Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.240 Hey be to be growth listeners. We want to hear from you. In 2 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:06.080 fact, we will pay you for it. Just head over to be tob 3 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:11.759 growth podcom and complete a short survey about the show to enter for a chance 4 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:16.320 to win two hundred and fifty dollars. Plus. The first fifty participants will 5 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:21.120 receive twenty five dollars as our way of saying thank you so much one more 6 00:00:21.160 --> 00:00:27.120 time. That's be tob growth podcom, letter B number two, letter be 7 00:00:27.399 --> 00:00:34.039 growth podcom. One entry per person must be an active listener of the show 8 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:46.560 to enter, and look forward to hearing from you conversations from the front lines 9 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:55.840 and marketing. This is be tob growth. Welcome back to be tob growth. 10 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:59.920 I'm your host, Benjie Block, and today I am joined by Faton 11 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:03.239 Juca Phaton. Welcome into be to be growth. Thanks, Benjie, thanks 12 00:01:03.239 --> 00:01:07.680 for having me. I appreciate this. So you're bringing us a unique vantage 13 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:11.680 point today, man, because you are the operating partner at some Mary Equity 14 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:15.760 Partners, which is a mouthful. Some people can be like, what exactly 15 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:22.280 does Faton do? So let's start there, because you bring a very unique 16 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:26.640 perspective. You sit in the unique seat where you're getting perspective on man a 17 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:30.840 vast like variety of companies in a time of extreme growth. Right. So 18 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:34.560 just give me a backstage pass. What's your daytoday like? What are you 19 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:38.280 working on? Sure, thank you for having me. My name is Poton 20 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:42.319 Zuoka. I'm an operating partner Sumereu eguy partners. It's a growth equity firm 21 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:48.159 focus in mid market technology companies, specifically invest in in bb says or based 22 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:53.400 in San Francisco, California, and we're focused on founder operated businesses with significant 23 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.239 growth potential. So that that's that's where I work. I am a recovering 24 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:01.680 former operator and the different, unique point of view to this where we have 25 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:07.680 value creation team at Sumero, so ceremer value creation teams come Brat is a 26 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:12.919 team inhouse of professionals ranging from vice president all the way to manage and directors, 27 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:15.759 and we're all full time employees and everyone is a former operator, from 28 00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:22.319 CEO's on down, and we usually are very strong in one a few functional 29 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:27.439 areas and then we bring that experience, those learnings, that thoughtful pattern recognition 30 00:02:27.479 --> 00:02:31.159 to our portfolio companies, working closely and very collaboratily with our teams to achieve 31 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:36.520 the growth objectives that we've set for different companies are different, different goals. 32 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:38.639 So that's the background of the firm and where my role is on the firm 33 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:44.159 and how I engage with portfolio companies. Let me ask you this when, 34 00:02:44.199 --> 00:02:46.199 because you're working with portfolio companies, like, what are some of the common 35 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:50.560 obstacles that you see these companies you're working with? What, like, what 36 00:02:50.599 --> 00:02:54.680 are they facing? Yeah, so, because we focus on lower middle market 37 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:58.840 tech, a lot of the portfolic companies that we invest in, our founder 38 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:01.599 let and the founders have done a great job, great amount of hustle and 39 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:06.560 effort to get the companies from zero to this point and usually by the time 40 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:10.280 they're getting ready to accept investment with us, they are they want to professionalize 41 00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:15.400 certain functional areas and and certain leadership roles. And so part of the challenge, 42 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:20.039 and part of, you know, where we help, is to show 43 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:23.199 what great looks like for companies of this scale about to hit the gas and 44 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:28.599 hypergrowth mode. And so at the end of the day it's all about people 45 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:31.000 and it's a people business. So finding the right people in the right place 46 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:36.000 and the dynamics and how the team is being structured those are usually some of 47 00:03:36.039 --> 00:03:39.319 the key levers and also presents the most challenging also the most opportunity for this 48 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:44.639 to be successful. Hmm, okay, so let's talk about a little bit 49 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:50.199 of what you do specifically, because essentially you're wearing multiple hats. You've got 50 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:55.360 to be able to multiply yourself and your learnings. You're speaking while we can't 51 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:59.400 see the audience right it's like you're speaking to a room full of marketers right 52 00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:01.879 now and they're going to resonate with that where it's like, man, I 53 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:06.960 need to basically be able to clone myself, multiply myself, multiply my learnings. 