Hey - it’s Alex!

Today, I will share with you:

1️⃣ 3 actionable SaaS growth tips

👉 Masterclass: 5 Steps to Hit Message Market Fit for early stage B2B SaaS Startups

👉 Target end-user vs. buyer persona

👉 5 sales book recommendations to sell more in 2023

2️⃣ ‘Best tip, failure, & learning’ by Nick Telson (Co-Founder of Trumpet & Angel Investor)

3️⃣ 1 software tool recommendation (ChatGPT)

… that will help you quickly grow your SaaS product 🚀.

👉 Before you begin:

✅ Get your FREE copy of the SaaS Growth Strategy Worksheet

✅ Get your FREE SaaS Go-to-market strategy - Notion Template

✅ Unlock your growth potential with 82+ proven SaaS growth tactics

1. MASTERCLASS: 5 Steps to Hit Message Market Fit for early stage B2B SaaS Startups

There are only 2 reasons why you can't sell your product.

1️⃣ Your product is bad or useless

2️⃣ Your messaging is not resonating with your target customer.

Number 1️⃣ is when you don't have product-market fit (PMF).

Number 2️⃣ is when you don't have a message-market fit.

To be successful, you need to have both.

Hit Message Market Fit for B2B SaaS Startups

So you've got a great product but you're not sure how to market it or who to.

Hitting Message-Market Fit is the most important B2B SaaS sales challenge to overcome for early-stage startups, enabling you to grow your sales with paying customers.

Together with Manuel Hartmann I’ve hosted a live Masterclass about Message-Market Fit.

What you'll learn:

✅ Common go-to-market mistakes and how you can avoid them

✅ The 5 key actions B2B Startups can take now to hit message-market fit

WATCH THE MASTERCLASS

Don’t have time to watch the masterclass? Key takeaways: 👇

Message-market fit is like Love ❤️

If you found it, you just feel it.

And for all of you who prefer specifics.

You hit message market fit if:

1️⃣ 15%+ response rate on outbound messages

2️⃣ "Ahh, that sounds interesting" - something you will hear from prospects

3️⃣ High CTR on Ads (2-5%)

4️⃣ High Website Conversion Rate (above 1%)

2. User vs. decision maker: Who you should target 🎯

If you don't know if you should target the end user or the decision-maker, then keep this rule of thumb in mind.

The question is about the Top-down vs. bottom-up sales approach.

𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺-𝘂𝗽

Try to approach the user directly (bottom-up) if a single user gets value from using your product.

This means he/she doesn't need other colleagues or team members to use the product as well.

Your product delivers value to a single user.

Win one user, make them happy, and then upsell to the whole organization.

Examples: Writing assistants (e.g. Grammarly) or scheduling tools (Calendly) or design tools (Canva).

𝗧𝗼𝗽-𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻

If your product only makes sense, if all team members or the whole organization is using your product, then go for a top-down sales approach.

You need to convince the decision-maker to roll out the tool in the company.

Only if the whole team/org is using your product, it brings value.

Example: CRM tool (e.g. Hubspot) or HR operating tool (e.g. Personio)

Note: In challenging economic times (recessions, layoffs, etc.), you most probably need to include the decision maker in the buying process.

3. 5 sales & startup books I read in 2022

I know, this growth tip is different from what I normally share.

But I am a big believer that books & podcasts are a great way to always learn new things.

So I believe this is actually a super actionable growth tip for you. For your personal growth but also to grow your business.

Here are 5 books that I read in 2022 and you should read in 2023 📚

1️⃣ The $150M secret - by lemlist founder Guillaume Moubeche

2️⃣ $100M Offers: How to make offers so good people feel stupid saying no - by Alex Hormozi

3️⃣ Happy sexy millionaire: Unexpected truths about fulfillment, love, and success - by Steven Bartlett

4️⃣ Product-Led Growth: How to build a product that sells itself - by Wes Bush

5️⃣ Start with Why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action - by Simon Sinek

💡 Best tip, failure, and learning by Nick Telson (Co-Founder of Trumpet & Angel Investor)

Involve the customer from day one.

Listen to their feedback. Have a public roadmap and promote user engagement on it.

Keep them informed on all new launches from their ideas. This tight early relationship will get the referral wheel spinning. We use Canny as our public roadmap.

About Trumpet: With trumpet you can turn better buyer journeys into more revenue. Create hyper-personalised & interactive microsites that close more deals, quicker, with trumpet.

🧠 Do you want to be next and share your best tip with 650+ SaaS professionals? Reach out to me via Linkedin.

💪 1 software tool recommendation

I can highly recommend Chat GPT for everything around content creation - from research to brainstorming to drafting your content.

I know everyone is talking about it right now. But here are 2 really good Linkedin posts about how to use Chat GPT in your daily business.

👆Listen to what ChatGPT says 🤣 Thanks for sharing my newsletter. We’ve passed the 650 subscribers. My goal for 2023 is 3000+.

P.S. Check out my list of best software tools for SaaS startups for more inspiration.

Happy growth 🚀.

Alex Estner

TL;DR

5 steps to Hit-Message-Market Fit: Masterclass
Bottom-up (target user) vs. Top-Down (target decision maker) Sales approach
5 Sales & Startups book for your (personal) growth in 2023

🚀 Whenever you’re ready, 3 ways I can help you:

Follow me on Linkedin for more actionable tips to grow your B2B SaaS business
Download your FREE copy of the SaaS Growth Strategy Worksheet and get access to a list of 82+ hand-picked, proven SaaS growth strategies.
Work with me 1:1 to grow your B2B SaaS business - send me a DM on Linkedin or book a free 15min virtual coffee with me to learn more about my offering.

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