Short, daily emails from a friend in the trenches. I’ll share what works and what doesn’t as we build Accoil Analytics, a B2B SaaS company.Each email 500 words or less. Each one based on the planning, execution, and reflection of growing a B2B SaaS company in a competitive market.
how to achieve nothing
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If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything at anytime, and would achieve nothing. -- Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of the UK. I don't know if anyone needs to hear that today. It's ok to do things that are good for your business but may make some people not like you. In fact, it's more than ok. It's the only way to grow a business or a product or even personally.
That doesn't mean it's ok to act like an asshole. Kindness still matters. It also doesn't mean we're responsible for how someone chooses to react. If you and I behave like adults and show empathy and respect when making tough decisions, how others choose to respond is up to them. Thatcher, aka The Iron Lady, also said "When I'm out of politics I'm going to run a business, it'll be called rent-a-spine." I think I like Margaret Thatcher. Peter PS: I'm doing budgets and planning soon. Would you like to see some of the tools and/or ways we do our budgets and forecasts? |
Target Burn
Short, daily emails from a friend in the trenches. I’ll share what works and what doesn’t as we build Accoil Analytics, a B2B SaaS company.Each email 500 words or less. Each one based on the planning, execution, and reflection of growing a B2B SaaS company in a competitive market.
I wrote yesterday about getting on a plane to meet people. Another benefit of standing in front of someone is body language. In-person selling doesn't scale well, but it's the fastest feedback we'll ever get. When we're talking to the right person -- someone who can and should buy our product -- it's easy to see when a pitch resonates. When we say the right words, two exciting things happen. Eyes widen and shoulders lean in. When a pitch is even a little bit off, we get polite nods and...
Who do you want to meet that would change the course of your business? If you're not willing to get on a plane to meet them in person, you're missing a huge opportunity. I'll save you all the terrible analogies (including the one about online dating vs meeting in real life). Meeting someone. Shaking his or her hand. Breaking bread across a table. It creates a connection you will never get from LinkedIn comments. It may feel like a lot of money to book a flight, pay for a hotel room, get the...
So much marketing advice and guidance is about how we take our message to our customers. What if you want customers to come to you instead? I'm not talking about 'inbound marketing.' That works, too, but this is something a bit different. Let's call it the Oopsy Daisy. If you want to have more customer conversations, but find it hard to get anyone to talk to you. Break something on purpose. We've done this in software. I've done it with service reports. And I bet you can find a way to "break"...