Search Engine Land

MARCH 1, 2024

Recent Google scandals have raised concerns about search result fairness , accuracy , transparency and the ethics of big brands’ dominance. List-based queries are entirely a pay-to-play game now. I have a sense of what many readers will say in relation to my analysis, and I want to dispel some myths: “You’re not a good SEO!

Non-Profits 133

Non-Profits Consult User Experience Presentation 133

SaaStr

JANUARY 30, 2024

They raised prices. Here’s my core point: everyone sort of got a pass for this state in 2023. And your team may be too tired, or broken, to get back into the game for real. That they had to get to cash-flow positive, because no more money was coming. They did layoffs and froze headcount. They cut marketing spend to $0.

GTM 90

GTM Finance Growth Gaming 90

Heinz Marketing

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

My way of getting through this is playing games, either with my fiancé in our apartment, or virtually with our friends and family. Keep B2B customers coming back with these gamification ideas: Simple games like trivia, or more complex games like a scavenger hunt via geolocation-enabled app. So, get your gaming on!

B2B 120

B2B B2C Gaming Campaign 120

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2023

My top mistakes as a SaaS founder/CEO: Not convincing the very, very, very best VPE I knew to join as our VPE. It would have solved our top problems and been a game-changer. Not raising a bit more money. Ok now that some time has gone by I can reflect a bit more thoughtfully here. I tried and I tried for years.

Strategize 82

Strategize Gaming Sell Closing 82

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

I’ve done it before — I signed a $750,000 full-recourse promissory note in my first start-up, which far exceeded my savings at the time. Some “skin in the game” one way or another is important. That adds risk to my investment. But his startup was raising $5m. It may be OK. It aligns interests. I don’t like it.

Gaming 82

Gaming Start-ups 82

SaaStr

MAY 11, 2021

For a start-up CEO, here’s my list, force-ranked: 1. But my next best 4, FWIW: 2. Raise 30% more money than you planned. Give a raise you forgot to make — and true it up. It’s a long game. Q: What are your top tips for making life easier as an early-stage SaaS CEO? More on that here.

Strategize 114

Strategize Gaming Start-ups Trust 114

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

No one cared if they raised at 100x ARR. The first time this happened for me was with Talkdesk, my third venture investment. It wasn’t good for my career, and too much risk to take. But if it didn’t work out — game over for me at the time. It had to work, or my career would have been at risk.

Gaming 83

Gaming Closing Product Growth 83

SaaStr

AUGUST 26, 2022

One of the most exciting and terrifying things a SaaS founder can do is raise seed funding. 2 When to Raise a Seed Round? To raise funding, you must finetune your de-risking strategy and have a strong plan that sways investors, especially in the current uncertain market. . #3 3 Can I Raise Remotely?

Intrinsic 81

Intrinsic Networking B2B Meeting 81

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2022

Why did sales-driven Qualtrics get to $100m+ in ARR without ever raising a nickel, and generating more than $20m a year in free cash flow ? And if you can raise $100m+, and you are in a competitive space, and you can crush your competitors with that $100m, I think it’s worth it. Raise prices tomorrow. So is SaaS cursed?

Quota 112

Quota Contract Price Growth 112

Heinz Marketing

AUGUST 31, 2021

Here are 4 tips that have helped me improve my WFH experience. For example, I always keep flowers on my desk, my favorite water bottle, and my favorite snacks in my desk drawers. For example, I always keep flowers on my desk, my favorite water bottle, and my favorite snacks in my desk drawers.

Consult 120

Consult Gaming Product Start-ups 120

Martech

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Whether it’s marketing, languages, technology, new board games or even stand-up comedy, he’s always looking to find out more and share it with others. A: I was actually born in a little country called Honduras, which is in Central America right next to Costa Rica and my family moved here when I was 12. The company did okay.

A/B testing 99

A/B testing Technology Technology Start-ups 99

Martech

AUGUST 3, 2022

This morning, during my communications campaign course at the University of Oregon, a student asked me why we research best practices and try to find examples of successful campaigns that are relevant to our client. My answer to her also sums up why you should care about this article. It was a great question. Technology used.

Campaign 108

Campaign Gaming Education Technology 108

Search Engine Land

OCTOBER 2, 2023

vs. Google antitrust trial has already unearthed troubling behavior from Google, including raising ad prices to meet revenue targets. ” “It would be a game changer (for Bing) to be a default on Safari,” Nadella added. Why we care. The ongoing U.S. Exclusive rights. All hope is gone?

