Understanding how to scale growth in SaaS and can make (or break) your ability to boost revenue. It comes down to three things: people, process and tools. How do you structure your marketing and sales teams? What are processes do you need? What tools should you use? How do you measure impact? Key takeaways for this session include: - Three phases of building a team and how to structure your funnel at each stage - How a tight marketing ops process can be a competitive advantage - How to bridge the gap (or avoid it in the first place) between marketing & sales - What key metrics show the efficiency of your funnel operations

1. Building a Revenue Engine
Hana Abaza
Head of Marketing, Shopify Plus
@hanaabaza

3. Revenue in Millions
0
175
350
525
700
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

4. Gross Merchant Value in Billions
0
7.5
15
22.5
30
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

5. 4000+
Total number of Shopify Employees
60%
Started after me (!)
Shopify By The Numbers

6. 600K+
Number of Shopify Merchants
175+
Countries around the world
Shopify By The Numbers

9. Hana’s Checklist
Lead volume
People
Budget

13. Challenges: Chasing the firehose
Low hanging fruit
Pent up demand for marketing
Sales was getting “creative"
All the things changed
Plus was different

15. Challenges: Chasing the firehose
Low hanging fruit
Pent up demand for marketing
Sales was getting “creative"
All the things changed
Plus was different

16. Challenges: Chasing the firehose
Low hanging fruit
Pent up demand for marketing
Sales was getting “creative"
All the things changed
Plus was different

17. Challenges: Chasing the firehose
Low hanging fruit
Pent up demand for marketing
Sales was getting “creative"
All the things changed
Plus was different

18. Challenges: Chasing the firehose
Low hanging fruit
Pent up demand for marketing
Sales was getting “creative"
All the things changed
Plus was different

19. Self-serve
No Touch
More like B2C
One decision maker
High Touch
Longer sales cycle
Multiple touch points
Multiple decision makers

20. It felt… familiar

21. It felt… like a startup

22. 3 Phases of Evolution

27. Where are you now?
Wizard of Oz Scooby Doo Oceans 11

28. Build the Foundation
Positioning
Growth Engines
Team Building

29. POSITIONING

30. How do we position
Shopify Plus?

31. But, what exactly is
positioning?

32. April Dunford
CEO, Ambient Strategy
Marketing is about making it easy for people to
find, evaluate and buy your products. Positioning is
figuring out what your product is in the first place.
“

33. Marketing can polish a turd.
Positioning can turn turds into
fertilizer.
“
April Dunford
CEO, Ambient Strategy

34. How do people think
about your product?

35. How do people talk
about your product?

43. Don’t make up positioning,
uncover it by analyzing the
right inputs

44. Inputs
Internal teams
Customers
Lost customers (win/loss)
Website data
Campaign data
Market insights

46. These people self-educate.
Historical search terms?

47. Content, tactics and channels
change. Need case studies, proof,
validation.

48. The “Chasm”

49. WHAT IS IT?
Plain language.
No jargon.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Be as specific as
possible.
WHAT CATEGORY?
New vs. established.
Frame of reference.
HOW ARE YOU
DIFFERENT?
Be honest.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
What’s in it for me?
Benefits and value.
ALTERNATIVES?
Status Quo, Competitors,
Frenemies

50. WHAT IS IT?
Plain language.
No jargon.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Be as specific as
possible.
WHAT CATEGORY?
New vs. established.
Frame of reference.
HOW ARE YOU
DIFFERENT?
Be honest.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
What’s in it for me?
Benefits and value.
ALTERNATIVES?
Status Quo, Competitors,
Frenemies

52. WHAT IS IT?
Plain language.
No jargon.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Be as specific as
possible.
WHAT CATEGORY?
New vs. established.
Frame of reference.
HOW ARE YOU
DIFFERENT?
Be honest.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
What’s in it for me?
Benefits and value.
ALTERNATIVES?
Status Quo, Competitors,
Frenemies

