Josh McDonald

The key to revenue is distribution. But... you can have millions of new leads coming in at the top of the funnel and if you can't handle that volume in a timely and consistent manner then all of that time, money and effort you put into acquiring those leads is all for not. Fortunes are made in the follow up!

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Yesterday PitchBook dropped some new data showing Q2 activity up, and Modern Retail and Anna Hensel published a great article on Zombie brands. Sean Frank summarized it well. So what is the actual state of affairs? Do things suck? Or do things not suck? My take: We live in too much of a black and white world. Nuance and grey area are important. Take the Non-Alcoholic category for example. Twitter takes are hot that either Alcohol is DEAD, or Non-alcoholic is FOR SURE a fad. For me, the answer is in between. I don't need NA to take over the whole store, or even half the store. I need it to grow its shelf space from 1 to 1.5, or 2. Incremental changes, across a wide number of stores. That grows the market. It's not all or nothing. The current investment cycle is messy. There are large amounts of zombies. There are also large amounts of good companies successfully raising capital, quickly, that may trade at revenue multiples in the future. Both can be true, at the same time. Discerning investors and operators will continue to focus on fundamentals.

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If something in your sales process isn't working, you need to look 1-2 stages back for root cause. If we aren't converting initial meetings into next steps> are we targeting right personas and is our messaging aligned with our buyers priorities and problems? If we are getting stuck in proposal > did we do the right discovery? If we are getting slammed for discounts at the end > did we build a compelling value discussion before we got into commercials? If something isn't working, the answer is almost always 1-2 stages back.

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If building a B2B revenue engine was like building a house... these 5 things would be the foundation. 1. Know your customers 2. Segment, size, and select your mkt 3. Home-in on your ICP within that mkt 4. Sharpen your company/prod positioning 5. Translate 4 into cust-centered messaging A revenue miss in a B2B port-co can oftentimes be traced back to one or more of these things. So don't pass go until you've nailed these 5 fundamentals. Pulled together a video series to help. Link in the comments below ⤵️

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Considering a sales role at an early stage company? Ask yourself 2 questions: 1. Has the founder sold their own product/solution? If not, I would be very cautious. Founder led sales provides invaluable insight. My preference: A founder that sold the company's first 5 deals (at least). 2. Is the product/solution great (good is not enough)? As a sales professional, the one thing you can't overcome is a sh*tty product. Roles at early stage companies can be fun, rewarding, and very lucrative . . . if you choose right. 👉 Follow if you enjoy sales and business content.

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Whether you're dipping your toes into SaaS acquisitions or looking to expand, understanding the diverse buyer profiles is key. Here's a quick rundown of SaaS acquirers by purchase price to identify where you fit and how to strategize: // <$250k: Side Hustlers: Look for low-maintenance, simple products. Ideal businesses demand <20 hours weekly and minimal support. // <$500k: First-Time Acquirers: With a technical/GTM background, focus on businesses matching your skills, requiring less than $500k capital. // $500k-$1M: Professional Portfolio Acquirers: Experienced? Aim for stable, recurring revenue businesses, managing 5-10 companies with 15-30% EBITDA margins. Serial Acquirers & Niche Specialists: Quick scalability or niche alignment is key, targeting businesses for growth and a perfect fit. // Over $1M: Corporate Integrators & Small Financial Sponsors: Major players seek strategic alignment, investing $3M-$10M for a 20-30% ROI. /Industry Consolidators & Strategic Diversifiers: Focus on efficiencies, market dominance, or diversifying through innovative models. A Reminder: Micro SaaS is a unique field — untouched by Institutional Private Equity and Strategics below $5M ARR, presenting a lucrative avenue for those ready to play smart. Which profile resonates with you? Whether you're aiming to buy, grow, or sell, positioning yourself correctly in the Micro SaaS universe is crucial. 👉 For a deeper dive into each buyer profile and strategic insights tailored to your journey, connect with us at Skaling Ventures. Link to substance in bio... #MicroSaaS #SaaSAcquisitions #StartupGrowth #SkalingVentures

