Patrick Friday

Partnerships factor into the majority of these major companies GTM (HubSpot, Slack, Snowflake, Plaid, SFDC...) Critical components to think through in your partner GTM strategy: 👉 Company PLG vs. sales-led growth strategy 👉 Company build, buy, or partner strategy -> know where your company plans to do what, usually lands in company level OKRs 👉 Complexity of deal and size (which partner type can help the customer the most? Help you land the deal?) 👉 The partner type by company stage (likely influenced by the point above) 👉 The partner opportunity/ROI in terms of total cost of ownership (ex. For every $1 in software what can the partner make?) 👉 How much of the customer journey does the partner play a role in? At what level? 👉 What are the business outcomes that matter most to your company right now? Long-term? Trying to land GSIs when you're customers don't currently work with them or when you haven't proven out the partner opportunity is not a winning strategy.

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Founders. Pay close attention to signals in your sales cycles that show how your sales process is getting better. In the early days, you don't run enough deals for win rates, ACV, cycle length and other metrics to really matter. So you need to pay attention to something else. This happened to me last week at Savio Technology Inc. I ran what I felt was my best demo yet. Then a follow-up call with the prospect, I confirmed that it was a good demo. Here's what happened: I ran a good discovery on my first call. Really understood the gaps in their feature request process from where they are now, and where they want to be. I understood the pain this was causing for eng, product management, and GTM teams. I understood the KPIs that took a hit because of it. Competitive space, win rates were going down and increased churn. Big problems that needed to be solved. I summarized my discovery, then explained how Savio might be able to help. AND HERE's WHAT I DID DIFFERENT THIS TIME: I talked about my demo chapters before heading into it. I said "here's what we'll cover in the demo today: 1. I'll show you how you can organize your feature requests and layer on customer segments on top. 2. I'll show you how your sales and CS reps can easily send feedback your way that includes all the relevant Salesforce data. 3. I'll show you how you can quickly triage feedback into features and product areas. 4. If we have time, I'll show you how you can close the loop between eng <> product <> GTM when feature statuses are getting updated. Then I proceeded with my usual demo flow. For my chapters, I framed the context first, then brought their problems back to life, then showed how the workflows, then asked questions. Once we were done with the discussion, I'd move on to the next chapter. The whole thing went smoothly, solved exactly what she needed, added other benefits she didn't think of. In the second call, we talked through more questions and scenarios. For her questions and objections, I talked about how our customers used the software, which reframed how she thought about it. She had stuff in her process that she liked. I told her to continue using it, and showed where Savio could support existing workflows vs which ones would need to change. After we were done with the tech, I validated that we were ahead of all the other vendors for the evaluation and she'd be recommending moving forward with us to her boss. Our competitors are more funded, bigger, and more feature rich than we are. But she told me during our demos, she got it. It made sense. It was clear. She could see herself using it. She didn't get that from the competitor. She needed to go back to them 6-7 times with further questions and clarification. She was confused as to how all of it came together. Now, we're nowhere near done the deal. But this was a good indicator, across many cycles we've run recently, that our demo is getting stronger. So pay attention to these signals.

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🔑 Unlocking customer retention: The secret behind decreasing churn by 28% in a $20M B2B SaaS company in just 3 months! You have asked, and now we have documented our renewal process, and even included a granular template to ensure successful client retention that you can make your own. For companies that have seen a decrease in customer retention, we outline a 3-month strategy that focuses on increasing engagement, communication, and value-adds for customers. Navigating the choppy waters of customer churn can be tricky. But with a strategic approach, understanding of customer behavior, and data-driven decision-making, it's possible to steady the ship. A carefully crafted renewal template helped us achieve this feat. The journey involves various steps - strategy formulation, showcasing value, negotiation, and finally closing. All these steps are underpinned by personalization and proactive addressing of issues. One of the key elements is the Joint Success Plan (JSP), which helps in identifying risk signals and incorporating qualitative data into a customer's health score. This approach helps gauge customer loyalty, satisfaction, and likelihood of renewal. Automation plays a pivotal role too, especially for low-paying customers. Automating the auto-renewal process significantly improves efficiency. Preparing for a renewal meeting? Understand your customer's background, have the renewal paperwork ready, and discuss potential at-risk factors. Remember, clear communication, follow-up, and expressing gratitude goes a long way in fostering relationships. 🤝 Leverage customer advocacy to build credibility and foster organic growth. And if you need a hand, the Infinite Renewals team is here with its expertise in customer success. To dive deeper into our methodology, check out our latest blog post: Decreasing Churn by 28% for a $20M B2B SaaS Company in 3 Months with This Renewal Template (link in comments) PS- Marketing made me do this. Apologies for being sales-ish 🤷‍♂️  #CustomerSuccess #ChurnReduction #SaaS #RenewalStrategy #DataDriven