54 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.639 But you've had to do this, and so I wonder what are some 55 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:15.560 of the ways that you've had to multiply and kind of scale yourself in your 56 00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:19.120 work? Sure, yeah, so a little bit more context as well, 57 00:04:19.120 --> 00:04:23.680 and I'm going to get to that point. And because we have an active 58 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:27.519 portfolio, ten to twelve companies at a time. Yeah, so it's superpose. 59 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:30.160 It's a marrow. My focus is driving growth of the across the portfolio. 60 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:34.000 Companies specific to go to market. So this this also includes marketing and 61 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.560 sales. I have a very hands on approach with portfolio companies has spent a 62 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:42.720 lot of time with the companies. I've also served an interim roles for them. 63 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:46.360 So logistically how this works is that if a portfolio company doesn't have a 64 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:50.279 marketing function or sales function, of served that role is interim head of marketing 65 00:04:50.319 --> 00:04:56.600 for a couple months while we've built infrastructure, we have hired people and that 66 00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:00.120 gives us enough time to hire a full time a better version of myself to 67 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:05.480 as a permanent replacement. So that could be part of the job. Also 68 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:10.680 working multiple environments, like you said, but always focused on what can I 69 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:16.000 bring from a digital marketing lead generation, sales operations, pipeline management, pricing, 70 00:05:16.079 --> 00:05:20.160 channel strategy, common management. These ares are the areas that I focus 71 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:24.439 and the question what you're asking is like, well, you know, those 72 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:28.360 are a lot of different capabilities within go to market and you have a portfolio 73 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:32.120 companies like car to you be effective, and this is where we've developed a 74 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:38.560 set of sort of repeatable processes across the different portfolio companies. That that how 75 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:42.600 do you help or folic companies with the thoughtful powder recognition, and we do 76 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:47.680 it through growth programs. So we have created a program of coll it of 77 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:55.639 continuous engagement that's designed to drive these business capabilities to be transformed to so they're 78 00:05:56.040 --> 00:06:01.000 more effective and performing better and in a way that they can be worked together 79 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:05.399 in a collaborative manner with the with a functional leader, and be able to 80 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:12.360 drive drive results. I don't in the industry people might call these playbooks. 81 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:15.439 We shy away from that. Were in this and I explain the difference is 82 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:18.519 nuance or not play books in a sense that they are not you pose on 83 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:21.800 anybody. Like when I think of playbook, think of a football playbook, 84 00:06:23.079 --> 00:06:27.000 plays being called and that's what's me extually during the field. If these are 85 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:32.199 are a collection of best practices that we're working closely with the management. So 86 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:36.040 usually had a marketing or head of sales or even somebody like had of REV 87 00:06:36.160 --> 00:06:42.920 opposite is reporting to head of marketing about moving a certain function. They're not 88 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.879 imposed on anyone. If a portfolio company has its own approach that is successful 89 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:50.240 and scale book, we are more than okay to give the management the flexibility 90 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:55.560 to stick around with what works right. I love that you're clarifying that right 91 00:06:55.560 --> 00:06:59.040 from the the top of this conversation too, because one of the things here 92 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:01.279 at be to be growth that we really stress a lot is the need for 93 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:05.360 mindset shifts and not just here's a one, two, three, do this 94 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:10.240 exactly this way, this best practice and then you're done, wash your hands 95 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:14.240 of it, but instead, like what do we need to adopt right like 96 00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:17.560 what's the mindset that we should take on, the wisdom that's necessary to grow 97 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:21.360 in scale, something instead of just, like you said, a playbook where 98 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:26.199 it's just do this exact thing, coach calls the play and we're done. 99 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:28.720 So thank you for clarifying that and I love what you're saying. Pattern, 100 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:33.040 recognition, repeat a processes, continuous engagement. Those are things that we're all 101 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:36.800 thinking about and you're doing this in a in a very unique way. Anything 102 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:41.560 else you want to add there? Yeah, thank you for opportunity to a 103 00:07:41.639 --> 00:07:46.839 little bit in dolls on this. So you could have playbooks for anything. 