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Welcome back to my almost-weekly newsletter (now on Thursdays) where I share data and examples to help you study B2B sales and marketing.*
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It's not all freezes, layoffs, and defense.
Notion's recession response (outlined in this Protocol post) is different.
I loved this quote from COO Akshay Kothari: *“We’ve been thinking the last six months a lot about, ‘Well, if everybody is zigging, how do we zag?’”*
Notion is playing offense.
And they're not alone.
I updated **the B2B Hiring Tracker today**.
We have now surfaced 1,181 interesting B2B software companies with open roles in sales and/or marketing.
The month/month data tells a mixed story.
On the positive side, more companies had net positive headcount movement -- 58% in July vs 55% in June.
But on the flip side, more companies made cuts -- 23% in July vs 16% in June.
m/m headcount chart
Layoffs are happening in many shapes and sizes.
Some very large reductions and some belt tightening on relatively healthy businesses.
It appears that a lot of companies hit "pause" and now have now gone more offensive or made the hard choice to make larger cuts.
Things appear to be spreading out in both directions.
distribution chart
Will the recession favor PLG companies?
Notion is not alone among PLG companies still investing in growth.
Looking at our PLG List, we see a lot of hiring activity and continued growth.
This post from Andrea Wang makes a solid point and offers some strategies to consider.
This tweet highlighted some of the public PLG companies with very large sales & marketing recruiting efforts.
Clearly there's been a shift from "growth at all costs" to efficient growth that plays to PLG companies, but I suspect this will force innovation within sales-led models as well.
I've always believed that PLG principles can be applied broadly, even if your GTM model isn't pure product-led.
When you dig into our data, you'll find a lot of PLG examples rising to the top.
We'll keep digging here and track differences over time.
**Engineering holding ground.
Sales not far behind.**
Engineering roles appear to be the most downturn durable (no measurable decline in the last 3 months within our index).
Sales recruiting has only declined 4% in the last 3 months.
The biggest shift appears in HR and Support.
If you’re looking for a next sales role, you can filter the tracker for AE/AM, SDR, SE, RevOps, and Enablement and find 1,031 B2B companies with open roles across those functions.
This tracker is growing each month with your help.
Thank you!
Two ways to suggest a B2B tech company:
1.
Fill out this form.
2.
Tag a company on my LinkedIn post and I'll add them manually.
*What else would you like to see here?*
I read all replies.
Best,
Adam