Austin Lawrence Group

04/11/2025

SaaS Backwards Episode 161 - Is User-Based Pricing Dead? How AI Is Reshaping SaaS Monetization

Explore how AI is transforming SaaS pricing models, shifting from user-based to usage-based, and learn strategies for aligning pricing with customer value and revenue growth.

04/04/2025

SaaS Backwards Episode 160 - AI Is Rewriting the SaaS Playbook—Are You Ready?

AI is transforming SaaS by accelerating software development and marketing, requiring leaders to adapt strategies for survival and growth in an AI-native world.

03/28/2025

SaaS Backwards Episode 159 - Why Full-Cycle Reps Are Beating Your SDRs

Discover key strategies for building successful SaaS businesses and improving sales performance with data-driven insights and holistic sales approaches. Learn from industry experts and real-world outcomes.

03/28/2025

Stop trying to fool me with your weak sauce “personalization.”

Here’s a cold email I got this week:

“Saw you're focusing on SaaS with your growth agency.”

Wow. Thanks, Sherlock. You looked at my LinkedIn headline.
What do you want, a gold star?

Then they hit me with this:

“Agencies miss 50–70% of decision-makers in niche industries that traditional databases don’t cover.”

Okay… and?
Why should I care?
What pain does that create for me?
What outcome does that block?

You didn’t even try to make me care before jumping into this:

“We’ve been working with Provoke Agency using LeadMagic, Prospeo, FindyMail and 80+ other data providers…”

Let me stop you right there.

If you haven’t earned my attention by showing me something new, real, or painful...
I’m not going to care about your tools.
I’m not going to click.
I’m not going to book a meeting.

I’m going to delete your email in under half a second—because that’s what this deserves.

Second email? Same crap.

“I saw Austin Lawrence is helping SaaS companies with inbound marketing.”
Yeah. No kidding. You Googled. Congrats.

Then this:

“I have 3 strategies…”
Boom. Cue the pitch.

Here’s the real problem:

You’re leading with what you sell, not with why I should even care.

Sales and marketing need to stop pointing fingers and start sitting in the same damn room.

👉 Sales knows what objections they hear
👉 Marketing should be building messaging that addresses those
👉 Together, they should figure out what problems are actually worth solving

Because until you do, you’ll keep getting this wrong.

This isn’t about subject lines.
It’s not about open rates.
It’s not about the latest AI plugin for your email stack.

It’s about talking to people like they’re real humans with real problems—not just prospects you can trick into a meeting.

You want my attention?
You better earn it.
Fast.

Wanna know if your messaging is hitting the mark?

Submit your campaign or website hero and join us April 4th for a free workshop where we'll break it down.

https://bit.ly/41Rpapy

03/25/2025

B2B companies are optimizing cold email when they should be rethinking messaging.

I’ve been getting more emails lately that try to “personalize” outreach.

Here’s one from earlier this week:

“Hey Jason, saw you're focusing on SaaS with your growth agency.”

Okay. Yes. Obvious. That’s the most baseline research you can do.

Then this:

“Agencies miss 50–70% of decision-makers in niche industries that traditional databases don’t cover.”

And here’s the problem:
❓No effort to connect that stat to a pain point I actually feel.
❓No insight. No relevance.

Just a stat thrown into the void.

Then comes the feature dump:

“We use 80+ data providers including LeadMagic, Prospeo, FindyMail…”

And now I’ve stopped reading.

This is what happens when marketing and sales aren’t aligned on the messaging.

– Marketing is creating vague, overused fluff like “Your path to digital transformation.”
– Sales is sending cold emails with one line of personalization followed by a generic pitch.
– No one is focused on identifying the problem worth solving.

If sales and marketing were working together, the first thing they’d do is talk to customers.

🟢 Understand what problems are actually causing friction
🟢 Get agreement on those problems across GTM teams
🟢 Build messaging that speaks directly to that pain in cold emails, ads, and content

This is what companies don’t want to invest in:
Real problem discovery.
Messaging iteration.
Cross-functional alignment.

But that’s the work.

And without it, your outreach gets ignored in a fraction of a second.

So here’s the takeaway:

📌 Marketing needs more time in sales conversations
📌 Sales needs more influence over top-of-funnel messaging
📌 Together, they should find problems that resonate—and make those the hook
📌 That’s how you get replies, pipeline, and revenue—not by listing tools or features

If you’re not willing to align, you’re going to keep wasting time in everyone’s inbox.

Wanna know if your messaging is hitting the mark?

