TL;DR – Too often, we make our traction challenge bigger than it is

“Our challenge: unpredictable traction and hence unreliable revenue forecasting.”

This line opened yesterday’s CEO Mastermind hot seat session. 

“Can you give some context?” I asked

 

What followed was a list that indicated strong potential

• A sizeable and recognized problem in the market
• A solution that is differentiated
• A track record of winning deals

Still…. unpredictable traction…..

 

“What do you believe is the core of the problem?” one SaaS CEO asked

“….. (silence) ….. Top of the funnel…We don’t get enough quality leads.” 

 

“In a perfect world – how many deals do you need this year?” someone asked

“30-40” was the immediate answer

 

“What have you tried?” another SaaS CEO asked.

“So many things,” he responded, “we did cold email marketing campaigns with this agency, cold Linkedin outreach campaigns with that agency – nothing worked.”

 

“Anything that did work?” someone asked

“Well….Networking, referrals, and cocktail hours,” he responded

 

Here’s the thing

We often blow up our traction challenge and take it out of proportion. The goal is 30-40, not 300 or 3000. 

For that, we don’t need a cold outreach campaign to spam 10s of thousand of executives with a pitch that’s too much, too aggressive, too early.

 

The art is leveraging this: Trust. With whom? Your customers.

See it as a luxury: You only need 40. 

See it as scarcity: You have 40 slots to help 40 customers make a difference.

 

So, make it a game to find the most qualified businesses out there. The ones that you’ll win 8 out of 10. That’s 50 leads, so only 4-5 per month – 1 every 6 days.

How? For one – ask the people who get the most value from your solution who they think would also value that. Maybe they can even introduce you to a peer. 

If not, leverage the people in your network who already have the connections.

 

As one CEO said yesterday: “Resist the urge to move fast – move right.”

 

Question for you to reflect upon:

What % of your ambassadors would you need to make one recommendation to make 2023 a fantastic year? What stops you from asking today?

 

Be Remarkable

 

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