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GTM can be boiled down to 7 motions. These are the tools to go from 0 to 1 on each: I teamed up with expert Maja Voje to select the best. INBOUND Master LinkedIn and SEO with these tools: • LinkedIn - the most reliable social media channel • Google Search Console - the first step to any SEO campaign • AuthoredUp - up-level your LinkedIn game with tools like post formatting There's a million other channels, but we recommend these first. OUTBOUND To hit the pavement and talk to your target customers, use these tools: • LinkedIn Sales Navigator - access to the world's best database, plus InMail • Apollo.io - enhancing LinkedIn with emails and phone numbers • lemlist - advanced deliverability control & email sequences You might prefer an instantly or smartleads, but start here. PAID DIGITAL Direct response digital advertising doesn't have to be inefficient with: • Google Ads - the 800 lb gorilla has YouTube and Search, making it a must • Meta Ads - between Instagram, Whatsapp, and Facebook is a gold mine • LinkedIn Ads - still the premier destination for B2B Go where your customers are for more. COMMUNITY Your community can sell for you if you support it with tools like: • Slack - not just a chat tool, but also a good community tool • Reddit, Inc. - yes, you can have a subreddit one day too • Discord - a growing challenger to Slack A supported community tends to be loudest. PARTNERS Resellers and affiliates don't have to be bad words: • PartnerStack - affiliate, referrals, and resales in one platform • AWS Startups - generous credits & co-selling opportunities • Miro - partner workshops, co-branded content There's a million stacks, but the key is focus. ACCOUNT-BASED MARKETING Treat each account like a snowflake with next gen tools: • Attio - easy to use CRM that embraces the custom object • 6sense - king of intent and website visitor data • Clay - fuel for hyper-personalized campaigns There's a million potential tools, enabling attention to detail is the key. PRODUCT-LED GROWTH Growing via your product is much easier with tools like: • Segment - the ultimate data pipeline for the user journey • Amplitude - empowering the team to self-serve product analytics • Dovetail - platform for discovery and user feedback, enabling product growth They enable your product teams to measure and optimize growth. So which GTM motion should you focus on? At the start: • Don't complicate your go-to-market motion • Test 3-4 motions • Dominate 1-2 Then, over time, layer new one's on. If you become a public company, then you'll probably end up doing all 7. The only question will be: how much of each?

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Great set of tools, thanks for sharing Md Tanvir Islam

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Alex Hormozi's $100M investment formula. (Use it to take home $1,000,000s as an eCom founder) LTGP: CAC (ratio) It’s Lifetime Profit per Customer compared to Customer Acquisition Cost. As an eCom business, aim for LTGP to be 3x larger than CAC. (simply put, earn $3 for every $1 spent) If you’re below 3:1, cash isn’t flowing in your business. Which means: - You can’t grow as fast. - You can’t pay yourself. If you want to scale and take home $1,000,000s, you have 2 options: 1. Lower CAC 2. Increase LTGP The best way to lower CAC is through effective advertising. Here are 3 tricks to sink CAC with FB and TikTok Ads: (From printing 7-figs for eCom brands) 1. Focus on the Creative 80% of success comes from creatives. Steal these 3 Creative Formats that drove $1M+ in sales: a. The Mashup Creative → Hook → Customer Testimonial 1 → Customer Testimonial 2 → Customer Testimonial 3 → Objection handling → CTA b. The Education Creative → Hook → Educate → Vilify and Discard Alternatives → Product Intro → Benefits → Case Studies or Reviews. → CTA + Guarantee c. The Expert’s Creative → Hook → Experts’ intro → Education → Product Intro → Benefits → Address concerns. → CTA + Guarantee In 2024, creatives = targeting. Use it to your advantage 2. Track with custom metrics Your goal with an ad is to get people to: a. Pay attention to it b. Watch it c. Buy from it 3 metrics we track to imitate this pattern? d. Thumb-stop Rate to measure if they pay attention ⤷ formula: (1st 2sec. video plays/ impressions)*100 ⤷ benchmark: 25%+ or the hook isn’t attention-grabbing To Increase it, → Use Call out Hooks → Use Comparison Hooks → Use Viral Organic Hooks e. Hold rate to measure if they watch ⤷ formula: (ThruPlay/ impressions) *100 ⤷ benchmark: 8%+ or people aren't watching. To Increase it, → Shorten the Ad → Agitate more pain points → Use actors with better energy f. Click-through rate to measure if they click ⤷ formula: click/impressions ⤷ benchmark: 1%+ or people aren't taking action. To Increase it, → Use More Social Proof → Use Urgency or Scarcity → Clarify the CTA Simple. 90% of marketers don’t know what they’re doing. Be the exception. Track metrics that represent the viewers' actions. 3. Automate Media Buying Our ad account testing structure that drops CACs by 72% for clients: Pre-launch structure: - Ad budget optimization (ABO) - Broad targeting (Geo. + Demo. filters only) - 5 Creatives max in 1 Ad Set (1 concept & variations) Post-launch analysis: - Performance is monitored for 3-7 days before making changes. - After spending 3x AOV, If ads underperform, we shut them down. - After spending 3x AOV, If ads perform, budget goes up by 30-50%. We follow that pattern every 36-48 hours. If performance is steady for 5 days, we duplicate ads to a scaling campaign. That's it. eCom can cost $100k+ in Ads with 0 ROI. Done right, eCom will net you $1M+. P.S. If high CAC stops you from scaling your FB & TT Ads, DM.

