Austin Hughes 🤝’s Post

Dean DeBlois is the top dog of changing how we tell stories. He is teaching us how to evolve with customers (just like his dragons did). But most folks don't know how he got there. After analyzing his 3 dragon movies, here's what I figured out. Quick facts about Dean if you don't know him: Made the awesome "How to train your dragon" movies All 3 movies were up for big awards His dragon tales made over $1.6 billion Now he's making a real-life version of his dragon story So... what can SaaS sales learn? Dean makes his stories work in new ways using 3 simple steps: 1) Know who's watching 2) Change how you show it 3) Keep what makes it special Let's look closer: For Dean, it all starts with knowing who's watching. This matters because what people like changes over time, just like his characters grew up. Here's what Dean does that SaaS can copy: Figure out what people want to see now Changes his stories to reach new audiences Mixing old stuff people love with new ideas It's simple, but it works great. Next, Dean focuses on changing how he shows his stories. He's making his cartoon into a real-life movie, just like SaaS is moving from old software to cloud services. Which brings us to… The big reason Dean is so good at changing things up is because he's really careful about: Keeping the heart of his story and characters Making it feel real but still magical Working with smart people who know movies This, plus knowing his audience and changing how he shows stories, is why he wins. SaaS can do the same by keeping core features, making software simple to use, and working with experts. So, let's go over what we learned: First, know who's buying. Remember, what they need changes. Second, learn to change how you sell. Do this by: 1) Try new ways to share your product 2) Using new tech 3) Finding new people to sell to And last, don't lose what makes your product special. Keep the good stuff. And remember to mix new ideas with what people already love.

Founders, I get it—no one is more passionate about your product than YOU. ❤️ You’ve poured your heart into building something you believe in. You know every feature inside and out & and all the cool things your product can do. Your prospects don’t care (yet). They don’t care about your new dashboard or that fancy automation you’ve built. They care about their problems—and how you’re going to solve them. 👉 One common mistake I see technical founders making in sales? Jumping straight into features instead of building a connection to pain and the problem. ❌ Selling: “Our software automates data entry, tracks key metrics, and integrates seamlessly with your existing tools.” ✅ Connecting: “I’ve noticed how much time early-stage companies like yours spend on manual data entry—time that could be spent growing the business. We can help you get those hours back.” When you focus on solving their pain points, you shift the conversation from: 🔹 A transaction to a partnership. 🔹 A feature to a solution. 🔹 A product to a trusted ally. 💡 As a founder, you’re in a unique position to make this connection because you know why you built your product in the first place. Share that story. Make your passion relatable. Show them that you understand their struggles better than anyone else. Remember: Features tell, but stories sell. If you can connect with the problem your product solves, you’ll earn their trust—and eventually, their business. Have you caught yourself falling into the features trap? If so, let's talk about it. I'm happy to give insights to talk tracks, review deals, etc etc. Just want to be here to help founders succeed.

SaaS Founders: Is Market Validation Your Achilles Heel? 🤔 Launching a product that *flops* because you didn't truly understand the market? It's a nightmare scenario. That's why I'm offering a flash deal on my in-depth Market Validation Package. For the next 3 clients, I'm slashing my rate by 20% for this service that includes: * Pinpoint Target Customer Identification: Laser-focused customer profiles (who *really* needs what you're building) * Competitor Analysis X-Ray: Uncover their weaknesses and your market opportunity * Customer Interview Deep Dive: Get direct feedback on your product idea and value proposition Why the Time Limit? I want to dedicate focused attention to ensuring these clients nail their market validation. This deep-dive work is time-intensive, hence the limited availability of this discount. The Result: Stop building in the dark. Gain the clarity and confidence to launch a SaaS that hits the mark. Take Action: DM me with the word "VALIDATE" to claim this offer before spots fill up! 🚀

It is wild to me how fast products pop up to solve such small parts of the puzzle that is Revenue Operations. Over the past few weeks I've had a number of Demo calls with new(er) products out there, all aiming to fix a small piece of the ever-changing landscape. I get it - there are headaches that we all deal with in the RevOps world that we think 'there must be an easier way to solve this', thus a new pain point and new product idea is formed. I think this is an incredibly innovative way of thinking, and I applaud those that do so. My question/struggle is, with so many products out there that aim to solve each piece, how do you chose the right tools that you need? In a world where most companies are trying to consolidate their tech stack, rather than expand, how do you chose what is most valuable to you and your team? In some cases, the decision is sometimes made simply by the bottom line: What tools impact revenue? Where are you seeing the most ROI? In RevOps, I think one factor that often gets overlooked is *time*. If you can prove to me that your tool will save me X amount of hours per week/month, I am immediately intrigued. You can save my team from having to update dozens of opps/reports for our forecasting calls? Tell me more. You can proactively show me where the sales team is missing required data or haven't updated their pipeline (or even better, tell them)? I'm listening. You can automatically route more inbound leads to the rep that was OOO last week so they can catch up, without me having to manually reassign when they're back? Please tell me how. You can help open up communication between teams so that handoff from sales to post-close teams is seamless? I'm all ears. While yes - all of these problems do effect revenue downstream - if you can prove how you save me X hours a day to be proactive in other areas of my role, that to me is selfishly just as valuable, and I'm more likely to demo your product. Am I the only one that thinks this way?

