria (so you only get signals from your ICP)

I started using it for myself a few weeks ago. You see, I get 2-3 ICP leads per day.

With one click, you can push them to the right campaign.

And the campaign itself doesn’t need to be super complex.

2 steps are all you need:

Step 1: LinkedIn connection

The message can be as simple as:

“Hi {{firstName}}, noticed you liked one of my recent posts.

Great to connect.”

Step 2: DM after they accepted the connection request

Don’t send straight after they accepted. Wait 1-2 days.

Initial response: Thank them specifically for engaging with your particular post

“Hey [Name], I noticed you liked my post about [specific topic]. Thanks for the engagement! What part resonated most with you?”

“Hey [Name], I liked your comment on my post about [topic]. Are you currently working on [relevant challenge or solution]?”

Value-add follow-up: Share additional relevant information

“Since you found that interesting, you might also enjoy this [resource/article] that dives deeper into [related topic].”

Relationship building: Ask about their experience with the challenge your content addresses

“I’m curious - have you been facing similar challenges with [problem your solution addresses] at [their company]?”

Direct Approach:

“Hey [Name], I noticed you’ve been engaging with content about [topic]. We’ve helped similar [company specifics] companies in [country/industry] to [usecase] - resulting in [positive results]. If this sounds interesting, I’d be happy to [soft value-first offer] - no strings attached.”

For advanced LinkedIn signals, consider a tool like Trigify.

Campaign 3: Connect with new Signups/Demos booked

Sounds obvious. Reality is that more than 50% of the founders I worked with did not do this.

So what is it about?

If you get a new sign-up for your product or a new inbound demo booked, make sure to send them a connection request on LinkedIn.

“Hi {{firstName}}, saw you booked a call with me — looking forward to it!”

Lemlist allows you to use webhooks and connect tools like zapier, n8n, claude, make to automatically push new leads to your Lemlist account.

Once you have added the contacts to Lemlist, you can use their enrichment feature to find the LinkedIn profile based on their email address.

Campaign 4: Website visitors

Knowing that a company visited your website is a strong signal.

Lemlist currently enables company-level identification. Meaning you know that someone from the company visited your website.

But with one click on the company, you see its contacts.

In case you want person-level identification, consider using a tool like Snitcher.

What’s great is that you can narrow down to specific pages and filter only for relevant target locations.

For me, I focus on Europe-based founders, and I care about people who’ve been on my GTM audit & GTM advisory page for longer than 30 seconds.

Here are some DM templates you can use:

“Hey {{first_name}}, thanks for connecting!
We saw some interest from {{company_name}} on our site recently, so I thought I’d reach out. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Thanks for connecting, {{first_name}}! I noticed you or one of your team members from {{company_name}} recently visited our website.
Usually this means explore new ways for {{usecase}}.
Curious if that’s something that’s been top of mind for your team lately?”

Campaign 5: Customer Lookalike

Look for companies that are similar to your best-fit customers.

Thanks for connecting, {{first_name}}!

We recently started working with {{company_lookalike}}, which is quite similar to {{company_name}}, and it made me curious about how you’re handling {{usecase}} today.

Is that something you’re involved with on your side?

{{first_name}}, I saw your setup is pretty similar to the one of {{company_lookalike}}.

It made me curious: how do you currently manage/handle {{usecase}} without {{painpoint}} ?

To find the right lookalikes, you could test a tool like ocean.io or LGM lookalike feature - or manually find the right companies based on firmographic and technographic filters (based on your ICP criteria).

Depending on your exact set-up, this is also where Lemlist’s new AI agentic enrichment might be smart to use.

Here’s an example of how you can enrich your leads based on if they are a ‘SaaS company’.

Campaign 6: Customers’ network (Nearbound)

The approach is very similar to the customer lookalike campaign above.

The difference here is that we scan the network of your customer to find relevant ICP fits.

And you use their names as an ‘opener’.

Here are some ideas for you:

Search for companies that are located in the same area as your new customer

This can work great if you know that there is a high likelihood that they know each other.

Think about:

• restaurants on the same street

• Architecture firms in the same city

• Logistic teams with hubs in the same industrial park

• Municipal administrations with close Zip Codes

Now, when you reach out to those companies, you can leverage your existing customers’ names. They will recognize their name, which makes your message relevant to them.

Search your customers’ suppliers, customers, and partners who fit your ICP

Same strategy as above. Instead of the local relevancy, you use their existing relationship as a conversation opener.

Hey {{firstName}}, great to be connected.
Looks like we both work with {{Customer}}. Do you run more projects together with them?

Hey {{firstName}}, saw you also worked with {{Customer}} on a previous project.

We work with them on {{customers_core_usecases}}.
Out of curiosity: how do you currently manage/handle {{usecase}} without {{painpoint}} ?

Campaign 7: Value First Campaign

In case you can provide easy upfront value to your clients, that can be a great strategy.

There are 2 ways to perform this tactic:

1. You actually did create something relevant to them and share it upfront, or

2. You create on demand: you ask them if they are interested, and if they are, you create the content and share it with them

A few examples so you can better understand what I mean:

“Reviewed your product onboarding flow and found a few things that you could improve”

👉 If you offer a service/product that helps with onboarding

“Reviewed your LinkedIn profile and can share with you 4 things that would help you to stand out more”

👉 I received this actually 3x times in the last weeks, every time I responded. Why: Easy to say yes, low commitment.

“Saw your Google ads on keyword X - a few things that I observed…”

👉 If you offer a service/product that helps companies run better ads

“I found a few public tenders that might be relevant for you. Want me to share it with you?”

👉 If you offer a service/product that helps companies find relevant tenders.

“I’ve created a short 2-min video that shows you how you can improve your website visibility in LLMs - want me to send it over?”

👉 If you offer a service/product that helps companies to increase their AI visibility

“I really enjoy your content. I’ve turned your last newsletter episode into 5 LinkedIn posts that will increase your engagement on LK. Want me to share them with you?”

👉 If you offer a service/product that helps creators with content production

I’ve actually tested this approach for myself, and it works!

I think you get the pattern.

You offer free value with low commitment. Something easy to say Yes to.

Campaign 8: Companies using a specific tech tool

Knowing that a company is using a specific tool is a strong and actionable signal. It gives you immediate context and a natural way to start the conversation.

In practice, this signal is most useful in three scenarios:

1. You integrate with the tool (product partner)

Your product works on top of or alongside their existing tool.
→ Example: an analytics tool built on top of a CRM like HubSpot or Shopify.

2. You extend the tool

Your product fills a clear gap or missing capability.
→ You’re not replacing it — you’re making it more valuable.

3. You replace the tool (competitor)

Your product is a direct alternative.
→ You’re positioning against the limitations of their current solution.

Across all three cases, the key advantage is simple:
👉 You can use the tool they’re already using as a relevant, personalized icebreaker.

Campaign 8a: Company adopts a new tool

A particularly strong version of this signal is when a company has recently adopted a new tool.

This often indicates:

• They are actively improving their stack

• They are open to new solutions

• They are still shaping their workflows

This is especially powerful if:

• Your product integrates with that tool, or

• You know your best customers typically use both tools together

Example:
If companies that adopt a product analytics tool often also need your solution, this becomes a high-intent trigger.

This works extremely well in ABM (Account-Based Marketing):

• Define a target list of accounts

• Track when they adopt relevant tools

• Reach out at the right moment

Example message

“Saw you’re using [Tool X]. Teams often complement it with a solution for [specific gap]. Worth exploring if that’s relevant for you?”

Campaign 8b: Companies using a competitor

You can apply the same logic to competitor-based outreach.

Here, the goal is to:

• Acknowledge what they’re using

• Highlight common limitations

• Open a conversation around gaps

Example message

“Saw you’re using [Tool X] for [use case]. Many teams find that while it works well for [core strength], they still run into challenges around [adjacent gap]. Curious how you’re currently handling that?”

So by now, you have at least 8 relevant campaigns to test yourself.

But there are 2 more things that I want to share with you:

1. Be intentional and specific about your CTAs

2. Track your outbound campaigns (and learn)

Specific CTAs

Even with perfect targeting and strong messaging, your outbound will fall flat if the CTA creates friction.

The goal of a great CTA isn’t to close a deal, it’s to earn the next small step.

Common CTA Mistakes

❌ Too much commitment
Asking for a 30-minute call upfront is a big ask — especially from someone who doesn’t know you yet. You haven’t earned that level of time.

❌ Low perceived value
“Let me show you our product” isn’t compelling. Buyers care about their problems, not your demo.

❌ Vague or unclear
“Let me know your thoughts” or “open to chat?” creates ambiguity. If it’s not clear what happens next, people won’t act.

❌ Too many options
Multiple CTAs in one message (“call, demo, webinar invite, share case study?”) create decision fatigue and lead to no decision at all.

