Diego Barrera

Don't invest in a community for your business. Especially because the ROI is so hard to define. But the same should be said of hiring SDR's or marketing agencies or hosting conferences. If you know the exact value your marketing efforts brought in last quarter, good on you. But if you're like the rest of us, here are a few benefits to consider about investing in digital communities: 1. Increased customer investment + constantly learning from consumers = Greater CLV 2. Happy customers will give you new ideas on how to improve existing products. They just might tell you what products they'd pay for too (as long as you know how to listen for it). 3. Consumers care more about social change than meeting your company's bottom line. External voices remind you to align with what matters more than your company would on its own. It's an increased accountability to care for the world, for one another, and even for your staff. 4. It's way more fun than traditional market research. Memes. Jokes. New friendships. It's a win-win-win. 5. It opens up the door for more collaborations than you would have imagined or seen possible. Communities are where ideas are shared. And the smartest communities are those who put some of those wild ideas into practice. Not every brand should invest in communities. But those who want to enjoy their work a bit more should consider it. Not to mention, they will profit significantly from doing so as well. Want to add to the list above? I'm all ears. 

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If you decide your sales team needs to help with renewals make sure they are incentivized correctly (I usually see a 70% new bookings goal and a 30% renewal / upsell goal). If you don't incentivize hunting, sales tend to farm too much and your growth will slow.

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We've all been there - sitting through a dense meeting or call, trying to capture all the key details amid a flurry of conversation. “How do I distill all of this into something the customer cares about?” Enter the #PortableRecap email. A well-crafted recap is like a lighthouse beam cutting through the fog, illuminating the meeting's purpose, commitments made, and next steps. Many sellers send recaps but their not #portable. The follow up email is littered with product jargon and breezy generalities around the conversation. Elite value sellers purposely design the whole recap email so that their key contact forwards it to other members in the buying committee. How? Here are steps to create portable recaps that shine: 🔹Implement a consistent structure Open with a brief meeting overview that recaps the purpose and attendees. Then, use clear sections with numbering to delineate: 1) Key discussion points 2) Decisions 3) Action items 4) Next steps This logical framework makes it easy for the recipient to navigate and extract the most pertinent information. 🔹Provide sufficient context While the recipient attended the meeting, their colleagues did not. Ensure your recap provides enough background and context so it can stand alone when forwarded. Avoid insider language or abbreviations that would confuse those not privy to the original conversation. A value seller in our Customer Value Community shared this actual customer email response to her #PortableRecap: “Thank you for this! I am going to send as-is to my colleagues.” 💥 This value seller not only framed the thinking of her key contact but helped frame the thoughts of the rest of the buying committee. Come join us in the Customer Value Community for access to templates and examples of winning #PortableRecaps. Your value made clear.

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CS teams NEED to start "managing up" with execs and the board by talking about REVENUE. Yes, you can keep talking about sentiment and feelings, but start with the $. Don't lead with churn- Bottom-line-focused execs don't like that headline, so you need to tell the story better. An informal poll had CS teams owning over 50% of the revenue of many SaaS companies. Lead with this and have it be your first talking point. From there you will be able to get more things done with other departments, as your requests will be revenue-focused Need to get a Customer Success Platform as you scale? Point to revenue and the potential to lose revenue without efficiencies Need to hire more to prevent burnout? Point to Revenue potential with renewals and upsells Talk in the language your execs and board want to hear.

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Great framework here for sales people. Seven simple steps to follow in a structured manner. Start with listen and understand!

