Zero to 100 is a learning program from David Skok. It is a detailed instruction manual for how to take your startup from zero to $100m, with a particular focus on the area of building a go-to-market machine. So many of today’s founders come from a product or technical background, and have never been involved with sales and marketing. Right after starting their venture, they are hit with the huge problem of how to build their go-to-market organization and processes. It breaks the journey down into 9 steps, and explains why it is crucial not to skip steps in this journey in the rush to get ahead. The major emphasis of the course focuses on building a repeatable, scalable and profitable growth machine. Once you have that in place, you are ready to hit the gas and scale like crazy. To see videos of the presentations, click here: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/matrix-growth-academy-zero-to-100-videos/

1. BUILDING A REPEATABLE, SCALABLE
& PROFITABLE GROWTH PROCESS[ ]

2. Building a repeatable, scalable
& profitable growth machine
Scaling the Business
Search for Product/Market Fit
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model

3. Before we get there, let’s spend a minute on PMF
Search for Product/Market Fit

4. Greatest mistake: Design, Build, Sell
Search for Product/Market Fit
Test hypothesis
“What are we solving? How?”
Prove the Value
“What are we solving?
How?”
Prove it can be sold
“Will someone pay”
Build the MVP

5. Instead: Sell, Design, Build
Search for Product/Market Fit
Test hypothesis
“What are we solving? How?”
Prove the Value
“What are we solving?
How?”
Prove it can be sold
“Will someone pay”
Build the MVP

6. Why this advice is so hard to follow
Founders from technical and product backgrounds not
comfortable with prospecting or cold calling
Solution: LinkedIn (and/or Google Adwords)

7. Credit: Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt:
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch
hole.”

9. Don’t be afraid to do a consulting project
• Really understand the
customer’s environment
• Flesh out the “whole product”
requirements
• Make sure it actually works
and delivers the business
benefits

10. Good Evidence of Product Market Fit
• A number of customers have purchased
• Referenceable
• Customers are happy
• Using the product
• Would be very reluctant to give it up
• Realizing the promised benefits
• Evidence of intent to expand usage
• Churn is low

11. Predictable, Repeatable, Scalable, Profitable Growth
Scaling the Business
Search for Product/Market Fit
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model

12. The key sign that you’re getting there:
Bookings - (NOT Revenue or ARR!)
For SaaS:
Bookings = Net New ARR
(New + Expansion – Churned)
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7

13. ARR with Flat Bookings ARR with Growing Bookings
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7

14. Phase 4. and 5.
Find a repeatable Sales Motion
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model
4 5
Find
Repeatable
Sales Motion
Prove non-
Founders can
sell
3
Prove it can
be sold

15. At the beginning: No clear sales path

16. By the end: Well understood path

17. What are we trying to learn?
• Which target market?
• Who in the organization to sell to?
• What pain / use case to target?
• What messaging?
• What sales motion?
• What pricing?
• What new product features are needed

