The polite answer to this question is “no”. In some circumstances the answer should be “yes”. In this post I will discuss two situations in my career where we ended up “firing” thousands of customers but managed to increase revenues and profits at the same time.
Pareto Principle & Product Management
This post focuses on leveraging Pareto Analysis in product management. We will discuss how to use Pareto Analysis to understand product line revenue trends as well as customer support activity. […]
5 Marketing Budget Ideas for 2019
Most organizations have started planning marketing budgets for 2019 by now. The focus of this post is to review five items that you should consider in next year’s plan. I have been involved in enterprise software marketing for over 20 years and am amazed at how things have changed. To begin, I would like to share two stories that illustrate how software marketing and sales have changed in 2018.
Recurring Revenue Calendarization & Release Timing
This posts focuses on when is the best time of the year to release new versions of your products/services. A technique I have used over the years involves analyzing the number of customers and amounts of revenue that renew each month. This can apply to traditional software maintenance renewals or annual subscriptions for SaaS solutions.
Bessemer Ventures’ State of the Cloud 2018
Excellent preso by Bessemer inclung a discussion about their AARG metric. The metric discounts a company’s ARR multiple using its growth rate as a weight to help bring buoyant multiples back down to Earth.
M&A: Lessons in Cultural Integration
This post focuses on the challenges of integrating company cultures after an acquisition. M&A failure rates are estimated to be anywhere from 50%-80%. This article from Lakeview Capital does a pretty good job of summarizing the major causes of merger failure including inadequate due diligence, lack of low level management involvement, and recognizing culture synergies/differences. I have been involved in several acquisitions having led three deals and led eight divestitures. I would like to share three stories of how my employers successfully dealt with some aspects of cultural integration.
Todd R. Hill
Todd Hill was an account executive with QRS Corporation. He passed away September 11, 2001 when the Towers fell. Todd was staying on the 17th floor of the Marriott Hotel at the World Trade Center when terrorists hijacked and crashed two planes into the towers.
AI Listened to 1,000,000 Sales Calls – What Do You Think It Learned?
Gong.io analyzed 1,000,000 sales calls between B2B salespeople and buyers and came up with some fascinating results.
Mary Meeker Internet Trends: 2002 vs 2018
Mary Meeker from Kleiner Perkins is the undisputed leader in using big data to describe and analyze the major trends in the tech industry. She and KPCB have published a renowned annual research report since 2001. Take a look at her analysis from 2002 and her 2018 report. The differences and trends are fascinating.
Value Equations & Proof Points: How Are Yours?
How effective are your firm’s value equations and proof points?