If nobody’s pushing back on your pricing…
That’s a problem.
You might be thinking:
“But Dan.. isn’t it a good thing that everyone’s saying YES to my price without resistance? Why would I want to rock that boat?”
Simply put: Read More
Sales
Are you acting like a 5 year old when demoing your product?
Last week my son Max (5) asked me to help him with his show & tell presentation.
So I taught him a simple 3 step process.
- Start with the problem. (Story)
- Pick 3 benefits & features to highlight (Demo)
- Ask if they want to play afterwards (CTA)
These 3 steps are just a compressed version of what I teach my SaaS coaching clients… focus on the pain, peg it to benefits delivered via features and go for the close.
What do you think the other kids did? Read More
All SaaS companies need sales people.
Even products like Dropbox & Slack have sales teams.
If you look at the Montclare SaaS 250 list, they all have sales teams.
So why do startups push off making this hire for so long?
It’s usually because they don’t know what to look for and are scared that a new fancy pants sales person wouldn’t close enough deals to cover their cost.
A totally legit concern.
But one you need to quickly blast through if you have any serious hopes of scaling. Read More
Have you ever been talked into do something you knew was dumb?
*raises hand*
Back when I was scaling my company Spheric Technologies, a friend introduced me to his buddy who did outsourced sales.
Essentially, a quick fix “easy button” for business owners who can’t be bothered to take full control of the lifeblood of their business. Smart right? 😉
His big promise was that he could get me scheduled meetings with qualified buyers for our services…
… so I gave him a try.
The cost was about $5K/month + a $5K setup, so I gave it a try to see if it would move the needle.
My average deal size was $60K, so I figured just one new customer every month would be a huge win. No brainer, right? Read More
How much does it cost you to acquire a customer?
Understanding that will help you understand your model.
Most founders think it’s just the cost of your advertising spend.
Nope.
It’s everything you spend on marketing (people + ad spend + contractors, etc) AND sales (everyone involved in the process + tools, etc)…
And that still doesn’t include anyone you might have to qualify, or the cost of running webinars, etc. Read More
I can still remember the moment I became a millionaire.
It took 10 years of failing, getting back up, testing, iterating till finally at 27 years old it happened.
I can still remember the specific moment when I found out.
I was cruising in my broke down, decade old Jetta when my accountant Marc called me to break the news.
He was more excited for me than I was only because he knew how hard I had been working.
Also, he knew in the beginning that I almost lost it all after booking a bunch of revenue and sitting on receivables that were delayed in getting paid.
It almost killed the business.
To say it was a tough journey would be an understatement but what I want to share are the 6 skills that my mentors taught me about creating wealth. Read More
What if you could get on a stage in front of an audience filled with your perfect customers and tell them about your software?
That’s what webinars are like.
In 2010 my buddy Lewis Howes stopped by our office in San Francisco preaching them as a sales tool, and that’s when I first got introduced to the power of leverage.
You get the opportunity to attract, teach and present an offer for your solution that will solve their problem…
And if you do it right, you can get them to pre-pay for years up-front in advance to help you fund future marketing initiatives to scale your startup.
That’s the promise I’m making in this week’s video.
Now, before you think I’m over hyping it… just think about it. Read More
Have you ever cold emailed the CEO of a public company?
When I was 18 I sent out 20.
I knew I needed advice to build my company, and figured they might have the answer…
… so I found the list of top tech CEO’s at the time, and sent them an email with a simple question:
Everyone argues that it’s who you know (network), what you know (education) and perseverance (not giving up) that are required to be successful.
If you had to pick just one of these three, which would it be?
That was it, very little context, super specific with an ask…
My favourite response was from Mark Cuban (this was 15 years before he ever invested in my company, and to this day I don’t think I’ve told him this :). Read More
Can you build a thriving software business without writing code?
Can you generate real revenues without having anything built?
The answer is yes, and I personally believe that it’s the only way to do it.
A couple weeks ago I was in San Francisco hosting my Sales Pipeline Intensive event for my SaaS Academy clients, and one of the speakers John (founder of five9.com, $1.2B saas company) echoed a similar sentiment…
It was funny because we hadn’t connected prior to his talk.
So I did some research on his latest company JetBridge.com, and it mentioned all the different areas they were innovating sales using AI/Machine Learning, and when he comes up, he just smiled and said “oh, all that’s bullshit” ???? Read More
What would it feel like hiring 150 sales people for your company in 6 months?
That’s the question I asked Scot, the founder of Classy, a few months ago.
I’ll fast track his answer… essentially, he started out for many years being the primary salesperson, then hired around him, but remained inseparable from that process.
After years of hustling and grinding he eventually hired his first VP of Sales.
I still remember our first advisory board meeting and how excited I got about their new plans to scale sales.
How did he do it? Read More