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How to make viral posts on LinkedIn to get thousands of new leads and clients? I didn't know that this could be done systematically, but I've met Dmitry Nekrasov, founder @ Jetmetrics Dmitry with his own hands systematically creates VIRAL posts on LinkedIn, which additionally generate tens of thousands of $ in income for his company 🚀 It's real fact. See in the attached photo what Dima does with his content, attracting up to 4,000 leads for his business from one LinkedIn post 🙀💥 And I've long nurtured the idea of doing Community Sprints, where experts share their professional experience, and participants put it into practice and meet new people in the community to develop themselves and their business. The idea of Community Sprints came to me after acceleration in Startup Wise Guys, where we studied new skills together with experts for 5-10 days and immediately put them into practice. So, we created our first sprint to share the knowledge of making VIRAL content on LinkedIn. During the sprint each participant will try to create their first VIRAL post to generate new incoming leads under Dmitry Nekrasov's guidance. Based on our experience, every person can achieve this in 2 weeks and generate hundreds of leads from a single post, regardless of their current activity on LinkedIn 🔥 How to join our sprint: ✏ Just drop a comment “Community Sprint” to this post ⚠️ Make sure we're connected 🦄 I will send all details in DM Stay Tuned! ✌️ #sales #b2b #viralcontent

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Sales is hard. A lot of us in Sales however sometimes focus too much on new pipeline and forget about existing pipeline after 1-2 touches (usually). Huge mistake. The real gains are in the proper follow ups with value. So don't forget to go back to that prospect. Send that 1 extra email with something of value to the prospect. Make that phone call. Not tomorrow. Not after breakfast. But Now!! (paraphrasing the last line from one of the greatest movies of all times "Shawshank Redemption). #sales #b2b

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Pricing tiers are not for different customer segments. You can achieve the same revenue for your product at different price points by multiplying the price by the number of licenses sold. However, you will ultimately end up with a very contrasting product. Let’s compare three different CRM companies with distinct Average Revenue Per Account: Company A - Sells to small companies with an ARPA of $100 and 10,000 customers. Company B - Sells to Mid-sized companies with an ARPA of $1,000 and 1,000 customers. Company C - Sells to Enterprise with an ARPA of $10,000 and 100 customers. These three companies have the same revenue. You have to expect their customers’ demands to be different, and their value proposition is unique. Otherwise, customers would be buying the cheapest product. At this point, you may think, “EUREKA! I could capture the market by offering a tiered pricing structure!” Startup > Mid(Pro) > Enterprise By doing that, you could capture the three complementary areas of the demand curve and grow significantly faster. Except that strategy doesn’t work 90%+ of the time. You can see the proof in the CRM industry: Salesforce struggles to sell to small companies. Hubspot prioritizes SMEs over enterprise clients. While some CRMs try to cater to all segments, they rarely cross the chasm to dominate larger markets. Many companies still default to the Startup > Pro > Enterprise tiers, but this is often a bad habit. An Enterprise customer might have minimal digital marketing needs, while a startup could require full automation. For instance, telling a startup to pay $1,000 more for SSO and compliance to get API access reserved for Enterprise customers will likely lead them to seek cheaper alternatives or “workarounds” (aka Gambiarra in pt_br). A Smarter Approach: Feature-Specific Add-ons A much better option would be having the API access as an add-on to the product. The same goes for SSO. That would create opportunities to expand the ARPA without necessarily trying to appeal to a new group of customers. When should you have different pricing tiers?  When you’re helping your target customer complete a new job, it has to get done. Take Canva, for example. They introduced a new “Canva for Teams” tier to serve the distinct job of collaborative design work. This tier includes features like brand kits, template locking, and approval workflows essential for teams creating visual content together. By recognizing this distinct job and making a dedicated tier for it, Canva effectively served a group of its current customers who were missing some features and expanded its market. PS: Pricing is tricky, but it is also cool. I’ll be geeking out on it for a while.

