Why you’re not getting traction
A lot of startup teams get so focused on being in action that they just stay in busy mode but never get traction. The difference between traction and just action is the difference between building something that’s scalable and sustainable, and just constantly building.
It can be kind of hard to see the difference. Startup life is all about constantly running to the next problem to solve. Most likely, if you’re not growing, you don’t have traction. But you might be growing in a way that’s not scalable and sustainable; constantly reinventing your sales approach or your customer success team or your brand. That’s not traction either.
I’ve found startups that can’t quite get into traction mode face one (or any combination) of these five things.
You’re making assumptions about who your decision-makers and customers are (they’re not always the same & founders are often wrong).
You’re selling the wrong thing. You’re selling what you think they should want; not what they do want.
There’s a disconnect between marketing and sales. Marketing and sales are connecting with different people. Or promising different things.
There’s a disconnect between sales and customer success. What’s promised in the sale isn’t what’s delivered in onboarding or the life of the contract.
There’s a disconnect between product and marketing, sales, or customer success.
All of the above, combined, can be addressed by a CXO — a Chief Experience Officer.
When I moved from CMO to CXO, all of the above became my main focus. Not just things I tried to triage off the side of my desk.
A CXO has deep marketing experience and at least some direct sales experience. The only way to really know how to connect sales and marketing is to have done it directly, first hand. (I went hands-on with sales for three months when my role shifted)
With first-hand knowledge of who’s buying, why they buy, and what happens in the conversations along the way, a CXO can help the team with every one of those five things that gets in the way of traction.
You’re making assumptions about who your decision-makers and customers are (they’re not always the same & founders are often wrong).
Your CXO can stress-test your ideal buyer personas, challenge assumptions where needed, separate decision-makers from influencers and end users, and get the whole team (marketing, sales, product, and customer success) working for the same customers.
With hands-on selling experience and deep marketing strategy know-how, your CXO can find where what you offer overlaps with what your buyers actually want, and frame it that way.
Marketing and sales teams today, especially in lean startups, should be so closely connected that you almost can’t find the line between them. Your CXO can make sure that, from profiles to brand promise, high-level strategy to day-to-day activities, your team and the people they connect with are all experiencing the same thing.
Continuing on with the customer lifecycle, your CXO helps to make sure that what people experience once they say yes to your team feels the same as what they expect — they get what’s promised in the sale, from onboarding or the life of the contract. That’s not just about product, but what it feels like to experience the product and do business with the people behind it.
And, that brings us to product. From the smallest details inside your SaaS platform to the major features and functions, your CXO is there to help bridge the experience from first-touch in marketing to what it actually feels like to use the thing. They work closely with the product team, they’re involved in planning and finalizing each release, without getting too in the weeds.
That’s it. It’s simple. But not easy.