Strong outbound CTAs are:

• Low friction → easy to say yes to

• Clear → one simple next step

• Value-led → tied to something relevant for them

Here are 25+ effective CTAs:

Outbound Success Metrics

Once you run your outbound campaigns, analyze your performance.

Key Metrics

1. Connection Acceptance Rate → Accepted ÷ Sent

2. Reply Rate → Contacts replied ÷ contacts messaged

3. Positive Reply Rate → Qualified/positive replies ÷ contacts messaged

4. Meeting booked rate → Meetings booked ÷ contacts messaged

Analyze your results:

1. Low LK acceptance rate → Optimize your profile; wrong leads

2. Low reply rate → Optimize your messaging; improve signal relevance

3. Good (positive) reply rate but low meeting booked rate → Optimize your CTAs

Takeaway

By now, you have 8 outbound campaigns you can start testing.

But if there’s one thing to take away, it’s this:

Outbound isn’t about sending more messages.

It’s about sending them at the right moment. That’s what signals give you.

Start asking:

👉 “What happened that makes this the right time to reach out?”

Answer that and your outbound will feel completely different.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

If you’re somewhere between €0 → €1M ARR, I can help you with your GTM.

1️⃣ Free GTM Foundation Library
→ 50+ resources (guides, templates, frameworks)

2️⃣ GTM Audit
→ 360° assessment + 6-month action plan: Your GTM Blindspots revealed

3️⃣ 1:1 GTM Advisory
→ Work directly with me to build your GTM

I’ve noticed something across most early-stage teams:

They don’t fail because of GTM tactics.

They fail because their GTM doesn’t match their stage.

So they:

• hire sales too early

• test 5 channels at once

• constantly change their messaging

…and nothing compounds.

Not because GTM doesn’t work.

But because they’re solving the wrong problem.

What I’ve learned:

Before you think about how to grow,

you need to understand where you are in GTM

Because what works in one stage will break you in another.

You can not apply the same GTM playbook to completely different stages.

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ The Ultimate Partnership Guide for Founders

✅ 17 must-have questions about your GTM

✅ The Ultimate SaaS Positioning Guide

A quick word from our sponsor

I only include sponsors that I would recommend personally. If you’re interested in reaching 28,000+ SaaS operators, sponsor the next newsletter.

📢 lemlist — The outbound platform that books meetings, not bounces

lemlist is the multichannel outbound platform built for sales teams who need real pipeline, not just activity metrics.

• Connect intent signals, personalize at scale, and send sequences that actually get replies.

• Build email + LinkedIn sequences in minutes, with AI that sounds like you.

• Trigger outreach based on timing signals, not guesswork

• Track every reply, click, and booked call in one dashboard

Want to make your direct motion work before you try to scale it?

Try lemlist for free

📢 Attio — the AI-native CRM for GTM

Attio is the AI-native CRM with built-in enrichment, flexible workflows, and fast setup. Connect your email and calendar, and Attio instantly builds your CRM.

Their new “Ask Attio” agent changes how you run your CRM: Prep for calls in seconds, update fields automatically, get deal summaries with one click

Start now

Let’s get into it. 👇👇

The Foundation (Why Most GTM Breaks Early)

Before we talk about stages, there’s one thing most teams get wrong.

They treat GTM like separate pieces:

• ICP

• Positioning

• Messaging

But in reality:

These are a chain of decisions

• Your ICP defines what problem matters

• That problem defines your positioning

• That positioning defines your messaging

Make this actionable:

ICP (who actually buys):

• Pick one narrow segment (not multiple)

• Define the trigger (why do they buy now?)

• Use real customers, not assumptions (unless you’re pre-revenue)

When you build your ICP, include 4 key elements:

—> The ideal company (3-5 firmographics, technographic criteria)

—> The ideal personas (economic buyer + users/champion)

—> The intent signal/ buying triggers

—> The Anti ICP (3-5 disqualifiers)

Positioning (why you for them):

• What you are: Anchor around one use case, product category, or competitor

• How are you different

• Make it obvious in <5 seconds (1-sentence positioning statement)

Messaging (how you communicate it):

• Focus on clarity —> don’t try to sound super clever

• Use the language of your customers

• Focus on one core outcome/usecase; don’t communicate everything at once

• Repeat the same message everywhere (website, calls, emails, content…)

So let’s do a quick reality check:

You don’t have a GTM foundation yet, if:

1. You don’t know your ICP, or you're still testing multiple ones

2. You’re unclear about your positioning, meaning you can’t explain in an easy, short sentence what you are + who you are for + why you are better/different

3. Your messaging is inconsistent, meaning you see yourself using different words (in your copy, sales calls, content…)

The Stage-Based GTM Playbook

Now the part most founders skip:

GTM only works if it matches your stage

1️⃣ Stage 1: Hustle (0 → ~€100k ARR)

Goal: Find something that works

How to recognize you’re here

• ICP is still unclear

• Messaging feels inconsistent

• Deals are unpredictable

• Growth feels random

👉 You don’t have GTM foundation yet; you’re searching for it.

What actually matters

Talk to customers every week
Nothing beats real customer feedback.
This can include cold calls, sales demos, or interviews with lost deals and churns.

Test ICP + messaging in real conversations
You’re still testing, so use the touchpoints you have to see how your messaging resonates with your (future) ICP. Don’t just think internally about it, test it in the trenches: calls, demos, outbound, content are your friend.

Sell manually (founder-led)
You’re the founder. You own GTM.
Don’t outsource selling to an agency, intern, or consultant.
You need direct feedback loops.

Look for pull signals
Once the first customers come in, look for pull signals. Where do you see that things move faster/easier, and what segments are harder to close?
—> fast conversions, repeated patterns, low friction

What “good” looks like

✅ You hear the same problem repeatedly

✅ Prospects understand your value quickly

✅ Some deals feel surprisingly easy to close

Biggest mistakes

❌ Scaling too early (paid channels, hiring sales)
❌ Jumping between ICPs too fast (before getting enough validation)
❌ Overthinking positioning instead of testing it
❌ Avoiding real customer conversations (and just building the product)

👉 If things feel inconsistent: You’re still in Stage 1.

2️⃣ Stage 2: Focus (→ €1M ARR)

Goal: Make GTM predictable

How to recognize you’re here

• You found an ICP that converts

• Messaging resonates across multiple prospects

• Deals close, but not consistently yet

• You see traction in 1–2 channels

👉 Something works: now make it repeatable

What actually matters

Lock 1 ICP + 1 use case
This is the hardest part. You likely have customers across different segments and use cases.

That’s fine for the hustle phase, but very hard to scale.

So your job is now to niche down and say no to everything else.

Double down on 1–2 channels max
You’re early; this usually means limited resources. To grow to the first million, you have a higher chance of mastering 1-2 channels (where you already see traction), instead of running multiple channels at the same time.

Build a repeatable sales process
Until now, the founder has handled all sales. So there was no ‘need’ to systemize.
But the next step is to become predictable and build your repeatable playbook.

This means you need to build your first playbook.
—> Same steps in the sales process (e.g., disco —> demo —> pilot —> won)
—> Deal stages in your CRM
—> Tracking conversion rates
—> Analyze lost reasons
—> Draft email templates per stage
—> Collaterals across the full funnel (pricing, case studies, ROI calculations…)

The goal: Find something that is repeatable and that you can teach your first sales hires.

Systemize your messaging
Sounds simple. But too often, when I’m doing my GTM audits, I see that the internal messaging framework (living in Notion or Miro) and the actual customer-facing messaging on their website, outbound, sales demos, blog, and LinkedIn content are completely different. Also, each asset tells a different story.

→ Your job: Create messaging alignment

What “good” looks like

✅ Pipeline becomes predictable

✅ Deals follow similar paths

✅ Customer understand your Positioning

✅ Messaging consistently converts

Biggest mistakes

❌ Adding new channels too early

❌ Expanding ICP (“we can also sell to…”) too early

❌ Constantly changing messaging

❌ Flying blind: Not tracking key metrics

👉 This is where I see most early-stage startups struggle.

Because success here comes from: Focus, not more ideas

Get your GTM Blind Spots revealed: Get a 360° assessment of your current GTM strategy plus a custom 6-month action plan all within 7 days - so you can act with confidence, not guesswork.

Get GTM clarity

3️⃣ Stage 3: Expansion (Post €1M ARR)

Goal: Scale what works

How to recognize you’re here

• You can predict pipeline from activity

• Messaging consistently converts

• Sales is repeatable

• You know your numbers and can plan properly

• You can ‘teach’ someone else how your ‘playbook’ works

👉 You now have a system. Something you can ‘scale’.

What actually matters

Scale proven channels aggressively
This means more budget, more people, more volume.

Add new channels (if needed)
In case your existing channels are not enough, you can now test new channels on top.

GTM motions
It might also be the right time to add a secondary motion (for instance: partnerships, product-led growth, or outbound/inbound)

Build specialized teams
You now outgrow founder-led sales. So you bring in the first specialized roles in your GTM team.