53. WHAT IS IT?
Plain language.
No jargon.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Be as specific as
possible.
WHAT CATEGORY?
New vs. established.
Frame of reference.
HOW ARE YOU
DIFFERENT?
Be honest.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
What’s in it for me?
Benefits and value.
ALTERNATIVES?
Status Quo, Competitors,
Frenemies

54. New category? Think
demand generation.

57. Established industry?
Prove you’re better.

59. WHAT IS IT?
Plain language.
No jargon.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Be as specific as
possible.
WHAT CATEGORY?
New vs. established.
Frame of reference.
HOW ARE YOU
DIFFERENT?
Be honest.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
What’s in it for me?
Benefits and value.
ALTERNATIVES?
Status Quo, Competitors,
Frenemies

60. Differentiating on experience may
be easier than differentiating
product

62. Product checklist
Same price
Same quality
Same effort to assemble
Same number of f-bombs dropped
during assembly

64. WHAT IS IT?
Plain language.
No jargon.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Be as specific as
possible.
WHAT CATEGORY?
New vs. established.
Frame of reference.
HOW ARE YOU
DIFFERENT?
Be honest.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
What’s in it for me?
Benefits and value.
ALTERNATIVES?
Status Quo, Competitors,
Frenemies

65. WHAT IS IT?
Plain language.
No jargon.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Be as specific as
possible.
WHAT CATEGORY?
New vs. established.
Frame of reference.
HOW ARE YOU
DIFFERENT?
Be honest.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
What’s in it for me?
Benefits and value.
ALTERNATIVES?
Status Quo, Competitors,
Frenemies

66. Messaging and branding is
an expression of positioning
It should be clear but allow for room to
customize/localize to the audiences

67. This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative?
Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?

68. This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative?
Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Proof points

69. This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative?
Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Proof points
Product Story

70. This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative?
Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Proof points
Product Story
“Big C” Content

71. For example, Shopify Plus
might look like this…

72. Your customers are ready for the future of commerce. Are you?
Grow bigger,
faster
Sell where your
customers are, and
where they will be
Choose better
software
(as a service)
Stop worrying,
start selling
Partners, not
Vendors
Focus on your business, not
your website. Let Shopify
Plus power your store while
you focus on driving growth,
boosting revenue and
making customers happy.
Commerce is changing fast
and you need a platform that
will change with it. Sell on
social, mobile, in
marketplaces, IRL - or
anywhere else! Shopify Plus
lets you be where your
customers are now - and
where they will be tomorrow.
Leverage the benefits of a
SaaS solution without losing
the ability to customize and
scale your business. Execute
with speed and agility while
we do the heavy (IT) lifting.
There’s a lot to worry about
when growing a business -
your store crashing shouldn’t
be one of them. We cater to
the world's biggest brands,
processing billions of dollars
in sales without batting an
eyelash.
You’ll have an army of people
behind you including a
dedicated Merchant Success
Manager, launch partners
and access to a world-class
app and partner ecosystem
to grow your business.

73. Your customers are ready for the future of commerce. Are you?
Grow bigger,
faster
Sell where your
customers are, and
where they will be
Choose better
software
(as a service)
Stop worrying,
start selling
Partners, not
Vendors
Proof points
Product Story
“Big C” Content

74. Both will (and should)
evolve over time
Market changes, feedback loops,
competitive landscape, product evolution

75. 2010

76. 2017

77. GROWTH

78. How does it change?

79. Driving Growth
Sell Sell Sell Demand/Marketing + Sell *Brand/Growth + Sell

80. These aren't hard and
fast rules

81. DISCOVERABILITY TRY-ABILITY VALUE? COMMIT?
SEO/Content
Events/WOM
Product Driven
Partners
Social Media
Influencer Marketing
Paid Channels
Free Trial
Paid Trial
Demo
How hard is it to try?
Friction?
Product
Experience
Expectations
Have they gotten
value in some way?
Enough value to
pay you?
WILL THEY STAY?
Churn is an outcome. It’s an indication of things going right/wrong in the above areas.