104 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:49.759 Of Growth Programs. We focus on the points of maximum impact, like can 105 00:07:49.800 --> 00:07:54.839 we really drive this? Because that's what's going to drive the growth as a 106 00:07:54.839 --> 00:07:59.879 company? And then, because you're working with people and and you have very 107 00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:03.839 capable people on the other side, they are running their teams and but they 108 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:07.439 only need this an area in certain part and that that's when they've reached out 109 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:11.680 to you or you've identified and then you're working with them. So the growth 110 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:16.000 programs are a very pragmatic and action oriented ways on how the management can improve 111 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:22.160 that specific business process and our firm we're very proud working collaboratily in a partnership 112 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:28.959 with management. So we these growth playbooks are widely share. Their incredibly helpful 113 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.960 for the executives that want them and the you. We receive a lot of 114 00:08:31.960 --> 00:08:37.720 positive feedback. Management teams appreciate the dedication to share in these best practices in 115 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:41.320 a collaborative approach to the value cuation. Yep, okay, so let's go. 116 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:46.440 Let's start to go a little more practical here and just maybe give us 117 00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:50.279 a little bit more detailed context around what one of these growth programs might look 118 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:54.840 like, because people are going to have in their mind right some and idea 119 00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:58.000 of what a playbook is. A lot of businesses are going to have something 120 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:03.000 like what were are alluding to here, but your approach is different and it's 121 00:09:03.080 --> 00:09:07.480 unique in some ways. Give me some context around what a growth program really 122 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:11.960 looks like, right, so let's focus for let's go deeper in marketing. 123 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:18.200 One of the most helpful and successful frameworks to marketing for us has been revenue 124 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:20.480 marketing. It's a term that's come up in the last couple of years and 125 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:24.960 I can slay what that means to us and how we help or folid companies 126 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:28.440 through this framework to be able to achieve their growth objectives. In a nutshell, 127 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:33.919 revenue marketings everything should funnel to revenue, so everyone's goals are tiled the 128 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:37.159 sales goals, which is to generate revenue. And the Revenue Marketing Framework has 129 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:41.159 played a significant rolling growth for our companies and we'll continue to increase this and 130 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:46.840 increasingly right. And so how do you achieve this? We show that and 131 00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:50.399 we can help the companies, you know, realize this. The first we 132 00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:54.440 commit the small improvements. So what does it mean like? Can we break 133 00:09:54.519 --> 00:09:58.440 up every process we currently have in focus on improving those processes by one to 134 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:03.720 two percent? So it's the additional marginal gains. So if we were to 135 00:10:03.720 --> 00:10:07.559 map out of framework at a high level, without considering any acronyms here, 136 00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:11.440 what are the repealable processes that we relently focus every hour, every day, 137 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:16.879 every month, and then we increase can we improve those two white one percent 138 00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:20.960 a week and then it's just like the law of compounding interests. If you 139 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.519 have this one, twenty fivezeros growing in one percent every day, you have 140 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:26.960 a million dollars by the end of the year. That's the the approach that 141 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.320 we do. Such just a commitment to small improve it's okay, and breaking 142 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:35.879 up the processes that are important to revenue. Let that's sort of level zero. 143 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:41.639 The second there's a foundational elements that we'd like to have a linement on, 144 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:45.559 and so this is what is the steady stream of feedback and collaboration and 145 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:48.799 goal setting with our sales and support teams. So marketing is at the center 146 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:52.639 of this. What feedback and what collaboration can we have with sales and support? 147 00:10:52.679 --> 00:10:56.759 The key is that we not only want to align on the initiatives, 148 00:10:56.759 --> 00:11:00.639 but we also want to align on the goals with those teams. This is 149 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:03.440 why it's, you know, revenue. It's a little bit higher level. 150 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:07.440 And then we have these revenue maps, which allows the strategically prioritize these initiatives 151 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:11.720 focused on revenue and the revenues, not just to get new customers, you 152 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:16.919 know, protecting revenues also and reducing charn it's also a revenue initiative. So, 153 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:18.879 just just for your listeners, then we're like, do we have the 154 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:22.000 systems and tools in place? Like this is an important step for us to 155 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:28.080 maintain this operational excellence later on as we're optimizing. And we also look at 156 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:31.759 the people. Does does every role have clear ownership and responsibilities? And this 157 00:11:31.879 --> 00:11:35.480 actually harder in marketing than it is with with with you know, in sales, 158 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:39.919 because in sales your quota unusually, it's kind of what drives your performance. 