Protect your core positioning
Don’t make the mistake of changing your core positioning. Just because you hit the 1€ million ARR, doesn’t mean you can now play the same game as the big guys. Keep your positioning advantage.

Option to expand horizontally (new ICP) or vertically (new use cases)
It’s also the time when you could think of expanding into adjacent segments or use cases. Important: You can, but definitely don’t need to.

What “good” looks like

✅ Growth becomes predictable

✅ Your GTM still works/is healthy (even though you added more resources)

✅ Expansion feels like an extension, not something completely new

Biggest mistakes

❌ Scaling too early (with a broken GTM foundation)

❌ Adding too much complexity at once

❌ Losing clarity in positioning

❌ Forgetting your initial wedge

Final Takeaway

GTM foundation work is not about doing more.

It’s about doing the right things at the right stage:

• Stage 1 → Find what works

• Stage 2 → Make it repeatable

• Stage 3 → Scale it

And all of it sits on:

• ICP

• Positioning

• Messaging

Get that wrong → nothing works
Get that right → everything compounds

Okay, that’s it for today.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

The Ultimate Positioning Guide + Worksheet

Get Positioning Guide

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

If you’re somewhere between €0 → €1M ARR, I can help you with your GTM.

1️⃣ Free GTM Foundation Library
→ 50+ resources (guides, templates, frameworks)

2️⃣ GTM Audit
→ 360° assessment + 6-month action plan: Your GTM Blindspots revealed

3️⃣ 1:1 GTM Advisory
→ Work directly with me to build your GTM

Most early-stage founders think partnerships will unlock growth.

So they:

• Sign a few partner logos

• build integrations

• launch a “partner program”

And 6 months later?

Nothing.

No pipeline. No distribution. No leverage.

Just a Notion page and a few “let’s stay in touch” calls.

Here’s the problem:

❌ They don’t create demand out of thin air.
❌ They don’t magically fix weak positioning.
❌ They don’t solve unclear ICPs.
❌ And they definitely don’t replace founder-led sales.

We’ve both seen founders waste 3–6 months on partnerships that never produced a single deal.

This guide is meant to help you avoid exactly that and help you make one decision:

Should you invest in partnerships right now - and if yes, where do you start?

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ 17 must-have questions about your GTM

✅ The Ultimate SaaS Positioning Guide

✅ 10 Quick GTM Fixes you can ship this week

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Before you do partnerships, ask yourself

Do not focus on partnerships yet if:

❌ You still can’t explain clearly who your ICP is
❌ You haven’t proven you can close customers directly
❌ Your GTM motion is still inconsistent
❌ Your ACV is too low to support human-heavy partner motions
❌ You secretly hope “partners” will solve your growth problem for you

If your direct motion is not working yet, partnerships will not save you.

They will only add complexity.

If your core GTM is weak, partnerships scale confusion.

That said, not all partnership types are equal. Some are absolutely worth testing early. Others are a complete waste of time at your stage.

👉 Want the full guide?

Access the Partnership Guide for Early-Stage SaaS and AI Founders

It goes deeper into all partnership types, detailed frameworks, and how to avoid the traps.

Get full guide

Real Partnership: What most founders get wrong

Most of what gets called a partnership in SaaS is not a real partnership.

The term gets used for everything:

• an API integration

• a listing on a marketplace

• an affiliate relationship

• a co-marketing webinar

• a reseller agreement

A real partnership is not just a transaction.
It’s a collaborative relationship.

Long-term.
Shared upside.
Ongoing investment.

The 1+1 = 3+ principle

A partnership should create more value together than either side could create alone.

If that extra value does not exist, you don’t need a partnership.

You need: a vendor, a tool, or a simple commercial agreement.

For early-stage SaaS, that value typically shows up in:

1. Lifting Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Through integrations that make your product stickier, or service partners who help customers extract more value.

2. Reducing Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Through co-marketing, warm introductions, or referrals from trusted advisors your prospects already work with.

3. Speeding Time-to-Market: Through product integrations that fill gaps without building everything yourself, or channel partners who give you immediate distribution.

4. Reducing Risk: Through diversifying your go-to-market beyond a single motion, and through partners who validate your product in their market.

If it does none of these, it’s probably not worth your time

Partner Value Proposition: What’s in it for them?

This is where most founders get it wrong.

They focus on:
❌ “What can this partner do for us?”

The better question is:
✅“Why would this partner invest time, trust, and reputation into us?”

Strong partner value propositions usually include:

1. Revenue potential

Not just commissions—services, retention, expansion.

“Your clients need this. You can wrap services around it. And it helps you become more valuable to them.”

2. Portfolio improvement

Your product helps them:

• serve a new customer segment, industry or region

• Expand their relevance with existing clients (Upselling path)

3. Competitive advantage

Your product helps them differentiate against their competitors.

Or provides access to innovation that they couldn’t build themselves.

What keeps a partner engaged is this:

The 4 types of Partnerships

Not all partnerships are the same. Every partnership falls into one of four categories:

Product partners

Partners that make your product better. They connect it to the tools your customers already use and fill functional gaps. This is where most early-stage companies should start.

Examples:

• integrations

• technology partners

• infrastructure partners

They carry the lowest risk, require no partner enablement infrastructure, and directly improve your product for existing customers.

Marketing partners

After product partnerships, marketing partnerships are usually the most accessible category.

They help your buyers discover and trust you.

They serve three functions:

• Awareness (podcasts, newsletters, events),

• Credibility (trusted voices validating your solution),

• and Conversion (affiliate programs, co-marketing with lead sharing).

Examples:

• joint webinars

• shared newsletters

• co-authored guides

• podcast swaps

• events

• ecosystem content with adjacent SaaS products
  

The best early-stage version is usually:

Co-marketing with adjacent companies that serve the same ICP but solve a different problem.

That is the sweet spot. You borrow trust, reach, and context without direct competitive tension.

Channel partners

Partners that help distribute or sell your solution.

Examples:

• referral partners

• co-sellers

• resellers

• distributors (who bring your product to customers you can’t reach on your own)

High potential, but high risk if you’re not ready.

Service partners

Help customers realize value.

If your product is low-touch and self-serve, you don’t need service partners right now.

They become relevant when your product requires significant human involvement to deliver value.

Examples:

• consultants

• agencies and implementation partners

• system integrators

• managed service providers

Most early-stage companies should start with:

Product partnerships first.
Marketing partnerships second.

Why most channel partnerships fail

Channel partnerships sound attractive because it feels close to revenue.

But:

1. They can’t fix broken GTM

Partners amplify a working motion. They don’t build one.

2. The activation problem is real

Signing partners is easy. Getting them to act is hard.

A common pattern:

• You sign 5 or 10 “partners”

• Everyone is excited on the intro calls

• Nobody sends leads

• 4 months later, everything is dead
  

80 out of every 100 partners turn inactive.

3. Deal size determines viability

At low ACV (< €5k/year), human-driven channel often doesn’t work.

As a rough rule:

• below ~€3k–€5k ARR: referral/channel gets hard unless it is very scalable or affiliate-like

• €5k–€50k ARR: referrals and co-selling can make sense

• above that: deeper channel models become more viable

Partnerships by ACV and Product Complexity

Two key filters that decide what partnerships are right for you.

ACV

Your Average Contract Value directly influences which partnership models make sense:

The higher your ACV, the more partner-heavy models can make sense.

Low ACV (< €5k/year), low-touch (self-serve or light-touch sales)

Partnerships that scale without human intervention work best.

Think:

• product integrations (marketplace listings, native integrations)

• affiliate programs

• lightweight referrals

• technology partnerships

Mid ACV €5k–€50k/year), medium-touch

Now referral and co-selling can start to make economic sense. The deal size justifies a warm introduction, and the sales cycle benefits from a trusted recommendation.

Marketing partnerships also deliver strong ROI here, because co-marketing reduces CAC on deals that are large enough to matter.

Higher ACV (€50k+/year), high-touch

Now, resellers, system integrators, and service partners become viable because the deal economics support the partner’s investment in learning and selling your product.

But this is typically beyond the early-stage.

Product complexity

The more implementation and change-management your product requires, the more human help matters.

• Simple product → product + marketing partnerships

• Complex product → service partners + co-selling

How to Actually Start (Without Wasting 6 Months)

Enough theory.

If you want to test partnerships in a smart way, do this.

Step 1: Write a Partner Hypothesis

• Who exactly is the partner?

• Why would they care?

• Why are you relevant to them?

• Is there ICP overlap?

• What would success look like in 90 days?

Step 2: Talk to 2–3 partners

Do not build:

• a portal

• a tier structure

• a fancy commission model

• a partner deck with 40 slides

Just talk to real candidates.

Questions to ask:

• Do they see the value you’re describing?

• Would they actually introduce you to their clients? Why or why not?

• What would they need from you to make this work?

• What’s their honest assessment of the partnership’s potential?

Listen carefully. If two out of three tell you the value proposition doesn’t resonate, go back and refine your hypothesis. If they’re enthusiastic but need different support than you expected, adapt.