Angle 120

Angle Engineering Market share Launch 120

Salesforce

OCTOBER 12, 2023

Using existing LLMs through APIs allows you to unlock the power of generative AI today, and deliver game-changing AI innovation fast. Your data belongs to you, and passing it to an API provider might raise concerns about compromising sensitive information. Training your own LLM is a daunting and expensive task. More on this later.)

Trust 138

Trust Engineering Government CRM 138

SaaStr

JULY 28, 2021

From my view, no, we don’t have a lot of competition. I’ve spent my whole career in B2B software. I was raised on a farm in rural Illinois. Neither of my parents went to college. My marketing team wanted me to do the world’s most boring video. I really tried and never lose a game of chicken.

Start-ups 108

Start-ups Gaming Contract Up-sell 108

SaaStr

AUGUST 7, 2021

It makes you look like you take me for a fool, or at least, are trying to pull the wool over my eyes. Gaming the metrics doesn’t help here. If you are raising $500k, anything is good, debt, SAFEs, IOUs, MOUs. So you are raising too much without anyone with enough skin in the game. Tell it to me straight.

Up-sell 134

Up-sell Pitch Represent Price 134

Salesforce

JULY 21, 2021

But even to him, it really did seem like he could not make it to this summer’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo. After winning a gold medal at the Paralympic Games Rio 2016 with a world-record throw, Blair broke his foot and injured his back in 2019. The Paralympic Games as a platform for change. So how did he make the U.S.

Sports 98

Sports Gaming Healthcare Technology 98

SaaStr

JULY 13, 2023

But ahead of that, I wanted to write up my top learnings while they were top of mind: #1. NRR is the NorthStar metric in SaaS, but we all agreed it can be gamed, to some extent. Price raises can increase NRR, without adding value. It was great and will be released soon on their podcast and ours. It took going multi-product.

Cross-sell 75

Cross-sell Contract Gaming Up-sell 75

Understanding the Sales Force

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

Also last week, we celebrated the life of my best friend and longtime business partner, Matt Hogan, who passed away on Friday, August 25. Ten lessons or take aways come to mind as I write this article and these will be my tribute to Matt: Matt called while our then ten-year-old son was having a temper tantrum.

Relationship building 77

Relationship building Sports Networking Up-sell 77

SaaStr

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Because nobody went on Google and searched “flexible software to manage my business.” Since starting the company in 2014, there wasn’t a lot of money you could raise in a startup. In my opinion, that’s a big mistake,” says Zinman. That’s more cash in the bank than they ever raised from VCs or the public market.

Growth 65

Growth Non-Profits Drivers/motivators Construction 65

Adaptive Business Services

AUGUST 25, 2021

In my experience, there are 3 areas that are critical to selling success …. What follows were my down and dirty quick tips to my young apprentice …. Make it a game and remember that every “No” you get is worth the same as every “Yes”. . This is not all that uncommon. I can’t help anyone with that. Keys to selling success.

Sell 87

Sell CRM Referrals Up-sell 87

SaaStr

JUNE 8, 2021

The other day I met with a great founder doing about $40k in MRR that wanted to raise some extra money to “make sales more repeatable.” So my advice was simple: you don’t have a sales problem. And after that, in fact, it will all become a capacity and numbers game. ” Sounds good. At least not yet.

Sales 109

Sales Up-sell Gaming Closing 109

Martech

JUNE 20, 2023

“My hope is that we have some variation of it in 2024. ” Four million interactions per day But putting a human in the loop does raise questions about scalability. Pega CEO plays 15 simultaneous chess games at PegaWorld 2023. I think it’s going to take governance and control.” How many emails is that?

Government 104

Government Launch Gaming Follow-up 104

Search Engine Land

JANUARY 9, 2023

My source delved deeper and saw that the same people owned many companies in the area. It’s not super trustworthy and can be easily gamed. Raise pressure on Google to address the issue. Raise consumers' awareness of these issues through industry outlets. That is a win-win in my book! It’s quite simple.

Service 103

Service Appointment Legal Commission 103

Search Engine Land

AUGUST 4, 2023

Given content creation’s time-consuming and costly nature, marketers have turned to AI for assistance, yielding mixed results Ethical issues notwithstanding, one question that repeatedly surfaces is, “Can search engines detect my AI content?” This shortcoming is the basis for all the errors, or “hallucinations” as they are called.

