From Impossible to Inevitable
How SaaS and Other Hyper-Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue
2. Edition July 2019
336 Pages, Hardcover
Practical Approach Book
ISBN:
978-1-119-53169-2
John Wiley & Sons
Further versions
Break your revenue records with Silicon Valley's "growth bible"
"This book makes very clear how to get to hyper-growth and the work needed to actually get there"
Why are you struggling to grow your business when everyone else seems to be crushing their goals? If you needed to triple revenue within the next three years, would you know exactly how to do it? Doubling the size of your business, tripling it, even growing ten times larger isn't about magic. It's not about privileges, luck, or working harder. There's a template that the world's fastest growing companies follow to achieve and sustain much, much faster growth.
From Impossible to Inevitable details the hypergrowth playbook of companies like Hubspot, Salesforce.com (the fastest growing multibillion dollar software company), and EchoSign--aka Adobe Document Services (which catapulted from $0 to $144 million in seven years). Whether you have a $1 billion or a $100,000 business, you can use the same insights as these notable companies to learn what it really takes to break your own revenue records.
* Pinpoint why you aren't growing faster
* Understand what it takes to get to hypergrowth
* Nail a niche (the #1 missing growth ingredient)
* What every revenue leader needs to know about building a scalable sales team
There's no time like the present to surpass plateaus and get off of the up-and-down revenue rollercoaster. Find out how now!
Preface: Systematizing Success xiii
Lessons from the World's Fastest-Growing Companies xiii
Part I Nail a Niche
1 "Niche" Doesn't Mean Small 2
Are You Sure You're Ready to Grow Faster? 2
How to Know If You've Nailed a Niche 4
Achieve World Domination One Niche at a Time 6
The Arc of Attention 7
2 Signs of Slogging 12
Are You a Nice-to-Have? 12
Big Companies Suffer, Too 15
Case Study: Where Aaron Went Wrong 16
Your Current Strength Can Be a Future Weakness 21
3 How to Nail It 23
Where Can You Be a Big Fish in a Small Pond? 23
Work through the Niche Matrix 25
Case Study: How Twilio Nailed a Billion-Dollar Niche by Walking in Its Customers' Shoes 31
The 20-Interview Rule 36
4 Your Pitch 39
If You Were a Radio Station, Would Anyone Tune In? 39
Elevator Pitches Are Always Frustrating 41
They Don't Care about "You": Three Simple Questions 43
Part II Create Predictable Pipeline
Introduction: Lead Generation Absolves Many Sins 46
5 Seeds--Customer Success 50
How to Grow Seeds Predictably 51
Case Study: How Gild Dropped Monthly Churn from 4 to 1 56
Case Study: Customer Service Excellence at Topcon 58
6 Nets--Marketing 61
Three Uncommon Approaches of Hypergrowth CMOs 63
The Forcing Function Your Marketing Leader Needs: A "Sales Qualified Lead Commit" 70
Corporate Marketing versus Demand Generation 71
How Inbound Changed in 10 Years Between Scaling Marketo to $100M+ and Founding Engagio 72
Heroic Marketing: When You Have No Money and Little Time 76
7 Spears--Outbound Prospecting 80
Where Outbound Works Best--and Where It Fails 83
Outbound Lessons Learned Since Predictable Revenue Was Published 85
Case Study: Outbound's Role in Acquia's $100 Million Trajectory 87
Case Study: How Sagemount Triples the Value of a Company in Three Years 89
Case Study: How Zuora Drives 60%-Plus of Its Growth by Outbound, Even When Accounts Need Nurturing for Years 97
Build an Outbound Program Right the First Time 104
Have You Been Too Successful at Inbound? 110
8 What Executives Miss 114
Pipeline Creation Rate: Your #1 Leading Metric 114
The 15/85 Rule: Early Adopters and Mainstream Buyers 116