Step 3: Run a pilot

Work with your first 1–2 validated partners on a simple, time-boxed pilot:

• 8–12 weeks

• Clear mutual goals (e.g., “3 introductions from you, dedicated onboarding support from us”)

• Weekly or biweekly check-ins

• Honest evaluation at the end

Document everything. What worked? What didn’t? What surprised you? This pilot becomes the blueprint for your partnership approach going forward.

The Most Common Partnership Mistakes & FAQs

Partnerships are full of traps for early-stage founders.

Here are three we see all the time:

❌ Seeing Marketplace Listings as Partnerships

Listing your product on a marketplace (Salesforce AppExchange, HubSpot Marketplace, Shopify App Store) is not a partnership strategy.

It’s a distribution tactic.

And on its own, it rarely drives results.

Marketplaces are crowded.
You’re competing with dozens (or hundreds) of alternatives.

Without:

• active promotion

• co-marketing

• or a truly differentiated integration

Most listings generate near-zero organic traffic at the early stage.

👉 Treat marketplace presence as a checkbox—not a growth engine.

❌ Your Sales Manager Is Not Your Partnership Manager

This happens all the time.

Founders think:

“It’s kind of like sales, so let’s give it to the head of sales.”

Usually wrong.

Sales is transactional.
Partnerships are collaborative.

A sales leader is measured on quarterly revenue.
Partnerships take 6–12 months to produce results.

That creates the wrong behavior:

• pushing deals instead of building relationships

• treating partners like customers

• focusing on short-term wins

Partners feel this immediately and disengage.

👉 If you’re early, the founder should own partnerships.

❌ “We have 5 partners who said they’ll introduce us… but nothing happened.”

This is the most common failure mode.

And it’s almost always an enablement problem.

Not a partner problem.

Signing a partner is 10% of the work.
The other 90% is making them successful.

Most founders don’t give partners what they need:

• clear ICP and positioning

• simple materials (one-pager, intro blurb)

• easy way to introduce you

• fast response on intros

• regular check-ins

If partners have to figure it out themselves, they won’t.

The takeaway

These are just 3 of the most common pitfalls & FAQs.

In the full guide, we’ll break down:

• all major mistakes

• detailed FAQs

• and how to avoid wasting months on partnerships that go nowhere

👉 Get the full guide here

Key Takeaway

Don’t ask:

“How do we get more partners?”

Ask:

“Which one partnership type would create the most leverage for our business right now?”

Then start there.

• One hypothesis

• One category

• One strong partner

• One real pilot

That’s how early-stage partnerships actually work.

Okay, that’s it for today.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

P.S. Check out Bernhard’s website for Partnership Consulting, Assessments, and free content.

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

1️⃣ Use my free GTM library with 50+ free resources (guides, templates, workbooks, and tools) to build a strong GTM foundation (helped 5000+ SaaS leaders)

2️⃣ Get a 360° GTM audit of your status quo + a custom 6-month action plan

3️⃣ Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for SaaS founders from €0 to €1 million ARR

A lot of founders tell me they have a go-to-market strategy.

But when we start working together, and I ask a few simple questions… things often get blurry.

So here’s a quick test.

If you’re building a SaaS/AI company from €0 → €1M ARR (and beyond), you should be able to answer these 17 questions clearly.

So today you have to do the work, not me :)

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ The Ultimate SaaS Positioning Guide

✅ 10 Quick GTM Fixes you can ship this week

✅ Homepage Teardown: What 6 Top SaaS Companies get Right (and Wrong)

A quick word from our sponsor

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Let’s get into it. 👇👇

Customers & ICP

1. Who specifically is your product built for today?

Not your TAM.
Your actual Ideal Customer Profile.

Can you clearly define your ICP with 4-6 attributes?

• Firmographics,

• Technographics,

• Persona-specific attributes

In the early stages, you usually need to focus on one segment and one use case to reach product-market fit.

👉 If you struggle here, check out my ICP Framework

2. Who are your best-fit customers?

Look at your current customers and ask:

• Who has the highest usage?

• Who churns the least?

• Who has the fastest sales cycle?

These are signals of your best-fit customers.

What do they all have in common?

👉 If you're unsure, analyze your customers to find your best-fit customers.

3. What type of customers should you not target right now?

Many early-stage founders try to serve too many segments.

But GTM only becomes repeatable when you narrow your focus.

So define your ANTI-ICP.

Your Anti-ICP represents companies or personas you should not target because they:

• Don’t value your product

• Don’t have the pain you solve

• Don’t fit strategically

4. What triggers someone to start looking for a solution like yours?

Buying triggers (or intent signals) are events or behaviors that show a company or persona is more likely to buy now.

It’s a sign/proxy that they are currently experiencing the pain you solve, and might actively be looking for a solution.

Every purchase has a trigger:

• A new hire

• A new regulation

• A painful current tech stack

Understanding this moment is critical for messaging and demand generation.

Positioning

5. What is your primary positioning anchor?

Your primary positioning anchor defines what you are.

It helps buyers quickly mentally classify your product.

👉 If you struggle with your positioning, use my new Positioning Guide.

6. What alternatives are customers using/considering?

Every product replaces something. That’s the dominant status quo.

Usually it’s one of these:

• spreadsheets

• internal tools / patching together multiple tools

• doing it manually

• another SaaS product

If you can’t clearly name the alternative, positioning becomes very difficult.

7. What makes you meaningfully different?

Once you know your alternatives, you need to explain why your product is better for a specific use case / how you’re different.

Your differentiation needs to be:

• clear

• believable

• relevant to the customer

Messaging

8. What’s the core message on your homepage hero?

Within a few seconds, a visitor should understand:

• Who the product is for (ICP)

• What is it (Product Category or use case)

• What the product does (Capabilities)

👉 If you struggle with your homepage messaging, check out: SaaS Homepage Template and Homepage Teardowns

9. What are the top 3 objections you hear all the time?

Most early-stage SaaS hear the same few objections:

• “We already use something else”

• “Not a priority right now”

• “Too expensive”

Great messaging addresses these objections upfront.

Do you have them written down somewhere?

10. Is your narrative consistent across your GTM assets?

Too often I see teams using different messages across their GTM assets.

Review your:

• homepage

• sales deck

• LinkedIn profiles

• case studies

Ask yourself:

• Do we communicate the same story?

• Do we use consistent terminology?

Repetition builds clarity.
Don’t try to reinvent the message for every channel.

11. What proof do you have and communicate?

Buyers need to trust you before they buy.

So what proof do you have that your product really helps them?

Early proof can include:

• case studies

• testimonials

• pilot results

• quantified outcomes

Templates that you can use:

• Trusted by [number of clients] including [testimonial 1], [testimonial 2], [testimonial 3]

• [number of product usage] managed on the platform

• Trusted by [clients] to manage [volume/impact]

Make this proof visible in your messaging.

GTM Execution

12. What stage of GTM are you currently in?

Most SaaS companies move through three phases:

1. Hustle Mode – finding the first customers

2. Focus Mode – defining ICP and repeatable GTM

3. Expansion Mode – scaling beyond €1M ARR

13. What is your primary acquisition channel?

Early-stage founders often try too many channels at once.

Instead, focus on one primary channel that consistently generates pipeline.

Some channels work great together, for example:

• Founder LinkedIn content + (warm/signal) based outbound

• (BOFU) Content for SEO and LLMs + Google Ads (for BOFU content)

But you still need to master one channel first.

So make yourself a favor and don’t do too many channels at the same time.

Just yesterday I had an intro call with a founder who told me they were doing:

• LinkedIn outbound

• 3 long-form articles per week

• a referral program

• an affiliate program

• influencer marketing

• Google Ads

• LinkedIn Ads

They had 23 customers and less than €100k ARR.

That’s not a GTM strategy. That’s GTM chaos.

14. What sales motion fits your product best?

Don’t try to run product-led (your website CTA is ‘Free Trial’) and sales-led (your website CTA is ‘Book a demo’) both in parallel (if you’re < 1€ million ARR).

Each motion requires a lot of resources - you can’t afford to master both.

The right motion depends on:

• ACV

• Complexity of the product

• Market maturity

• (how your target customers prefer to buy products)

Hot take:
Unless you’re selling a low-ACV self-serve tool in a crowded market, running demos early is incredibly valuable because every conversation teaches you something.

15. Do you have a defined, repeatable sales process?

Whenever I ask founders to walk me through their sales process, this is where it breaks.

They say:

“First we do this… then maybe another call… sometimes something else.”

Your job is to design a journey. To guide prospects through a set of clearly defined steps.

Look at your last 10 demos:

• Did they lead to 10 different next steps?

• Or do you see a clear pattern emerging?

👉 If you struggle, check out my advice.

16. Do you know what it takes to reach your revenue goals?

If you don’t track your funnel, you can’t plan growth.

At a minimum, you should know your high-level funnel metrics.