18. Deliverables
• Marketing Playbook
• Sales Playbook
• Customer Success Playbook
• Renew and Upsell Playbook

19. Example NewCo Sales Process (Playbook)
Definition Activities Milestones
Clearly identify whether the
Opportunity continues through the
Sales Process. Conduct a 2-way
exchange of Prospect’s business
challenges, pain, objectives and
goals.
Document and confirm we
understand Prospect’s goals,
objectives, business challenges
and pain. What is the potential
business impact and value-add
with NewCo.
Justify the specific Newco
solution to the key decision
makers. Justify solution with
business case, ROI, custom demo,
technical review, customer case
studies where applicable.
Agreement / Contract has been
delivered to prospect and
agreement to steps as chosen
vendor to complete procurement
cycle.
Validate next steps in the
evaluation process including the
criteria and decision process.
Present solution to champion and
executive sponsor. Quantify value
and dollarize opportunity in SFDC
 Ability to dollarize the solution
 Define use case(s) and map solutions value to prospects corporate strategy
 Perform demonstration to the Champion that addresses prospects Pain, Goals and
Objectives
 Confirm decision criteria, process, budget, timeframe
 Present detailed sequence of events / closing plan
 Deliver custom demonstration to all relevant stakeholders (PoC)
 Collaborate and present business case justification, Identify power user and project
team
 Discuss and present standard onboarding document & Integration review and technical
gaps addressed
 Engage Legal and Procurement
 Update Customer Success section within Opportunity record
 Negotiation on legal, price and business terms
 Schedule and complete references
 Alignment call with customer success team as required
 Finalize order document and vendor approval process
 Contract signature / Initiate Customer on-boarding process
 Identify timeframe, compelling events, current environment
 Pitch and present focused on strategic value
 Identify executive sponsor to continue evaluation along with additional stakeholders,
technical influencers, budget holder, economic buyer
 General pricing & budgeting discussion
 Identify prospect is at the influencing level and there’s interest in evaluating NewCo.
Identify Critical Business Issues, other potential influencers. Is the prospect trying to:
- Achieve a Goal
- Solve a Problem
- Satisfy a Need
 Framing, Diagnostic and Confirmation Questions
• Solution development / Menu of
goals
• Pre call plan / confirm persona
• Critical Business Issues
• “Get before you give”
• Solution development prompter
• Menu of goals
• Plausible emergency
• Champion letter
• Sphere of Influence
• Sequence of Events / Timeframe
• Customer stories
• Demonstration
• Order Form / Terms of Service
• Technical Documentation
• On boarding documents
• Alignment call
• References
Qualify
Discovery
Validation
Proof
Due
Diligence
1
2
3
4
5
$
“Why Change?”
“Why Now?”
“Who / How?”
“Why us?”
“When?”
Tactics / Tools
 Identify Pain and Tactical
Challenges in Organization
 Uncover key Metrics and
Strategic Initiatives
 Mutual agreement to evaluate
 Chosen vendor
 Confirm legal complete
 Sign order form
 Identify Champion
 Identify Executive Sponsor
 Define, Influence, Confirm the
Decision Criteria
 Qualify your Champion
 Document the Decision Process
 Access to Executive Sponsor,
executive sponsor and confirm
budget
 Prospect approves solution
 Confirm IT approval & legal process
 Confirm access to budget holder &
signer
 Mutual agreement on business case
justification

20. Where do you start?

21. Fire Up an Initial Lead Source

22. Team:
• Founders
• Aided by Pathfinder/Trailblazer Sales Rep

23. Pathfinder/Trailblazer Sales People
• Not like ordinary sales people – who follow a playbook
• They have to create and evolve the playbook

24. Goal: Pick one target market

25. … with a clear Use Case
Use Case Benefit

26. Why?
• “Whole Product”
• Features, integrations, and partnerships needed for
each use case are different
• Deciding on one cuts the feature list to a manageable
level
• Prospect targeting becomes far easier
• Salespeople get smarter faster on how to talk
to the customers about their business

27. Messaging is far more powerful
• Example – for Corvana - an AI powered Smart BI system
• Broad messaging:
• Our Smart BI software will automatically surface insights in your data
• Sales use-case messaging:
• Our Smart Sales Intelligence software
• Automatically tracks all of the important funnel indicators
• Will pro-actively warn you as soon as any indicator shows a potential problem.
• Allows you to fix problems early before they affect your bookings number

28. Recommended Starting Point
Make a list of your best ideas
for potential target markets

29. Score Them
Examples of
Target Market Choices
TAM
Pain level / Urgency
and
Willingness & Ability
to pay
Amount of work
required to satisfy
their needs
Enterprises
High score here means
low amount of work
Mid-market
SMB
Venture Backed HiTech
companies
Financial Vertical
Note these target markets are just examples. Your own list of possible targets will vary.