Why You're Underestimating Customer Lifetime Value 119
Part III Make Sales Scalable
9 Learn from Our Mistakes 123
Growth Creates More Problems Than It Solves--But They Are Better Problems 123
Top 12 Mistakes in Building Sales Teams 124
Advice from the VP Sales behind LinkedIn and EchoSign 126
10 Specialization: Your #1 Sales Multiplier 129
Why Salespeople Shouldn't Prospect 129
Case Study: How Clio Restructured Sales in Three Months 132
Can You Be Too Small, or Too Big, to Specialize? 134
Specialization: Two Common Objections 136
Specialization Snapshot at Acquia 137
11 Sales Leaders 139
The #1 Mis-Hire Is the VP/Head of Sales 139
The Right VP Sales for Your Stage 140
Ten Favorite Interview Questions 143
12 Hiring Best Practices for Sales 146
If You're a Startup: Four Phases of Hiring Your First Sales Team 146
Simple Hiring Tricks 149
When Doing Something New, Start with Two 150
The $100 Million HubSpot Sales Machine: Recruiting and Coaching Essentials 152
Case Study: How to Cut Down on Wasted Interviewing 154
13 Scaling the Sales Team 157
If You're Churning More Than 10% of Your Salespeople, They Aren't the Problem 157
Three Ways to Cut Churn and Increase Sales Motivation While You Scale 160
Advice to CEOs: Put Nonsales Leaders on Variable Comp Plans, Too 164
Are Your Enterprise Deals Taking Forever? 166
Five Key Sales Metrics (with a Twist) 168
14 For Startups Only 171
Every Tech Company Should Offer Services 171
What Jason Invests In, and Do You Need to Raise Money to Scale? 173
What the Headcount of a 100-Person SaaS Company Looks Like 176
Part IV Double Your Deal Size
15 Deal Size Math 182
You Need 50 Million Users to Make Freemium Work 182
Small Deals Get You Started, Big Deals Drive Growth 184
16 Not Too Big, Not Too Small 188
When You Can't Turn Small Deals into Big Ones 188
If You Have Customers of All Sizes 189
17 Going Upmarket 194
If You Don't Want Salespeople . . . 194
Add Another Top Pricing Tier 196
Pricing Is Always a Pain 199
Going Fortune 1000 202
Part V Do the Time
18 Embrace Frustration 209
Are You Sure You're Ready for This? 209
Everyone Has a Year of Hell 215
Comfort Is the Enemy of Growth 217
Motivation: How Aaron Reached Escape Velocity 219
19 Success Isn't a Straight Line 220
The Anxiety Economy and Entrepreneur Depression 220
Mark Suster's Question: "Should a Person Learn or Earn?" 224
When a Straight Line Isn't the Shortest Path to Success 228
Change Your World, Not the World 230
Part VI Embrace Employee Ownership
20 A Reality Check 234
Dear Executives (From an Employee) 234
Dear Employee (From the Executives) 235
P.S.: "Dear Senior Executives, Don't Get Left Behind" (From the CEO and Board) 237
Are Your People Renting or Owning? 238
21 For Executives: Create Functional Ownership 243
A Simple Survey 243
"No Surprises" 245
Functional Ownership 248
Case Study: How a Struggling Team Turned into a Self-Managing Success 255
To Turn Things Around 256
22 Taking Ownership to the Next Level 259
Financial Ownership 259
Move People Around 260
The Four Types of Employees 262
Part VII Define Your Destiny
23 Are You Abdicating Your Opportunity? 268
Your Opportunity Is Bigger Than You Realize 268
How to Expand Your Opportunity at Work 270
You Need Some Humdrum Passions 272
Your Company Isn't Your Mommy or Daddy 276
Forcing Functions: How to Motivate Yourself to Do Things You Don't Feel Like Doing 277
Sales Is a Life Skill 282
Sales Is a Multistep Process 285
24 Combining Money and Meaning 289
Meaning Gone Wrong 289
What's Your Unique Genius? 291
Ignoring Real Life Doesn't Make It Go Away 295
Aaron, How the Hell Do You Juggle 10 Kids and Work? 297
A Thank You . . . 303
About the Authors 304
Index 305
Lessons from the World's Fastest-Growing Companies xiii
