The Martell Method w/ Dan Martell

Exclusive Resource: Fundraising Like a Pro - Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding - http://bit.ly/2TvI41B

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Funding. The day will come when you need it for your SaaS.

You’ve grown your startup, got a brilliant team and you’ve got a great product you can actually take to investors as proof.

Now it just needs that push.

But before you even think about trying to fundraise or approach investors, you’ll need to know how to value your SaaS and decide on how much you should raise.

Value isn’t a number you just pluck out of thin air. You’ve gotta think it through and value your SaaS correctly or else you might send those eager investors running away before you’ve even shown them your product demo.

I know this mistake all too well… 10 years ago with Flowtown, I was the one who was raising the money and I settled on a value of $700K on $7M pre-money. 

Why?

It sounded clever (I share the details behind that decision in this week’s video). But very quickly I realized my valuation was off and it was doing more harm than good.

Since then, I’ve met with a lot of remarkable people and got some much-needed advice to help me value properly, all which helped refine my skill of fundraising.

I’ve now been involved in 30+ investment rounds, and have helped other founders from all over the world raise over $200M in capital.

Wanna know how to do a proper valuation of your SaaS? I’ll walk you through the key steps in this week’s video.

These are the 4 factors you’ve got to investigate before you’re ready to value your SaaS:

1. 409A Valuation
2. Market Norms
3. Competitive Process
4. Strong Thesis

Arguably the hardest part of getting your valuation is attracting investors in the first place so they’re lined up and interested in your business.

Why does that matter?

The more interest you get, the more you can leverage that to increase your valuation.

Fundraising is all about preparation and timing. If you get these wrong, you can sell too much of your company to the wrong investor and screw everything up.

We could discuss fundraising for hours, or… you can check out my Fundraising Like a Pro training below this week’s video which will show you the 3 phases of fundraising that I learned directly from Travis Kalanick (Founder of Uber.com).

Get into it! After you devour it, you will be able to go through the whole process in less than 7 weeks (normally it takes founders months to get a round done).

Last time I raised money, I closed my round in 3 days.

Aim high!

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Resource: Fundraising Like a Pro - Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding - http://bit.ly/2TvI41B

Exclusive Resource: Revenue Retention Cheatsheet™ - Stop The Bleeding & Scale Your Marketing With Confidence - http://bit.ly/2FHGVOi

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And it goes like this:

How much is it?
– It’s not that bad…
Look, it’s simple. Just give me a number. OK?
– It’s 20% – not that bad, right?
WOW… Your churn is 20% monthly? 

*issues a small prayer to all the SaaS gods*

The above is a conversation I recently had with a potential coaching client… GOOSEBUMPS!

Let me put this into perspective…

If your churn rate is at 20% and for one reason or another you fail to add any new customers… in just 5 months… you will churn through all of your existing customers and be left with nothing – simple math. 

The worse part, it pulls down your Lifetime Value of a Customer so it makes it really tough to invest in growth and is usually the reason startups fail.

You should always know exactly where you’re standing on your churn levels and you should be doing the best you can to fight these levels back and get that MRR up! 

You should make sure you UNDERSTAND CHURN!

In this episode of the SaaS Growth Stacking Show, I give you the 4 things you should pay attention to and stay on top of to make sure you stop the bleeding and SCALE-UP!

At a high level, these are the 4 things you need to keep in mind:

1. Churn Flatline
2. Maximum Viable Churn
3. Moment of Churn
4. Fight the Impact

Now… 

Where does it all begin? It starts with answering one simple question… What does churn mean?

If you cannot define it – you cannot measure it… and you absolutely need to define it! 

You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where your customer success team is measuring something else entirely that skews your data.

Start with something simple. Usually, there are 2 types of Churn – one is Cancellations and the other is Involuntary Churn.

Involuntary Churn can be 20%-40% of your Churn and a lot of times is quite easily fixable. 

There will be times where it is caused by simple payment failures and these ones, as frustrating as they are, can be tackled with great tools such as ProfitWell or FlexPay. 

