Push vs. Pull: The 4-Quadrant Marketing Framework for Scaling B2B SaaS.
Most B2B SaaS companies try to copy-paste the marketing of 'darlings' like Lovable or OpenAI, but what they don't realize is that they have a 'pull' product rather than a 'push' product. Products for which the product-market-fit is fine, but you are not the only one. Many others aim for the same audiences with a similar value proposition, and for this reason, you really have to push your offering into the market in a way that resonates and makes people consider and buy it.
Scaling B2B SaaS is about retaining existing customers, building pipeline to generate yoy ARR growth rates of 50%+
In order to scale the business, it is of utmost importance to understand and be honest about your position in the market. Do you have a push or pull product, and where are you in your lifecycle stage compared with some time ago? In order to give some guidance, I created a strategic marketing growth quadrant to explain, based on your position in the market, and answer the question of how marketing can contribute to scale and accelerate the business.
In my view, marketing can thrive and will always work in close collaboration with sales for acquiring new business, customer success for retaining existing customers, and product. For that reason, I prefer to talk about go-to-market (GTM) motions in which multi-disciplinary teams have an outside-in perspective in a collaborative way. So every day, a mixed set of professionals wakes up with the prospect and customers in mind, asking themselves the question of how to grow and expand the business from different perspectives in the best possible and efficient way.
Most CEOs and CFOs view marketing as a 'lead gen' t(r)ap they can turn on or off. But if you're trying to scale from €10M to €100M ARR, that mindset is exactly what's slowing you down
Balancing act with many choices
Marketing nowadays is a complex balancing act where many choices need to be made to remain focused on growth and expansion. Depending on your market position, ability to invest, and actual core B2B SaaS metrics, further growth and acceleration will have an impact on CAC, your CAC payback time, and the CAC/LTV ratio. In most cases, there is a willingness to invest, but at the same time, you want to do this in a controlled and predictable fashion. E.g., investing in brand building will increase your CAC in the short term, but will secure your ability to grow in the mid-term and decrease your CAC payback time long-term. As said, to get there, many choices need to be made. Some examples are:
Every choice comes with many other questions e.g. if you focus on paid media, do you have to invest more in identifying buying intent and signals (SEA, display) or generating interest (LinkedIn, social)? If your NRR is below the benchmark, then it sounds logical to focus on closing the back door for churn. If your growth rates are decreasing than it makes sense to start working on your brand.
Two main questions need to be answered in my view: do you have a push or pull product, and are you still in the start-up or entering the scale-up stage?
But how to determine your best strategy and tactics? Two main questions need to be answered in my view: do you have a push or pull product, and are you still in the start-up or entering the scale-up stage? Answering these two questions gives you guidance on how to approach marketing and where to focus.
Push or pull products
Many of us are inspired by companies like Lovable, ChatGPT, Uber, Miro, and many other similar high-growth companies. When determining how to market your own product, people tend to look at what these types of companies are doing and how they practice marketing. What people often forget is that these types of companies don't need that much marketing at the beginning of their lifecycle. They fulfill such a strong demand and need in the market, and are first movers, so their products are literally pulled out of the market. For these companies, it is more about keeping up the fast pace of growth and controlling it. This is why I call them pull products. Actually, often within these types of companies, only after a couple of years, they start to realize they have to elevate and structure their marketing efforts.
Unfortunately, for most of us, we have to deal with so-called push products. Products for which the product-market-fit is fine, but you are not the only one. Many others aim for the same audiences with a similar value proposition, and for this reason, you really have to push your offering into the market in a way that resonates and makes people buy it. These types of push products also need a higher CAC. This is not a problem as long as it stays within reasonable boundaries. We all dream of the acceleration that ChatGPT went through, and some of us succeed, but for most of us, that won't be the case. This means that the marketing balancing act and making the right choices become utmost important to grow and scale.
These types of push products also need a higher CAC
Starting or scaling up
Besides whether you offer push or pull products, your company's lifecycle stage is also an important indicator of how to practice marketing. Are you building up the business towards €10 million of ARR, or are you in the next stage, trying to scale the business dramatically towards €50 million or even €100 million of ARR? Did you complete your series A and B investment rounds, or are you more mature, scaling your business internationally? Is your company size up to 50 employees, or have you already passed this milestone? There are many ways to look at it, but in my view, a start-up means that you have your product-market fit and are figuring out whether you are able to build a sustainable business with it. Once you accomplished all of this in one or two countries, then the next stage is about scaling it up, which means additional investment rounds, adding new people, and becoming a more mature business.
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Are you building up the business towards €10 million of ARR, or are you in the next stage, trying to scale the business dramatically towards €50 million or even €100 million of ARR?
The strategic marketing growth quadrant
Having these two axes, the type of product, and your company's lifecycle stage, gives us the strategic marketing growth quadrant with 4 definitions of which marketing approach is needed to grow and accelerate your business. The grinder approach needs a more growth-hacker and operator type of mafketing leadership to remain highly efficient. The leader approach needs a brand architect type of marketing leader to dominate the category. Having a brand architect type of CMO in the grinder approach means this person will burn way too much money. Let me give a short description of every quadrant and some examples of how marketing strategy and tactics have to align with every quadrant. In my next articles, I will dive into every quadrant more extensively.
