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Day: December 17, 2022

A December Note

by Om Malik
This post is by Om Malik from On my Om

 

How did it get so late so soon? 
It’s night before it’s afternoon. 
December is here before it’s June. 
My goodness how the time has flown. 
How did it get so late so soon?
– Dr. Seuss

It has been a few weeks since I sent one of these updates. I thought I would write one last month. Like all writers, I, too, have developed a penchant for procrastination. It is a deadly affliction, especially if your think in words and write to bring order to your inner self. So this morning, when a 4.0 Earthquake woke me up, I knew I couldn’t go back to sleep, and I took it as a cue to sit down and write this quick note. 

Over the past few weeks, I have been busy playing with new technologies and jotting down ideas for future (longer) pieces. It is a much better use of time and a good distraction from the shit show around us. Twitter, in particular, is a dumpster fire. And while I am not on Mastodon (yet,), I might set up a personal instance and tinker with it over the holidays.

Mastodon, in itself, isn’t novel, as it mimics Twitter. The idea of Fediverse and, by extension, ActivityPub, are interesting because they hark back to an early vision of the web, one that wasn’t dominated by the “centralized attention” economy. I feel there is a big opportunity for WordPress (my blog publishing system) to give a push to Fediverse and (Read more...)

Output vs. Outcomes for Startups

by David Cummings

In the early days of Pardot, the idea of sales or business development reps for SaaS companies started to gain popularity. While not a new concept, the idea of cold calling and cold emailing potential prospects was thought to be old fashioned and not effective. It was wildly effective. As part of building the process around outbound sales activities, we also learned an important lesson in output vs. outcomes.

Initially, we focused on output. Every rep had to make 40 calls and send 40 emails per day with a quota of one scheduled demo a week. Reps received a base salary plus $100 per demo. Eighty calls and emails per day, when done diligently with high quality talking points and content, should result in scheduled demos. The output of the calls and emails was scheduled demos.

Only, after a number of scheduled demos, and paying out the commissions, we realized output and outcome are two different things. The reps were scheduling product demos with anyone that would take a demo, regardless of fit. If someone on the other end of the line said ‘yes’ to a meeting, the rep scheduled that meeting. 

Our desired outcome was a completed demo with a potential prospect that was a good fit. So, instead of $100 per demo scheduled, we changed it to $200 per demo completed (not just scheduled) where an account executive accepted the meeting and the potential prospect showed up for the call. Now, not only did the meeting have to (Read more...)

The next big thing

by Seth Godin
This post is by Seth Godin from Seth's Blog

This is the season for all the lists–the hot authors, singers and restaurants in any given genre.

If you’re on the list, congratulations! You’re the next big thing.

For now.

But the truth of the next big thing is that you can’t stay that way. The hot bands of yesterday aren’t hot the same way they were.

After you build something great, sooner or later you’ll need to figure out how to thrive without being the new flavor of the day.