30. Hair on Fire Urgency is key to success
• Buyers resist change
• Without urgency you will have:
many good conversations
but long sales cycles
and few closed deals

31. Ideal Customer Profile - ICP
Ideal Prospect
Characteristics
• Industry:
• eCommerce companies
• Size:
• Mid-market - Revenues: $5m to $100m
• Current tech stack:
• ExactTarget, Responsys, etc.
• Uses Shopify Plus, Magento, etc.
• Other:
• More than 20,000 names in their email list
Negative Characteristics
• Enterprises - likely to have the
following characteristic:
• Separate fiefdoms that will stop
marketing from making an integrated
decision
• Different marketing channels owned by
different teams
• Separate analytics and data science team
that work with their marketers

32. Messaging
• Business benefits, not product features
• Clear
• Simple
• Short
• Explains differentiation from competition

33. Positioning Statement
• For Who?
• Who needs What?
• Our Category?
• Provides: Key Benefits
• Unlike Key Competitors
• We provide Key Differentiators

34. Define our Growth Process
XXX YYY

35. [ ]BUYER-CENTRIC FUNNEL DESIGN

36. WHY DO WE NEED
A GROWTH PROCESS?

37. MyProduct.com
HOW IT WORKS
DESCRIPTION
Our collaboration
product allows you
…
BUY NOW!
Only $9,999
In a perfect world…

38. WHY DOESN’T
THIS WORK?

39. BUYER QUESTIONS
AND CONCERNS
BUYING PROCESS

40. How do we respond?

41. Break the process down into a series of steps…
Design a series of steps
that we want customers to go through
Website Free Trial Purchase

42. Results in a Funnel
Not all people entering the first step will get to the second, etc.

43. Studying Funnel Blockage Points
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects

44. The Source of most Problems
Vendor
Centric

45. NOT MOTIVATED TO DO
THAT THEY ARE
CUSTOMERS WILL DO
SOMETHING
YOU ARE HOPING YOUR

46. A better way to approach to Funnel Design
Buyer
Centric
Buyer-Centric

47. THE BUYERS JOURNEY

48. THE BUYERS JOURNEY
Awareness Consideration Purchase

49. Mismatch:
Sales often handle every lead as though they were in the Purchasing phase
I’m paid to sell. I better be selling.

50. Likely Distribution of Web Site Visitors
Vendor
Web Site
80%
Awareness
15%
Consideration
5%
Purchase

51. Different Dialog and Content for each stage
Awareness Consideration Purchase
• Create Problem & Pain
awareness
• Discuss how people are
solving
• Discuss benefits people are
seeing
• Don’t mention your product
• Don’t sell!
• Help in choosing a particular
solution
• Explain how your Product
can solve their pain
• Free Trial / Demo
• Customer stories
• Nurture with regular content
(Newsletter)
• Case studies
• Results achieved
• How you helped achieve
them
• Other proof points
• Customer references
• ROI data

52. • Just lost my data in hard drive crash
• Backup software/service
• Starting a new software project
• Dev Tools, etc.
• Performance issues with existing app
• APM tools
• Difficulties tracking bugs across multi-tier apps
• Bug tracking software
TRIGGERS

53. Buyer Personae
Who is involved in the buying process?
Champion Economic Buyer
/ Decision Maker
IT required for sign off

54. Getting to know your Buyer Personae
• Identifying Characteristics
• Company Profile (your ICP)
• Any special characteristics relevant to this purchase
• E.g. Developers:
• Don't have a budget
• Prefer Open Source, and don't like to pay for software
• Professional Role
• What does a day in their life look like?
• Key business goals?
• What does their Boss expect of them?
• How does our product help them achieve those?
• Motivations / Aspirations?
• What would make their job easier?

55. Getting to know your Buyer Personae
• What pain do they have that we address?
• Is it latent pain, or obvious pain?
• How do they describe the pain and what they are looking for?
• (Helpful for messaging)
• Is solving this pain a high priority for them?
• If not, what features would make it a higher priority?
• What are the triggers that cause them to buy?