Having a brand architect type of CMO in the grinder approach means this person will burn way too much money.
The grinder
For the grinder, it is all about building the proof points that, long-term, there is the potential for creating a sustainable and scalable business. It is about acquiring new customers and running marketing and sales most efficiently. It is either working on the product-market-fit (PMF) and sharpening the value proposition by innovation, or even pivoting to make your offering unique and highly resonating with the market. This upward motion towards the darling quadrant comes with high risk and less attention for marketing and sales. In many cases, once people feel there is a decent PMF, they would rather focus on building a business around it. For those who believe in marketing and sales, plus the fact that you don't need the best product to win it is about building proof points and making that move towards the 'scaler' quadrant. Show the investors that there is a lot of potential, so they are willing to do a series C or D investment later on to further scale.
Whether you want to make the upward (darling) or sideways move (scaler) determines how marketing can contribute to making this happen. For the latter, the focus will be on a new business GTM motion (so in close collab with sales) to acquire new customers and demand generation rather than building a brand. In this stage, it's a smart move to 'flip-the-funnel' or turn around the marketing flywheel by first focusing on in-market audiences, so those audiences who are ready to buy. The available marketing budgets are relatively limited, so trying to engage with your target audiences through organic media channels like your own socials and some free publicity initiatives is the way to go. On top of that, you can run some high-intent paid media campaigns to experiment and learn about the buying behavior of your audiences. This is needed in a later stage when you genuinely want to scale the business.
The scaler
The typical scaler proved their PMF in one or two markets and is ready to scale. A series C or D investment has been secured, and now it's time to scale up. The company has shown great results and encouraging growth rates; now it is time to double down on those things that work. It is about retaining the existing customers and aggressively acquiring new customers at a high pace. The big question is whether your organization is ready to scale. Does a systematic approach for marketing and sales exist, or do you still have to build this foundation? If your NRR is below the benchmark, it makes sense to first fix the (logo) churn rates and close the back door. It will improve the CAC/LTV ratio, but also have a huge impact on your annual turnover. Once this has been fixed, doubling down on new business makes sense. You more or less fixed the PMF, so an upward motion towards a 'leader' at this stage by product innovation or complementary acquisitions is out of scope. The main challenge will be to remain focused. A solid PMF means that you have a clear view of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), their behavior, and how to engage with them to gain interest and identify buying intention.
For the scaler, it is important to balance efforts and attention for existing customers and new business in a collaborative manner with customer success and sales. Two GTM motions in which marketing is working with both disciplines, and even the product when needed. You can easily scale up your paid media efforts for demand generation. It will increase your CAC but will secure your growth rates. At the same pace, you want to scale your organic media (owned and earned), but this takes time. So make sure you have the right skills in your team or hook up with the right agencies to elevate your organic presence. When you are successful in doing this is will bring your CAC back down to decent levels in the mix with your paid media efforts. It is my advice to not experiment with addressing new segments, other ICPs, and especially not in new markets. If you enter new markets, do this with proven GTM motions.
GTM scaling strategy
For every marketing strategy, defined in close collaboration with sales and customer success, the actual key B2B SaaS metrics will determine how to move forward and where to focus. The CAC, CAC payback, and CAC/LTV ratio are key indicators that will give guidance on what is possible and what's not in terms of investments. Also, your ability to grow with sufficient market potential and a well-sized addressable market is key. What about the competition and your own market share? And do you have a strong foundation for all your content to create a consistent, compelling storyline and narrative? And is this fully aligned with your purpose, vision, mission, and brand values? These are just some pre-requisites you can build upon to make your overall GTM strategy work. By approaching it as a GTM motion, teams are already encouraged and forced to collaborate.
Ask yourself as an investor or CEO: what kind of product do I have, push or pull, and is my GTM and marketing strategy in line with what it should be according to the strategic marketing growth quadrant?
In my next articles, I will further deepdive in the other darling and leader quadrants and explain what it exactly entails. I will also pay attention to the various potential motions within every quadrant. I would love to hear your comments and your own insights 💚
Three decades of GTM wisdom distilled into a quadrant - love frameworks that cut through the noise. The challenge most teams face is honestly assessing where they actually sit versus where they want to be. Curious which quadrant surprises founders most when they map themselves?
Mark Appel very useful!
Really useful framing, Mark. The CMO archetype mismatch is the part that doesn't get talked about enough. I've seen brand architects burn cash in grinder-stage companies. But the reverse hurts too. Growth hackers who can't shift to brand building when it's time to scale end up hitting a ceiling. The hard part isn't knowing which quadrant you're in. It's hiring for where you're going, not just where you are.
Is there marketing genious someone with proven sales tracks? Skills over Knowledge.
Feels useful as a framing tool, especially early on. The risk I see teams run into is treating a quadrant like an answer instead of a starting point. GTM usually breaks at the handoff between strategy and actual customer journey.