159 00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:43.840 When in marketing it it's sometimes harder. So then we come to the 160 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:46.840 playbooks and what is like, Hey, the foundation of every campaign we're going 161 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:52.919 to launch is centered around these playbooks for success and become a they become a 162 00:11:52.039 --> 00:11:56.759 checklist, a guy that allows to execute faster and more productively. And then 163 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:03.759 we will like, okay, if we have a camping that it's mostly around 164 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:07.639 brand, and then means like organic search is important. What is the best 165 00:12:07.720 --> 00:12:11.799 in class SEO takeaways that you can you can show me, and this would 166 00:12:11.799 --> 00:12:16.360 be a two page very bulleted format, like have you considered this? Listen 167 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:20.000 this. It's not that the person on the other side may not know those 168 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:24.480 or them it might take him a little bit longer to go find them out. 169 00:12:24.840 --> 00:12:28.240 It's the idea to reduce the learning to very practical what you need to 170 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:31.320 so you can execute this in the context of the bigger framework for drive the 171 00:12:31.360 --> 00:12:35.600 results. Hey everyone, if you've been listening to be to be growth for 172 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:39.600 a while, you know that we are big proponents of putting out original, 173 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:45.399 organic content on Linkedin, but one thing that's always been a struggle for a 174 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:50.200 team like ours is easily tracking the reach of that linkedin content. That's why 175 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:54.600 we're really excited about shield analytics. Since our team started using shield, we've 176 00:12:54.600 --> 00:13:00.080 been able to easily track the reach and performance of our linkedin content without having 177 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:05.440 to manually log it ourselves. It automatically creates reports and it generates dashboards that 178 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:11.879 are incredibly useful to determining things like what content has been performing the best, 179 00:13:11.960 --> 00:13:16.360 what days of the week are we getting the most engagement and our average views 180 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:20.879 per post. Shield has been a game changer for our entire team's productivity and 181 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:26.080 performance on Linkedin. I highly suggest checking out this tool if you're publishing content 182 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:31.120 on Linkedin for yourselves or for your company. You can get a ten day 183 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:35.720 free trial at shield APP DOT AI, or you can get a twenty five 184 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:41.679 percent discount with our Promo code be to be growth. Again, that's shield 185 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:48.279 APP DOT AI and the Promo Code is be the number two be growth. 186 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:52.720 All One word for a twenty five percent discount. All right, let's get 187 00:13:52.759 --> 00:13:56.000 back into the show. Not that the person on the other side may not 188 00:13:56.039 --> 00:13:58.360 know those or them. It might take him a little bit longer to go 189 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:03.200 find them out. It's the idea to reduce the learning to very practical what 190 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:07.240 you need to so you can execute this in the context of the bigger framework 191 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:11.559 for drive the results. That was said really well. I want to get 192 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:16.080 to like where that sort of playboat growth program takes us in a second. 193 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:20.120 You said something I want to discuss because you're working with multiple companies, so 194 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:24.679 you've worked with all these marketing teams or those that like it's hard to define, 195 00:14:24.799 --> 00:14:28.519 is what you said right? With sales easier, we got quotas, 196 00:14:28.519 --> 00:14:31.919 we got some things we're working with. Have you found some common threads, 197 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:35.720 though, within revenue marketing specifically, where you're like, okay, these are 198 00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:39.600 the sort of key objectives we find ourselves coming back to. Some of the 199 00:14:39.679 --> 00:14:46.159 key metrics are goals that drive this yes and this quat question. You come 200 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:50.519 back to what drives you. What is this? What is a strategic direction 201 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:52.399 of the marketing team? These are there's three things were looking at. What 202 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:56.360 are the buyer insides, the market insides on the company initiatives, and I 203 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:01.440 can explain briefly on them. By our inside we're looking at what is our 204 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:05.080 ideal customer profile, which becomes a foundation of our campaign messaging, the audience 205 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:09.639 targeting, and we also met out the bias journey in a set by SEP 206 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:13.840 to ensure that the campaigns on the website support this bier behavior. This is 207 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:18.399 important because that's exactly who sales should be selling to and there is any confusion 208 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:22.279 around ICP, their out bond function is not going to work. As you 209 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:26.639 know, they're going to have a lower connection rates and not, you know, 210 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:30.639 not being able to sort of be on the same same level as a 211 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:35.360 marketing team. The second thing is marketing site. So this includes the standard 212 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:41.919 projects like competitive analysis or, you know, digital audits for all the competitors. 