Extreme Revenue Growth: Startup Secrets to Growing Your Sales from $1 Million to $25 Million in Any Industry

by Victor Cheng

What separates the CEOs that run hyper-growth companies from those running slow-growth ones? What do they do differently that matters? Victor Cheng deconstructs the management practices used by fast growing technology companies and adapts these practices for use in other industries. While most business books tout one new big idea that will magically solve all your problems, Extreme Revenue Growth provides a refreshingly different and practical approach, combining many cross- functional practices to create a blueprint for explosive growth. The big secret to growth isn't getting your strategic planning, sales, marketing, R&D, operations, or human resources right. The big "secret" is getting them all right at the same time. Optimize any one functional area for growth, and you get modest growth. Do it all at once, and you get a multiplier effect that triggers rapid growth. In Extreme Revenue Growth, you'll discover how.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Entrepreneurship

202 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2010

Reviews

[Adii Pienaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommendation from Dan Martell. Read it in one sitting. Super excited to implement a few of these tactics. Some of it (like firing the bottom 10% of your team every year) does not resonate and is probably a compromise on the model that Victor Cheng proposes, but I'm fine with that.

I'll update this to 5 stars once the advice works. :)

[Jonathan Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the simple language of the author whose newsletters I love, this book provides a great overview of simple tactics that are very hard to execute. Not rocket science to understand, but even harder to implement, this is an easy 1hr read for anyone that needs a good reminder about critical business fundamentals from a top consultant.

Chapter 1 - Revenue Growth
Why do inferior products often outsell a superior one? Brand Promise
- Customers don't know the difference between two products unless they buy and use both
- Most customers only buy one product and never experience which is better
- Choose based on which one offers a more compelling benefit or more credible promise

Criticality of Distribution channel
- Example of enterprise software as part of a larger system implementation. Much better than competition and 80% cheaper - failed because too easy to use, SI's could not charge for service revenue. Price was too low to recruit top sales people because commissions would be too low; Customers did not want to buy a piece of larger implementation direct, they only wanted to buy the full system

Minimal effort to growth - easier to adjust target customer / promise / distribution channel than product
- Example: change label on baby aspirin to sell towards those at risk of heart attack

Chapter 2 - When Revenue doesn't grow
1) Guessing incorrectly about what the target customer wants
2) Customer doesn't want to buy what you want to sell
3) Customer has a problem, but not a severe problem
4) Adjacent customer segments are growing faster than your market
5) Not recognizing that your existing customers may be different from those you want to target

Chapter 3 - When Promises are not believed
1) Promise is not unique enough compared to competition - more unique promise = more memorable
- Consider promising the polar opposite of competition
○ Bundle features to justify the highest price
○ Promise simplicity or just the features you need if competition is more comprehensive
○ Most thorough setup if competition setup is faster
- Be #1 at something, even if it means being mediocre at everything else
- Solve a bigger problem: look at what customers do before/after buying your product
○ e.g. itunes = portable music vs. mp3 player = device
○ Bundle 3rd party products with yours
○ Niche your product for the target customer (for retail, for travel)
2) No compelling benefit - easier to change the customer than the product
3) Unique promise, but target customer does not believe you
- Customer testimonials
- Demos and free trials
- Increase the specificity of your proof

Chapter 4 - Distribution is key
- Avg: 80% of sales & marketing goes to new customer acquisition
- Selling 3P is often ignored - have we tried to sell for our partners?
- Is there a duplicative process to follow? Analyze which sales rep is hitting #'s - what are we doing right?
○ If you can't duplicate your process, you're just getting lucky
○ Need to find the duplicative process and lean in on it - not double down on luck
§ AE's unable to provide a demo is a problem - indicative that our AE's can't sell
○ A/B test the selling process: value prop, segment, script
§ 3% improvement per week = 150% increase in sales per year

Chapter 5 - you can't build a product to solve a problem you don't understand
- Acid test: what's the first and last name of an actual person who typifies the target customer?
- How many engineering hours are needed to build the product vs. engineering hours spent with the customer?
- Product build priority: feature list sorted by revenue growth engine
- Customer comes before the technology - how intuitive is the UI? Must be process-oriented
○ Must have an ROI report
○ Also must have a "suggest a feature" button

Chapter 6 - Competitive advantage
- Why did Amazon start with 6 warehouses - enables shipping to every zip code in 1-2days (start from promise)

Difference between a professional CEO and startup CEO? Process
- Goal of a CEO is to identify repeatable processes and resolve bottlenecks
- Biggest limitation is not thinking big enough

[Josh Fern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly laid out and actionable.

I am also always on board for a mercifully short book on business. Some business writers out there get long-winded / repetitive.

[Alán Fierro Jokonov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable&practical with some interesting concepts

[Martin Duncanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant framework for any business to use for growth!

[Syed Bukhari]

sdsadasd