What is SUM (Sign-Up Marketing)?

TL;DR

Acquisition doesn’t end at sign-up. The real work starts after—onboarding, adoption, and making sure the right people engage. Two simple questions decide the fate of every sign-up:

1. Is the company a fit?

2. Is this person a decision-maker or influencer in the buying process?

If both answers are YES, great—your CS team, onboarding, and sales reps have a solid chance of closing the deal (assuming the lead came in with the right intent). But if even one is missing, the upgrade or sales conversion likely won’t happen.

This gap is massive. Most SaaS teams either do nothing or try to patch the problem with ABM, product invites, or PLG mechanics, all of which have limitations. That’s why I’m developing SUM (Sign-Up Marketing)—a new framework focused on turning sign-ups into revenue.

Why Most Sign-Ups Don’t Convert

You can’t force an unqualified company to become a good-fit customer. But what if the company is a fit, yet the person signing up isn’t a decision-maker?

This happens constantly in SaaS:

• A junior marketer signs up for an analytics tool, but the CMO is the one with budget authority.

• A product designer explores a new UX tool, but the Head of Design controls tool adoption.

• A mid-level sales rep tries a new CRM integration, but rev ops makes the final call.

These sign-ups might eventually drive a paid deal—but only if the right stakeholders get involved.

So, how do SaaS companies handle this today?

Common Approaches (And Why They Fall Short)

1. ABM (Account-Based Marketing) – Great for Ads, Not for Activation

ABM seems like an obvious answer: run ads to decision-makers at companies where someone has already signed up.

✔ Pros:

• You can target the exact company and job titles of key stakeholders.

• It keeps the account warm while the free user is exploring.

❌ Cons:

• Hard to execute—requires deep intent signals and clean CRM data.

• You don’t control the org structure—ads might hit random employees instead of the key decision-maker.

• Takes time—ABM is great for high-ACV, enterprise deals but too slow for mid-market or PLG motions.

Example: A SaaS company selling workflow automation tools runs ABM ads targeting Heads of Operations at companies where mid-level employees have signed up for a free trial. While this may keep the brand top-of-mind, it does nothing to accelerate adoption within the org.

2. The ‘Invite Your Team’ Onboarding Hook

Loom, Notion, and other PLG-heavy products encourage new users to invite teammates as part of the onboarding flow. The logic is:

• If a decision-maker gets invited, they’re more likely to pay.

• If the tool spreads across a team, it creates internal momentum for purchase.

✔ Pros:

• Low effort—it’s built directly into the product flow.

• Great for collaboration-heavy tools (e.g., project management, design).

❌ Cons:

• Users are lazy. Even in Slack, a tool built for team collaboration, most free-tier users never invite others.

• Relies on organic virality. If the user doesn’t naturally share, nothing happens.

Example: A small team at a mid-size startup signs up for Notion. The onboarding suggests they invite their manager, but they skip the step. Notion loses the opportunity to get the decision-maker involved early.

3. Doing Nothing & Relying on PLG

Many SaaS companies assume that if the product is good, users will convert—a classic PLG mindset.

✔ Pros:

• Requires no extra effort.

• Works well if the initial sign-up is already high-intent.

❌ Cons:

• Passive approach. If the right person never engages, the deal never happens.

• Leaves money on the table. Without active engagement, you lose high-fit accounts simply because the right people never see the value.

Example: A junior engineer at a mid-market tech company starts using an API monitoring tool. Their manager, who owns the budget, never hears about it—so the company keeps using its old, inefficient process.

Enter SUM: Sign-Up Marketing

After looking at these gaps, I realized there was no structured way to market to companies after someone signs up but before a deal closes. That’s where SUM (Sign-Up Marketing) comes in.

The Core Problem SUM Solves:

How do you get the real decision-maker or influencer to actively evaluate the product after someone from their team signs up?

SUM Framework: Three Key Questions

To make this happen, you need to answer:

1. WHAT – What strategies actually engage decision-makers post-sign-up?

2. WHERE – Where can you apply these strategies (email, in-app, outbound, ads)?

3. WHEN – When is the right moment to introduce them into the process?

SUM is not just another tactic—it’s a structured approach to closing the post-sign-up gap.

Early SUM Tactics in Action

While I’m still deep in the weeds figuring out the best playbooks, here are a few early SUM tactics:

1. Auto-Routing High-Fit Sign-Ups to Sales

   • If a decision-maker isn’t involved, automatically route the sign-up to an SDR or AE for targeted outreach.

     • Example: HubSpot assigns lead scores to sign-ups and triggers personalized sales outreach for high-fit accounts.

2. In-App Nudges for Internal Champions

   • When a non-decision-maker signs up, prompt them to invite their manager at the right moment.

     • Example: Airtable prompts free users to add their Head of Operations when setting up complex workflows.

3. Outbound Sequences to Decision-Makers

   • Once a company signs up, automatically pull relevant decision-makers into an email or LinkedIn sequence.

     • Example: A growth platform sends a personalized email to the CMO when their content team signs up for a free trial.

4. Reverse ABM – Targeting Decision-Makers with Product Usage Data

   • Instead of generic ABM, run highly relevant ads to decision-makers based on team usage.

     • Example: A sales intelligence tool retargets Heads of Sales only if multiple SDRs from their company are using the free version.

What’s Next?

I believe SUM is a missing discipline in SaaS marketing—something every B2B growth team should be thinking about.

Moving forward, I’ll be diving deeper into:

• How to map decision-making dynamics in target accounts.

• The best SUM tactics for different price points (self-serve vs. sales-assisted).

• How SUM integrates with ABM, PLG, and outbound motions.

If you’re in B2B SaaS growth and thinking about post-sign-up conversion, let’s talk. Reply and share what’s working (or not) for you.

More to come. Subscribe and stay tuned.