213 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:43.320 What are their marketing gaps? What are our marketing gaps? To be 214 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:48.399 able to win more with with less, and this is a Measu a little 215 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:52.480 bit of Seo and sem having been great example of this strategy playing out, 216 00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:58.159 because we can capture economic demand without having to overpay or compete with a competitor 217 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:02.679 that it's got a much bigger budget. And doing that analysis you can find 218 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.720 out the lawler tails on the Internet where your customers may be, and that 219 00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:11.039 alignment is very helpful with sales because once you find that mql or that lead 220 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:14.679 and you're passing it on, sales need to be prepared to nurture at through 221 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:18.840 their funnel, because there were they were aligned with you. Thank you for 222 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:22.399 breaking that down. I think it's important and you see right this pattern recognition 223 00:16:22.440 --> 00:16:26.120 of like what's most important. So it's fun to like go down that road 224 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.600 a little bit with you because you can point it out some of the unique 225 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:33.600 things are working on there. Okay, so let's let's jump back into gross 226 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:36.240 programs. In these essentially, again, we don't want to just call them 227 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:40.080 play books because we want to think differently about him. But when you're working 228 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:42.279 on these, you've gotten to the point, you've got past some of the 229 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:47.000 structural things, the conversations that need to take place. Now you're actually working 230 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:52.120 on one. What does that look like as far as how you're building it 231 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:56.120 out, and is there any sort of like core questions you're asking yourself for 232 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.679 like a template that you're working from, like what does that look like? 233 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:03.880 Yeah, it's great question, just to bring the conversation full. The growth 234 00:17:03.920 --> 00:17:08.559 programs is where the programs that you know Sumeria is created, right, and 235 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:14.960 you know for portfolic companies, these are, you know, very pragmatic action 236 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:18.440 oriented. When I was diving deeper into a revenue marketing and a MBA specific 237 00:17:18.440 --> 00:17:22.759 playbook on what best some for us, Seo looks like. That would be 238 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:26.359 more of a traditional playbook, of because you're just looking this Yo, the 239 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:30.599 growth playbook and higher level was just the revenue. Yeah, so you were 240 00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:34.200 asking about you know, what is the structure of these? Usually one of 241 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:38.440 the most important things on the playbook is is the principles point of view, 242 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:42.960 and the principles point of views usually the author or the collection of authors that 243 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:48.359 have worked on on this, and that's where you have people that have done 244 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:52.240 this at a high level working together. Be like imagine then, see if 245 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:55.880 you just wanted to learn something about you might have been interviewed for a new 246 00:17:55.960 --> 00:17:59.440 job and you're looking to learn something. It could be just, you know, 247 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:00.839 maybe the just six, and you have a friend who's in a logistic 248 00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:03.160 space and you want to have coffee with them. You know, I hit 249 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.000 what are the things that I need to know, like, you know, 250 00:18:07.079 --> 00:18:08.799 just like get me up to speak quickly, the most important things, of 251 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:11.680 giving you bullet points, like hey, these are the six things. If 252 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:17.000 you know this, you will do well in understanding this. And so that's 253 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:19.480 exactly what this section of the growth playbook is, whereas it's a principle's point 254 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:23.480 of view. Why are you even writing something like this? Why even creating 255 00:18:23.480 --> 00:18:26.920 something? And so the best of principles, like a this is important because 256 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:30.960 it's all ties to revenue. This important because it ties to customer science, 257 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:33.920 faction or ties of this. As a result, it will impact the growth 258 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:37.799 of the company. So that's usually the piece, the the most important part, 259 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:42.519 and it's about two paragraphs long. And then you go into the actual, 260 00:18:42.920 --> 00:18:45.240 more of the bulleted form, out of the practical of you or like 261 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:49.079 when doing something. So consider this and this and this, and that's that's 262 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:52.920 where those are very helpful because, you know, busy lives, we usually 263 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:56.000 struggle from context switching. You might be, you know, dealing at a 264 00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:00.079 higher level with this company here personally there, but if you have to go 265 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:04.160 deep into something, if you