The Martell Method w/ Dan Martell

One of my favourite questions to ask someone is “Who’s the best [CMO/CTO/VP of Sales] you know?”

I don’t care if they already have a job… I just want their name.

Actually, I prefer if they’re already working because it allows me to build a relationship with them without the pressure.

My approach once I have a name is to reach out with a big, real-world challenge that I can get their advice on…

… usually the first contact lasts 15 minutes.

I’m just looking to establish a connection.

From there, I follow up and keep the conversation going and work them through my process for hiring.

But what if you don’t know anyone to ask?

That’s why I share the concept of “deputizing” in this week’s video.

It’s a core part of my C-level hiring strategy, guaranteed to help you hire great talent.

The overall framework falls into 3 phases, but they’re built on the foundation called the Ikea Effect.

The concept is simple…

Someone who’s involved in building something, sees that creation as having more value than if they had just bought or been given that thing.

That’s why, I use the “Ask for advice” angle for reaching out and connecting with all my potential hires as a first step.

The reason that works best is I get to “test drive” the person before I ever invest a significant amount of time and money bringing them on.

What I’ve learned over the years is someone can seem like a perfect candidate, but a simple project can surface some glaring issues that would make it almost impossible to work with (ex: lacks creative problem solving, isn’t clear in their communications, doesn’t know how to lead a team, etc).

When it comes to hiring C-level talent, you need to find a way to simulate the work before you ever hire them so you get A-players only!

Using this process will help you build an incredible leadership team that will allow you to free up your time and scale your company more easily.

If you have questions about the test project, leave a comment with your specific hiring scenario and I’ll offer up some examples.

Now go out there and deputize some people to identify killer talent for your company!

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

The first thing I ever built that I charged for was an MP3 burning app.

I had just learned Visual Basic in one of my elective programming classes in highschool, and I wanted to see what I could create.

The problem I wanted to solve was simple…

As one of the few people at the time with a CD burner, I would always have my friends come over to my house and spend hours going through all of the MP3’s I had downloaded from Napster to create the ultimate playlist for themselves or their girlfriend…

(K-Ci and JoJo was always a crowd pleaser)

So after a few weeks of this, I built a simple app that anyone could install at their house.

It would connect to my computer using FTP, download a file of all the MP3’s I had on my computer, let them create the playlist at their house, and when they were ready, they could “order” the CD (pay me $20 bucks) and I would burn it overnight while I slept.

So technically, that’s the first time coding made me money, even before MaritimeVacation.ca (a vacation rental site I started in 1999).

I share that story because learning to code is not hard.  

It just requires a strong enough motivation and some resources.

That’s what I cover in this week’s video.

The crazy part is learning to code literally saved my life.

As the world evolves, I believe learning to code is going to be a powerful skill to have…

It’s why I’ve been teaching my two little boys to code ever since they were 2 years old.

But how do you learn while sidestepping overwhelm?

Here are 5 tips to get you (or your kid) started:

1. Use your weekends: block out some time, schedule it, and commit to start when the clock hits that time!
2. Wireframe a simple app: keep it simple. Blank printer paper and a marker works to outlining the apps interface.
3. Front-end, backend, database: understanding these 3 specific pieces will make the whole process way easier!
4. Pick a language: Ruby, Python, Php, Javascript… now this one can be debated and I’d love to have that below in the comments.
5. Consume tutorials: there are sooooo many free online training videos to help you get going, but there’s also next level training by folks likes www.teamtreehouse.com.

If you want some feedback on your app idea, just leave a comment and I’ll provide some thoughts on the best way to build it.

Excited to hear how your first app comes along… something simple can take less than a couple hours!

Do it. Get coding :)

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

Every startup wants to grow fast.

And while there’s value in modelling the tactics and strategies that have fueled the rapid success of companies they look up to…

There’s even MORE value in identifying the core, underlying principles that serve as the backbone for that success.

Over the years, I’ve identified 5 core elements behind the perfect software business.

I learned one of them directly from Jason Fried @ Basecamp.com when I visited Chicago to take his workshop over 10 years ago.

Another from guys like Mike McDerment @ Freshbooks.com, and Ben Chesnut @ MailChimp.com, both early mentors of mine who inspired a lot of the work I create at Flowtown.

In today’s world you see companies like Slack.com, and Intercom.com (disclosure: I’m an investor) shooting for the moon and you wonder:

“How did they do it?”