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Consistency is key! The biggest element of a good scorecard is filling it out every week. There’s no halfway—you're either doing it religiously or not at all. Matt Verlaque COO of SaaS Academy shared this story of how Dan Martell once stopped a meeting because a scorecard had two missing data points. It wasn’t about the missing data, but about the commitment to the process, it's all about the behavior. Watch the full episode of this podcast on the Leadmore Podcast. Link below. #businessstrategies #businesscoach #businesstips

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The idea that your company needs to "start a movement" seems too vendor-centric to me, particularly for B2B. Businesses are struggling to make money. They want technology that can help them meet their goals. I don't believe prospects want to join "the AI Accounting Revolution," - they just want accounting software that helps them meet their goals (and like, doesn't suck). I think sometimes marketers can get a bit of main character energy when it comes to this stuff. In B2B, our goals as vendors don't belong in the center of our positioning. The value we can deliver for our customers needs to be the core.

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After generating $198k in coaching sales in Q1. I've decided to 'un-scale' certain aspects of my business. Changes I'm implementing in Q2: �� Bringing back 1-on-1s & capping my coaching at 15 clients → Personally taking back parts of content I delegated → Manually doing things I'd replaced with AI And more. This won’t scale to the moon. But it won’t derail me from hitting my goals either. It’s all part of building a business by design. With a specific goals in mind. Both: → Business goals, like profit & impact, and… → Personal goals, like time & energy Tomorrow in my newsletter I'm sharing more on all this. Join the list and hear how we got here, and what we’re doing next. Sign up here, it's free: https://lnkd.in/eBu5ixiS 🏝

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It blows my mind every time I talk to a SaaS professional about the sale. The mindset is often that once the sale is made, the hard part is done, and the clients will just stay for life. There's a sense that the real value is all in the pre-sale effort, and after that, everything just falls into place. With the barrier to entry for building B2B SaaS products nearly disappearing and the rise of vertical and specialty SaaS, the level of energy that needs to go into the post-sale success team must intensify. Recurring revenue requires recurring value from both the product and the team that supports it. Don't miss this crucial point—if we don't invest in our post-sale efforts, all the effort that went into getting the sale will be lost, and the real value of SaaS—recurring revenue—will disappear. Ensure your post-sale success team is equipped and energized to sustain and grow the value that your product promises.

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I f*cked up last week. I ran a webinar and sent out an old link, so most people couldn’t join. Total rookie error! I was hard on myself, but you know what? Mistakes happen. Here's what I took away from it: ☑ Double-Check Links - Seriously, it takes two seconds. 📣 Own It - People appreciate honesty and it builds trust. 😆 Laugh a Little - It’s not the end of the world. I’ve rescheduled the webinar and triple-checked the link this time. Got a similar story? #business #failure

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SaaS CEOs: I'm willing to bet there are three things holding you back from achieving your 2024 sales goals: 1. Lack of Sales/Marketing/Product Management Alignment 2. Lack of Bona Fide Product Positioning 3. Lack of Executional Focus The good news? All three are fixable - and fixable in time to improve your 2024 results. How: 1. Alignment among sales, marketing and product leadership has to be done on purpose - through meeting, discussion, debate and documentation. You, as CEO, must demand and facilitate this alignment 2. Effective product positioning is not a tag line or ad copy. It's a specific process designed to identify who should be buying your product, why it works and why it's different/better than other solutions. Developing product positioning is a time consuming process that requires dedication and process. CEOs must enable this to happen. 3. Doing more with less is stupid. When you have less (e.g., budget because you're behind on sales and revenue) you do LESS not more. This is a time for intense focus, a time to fund only what's proven to win and eliminating wasteful spending on unestablished go-to-market efforts. CEOs must insist on eliminating non-proven go-to-market initiatives and double down on what works. Other thoughts? Please share in comments. #gotomarket #sales #salesgoals #ceo