What conversion do you see from:

1. Product-Led: Website Sessions —> Sign-Ups —> Active —> Won

2. Sales-led: Discovery Calls —> Qualified/Demos —> Won

Also track:

• ACV

• sales cycle

With these numbers, you can start reverse-engineering your growth plan.

17. What is the one GTM problem currently holding you back the most?

Not five problems.

Just one.

But dig deeper.

❌Not: “We need more leads.”

✅ “We send 100 ICP-fit DMs per week, but nobody responds.”

If you struggled to answer several of these questions clearly, you probably don’t have a GTM strategy yet; you have GTM activities.

And that’s normal.

Most founders start by experimenting.

But real traction usually appears once the GTM foundation becomes clear.

If you want help building your GTM foundation from €0 → €1M ARR, feel free to reach out.

Book GTM Clarity Call

That’s it for today.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

1️⃣ Use my free GTM library with 50+ free resources (guides, templates, workbooks, and tools) to build a strong GTM foundation (helped 5000+ SaaS leaders)

2️⃣ Get a 360° GTM audit of your status quo + a custom 6-month action plan

3️⃣ Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for SaaS founders from €0 to €1 million ARR

Today, we’ll dive deep into positioning. After working with 30+ early-stage founders over the last 3 years, I’ve noticed that strong vs. weak positioning sets the foundation for your GTM success.

What You’ll Get Inside This Episode

✅ A 3-step framework for choosing the right positioning anchor
✅ A clear decision tree (Activity vs Use Case vs Category vs Alternative)
✅ Differentiation angles that actually work

+ a Bonus: A practical worksheet to define your positioning

👉 Shortcut: Access the Ultimate Positioning Guide

Get free Positioning Guide

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ 10 Quick GTM Fixes you can ship this week

✅ Homepage Teardown: What 6 Top SaaS Companies get Right (and Wrong)

✅ Insights from 15+ GTM audits

A quick word from our sponsor

📢 Attio — Your CRM wasn’t built for how fast you need to move

Attio is the AI CRM that flexes with your GTM strategy, not the other way around. Connect your email and calendar, and Attio instantly builds your CRM.

Then Ask Attio anything:

• Ask “What’s the latest on this deal?” and get comprehensive answers with suggested next steps

• Prep for calls in seconds, with context from across your entire business

• Keep your pipeline up to date automatically

Ready to move faster?

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👉 Reach 27.000+ SaaS operators with sponsored content. Sponsor the next newsletter.

Let’s get into it. 👇👇

Last month, I had 8 intro calls with founders.

Most of them had a solid product.
Some even had decent traction.

But when I asked: “What are you building?”

More than half gave me a 3-minute explanation.

And after 3 minutes… I still couldn’t clearly explain it back to them 😇.

If I don’t get it in 30 seconds, your buyers won’t either.

That’s a positioning problem.

1️⃣ You need to take a positioning bet

One of the biggest GTM mistakes I see early-stage founders make:

❌ They wait for perfect data before positioning.

But positioning creates the data.

The moment you decide:

• what your product is
  👉 “We are X”

• who it’s for
  👉“We help X”

• who you compete against
  👉 “Instead of solution Z”

Everything sharpens:

→ Clear ICP targeting
→ Better messaging
→ More focused sales calls
→ Smarter roadmap decisions
→ Content ideas that actually convert
→ Competitors you can clearly position against

Yes, it’s a bet.
Yes, it might be wrong.

But: Positioning isn’t about being right.

It’s about having something to test.

Bad positioning beats no positioning. Every time.

Quick check: If I asked you right now: “What are you?”

Could you answer in one sentence without rambling?

2️⃣ The 3-Step Positioning Framework

Positioning is two decisions layered together:

1. Choose your Primary Anchor (What are you?)

2. Add a Secondary Angle (Why you? Your Differentiation)

3. Combine both into a clear statement

This is the core of the framework in the full guide.

This framework is my attempt to structure and operationalize these ideas for early-stage SaaS founders

Let’s break it down.

Step 1: Choose Your Primary Anchor

Your primary anchor answers:

“What is your product?”

If buyers can’t mentally classify you, they can’t buy you.

Confused buyers don’t ask for demos. They ignore you.

There are 4 options.

1) Activity Positioning

You frame your product around a manual activity people do today.

Best when:
• Market is early/ not existing
• No clear category exists
• People still use spreadsheets, Slack, Notion, etc.

Main GTM goal: Create awareness.

2) Use Case Positioning

You position around a clear job-to-be-done.

Buyers can describe the problem, but not the category.

Best when:

• Market is emerging

• Product categories are emerging / fragmented

• You replace broken workflows

Main GTM goal: Own the use case.

3) Product Category Positioning

You position your product as a type of software that buyers already recognize and actively compare.

Buyer awareness is high. They already:
• Google the category
• Compare vendors
• Check G2

Main GTM goal: Win comparisons (with differentiation inside the category).

4) Competitive Alternative Positioning

You position yourself directly against a dominant leader.

Only use this when:
• market maturity is very high + a market leader clearly dominates
• You have a strong wedge

Main GTM goal: Steal demand from the leader.

The 4 types of Positioning (Examples)

Let’s have a look at how you can position the same product with the 4 types of positioning anchors.

How to Choose the Right Primary Positioning Anchor (Decision Tree)

Choose your Primary Anchor based on how buyers think today, not how you want them to think.

Use the decision tree below to choose the right anchor (simplified from the full decision tree in the guide).

If you answered the questions top to bottom, you should be able to choose the best fit for you.

But here’s the thing.

How to Choose the Right Level of Specificity

Choosing the right anchor is not just about which type (Activity, Use Case, Product Category).

It’s also about choosing it at the right level of specificity.

• Too vague → Confusing

• Too specific → Too niche/ Small target audience

• Right level → Clear & defensible

Step 2: Add a Secondary Positioning Anchor (Differentiation)

Your primary anchor classifies you.

Your secondary anchor differentiates you inside the chosen anchor.

You can choose max 2 real differentiators:

☐ Niche Down (If Niche → Who exactly?)

☐ Low-Cost Player (If Low-Cost → Compared to what?)

☐ Premium Player (If Premium → What makes you superior?)

☐ Unique Attribute (If Unique Attribute → What is ONLY true for you?)

☐ Lite Version (If Lite → What complexity are you removing?)

Step 3: Combine Primary + Secondary Anchors

Combine a primary anchor + secondary anchor for a clear positioning.

Examples:

If you made it this far, you already understand more about positioning than most founders.

To make it easier for you to craft your positioning, I’ve created a Free Notion Positioning Worksheet for you.

My positioning thinking is heavily influenced by April Dunford, Fletch PMM (with Anthony Pierri & Rob Kaminski), Rob Walling, combined with hands-on work with 30+ SaaS founders.

This guide is my attempt to turn those ideas into something practical.

3️⃣ The Positioning Worksheet

The positioning worksheet comes with 2 sections:

1. Understand the market

2. About you (How you position yourself in the market)

This is where the real work happens.

Access Positioning Worksheet

You’ll define:

• Your ICP
• The Usecase (jobs-to-be-done)
• The core problem
• The alternative solutions + dominant status quo
• The key limitations of that status quo
• Your primary anchor
• Your secondary anchor
• Your competitive differentiator

Instead of guessing your positioning from this newsletter, use the full framework properly. I’ve compiled everything into one structured asset: The Ultimate Positioning Guide.

The Ultimate Positioning Guide + Worksheet

Inside the guide, you’ll get:

✓ Full decision tree
✓ Anchor comparison table
✓ Worksheet (Notion version)
✓ Internal positioning templates
✓ Market-facing statement templates
✓ 6 common positioning mistakes
✓ Positioning health check (self-assessment)

Get Positioning Guide

The goal is that you have clarity around your positioning.

This means internal and external positioning statements.

I hope today’s content helps you better position your product in the market.

If you’re serious about fixing your GTM foundation:

Don’t just tweak your homepage headline.

Do the strategic work.

Okay, that’s it for today.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

Reply to this email and send me your positioning statement. I’ll give you feedback.

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

1️⃣ Use my free GTM library with 50+ free resources (guides, templates, workbooks, and tools) to build a strong GTM foundation (helped 5000+ SaaS leaders)

2️⃣ Get a 360° GTM audit of your status quo + a custom 6-month action plan

3️⃣ Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for SaaS founders from €0 to €1 million ARR

Today, we’ll cover 10 quick GTM fixes that you can ship this week - no new playbooks, no new channels, just foundational execution that reduces noise.

Subscribe now

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ Homepage Teardown: What 6 Top SaaS Companies get Right (and Wrong)

✅ Insights from 15+ GTM audits

✅ The Best of MRR Unlocked 2025

A quick word from our sponsors

📢 Attio — Your CRM wasn't built for how fast you need to move

Attio is the AI CRM that flexes with your GTM strategy, not the other way round. Connect your email and calendar, and Attio instantly builds your CRM.