56. Getting to know your Buyer Personae
• Are they searching for a solution?
• If yes, how do they go about doing that?
• Who influences them? (Sites, organizations, and people)
• (Helps us figure out how to market to them)
• Most important features? Decision criteria?
• What are their reactions to our product/company?
• What will they like?
• What will they not like?
• What are the main questions and concerns they have?
• What competitors will they also evaluate?
• What will they like or dislike about each of those?

57. [ ]FUNNEL DESIGN
GET INSIDE YOUR BUYER’S HEAD

58. Designing a Growth Process to match Buyer’s Journey
Strangers VisitorsAttract CustomersCloseLeadsConvert PromotersDelight
Awareness PurchaseInterest
Post
Purchase

59. Top of Funnel
Drive the right traffic
that matches your
ICP and convert to
raw leads
Middle of Funnel
Convert raw leads
into MQLs
Sales
Convert MQLs into
closed deals
Customer Success
Onboard, support and
ensure customer
success as measured by
a customer KPI
Designing a Growth Process to match Buyer’s Journey
Strangers VisitorsAttract CustomersCloseLeadsConvert PromotersDelight
Credit: HubSpot
Awareness PurchaseInterest
Post
Purchase

60. Top of Funnel
Inbound Marketing
Paid Marketing
Website
Strangers Conversion
Event
Raw
Lead
Outbound
SDR’s
Account-based Mktg
Targeted
Strangers
Mktg
Qualified
Lead
Qualify?

61. Account Based Marketing
• ICP powers all marketing
• Ideal Customer Profile
• Build lists of matching accounts
• Discover.org, Lead Fox, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, etc.
• Track who is in buying cycles
• Visiting G2 Crowd, Bombora
• Track which companies are on your website
• Targeted outreach
• Aircover from Ads
Thanks to Eric Spett, Terminus

62. Middle of Funnel
Raw
Lead
Lead
Scoring
Lead
Nurturing
Database
High
Low
Nurture
Webinars, events,
newsletters, etc.
Enrich
Use software like
ClearBit to enrich
the email address
to identify company,
job title, etc.
Segment
Identify interesting
segments based on
attributes (verticals,
job functions, etc.)
or actions
Mktg
Qualified
Lead
Yes
No
Qualify?

63. Mktg
Qualified
Lead
Sales – Lead Stages
Qualify
Sales
Qualified
Lead
CustomerClose
Discovery
Call
Opportunity
Ready to
buy?
Sales
interaction
Note: Your process will likely be different, and there will be more Opportunity stages in your CRM pipeline

64. Initial Guess at Growth Process
Website Free Trial

65. Map Buyers Process to Your Steps
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Check
Review Sites
Evaluation
Website Free Trial
BUYER
VENDOR
ROI &
Justification

66. GET INSIDE YOUR BUYERS HEAD
How are they
reacting as they
go through our
funnel steps?
What are they
thinking as they
go through their
process?
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Check
Review Sites
Evaluation
Website Free Trial
BUYER
VENDOR
ROI &
Justification

67. Optimize Your Steps to Fit
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Check
Review Sites
Evaluation
Website
BUYER
VENDOR
ROI &
Justification
Free Trial
ROI
Calculator
Competitive
Features
Matrix

68. Optimize Your growth process to Fit
Research
Shortlist
Vendors
Check
Review Sites
Evaluation
Website
BUYER
VENDOR
ROI &
Justification
Free Trial
ROI
Calculator
Competitive
Features
Matrix
Incent
customers to
do reviews

69. ADDRESS ALL DECISION CRITERIA
Address
Security Concerns
3rd Party
Security Audit &
Whitepaper
BUYER
Is this a safe vendor
to choose?
• Customer Stories
• Safe Channel
Partners

70. Expand Lead Flow

71. Test and Optimize the Funnel Flow
Fix Conversion
Rate Problems
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects

72. Choosing a Go-to-Market Model
Freemium
Viral
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s

73. How I assumed the two would relate

74. A rough estimate of CAC versus Sales Complexity
Freemium
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s
$0-
$10
$50 –
$200
$1,000 -
$2,000
$3,000 -
$8,000
$25,000 –
$75,000
$75,000 –
$200,000
Rough Estimates of Cost of Customer Acquisition (CAC)

