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In this episode, Scott and Lincoln discuss the concept of time to first value, customer success and customer acquisition. How to have a successful pull through rate for potential customers and the cost of free. Key areas we cover are:
- Customer success, customer acquisition and inappropriate experience.
- Account expansion, the penny gap, time to value and the cost of free and What the desired outcome for customers is.
- The concept of time to first value and how to be customer centric.
- What is a successful pull through rate for potential customers and the biggest mistakes concerning free trial and freemium?
Detailed Notes:
02:00 - Introduction to today's guest - Lincoln Murphy
03:45 - Why the name "Sixteen Ventures" and how it's helped him with his business and accessing customers.
5:30 - SaaS Key metrics: CAC, LTV, ACV. DRR. What are the first 1-2 key metrics to measure?
07:45 - Finding the "Appropriate Experience" for your customers and measuring from there.
10:00 - Frameworks for sales and customer success, and structuring your sales process. Stelli Efti, Jason Lemkin, Aaron Ross.
11:45 - "Time to first value" and customer on boarding. Case study from Lincoln going from 5-6 months to 3-4 days with new customers.
20:00 - MVPing your product for early customers.
22:00 - What to do when your product is missing the one key feature your market requires to buy your product, and you're six months from having it available.
24:00 - Signing "good fit" customers vs incentive programs for sales and customer success teams. How overselling customers early in your startup hurts you in the long run.
26:00 - Selling six months ahead of your product launch.
30:00 - How to reengage with lost prospects or dark deals.
37:00 - Early adopters educating you as the startup about what you product can do for them and the market.
39:45 - Mistakes around the Freemium and Free Trial models in enterprise software startups. What is the "cost of free?"
45:00 - Aligning free trials to how customers buy, and considering the "appropriate experience."
54:00 - Book: "The Robert Collier Letter Book" by Robert Collier. Cutting through the noise with your sales conversations. "Enter the conversation already going on in your customer's mind."
55:45 - Book: "Persuasive Copywriting" by Andy Maslen.
56:30 - Discovering the customer's desired outcome from them, rather than you telling them what it should be.
57:00 - Why "negative churn" is a bad word, call it net revenue retention.
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