week 75: people don’t make decisions unless they have to

give them a reason to say yes or no

thank you to over 11,000 of you who read this weekly and share with your friends and family for behind the scenes on building a million dollar business from scratch and beyond.

i also include a personal note in the end so i am grateful that you let me do that without judgement.

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one of the biggest lessons i have learned in building GTM Partners is doing sales.

the sales game has completely changed from when we built my last company Terminus.

at Terminus we raised over $100M in funding and hired more sales reps to hit the top line growth.

that was the way to grow by default.

that’s no more the way sales is working in 2023.

the idea of hiring an army of 100 SDRs to pound phones and emails is no longer helping drive new business.

even the good old marketing campaigns with endless and mindless nurture streams is almost insulting the buyer as they can sniff the unpersonalized and self oriented emails over 1:1 element of engagement.

fortunately, almost two quarters in a row we hit a $1M in revenue and we are on target to do that in Q4 and here are a few lessons from it:

1. no one is going to buy unless you give them a reason to say yes or no (the old way of “let’s keep talking” is simply too costly)

2. blogs are a complete grave yard, unless you make it very rich in insights and value (we do GTMonday with a mission that every post will deliver either a new framework or a data insight. if we don’t have it, we rather not post at all)

3. money is in the follow up (the follow emails are simply a waste of inbox space. they are the modern spam. but a specific follow up based on what we talked with slide numbers, summary to refer to and a customized deck makes a big difference)

4. every time we have made a deal that happened because of one key tactic - we never left a call without scheduling another call with clear value, outcome, and next steps agreed upon (for example - we will say, let me get an analyst on the next call to talk thru your GTM challenge and the entire ghosting issue in sales is gone)

5. people don’t make decisions unless they have to (it’s ok to get a no, but have to learn to get an answer or create a forcing function to help them make a decision)

lesson number 5 is probably my biggest lesson in sales.

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on a personal note, i got to speak at the High-tech prayer breakfast for the first time to share my testimony of faith publicly.

i was nervous for two main reasons:

1. its the first time i was sharing my faith in front of 1500+ people

2. my family was right there in the front row who were going to hear my dirty laundry

turns out - thats ok.

people appreciated my candor, my mistakes, and my life long challenge for wanting to be wanted.

my entire message was based on the fact that when i learned the Jesus wants me and loves me so much so that HE died on the cross for me, it’s like telling a cancer patient there is cure for the cancer.

how could i not be excited and lean into it.

to top it off, faith in Jesus has given me foundation for my family, for my relationships, how i do my business, how i treat others and how i understand the world around me.

is it easy - not at all - most times i don’t want to do what Jesus preached.

is it rewarding - bet it is because this is how we were designed to begin with.

but it’s an invitation.

and just like any invitation, everyone is invited but only a few will accept it.

for me i did accept it and see the fruit of it every single day.

my biggest hope for people is that we are not lukewarm.

know why you believe what you believe and ask the tough questions.

go on a journey to seek the truth.

lean in and be uncomfortable with what might seem unbelievable first and perhaps, one day, you will accept the invitation as well.

curious: how do you make decisions?

every decision in your life either moves you toward something or away from something. decide wisely.

leaderpoint: once you understand the power of helping people make a decision, you get their attention.