Shiv Narayanan joins us, former CMO of Wild Apricot, who took the company to $20 million in ARR w/o a sales team. That’s right. He did it all through marketing. 

Today, Shiv is the Founder & CEO of How To SaaS. This management consulting firm works with PE firms, VCs, and Angel investors to accelerate demand generation and growth for their portfolio companies and increase their valuations. 

Listen to Shiv Narayanan on The Buyer Enablement Podcast

Shiv is an expert in designing marketing programs and finding the right mix of marketing activities that work. Wild Apricot is an incredible growth story, and they never had a sales team.

So, it makes sense that Shiv has a lot to say about sales enablement.

Here’s Shiv’s warning to listeners. “Almost everything will become commoditized. As that happens, the buyer’s decision has nothing to do with capabilities or functionality they can get those anywhere—even it solves for their pain points, the buyer’s decision will be a brand decision because that’s where the best relationship will be.”

This show is for anyone interested in knowing more about how to leverage content to drive sales.

The good news—sales enablement is not hard to do. Good marketing just requires consistency and a laser-focus on doing what works. 

On the show, he said something you seldom hear people say. He said, “Everything works, all the channels work. You can make AdWords work, LinkedIn works, you can make SEO work. Events, ABM, tradeshows, everything works. So, the way I look at it is an orchestra. You have to invest the right things at the appropriate stage for your company.”

For Shiv, sales enablement should be about finding the right mix of activities for the company’s appropriate stage. It’s not a search that should continue; you have to stick with it. He clarifies that marketers need focus. 

“The most underrated skill in marketing [maintaining] focus,” says Shiv. 

It’s so true—marketing is always changing, and it’s easy to get distracted by what’s trending. 

The focus should be on driving revenue. The right mix has to be a core set of activities that move the needle. Everything else should work together on the goal. 

What you’ll learn: 

• Why giving demos and sales calls is the bare minimum, and what more you can do
• How Shiv advises marketers on scaling content
• Why a personal brand is key to earning your buyer’s trust

What to listen for: 

2:06 – Using what you’re already working with and scaling it with LinkedIn 

5:10 – Marketers relax, everything works, just pick the right mix

8:00 – The three tiers of sales enablement content

11:45 – FACT: content drives sales 

14:30 – Finding your key growth levers

19:05 – How to include everyone on driving revenue

22:00 – “FOCUS” is the most underrated skill

26:45 – Marketers, you must be detached from the outcome

29:00 – Everything will become commoditized 

30:00 – In the end, the brand will always win