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SaaS CEOs, If You're Not Engineering Trust at Every Touch Point... You're Leaving money on the table. 💸 Use this 5-Question Trust Building Playbook to Boost your MRR This Week ​ Trust is the currency of the modern marketplace. ​ Without it, your retention rates plummet, referrals dry up, and your marketing efforts fall flat. ​ But when you master the art of trust-building, you unlock higher retention, more referrals, and smoother sales processes. ​ So how do you actually build trust on purpose? ​ 💎 You answer the 5 Trust Questions at every interaction. ​ Clarity and transparency reduce customer anxiety and build trust. ​ Imagine a customer navigating your site or interacting with your support team. ​ Without clear guidance, they feel lost and anxious. But when you consistently answer: ​ ​T - Tell me: Why am I here? R - Right place? (Am I in the right place?) U - Unsure what to do next! (What’s the next step?) S - So, what's gonna happen after that? (What happens next?) T - These feelings… when it all goes down, how's it going to feel? (How will I feel?) ​ They feel reassured and smart. ​ 🤔 Imagine what happens when you say exactly what’s going to happen, and that's actually what happens! ​ This consistency get’s registered subconsciously by your prospects and customers and they come to trust you faster. ​ That experience makes you an easy choice. ​ You know the average consideration to buy time is now up to 67 days? ​ That’s time you can be building trust through your remarketing. ​ This experience makes you referable. ​ I know... this concept is not sexy technology or funnels. It’s boring fundamentals—fundamentals that work! ​ Cheers, Jean-Michel “simple scales complex fails” Moreau ​ P.S. If you want to double your SaaS business this year and not five years down the road. Comment "double" on this post and I will personally help you develop a strategy for your company growth.

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Confident closers crush quotas. But self-doubt silently sinks sales. How to empower 5 key revenue drivers: 1.) Foster a culture of open communication. 2.) Equip your team with ongoing training and resources. 3.) Celebrate wins, big and small, to build momentum. 4.) Provide constructive feedback that focuses on solutions. 5.) Lead by example, radiating the confidence you want to see. The confidence gap is real, but it's not insurmountable. Remember, a confident sales team isn't just about hitting targets – it's about unlocking untapped potential and achieving sustainable growth. Let's bridge that gap together. #salesleadership #revenuegrowth #salestraining

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It never should have been called AB-M. We wrongly title things constantly in this industry... and then spend the next 10+ years cleaning it up. Sigh. ABX always was and continues to be about cross-functional teamwork and orchestration. Gabe Rogol and I discussed this in the latest Growth Driver episode.

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The great positioning fallacy is that the best product wins. We all scoff and say, "Of course, Salesforce isn't the best CRM!"...but then when we go sell our own products we say things like: "We're a better ____ for ____." "We're a better way to ______." "We're better than _____ at ____." At its very best, positioning is about aligning your strongest competitive advantages with your buyers' decision-making process. That's why when I do positioning work, I look at three additional dimensions beyond product capabilities (i.e., what makes a product "better" at doing the job). I look at... - Credibility (why buyers should trust you with their money) - Convenience (what makes a product easier to buy) - Cost (the relative expense associated with buying something) If positioning is about showing up in your ideal buyers' world as the best option, then make sure you really understand how your buyers evaluate their options and shape your message accordingly.

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Is this how your sales managers support your reps? Is this how your rev ops relate to your sales team? When data or sales enablement helps nail a deal? If not, there's an opportunity to improve. https://lnkd.in/e3fhGEak #RevOps #RevenueOperations #MarketingOps #SalesOps #SalesManagement #SalesCoach #RolePlay #SalesEnablement #SalesEnablementContent

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Have you considered looking at your #B2BSaas business like a #RevenueFactory? Your GTM motions are like production lines. And maximizing their efficiency, scalability and durability (quality) is the name of the game! AND- if some are underperforming- either find ways to optimize….or shut them down! Great post by Winning by Design CEO Dominique Levin.

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As the VP of Sales for a Seattle-based SaaS company told me 👇 "I could make a salesperson out of anyone if they just follow the sales process. We know it works. When my team don’t follow the sales process, what’s the point of giving them leads?..." Your sales process has been designed to take the guesswork out of the system....So when you’ve got reps who jump stages and take shortcuts, that puts the guesswork back into the system. Good luck forecasting that .. #SalesProcess #SalesExcellence #SaaSCompany #salescoaching #salesenablement #CRO

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