AI needs to generate revenue and add value for customers

AuthorAuthor

Jay Nathan & Jeff Breunsbach
February 14, 2024

The Middle from GrowthCurve.io

Three ideas to level up your week.

Hey Reader,

Welcome to The Middle, your midweek rundown of the most interesting things we've read so far this week.

Brought to you by Jay & Jeff at GrowthCurve.io, formerly customersuccess.io.

We're here to help SaaS VPs, directors, and managers level up to become better business leaders.

It's Wednesday, so let's jump into The Middle...

THE MARKET

AI needs to generate revenue and add value for customers

Christian Owens, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Paddle, shared some trends within software for the upcoming year.

The one I focused on was around AI. His take is that companies will need to monetize around their AI functionality.

And in particular, this quote stood out:

"This means that AI should not be added for the sake of it - it needs to generate revenue and add value for customers."

Slapping AI around your product suite is going to become commonplace. (as much as software is becoming a commodity in and of itself.)

Without a purpose, it becomes useless and ultimately can drain your engineering resources...creating even more problems with your core product.

So, sure keep up with the Jones' but it better come with a plan on how it will add value for the customer.

BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Inspect your pipeline criteria

Paul Yacoubin, Founder + CEO over at Copy.ai, shared some stats he learned at a Marlin Equity Partners get-together.

  • Win rates in 2023: down 18%

  • Sales cycles in 2023: 16% longer

  • Deal values in 2023: Down 21%

  • Deal slippage: 44%

  • And the kicker...Pipeline generation on the other hand was up 23%.

Paul raises a question about whether Pipeline generation has really "increased" or has the lack of wins caused companies to loosen criteria at the top of the funnel.

From my experience, teams tend to use things like "Ideal Client Profile" during good times. During tough times, ICP is "too stringent" and isn't giving us enough deals to win.

The downside of loosening your ICP criteria is that over time it will be tough for you to be everything to everybody (just ask your content marketers).

Dave Kellogg said it best...

LEADERSHIP

"For me, he brings out the best in me because he lets me be me"

Listen, I loathe Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs (I'm a Buffalo Bills fan). But, I am fascinated by winners in sport. And the Chiefs are on a hot streak.

When asked about what Andy Reid has done for Mahomes, he echoes the quote above. And I think that's a profound lesson for leaders who want the best out of their teams.

The best teams have 3 components:

  1. A common goal or objective

  1. A specific role for everyone to contribute

  1. A team that executes consistently at a high level

If you expand #2 and #3, my interpretation would be that you put people in the right positions to be successful.

That means finding ways they can contribute to the goal and finding ways they can be themselves amongst the team.

Might be time to take stock in your team.

Are they in the right positions to be successful? Are they able to them?

AI CORNER

We're in on the AI hype.

Here's one way to use AI within your day-to-day work.​

This week: Problem Solving

Sometimes you and your team get stuck - throwing around ideas that are all very similar. Feels like a merry go round.

I've prompted ChatGPT to help open us up to new ideas.

Here's an example prompt you could use:

​

I am currently facing [name of challenge] in my department. I have already tried/considered [your solution]. Give me five ideas to address [name of challenge] that are unique and different to what I have already done.

Thanks for reading the first edition of The Middle, from GrowthCurve.io.

​Drop us a line, and let us know what you think.​

Better yet, if you found it valuable - forward it to a friend or colleague. We'll owe you one.

🚀

Cheers!

Jay & Jeff