75. The relationship is roughly exponential
Clearly adding
Human Touch
dramatically
increases costs

76. Sales Complexity
CAC (logarithmic)
10x
10x
10x

77. The Red Zone
$1
$10
$100
$1,000
$10,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
Freemium No Touch Inside Sales Channel Field Sales
Sales Complexity 
CAC Logarithmic
Unprofitable:
LTV < CAC

78. Salesforce
disrupts Siebel
with a lower cost
sales model
due to SaaS
free trials
$1
$10
$100
$1,000
$10,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
Freemium No Touch Inside Sales Channel Field Sales
Sales Complexity 
CAC Logarithmic

79. Long Sales Cycles – Very Tough for Startups
Cycle time for learning is too long,
so very few cycles get executed

80. The Obvious Take-away
• Do everything you can to remove human touch
from sales and onboarding
• Or make the human touch as low cost and efficient
as possible

81. What creates Sales Complexity
• High Price point
• Complicated to evaluate?
• Integration needed with other systems?
• Multiple people involved in purchase decision?
• Risk to business of a bad buying decision?
• E.g. loss of data, business unable to operate if system is down, etc.
• Requires purchase of other products / services to complete the solution?
Freemium
Viral
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s

82. Start with the buyer
Understand the Complexity of your Sale
• Price point
• Larger investments need greater justification, & more levels of sign off
• How complicated to evaluate?
• Single person, or multiple people?
• Integration needed with other systems?
• How many people involved in the purchase decision?
• Risk to their business of a bad buying decision?
• E.g. loss of data, business unable to operate if system is down, etc.
• Does it require other products or services to be purchased to complete the solution?
Freemium
Viral
No Touch
Self-
Service
Light Touch
Inside
Sales
High Touch
Inside
Sales
Field Sales
Field Sales
with SE’s

83. Land & Expand
Much easier to get a large order
once the product is proven

84. Product-Led
Growth Models
$1
$10
$100
$1,000
$10,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
Freemium No Touch Inside Sales Channel Field Sales
Sales Complexity 
CAC Logarithmic

85. PQLs – (Product Qualified Leads)
Thanks to Christopher O’Donnell
conversion rate
1% 100%

86. Product Led Growth – the virtuous cycle
21%
66%
13%
Salesforce
R&D
Sales &
Marketing
G&A
55%
25%
20%
Atlassian
R&D
Sales &
Marketing
G&A
as a percentage of total expenses

87. Product Led Growth –
the virtuous cycle
Atlassian are spending 2.6 x more
of their expense dollars on R&D

88. What model should I pick, and do I need salespeople?
• While you are testing options for a repeatable sales model
• Don’t obsess about which model, as you are too early
• Instead focus on getting some sales, which will give you the data to decide
• When you have some sales
• Look at the complexity of:
• Your product
• Your buyer’s buying process
• Try redesigning
• Evolve to what model is the best fit
• Even in a Freemium model – salespeople can be powerful
• They can increase the average deal size by selling value higher in the organization
“Land and Expand” model

89. Phase 6. Make it scalable
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model
6
Make it
Scalable

90. Ideal Initial Sales Staffing
Close early-access sales Find Predictable and
Repeatable Sales Motion
Make it Scalable
Founders
1 more Pathfinder/Trailblazer Salesperson
Sales Director (willing to act as a Pathfinder/Trailblazer
rep for a few months)
2 Reps 2 Reps 2 Reps
Make it Profitable

91. Bookings
Driven by very simple math

92. Without Sales people
Leads
Simple linear relationship
Conversion
Rate
Average
Deal Size
x x

93. But when you add in Sales People…
Ramp
Time
Sales
Capacity
Limit

94. Growth comes in discontinuous units

95. What Drives Bookings?
No of
Sales People Productivity per Rep
(Average)
x
PPR

96. Lets look at each of these in turn…

97. Number of Sales People
One of the most common reasons for missing plan
Didn’t hire sales people fast enough

98. Sales Hiring
• You will need to build an in house recruiting machine
See my blog post:
“Recruiting: the third crucial Startup Skill”