82. DISCOVERABILITY TRY-ABILITY VALUE? COMMIT?
Channel <> Market Fit
Message <> Market Fit
Channel <> Message Fit
Reduce Friction/
Improve Experience
Meet/Exceed
Expectations
If no, why?
WILL THEY STAY?
Data, data, data.

83. How do you
operationalize it?

84. Define your funnel

85. Funnel Evolution
Lead
Customer

86. Lead
Customer
Lead
Qualified Lead
Customer
Funnel Evolution

87. Lead
Customer
Lead
Qualified Lead
Customer
Lead
Marketing Qualified Lead
Sales Accepted Lead
Sales Qualified Lead
Customer
Funnel Evolution

88. Customer
Lead Management
Lead Nurture, Scoring, Data Enrichment, Lead Recycling
Product Mktg/Sales Enablement
Value & Messaging, Product Positioning, Collateral
Sales Qualified
Leads
Sales Accepted Leads
Marketing Qualified Leads
LeadsCampaigns & Programs
Promotions (magento campaign), Paid Ads,
Social Media, Content Marketing, SEO, Email
Customer Marketing Retention/
Growth

89. Building Systems
OBJECTIVE
These are goals, not metrics (metrics are just a way to keep score)
LEVERS
What levers can you pull to get there? (I.e. increase conversion by X%)
STRATEGIES & TACTICS
What’s the approach? Specifically, how will you execute (tactics).
DEPENDENCIES / EFFORT
Is the execution dependent on others? How much effort is needed?
PRIORITIZE
Weigh the potential impact with the effort it will take.

90. Discover hidden areas of
potential impactful

91. Can we talk about sales
for a second?
Biases and
context

92. Uncovering Biases

93. - Sales Person #1
“Adwords leads are bad.”

95. - ALL the sales people
“Adwords leads are bad.”

96. - Marketing Team
“We’ll show them the data!”

98. They didn’t understand
the context

99. Lead source bias was
ingrained in the story

100. Lead Source Bias Test
Lead Source
Adwords Contact Us

101. Does source even
matter?

102. Context is King

103. What’s More Meaningful?
Lead Source = AdwordsOR
They converted on a page about
multi-channel ecommerce

104. The right
context
Landing page copy
Search Query
Tech Stack
Demographic Info
Behavioural Info

105. TEAMS

106. What Do Marketing People Do?
Send emails!
Get leads!
Write stuff!
The funnel!
Twitter!
Make slide
decks!
They do HubSpot
Make things look
good!

107. Where are you now?
Wizard of Oz Scooby Doo Oceans 11

108. The Reality
FOUNDATIONAL
Positioning, Messaging, Personas
(assets sales deck,
product pages, website etc.)
CAMPAIGNS
Product launches, offers,
promotions etc.
EXPERIMENTATION
Funnel, website, product, new
acquisition channels etc.
“ALWAYS ON”
Content, email, customer
communications,
online marketing, lead gen etc.

109. Where do you start?
It depends.

110. Questions
Who is the audience?
What are the biggest growth levers?
Where are your weaknesses?
What stage are you at?
Do you have P/M fit?
Is there a broader strategy?
Or are you still figuring stuff out?

111. When do you start?
It depends.
(Sooner than
you think)

112. Product Marketing
Growth (general)
Product Marketing
Growth (specialized)
Data/analysis
Writers/Content
Email/Comms
Product Marketing
SEO/Content Marketing
Paid Channels
Data Analysts
Content/Copywriting
Brand & Comms
Functions (not people)

113. It’s about size and
complexity

114. PRODUCT MARKETING
AS A ROLE
PRODUCT MARKETING
AS A FUNCTION
PRODUCT MARKETING
AS A CONCEPT
PRODUCT MARKETING
AS A ROLE
Small
Simple Complex
Large
Adapted from First Round Capital
SizeofCompany
Complexity of product/feature/market/landscape

115. Product
Eng/Dev
Marketing
Customer-facing
teams That’s Product
Marketing

116. - David Packard, Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard
“Marketing is too important to be
left to the marketing department.”