Part I Nail a Niche
1 "Niche" Doesn't Mean Small 2
Are You Sure You're Ready to Grow Faster? 2
How to Know If You've Nailed a Niche 4
Achieve World Domination One Niche at a Time 6
The Arc of Attention 7
2 Signs of Slogging 12
Are You a Nice-to-Have? 12
Big Companies Suffer, Too 15
Case Study: Where Aaron Went Wrong 16
Your Current Strength Can Be a Future Weakness 21
3 How to Nail It 23
Where Can You Be a Big Fish in a Small Pond? 23
Work through the Niche Matrix 25
Case Study: How Twilio Nailed a Billion-Dollar Niche by Walking in Its Customers' Shoes 31
The 20-Interview Rule 36
4 Your Pitch 39
If You Were a Radio Station, Would Anyone Tune In? 39
Elevator Pitches Are Always Frustrating 41
They Don't Care about "You": Three Simple Questions 43
Part II Create Predictable Pipeline
Introduction: Lead Generation Absolves Many Sins 46
5 Seeds--Customer Success 50
How to Grow Seeds Predictably 51
Case Study: How Gild Dropped Monthly Churn from 4 to 1 56
Case Study: Customer Service Excellence at Topcon 58
6 Nets--Marketing 61
Three Uncommon Approaches of Hypergrowth CMOs 63
The Forcing Function Your Marketing Leader Needs: A "Sales Qualified Lead Commit" 70
Corporate Marketing versus Demand Generation 71
How Inbound Changed in 10 Years Between Scaling Marketo to $100M+ and Founding Engagio 72
Heroic Marketing: When You Have No Money and Little Time 76
7 Spears--Outbound Prospecting 80
Where Outbound Works Best--and Where It Fails 83
Outbound Lessons Learned Since Predictable Revenue Was Published 85
Case Study: Outbound's Role in Acquia's $100 Million Trajectory 87
Case Study: How Sagemount Triples the Value of a Company in Three Years 89
Case Study: How Zuora Drives 60%-Plus of Its Growth by Outbound, Even When Accounts Need Nurturing for Years 97
Build an Outbound Program Right the First Time 104
Have You Been Too Successful at Inbound? 110
8 What Executives Miss 114
Pipeline Creation Rate: Your #1 Leading Metric 114
The 15/85 Rule: Early Adopters and Mainstream Buyers 116
Why You're Underestimating Customer Lifetime Value 119
Part III Make Sales Scalable
9 Learn from Our Mistakes 123
Growth Creates More Problems Than It Solves--But They Are Better Problems 123
Top 12 Mistakes in Building Sales Teams 124
Advice from the VP Sales behind LinkedIn and EchoSign 126
10 Specialization: Your #1 Sales Multiplier 129
Why Salespeople Shouldn't Prospect 129
Case Study: How Clio Restructured Sales in Three Months 132
Can You Be Too Small, or Too Big, to Specialize? 134
Specialization: Two Common Objections 136
Specialization Snapshot at Acquia 137
11 Sales Leaders 139
The #1 Mis-Hire Is the VP/Head of Sales 139
The Right VP Sales for Your Stage 140
Ten Favorite Interview Questions 143
12 Hiring Best Practices for Sales 146
If You're a Startup: Four Phases of Hiring Your First Sales Team 146
Simple Hiring Tricks 149
When Doing Something New, Start with Two 150
The $100 Million HubSpot Sales Machine: Recruiting and Coaching Essentials 152
Case Study: How to Cut Down on Wasted Interviewing 154
13 Scaling the Sales Team 157
If You're Churning More Than 10% of Your Salespeople, They Aren't the Problem 157
Three Ways to Cut Churn and Increase Sales Motivation While You Scale 160
Advice to CEOs: Put Nonsales Leaders on Variable Comp Plans, Too 164
Are Your Enterprise Deals Taking Forever? 166
Five Key Sales Metrics (with a Twist) 168
14 For Startups Only 171
Every Tech Company Should Offer Services 171
What Jason Invests In, and Do You Need to Raise Money to Scale? 173
What the Headcount of a 100-Person SaaS Company Looks Like 176
Part IV Double Your Deal Size
15 Deal Size Math 182
You Need 50 Million Users to Make Freemium Work 182
