Summary:This week on How To Win: Muhammad Younas, CEO of vFairs, an all-in-one events platform that allows users to conduct virtual, in-person, and hybrid events. Founded in 2016, vFairs experienced accelerated growth during the pandemic and ballooned to over 250 employees with offices located around the world.In this episode, Muhammad breaks down some of the strategies that have helped vFairs win. We discuss hiring for hyper-growth, the power of word of mouth, and why delivering high-quality customer support is essential. I weigh in on hiring for talent and training for skill, why providing an exceptional customer experience is good for business, and the importance of conducting regular customer interviews.Key Points:What is the virtual events space like post-pandemic? (01:12)Muhammad explains why he decided to bootstrap vFairs (02:13)Muhammad discusses hiring aggressively during a period of hyper-growth (03:37)I weigh in on the adage 'hire for talent, train for skill' (04:27)Muhammad talks about vFairs word-of-mouth inbound strategy (05:15)Muhammad stresses the importance of high-quality customer service and support in a self-service product (08:30)I discuss the role of customer support in SaaS retention and adoption with a quote from ISG's John Boccuzzi Jr. (09:53)Muhammad breaks down vFairs plans to expand their outbound sales (11:47)How do referral incentives work at vFairs? (13:18)I break down some word-of-mouth strategies with a quote from Animalz's Devin Bramhall (14:16)How does vFairs use its deep product offering to help its customers? (15:50)I weigh in on the importance of talking to your customers with a quote from author Justin Wilcox (19:08)Muhammad talks about vFairs differentiation (21:21)Why is customer retention so important to vFairs? (23:29)Wrap-up (26:04)Mentioned:Muhammad Younas LinkedInvFairs WebsitevFairs LinkedInJohn Boccuzzi Jr. LinkedInHow Devin Bramhall helped Animalz scale from $1m to $16m ARR... by doing the unscalableJustin Wilcox LinkedInMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: Kevan Lee, Senior VP of Marketing at Oyster HR, a management platform for globally distributed teams. Before joining Oyster, Kevan spent six years as VP of Marketing at Buffer, a social media management platform that helps brands and businesses engage with their online audience. Kevan is an expert in brand strategy, marketing leadership, and category creation and shares his expertise through regular appearances at events and on podcasts.In this episode, Kevan walks us through some key marketing strategies from across his career. We discuss differentiating your brand story, the benefits of handling PR in-house, and why the category you choose matters. I weigh in on the power of organic social, investing in original research, and why you should strive to be a category of one.Key Points:What marketing strategies worked at Buffer? (01:32)Advice for building a brand from scratch (04:08)Kevan talks brand story structure (05:25)I weigh in on the issue of sameness across brand stories (07:40)Kevan emphasizes the importance of 'the why' with a quote from Simon Sinek (08:32)Kevan lays out the important pieces of the Buffer marketing engine (11:36)Kevan reflects on Buffer's success with in-house PR (12:02)I weigh the benefits of PR investment with a quote from Axia Public Relations' Jason Mudd (13:37)How is Oyster's marketing machine set up? (14:54)I explore a successful organic social case study from creative agency Rise at Seven (17:06)Kevan talks about Google and LinkedIn paid social (19:11)How has timing impacted Kevan's career? (20:13)Kevan discusses the creation of the Global Employment category (21:51)I discuss the idea of being a category of one with a quote from Peter Thiel, founder of Paypal and Palantir (23:44)What bets haven't paid off at Oyster? (26:02)Wrap-up (30:31)Mentioned:Kevan Lee LinkedInOyster HR WebsiteOyster HR LinkedInBuffer WebsiteBuffer LinkedInDonald Miller's StoryBrand FrameworkSimon Sinek WebsiteJason Mudd LinkedInRise at Seven WebsitePeter Thiel LinkedInMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: Matt Sornson, co-founder of Clearbit. He spent seven years across multiple leadership roles at the company and now serves on the board. His new day job is being a partner at Earl Grey Capital, an early-stage venture fund.In this episode, Matt breaks down five key lessons he’s learned throughout his career. We discuss customers hacking your product, how to scrutinize your metrics, and the benefits of implementing an outbound sales strategy earlier. I weigh in on consistently releasing new products, going through the motions, and value-based pricing.Key Points:Lesson One: If you build it, they will come (01:19)I weigh in on why you should consistently launch new products (03:26)Lesson Two: Trust the hackers (04:18)I discuss the potential of hackers with a quote from ScreenCloud's Mark McDermott (06:19)Lesson Three: Customer success cannot be delegated (07:20)I talk about rethinking your metrics with a quote from Brian Burns, host of the Brutal Truth About Sales Podcast (12:17)Lesson Four - Pricing should be based on complexity (13:58)What is value-based pricing? A quote from ProfitWell's Patrick Campbell (18:04)Lesson Five: Start outbound as soon as possible (19:47)Wrap-up (24:28)Mentioned:Matt Sornson LinkedInEarl Grey Capital WebsiteClearbit WebsiteMaking the pivot upmarket with ScreenCloud’s Mark McDermottThe Brutal Truth About Sales PodcastPatrick Campbell LinkedInMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: Mark Kosoglow, B2B SaaS thought leader and CRO of the customer success platform Catalyst Software. Founded in 2017, Catalyst's founders saw a need to create a tool that integrated customer success tools into a platform that was easy to learn and implement. To date, Catalyst has raised over $45M in funding and employs more than 100 people. Before Catalyst, Mark spent 8 years at the sales execution platform Outreach where he led their sales team as VP and later Senior VP of sales. In this episode, Mark breaks down his five-step growth process. We discuss pipeline generation, engineering company processes, and creating moments of impact for your customers. I weigh in on the importance of understanding your ICP, why you should always be striving to learn new things, and the retention economy.Key Points:Step One - Choosing your ICP (01:37)I weigh in on how to decide which customer segment to target (04:17)How does ACV play into Mark's strategy? (05:18)Step Two - Generating a pipeline (07:32)I discuss why you shouldn't be afraid to be a student with a quote from author Tom Vanderbilt (08:19)Mark lays out his SDR-heavy approach to sales (09:33)Step Three - Converting the pipeline (11:26)Why if you want to scale it, you should teach it and repeat it with a quote from Databox's Peter Caputa (15:38)Step Four - Retaining customers (17:39)I talk about the new retention economy (21:25)Step Five - Optimization (22:18)Mark explains why one person should be in charge of the customer journey (24:10)Wrap-up (27:55)Mentioned:Mark Kosoglow LinkedInCatalyst Software LinkedInCatalyst Software WebsiteTom Vanderbilt TwitterHow building methodically is helping Peter Caputa and Databox disrupt the business marketing analytics industryMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: Alejandro Rivas-Micoud, Founder & CEO of Userlytics Corporation, a UX testing platform founded in 2009.In this episode, Alejandro breaks down six important lessons he’s learned throughout his career. We discuss creating a strong corporate culture, deciding not to use VCs, and why people overestimate the impact of things in the short term and underestimate their value in the long term. I weigh in on the idea of 'culture eats strategy for breakfast', being your own VC, and how the best companies have high revenue per employee.Key Points:Lesson One - Culture eats strategy for breakfast (01:03)What does 'culture eats strategy for breakfast' actually mean? With a quote from COUNTRY Financial's Ben Kobulnicky (03:39)Lesson Two - User experience is the most important investment you can make (05:07)Lesson Three - Turning to VCs for capital should be a last resort (07:40)I explain how I bootstrapped Wynter with a quote from Cloudinary's Itai Lahan (09:49)Lesson Four - When scaling, be conservative when hiring (11:49)I discuss how really successful companies have high revenue per employee (14:26)Lesson Five - People underestimate the importance of thinking long-term (15:29)Lesson Six - Sometimes it pays to go global (18:21)Wrap-up (19:52)Mentioned:Alejandro Rivas-Micoud LinkedInUserlytics WebsiteThe Drucker Institute WebsiteBen Kobulnicky YoutubeItai Lahan LinkedInMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: Brian Bourque, SVP of Marketing at SmartAsset, where they've grown a lead generation business from $0 to $100M+ in revenue primarily through paid acquisition marketing and SEO. Brian has a ton of experience leading profitable paid acquisition teams in quantitative, direct-response marketing businesses. He's an advocate of using behavioral psychology, tech, data, and creativity to find exciting, new approaches to business. In this episode, Brian breaks down six important lessons he’s learned throughout his career. We discuss why tactics aren't strategy, why the internet is bigger than you think, and, for lesson one, why scaling is about realizing where the leverage lies in each part of your company. I give my thoughts on what a good strategy looks like, the concept of pattern interrupt, and