Engineering 97

Engineering Sports Finance Follow-up 97

Search Engine Land

NOVEMBER 2, 2022

Musk also said he disagrees with Twitter’s practice of permanent bans for those who repeatedly violate its rules, raising the possibility that a number of previously banned, controversial users could reemerge on the platform. 20 a month to keep my blue check? The news raised concerns among some lawmakers, including Sen.

Negotiate 86

Negotiate Promote Gaming Trust 86

SaaStr

JUNE 2, 2019

In my first start-up, I had some rough experiences with VC collusion. We received 4 offers to lead our seed mainly because I’d already had a successful exit (it’s wasn’t nearly so hard to raise the second time). And much less likely to play games and create drama. Because they might want to take it.

Gaming 73

Gaming Trust Pitch Start-ups 73

SaaStr

AUGUST 12, 2022

Obviously, you’ve raised before, and I’ll answer your question, but let me step back a bit. So valuations have reset and so have amounts raised. And honestly, right now literally is the worst time to raise VC funding I can think of since 2016. So you’d raise $100 million fund. Appreciate it.

Price 79

Price Pipeline Meeting Growth 79

Partners in Excellence

JULY 13, 2015

High jumping is a fascinating metaphor for sales success, at least in my mind. OK, maybe I’m stretching things a little–by now you’re used to my perverse and twisted humor. For my non American readers, Flop is also a synonym or slang for failing. The Fosbury Flop is still the dominant style of jumping today.

Sports 91

Sports Technique Sales Gaming 91

Partners in Excellence

JULY 21, 2023

I may have my numbers wrong, but I think the initial numbers were somewhere in the 40% range. ” My friends, Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna, provide fascinating data in The Jolt Effect about the skyrocketing data around “No Decision Made.” And it will force us to innovate, change and raise our game to an even higher level.

Prospecting 75

Prospecting Customers Cold Call Commission 75

Hubspot

MARCH 10, 2020

In my example, perhaps the term "fitness instructor" is more popular than "personal trainer" in Southern California. By creating educational content, you can rank for local keywords and raise brand awareness. This includes directories such as Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, or Bing. Create a loyalty program.

Promote 96

Promote Territory Start-ups Engineering 96

Salesforce

JUNE 15, 2022

When an artist named Beeple sold a piece of digital art for $69 million in 2021 through a Christie’s auction, it raised eyebrows — mostly because it was an NFT. You may still wonder: What is an NFT and how can it help my business ? Consumers can even “ rent ” your NFT to use in games and other activities.

Customers 98

Customers Intrinsic Contract Represent 98

Sales Hacker

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

Prospects “raise their hand” to be contacted by a sales representative. The definition of the term cold calling is “contacting any prospect who is not currently raising their hand asking to be contacted.”. Sales is often a numbers game, but it’s not a ONE number game. My two other favorite sales tools are: 1.

Inside sales 85

Inside sales Cold Call Commission Appointment 85

Gong.io

MARCH 3, 2021

After what felt like a hundred rounds of give and take, the buyer asked for my “best and final” to take to his CFO. I later found out that my prospect used my offer to negotiate against a competitor. Blame me, blame the prospect, blame my lack of discipline for emailing that offer. . I squirmed. No response.

Negotiate 139

Negotiate Price Finance Quota 139

Heinz Marketing

APRIL 2, 2020

Once I get out there, I’m glad I did, but it happened because I overcame my inertia and was externally, not intrinsically motivated. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to emerge from sheltering at home (whenever that may be) having regrets about how I did or didn’t use my time and with a bunch of shoulda coulda woulda excuses.

Intrinsic 109

Intrinsic Drivers/motivators Gaming Follow-up 109

Sales Hacker

DECEMBER 21, 2023

The focus is not only on identifying pain points but also on collaboratively formulating interim solutions, raising follow-up discovery questions, and discussing sentiment for how feature-based solutions might fit into our roadmap. In my experience, this always pays off!

Engineering 97

Engineering Objectives and Key Results Drivers/motivators Teamwork 97

Anthony Cole Training

OCTOBER 24, 2011

My Big 3 Sales Success Tips from Guy and Steve - #2. Raise the bar. I remember my greatest successes in athletics came about when the challenges were the greatest: When we played Middle Township for the league championship: I played one of my best games against a player that was all league. Raise the bar!

Objectives and Key Results 180

Objectives and Key Results Drivers/motivators Gaming Sales 180