Cancellation Churn’s moment, on the other hand, is well defined – it’s when a client doesn’t renew their subscription. 

Between the notice and the renew date, there is a period of time that you can really engage with the customer and save the account. 

If you implement a strong cancellation process you can save 30%-40% of these clients. A lot of times it’s up to downgrading, showing the solution, talking about their problems – SIMPLE, RIGHT?

You have to sit down and define the moment of churn with your team. Get aligned. There are things you can always do and improve and this is one of them. You need it to blast into space!

Don’t worry, it’s a solvable problem and I give you the strategy in my Churn Buster CheatSheet.  I provide 9 strategies that you can deploy today to help you reduce your churn. 

If you cannot find the solution for your business there – write a comment below with your question and let’s get the answer your business needs together.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Resource: Revenue Retention Cheatsheet™ - Stop The Bleeding & Scale Your Marketing With Confidence - http://bit.ly/2FHGVOi

Exclusive Resource: The Rocket Demo Builder™ - Never give a boring software demo again and close up to TWICE as many deals by this time next week - http://bit.ly/2JZJaQ0

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If you’re in sales, you never want to come off like this:

“Listen here, pal… This is the product you need and it will definitely solve all your problems! 100%! If you don’t buy this today, you and your company will regret it for the rest of your life!”

I call this having “Commission Breath”.

Every time I hire a salesperson, at some point this happens. 

They might follow the Talk Tracks we’ve outlined for the product demo, but many times they will be too eager to get that commission signed off by finance and force the prospects to run. 

In this episode of the SaaS Growth Stacking show, I show you how to build an awesome sales team by teaching them the 5 decisions your prospects make before buying your product. 

Here are your prospect’s 5 questions at a glance:

1. Are you trustworthy?
2. Does the product solve the problem?
3. Is it affordable?
4. Is the company dependable?
5. Is it a now thing?

Have you heard something like this before?

“Hey… We looked into your product but it doesn’t feel like something we should do now?!” – there are a ton of versions of that objection.

It’s not something you want to hear. Especially, when you are certain that you are not only solving a current issue, but can be solving future problems as well.

Well… Then talk with your sales representatives, see if they are quantifying the pain or the lack of results and relaying it clearly to the prospect. Are they PUSHING THE PAIN?

The moment you help someone realize that your product is a NOW thing and understand the whole sequence of success that follows after implementing it…

That it will not only help them achieve their business outcome, but will be a driving force to achieve their personal goals – getting the recognition, getting the promotion – then you will have it!

You will have their credit card… and the SALE!

Check the top 5 questions your sales process should have an answer for on the latest episode of the SaaS Growth Stacking Show. Leave a comment below if you can’t find your pain listed. Let’s crack it and get you IN ORBIT TO SUCCESS!

It might also be good to take a look at my Rocket Demo Builder, because it can easily solve some of the issues mentioned above and create the sense of urgency you need to be selling your SaaS product.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Resource: The Rocket Demo Builder™ - Never give a boring software demo again and close up to TWICE as many deals by this time next week - http://bit.ly/2JZJaQ0

Exclusive Resource: Fundraising Like a Pro - Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding - http://bit.ly/2JZWAdP

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Imagine the following…

You’re growing fast and you need to hire a new biz dev guy. 

He’s convinced that he’s going to add a lot of value to your company, and asked for 1% of your startup, so you give it to him.

After a few months, you pivot the business and he’s no longer needed (plus he didn’t actually do anything while he was around).

Next thing you know, you are just about to raise the first round of funding for a different product and you realize he’s still got 1%.

What do you do…?

You jump on a plane, waste time trying to convince them to sell you their equity share before you close… 

This is a true story that happened to me while I was building Flowtown. 

Equity is a great way to keep your employees motivated to scale your company, but it’s important to do it right or it can backfire against bigtime. 

In today’s video, I cover the 7 steps to ensure the right equity allocation that will make the most sense for your company.

