Hey Reader,
Welcome to The Middle, your midweek rundown of the most interesting things we've read this week.
This comes from "Jay", but I (Jeff) write the Wednesday newsletter.
This section is often forgotten about. It's something most newsletters keep static. I'll avoid the forgotten and capitalize on this space.
But, this won't be more business up here.
This intro will be the way we develop a relationship over time.
So, here's my intro for you this week:
My first thought whenever school is canceled...
"Shit, that means I have to spend the whole day with our son".
On the surface that sounds bad (and I don't actually mean it), but he is ~2 years old and on an absolute heater recently.
He's learned the word "No", he's become demanding yet vague, and somehow he's figured out how to win an argument. Does that sound like someone you want to spend 12+ hours with? I didn't think so...
Now, let's jump into The Middle.
(PS: If my wife is reading this newsletter, this is only a joke - I love spending time with our son)
SaaS Purchasing Insights
Vertice, a SaaS & Cloud spend optimization platform, put together purchasing insights for April.
A few interesting nuggets of note, but for me the one that was to be expected was tech stack consolidation.
Here's what they had to say:
The quick increase towards multi-feature platforms between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024 indicates that consolidating and streamlining tech stacks is beginning to gain a foothold.
All-in-one platforms are, by nature, able to bring multiple features and departments together under one roof — eliminating the need for numerous single-feature technologies that are function-specific.
Hey, we're hosting a webinar on April 11 at 11 am ET (it's on a Thursday).
As a leader, you are being asked to evaluate decisions with a specific lens: the financial impact on the business. It’s daunting. And most likely you haven't received any formal training. Doubly daunting.
Join us where we'll break down SaaS Financials to give you an Executive's lens. A lens that helps you make more informed, focused, and profitable decisions for the business.
You can register here for our webinar on April 11 at 11 am ET (again, that's next week Thursday).
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Consistency wins in the long run
Apollo is one of the fastest growing SaaS businesses and Leandra Fishman is the badass CRO who is making that growth come to fruition.
She detailed the difference between Intensity & Consistency:
Intensity may serve you for a short time, but it’s a recipe for burnout. No one likes to get to the end of the quarter only to have the one deal they were counting on slip with nothing else to make up for it.
It’s the daily practice, the continuous effort and the discipline to follow up consistently that separates good from great sales reps.
I'd argue that this approach goes for anyone in a customer-facing role...
We used to have "Go to Green" plans. These were a standard operating mechanism for the leadership team.
It wasn't how do we improve this metric overnight, but rather how will this metric consistently improve DoD, MoM, QoQ. It put an emphasis on finding solutions that we could commit to over a long period of time.
No one likes to have something taken away from them. Especially a customer.
AI Corner
Usually, I'm here writing a practical prompt that you could use in your everyday work.
But, I'm looking for inspiration and figured I could rely on the thousands of you who read this newsletter to send in some examples.
So, press reply and shoot us an example of how you've implemented AI into your everyday work. I'll owe you one.
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What's your company's Clock Speed?
I have something which you can't unsee.
Sriram, a highly successful investor and operator, detailed his definition of Clock Speed down below.
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Sriram Krishnan - sriramk.eth
@sriramk
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1:59 AM • Feb 3, 2024
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The reason I can't unsee this is it calls into question "Are you working on the highest-impact thing you could be?"
Too often, companies default to doing low-impact projects that move the needle in small increments. When in reality, they need high-impact projects that hit big increments.
And think about it... a bunch of people working on separate low-impact projects looks like a bunch of scattered meetings across weeks upon weeks... meaning the low-impact projects take quarters to implement.
Not fast enough to make a dent.
So, what is your Clock Speed?