Then Ask Attio anything:

• Ask “What’s the latest on this deal?” and get comprehensive answers with suggested next steps

• Prep for calls in seconds, with context from across your entire business

• Keep your pipeline up-to-date automatically

Ready to move faster?

Start now

👉 Reach 27.000+ SaaS operators with sponsored content. Sponsor the next newsletter.

Let’s get into it. 👇

1) ICP & ANTI ICP Bullet list

Ask yourself:

• Can you describe your ICP in 5 short bullet points?

• What are the disqualifiers that define your ANTI ICP?

If you can’t describe your ICP and Anti ICP in 5 bullets, your GTM execution gets fluffy (noisy pipeline, long sales cycles, low demo win rate) - that’s the opposite of what you want to achieve on your 0—> 1€ million ARR journey.

Remember, ICP is a combination of:

1. Ideal Company (Firmographics, Technographics, other relevant criteria)

2. Ideal Persona (Job Title, Department, Pain/Challenges)

3. Intent Signals (How do you know they face the problem your product solves)

The same is true for your ANTI ICP. This is a list of Disqualifiers.

If you don’t know who you should not sell to, your pipeline will always be noisy.

P.S. Don’t stop with documenting your ICP, enforce it in your GTM.

Need support? Check out my ICP Framework or get early access to my brand new ICP Framework 2026.

2) Decide on your primary positioning anchor (product category or use case)

Ask yourself:

• Do buyers immediately understand what your product is?

• Or do you need 5 sentences to explain what you do?

Before you differentiate, you must anchor.

Decide explicitly. Are you leading with:

• A product category?

• A specific use case?

One primary anchor. Not multiple.

If buyers don’t know what to compare you against, they are confused.

Pick one primary anchor and reflect it consistently:
Homepage. LinkedIn. Demo intro. Sales deck.

P.S. Here is a preview of my upcoming Positioning Guide, including how to choose the right primary anchor.

3) Kill one channel (if you’re in Focus mode)

Ask yourself:

• Are you running multiple channels “a bit”?

• Or are you executing one deeply?

If you’re early-stage and spreading across 4 channels, you’re likely generating weak signal everywhere.

Focus mode means:

• Pause the weakest channel

• Reallocate time and energy to the strongest signal

4) Add a “How did you hear about us” in your Demo / Sign Up Flow

Ask yourself:

• Do you actually know where qualified pipeline comes from?

Add a required “How did you hear about us?” field. Also make it part of your demo calls to ask them (again).

Review it weekly.

This gives you more confidence in your GTM channels.

P.S. This is a great use case for the new Attio Ask feature.

5) Share your best case studies

Ask yourself:

• Do you actively use your best case studies?

A lot of times, when I work with founders, I see they have great case studies but don’t use them. The case studies are ‘hidden’ on sub-pages on the website, and that’s it.

Use your case studies effectively:

• Make them part of your sales emails

• Add ‘case studies/customers’ in your website navigation bar

• Have a ‘case study’ section on your homepage

• Add their stories to your sales deck

• Add them to your LinkedIn profile (featured section)

6) Revamp your LinkedIn profile

Ask yourself:

• Does your LinkedIn clearly communicate what we do and who we serve?

If not, it’s time to revamp your profile: Headline, Banner, Featured Section

7) Ask your (best) customers for referrals / warm intros

Ask yourself:

• When was the last time you proactively asked for a referral?

I do believe you can use every touchpoint with a prospect/customer to get warm intros. It depends on how you ask for it.

Step 1: Prepare for the call

Scan their network for ICP-fits and create a shortlist. The goal is to have a list of 3-5 contacts + companies that they might know (with a high probability).

Step 2: Ask open question

“Who are 2-3 other companies/people you can think of who can benefit from X as well?”

“Who do you think could benefit from our product?”

Step 3: If no response/ they don’t know anyone, be prepared and say:

“No worries, I saw that you are connected with X and Y. I believe they might be a good fit for us. How is your connection with them?”

“I had a quick look at your LinkedIn network before our call, and I saw that you’re connected to X, Y, Z, who I believe would benefit a lot from our product. How is your connection with them?”

Step 4: Make it easy for them to make the intro (asap):

Have an email template they can use or suggest a LinkedIn group chat.

8) Track lost reasons systematically

Ask yourself:

• Do you have a required lost reason field?

• Do you systematically analyze why deals are lost?

If not, add a required “Lost Reason” field in CRM.

I recommend tracking 7 lost reasons👇

1️⃣ Decided for competition

2️⃣ Status quo sufficient

3️⃣ Decision delayed

4️⃣ Too expensive / no budget

5️⃣ missing key features

6️⃣ no response

7️⃣ other

9) Do you have a hard criterion for “when to open” and “when to close” a deal?

Ask yourself:

• Do you follow a clear rule when you open and close a deal?

• When exactly does a lead qualify as an opportunity?

• When do you close-lost?

A common way (for a sales-led motion) is to open a deal for SQLs, meaning they have:

✅ ICP Fit

✅ Product-Usecase Fit

✅ Urgency to buy

You need to find your ‘best sales process’ and follow it consistently.

Also, have a rule when you close lost stalled deals. You don’t want old, stalled deals manipulating your sales pipeline forecast.

10) Review your last 3 demo calls and challenge yourself

Ask yourself:

• How deep was your discovery?

• Do you really know their status quo and pain points?

• Do you know their decision process and all stakeholders?

• Can you clearly articulate the committed next steps (who, when, what)?

• Was your demo more of a product tour than a sales conversation?

So sit down and watch your last recordings.

Feel free to use the structure of my Coaching Feedback Template 👇

None of these are growth hacks. They are GTM foundations.

So now, sit down and add them to your next week to do list.

If you implement even half of these, you’ll improve your GTM execution.

Okay, that’s it for today.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

P.S. Respond to this email and let me know how you executed them.

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

1️⃣ Use my free GTM library with 50+ free resources (guides, templates, workbooks, and tools) to build a strong GTM foundation (helped 5000+ SaaS leaders)

2️⃣ Get a 360° GTM audit of your status quo + a custom 6-month action plan

3️⃣ Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for SaaS founders from €0 to €1 million ARR

Today, we’ll cover 3 things:

1️⃣ Teardown of 6 Top SaaS Homepages (+ learning you can apply for your website)

2️⃣ Why sales-led motion can work for <10k€ ACV

3️⃣ How many customers do you need to know your ICP?

It’s about something most founders quietly avoid: Taking a clear GTM bet.

Let’s get into it. 👇

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ Insights from 15+ GTM audits

✅ The Best of MRR Unlocked 2025

✅ The Ultimate Founder & Team LinkedIn Playbook

Homepage Teardown of 6 Top SaaS Companies: What’s Good, What’s Bad

For this issue, I partnered with Maximilian Fleitmann, founder of Magier - a leading design-as-a-service agency for Startups and reviewed 6 SaaS/AI homepages.

The teardown includes: Attio, Clay, Jimo, Fin, Sastrify, and Introw

We flagged:

✅ What works

❌ What doesn’t

🔥 What we’d change immediately

We turned it into a Figma file with concrete comments you can use for your own homepage.

🟢 Green sticky notes = really good things

🔴 Red sticky notes = things that need optimization

Instead of walking through all 6 here, I’ll highlight a few recurring patterns that showed up across multiple pages.

Access Teardown

🟢 Good one #1: Clear “Who it’s for” above the fold

On the strongest homepages, it was immediately clear:

• Who the product is for

• What the product is/does

No abstract slogans.
No technical feature dump.

Just a concrete statement that lets the right buyer think:

“This might be for me.”

That one decision already does a lot of qualification work for you.

🟢 Good one #2: Innovative ways to add social proof elements

We saw several strong approaches to social proof, far beyond simple logo carousels.

👉 Adding ‘read case study’ links to the logos

👉 Backing product capabilities with relevant case studies

👉 Adding badges, reviews, and trust elements as supporting signals

The key difference: Social proof wasn’t decorative, it was contextual.

🟢 Good one # 3: Product visuals buyers can actually relate to

Instead of abstract mockups or generic UI shots, the best homepages showed:

• Realistic examples

• Familiar use cases

• Screens buyers could imagine themselves using

This immediately creates a better first impression of:

• How the product works

• Where it fits into the buyer’s workflow

🔴 Example 1: Missing entry points for deeper pages (product pages)

Your homepage is your core positioning asset, but it can’t answer every detailed question.

That’s why strong homepages guide visitors to relevant sub-pages, most often product pages.

What was missing on some pages:

❌ Links to dedicated ‘company type/persona pages’

❌ Clear path to different partner type pages

❌ Central page listing all integration partners

These entry points would guide buyers further in their evaluation.

🔴 Example 2: Missing ‘end-of-the-page’ FAQ & CTA section

The homepage ends with the ‘case study’ section, but misses 2 critical sections:

❌ Call to action section

❌ FAQ section

🔴 Example 3: Too much detail on the homepage

Your homepage doesn’t need to answer all questions.