Here are the 7 steps:

1. Build your dream team
2. Carve out your equity pool
3. Research compensation
4. Vesting schedule
5. Stock options vs other options 
6. Plan for grants and promotions
7. Set an expiration timeline

Each of these steps is crucial when it comes to doing equity right, but researching compensation is especially important for tying salary with equity for your employees.

It all basically boils down to offering compensation and equity opportunities that are relevant for the region of your business.

A CTO in San Francisco does not get the same compensation as a CTO in Nebraska, so make sure you do your research by consulting glassdoor.com or similar resources. 

The industry baseline in the region will give you a ballpark figure, which you can then combine with equity at different risk levels. 

Give your hires the ability to choose between small, medium, and larger amounts of high-risk equity. 

The   option will give them a higher salary but lower amount of equity, while the high-risk option will give them the opposite (more equity).

This strategy will help you recognize the highly motivated and long-term committed hires which will drive your company forward. 

Watch the full video to learn my other equity tips, and be sure to leave a comment below.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Resource: Fundraising Like a Pro - Learn the 3 phases of fundraising and a 7 week process for starting & closing your next round of funding - http://bit.ly/2JZWAdP

Exclusive Download: The Winning Webinar Method™ – How To Conduct A Webinar That Delivers Paying Customers - http://bit.ly/2XPQ0eA

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When I started Flowtown, a marketing Saas product I built in San Francisco, over a decade ago… there was one thing I knew we had to do right:

Content marketing.

So I built out this epic content strategy that grew to 350,000 unique views per month. What a difference that made! Then I did it all over again with Clarity.fm… and again with my current coaching business.

After doing it so many times – from scratch – I’ve learned a lot about what to do… and what not to do. 

I see business owners getting this wrong all the time… They pump out content that just doesn’t work to drive sales, because the strategy is broken.

I want to fix that. So I’ve recorded a new episode to show you a whole new 5-step framework for getting the biggest results out of your content even when spending the least amount of time.

It seems simple… but the best strategies are. That’s why they work! Just focus on these 5 steps to sharpen your content marketing game:

1. Start with your ICP
2. Five Frustrations
3. Teach to Solve
4. Offer a Bribe
5. Write for You

I know marketers who repeat the phrase “Content is king” like it’s their mantra. It’s true, but it’s only painting half the picture.

Content is king because it builds brand awareness, provides value upfront, can rank in Google, gets shared online, and provides visitors an entry point to your business.

But just because content is king, that doesn’t mean it’s your solution. 

More than 75% of blog visitors leave and never return. Building an effective strategy is what keeps those visitors coming back for more and turns them into high-quality leads.

Once you have this strategy in place, then the content can convert. But without the strategy, you’re just providing free entertainment for the world.

You’ve got to cut through the noise.

Check out the latest episode, and don’t forget to drop a comment to let me know which of the 5 steps resonated with you most.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: The Winning Webinar Method™ – How To Conduct A Webinar That Delivers Paying Customers - http://bit.ly/2XPQ0eA

Exclusive Resource: Future Living™ Framework - Play a Bigger Game and Enhance the Way You Communicate Your Vision to Everyone You Interact With - http://bit.ly/2YIRYyS

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A few months ago I gave a talk at a local high school here in Moncton.

I shared my journey, went deep in the challenges I overcame, and gave my ALL to help inspire these kids live a bigger life.

But during the Q&A, the tables got turned.

And it was this kid in the front row. Someone I’ve never met before. Who with ONE question, hit me right at my core. 

I’ve worked with hundreds of world-class coaches and mentors throughout my life. 

But for whatever reason, this was the first time the question truly landed and inspired a 15-minute, on-the-spot examination of what matters most to me. 

His question?

What does success mean to you? 

And in this super important episode I go deep into the six ways I’ve come to understand success both in my own life and the lives of those around me.

Sure, the financial outcomes you generate in your business matter. But what it really comes down to (for me, at least) is the following:

1. Better today than yesterday
2. Create experiences
3. Serving others
4. Work matters
5. Be remembered
6.Gratitude and hunger

Each one of these is worth fully exploring.

