January 31, 2024 | Read Online
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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.
Let's jump into The Middle...
THE MARKET
Tech layoffs have become...well...normal.
What used to be right-sizing to start a new year, has become a monthly occurrence (even in Jan 2024...)
Tons of reasons why layoffs become a necessity for the business to survive... market, capital, performance, etc.
But people cost is nearly 70-80% of the cost within a SaaS business. So reducing headcount becomes the way to reduce significant costs.
OnlyCFO (great follow on Twitter) put together the warning signs of a SaaS layoff.
The condensed version:
Each of these on their own may be fine, but when several of these start showing together it could be a sign for you to heed.
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
Every SaaS business is under pressure - with capital out of reach, each business is trying to reach profitability to lessen the dependence on outside capital. (Probably should've been doing this years ago, but we digress...)
That means every product is going to be scrutinized and inevitably the CFO will ask "What's the ROI?". Your champion better have a great answer.
The best bet is to make sure you have a cohesive story - product, marketing, sales, and customer success all contribute to that story.
Often we don’t link our products to our customers’ anticipated benefits. Or we mistake indirect value for direct business value - a change in the P&L.
Every business aims to grow revenue and reduce costs (the fundamental business equation!). But very few have a defendable way to prove that - don't get caught overextending the benefit of your product.
We've taken a liking to Nucleus Research's 4 orders of believability - it gives you a path to a clear story that your champion can repeat.
Nucleus Research - Believability ScaleText
The further down this list you go, the more work you have to do to link outcomes to business results:
📍1st Order - Direct Outcomes
Direct impact on the budget typically through decreased costs.
📍 2nd Order - Semi-direct Outcomes
Impacts budget (cost or income), but adjusted for the probability of success.
📍3rd Order - Indirect Outcomes
Improve team member productivity: do something faster or more efficiently or at a higher quality than you could before
📍4th Order - Very Indirect Outcomes
Expected benefits, don’t directly raise productivity over competitive solutions. Of political importance.
Better to build a compelling story with conviction, than a house of cards that can be easily blown down.
LEADERSHIP
Poor delegation is the ruin of a great manager.
The famed Venture Capitalist, Tomasz Tunguz, has mentioned that it is the missing business school class. (and he followed it up with more writing here)
As you move up in your career you need to be doing work on the business, not in the business.
Andy Grove, author of High Output Management, said “The output of a manager is the output of the organizational units under his or her supervision or influence.”
Below is Andy's model for Task Relevant Maturity, a breakdown of the best way to manage when you delegate work. TRM is the person's ability to understand the work that needs to be done.
So, want to stand out - become a great delegator.
Your output will be recognized by your leadership.
And your team should be getting work done without you micro-managing.
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
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