Its job is to:

• Qualify the right visitors

• Create clarity

• Guide people to the next step

In the case of Fin AI, for example, the homepage goes very deep into explaining how it differs from other AI agents.

That’s a valid topic — but in our opinion, the execution is overkill:

• Too much text

• Too much detail

👉 Solution: Cut ~50% and move the depth to a dedicated page (e.g. “How the Fin AI engine works”).

P.S. Want to see a great way to add a ‘competitor comparison’ on your homepage? Check out Cloudtalk’s homepage section.

Full homepage teardown

Get the full teardown of 6 homepages with detailed comments in a shared Figma file.

If you’re currently iterating on your homepage, this will save you weeks of trial and error.

Get Homepage Teardown

Sales-led motion for <10k€ ACV

Everyone says you can’t run a sales-led motion with sub-10k€ ACVs.

That’s not true.

It can be fine, especially if you’re a founder between 0€ and your first 1–3M€ ARR.

The real problem is that most founders look at the wrong indicator.

ACV is not the deciding factor for whether a sales-led motion is healthy.

What actually matters are 4 things.

1️⃣ CAC payback period (fully loaded)

The real question is:

How long does it take you to recover your customer acquisition costs and start making money?

At an early stage:

🟠 Anything below 12 months can be acceptable

🟢 Below 6 months is great

Even Douwe Wester has said that 10–15 months can still be acceptable, depending on context.

If you’re bootstrapped, your thresholds might be tighter, but the principle stays the same.

If your CAC payback works, the ACV is not “too low for sales” by default.

2️⃣ ARR signed per AE

The second key metric is how much ARR each sales rep signs.

If your reps can sign enough ARR per year, sales can scale at least initially.

With healthy quotas (for example 4–6× OTE):

• Scaling with “more humans” can be fine

• Especially for the first 2–3 sales reps

This is not about building a perfectly efficient sales org. It’s about making sales work at your current stage.

But this only works with an efficient sales motion.

Sales-led below 10k€ ACV only works if the motion itself is tight.

That usually means:

🟠 Win rates above 20%

🟠 Sales cycles below 90 days

🟠 Mostly inbound-driven demos

What you can’t afford at <10k€ ACV

❌ heavy outbound

❌ field sales,

❌ long sales cycles.

But if you get 1️⃣ CAC payback and 2️⃣ ARR per AE right, these problems usually disappear automatically.

3️⃣ Market maturity, product complexity & phase of the company

Whether a sales-led motion works also depends on a few structural factors:

👉 Maturity of the market

👉 Complexity of the product

👉 Phase of the company

In very mature markets (e.g. CRM, webinars, accounting, email automation), buyers are usually well educated. Human assistance adds less value.

In more complex categories (e.g. ERP software, payment infrastructure, data warehouses, HR operating systems), buyers benefit significantly from human interaction.

And if you’re early, there’s one important thing many founders miss:

This phase is not primarily about sales efficiency.

It’s about learning.

Sales, early on, is a powerful way to:

👉 Learn how customers buy

👉 Understand objections

👉 Improve positioning

👉 Build the right sales foundation

Going full PLG or sales-assisted PLG too early often kills that learning.

4️⃣ Design the right sales process for you

There is no single “correct” sales process you can copy.

Every SaaS company already has a sales process, whether intentional or accidental.

The problem is that many founders never define theirs.

When I work with the founders inside my 6-month GTM advisory we focus on clearly defining:

✅ Your primary CTA
→ Book a call? Start a trial?

✅ What happens in the first call
→ Short discovery or full demo?

✅ What defines a qualified lead
→ Clear MQL / SQL criteria

✅ When a deal is opened in the CRM
→ Explicit entry rules

✅ Next steps after the call
→ Technical deep dive? Trial phase?

✅ What happens after closed-won
→ Onboarding, activation, handover

✅ How you work with existing customers
→ Churn signals, expansion, retention

Write it down.

Ideally, as a simple visual flow.

3 tools and links for founders and GTM operators

👉 Run your (signal-based LinkedIn + Email) outreach campaigns with Lemlist

👉 Get early access to my new Positioning & Messaging Framework

👉 How many customers do you need before your ICP becomes real?

That’s it for today.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

1️⃣ Use my free GTM library with 50+ free resources (guides, templates, workbooks, and tools) to build a strong GTM foundation (helped 5000+ SaaS leaders)

2️⃣ Get a 360° GTM audit of your status quo + a custom 6-month action plan

3️⃣ Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for SaaS founders from €0 to €1 million ARR

This is the first MRR Unlocked episode of 2026.

Over the last few months, I’ve done over 15 GTM audits across various B2B SaaS companies.

Different markets.
Different ACVs.
Different stages (all between 0€ and 1€ million ARR).

Yet the same GTM problems keep showing up.

Not because founders are sloppy.
Not because the product is bad.
Not because they don’t execute fast enough.

But because GTM is treated as a collection of independent activities, not a system.

Which is why many founders feel busy, ship constantly, and still struggle to create momentum.

Here are the 6 GTM mistakes I see over and over again.

Let’s dive in. 👇

📌 Early Access: The B2B SaaS Sales Demo Toolbox

Get early access

1. ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is defined, but not enforced

Pattern

Almost every founder I work with can describe their ICP in a document.

Very few actually use it as a hard constraint in day-to-day GTM decisions.

The ICP exists, but it doesn’t actively shape who you attract, how you sell, or what you prioritize.

What this looks like in practice:

❌ Website messaging speaks to multiple segments (or to none)

❌ Sales demos look the same for every prospect

❌ CRM has no mandatory ICP qualification fields

❌ Content topics are broad and generic, not tailored to one sharp ICP

❌ Outbound lead lists are huge, but response rates are weak

❌ Nobody can clearly articulate an Anti-ICP

❌ ICP assumptions remain unchanged even after 20–30+ customers

👉 This shows up in almost every audit I do, even in teams with “good” ICP docs.

How to fix:

✅ Make the ICP explicit on the homepage (who it’s for/ not for)

✅ Tailor demo structure and examples by ICP segment

✅ Add mandatory ICP fields in your CRM (industry, size, use case, etc.)

✅ Define clear disqualification criteria and actually enforce them

✅ Review pipeline monthly by ICP segment (win rate, ACV, sales cycle)

✅ Analyze your customer regularly to fine-tune your ICP (based on data)

Examples of my GTM audit:

In multiple audits, the ICP work was excellent: clear segments, triggers, pains.

But none of it showed up on the website, demos, or LinkedIn.

Another company had revenue (200k€ ARR) and 20+ customers (from different segments and for different usecases; which is completely fine for the hustle phase), but couldn’t clearly say which segment actually converts best, because ICP data wasn’t tracked and never properly analyzed.

So if you feel like you have a ‘good ICP’ on paper, head over to your Website, CRM, Demos and double check if you also enforce it.

Resources for you:
1. ICP Framework
2. Review existing customer regulary to find your best-fit customers.

2. Buyers don’t know what to compare you against

Pattern:

Founders jump straight into “differentiation” before clearly defining the product category or primary use case. So the positioning lacks a clear anchor.

So when buyers can’t place you in a category, they don’t know what to compare you against. This makes evaluation slow and confusing.

What this looks like in practice:

❌ Prospects ask: “So is this like X?”

❌ Confusion about what you replace (Excel, incumbents, point tools)

❌ Vague homepage language (“AI-powered”, “all-in-one”, “modern platform”)

❌ Category invention happens too early

❌ Internal debates about competitors

❌ Differentiation sounds generic because it isn’t anchored

How to fix:

✅ Decide first: category positioning or use-case positioning

Choose: category positioning first, use-case positioning if category doesn’t exist

✅ Use differentiation within the category, not instead of it

✅ Write one clear category sentence: “We’re a X for Y”

✅ Explicitly name the primary alternative you replace (status quo)

✅ Define 2–3 competitive alternative buckets:

• Status quo (Excel, manual workflows, agencies)

• Incumbent tools

• Direct Competitors

✅ Articulate 2–3 sharp talking points:

✅ Build comparison and alternatives pages to reinforce the category

Examples of my GTM audit:

In one audit, the company served multiple customer segments and use cases.

As a result, buyers didn’t know whether the product was a point solution, a platform, or an alternative to existing tools, which led to longer demos, stalled decision and long sales cycles.

They faced confusion around what product category they really fit into.

As a result, there was confusion on the category, the copy was fluffy and generic and they failed to guide buyers to the right solution.

Unlike this example, where they could clearly define what the product is, who they compete with, and how they are different.

Ressources:
1. Positioning 101 (Product Category vs. Usecase Positioning)
2. My new Positioning & Messaging Framework (Get early access)

3. Sales demos are product tours and lack structure

Pattern:
Most Demos are feature shows and neglect discovery, buy-in and next steps.

This means the demo is mainly designed to show the product, but rarely optimized to help the buyer make a decision.

