Happy Saturday!

The Collab now has 3,700+ subscribers!

The last few weeks I’ve been asked if I would participate in a bunch of ‘LinkedIn Takeovers’.

You know the kind - everyone posting a similar message or picture on the same day about a SaaS brand.

I’m just about always happy to help out. I find value in helping young brands grow. Just about always there’s no financial compensation attached.

Admittedly, I’ve participated in a few where I’d been an advisor (getting equity) and wanted to support a company I truly believed in. In those cases I had added value in my equity appreciating and already had a strong personal connection with the brand.

None of my participation is ever required.

But recently, I started thinking more about it and realized that very few, if any, LinkedIn Takeovers are truly collaborative. Meaning, the person doing the posting often doesn’t benefit in the same type of way that the company does.

I wanted to explore today making these asks more collaborative.

Let’s dive in.

The Big Idea

LinkedIn Takeovers Need to be More Collaborative

LinkedIn Takeovers are now a tried, tested, and duplicated tactic to get a great pop in impressions over a short period of time (usual a day or two). I call them a PR pop, a short lived tactic that in no way builds brand affinity alone.

And, they can potentially hurt a person’s ‘brand’ if they participate in too many or some from a brand that becomes less-than-reputable.

Also, I’ve spoken as recently as yesterday to folks that see the takeovers and have zero idea of what the brand actually does. It’s all hype.

I want to challenge Founders and Marketers to think differently about this and turn it into more of a collaborative strategy.

I’m reminded of my story of becoming an ambassador for GTM Partners:

I asked to be a GTM Partners Ambassador a couple months ago.

Fortunately (for me), I was accepted. 

I thought this was such an incredible opportunity and phenomenon (for me to be the one asking) and wanted to explore it further.

As brands, we want a community of supporters evangelizing our brand.

Ideally that are YEARNING to support the movements we are creating.

I found myself being magnetized to this type of rare breed company: GTM Partners.

Let’s dive into what they’re doing that I love and the Ambassador Program they’ve created.

To create a raving fan in B2B I believe you need to go above and beyond in creating value for the people you serve.

There’s both intrinsic and extrinsic value.

In GTM Partners’ case, they’ve created both for me personally.

They’ve provided me with learnings on Go-To-Market that nobody in the industry has by inviting me to their exclusive events (both IRL and digital) and teaching me their frameworks (while answering any questions I have).

They’ve also been more than available to me and RevGenius allowing us to have different leaders in their org write articles for our digital magazine, be a podcast guest, and speaker at RevCon.

In general, they’ve been beyond the moon kind and supportive of everything RevGenius and I do. And, they’ve also done this to seemingly 100s (if not 1000s) of others. 

They’ve also provided me introductions to folks that I could potentially do business with. They’ve spoken kindly about me in a way that makes others want to work with me as well.

I also get a ton of value in being a part of such an elite group of leaders building the future of GTM.

And I hope I’ve given close to that value back to them.

To be sure, when I saw them launch their Ambassador program, I reached out to them to ask to be a part of it. I also saw other mutual connections become part of the first cohort of Ambassadors and had major FOMO as well.

A potent combination for sure.

Still, just because you become an Ambassador doesn’t guarantee you will be active. 

I wanted to share the ‘Perks’ part of GTM Partner’s Ambassador program to show you how they’re thinking about ‘activating’ program members.

‘Perks’ is code for ‘Value’.

Here is the value that their Ambassadors receive:

• GTM Ambassador badge on LinkedIn - extrinsic value

• Consideration for speaker slots on digital events - big-time extrinsic value

• We’ll nominate you for speaking slots at premier industry events - big-time extrinsic value

• We’ll nominate you for awards - big-time extrinsic value

• 5 tickets to every roadshow - big-time extrinsic value (exclusive groups invited)

• Invitations to pre-roadshow networking events - big-time extrinsic value (even more exclusive than just being invited)

• Monthly GTM/mastermind session with Sangram and Sarah (last Tuesday of every month at 4:30 ET) - big-time extrinsic value

• You’ll be added to our exclusive customer slack channel. Extrinsic value

• SWAG - extrinsic value

• What else? What do you want that we didn’t think of? - their ask

What else? 

The intrinsic value of belonging to such an exclusive elite group!

Use this blueprint to also create value for people to be a part of a takeover.

Make it about the people posting first and foremost, not about your brand.

What ‘Perks’ can you give that folks that you want to post about your brand that will actually drive value for them? (Hint: when in doubt, ask them!)

The best part of GTM Partner’s requirements (see image below)?

That’s a hell of a way to turn a PR Pop into a longer term strategy and build even more affinity with what you’re building.

They may even post more when you least expect it!

2 Resources

I. Top 15 AI Sales Tools & Software for 2024

Explore the top 15 AI sales tools & software for 2024. Find out which AI sales tools can help your business grow and succeed. If you’re interested in uncovering some new ai tools, check out this article by eweek.

II. Why a B2B startup is placing a bet on a $7M Super Bowl ad

Some people watch the Super Bowl for the actual football game being played. Many watch the event for the halftime show or as an excuse to eat wings and other game day snacks. Some watch it to look for better software solutions for their company — maybe? Check out the TechCrunch article on why Papaya Global feels this is a smart bet.

3 Collaborators

I. Ashley Faus

Ashley has handled all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, from social media, to content and editorial, to demand-gen and events. She loves telling the high-level stories that resonate with an audience and connecting the dots between types of assets and distribution channels. Her writing has been published on TIME, Forbes, MarketingProfs, and The Muse, and has spoken on various marketing topics for INBOUND, Harvard Business Review, and MarketingProfs.(follow her on LinkedIn)

II. Brian LaManna

Brian is a Senior AE at Gong who hit over 200% to quota in 2023 and is consistently a top performer. He’s also an avid LinkedIn poster and in only a year and a half has amassed over 51,000 followers on the platform. He’s also the Founder of ‘Closed-Won’ helping sellers utilize Differentiated Selling Uncommon sales practices that completely set you apart from any seller they've ever experienced as well as a Strategic Advisor for Aligned (follow him on LinkedIn).

III. Rayna van Beuzekom

Rayna currently is Commsor’s in-house video editor. Previously she’s worked with Lavender, Fleishman-Hillard, GoArmy, Steelcase, University of Florida and more. She’s quickly becoming one of the top voices in video production.  (follow her on LinkedIn)

1 Action to help the Collab Grow

Refer your Network: Share the Collab with SaaS Founders and Go-To-Market leaders:

Reply to this email and let us know what you’d like to see more. And a big thank you to all who made it to this point.

Until next week,

Jared

Reply to this email and let us know what you’d like to see more. And a big thank you to all who made it to this point.

Until next week,

Jared

P.S. Looking to promote yourself to 3,700 SaaS Founders & GTM Leaders? (reply for rates)