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What most Agencies, Coaches & Consultants below $1,000,000 fail to understand... They think it's about getting more leads, close more clients or make more sales. It's not. Especially as a Solopreneur ↳ that gets you to only $200,000 at best. To jump the other $800,000 you need to do this... #solopreneur #kpis #scaling

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Every PE value creation plan needs a people plan. If the VCP spells out the "What" and the "How"... ...the People Plan spells out the "Who." More on how to approach this in the link in the Comments. Great convo with Omeed and Joe on The SaaS Buyers Club podcast! #PrivateEquity #PeoplePlan #Talent

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Want to catch the WinsDay replay? Matt Calhoun and I chatted about... ➡ Pre-Sales Strategies ➡ Demand Gen: Avoiding Failure When Outsourcing ➡ First Go-to-Market: Pivoting Your Startup  ➡ SDR Success: Leaders' Role in Prospecting Some themes popped up.... ☑ being data driven ☑ getting your ICP right ☑ documenting your processes ☑ what does good like ☑ what clues does customer success tell us ☑ culture ☑ people first leadership ☑ know your worth (mindset) ☑ trust and candid conversations .....and so much more Check out the comments to catch the replay! #sales

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PE investors / operators: have "hire additional sales capacity" on your VCP or annual plan? HIRING new reps is only half the battle. For the ROI math to math, gotta then make 'em productive. As quickly as possible. But when it comes to making reps productive quickly, B2B companies face two big challenges: →The average tenure of a B2B sales rep is less than two years, YET... → Reps hit their peak performance two to three years in. Translation: Most reps leave before they’ve reached max productivity. Eek. In many cases, weak sales onboarding is to blame. But taking a more intentional approach to sales onboarding has a bevy of obvious benefits: • Reducing sales turnover • Shortening time-to-revenue • Higher odds of achieving your rev targets Hit on this in the book in Winning Move #32, but check out the vid below for a deeper dive on the P's and Q's of sales onboarding ▶️ * * * * * Found this helpful? Plenty more where that came from. Check out the Winning Moves Platform: the ambitious PE leader's toolkit for accelerating value creation. ↳ A digital arsenal of resources, how-to's, and tools to help private equity leaders make value-generating Winning Moves with confidence. Link in the comments below. ⤵️

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I partnered with Kyle Poyar this week to uncover 10 PLG plays that can enhance your customer engagement, streamline processes, and drive revenue growth. Even if your company doesn't identify as Product-Led Growth (PLG), these are strategies from PLG that ANY company should be incorporating. Full post in today's GTM Newsletter by GTMnow, I’ll pop the link in the comments. The TL;DR: 1. Interactive demo on the website 2. Replace hard feature gates and paywalls with soft gates 3. Incorporate a usage-based component to pricing 4. Leverage product data to drive customer outcomes 5. Offer trials for new features 6. Correlate product usage with revenue growth 7. Automate resource-intensive processes with AI 8. Implement smart email nurture cadences 9. Build and leverage power user communities 10. Offer starter packages or proof of concepts ✍️

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SaaS Founders do you want a growth shortcut? Give me the next 5 minutes and I will show you how to get your first 100 users scientifically Comment “playbook” below to get the free action guide (no opt-in)

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Misconceptions early stage founders have about sales -> outbound can be figured out in 90 days -> you can hire sales reps for $110k a year all in -> hiring a good sales rep from your big competitor will solve the sales problem -> you can hire someone to sell for you (before you’ve done it 30x at least) -> you can just hire a SDR to get you meetings (not that easy) -> sending 1,000 emails and making 500 cold calls doesn’t prove / disprove that outbound can or cannot work -> brand isn’t your issue -> .25% equity difference won’t make a difference -> setting targets before you have any data to back those targets won’t work Just to name a few... Happy to talk through any of these if you need