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SaaS Founders do you want a growth shortcut? Give me the next 5 minutes and I will show you how to get your first 100 users scientifically Comment “playbook” below to get the free action guide (no opt-in)

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Scaling from $5M to $50M ARR: Strategies for SaaS Growth As a SaaS company, reaching $5 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is a significant milestone. It demonstrates market validation, product-market fit, and a solid foundation for growth. But how do you scale from this point to $50 million ARR and beyond? Here are some strategies to consider: 1. Focus on Customer Success: Prioritize customer satisfaction and retention. Happy customers are your best advocates and contribute to long-term revenue growth. Implement proactive customer support, gather feedback regularly, and iterate on your product to meet evolving needs. 2. Expand Your Market Reach: Identify adjacent markets or industries where your solution can provide value. Invest in marketing and sales efforts to penetrate new segments while continuing to serve your existing customer base effectively.   3. Invest in Sales and Marketing: Build a scalable sales engine by hiring and training top sales talent. Experiment with various marketing channels to find what works best for your target audience. Utilize data-driven approaches for lead generation, nurturing, and conversion optimization. 4. Enhance Your Product Offering: Continuously innovate and add new features to stay ahead of the competition. Explore opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and expanding your product line to increase Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). 5. Optimize Operational Efficiency: Streamline internal processes and workflows to improve productivity and reduce costs. Leverage automation and technology solutions to scale without exponentially increasing overhead. 6. Foster a Strong Company Culture: Cultivate a culture of innovation, collaboration, and accountability. Hire employees who align with your company values and provide opportunities for professional growth and development. 7. Secure Strategic Partnerships: Form partnerships with complementary SaaS providers, resellers, or industry influencers to extend your reach and access new customers. Collaborate on co-marketing initiatives, integrations, or joint product offerings to create mutual value. 8. Stay Agile and Adaptive: Remain flexible and responsive to market dynamics and customer feedback. Continuously monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjust your strategies accordingly. Scaling a SaaS company from $5 million to $50 million ARR requires a combination of strategic planning, operational excellence, and relentless execution. By focusing on customer success, expanding your market reach, investing in sales and marketing, enhancing your product offering, optimizing operational efficiency, fostering a strong company culture, securing strategic partnerships, and staying agile and adaptive, you can position your company for sustainable growth and long-term success. What strategies have you found most effective for scaling your SaaS company? Share your thoughts in the comments below! #SaaS #GrowthStrategy #Scaling #Entrepreneurship

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UPDATE: For anybody who hasn't received the link: https://bit.ly/49qrWnj Customer lifetime value (LTV) to customer acquisition costs (CAC) is a super common ratio in SaaS, but it's a bit tricky to calculate in Micro SaaS LTV:CAC is meant to communicate how well you convert your marketing spend into valuable long-term customers. Think of it as a litmus test for your sales and marketing efforts. It's a good indicator of your startup's growth potential and long-term value. Check out Chang Chen's SaaS LTV & CAC calculation template below. The ideal figure can vary by industry, but a general benchmark is 3:1 (think: you need to generate $3 for every $1 you spend acquiring customers). At the end of the day it's a common metric for measuring unit economics. A high LTV to CAC ratio shows your business is profitable at the customer (aka unit) level. Now a few words of caution: Measuring LTV requires that you've been around long enough to establish base rates for customer lifetime (aka how long, on average, a customer stays with you) LTV is paid over a series of months so if you invest a ton of cash to acquire a customer, just know it takes a while to a) get paid back and b) realize a profit so utilize your overarching marketing budget accordingly Also, remember, optimizing your LTV to CAC Ratio isn't just about reducing marketing spend, etc. — it's about attracting the right customers who demonstrate retention and high revenue contribution... Regardless, I hope this calculation template is useful! If you're interested, comment below! If you're hitting the benchmark and looking to exit soon: Follow me and let's connect! #MicroSaaS #Startups #Investing #Fundraising #Strategy #Tech