But what I want you to really focus on is how both gratitude and hunger can, and ultimately must, co-exist.

Being hungry and driven doesn’t mean you don’t appreciate what you’ve already accomplished and what you have in front of you. It’s quite the opposite.

If you’re TRULY grateful for the opportunities, resources and abilities in your life, there’s also an underlying agreement and responsibility to make good on those gifts and turn them into something even greater for yourself, your family, and your community.

Watch the full episode here, and then drop me a comment letting me know what you’re grateful for right now… and how you plan to channel that appreciation into an even bigger vision for both yourself and those around you.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Resource: Future Living™ Framework - Play a Bigger Game and Enhance the Way You Communicate Your Vision to Everyone You Interact With - http://bit.ly/2YIRYyS

Exclusive Download: Idea to Exit Mini-Course - Learn How To Build a Product Without Spending Money & True Customer Validation - http://bit.ly/2xn6os6

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I recently shared an uber with my buddy, Kevin, when the topic of naming his new startup came up.

And when you think about it…

There’s SO much pressure in getting this right.

Not only is the name of your startup gonna be front and center for the next few years (or decades) of your life...

… but it’s gonna be one of the FIRST things that potential customers use to judge you and your company. Meaning, before you even have a real conversation with a customer or investor, your company name will have either created a favorable perception… or a crappy one you’re gonna have to work extra hard to overcome. 

And while there are consultants and naming experts who will literally charge tens of thousands of dollars to help you get it right… 

In this week’s episode, I’m gonna share the criteria I’ve used to name every one my companies (as well as hundreds of companies I’ve had the privilege of advising).

At a high level, here are the five major (and slightly unconventional) things to keep in mind when naming your startup:

1. Align with your customer
2. Don’t be too specific
3. Outcome driven
4. Don’t buy the .com
5. Have meaning

Not many people know this, but the name for clarity.fm was born out of a late night coding sesh.

I was mentally cycling through the feedback we were getting from our beta users when it suddenly clicked that the OUTCOME our technology was providing all came down to clarity.

If you’re stuck in your naming process, I invite you to do the same.

Go through your case studies, interviews, surveys, etc. and try to single out any common benefit or outcome that keeps coming up.

You might be shocked by how the perfect name was right in front of you all along.

Give the full episode a watch here, and then drop a comment letting me know how you arrived at your own company’s name.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: Idea to Exit Mini-Course - Learn How To Build a Product Without Spending Money & True Customer Validation - http://bit.ly/2xn6os6

Exclusive Download: Precision Scorecard™ - Keep Your Leadership Team Focused & Accountable To Growth - http://bit.ly/2MRVMwb

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A few weeks ago, I hosted a meetup with my SaaS Academy clients in Boston (including a private sit down with the Hubspot product team).

Most of my clients are non-technical founders who noticed a gap in the marketplace and went all in to capitalize on the opportunity.

And while product management tends to be a major blind spot for most non-technical founders, this group walked away armed with the best practices from some of the world’s top SaaS companies (think Hubspot, Intercom, Dropbox).

So how do we do it?

How do we take non-technical founders from a real-life version of the shoulder-shrugging emoji wasting thousands of dollars per month coding features no one really needs…

…  to becoming a lean, efficient, top-in-class product manager in a matter of weeks or months?

It comes down to the 5 product management strategies I outline in this week’s episode.

At a high level, here are the 5 strategies that will help you nail your product management process by this time next quarter:

1. Outline your vision
2. Connect customers
3. Inform backlog
4. Glue metrics
5. Secure buy-in

When it comes to “glue metrics”, nobody impresses me more than Intercom (disclaimer: proud investor).

Essentially they measure every potential product feature against something called the R.I.C.E. scorecard.

Doing so gives them a CLEAR and quantifiable “score” to prioritize their product roadmap and make stronger, more confident decisions with more buy-in from all stakeholders.