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Any successful CRO program uses revenue impact as a guiding light. It has to. Or your business ends up chasing $5,000 ROI opportunities when you could be honing in on $500K+ ROI opportunities.  Businesses are often so concerned with driving top-line revenue growth that they don’t tie a monetary value to their A/B tests. But you can’t place value on a winning test if you don’t factor in the time or money it takes to find it. Sizing the potential revenue impact of any A/B test is the only way to discern between actual winners and tests that are simply a waste of your time and resources.  Even in 2024, rarely are eCommerce businesses asking themselves if the ROI on a test is worth it. But your business should be! It’s time to stop treating CRO like a democracy in which your business implements the idea that gets the most votes – and instead, start approaching CRO with real data and consideration for ROI.  #CRO #ecommerce

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$10k ARR: "Nice, you got lucky. But that growth channel won't scale." $100k ARR: "Organic is the only valid channel, stop spending money." $1M ARR: "I think it's time to hire a CMO who *actually* knows how to do this." $10M ARR: "Can you teach our portfolio companies how to grow like you?" I frequently get asked about trainwell's growth channels. For us, the same core growth team and strategy remained constant through 4 orders of magnitude, and shows no signs of slowing down. When you find something that works, everyone loves to tell you it won't last, especially if it's different from common advice. Just keep your head down, keep optimizing, and make sure your unit economics make sense. One day you'll look up and be the expert in the room. Can't wait to hear what they're saying at $100M 😉

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From a recent office hours session... ME: How many outbound sales activities do you do every day? "ZERO" Why zero? "We pay people to do that for us." How many outbound sales activities do THEY do every day? "Not sure." You see the problem here?!?! You're the boss and on the hook for results no matter who does the actual work, so you better be able to track data and hold employees/vendors accountable or else you're just wasting money and spinning your wheels.

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The traditional sales funnel is dead in PLG. Long live the growth loop! HubSpot's freemium model helped them grow from $255 million to $1.6 billion in revenue in just 5 years. Key elements of the PLG loop: 1. Acquisition through product value 2. Activation focused on 'aha moment' 3. Retention driven by ongoing value delivery 4. Referral built into core product use 5. Revenue expansion through usage and features PLG companies with strong growth loops see 50% lower customer acquisition costs. Is your growth strategy still stuck in an outdated marketing funnel, or have you embraced the continuous growth loop?

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Strategic vs financial buyer. Which one’s better? Depends on your priorities as a seller. To make the most out of your business sale: > Understand how the two differ. > Know what their approaches are. > Determine your vision for the business post-sale. > Go for the right buyer. ➡️ Strategic Buyer: Typically, an existing player within the same industry. They might be selling the same or complementary product. Aim: Consolidate the market. Focus: Extract maximum synergies from the deal. ➡️ Financial Buyer: Typically, private equity firms. Invest capital to acquire and grow businesses. Aim: Invest in the right companies. Focus: Generate maximum ROI. With this information, let’s analyze the differences in deal aspects. 👉 Deal Value > A strategic buyer will be willing to purchase at a premium due to potential synergies and long-term benefits. > A financial buyer cares about the ROI - so they would negotiate a lower price. A strategic buyer may be financially beneficial for you. 👉 Ownership Structure > PE firms can cash out owners who want to retire but typically offer partial cash-outs with some equity in the business. > A strategic buyer prefers buying 100% of the business. If you want to have stakes (or a say) in the business, your best bet is to find a financial buyer. 👉 Company Culture > A financial buyer will more likely retain the existing culture. > With a strategic buyer, the acquirer’s culture tends to prevail. If the culture you took so long to build means a lot, you should go for a financial buyer. 👉 Deal Duration > PE firms expedite the deal cycle. > Strategic acquisitions take longer to complete (due diligence, board approvals, etc.). Know your goals and you'll know the kind of buyer to target. Would you prefer a strategic or a financial buyer? 𝙁𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙢𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙈&𝘼 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩. #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #startup #mergers #acquisitions Image Credit: INSEAD Working Paper (SSRN) Serial Entrepreneur & Investor Helping Startups Become Unstoppable – David Hauser

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