True character shows when sh** hits the fan
Your product is genius. The market would have to be stupid to reject the offer.
And yet, that still happens.
Here’s a real story from the trenches:
I was working with a team last week, and they worked like crazy.
It was intense. They did everything by the book, and still, the market “did not get it”.
400 people in the pipeline - zero sales. Why?
Is it December, and should we just relaunch in January?
Did anyone complain about the offer and the price?
Maybe they needed to understand more benefits - what’s in it for them?
Their plan was to outwork their way to product market fit. So I had to put a hard stop on the project because that never works.
The solution is never to do more, but to go back to the basics.
If the early signals during your launch are not looking good, you most likely have:
A product problem
A target segment problem
Always go back to this PMF cycle visual and find where you are in it:
You’ll be tempted into thinking that you have a:
Pricing problem (too expensive!)
Tactic problem (our copy could be better!)
Channel problem (we should try Facebook ads instead!)
But most of the time, you’re suffering from the product or customer problem.
So stop looking at this superficially and stop trying to outwork your way to PMF. Instead, go back to the drawing board and figure out which one of these two problems you have and start building a new hypothesis that will fix it.
Now, this is a headache for most GTM team and founders - it kills your spirit to not see success with the first launch. But, market is harsh and go-to-market isn’t for the weak.
You’re not weak. Your best friend on this journey isn’t excessive funding, great ideas, expensive consultants…
It’s resilience. It is one of the most important yet undervalued characteristics in business.
In the words of the wonderful Chumbawamba band:
I get knocked down, but I get up again!
Oftentimes time you just have to (wo)man up and do what is mission-critical in order to get there. No one is cheering for you (in fact, a lot of them are against you), rubbing your shoulders and saying that you got this.
No one but yourself can gather the strength to create the critical level of evidence that you got this. This is it. You are in it to win it.
Stop relying on external gratification and take the manners into your own hands. No one but you can make this happen.
Your business can only grow as much as you do as a person and a leader.
Let’s get tactical: Decision-making unitB2B hill I'm willing to die on: personas are bullshit. Here's another reason why:
Most of the time, you're not dealing with a persona, but a decision-making unit (DMU).
It's really hard to think of an exception, isn't it?
If you are selling a complex, expensive and hard-to-onboard product/service that requires multiple stakeholders in a company to buy, implement and use...
You are most likely selling to DMU, which consists of:
✅ Initiator: first thinks of a purchase
✅ Influencer: influences decision
✅ Gatekeeper: can say no to the decision
✅ Decider: actually decides what to buy
✅ Buyer: actually makes a purchase
✅ User: uses or consumes the purchase
This is how DMU looks like in practise. But why should you care?
B2B selling is hard because your GTM efforts needs to speak and sell to this whole group.
You need different USPs, messaging and marketing materials for different members for DMU members.
If you do not understand their interests, concerns and constrains - game over.
No matter how much the end-user loves your product, if you don't get buy-in from the DMU, that sweet big account that you are chasing is off the table.
The solution (as always) is to know your customer(s) as much as possible:
▶️ Interview your customers and ask them to describe the buying process
▶️ Ask existing customers to send you info on how they chose you
▶️ Offer a workshop or webinar about your technology/service and see who shows up
▶️ Find out from prospects what else do they need to support internal decision making and who participates in this decision
Customer insights ftw. Who is in your decision making unit?
If you enjoy the real talk - no fluff that we have in this newsletter, you might be a great fit for the GTM Strategist Bootcamp.
This is a training for those of you who want to master go-to-market strategy, solidify your market position, and get ready for hyper growth. You can learn more here:
Ognjen Bošković (3x Growth Lead, ex CXL) and I created a GTM program for ambitious founders and product managers that gets you ready to truly start scaling. If you can relate to this, this training is for you:
You’ve built a great product and now you want to create significant traction around it
Your next goal is to enter the hyper growth phase and you want to ensure success
You understand that main growth levers of a business are product and distribution, and you want to become an expert in distribution as well
The era of build it and they will come is over and you know it.
You know that in order to win in B2B in 2024 and beyond, you need to become GTM-first, distribution-first builder. We will make sure you do.
I have tested this program with over 70 teams this year and it works like a charm. During the program, we’ll work on:
Week 1: Target market selection
Week 2: Positioning and messaging
Week 3: Pricing and business model
Week 4: Building a predictable growth engine
It’s limited to 30 seats, and we start in January. There’s also a huge early bird discount if you secure your seat before December 25th.
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