Determining if sales or customer success should own customer expansion and renewals is the age-old SaaS question. And not to spoil this article for you, but I don’t have the answer. Sorry. I know everyone wants a definitive verdict on this, but the good news is that either approach can work well. If you are […]
Hired a New Leader? Trust But Verify.
This is a story of how I allowed a new executive to join my team, run their function autonomously (hey, they had lots of experience!), and take their department to the brink of failure before I realized it. I like to think I can spot incompetence from a mile away. You probably do too. I […]
The Value of a Business Operating System
One thing many startups lack is a business operating system. A high-growth startup that isn’t using an operating system to run the business either isn’t familiar with the concept, or they are familiar but are afraid it will be too cumbersome to implement and restrictive to operate. An operating system might sound complicated to set […]
4 Essential C’s of Leadership: Communication, Clarity, Context, Consistency
There are many things that are essential to great leadership, but when there’s a people leadership problem it usually comes down to one (or more) of 4 areas—communication, clarity, context, and consistency. Let’s call these the 4 Cs of leadership. What is a people leadership problem? The symptoms look like this: Low employee engagement High […]
More on the SaaS Sales Playbook for Product-Led Growth
I recently shared a few quick thoughts on how the SaaS sales playbook has to be adapted to work well in a product-led organization. Here are some more details on those thoughts…in no particular order. Assess the current state. The biggest mistake you can make when building the sales motion at a product-led growth is […]
Adapting the Traditional SaaS Sales Playbook for Product-Led Growth
There is an inside sales playbook that many SaaS companies use. And with good reason. It’s a tried and true, time-tested way to sell SaaS. It’s effective and proven. If you work for a B2B SaaS company you probably know this playbook well. It’s some variation of…. BDRs work inbound leads (generated by marketing and […]
Improve Your OKR Results by Focusing on the How
I think the biggest reason that people, and companies, don’t achieve goals is that they forget to think through HOW the goal will be achieved. How will the goal be accomplished? Examples best illustrate the limited thinking we do when it comes to planning how we will accomplish our goals. Objective (a.k.a. goal): lose 10 […]
Build Your Sales Plan Based on Reality
I meet with a lot—and I mean a lot—of startup founders and early-stage sales leaders who build their sales plans based on what they want to happen, versus the reality of what is happening. I get it, because I did it myself the first time I needed to build a sales plan. Here’s how the […]
Does Work Suck? No, but…
I read “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It” by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson right before the Coronavirus hit. And because many business leaders are thinking about if, how, and when their staff will return to the office this is an interesting book to consider right now. Not sure how this one got on […]
An OKR Primer
Just when I think the world doesn’t need yet another introduction to OKRs, I talk to a company struggling to implement them. As an OKR convert (someone who didn’t like them, and now enthusiastically loves them), I think this stems from over complicating it and getting in your own way. While it can take a while […]