That’s what I want to break down for you in this week’s video.

Here are the 5 key elements that the world’s best startups all have in common.

What I’ve learned is it really comes down to how the product is used by the companies, how they extract the value (i.e. get paid) and their position in the market…

… now, there are some nuances, and I go over them in the video, but I want to list them out real quick so that you can understand how impressive it is for a company to hit this level of growth:

1. Product Is Core to the Operation of the Business
2. Cost/Value Proposition is Straightforward
3. Finances Its Own Growth
4. Efficient Sales Model
5. Market Leadership

If you’ve got tough decisions to make on your product to better address these elements and need my feedback, be sure to leave a comment with your question and some context, I would love to help.

See you next Monday!

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

When I started my SaaS (that stands for Software-as-a-Service) startup Flowtown my co-founder Ethan and I had a tough decision to make…

How do we fund the company?

Even though I had the capital to self fund the whole thing, as I had just sold my previous company Spheric, he was 23 and didn’t have a penny to his name.

So this is what I did…

It was Friday, and I said, if you can find a way to raise $15K, I would fund the rest.

On Monday he called and said he had the money!???

That’s when I learned how great of a person he was.

You can listen to how he did it in this week’s video, alongside the 8 other strategies you can use to raise money for your startup.

I go deep into all 8 strategies in the video…

But if you’re looking for a quick primer, here are my 2 favorites:

1. Crowdfunding: I like this one because it also has the side effect to help you validate the idea as well. If no one buys, then it might be an indication that the idea is bad, or that you packaged it wrong.  I’d rather find out quickly before I invest a ton of time and money to fix things.
2. Venture capital: Even though most people think VC’s are horrible, I’ve learnt that there’s something powerful to having incredible investors. It’s a quick way to establish authority in a space, it provides a sense of confidence (if you get the right investors) that you know they’re in your corner, and you get the positive peer pressure to report your numbers to an external group of people.

You might of expected some kind of secret government program, or easy way to get banks to lend you money, but I’m a big fan of testing and validation…

And nothing works better to prove you have an idea worth pursuing than having others take their hard earned money and invest in your business.

My good friend Clay Hebert, a crowdfunding expert, once said “… the cost of failure will eventually go to $0 because of crowdfunding.” and I’m a big supporter of this.

So if you have big dreams, there’s a good chance you’ll need some money to fund them.

Be sure to study all 8 of these strategies and use them accordingly.

If you have any questions for me on how you should use them, be sure to leave a comment with your questions – that’s best way for me to help!

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

Have you ever struggled with your marketing website?

Sure, they have templates and super slick WYSIWYG editors.

But that doesn’t deal with the hard part:

The content.

WTF do I put on those pages?

How do I turn lorem ipsum into monthly recurring revenue?

How many pages should I have on my site?

What should those pages be?…

I need a blog, right?… right?…. right?

(read below to find out) :p

If you’ve ever wrestled with these questions… then I want to make things really simple for you.

In this week’s video, I share my Authority Architecture framework that will help you design the ultimate website for your startup.

They don’t sleep, but they do repeat themselves – the exact same way – to everyone that they talk to.

(Did I lose you in that analogy?)

Here’s a quick rundown of the 5 pages you NEED to have on your website…

… and more importantly, the critical questions they need to be able to answer for your visitor.

1. Home Page: The information on this page should answer “Do I need this?” for your potential customer. Is it clear? Does it have a product hook, and a clear promise?
2. Pricing Page: This is typically the second page customers will look at, and they want to know “Is this for me?” So be sure to align your pricing with your ideal customer profile. That means you can’t sell a $30/mth plan if you’re wanting to attract Fortune 2000 clients. It causes a disconnect.
3. Features Page: The information on this page, the complete list of benefits and features of your product should answer the “Does this solve my problem?” for your customers. If you integrate with specific solutions, list them. If you have key features that overcome specific problems, have those as well.  If they don’t see it listed, they might think your competitor – who does list it – has a better product.
4. About Page: I can’t tell you how many startups do not have an About page??? It blows my mind. How can anyone trust a company if I don’t know who’s behind it.  The question people need answered here is “Should I trust them?”. So yes, put a picture of you, your team. Be honest. If you’re small, own it.
5. Blog: Some startups still ask me, should I have a blog? Of course. Here’s why… when a customer invests in your product, they’re also taking a bet on you to continue to innovate and improve. Your blog will answer this question for them: “Are they experts?”. If they don’t see your thinking on the blog, they may be concerned that you won’t keep up with the times and that will hurt you vs. alternatives in the market.