Small Deals Get You Started, Big Deals Drive Growth 184
16 Not Too Big, Not Too Small 188
When You Can't Turn Small Deals into Big Ones 188
If You Have Customers of All Sizes 189
17 Going Upmarket 194
If You Don't Want Salespeople . . . 194
Add Another Top Pricing Tier 196
Pricing Is Always a Pain 199
Going Fortune 1000 202
Part V Do the Time
18 Embrace Frustration 209
Are You Sure You're Ready for This? 209
Everyone Has a Year of Hell 215
Comfort Is the Enemy of Growth 217
Motivation: How Aaron Reached Escape Velocity 219
19 Success Isn't a Straight Line 220
The Anxiety Economy and Entrepreneur Depression 220
Mark Suster's Question: "Should a Person Learn or Earn?" 224
When a Straight Line Isn't the Shortest Path to Success 228
Change Your World, Not the World 230
Part VI Embrace Employee Ownership
20 A Reality Check 234
Dear Executives (From an Employee) 234
Dear Employee (From the Executives) 235
P.S.: "Dear Senior Executives, Don't Get Left Behind" (From the CEO and Board) 237
Are Your People Renting or Owning? 238
21 For Executives: Create Functional Ownership 243
A Simple Survey 243
"No Surprises" 245
Functional Ownership 248
Case Study: How a Struggling Team Turned into a Self-Managing Success 255
To Turn Things Around 256
22 Taking Ownership to the Next Level 259
Financial Ownership 259
Move People Around 260
The Four Types of Employees 262
Part VII Define Your Destiny
23 Are You Abdicating Your Opportunity? 268
Your Opportunity Is Bigger Than You Realize 268
How to Expand Your Opportunity at Work 270
You Need Some Humdrum Passions 272
Your Company Isn't Your Mommy or Daddy 276
Forcing Functions: How to Motivate Yourself to Do Things You Don't Feel Like Doing 277
Sales Is a Life Skill 282
Sales Is a Multistep Process 285
24 Combining Money and Meaning 289
Meaning Gone Wrong 289
What's Your Unique Genius? 291
Ignoring Real Life Doesn't Make It Go Away 295
Aaron, How the Hell Do You Juggle 10 Kids and Work? 297
A Thank You . . . 303
About the Authors 304
Index 305
Aaron Ross founded PredictableRevenue.com, a consulting company that helps b2b companies triple sales growth & create self-managing sales teams. Aaron is also the founder of PebbleStorm, which is helping 100 million people "make money through enjoyment" by combining happiness and money.
Jason Lemkin is a Managing Director of Storm Ventures. At Storm Ventures, Jason focuses exclusively on early-stage SaaS/enterprise start-ups and helping them scale. He has led and/or sourced Storm's investments in next-generation SaaS leaders including Talkdesk, Algolia, Pipedrive, Parklet, RainforestQA and Guidespark, as well as his own Storm-backed company, EchoSign (acquired by Adobe). He also serves an Advisory Board Member or investor in other emerging SaaS leaders, including Convertro (acquired by AOL), BetterWorks, AnyPerk, Retention Science, Showpad, FrontApp, Influitive, and Greenhouse.io. Jason is an acknowledged thought leader in SaaS through his creation of theSaaStr community for SaaS executives and founders.
Jason Lemkin is a Managing Director of Storm Ventures. At Storm Ventures, Jason focuses exclusively on early-stage SaaS/enterprise start-ups and helping them scale. He has led and/or sourced Storm's investments in next-generation SaaS leaders including Talkdesk, Algolia, Pipedrive, Parklet, RainforestQA and Guidespark, as well as his own Storm-backed company, EchoSign (acquired by Adobe). He also serves an Advisory Board Member or investor in other emerging SaaS leaders, including Convertro (acquired by AOL), BetterWorks, AnyPerk, Retention Science, Showpad, FrontApp, Influitive, and Greenhouse.io. Jason is an acknowledged thought leader in SaaS through his creation of theSaaStr community for SaaS executives and founders.
