no sacred cows, just mislead assumptions

“We don’t do cold outreach.”

“Paid ads don’t work in B2B Saas.”

“B2B buyers are rationale.” (hahaha - we’re all emotional bags’o’nuts at the end of the day).

There are no sacred cows in growth and marketing

There are only things you and I don’t want to do.

Nothing should be off the table. Retargeting ads are ok. Facebook ads are ok. Google ads are ok. Even if they’re “dead” on LinkedIn.

Or maybe you’d love to swear off cold outreach. It’s more than “dead," it’s wicked and vile. And besides, “I never open cold email,” says everyone with any self respect.

Until they do open it.

No excuse for not trying

There’s this Charlie Munger quote that sticks with me:

Someone asked him if he’s good at playing chess. Munger didn’t speculate. He replied “I don’t know. I’ve never played.”

He doesn’t assume to be good or bad at chess. I love that.

A lot of my own sacred cows have never been tested or tried. Not today. Not recently. Not in the new business or in this new economy or in the age of AI.

Will cold outreach work for B2B Saas in 2025? Don’t know, haven’t tried.

Until the day that you absolutely need to send it. Every marketing and growth tactic can be sacred. But none of them should be.

What to try next

When channels “don’t work anymore” or become “too noisey,” maybe that’s a sign to take a serious look at why that might be and how it can be done different and better. Writing off any marketing tactic is silly until it’s been tried and tested.

As much as I fight against lead magnets and cold outreach, we have to try them to know if we’re any good at them.

If you were to stack rank from favorite to least favorite growth tactics to try in Q1 2025, what does that list look like?

And maybe then invert it. Put the sacred cows (“SEO is a waste of time” “We can’t do PLG”) at the top of the list and give one of them a serious try. There’s no sense assuming things won’t work — it’s way more helpful to test and know.

Peter

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