What this looks like in practice:

❌ Shallow discovery (no urgency, no impact, no decision process)

❌ Feature-heavy monologue with little buyer engagement

❌ Same demo flow regardless of persona or use case

❌ No explicit “success criteria” for the next step

❌ High post-demo ghosting

How to fix:

✅ Treat the demo as a decision-making moment, not a walkthrough

✅ Follow a clear 10-step demo structure

Intro → Time Check → Agenda → Discovery → Buy‑In Summary → High-level Product Framing → Tailored Demo → Pricing → Recap → Next Steps

✅ Run structured discovery before showing the product

Situation → Pain → Impact → Critical event → Decision

✅ Use “mini check-ins” after each key feature (to validate relevance and buy-in)

✅ Recap pains and quantify impact before showing pricing/next steps

✅ End with a clear mutual plan (who, what, by when) + next meeting scheduled

Examples of my GTM audit:

Here you see some real feedback on sales demo recordings.

If I were to summarize the most recurring issues, it’s these 4 👇

Ressources:
1. My new ‘B2B Sales Demo Toolbox”

Free Access to 50+ GTM resources

4. No clearly defined sales process

Pattern:
Sales is a set of calls, but not a designed journey.

Founders/sellers don’t guide prospects through a set of clearly defined steps, so they can’t describe what should happen after each step.

What this looks like in practice:

❌ “What happens after the first call?” depends on the person

❌ No consistent goal for the first call vs demo vs follow-up

❌ Deals are created without a clear definition

❌ Trials are offered without commitment or success criteria

❌ Deals stall because next steps were never designed

👉 Whenever I ask founders to walk me through their sales process, this is where it breaks.

How to fix:

✅ Define a simple, explicit sales process

e.g., Disco → Demo → Trial/Pilot → Close

✅ Assign a clear goal and exit criteria to each stage

✅ Define when a trial is “earned” (qualification threshold)

✅ Create standard follow-ups for each stage (post-demo, trial kickoff, recap)

✅ Enforce pipeline hygiene: every deal needs a next step and close date

Examples of my GTM audit:

In several audits, sales activity existed, but nobody could clearly explain when a deal should be opened, advanced, or closed.

As a result, pipelines were full, but unreliable. Deals stalled not because of objections, but because the next step was never clearly defined.

👉 So write down your ideal sales process on paper!

Another thing that I see quite often is that exit/entry criteria are not well defined.

This lead for example, to pushing prospects too early to a ‘trial’ or ‘pilot’ without real commitment.

Ressources:
1. Buyer Journey Visualisation
2. Sales Email Templates for Follow Ups

5. GTM assets are too generic

Pattern:
The strategy work is done in internal docs, but buyer-facing assets don’t reflect it.

I often review a team’s internal docs and think: “This is actually very good.”
Then I look at their website, CRM, sales deck, and content, and the clarity disappears.

What this looks like in practice:

❌ ICP and messaging frameworks live in Notion/Miro only

❌ Homepage copy is fuzzy or overly technical (ICP doesn’t understand)

❌ No clear callout of ICP, product category, or status quo problem

❌ Sales decks are 80% product features presentations

❌ LinkedIn profiles don’t explain what the product does and for whom

❌ Strong insights exist, but prospects never see them

👉 This one is painful because the thinking is usually very good.

How to fix:

✅ Translate ICP and positioning into the homepage hero

✅ Update sales deck to follow: Status quo → pain → solution → proof → next steps

✅ Align website, deck, demo narrative, outbound messages, content around the same story

✅ Make LinkedIn profiles ICP-specific (headline, banner, featured assets)

[Your role] @ [Company name] / We help [ICP] to do [usecase] without [problem]

[Your role] @ [Company name] / I help [ICP] achieve [result] by [what you do]

[Your role] @ [Company name] / The [product category) for [ICP]

✅ Build ICP specific content (Case studies, BOFU content, How to guides, Actionable Lead Magnets)

Examples of my GTM audit:

In one audit, the internal messaging and ICP work were excellent.

But the website copy was generic, the sales deck hadn’t been updated, and LinkedIn profiles still used vague descriptions.

Ressources:
1. Sales Deck Template
2. Homepage Wireframe & Copywriting
3. Case Studies Guide
4. Lead Magnets Guide
5. LinkedIn Founder & Employee Guide

6. Content is done, but without a strategy

Pattern:
Teams are “doing content”, but it’s disconnected from high-intent topics.

Content exists, but it isn’t designed to support real sales conversations or capture existing demand. This usually means teams are creating a lot of TOFU blog posts and random LinkedIn posts.

Results are usually 0 Inbounds.

What this looks like in practice:

❌ Random LinkedIn posts (or disconnected from ICP pain points)

❌ No repeatable content format (every post is a different topic)

❌ No Inbound generating lead magnet

❌ TOFU blog posts that don’t attract buyers

❌ Content optimized for likes, not ICP engagements

❌ No measurement of pipeline influence

👉 This almost always shows up together with weak inbound quality.

How to fix:

✅ Prioritize BOFU content: alternatives, comparisons, “best X for Y”, use-case pages

✅ Focus early on the 5% of buyers who are already in the market 

✅ Build a content map based on ICP questions by awareness stage (from problem-unaware → problem aware —> solution aware —> product (category) aware —> purchase-decision)

✅ Build a high-performing lead magnet (that is ICP relevant)

✅ Turn real sales objections into posts and articles

✅ Record customer calls and use insights for your content roadmap (objections, pains, desired outcomes…)

✅ Measure content by meetings influenced, not impressions (e.g. via self-reported attribution)

Examples of my GTM audit:

Most companies today operate in a crowded market with established players. This allows you to capture existing demand.

Ressources:
1. BOFU Content Page Examples
2. 35+ LinkedIn post templates (for Founders)

If there’s one takeaway from all these audits, it’s this:

Founders don’t lack ideas, effort, or tools.
Most GTM problems lie in the GTM foundation and struggle to bring these to life end-to-end.

If you recognize parts of your own GTM in this newsletter, take a moment and go through the provided fixes.

Most of the time, it’s not about doing more, but instead doing fewer things with consistency.

GTM Audit

If you feel stuck or want an external perspective, I offer a 360° GTM Audit:

• Deep review of your current GTM

• Clear gaps and priorities

• A custom 6-month action plan

• Delivered in 7 days

Book your GTM Audit

That’s it for today.

See you in 2 weeks.

Alex

3 ways I help founders build a strong GTM foundation 👇

1️⃣ Use my free GTM library with 50+ free resources (guides, templates, workbooks, and tools) to build a strong GTM foundation (helped 5000+ SaaS leaders)

2️⃣ Get a 360° GTM audit of your status quo + a custom 6-month action plan

3️⃣ Work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for SaaS founders from €0 to €1 million ARR

This is the final MRR Unlocked episode of 2025.

Instead of new frameworks or tactics, I wanted to pause and do three things:

1️⃣ Recap what resonated most this year

2️⃣ Share a simple checklist to help you start 2026 strong

3️⃣ Say thank you and share what’s coming next

Let’s dive in.

Subscribe now

1. Best of MRR Unlocked 2025

The 3 Top Episodes This Year

These were the episodes you shared and liked the most this year.

🥇 The GTM Foundation for SaaS/AI founders

Core idea:

Without a strong foundation, your GTM org will eventually collapse.

This resonated because many founders tried to “scale GTM” in 2025 before the basics were in place.

Key takeaway:

Before thinking about channels, tooling, or headcount, you need clarity on:

• Your ICP

• Your Positioning

• Your primary GTM motion

Without that foundation, growth becomes random, not repeatable.

👉 Link to episode

🥈 How to find your Ideal Customers

Core idea:

Most teams think they know their ICP until they’re forced to actually analyze it.

This one hit home because founders often define their ICP once, then never revisit it as the product and market evolve.

Key takeaway:

Your ICP evolves as your product, market, and deal sizes evolve. So, frequently analyze your customers to get a better understanding of your best-fit customers.

👉 Link to episode

🥉The Ultimate Founder-Led LinkedIn Guide

Core idea:

Founder-led LinkedIn works, but only if it’s intentional.

This episode stood out because a lot of founders felt pressure to “post on LinkedIn” without knowing why or how it should support GTM.

Key takeaway:

LinkedIn success isn’t luck. It’s a combination of:

• Profile clarity (banner, headline, featured section)

• Clear content pillars tied to your ICP

• Consistent execution (comments, copywriting, design, lead magnets)

Used correctly, it compounds over time.

Used correctly, it compounds over time.

👉 Link to episode + Bonus: Ultimate Founder & Team LinkedIn Playbook

In case you missed the last 3 episodes:

✅ The Ultimate Founder & Team LinkedIn Playbook

✅ From 0 to 1€M ARR: 17 Expert Tips you should know

✅ The Ultimate SaaS Pricing Page Guide

2. The 2026 GTM Readiness Checklist

A quick self-assessment for B2B SaaS founders