If you tweak those 5 pages, add the missing content or tweak your messaging to be a bit clearer (and answer those questions) your site will rock!

Take a few mins to watch this video so that you can finally drag that pesky “website development” Trello card into the “completed column”…

… and sit back as your 24/7 salesperson brings in the revenue.

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

How much does it cost you to acquire a customer?

Understanding that will help you understand your model.

Most founders think it’s just the cost of your advertising spend.

Nope.

It’s everything you spend on marketing (people + ad spend + contractors, etc) AND sales (everyone involved in the process + tools, etc)…

And that still doesn’t include anyone you might have to qualify, or the cost of running webinars, etc.

All that to say, knowing your numbers matters because it’ll help you understand where you should be in my Software Sales Matrix™.

Watch this week’s video to learn how to avoid landing in the “Startup Graveyard”… and the 3 strategies to pull you out fast.

When I sit down with a startup to help them scale their business, I always ask questions around 4 key areas.

• What’s the average size of a deal on an annual basis (called ACV: Annual Contract Value).
• What do your marketing activities look like and how much do you spend on a monthly basis?
• What do you offer to support your customers? 1-800 #? Online FAQ? Do you send people on site to train or configure?
• How does your sales process work? Who’s involved? What’s the time to close a new lead?
• How do you onboard a new customer? What’s the process for them to get started?

With only the answers to these questions, I can build a complete model of their business in my mind and map it to the matrix to understand where their opportunities lie.

When it comes to scaling a SaaS business, understanding what you can invest in, and what you can’t because your pricing doesn’t allow it, is the ultimate clarity.

It’s this level of clarity that most overenthusiastic startup founders are blind to.

They dig their head in the sand… and in doing so, dig an early grave for their startup.

Watch the video to understand the two axis’s I use to evaluate startups, and place them on the grid.

Do this for your company, then leave a comment and let me know what you learned.

Can’t wait to hear where you’re at!

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

How do you build a $100M revenue business in 3 years?

That was the question my coaching client Larry asked me with a straight face.

Now, before you dismiss his question, you need to know that he just exited his previous startup a few months earlier.

So I knew he had the chops.

What a great question I thought …

… so I took some time to really reflect on all the things I’ve learned in scaling my own software companies… as well as the common traits and characteristics of other companies that had done it.

Discovered some pretty unexpected things along the way.

If you’ve ever been crazy enough to secretly (or not so secretly) ask how to grow to 9 figures in 3 short years…

You’ll want to take a few short minutes to give this a watch.

It essentially comes down to 5 elements that NEED to be in place for you to achieve rapid growth and scale at breakneck speed.

Now back to Larry.

While his goal was far from delusional…

His path to getting there was a little off.

One of the initial constraints was that he wanted to do it “without raising money”… but I quickly explained that that wouldn’t be possible, or would be nearly impossible.

We also talked about the product, the business model and the way it would need to be sold to ensure it could grow fast enough within its market.

We then talked about certain aspects of the team, and the way he’d need to build it to ensure he could free up his time at each turn to focus on the next level of challenges.

All in all, the major outcome he was trying to achieve was something that eventually could be sold, and even though I don’t subscribe to the build & flip mentality to startups, I did share how to structure the business so that it could work.

Now I know most people don’t have the aspirations, or need to build a big company like this, but I still think it’s worth understanding the mechanics.

So be sure to watch the video, and leave a comment with your biggest takeaway below… which aspect surprised you the most?

Let me know and I’ll see you next Monday!

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

Facebook looks at daily active users.

Airbnb.com uses bookings.

At Clarity – my previous company – we obsessed over completed calls.

These are called North Star Metrics.

It’s a clear metric that your growth team focuses on to move the needle.

The key is that it captures the value created for your customers, and allows everyone on the team – and really the company – to drive this forward.

But how do you come up with the right ideas to move this number?

How do you prioritize the right metric to get your growth engine revving?

That’s what I teach you in this week’s video.

It comes down to a simple 4 part process that I was taught from one of my mentors Sean Ellis.

Once you’ve defined a solid North Star Metric (NSM), then you need to come up with actionable ideas and strategies that are going to move that number higher.

