News Tiller
December 21, 2023
2 min read

Letter from the Founder 2023

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Chantelle Little
Founder & CEO

Doom and gloom, or opportunity? Depends on how you see the world.

We’ve all seen the news. 2023 has been a pretty tough year for tech. Pipelines dried up. Investment rounds didn’t close. A lot of talented people were laid off. And marketing budgets were obliterated because many companies wrongly assumed marketing was a “nice-to-have”, not business-critical.

Jason Lemkin, SaaStr CEO, said it best, “Cutback on sales, miss the plan for the year. Cutback on marketing, miss the plan for next year. It’s complicated.” So relatable, right?

I’ve seen firsthand the tremendous amount of pressure SaaS CMOs and marketing teams are under to deliver results. Pressure to:

  • Align shrinking budgets with growing expectations (do more, with less)
  • Demonstrate immediate results from long-term strategies (or sacrifice the long term in the interest of the short term)
  • Take on additional responsibilities during downsizing
  • Prove the ROI on every dollar invested

When marketing performance is scrutinized, agency performance is too. Now more than ever, the client and agency have to collectively prove value and ROI. And in this pressure lies the opportunity for a deeper client-agency relationship.

One aspect of collaboration I’m particularly interested in is the bringing together of marketing and sales. While it’s widely known that the success of one is dependent on the other, it’s still far too common to see these teams work in silos. The bigger the company, the more challenging it is to bridge the gap. But the success of the marketing function largely depends on the free flow of quality information from sales:

  • Lead qualification
  • Deal size
  • Buying committee
  • Close rate
  • Win/lose factors
  • Objections
  • Price testing
  • Competitors

These details (and more) are the very insights needed for effective branding and marketing.

Yes, this close collaboration between marketing, sales, and the agency requires the free flow of information and data, as well as higher degrees of trust. Both are completely possible if we can get everyone’s buy-in on the “why”. Working more closely together allows us to surface the most actionable insights and the most meaningful story. All we have to do is stop holding the keys to Hubspot, Salesforce, and Marketo hostage.

In addition to helping our clients better leverage sales and marketing data, I see Tiller further supporting our clients in two key areas: conversion rate optimization (CRO) and generative AI.

CRO is how we will help our clients put valuable data to use and directly impact lead generation and revenue. Generative AI is how we will help brands push the creative envelope and maximize sales and marketing efficiency.

Both areas require a lot of trust and collaboration — and can yield game-changing results.

Let's talk about leveling up your brand and website.

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