have this that's able to help you out, 266 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:08.519 it just makes you more productive and you're more efficient. Yeah, okay, 267 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:11.759 there's a lot of value here. I want to ask if you kind of 268 00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:18.279 followed questions compared to a typical length of like a playbook. When I think 269 00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:21.319 of that, I think it's a usually in my mind it's a little bit 270 00:19:21.319 --> 00:19:25.240 longer. My eyes started to start to glaze over a little bit because I'm 271 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:27.240 just like I'm going to have content fatigue and I'm going to be like, 272 00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:32.000 okay, thank you for this re source, but now I have so much 273 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:34.799 and part of what you're saying is if we can keep it simple and really 274 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:41.279 bake it to what is absolutely necessary, that's going to help tremendously. Right, 275 00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:47.039 absolutely good. I started my career and management consulting and one of the 276 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:49.319 knocks, and that is a you create a lot of exits it on the 277 00:19:49.359 --> 00:19:52.720 shelf. That's the opposite of what this is. This is trying to be 278 00:19:52.759 --> 00:19:57.240 that, you know, practical, very pragmatic, action oriented way for how 279 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:02.960 management team can improve a specific business process through this, you know, collection 280 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:07.319 of thought, all powder recognition, not just photon creating it, but people 281 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:11.960 like me who have done this at a higher level for companies of this size. 282 00:20:11.960 --> 00:20:15.920 So that's also important. You could have a you know, digital marketing 283 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:19.559 and pressing and packaging or customer retention growth playbook for a company that is a 284 00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:23.640 two hundred million dollars growing it you know, fifty percent. That's different than 285 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:27.160 a company that is a thirty million dollars growing at, you know, eighty 286 00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:32.000 percent. It's just the way that's going to be consumed and the resources available 287 00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:37.480 to execute that are different. So it's also within the context of how they're 288 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:41.319 going to be used and consumed. Okay, this might be hard for you 289 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:45.599 to estimate, but at this point, having done this, like how many 290 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:48.240 of these do you feel like you've been a part of building? And I 291 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:52.160 would love to get like some context there, because you've done this repeatedly. 292 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:56.759 How many of you worked on? And then what would you say is some 293 00:20:56.839 --> 00:21:02.160 of the Roi you've seen from this format? The number of playbooks will work 294 00:21:02.200 --> 00:21:06.240 to the firm are, you know, more than fifty, and it's all 295 00:21:06.279 --> 00:21:11.960 like the major areas that we all think are important to the business. HMM, 296 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:17.440 the value of them is immerged enormous. For our company. Majority of 297 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:22.319 the growth in our portfolio companies comes from organic growth. Add on Ma's is 298 00:21:22.359 --> 00:21:25.680 one of the levers that we had value to, but two thirds of the 299 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:30.759 growth is coming from organic growth and that could be attributed to the efficiencies that 300 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:36.039 are portfolio companies are creating and growing and this is a part of that. 301 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:41.039 Not taking credit for all that, but it's part of that and it ties 302 00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:44.000 to that big number of them as order the growth coming from from this kind 303 00:21:44.039 --> 00:21:49.599 of work. Yeah, any specific examples or companies you've worked with where they've 304 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:52.200 implemented something like this and come back and been like man, this was a 305 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:56.640 lifesaver. Yes, and and by the way, this is one of the 306 00:21:56.640 --> 00:22:02.839 companies where we hired the head of marketing and is an action absolute rock star 307 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:06.880 that I've learned so much from him that he's actually helped me shape some of 308 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:10.200 this thinking and be able to take it from, you know, help other 309 00:22:10.240 --> 00:22:14.240 companies with it. This company is one of the things that in marketing that's 310 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:18.839 important. Those is what is the contributional marketing to close deals, again, 311 00:22:18.039 --> 00:22:22.559 pie to revenue, not impressions, you know, conversions, all those are, 312 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:25.920 you know, important, nonsense, but that's one of the big numbers 313 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:30.000 for bb says not not direct consumer. That would be a different aim. 314 00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:33.839 And the company was, you know, struggling between eighteen to twenty percent of 315 00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:38.440 closed business coming from marketing. We took it from that to fifty percent. 316 00:22:38.440 --> 00:22:44.400 Wow, yeah, what that means is that marketing is we were doing it 317 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:48.720 this efficiently, so it was able to obviously feed sales with all the leads 318 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:52.200 and and the business and we would, you know, less pressure on them 319 00:22:52.240 --> 00:22:55.960 to be able them to do their own prospecting. So the ship change with 320 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:02.680 what we're allocating resources and it's not have a few other companies that are approaching 321 00:23:02.759 --> 00:23:06.359 the fifty percent mark. For us that seems to be a sort of a 322 00:23:06.359 --> 00:23:10.759 best in class, you know, marketing contributing some of the close deals. 