EPISODE SUMMARY
Scaling a SaaS company involves blood, sweat, and tears. You have to get a lot of things right; outreach, in particular, has to be great. Now, imagine having to scale eight companies at once. Fortunately, there are experts out there that have successfully scaled in all of their software companies that you can emulate so that you can scale yours, regardless if it’s one or a dozen!
Avadel CEO David Valentine provides loads of valuable insights on generating results in your outreach and successfully juggling multiple businesses. He also shares life lessons with Host and B2B SaaS Sales Coach Matt Wolach about finding balance amidst running eight companies. Watch so that you can elevate your strategy and breach the Fortune 100!
PODCAST-AT-A-GLANCE
Podcast: SaaS-Story in the Making
Episode: Episode No. 245, “The Best Outreach Tactics – David Valentine”
Host: Matt Wolach, a B2B SaaS sales coach, Entrepreneur, and Investor
Guest: David Valentine, CEO at Avadel
TOP TIPS FROM THIS EPISODE
Be a Giver When Networking
A giant misconception regarding networking is thinking that you go out to meet people so you can sell to them. It’s never a good idea to be salesy, and I always advocate being a giver in coaching. Valentine agrees with this approach by explaining that your mindset should be about adding value to your connections and that this is not even just a one-time event.
An example of how Valentine executes this is that he usually asks his LinkedIn connections if they’re interested in connecting with any of his connections. They usually agree, and later on, they reciprocate the gesture. Valentine gets valuable, high-quality prospects from this single LinkedIn connection and usually converts this person. After all, the LinkedIn connection receives positive feedback from their friends and becomes interested in what Valentine offers.
Make an Outrageous Offer
For those struggling with getting results, particularly on your email pitches, consider switching your angle to an outrageous offer. Valentine explains that emails usually enumerate the benefits or features of a SaaS product. While it may sound like a good idea, people usually ignore it as it needs to be more relevant to them, and they need more time to spare reading emails.
Contrary to its namesake, you do not need to do anything outrageous to launch an absurd offer. You just need to sell results. Identify the exact problem of your prospect and hyper fixate your solution in your email. It has to sound too good to be true, so word of mouth will take over your campaign when it does work for your customers. Valentine is a testament to this working out as he applied this tactic to his eight companies, with most yielding a 2.5x growth.
Utilize Leadership and EOS
For anyone that aims to be a serial entrepreneur or feels like they have a lot of business on their plate, enlisting the assistance of leaders is critical. Just because you own multiple companies does not necessarily mean you have to be CEO for each of them. You can delegate it to fellow leaders who prefer to manage an established company, and you can even make it easier with business partnerships.
Valentine also credits the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) with juggling multiple companies, particularly in employee reviews and meetings. He explains that EOS assists in getting alignment among the various stakeholders and creates a common language. They also have dashboards and measurables to keep track of the company’s status. Valentine interjects that he should step in when the company is doing well instead of not.
Market the Product After 80%
The drive for excellence will always be admirable, particularly in product development. Customers will be sure to appreciate the SaaS’s effort to maximize value in terms of product quality and features. However, too much of anything is never good. There is no such thing as perfect in product creation or anything. To chase after this mirage is equivalent to delaying your scaling or never even starting the game.
To counter the trap of overtiming in product development, Valentine recommends only getting the product up to 80% completion. Afterward, software businesses would do well to go ‘no holds barred’ in their sales and marketing efforts. He adds that brands must only affirm, “Is it good enough?” While it may seem counterintuitive, the deals from this move will grant the manpower necessary to complete the product.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Scaling Is Not Stressing
Anyone in commerce usually sees stress as inevitable or a positive. And it’s indeed a natural part of life that you experience. There is also the notion that the more successful you are, the inversely proportional your stress levels are. This is not true, as Valentine reinvented himself and created Avadel to reduce stress. One must be mindful of self-care and balance to keep succeeding and scaling.
Clarity is King
While most software companies consider web traffic from emails a positive metric, Valentine begs to differ with his preference of keeping it 10% at a maximum. He explains that having a high open rate is a sign that there needs to be more clarity in the emails sent. The readers should be able to know what the company is all about just from the email alone. After all, when paired with outrageous offers, clarity will surely hike up your conversation rate in no time.
TOP QUOTES
David Valentine
[17:59] “Clarity is king. It’s what helps you sell more. The clients that see the best results have outrageous offers and have lots of clarity.”
[20:20] “When the company’s doing well, when it’s soaring, when it’s hitting new heights, that’s when it needs lots of love and attention. It’s not when they’re struggling.”
[22:47] “A lot of software founders want to perfect the product. And you’re never going to have it perfect.”
Matt Wolach
[13:42] “If you’re starting to try to get into a partnership strategy, you need to give. You’re not going to have any partners who will give you a ton of great business without you giving them anything. Practice giving first.”
LEARN MORE
To learn more about David Valentine and Avadel, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-valentine-95564891/.
You can also find David Valentine on LinkedIn at: https://avadel.agency/.
For more about how host Matt Wolach helps software companies achieve maximum growth, visit https://mattwolach.com/