99. PPR: Productivity per Rep
• Quality of sales hires
• Sales Training and
Onboarding

100. PPR: Sales Training and Onboarding
• Sales people: one of the most expensive resources
• Yet typically little effort put in to sales training in early days
• High payback
• Worth having the founders spend time to develop & deliver a lot of the material

101. Sales Onboarding at the Scaling Phase
• Section Titles
• Company Information
• Case Study & Stats
• Our Products
• Market Landscape
• Battlecards
• Account Executive Role
• MEDDIC Sales Methodolgy
• Customer Success
• Business Development Rep

102. There’s one other thing that drives PPR
Adequate Lead Flow

103. Etc.
Finding Scalable Lead Sources
Facebook Ads
Paid Search
Lead volume
Time
Paid lead sources tend to hit a limit

104. Generating your own traffic Versus SEM
Time
Traffic
Time
Traffic
 Pros:
 You own the traffic
 It builds on itself and becomes
larger than SEM over time
 Cons
 Requires great content to work
 Lower ROI at the start
 Pros:
 Faster ROI at the start
 Predictable costs and volume
 No reliance on great content
creating talent
 Cons
 Much more expensive over
time
Content Driven Traffic SEM Driven Traffic

105. Your first Marketing Hire
• The crucial marketing skill: knowing how to generate leads
• Often referred to as Demand Gen
• Forget branding, marcoms, etc.
• They are secondary to lead generation and funnel optimization
• Great marketing is all about execution
• Ideas are cheap
• Focus on their track record for getting things done

106. Phase 6 – Make it Scalable – Exit Criteria
• Predictable, Repeatable, Scalable
• Consistent growth in Bookings (not just ARR)
• Proof that you can add salespeople, and make them productive in a predictable way
• Proven lead sources that can scale
• Customers are consistently successful and happy

107. Deliverables at the End of the Process
Customer SuccessSalesMiddle of FunnelTop of Funnel
Strangers Visitors Leads Customers PromotersAttract CloseConvert Delight
Marketing Playbook Sales Playbook
Customer Success
Playbook
Sales Enablement
Tools
Onboarding and
Training Tools
Automation and Technology layer
What to say and do
at each stage
Metrics

108. Phase 7.
Ensure Customer Success
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model
7
Ensure
Customer
Success

109. Ensure Customer Success
• Has to be done at all phases
• But called out as a separate phase as it’s common to see churn increasing
as sales starts scaling

110. Possible Solutions
• Tighten definition of who is a good customer
• Understand the best and worst segments
• Don’t sell to the wrong customers
• Stop sales from over-promising, or selling when the fit with the customer is
poor
• Adjust sales compensation to reflect whether the customer stays or churns
• Improve the Product to fix areas that are causing customer unhappiness
• Improve onboarding
• And the customer success organization and processes

111. Common Mistakes
• Hitting the gas and accelerating when churn is still too high

112. Phase 8.
Make it profitable
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model
8
Make it
Profitable

113. Phase 8 – Exit Criteria
• Profitable Unit Economics:
• To be discussed later

114. Phase 9.
Hit the Gas and Scale!
Scaling the Business
9
Hit the Gas
and Scale

115. Scaling the Business
Search for Product/Market Fit
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model
Conserve Cash until the Scaling Phase
Cash Burn

116. Scaling the Business
Search for Product/Market Fit
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model
A common mistake…
• Not hiring enough sales
people in the Scaling phase
• Founders remain in burn
avoidance mode

117. Why Scale as fast as you can?
• Most tech markets are “Winner takes all”
• As soon as one company shows it can grow there will be fast followers
• You need to grow like crazy to become that winner
• You have a proven cash making machine, so can raise the funds needed