Here’s how.

1. Ideation around ideas that are either research, or optimizations
2. Prioritize using ICE: Impact, Confidence, Easy
3. Test using Dev Sprints
4. Report adding to a Knowledge Base

I go much DEEPER into this process in this week’s video…

… as well as some common challenges that my SaaS Academy clients constantly run into.

(confusing product with growth is a BIG one that absolutely destroys momentum)

If after watching you have any questions about how to define your North Star Metric or the best way to structure your teams to move them forward, leave a comment below the video and I’ll respond there.

Here’s to your growth!

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

I can still remember the moment I became a millionaire.

It took 10 years of failing, getting back up, testing, iterating till finally at 27 years old it happened.

I can still remember the specific moment when I found out.

I was cruising in my broke down, decade old Jetta when my accountant Marc called me to break the news.

He was more excited for me than I was only because he knew how hard I had been working.

Also, he knew in the beginning that I almost lost it all after booking a bunch of revenue and sitting on receivables that were delayed in getting paid.

It almost killed the business.

To say it was a tough journey would be an understatement but what I want to share are the 6 skills that my mentors taught me about creating wealth.

Now, if you know me well, you’ll quickly learn that I don’t give a shit about money (hence the secondhand Jetta).

I’m not into fancy watches, cars, etc… but I do have an addiction to the latest Apple gear :).

For me money is really an opportunity to measure the value I’m creating in the world through my business, and gives me a feedback loop as to my growth as a person.

What’s even more important than dollars and cents are the skills and habits I’ve developed to get there.

So I wanted to share them in this video.

Here’s why… no matter what happens to my business, you can never take these skills away from me.

They’re mine and they continue to pay dividends.

If you want to up your entrepreneurial game, then you’ll need to become a master of these 6 skills:

1. Learn: Autodidacts: Self Educate / Best For Them
2. People: Know How To Hire & Lead
3. Communicate: They Communicate Clearly
4. Big thinking! The key is to see it in your mind and HOLD IT!
5. Numbers: You can’t grow a business without learning to read a P&L. (or have someone read it to you! :)
6. Sales. Nothing happens till something is sold. Hiring. Partnerships. Investors. They all require you to sell.  It’s one of the most powerful skills.

Now, if you feel like you’re behind on a few of these, don’t worry about it… it’s a life long journey.

Even though I’ve read over 100 books on selling, you have access to YouTube and incredible mentors who share daily on Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube.

That means you can move faster than I did.

So my question to you is this…

What are you going to do to improve your skills?

Leave a comment and let me know which you want to improve with 3 actions you can take today.

If you have any questions, just post below and I’ll help provide some insights.

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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

What if you could get on a stage in front of an audience filled with your perfect customers and tell them about your software?

That’s what webinars are like.

In 2010 my buddy Lewis Howes stopped by our office in San Francisco preaching them as a sales tool, and that’s when I first got introduced to the power of leverage.

You get the opportunity to attract, teach and present an offer for your solution that will solve their problem…

And if you do it right, you can get them to pre-pay for years up-front in advance to help you fund future marketing initiatives to scale your startup.

That’s the promise I’m making in this week’s video.

Now, before you think I’m over hyping it… just think about it.

Have you heard of Salesforce.com? Hubspot.com? Kissmetrics.com?

All have used webinars in a HUGE way to grow sales…

… and now it’s your turn.

Now, when I ran my first webinar it tanked.

Bombed bad.

I taught some stuff, made an offer, then thanked everyone for showing up and that was that.

Zero sales.

Honestly, it turned me off of webinars for a bit.

Until I made a decision to learn from the best.

It wasn’t till a few years later that I gave it another shot, but this time I had done my homework.

I invested in the top programs to learn the format and structure and then I tweaked things to apply it to selling software.

And that’s when I came up with my Winning Webinars™ framework that’s helped hundreds of software entrepreneurs sell 10’s of millions of dollars in product.

So be sure to watch my video to learn the 5 steps + the structure of a great offer so that you can add value to your community and get a bunch of new customers!

Leave a comment with any questions about your specific situation and how I might be able to help you brainstorm your webinar idea.

Keep up the hustle!

--

Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. (Get the free 3 videos to grow your business here.) 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.

Are you an entrepreneur? Get free weekly video training here:
http://www.danmartell.com/newsletter

+ 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