Marketing
Ask most startups about their go-to-market (GTM) these days and they'll give you lots of numbers. Funnel metrics. MQLs, SQLs, demos, and associated funnel conversion rates. Seen over time, cut by segment. Win/loss rates and close rates as well, similarly sliced. Maybe an ABM scorecard,
Management
In this post, I'll present what I view as the minimum sales management framework for an enterprise SaaS startup -- i.e., the basics you should have covered as you seek to build and scale your sales organization [1]. 1. Weekly sheet 2. Pipeline management rules, with an optional
Demandgen
The other day I read a book on account-based marketing (ABM), entitled ABM is B2B, and I must say I disliked it. Capital D disliked. My Thoughts on the Book: ABM is B2B Why? It struck me as the kind of buzzword-laden, hype-filled, superficial-case-study-driven,
Product
Please join Thomas Otter and me this Thursday, May 6th at 8:00 am Pacific for the SaaS Product Power Breakfast on Clubhouse with special guest Brett Queener, partner at Bonfire Ventures, former President & COO at SmartRecruiters, product-line general manager at both Salesforce.com and Siebel, and member
Forecasting
This is the third in a three-post series focused on forecasting and pipeline. Part I examined triangulation forecasts to improve forecast accuracy and enable better conversations about the forecast. After a review of pipeline management fundamentals, part II discussed the use of to-go pipeline coverage to provide clarity
Forecasting
This is the second in a three-part series focused on forecasting and pipeline. In part I, we examined triangulation forecasts with a detailed example. In this, part II, we'll discuss to-go pipeline coverage, specifically using it in conjunction with what we covered in part I. In
Forecasting
Ever been in this meeting? CEO: What's the forecast? CRO: Same as before, $3,400K. Director 1: How do you feel about it? CRO: Good. Director 2: Where will we really land? CRO: $3,400K. That's why that's the forecast. Director 1: But best
Career
[Edited 4/16, see notes at bottom] I've worked with scores of founders and companies over the years and I've come to make bright-line distinction between founders and managers. Let me demonstrate it with a story. One day long ago I was in a board
Marketing
I'm working with a lot of different companies these days and one of the perennial topics is pipeline. * Do we have enough? * Is it spread across reps in a healthy way? * Should I build pipeline then hire reps or hire reps to build pipeline? * From where should pipeline
Grateful Dead
The concept of minimum viable product (MVP) has been popularized in the past decade thanks to the success of the wonderful book, The Lean Startup. It's thrown around so casually, and you hear it so often, that sometimes you wonder how -- or even if -- people define it. In
Cloud
It feels like the just the other day when I met a passionate French entrepreneur in the bar on the 15th floor of the Hilton Times Square to discuss Nuxeo. I remember being interested in the space, which I then viewed as next-generation content management (which, by the way,
IPO
Download Dave-Kellogg-SaaS-Metrics.mp3 The SaaShimi podcast just dropped the first two episodes of its second season and I'm back speaking with PNC Technology Finance banker Aznaur Midov, this time discussing some of the key difference between private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) when it