118. The Winner Takes All Flywheel
• Free traffic increases
• Word of mouth grows
• The leader gets attention from media
• Decision becomes “Why am I not buying from the leader?”
• Increasing integrations make the product more functional
• Barrier to entry for competitors
• Able to invest more in Sales & Marketing + Product
• Feeds the flywheel

119. SUMMARY

120. Recognize where you are in the lifecycle
Scaling the Business
Search for Product/Market Fit
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Test
Hypothesis
Prove the
Value
Prove it can
be sold
Find
Repeatable
Sales Motion
Prove non-
Founders can
sell
Make it
Scalable
Ensure
Customer
Success
Make it
Profitable
Hit the Gas
and Scale
Scale the org &
its processes
10
Etc.
11

121. Scaling the Business
Search for Product/Market Fit
Search for Repeatable & Scalable
& Profitable Growth Model
Prioritize what to do based on your stage
• Don’t jump ahead:
• Hiring too many sales people before the sales process is repeatable
• Expand internationally before you have nailed scaling profitably in the US
• Etc.

122. And now for some magic…

123. [ ]FIXING BROKEN FUNNELS
& TIME TO WOW!

124. Fixing broken funnels
by getting inside your
buyers head

125. FRICTION CONCERNS
Find the worst blockage point in your funnel

126. MOTIVATIONS
FRICTION CONCERNS
Re-design, or try to use what motivates them

127. EXAMPLE BLOCKAGE POINT
WEB SITE EMAIL CAPTURE FORM
Typically a low conversion step

128. FRICTION CONCERNS
Problem: Buyer’s fear Email Overload and Spam

129. MOTIVATIONS
FRICTION CONCERNS
We try to motivate with good content
But frequently irritate the buyer with the barrier that stops them
from getting at the content, and lose them at that step

130. Drift Redesign

131. OUTBOUND COLD CALLING

132. Outbound Cold Calling
Cold Call
Arrange
Meeting with
Sales Rep

133. FRICTION CONCERNS
Problem: No Buyer wants a cold call from a salesperson

134. MOTIVATIONS
FRICTION CONCERNS
Get inside your buyers head – look for a suitable
motivation

135. Redesign
Cold Outreach
Invitation to…
(something of
value)
• Educational Event
• Meet their peers
• See data that is of value
• See their own data in a new way
• Etc.
Build
Relationship
Build Trust

136. Use publicly accessible Data to build personalized assessments
Hi Barbara,
In doing a bit of research on fortinet.com, I noticed
that you’ve lost a significant amount of traffic to the
site (4,400 visits) over the past month. Is this
something the team is aware of or have any idea what
could have contributed to it? I also noticed while you
folks dropped off the 1stpage of Google in 11 searches,
there are tons of opportunities for your team (916
search opportunities!)
See below:

137. USING CHROME EXTENSIONS

138. CLEARBIT LEADS + DATA ENRICHMENT
New Leads
Enrich Existing
Leads

139. CLEARBIT
• Data Quality
• Highly skeptical
• Seen lots of products like this before
• Enrichment data wasn’t good
• Data Coverage
• Skeptical
• What % of our leads would be covered in this database?
Buyer’s Key Concerns

140. I have to go through IT to
get Salesforce connected
FREE TRIAL BLOCKAGE POINT
Connect to
Salesforce

141. SOLUTION: CHROME EXTENSION
Browser
connection to
Salesforce
See enriched
data in
Salesforce UI
Judge quality
of data
Report shows
data coverage
%
Chrome
Extension

142. CHROME EXTENSION
• Easy to install
• Low buyer concern
• Re-write the page’s HTML

143. CLEARBIT CHROME EXTENSION - ENLARGED

144. ELIMINATE STEPS
THAT HAVE
DEPENDENCIES ON
OTHER PEOPLE

145. Freemium, Free Trials, Open Source
The Product is
your sales person

146. WHAT IS YOUR TIME TO
WOW! ?
Thanks to Gail Goodman of Constant Contact

147. DEFINING WOW!
Thanks to Gail Goodman of Constant Contact
A moment where your buyer sees
something cool and exciting
• Motivates them to continue exploring
The moment when your buyer
gets excited enough to want to buy
Mini Wow!
Full Wow!