323 00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:12.759 Maybe other companies out there that are doing much, much better than this, 324 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:18.039 but you know, we would we would be happy with that kind of goal. 325 00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:22.440 The percentage growth is incredible and I'm glad to spotlight an example there. 326 00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:26.279 I think that that's important for us to be thinking about. I wanted to 327 00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:32.680 do this as we start to take this conversation home is if you're putting yourself 328 00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:37.359 in your learnings from this sort of structure and all the work that you're doing. 329 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:40.359 If we were to drop you into a marketing roll right if we were 330 00:23:40.440 --> 00:23:42.160 drop you it like, let's say there's a CMO listening to this or a 331 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:47.920 director of marketing and they're going, I want to implement something similar to this 332 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:52.400 playbook model. What where would you tell them to start? Is there something 333 00:23:52.440 --> 00:23:56.240 that they can do from their vantage point that's similar to this that they could 334 00:23:56.240 --> 00:23:59.880 execute on? Because we always want to leave with something that maybe maybe you're 335 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:03.119 listening this in your car right now or you're on or run and you're going, 336 00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:06.160 Oh, I love what he's saying. Obviously, in his context he's 337 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:10.000 working with all these companies. I'm working in one, but what would you 338 00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:12.519 tell people to do? What would you tell people to a playbook that they 339 00:24:12.519 --> 00:24:18.119 could make or a place to start? If Ben's a very important question. 340 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:22.119 I'm going to introduce slightly new concept on this and take away, which was 341 00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:26.680 one, is that alignment with the other functional group, so of sales and 342 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:32.279 customer support usually are very important for marketing to be aligned. And what initiatives 343 00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:34.559 you're working on there will move the goal and revenue. So that's one. 344 00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:40.680 Even being calmed on closed deals is something we highly recommend for revenue teams, 345 00:24:40.759 --> 00:24:45.200 not on on generating leads. You might be generally, which is great. 346 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:48.000 That's part of the process, but what matters is all the business closed. 347 00:24:48.279 --> 00:24:52.960 That's when you have zero friction between marketing sales, when you have that kind 348 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:57.440 of alignment. I'm in sentence. And then three is we didn't get chance 349 00:24:57.480 --> 00:25:03.319 to talk about this early warning system. It's something that you know, how 350 00:25:03.400 --> 00:25:07.039 do marketing teams get to be this efficient and be able to get the point 351 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:11.440 where they can just dial knobs and be able to optimize their spen so for 352 00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:17.160 every one dollar put in the system that can predictably generate, you know whatever 353 00:25:17.319 --> 00:25:22.240 their freshold for Roi is. And this is the early warning system I want 354 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:25.079 to bring about. And there's some tools in the market that just I can 355 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:26.680 reference one later if you want me to. They're just coming about. To 356 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:33.680 this is setting goals and perform almost thresholds on your metrics and and everything in 357 00:25:33.720 --> 00:25:37.920 there is measure and optimized. For example, you might be running campaigns in 358 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:42.359 real time and you have signals for email open rates and you know how different 359 00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:45.400 the visitors are be having in different websites and you have this campaign here in 360 00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:51.559 this campaign there. It becomes so big to manage that in real time that 361 00:25:51.640 --> 00:25:55.599 this early warning system, once you set the thresholds, it alerts you what 362 00:25:55.720 --> 00:25:59.759 something might be broken or something is overperforming, because you can get surprised on 363 00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:03.720 the positive side, and then, based on that, it's a real time 364 00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:07.839 as war analytics that you can act on that. For example, you might 365 00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:11.519 have their email campaign is opening rate is below two percent, which is just, 366 00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:15.680 you know, crushing. You can take that in real time and not 367 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:18.319 have to wait a couple days because you've been alerted, and assign it to 368 00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:22.519 the email marketing manager with the right task and so there it's a follow up 369 00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:26.960 through that. Or you may have a campaign that's performing better than what you 370 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:30.559 thought. Maybe have a fifteen percent roy in this and then you can't maybe, 371 00:26:30.599 --> 00:26:34.160 maybe I should allocate more resources to this, because this is working really 372 00:26:34.200 --> 00:26:40.640 well so that that early warning system is is part of what is mentioned tools 373 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:44.799 and systems earlier, but it enables this early warning system so you can be 374 00:26:44.839 --> 00:26:49.880 able to optimize in real time data driven decisions on every single metric and you 375 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:55.279 know, yeah, that's that's another one of those takeaways that I'd like to 376 00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:59.160 leave the market on leaders with. Yeah, I like that as a base. 377 00:26:59.319 --> 00:27:03.599 To have something in place as an early warning system is is important. 