why if they 'zig', you should 'zag'.Key Points:Lesson One - Scaling is about realizing where the leverage lies in each part of your company (01:17)How do you find out which points of leverage are the best? (02:51)I weigh in on the overuse of the term 'scaling' (05:15)Lesson Two - Tactics are not the same as strategy (05:53)I talk about the differences between tactics and strategy with a quote from author Richard P. Rumelt (08:15)Lesson Three - There is value in asking, "What would need to be true to achieve X?" (09:42)I give my thoughts on finding your way to 'X' with a quote from author Roger Martin (12:08)I recall a story from Matt Epstein, former VP of Marketing at Zenefits, about impossible goals with a quote from Matt (14:07)Lesson Four - The internet is larger than you think (15:44)Lesson Five - At scale, everyone is a competitor (18:09)I discuss the concept of pattern interrupt with a quote from Mutiny's Jaleh Rezaei (20:41)Lesson Six - When they 'zig', you 'zag' (22:11)I explain why you should always 'zag' with a quote from author Marty Neumeier (22:55)Wrap up (24:40)Mentioned:Brian Bourque LinkedInBrian Bourque TwitterBrian Bourque's NewsletterRichard P. Rumelt 's Good Strategy Bad Strategy - The Difference and Why It MattersRoger Martin's A New Way To ThinkMatt Epstein LinkedInContent, community, and customer acquisition with Mutiny's Jaleh RezaeiMarty Neumeier's ZAGMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: I'm taking the opportunity to dive deeper into something we've touched on in previous episodes, but never given the complete attention it deserves: how to get inside the limited consideration set of your ideal customers. I'll share how to create mental availability beyond your product, how to position yourself in the market, and unpack the B2B Message Layers™ framework. You'll also hear input from Drift's David Cancel, Andreessen Horowitz's Andrew Chen, and author of Obviously Awesome, April Dunford.Key Points:What does the brand landscape look like today? (00:42)Why the creation of new subcategories led to a boom in the Japanese beer market with a quote from author David Aaker (02:51)People buy based on mental availability, not personal experience (05:17)Three ways to get inside people's limited consideration set:Innovation (08:15)Excess share of voice (10:28)Winning on things beyond the product (12:38)'The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs' with a quote from Andreessen Horowitz's Andrew Chen (15:44)The importance of pattern interruption (17:20)How to go after the category kings (19:05)How to create a category with a quote from Drift's David Cancel (21:06)What is positioning? With a quote from 'Obviously Awesome' author April Dunford (23:25)How do you win on positioning? (24:15)Staying top of mind with mental availability (26:31)Why you can't make people buy by using a magic copywriting formula with a quote from copywriting expert Roy Furr (29:03)I lay out my B2B Message Layers™ framework (30:55)Wrap-up (33:26)Mentioned:David Aaker TwitterAndrew Chen LinkedInCategory creation and product-led differentiation with Drift's David CancelApril Dunford WebsiteRoy Furr LinkedInMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: Kyle Lacy, Chief Marketing Officer at Jellyfish and former CMO at Lessonly, a sales training and coaching platform. Lessonly was acquired by Seismic in 2021. Kyle also served as the Director of Global Content Marketing at Salesforce after its acquisition of ExactTarget in 2014. Before its acquisition, Lessonly made $24M in revenue and had a team of 230 that migrated over to Seismic. Lessonly was used by 1,200 B2B customers. In this episode, Kyle breaks down six important lessons he’s learned throughout his career. We discuss making the customer the hero, why you should always be willing to experiment and take risks, and why you should encourage your teams to grow their relationships. I give my thoughts on the power of customer feedback, building a strong brand moat, and trusting your team to be creative.Key Points:Lesson One - The importance of a meaningful story (01:08)I explain why your company's story is more than just "marketing fluff" (04:06)Seismic's Doug Winter explains how they created a category around sales enablement (05:12)Lesson Two - Make your customers your heroes (07:36)I dive into why customer feedback is essential for your company with a quote from Red Hat's Claire Delalande (09:17)Lesson Three - Revenue first, brand second (10:47)My thoughts on why every marketer also needs to be a brand marketer (12:48)Lesson Four - When it comes to brand, be experiential and irrational (13:30)Rory Sutherland explains why some business problems require logic, and some require irrationality (15:04)I unpack why creative work sometimes