"To build a scalable company, you have to do unscalable things." Truth bomb from Nathaniel Kendrick that resonated at just the right time. Why are we creating custom solutions for low-dollar opportunities? To build case studies around our capabilities. Why are we taking calls from prospects we know aren't going to buy? To identify our perfect customer. Why are we spending 10X the value of a contract to help one customer succeed? To build the system that leads to scalable success for all customers. Onward and upward.

The road to unstoppable business growth? Customer Success. You can have the flashiest marketing, the most innovative products, or the slickest sales team. But if your customers aren’t achieving success with your offering, you’re building on quicksand. When I started my ventures, I quickly realized that the real game-changer wasn’t just acquiring customers. It was ensuring they thrived with our solutions. And if you focus on your customers winning, YOU win. A happy customer is your best advocate, your most reliable marketer, and your gateway to repeat business. They tell their friends, they come back for more, and they become loyal to your brand. This isn’t just theory; it’s a proven path to scaling. So, how do you ensure customer success? Start by understanding their journey. Map out every interaction they have with your product or service. Where do they struggle? Where do they succeed? Then, build processes and support around those critical points. Invest in their success. Provide unmatched support. Educate them. Help them maximize the value they get from your offering. Make their wins your wins. #revops #customersuccess #partnersuccess #automation iasset.com

Here are Nebula’s 4 steps you need to take to launch a product. Feel free to steal them! Validate. Traction. MVP. Launch and learn. This is our methodology at Nebula and the primary goal is to validate products with the market and to maximise their chances of success. Before any resources are committed to a full build. Step 1. Validate Problem-solution fit is a precursor to product-market fit and exists when there is alignment between a problem that potential customers have and the solution provided by a product or service. So what do we do? We first work to validate whether the problem exists and then strive to determine whether the solution is valid for addressing the problem through a series of customer discovery calls. Step 2. Traction Once problem-solution fit has been investigated, we have an indication of whether potential customers within the target market will derive value from the product. So what do we do? To determine whether the target market will want this at scale we need to identify what successful traction looks like and then create a roadmap of how to get there. This typically involves creating a low-fidelity MVP and getting it in front of potential users. Step 3. MVP An MVP is a rapid build of a product designed to bring a version of the product to market, testing its viability, gathering user feedback, and learning from real-world usage. So what do we do? Once we have an indication that the market is responding positively to the product through customer discovery calls and broader market traction, we know that we are onto something. We need to create something to find out whether they would use a solution rather than just making the right noises. Step 4. Launch and learn Once an MVP has been created, it needs to be road-tested. It needs to be launched to the target market for early user adoption for the purposes of testing and iteration. User feedback is critical to ensure that the concept is built the way users want it and to learn if not. So what do we do? We scope, design and build an MVP and launch it to the market. We then launch this to an early adopter list collected from the traction phase and we learn over time through customer discovery calls and analytics to understand usage. I hope you enjoyed my sales pitch. Any questions please ask!

How well do you know your customer pain points? 🤕 Understanding your ideal customers' biggest challenges helps you build a more valuable business Yet, most startups don’t have a process for capturing, documenting and categorising customer pains ....and as a result only have a vague idea of what products and services customers will truly value and pay for. 🤔 Listening to customers is gold dust. Better insights into their jobs to be done, how they prioritise and what problems they will pay to resolve. Prospects are often happy to share their problems - without being sold to. 💡 Marketing create better content if they understand customer problems. 💥 Sales convert more deals if they can relieve a pain for a customer. I created a simple form to capture and prioritise customer pains. 1️⃣ Interview prospects and customers consistently. 2️⃣ Categorise the results. 3️⃣ Prioritise pains to resolve. 4️⃣ Share with sales, marketing, product 5️⃣ Implement, test, refine, repeat I tried this out with a 20 person start-up. Showed they needed to pivot before burning more £££. ...and helped an enterprise SaaS business increase conversions by 23%. 👉 Comment "PAIN" and I'll send you the link.

This article has so much gold in it and if implemented, is a masterful blueprint in how to open and close a very large deal. What Brandon Fluharty 🐝 has done here is reverse-engineer his (former) company's most INNOVATIVE customer --- by which he means one that USED their technology at the centre of transforming an aspect of their business in a brilliant way --- to then understand how to do it with existing / new accounts. Worth a deep read. It allowed him to generate multiple $ millions in a few years. Enjoy. https://lnkd.in/ecx4Hth4

A revenue growth hack you need to try: Sell to your customer's future self! Yep, you got that right. Don't just solve today's problem. Paint a picture of tomorrow's success. Example: ❌ "Our tool saves time" ✅ "By next quarter, you'll be the team's productivity hero" Try it. Your customers will thank you (from the future) #salestips #revenuegrowth #digitalmarketing