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Beyond the SaaS Playbook: How Non-SaaS Teams Drive Pipeline with Sandra Rand
Manage episode 494928023 series 3290771
#265 Non-SaaS Marketing | In this episode, Matt sits down with Sandra Rand, a fractional head of marketing who works with early-stage, non-SaaS B2B companies. She’s led marketing for PE-backed, self-funded, and services-based businesses, where big budgets and SaaS-style playbooks aren’t the norm. She’s also building the Non-SaaS Marketers subgroup inside Exit Five to support others facing the same challenges.
Matt and Sandra cover:
- How non-SaaS teams drive growth without demos, PLG, or huge lead volume
- Why events, word of mouth, and referrals often outperform funnels in these orgs
- Tactical ideas for gifting, partnerships, and pipeline-building on a lean budget
Whether you work in SaaS or not, you’ll walk away with creative, scrappy strategies to build trust and drive results in B2B.
Timestamps
- (00:00) - – Intro
- (03:18) - – Why Exit Five launched the Non-SaaS group
- (08:38) - – What makes non-SaaS marketing different
- (11:58) - – Budgets, sales cycles, and team structure
- (16:48) - – Why brand and trust matter more
- (18:58) - – Events > funnels in non-SaaS
- (28:13) - – How to build brand on a budget
- (33:43) - – Word-of-mouth and referral tactics
- (38:23) - – Gifting and relationship-driven growth
- (44:23) - – Scrappy, creative plays that actually work
- (49:53) - – What’s next for the Non-SaaS community
Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected]
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership
***
Today’s episode is brought to you by Walnut.
Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?
Come on, today’s buyers don’t want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.
That’s where Walnut comes in.
Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond.
That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.
And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what’s actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.
Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA?
Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!
283 episodes
Manage episode 494928023 series 3290771
#265 Non-SaaS Marketing | In this episode, Matt sits down with Sandra Rand, a fractional head of marketing who works with early-stage, non-SaaS B2B companies. She’s led marketing for PE-backed, self-funded, and services-based businesses, where big budgets and SaaS-style playbooks aren’t the norm. She’s also building the Non-SaaS Marketers subgroup inside Exit Five to support others facing the same challenges.
Matt and Sandra cover:
- How non-SaaS teams drive growth without demos, PLG, or huge lead volume
- Why events, word of mouth, and referrals often outperform funnels in these orgs
- Tactical ideas for gifting, partnerships, and pipeline-building on a lean budget
Whether you work in SaaS or not, you’ll walk away with creative, scrappy strategies to build trust and drive results in B2B.
Timestamps
- (00:00) - – Intro
- (03:18) - – Why Exit Five launched the Non-SaaS group
- (08:38) - – What makes non-SaaS marketing different
- (11:58) - – Budgets, sales cycles, and team structure
- (16:48) - – Why brand and trust matter more
- (18:58) - – Events > funnels in non-SaaS
- (28:13) - – How to build brand on a budget
- (33:43) - – Word-of-mouth and referral tactics
- (38:23) - – Gifting and relationship-driven growth
- (44:23) - – Scrappy, creative plays that actually work
- (49:53) - – What’s next for the Non-SaaS community
Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected]
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership
***
Today’s episode is brought to you by Walnut.
Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?
Come on, today’s buyers don’t want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.
That’s where Walnut comes in.
Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond.
That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.
And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what’s actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.
Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA?
Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!
283 episodes
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