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No surprise, but still many companies out there without a CRM. My personal best three CRMs based on the size of your business: Pipedrive For small business/ startups/ medium SaaS. Easy to set up, relatively cheap, integrates with key sales tools. Not great in case you want to have it cutomized, add more flows and funnels. HubSpot For medium business/ medium to large SaaS/ service companies. Better more complex processes and for opportunities/ clients management and outreach in one place. Can be a bit expensive if you want to have all the functionality. Salesforce For large companies which want to have all processes in one place. A very complex and complicated solution, but which can be customized per needs of a particular company. Still one of the leaders but with a high check. So only for those who can afford it. Which CRMs are you using?

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Harris's post on RevOps and enhancing communication methods was great. I appreciated his insights, particularly around the use of emotional intelligence and the RACI framework. It's crucial to consider classic project management frameworks and strategies as RevOps grows in scope and sophistication. They work! #RevOp #Entrepreneurship #Communication

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SaaS Founders Cut The Risk to Get Your First 100 Users. Give me the next 3 minutes and I'll share how you can exploit the methods that lead to successful moonshots to cut the risk to getting your first 100 users. Comment playbook below and I'll share my systematic method to getting market feedback on your product with simple $3 tests.

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Say Hello to Pipedrive Agent in Gen AI Apps 🤖 We have launched 3 pre-built Gen AI Apps to help your business 👇 🔥 Linkedin -> PipeDrive ( Update Headline and Company ) P.S.: You can also use Bulk Generation in this Gen AI App. We will soon publish a video on how you can use it. In the meantime, feel free to contact me if you want to use it. Try it: https://lnkd.in/d6VD4uZv 🔥 Ask PipeDrive About Contacts Try it: https://lnkd.in/dRWuYnR8 🔥 Ask PipeDrive About Deals Try it: https://lnkd.in/dVbcbrmx #emplerai #genaiapps #generativeai #AIagent #PipeDrive

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The SaaS Graveyard - a cruel place… I've posted this before - but I keep running into companies with this exact issue. A SaaS CCO even called it “The quadrant of death”, which makes it sound even crueler… How do you end up there? It’s quite simple, there are 3 working sales methods. 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 You sell a high-priced product and can allow yourself to have long sales cycles and many touchpoints Think: Salesforce, Oracle, Zuora 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗳-𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 You sell a low-priced product and have to keep a very low acquisition cost, meaning you can’t afford human-to-human interactions. Think: Canva, Figma, ChatGPT 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 Sellers can use scripts, be trained easily and sales are done in 1 or 2 meetings Think: SaaS SME selling. Seems easy right - Why in the world would anyone choose to to go with another model? Especially one with high acquisition costs and low prices? Because they forget to transition. Before SaaS companies close their first sale the founders will spend an enormous amount of time with potential customers, not only to sell, but to understand pain points, the problems they need to solve, and not least the value they provide equalling how much they can charge. That is how any B2B SaaS gets its first clients. • If they can charge a lot, they can allow themselves to pivot towards a higher acquisition cost. (especially if they have their backpacks filled with VC money) • If they can charge very little they will have to look towards models with low acquisition costs. • Or, they can try to solve bigger problems, deliver more value, and raise prices. But what often happens, especially with VC money in the back, Is that the only focus is that the product can be sold - not that the cost of acquisition, in the long run, will be way too high, and then a model transition never happens or might happen too late.

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Unpopular Opinion: A great product is NOT enough in the SaaS business. If you want to stand out, you need to up your game. I agree that "a great product" is crucial but only part of the equation. Here is the mini masterclass of standing out in the SaaS industry and achieving exponential growth: 1. 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 A satisfied customer is your biggest win. Focus on their success - help them achieve their goals using your product. 2. 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 The tech world is constantly changing. Regularly update your product to meet changing needs. 3. 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Clearly explain what sets you apart. Make it easy for customers to see why they should pick you. 4. 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 Invest in SEO, content marketing, and PPC advertising. Remember, your product won't sell if people don't know about it. 5. 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 Keep your pricing simple and understandable. No one likes a hidden charge. Which one do you think is most essential for standing out? . . . #SaaS #MarketingStrategy #GrowthTips -- If you want to take your SaaS business to the next level with a professional marketing strategy without spending all your funding on Ads or hiring a full-time CMO, you can hire me as your fCMO, fractional means having an executive-level marketing expert as part of the team for a fraction of the cost. Let's go!!! DM me now!!!

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