Want to know what R.I.C.E stands for?

And better yet… how to use it to rank and prioritize the laundry list of feature add-ons taunting you from your PM dashboard?

Catch the full episode here and then drop me a comment letting me know which major update you plan to develop next, and how it scores on the R.I.C.E scale.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Download: Precision Scorecard™ - Keep Your Leadership Team Focused & Accountable To Growth - http://bit.ly/2MRVMwb

Exclusive Resource: The Rocket Demo Builder™ – Never give a boring software demo again and close up to TWICE as many deals by this time next week - http://bit.ly/31oUb4c

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I recently spoke at Traffic & Conversion in San Diego when the topic of product demos came up.

And what I realized was quite simple but profound:

Everyone has a demo problem.

I mean… ev-ery-one.

And I’m willing to bet that if you were to look at your own business right now, you’re either lacking enough demos to really make a dent in your growth…

… or you’re super overwhelmed and inundated with crappy leads that don’t even have a puncher’s chance at converting.

aka. a soul-crushing waste of time with a massive opportunity cost.

That’s what inspired me to create this week’s episode to show you how to not only get more demos on your cal… but how to get the RIGHT leads on the zoom line that have at least a 65% chance at converting.

At a high level, here’s how to book more high quality demos out of your existing traffic:

1. Pepper your CTA
2. Match the message
3. Sell the time
4. Filter your funnel
5. Warm the demo

I’d love it if you could start with the first one right away. It’s the ULTIMATE demo hack that can literally double the number of calls on your g-cal by next week.

Essentially it comes down to this:

What high-traffic pages do you have right now that aren’t “working hard enough” to turn a page visitor into a demo appointment?

We’re talking about your most highly-traffic’d entry pages as well as any major thank you pages (ie. lead magnet download, webinar sign up, etc.)

Peppering your CTA across these pages (and matching the message as I teach in step 2)… can significantly boost your appointment flow with just a few hours of work and not a single extra dollar in ad spend.

Watch the full vid here and then drop me a comment letting me know how you plan on implementing over the next week or two to get more qualified demo calls.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Resource: The Rocket Demo Builder™ – Never give a boring software demo again and close up to TWICE as many deals by this time next week - http://bit.ly/31oUb4c

Exclusive Resource: 5 Secrets of Silicon Valley - Discover My Silicon Valley Secrets To Skyrocket Your Business by Implementing 5 Little Changes That No One is Talking About - http://bit.ly/2Ko2uHt

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Should I exit or should I stay the course?

It’s THE single biggest question that nearly every successful founder will eventually be met with.

And after taking my coaching clients for a private sit down with Chris Savage at Wistia…

… it got us all thinking about the best ways to evaluate whether or not it’s time to exit and start fresh… or buckle in and continue down the path.

Inspired by Wistia (and many other founders I’ve had the privilege of sitting down with), this week’s episode covers the five key questions you need to ask yourself to arrive at a clear decision that feels both aligned and in the highest interest to your team members and stakeholders.

At a high level, the five questions to consider are as follows:

1. Passion or exhaustion?
2. If crushing?
3. Build it again?
4. Pivot or persevere?
5. Perfect execution?

The FIRST question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you’re still in love.

Meaning, are you still absolutely passionate about the problems you’re solving and the audience you’re solving it for? Or are you just going through the motions?

I see so many founders that pivot their way “out of love” and end up with something that while successful, just leads to exhaustion and constant curiosity around new possibilities.

As a founder and leader, your passion is your fuel.

It MUST be protected at all costs.

And if you find it waning… it might be time to start considering your next move.

Give the full episode a spin here, and then drop me a comment letting me know any major insights or points of clarity that come from it.

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Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome.

+ Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell
+ Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell
+ Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Exclusive Resource: 5 Secrets of Silicon Valley - Discover My Silicon Valley Secrets To Skyrocket Your Business by Implementing 5 Little Changes That No One is Talking About - http://bit.ly/2Ko2uHt