Notion, VEED, Yahoo & B2B Creators Partnerships on April 1st.

To Marketers,

Okerosi here with Product Weekly.

In this newsletter, I share proven insights I have gathered this week across; product marketing, B2B ad creatives & SaaS growth playbooks from the top 5% minds in the space.

In this week’s roundup:

- 446 state of B2B SaaS report

- April Fool’s day SaaS campaigns

- Building a 200k B2B audience with Dave

It’s easy to write off April Fools’ campaigns as gimmicks, but this one did something most brands struggle with:

*Tied a cultural meme to a physical product – “Touch grass” has been a viral internet phrase for ages, so it was a perfect fit (especially on LinkedIn).

*Drove real engagement with a “joke” that actually converted – They pushed the boundaries by making it a purchasable item.

*Leaned into a chaotic, attention-grabbing launch strategy – The unpredictability of the campaign created a buzz that had people talking (and buying).

For brand marketers, this campaign is a reminder: it’s not enough to “do something weird” for the sake of it. The key is to understand internet culture and create something that feels organic and relevant, not forced.

What can other Brands learn?
→ Lean into storytelling
→ Harness community-driven marketing
→ Turn your launch into an interactive experience

Why self-serve revenue drives performance

1. Forces product experience improvements: Creating self-serve channels requires companies to improve onboarding, simplify user interfaces, and reduce friction— improvements that benefit all users.

2. Provides better data: Self-serve users generate valuable behavioral data that helps companies identify friction points, optimize conversion paths, and improve targeting.

3. Enables rapid experimentation: Self-serve channels allow companies to test new packaging, pricing, and features much more quickly than sales-led approaches.

4. Improves unit economics: Reducing the sales touch required for conversion dramatically improves contribution margins and enables more efficient scaling.

5. Creates a foundation for hybrid models: Companies with established self-serve channels can layer sales-assisted approaches on top for larger customers, creating efficient hybrid motions

How do you grow a $600M business to $5B, report directly to Satya Nadella, and close a $600M+ deal while your customer’s company is collapsing?

This week on the pod: Hayden E. Stafford (Microsoft → Seismic) shares the enterprise playbook - and what you can borrow, even if you're a startup just getting to $1M.

Let's just say, I ran out of ink on this one 😅 
My top takeaways from the conversation:

1️⃣ Sellers don’t just close deals, they should own retention too.
Align comp plans across AEs and CSMs around net revenue retention (NRR) to keep everyone accountable for long-term customer success.

2️⃣ The best partners don’t just co-sell, they co-build.
Transactional channel programs have short-term upside. Strategic partnerships, like Seismic’s product-level integrations with Salesforce, create durable GTM advantage. Prioritize partners who will build with you, not just sell for you.

3️⃣ Vertical GTM is a durable competitive moat.
Seismic’s dominance in financial services (42% of revenue) wasn’t accidental, it was by design. Deep domain expertise + tailored messaging + compliant workflows made the company a no-brainer for regulated buyers. Start narrow, win deep.

4️⃣ Sales methodology ≠ win formula.
A flashy sales methodology means nothing if you don’t know what actually moves deals. Instrument every stage of your funnel with non-negotiables. Know your conversion drivers and hold reps accountable to executing against them.

5️⃣ The best sellers think like consultants.
Top enterprise reps don’t just run sales cycles, they orchestrate change management. That means multi-threading early, co-creating value narratives with the buyer, and staying involved post-sale to ensure outcomes land.

6️⃣ Your GTM team structure should mirror how customers buy.
Seismic maps sales, CS, and services to the same segments. That way, there’s no disconnect when ownership changes hands. If your post-sale team is playing catch-up, you’ve already lost.

7️⃣ You can’t scale enterprise without rethinking incentives.
At Microsoft, Hayden reallocated partner dollars to build a direct field team. He tied seller comp to outcomes and changed partner incentives to drive strategic behaviors, not just transactions.

8️⃣ Treat your comp model like a product.
Seismic optimized pay curves so reps could still win big, but only if they delivered both expansion and retention. Treat your comp model like a product: design it, test it, and iterate for efficiency and growth. Revenue growth is math, not magic.