148. TIME TO WOW!
• How many steps?
• How much time does it take?
• How much FRICTION is involved

149. REMOVE STEPS
& REMOVE FRICTION

150. EXAMPLE

151. As eCommerce shoppers…
… what makes us buy?

152. Photos
Feature Summary
Recommended Accessories
Rich description
Video
Reviews
Detailed Specifications
Answer: Rich Product Content

153. Salsify – Product Content Supply Chain Automation
Brands
Photos
Videos
Text
Specs
Etc.
Retailer
Portal
Retailer
Portal
Retailer
Portal
Retailer
Portal

154. Salsify’s Original Trial Experience
Sign up
Wait for
email with
Account
Open the
App
Learn the
UI
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer

155. Landing Page
Lots of Fields

156. Next,
Wait for Email…

157. Sign In… Now What?
• Lots of work still required

158. Get Inside your Buyers Head and Analyze for
Problems
Sign up
Wait for
email with
Account
Open the
App
Learn the
UI
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer

159. Redesign Trial Steps for Problems (Friction, Concerns,
& Motivations)
Sign up
Wait for
email with
Account
Open the
App
Learn the
UI
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Delay causing
major drop off

160. First Step in the Redesign
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Sign up
Learn the
UI

161. New Landing Page: JUST YOUR
EMAIL

162. Motivation: “If these guys are
using it, it must be pretty good…”

163. Still leaves a problem:
• Locate & Export Content
• Then import to Salsify to have
something to play with
Then:
Land directly in App

164. Major Friction + Other people involved = Long Delays
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Sign up
Learn the
UI

165. Offer a chance to
start with Sample
Data
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
They now have the
MOTIVATION to
import their own data
Play with
Sample
Data
Mini Wow!
Learn the
UI

167. Eliminate the risk that they won’t find the path to Wow!
Learn the
UI
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
• High friction
• Too much risk they
won’t find the path
to Wow!
Sign up

168. Guided Navigation
Human Help available

169. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Before After
Trial Request ->
Logged into App
Trial Request ->
Product Page
Trial Request ->
Taking action 3x Overall Improvement
Uplift - % Conversion, Before and After

170. Next Problem Area…
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Export to
new
Retailer
Sign up
with new
Retailer
Play with
Sample
Data
• High Friction
• Long Delay

172. Google Shopping

174. Problem Solved – Export to Google Manufacturer
Center
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google

175. Last Remaining Problem Area…
Sign up
Import
Content
Locate &
Export
Content
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google
• Huge Friction & Delay
• Other People involved

176. Scrape publicly available data from existing retailer’s
pages
Sign up
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google
No import
needed
Scrape
Content
for them
• They have my content in here already
• They’re showing me all the issues
Mini Wow!

177. Eliminates Need for Sample Data
Sign up
Play with
Sample
Data
Export to
Google
See their
own Data
Scrape
Content
for them

178. Final Redesigned Process • Fast Time to Wow!
• High conversion rates
Sign up
Export to
Google
See and solve
problems with
their own Data
Scrape
Content
for them

179. Funnel Optimization Meeting
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects

180. Funnel Whack-a-Mole
• Solve for blockage points
• As you fix one, the problem will move elsewhere

181. SILOED THINKING
MARKETING SALES
CUSTOMER
SUCCESS PRODUCT

182. THE NEW GROWTH TEAM
MARKETING
SALES
CUSTOMER
SUCCESS
PRODUCT

183. USE FUNNEL FLOW CHARTS
Website Free Trial
Handle
other
questions
Proposal
High Level Overview
xx xx xxx xx xx xxx
MicroFunnels where needed

184. Treat your Buyer like a Bank Account
Make a
deposit
before you
try to make a
withdrawal

185. Selling can be the worst way to sell
Build
Trust
Consult
SellFirst Contact
First Contact
Build
Relationship

186. Design a funnel that
Delights
Entices and
Motivates