Submit your campaign or website hero and join us April 4th for a free workshop where we'll break it down.

Join our free SaaS Marketing Rescue Workshop to receive expert feedback on your marketing materials and strategies, helping you enhance your messaging and improve audience engagement.

03/14/2025

SaaS Backwards Episode 158 - 97% of SaaS Churn Happens in the First 90 Days—Onboarding Is the Key

Discover key strategies for SaaS growth, focusing on the critical first 90 days of onboarding to drive retention, expansion, and revenue acceleration.

03/07/2025

SaaS Backwards Episode 157 - AI is Reshaping B2B Marketing—Are You Ready?

Discover how AI is transforming B2B marketing and learn actionable strategies to leverage AI for revenue growth in SaaS businesses.

02/28/2025

SaaS Backwards Episode 156 - Why Traditional Sales Prospecting is Broken (And What to Do Instead)

Discover why traditional sales prospecting fails and how AI-driven strategies can revolutionize your SaaS sales approach for higher engagement and conversion rates.

02/27/2025

Your ad isn’t working. And here’s why.

It’s boring.
It’s vague.
And it misses the one thing that makes prospects stop, nod, and take action...
..problem agreement.

See, if your audience doesn’t agree there’s a problem worth solving, they’ll scroll right past you.

That’s what we broke down in our latest Messaging Rescue Workshop for Expeed Software where they buried the lead and tried to do too much at once.

What would’ve made it compelling?
➡ Call out one painful problem (like diagnostic errors)
➡ Show proof that you solve it (like a 35% reduction)
➡ Stop trying to be everything to everyone

Messaging isn’t about sounding smart. It’s about getting the right people to stop and say, “Damn, I need that.”

Want us to fix your messaging live?

Our next Messaging Rescue Workshop is on March 7th at 1:00 PM ET / 10 AM PT.

Link in the comments. 👇

02/25/2025

Imagine this...

You walk into a doctor’s office and say your knee hurts.

The doctor nods, says “Got it” ✅, and writes you a prescription without asking anything else.

Would you trust that diagnosis? No chance. 🚫

Yet, in software sales, reps do this ALL THE TIME in discovery.

They hear a pain point... then rush to a solution without figuring out:

❓ How bad is it? ("How much is this costing you?")
⏳ What’s the cost of doing nothing? ("What happens if this isn’t fixed?")
📆 Is fixing it even a priority? ("When does this need to be solved?")

The result? Deals stall. Buyers disappear. Pipelines dry up.

Peter Cohan explains how to avoid this discovery disaster 🚨—because if you don’t quantify pain, you’ll be in danger of losing the deal to “no decision.”

👀 Watch the clip to learn how to stop this from happening.

02/23/2025

🚨 The biggest mistake in discovery? Thinking pain is enough.

Peter Cohan has analyzed thousands of discovery calls. And most follow the same broken script:
👉 Small talk about the prospect’s background décor
👉 A basic “What’s keeping you up at night?”
👉 A brief discussion of pain
👉 Then… a product pitch

At best, reps spend 10-15 minutes on actual discovery. That’s not enough to uncover value.

The best sellers don’t just surface pain—they quantify it and define the future state.

🛠 Next time you hear pain, ask:
🔹 How long, how much, how often? → Make the pain real.
🔹 What do you need it to be? → Show the path forward.

Pain alone doesn’t sell. Value does.

Watch Peter break it all down in this clip. 👇

02/22/2025

🚨 Your CEO Thinks Marketing is a Gumball Machine—Here’s How to Fix That

For years, marketing success has been boiled down to MQLs, campaign reports, and short-term pipeline.

📊 Jon Miller—who literally helped build the demand gen playbook at Marketo—now says:
👉 We trained CEOs & CFOs to measure marketing like a vending machine.
👉 But today, that model doesn’t work.
👉 We need to move the conversation from lead gen to long-term market impact.

💡 So how do you change the mindset of a CEO/CFO who still thinks in MQLs?

1️⃣ Talk to them like buyers—Ask them, “How did you find your last software vendor?” Spoiler: It wasn’t from a cold email.
2️⃣ Show them why measurement needs a new timeframe—Short-term lead gen is easy to track, but brand & demand creation drive long-term revenue.
3️⃣ Position marketing as a market function, not a service function—Smart CMOs are rebranding themselves as Chief Market Officers.

🚀 The future of marketing isn’t about feeding SDRs leads—it’s about shaping the market.

If your exec team still sees marketing as a cost center, it’s time for a different conversation.

🔗 Watch Jon Miller explain why this shift is critical.