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the best advice I got
Jay Nathan & Jeff Breunsbach
June 19, 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 this week.
No time for dilly-dallying; let's get into it...
Jeff
Today’s Newsletter is brought to you by Totango & Catalyst
It’s frustrating when the CEO asks you to take responsibility for revenue without the necessary tools to be successful. Customer Success leaders ought to have technology designed from the ground up to fit their needs.
We created a checklist to help you navigate the shift toward Customer-led Growth and evaluate CLG platforms.
Shocker: SaaS Growth Rates Still Down
A recent article on PitchBook provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of SaaS startup revenue growth and its notable decline.
"The median annual growth rate for SaaS startups has dropped from 44% to 38% in recent years, reflecting broader economic pressures and market saturation."
Economic pressures, market saturation, and increasing competition contribute to this decline.
Economic Pressures: The broader economic environment affects consumer and business spending, impacting SaaS growth rates.
Market Saturation: As the SaaS market becomes more crowded, standing out requires more innovative and strategic approaches.
Increased Competition: With more players entering the space, competition is fiercer, making it crucial to differentiate your offerings.
This underscores the importance of innovation and differentiation for SaaS leaders. Relying on traditional growth strategies is no longer enough.
Companies must find new ways to stand out through unique product features, superior customer service, or more efficient operational models.
Add more for the same
A customer's dream would be for prices to decrease over time vs increase.
That’s hard for a company to do because nobody wants to create revenue churn for themselves.
The next best option is to add value and offer more (features, higher limits, etc) for the same prices you’re paying today as a surprise gift to customers.
Dropbox and AWS did this.
As technology continues to commoditize, this will be the way to win.
Prompt: Identify and research potential online platforms where our target customers are most active.
How It Helps: Use ChatGPT to uncover where your ideal customers spend their time online, helping you focus your marketing and outreach efforts more effectively.
Example Prompt Structure:
Research and list the top online platforms and communities where [your target customer profile] is most active. Include platforms such as forums, social media groups, professional networks, and industry-specific websites.
Provide insights into the type of content they engage with, common topics discussed, and any notable influencers or thought leaders in these spaces.
If your team is using AI in your day-to-day work, press reply with a specific tool or prompt that you use so we can highlight you.
The best advice
Your business is usually too nuanced to take on general, one-size-fits-all startup advice (kind of like ARR reporting). And believe me, as a first-time founder, I’ve been given loads. 😅
Here’s the thing. Advice needs context. It’s why a piece of advice I got back in the earliest days of Equals is the best piece of advice I’ve ever received. I committed to it. And now, looking back three years on, it’s been one of the most impactful things we’ve done.
It was to write.
Over the years, I’ve seen how writing can transform a career. Take this newsletter, for instance — it exists because we built a community (and audience) on the back of LinkedIn posts (aka writing).
The idea that you can influence your peers through the written word is powerful.
The problem is that we don’t practice writing enough, and we often have to unlearn what we were taught in school.
So, here are 5 ways to improve your writing from Sam Parr (co-founder of Hampton), and one of the best internet writers of our time.
Learn AIDA -- Attention interest desire action. That’s your framework if u want to persuade people. Google it.
Write like you speak -- If you have to look up a word in a thesaurus, don’t.
Less than 25 words a sentence -- Put commas where most use periods. 3-4 sentences per paragraph. Use active voice vs passive. Don’t use adverbs. These are generalizations that you can break after a while.
Write at a 6th-grade reading level -- Simple writing is smart writing. Read Warren Buffets' annual letter. He explains the world's most complicated businesses very simply. It works.
Change up your rhythm -- Use some longer sentences. Some short ones. Make your writing sing.
If you want to become a great leader, you have to be skilled at persuading others through the written word.
It's getting attention - not one time, but every time.
It's getting people to take action - not any action, but the right action.
Writing = persuasion
 Jeff Breunsbach |  Jay Nathan |
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