requires thinking outside the bounds of a standard operating procedure (17:12)Lesson Five - Encourage alignment through shared goals (17:32)I define what product marketing really is, and why it's so important (22:19)Lesson Six - Invest in your team's careers (22:50)I talk through why personal relationships are essential to career growth with a quote from Verhaal Brand Design's Philip VanDusen (24:40)Wrap up (27:07)Mentioned:Kyle Lacy LinkedInKyle Lacy TwitterJellyfish LinkedInJellyfish WebsiteSeismic + Lessonly WebsiteSalesforce WebsitePlaying to your strengths and strengthening your brand identity with Seismic's Doug WinterClaire Delalande LinkedInRory Sutherland's AlchemyPhilip VanDusen LinkedInMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: Mikita Mikado, CEO of PandaDoc. PandaDoc is an all-in-one document workflow automation platform. They launched in 2013, were valued at $1B in 2021, and have a projected revenue of $55M this year. They have 390 employees across the US and Belarus. In this episode, we discuss how they used customer feedback to pivot PandaDoc successfully, their decision to make part of their product free, and how balancing external opportunities with a strong internal culture helped them win. I share my experience of pivoting Wynter in its first year, creating high-quality feedback loops, and the importance of building a company culture of high standards, care, and accountability.Key Points:Mikita on founding PandaDoc (01:03)The winding road to the first million (03:21)I share my experience of pivoting Wynter with a quote from author Steve Blank (05:28)Which customer acquisition channels did PandaDoc use in the beginning? (08:05)How did conversations with customers change PandaDoc's approach? (10:36)I weigh in on the benefits of creating high-quality customer feedback loops with a quote from Meta's Daniel Strazzulla (11:26)Mikita talks about PandaDoc's slow growth and its free product offering (14:13)I discuss using a free product offer as a moat with a quote from ProfitWell's Patrick Campbell (15:46)How does PandaDoc win against the competition? (16:36)Mikita lays out why external opportunities and internal company culture have been important to PandaDoc (18:22)I stress the importance of a strong company culture with a quote from Dock's Alex Kracov (20:04)Mikita gives his three pieces of advice to fellow SaaS founders (21:49)Wrap-up (24:33)Mentioned:Mikita Mikado LinkedInPandaDoc WebsiteSteve Blank YoutubeDaniel Strazzulla LinkedInHow Patrick Campbell plans to take Profitwell to $100 million+ in revenueHow Alex Kracov made Lattice a go-to name for HR professionalsTechCrunch WebsiteMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL

Summary:This week on How To Win: Saravana Kumar, CEO of Kovai.co, a software company offering multiple enterprise and B2B SaaS products including, a customer success product, a self-service knowledge base product, and enterprise software for Microsoft BizTalk and Azure Serverless platforms. Founded in, 2011, Kovai.co has over 240 employees across the UK and India. This year Kovai.co's annual revenue has topped $10 million. In this episode, we discuss the benefits of true thought leadership, diversifying your product offering, and winning in your niche. I give my thoughts on the benefits of hiring T-shaped people, the concept of mental availability, and finding riches in the niches.Key Points:Saravana talks about the beginnings of Kovai.co (01:01)How did Saravana use his blog to acquire his first customers? (03:11)Saravana reflects on becoming a Microsoft MVP (04:50)I weigh in on true thought leadership with a quote from Orbit Media Studios' Andy Crestodina (06:07)How did Saravana scale customer acquisition beyond the first million? (07:27)Why did Kovai.co become a multi-product company? (09:15)Saravana discusses the need to launch products for different ICPs (13:08)I give my thoughts on the concept of T-shaped people with a quote from author Mike Clayton (14:02)Saravana breaks down his strategy to stay ahead of the copycats (16:00)I stress the importance of understanding customers' mental availability with a quote from Will Leach, author of Marketing to Mindstates (18:51)What were some of the strategic decisions that paid off for Kovai.co? (21:15)I lay out Animalz VP Ryan Law's five content marketing strategies for niche industries (22:54)Saravana gives three pieces of advice to fellow SaaS founders (22:36)Wrap-up (25:18)Mentioned:Saravana Kumar LinkedInSaravana Kumar Microsoft MVP ProfileSaravana Kumar BlogKovai.co LinkedInKovai.co WebsiteKovai.co Integrate Summit PageMVP Global SummitAndy Crestodina BioMike Clayton WebsiteWill Leach's Marketing to MindstatesRyan Law BlogMy Links:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteWynterSpeeroCXL