CEO @ Pavilion | Co-Host of Topline Podcast | WSJ Best Selling Author of "Kind Folks Finish First"
3 Stages of CEO Evolution: 1. Believes that sales people generate demand, hires sales people to make money 2. Realizes demand generation generates demand, hires SDRs and demand generation to make money 3. Realizes SDRs and demand generation need a message, a value proposition, and a target audience, hires Product Marketing and Content to create messaging, value proposition, and define target audience Demand Generation is FedEx. They deliver a package to a certain group of people at a certain time. But what's in the package? That's what you have to define first. Experienced CEOs know that this whole process takes time and understand there are no short cuts TODAY that will help you hit your number TOMORROW. TOMORROW is a function of what you did 9 months ago. TODAY you can impact what you'll do in 9 months. So might as well get started.
Amen to that. I can’t tell you the number of times very senior executives have called emergency meetings 2 months into the current quarter to generate ideas to “save the quarter.” My response is always the same. If you don’t have a time machine, the only quarter you can save is 3 quarters from now. Unfortunately, that’s not the answer short-sighted execs want to hear.
I couldn't love this post more! This is the exact conversation I have with startups everyday Don't spend cash on Sales and ads if you don't know: - who you're targeting (ICP & personas) - what to tell them (positioning & messaging) - to reach them (channels/partnerships/community) - what to offer them (pricing & packaging) - etc.
CEOs/Presidents have a lot of levers at their disposal. The purpose of those levers are to guide the ship on a predetermined course…..setting the course and watching for storms and pirates ahead. Pulling levers with an attempt to affect the immediate, whether out of necessity or not, is operating in the micro, in the now, as opposed to the future. It is symptomatic of several issues, one of which is micromanagement; which is often the byproduct of inexperience, incompetence, insecurity, or other psychological/character trait issues. Pulling levers to effect the now is also to operate in the arrears. THIS is reactionary. And if the CEO/President is reactionary then they have created, or will create, a culture or system by which all are, or become, reactionary. It will be a “last minute operation”, a “too little too late” organization. Debating over sales/chicken or marketer/egg, and which comes first or which is more vital will be the least of the worries.
So true 👏 I definitely learned this the hard way and then completely switched our approach two years ago. Absolutely absolute game changer. Here is my suggested edit to level 3: Demand generation works through articulating brand vision and values and propostion - and doing so consistently and engagingly. The role of the CEO to be the face of it, the rest of the team is there to a) support in making that happen (content creation, speaking engagements, marketing campaigns etc) and then b) activating those leads, then following through with the rest of the funnel. In other words, CEO does “brand awareness” top of the funnel, execution is left to the rest of the team.
Great post. I think there is a helpful distinction between demand creation and demand capture —we roll up all of our spend into these two buckets. It is not exact but helps frame your relative investment. And it also helps frame your objectives (and metrics of success) for each bucket—they are different. At EOD—you need to have religion about demand creation AND embrace patience.
True but sometimes a few salespeople and SDRs can help you figure out the messaging. Takes a few times falling on your face to learn some of this stuff
Agree - any thoughts on how to educate that "it takes time" as you said? There doesn't seem to be much appetite for anything but instant results in today's market and we're always up against those expectations.
“TOMORROW is a function of what you did 9 months ago.” “TODAY you can impact what you'll do in 9 months.”
Great lessons for life as well! In my experience, CEOs often come to me when they’re in crisis—needing fires put out immediately. The irony is, those fires usually started because something was left too long. It’s a balance: I have to offer quick fixes (painkillers) while shifting their focus to the long game. Curious—anyone else have effective strategies to help leaders reconcile (or at least come to terms with) the tension between urgent needs and building for the future?
The Anti-Consultant for Sales-led SaaS Scaleups → Clarity, No BS, Guaranteed Results | Author of The Remarkable Effect | Client stories in About
2wI am biased (obviously) - but the power, what I refer to as you Value Foundation, shouldn't be understimated, especially when growing beyond $2M ARR. Sure, the business will grow without it - but it's always compromised. It's the reason so much latent growth potential locked up on SaaS organizations. My POV is that most could easily double, with half the # of people. The thing is - Sales done well, trickles down And with 'done well' I mean winning ICP customers (and qualifying out of the ones that you might be able to help, but will never become a fan) This means - short sales cycles, high win rate and high average deal value but also: - short & smooth implementation cycles - Rapid ROI created throuhh customer success - R&D isn't hassled to build irrelevant features to make so-so customers happy - meaning better products delivered faster - meaning stronger adoption rates, more fans - and flywheel creation Where does it go wrong? At the foundation. 1 - Poor segmentation (vague) 2 - Poor value prop (vague - as a consequence of 1) 3 - Poor positioning (as consequence of 2_