The Overview #24
Hey there. This is The Overview, a weekly roundup of noteworthy B2B SaaS stuff. You’ll find interesting thoughts, articles, and more from around the internet.
This was written on my phone while on vacation in Majorca. A friendly reminder to everyone: take some time off to switch off from work, rejuvenate, and refresh – you deserve it!
In this post:
Niches for riches (again)
If you’re a regular reader of Building Momentum, you’ll know something I say pretty often.
I’d like to term it the Momentum Equation, although maybe that’s too obnoxious. But it’s something I’ve been saying for years, and believe in it more and more each day.
The Momentum Equation: Focus + Confidence = Momentum.
It’s not complex. Momentum is an output of being more focused (both in terms of narrow prioritized niches and clear understanding), and building confidence in your strategy and execution.
Like John’s post above, not enough people understand that focus can be a superpower. How can you be more focused in your go-to-market this week?
Don’t overestimate your customer’s maturity
I see this way too often: literally every business I’ve worked with.
You and your team are super close to the specifics of your business, the problem space, and your solution. It’s only natural that you will become the experts.
But your customers? They’ve got a hundred other problems, they’re underpaid, they’ve got family challenges, they’re still learning. It’s only natural that they will likely not be an expert: they have a problem they want solving, and that’s that.
Please fight the instinct to position, message, solve, and sell at an advanced level. You’ll find it more difficult.
Instead, understand your customer’s maturity level (along with all the other stuff going on for them). Then message to the right level. You’ll find it much easier. Thank me later.
Welcome the HiPPO in the room – then test
The CEO’s opinion – or that of any other highest paid person in the discussion – can be valuable. They have experience, expectations, and are a useful source of customer insights.
But most people will fail to test their inputs as assumptions, and treat them as gospel instead. Big mistake.
Feel free to source assumptions from everywhere. Test those assumptions in customer interviews, external experts, in ads, landing pages, or anywhere else you can get some unguided reactions from people close to your ICP and buyer personas.
You also don’t need to build anything to test an idea. This post from Strategyzer has a load of different ways you can test an MVP idea without building a line of code. How can you test your positioning, product strategy, and more without building?
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought – find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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