Pre-selling your software before you’ve even built it is a very attractive idea. Think about it: You get people to buy a concept, take that money and use it to build the software, and then you launch it to everyone else. ...All with no money out-of-pocket.

When I was building my company, Flowtown, I remember one of our potential investors talking about Expansion Revenue. I thought “Uhh… okay. What the heck is that?” You don’t wanna learn about this stuff FROM potential investors. Staring at them wide-eyed when they outsmart you doesn’t exactly scream ‘good investment’. But now I know how to use upselling to increase customer retention and leverage Expansion Revenue. It makes a real difference. I’ve used it in my own businesses and now

In my career, I’ve hired dozens of salespeople… and I made some big mistakes when I did. Expensive mistakes. In my 20s I hired a guy and paid him $80k salary and all he did was talk about how he was going to close big deals… without ever doing it! For a whole year, this guy promised me the world and delivered absolutely zero value. And I actually paid him for it! Compare that to now: Last week I hired

If you’re in sales, you never want to come off like this: “Listen here, pal… This is the product you need and it will definitely solve all your problems! 100%! If you don't buy this today, you and your company will regret it for the rest of your life!” I call this having “Commission Breath”. Everytime I hire a sales person, at some point this happens. 

I recently spoke at Traffic & Conversion in San Diego when the topic of product demos came up. And what I realized was quite simple but profound: Everyone has a demo problem. I mean… ev-ery-one. And I’m willing to bet that if you were to look at your own business right now, you’re either lacking enough demos to really make a dent in your growth…

I was 24 when I closed my first enterprise level SaaS deal. I had recently started Spheric Technologies and decided to go straight to the heavy hitters. We’re talking Fortune 500 companies like Johnson & Johnson, American Express and Procter & Gamble. (guess the JFDI ethos was alive and well)  ;-) And while I had an amazing team of coaches and mentors around me (and an endless supply of Grade A boldness) to carry me through those early deals, they

Some of you are gonna hate me for even saying this. Might even have some intense fist-shaking action. But it’s gotta be said. There is such a thing as having too many leads.  

Not all leads are created equal. Even if you’ve dialed in your ideal customer profile and built out your distribution channels to only attract the perfect prospect… ...you’re still gonna have to implement systems and filters to separate your buyers from your tire kickers. This is especially true in the scaling phase where spending too much time with non-buyers will tax your sales team, inspire bad decisions with “false negatives”, and create a whole slew of crushing inefficiencies. After taking

Prospect: “Great product. It’s just not a now thing” You: “Okay cool. Totally get it. Thanks for your time.” Boom. That right there is a masterclass on how to blow a SaaS deal, deprive a would-be customer of the value they could’ve received, and being forced to go back to your team with your tail between your legs.

Want to know the quickest way to kill your company and team morale? It’s super easy. Invest tens of thousands of dollars and man hours in building your software, only to find out after the fact that your market couldn’t care less. Done. Now you can happily go back to whatever world you just left behind. On the flipside, if you want to launch your startup the smart way by pre-selling your product BEFORE you build it…