378 00:27:03.720 --> 00:27:07.640 Is there? So we set that as like the foundation, basically, is 379 00:27:07.680 --> 00:27:11.519 what you're saying. Beyond and then beyond that, maybe there's some specific systems 380 00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:15.960 or structures with around these playbooks that we can put in place, but you 381 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:18.519 have to have that kind of first. Would be what you're advocating for. 382 00:27:18.079 --> 00:27:22.720 That's right. Well, I love this. Is there anything else you want 383 00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:26.960 to add on the playbook side of things that you think maybe it's that we 384 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:33.559 often overlook or something that we should start doing as we leave this episode in 385 00:27:33.559 --> 00:27:37.039 this conversation that we've had? Yeah, start small, right. Goes back 386 00:27:37.079 --> 00:27:41.839 to originally what I'm saying. Be Okay with small incremental movements of one to 387 00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:48.599 two percent and CONSISTENC of wins. If you're trying to make big overhauling changes, 388 00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.160 it can be daunting. You need a lot of sake coolers right away. 389 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.079 That's what causes a momentum. Try to optimize for small gains, but 390 00:27:56.160 --> 00:28:00.759 do it consistently. You're going to find bigger and greater benefits. It's good. 391 00:28:02.039 --> 00:28:03.279 Let me ask you one more follow up question because I just thought of 392 00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:07.400 this too. But as you're working on the playbook specifically, have we, 393 00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:11.400 but you've been using just written format, like quick bullet points, and that's 394 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:15.279 all you do. Is this is just a very format driven question. Are 395 00:28:15.319 --> 00:28:19.480 you using video at all to teach and do some of this like bullet pointed 396 00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:22.119 work that you want to point out, like ways to do things, or 397 00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:26.920 is it all just written so that people can kind of pull up a dock 398 00:28:26.039 --> 00:28:30.279 and that's that's the end of it? Our work programs are in written form. 399 00:28:30.279 --> 00:28:36.559 They're not something that you just give somebody to implement. It's yeah, 400 00:28:36.599 --> 00:28:38.119 we also have a discussion around that. It's part of my job and my 401 00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:42.920 team is we're like in working so andso companies like this is what the best 402 00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:47.319 practice is to work for this context for you, we could try to tweak 403 00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:49.839 this a little bit, but again it's an important concept to have. Video 404 00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:53.200 could work. We actually have a portfolio company called three hundred and sixty learning. 405 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:57.599 It's an at test space. Is An elmask that helps companies create contact 406 00:28:57.640 --> 00:29:02.000 in this quickly. At eight minutes and it's very engaging in social it's something 407 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:04.680 that thought about creating someone growth programs in that way, since it's even more 408 00:29:04.759 --> 00:29:08.599 easier to consume on the other side. I'm not there yet, but yeah, 409 00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:11.880 that's a good point. Now, totally fair. I just I'm always 410 00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:17.119 interested in how you're executing on it and I love the this version and how 411 00:29:17.160 --> 00:29:21.839 you're talking about it because again, your personalizing Hey, for your company and 412 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:25.559 Miss Stage. This is what works and that totally makes sense. We actually 413 00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:27.559 had joey chance, she's market at three hundred and sixty learning. We had 414 00:29:27.559 --> 00:29:32.000 her on just a few weeks ago. So good reference there as we start 415 00:29:32.119 --> 00:29:36.039 to close here. But love this conversation. How can people stay connected to 416 00:29:36.200 --> 00:29:41.319 you and the work that that you're doing summer equitycom on the informations on the 417 00:29:41.319 --> 00:29:48.839 website. Always looking to partner with ambitious entrepreneurs and see where we can help 418 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:51.920 each other. Phatony, it was so great to have you here on B 419 00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:56.920 tob growth today and we really appreciate you stopping by. Thank you very much, 420 00:29:56.920 --> 00:30:00.559 but we're always having conversations like this here on be to be Gross, 421 00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:04.400 we want to help you in your mindset and with your own innovation. There's 422 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:08.960 a lot we can take away from this episode, some really key conversations to 423 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:15.440 be having, some ways that we can take this playbook idea and even just 424 00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:19.359 the simplicity of bulleting it and going hey, this isn't mandatory, you don't 425 00:30:19.359 --> 00:30:22.039 have to do it exactly like this, but we can all kind of take 426 00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:26.160 and learn. I love what was given away here. So maybe this is 427 00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:30.799 your first time listening. Go ahead subscribe to the podcast on whatever podcast player 428 00:30:30.839 --> 00:30:34.200 you're listening to this on. If you have questions for me, I'd love 429 00:30:34.240 --> 00:30:37.240 to connect with you on Linkedin. You can just search Benjie Block talking about 430 00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:41.359 marketing, business and life over there, and we'll be back real soon with 431 00:30:41.400 --> 00:31:15.359 another episode. Keep doing work that matters.
