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- 🧠 4 Strategies for Marketing Even The Most Complex B2B Products
🧠 4 Strategies for Marketing Even The Most Complex B2B Products
How the CMO of Samsara, a $25 billion IoT company, educates prospects at scale
Ever tried explaining your B2B product to someone and watched their eyes glaze over?
You're excited about your game-changing features, but your prospects stare at you like you’re speaking a different language.
We spoke to Meagen Eisenberg, who’s cracked the code. The CMO of Samsara (a company making complex safety, logistics, and fleet management platforms) shared her playbook for making complicated tech into something people can actually understand...
4 Strategies for Marketing Complex Products
Meagen’s results speak for themselves: Samsara is doing $1.36B annually and growing 37% year-over-year.
When we caught up with Meagen she shared everything from her clever customer education tricks to unexpected marketing moves. Here's what we learned...
BUT FIRST… WHAT IS SAMSARA?
Samsara is a top provider of IoT solutions that help businesses manage fleets, industrial operations, and field services.
With tools that reduce accidents, recover stolen gear, and boost efficiency, Samsara turns data into real savings and safety for all kinds of industries.
Step 1: Gather data and case studies
Sometimes the more you try to explain something complex, the more confused everyone gets.
But Meagen's found a better way. Instead of getting tangled up in technical explanations, she lets the results speak for themselves.
Meagen’s strategy is all about proof: data and case studies. When prospects see how your product saves them cash or improves efficiencies, it’s like a lightbulb going off.
Proof of ROI through data: Show ‘em the numbers! Like how Samsara’s IDC study revealed cost savings, improved efficiency, and an 8X ROI in year one. Hard to argue with that.
“We have one of the largest resources of data to train models on for AI. It also allows us to collect so much data, so we can prove ROI through metrics like accident reduction, cost savings, and efficiency improvements.”
Case studies: Know your buyer... then, craft case studies that hit them right where it hurts (in a good way). The aim is to show them how your product makes their life easier. Marketing 101.
“Marketing starts with the persona you’re selling to... really understanding the buyer and the outcomes you’re driving for them.”
But here’s where things get interesting...
Meagen knows that dropping case studies on LinkedIn isn't enough to explain complex tech. She's refined a set of proven strategies that make technical concepts click for prospects.
Step 2: Proven strategies to market complex products
Now that you've got your customer success stories and ROI data, it's time to translate them into value your prospects can connect with.
Instead of just presenting numbers, Meagen's found ways to make these benefits crystal clear to every stakeholder... ways you probably wouldn’t even consider.
Here's her playbook:
1. Optimize customer experience
When a customer genuinely loves your product, they'll explain its value in ways your marketing team never could.
“The most effective and trusted marketing is tapping into your customer base.”
When customers are genuinely pleased, they’ll share real stories of how they overcame the same challenges your prospects are facing.
“The full life cycle matters a lot in marketing. I mean, one of our values is being very customer focused.”
Meagen's approach is simple: focus on making customers successful, and they'll naturally become your best educators. They'll share their wins, explain the benefits in their own words, and make your complex product feel more useful to prospects.
2. Events
If you want to show how your complex product works, let your customers take center stage. Host events and give them the mic to share their stories with your prospects.
“We certainly bring customers and prospects together in field activations. So at dinners or at events, we will work with them to get them on stage to tell their story.”
It’s all about creating opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and showcasing specific use cases that make your product shine.
3. Experiment with new channels
The key is always to meet your prospects where they are.
Meagen’s team is constantly trying out different channels, from TikTok to working with niche influencers (yep, even trucker influencers with millions of followers!)
“There's not a channel we're not touching.”
With new channels constantly emerging, you need to keep testing and adapting.
4. Let your customer connect the dots
One of the most powerful ways to educate your audience is to let them experience your product firsthand - in a fun, engaging way.
Take Samsara’s Halloween “Tag or Treat” campaign, for example. They included a Samsara asset tag in a candy bucket, giving customers a playful way to start brainstorming how the product could work for them.
“We’re sending them to customers... They can just play with it. They can see how it works... And they’re getting ideas. They can say, ‘Oh wow, I can use this on my tractors or all the items I know get lost or stolen frequently...’”
The play here is “surprise and delight.”
Help your prospects explore your product in a playful way that easily demonstrates its value. Then, they’ll start putting the pieces together themselves.
Your next move? Make complex feel simple
The key to marketing complex products isn’t just about selling, it's about engaging your potential customers in ways that let them discover the value for themselves.
Stop drowning them in features and specs. Instead, create those "aha!" moments where they can't help but see how your product fits their exact needs.
P.S. Do you (or someone you know) want to be interviewed for AskCMO? We’re looking for 2025 guests now. If you’re a CMO or senior-level marketer in B2B, please fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.
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