You're either generating revenue, retaining revenue or both - either way, this newsletter is my way of distilling 16 years of GTM experience into weekly nuggets to help you and 1000+ other industry leaders get unstuck and grow your business.
Reader I got great news - today I’m going to share a little more on how I won a deal with one of my clients this quarter. They read my newsletter so I’m expecting a chuckle. So today’s breakdown will be a little different than normal.
It’s a long one - feel free to throw into GPT to summarise - but then you miss all the fun parts!
Stay with me.
It’s the end of Q1 (for most) and Q2 is around the corner. Well it’s literally tomorrow - again, for most.
I don’t miss the rush of quarter or month end at all. I spent way too many years fighting with legal and finance to approve contracts so my revenue could get recognised lol. Yes, even at smaller Series A and B startups!
This week's newsletter will be a little different. I’ll do two things:
Drop some pointers on what you can do to move the needle on the last day of the month
Get you set up for success in Q2
Q1: What else can we do?
Some caveats…
You’ll need to have a good or at least decent relationship with the companies in your pipeline.
You’ll need to understand your bargaining power - what cards can you play?
Here’s 2 useful things you can do - that I’ve done - to help get a deal over the line
Add and don’t take away
Clear their way
I break both of these down below.
Add and don’t take away
Major discounts are one of the worst bargaining chips I see companies use. Instead, you should maintain the deal value that’s been agreed/partially agreed to and add more value. This could be:
Extra time on the agreement
Extra team resources
Extra product resources
Could you add in that extra module, training, session, user or feature - for “free”
Accelerated go live - prioritising them over others
Why this works:
Most companies can find that extra $1000 - $10,000 budget that is required for your tool. You are literally reducing the deal size for no reason. Most good Prospects don’t need discounts. You find they are the type that always want discounts, freebies etc without giving anything.
Great Prospects can free up millions of dollars if there’s enough certainty of success. But companies are always balancing this value see-saw. I’ve written about this a lot - but here’s an oldie but goodie article.
Your company does not want you to give discounts. Discounts skew the numbers and mess with planning. The goal is to always increase the average contract value year on year.
Many Prospect’s don’t know that they can even ask for more, so they don’t and then they go elsewhere and get it. Our job is to ensure Prospect’s are fully aware of what they can get. Show them more value and they will attach more value to you and your company and that may just be the thing that pushes it over the line.
Clear their way
Now, you really need to have developed trust with the Prospect in order to do this. You have to detach yourself from the deal in order to do this because this may actually cause you to lose the deal. The premise here is that you get on a call with a Prospect to help them make a faster decision - that could be a yes OR a no.
Most prospects don’t intentionally waste your time or take long making a decision. Life and business get in the way. Here’s how you typically get this set up.
“Let's jump on a call so I can help you walk through your thinking and give you direction on what you should be looking for.”
Why this works:
One of the reasons deals stall is simply because the moment a Prospect is required to do “work” - which I typically refer to as mental or physical effort - to understand how to make a decision they pause, they shelve, they simply just avoid it for as long as possible and it becomes this irritating thing on their to do list. Even if it’s something they desperately need and are under pressure to resolve.
We want to remove that effort and make it easy for them to say yes or no to us or to whoever else.
So pick up the phone and speak to your prospects tomorrow. Help their decision making process easier.
How we won an amazing client in Q1
Here’s how I secured a client this quarter and here’s why they renewed and upsold themselves to continue working with me and the team at Revenue Funnel.
Firstly, I lost the deal before I won it. They had never worked with a consultant and felt the usual anxiety.
Will they care?
Will they even do anything or just tell us what we know?
How will they work day to day?
I am naturally inclined to help people. It’s not something I have to try to do. It’s just how my brain works - by the way this doesn’t always work in my favour!
When I first met with my now client they said they wanted to make a decision in 2-3 weeks. That never, ever happens. It’s always longer. You learn things after 17 years in the sales game. However, I knew based on their sales cycle that if they wanted to make an impact this year, they needed to move fast. I saw that there was a lot of back and forth and many questions - and doubts. One stakeholder seemed excited, the other seemed very cautious.
I requested the call “Clear their way”.
My suggestion for the call was very direct and clear - “I think you are about to make the wrong decision. At the bare minimum let me explain the approach you should take even if you don’t choose to work with me.” They agreed - we got on a call the next day and they said:
“I believe the next step would be for you to send a contract - what do you think, Hannah” my response?
“I’ll only send a contract if that means that you are now going to reconsider me as a partner that you will work with.”
“Yes, that’s exactly it of course.”
Success in Q2
Q1 may have just missed the mark. I get it. It happens - it happened to us in 2024 - in fact twice. But that’s for another newsletter. Don’t wait until it’s too late and you’re rushing - get in front of your revenue target now by figuring out how to get your quality pipeline coverage. At a minimum you should be getting 3 X your revenue goal. But best practice will take into account your win rate. E.g. If you win 2 out of 10 deals - your win rate is 20%. Therefore you need 5 X the amount to get to 100% of your target.
Go and do your GTM audit. I’m working my best to update my 3 minute GTM audit and add a ton of resources for you to benefit from. It’s built to help you:
Find gaps in your pipeline
Make a decision on how to improve it
Give you tools to go fix it - for free
If you want to be first on the list to receive the updated URL link just click here. Feel free to take the old one too it’s full of resources once you complete it.
Do you even know what we do?
Revenue funnel is ME plus an ecosystem of GTM experts that help you to identify gaps in your GTM strategy so you can build and execute a new approach to driving pipeline and quality revenue. We have 20 approved partners across:
Sales Strategy
RevOps experts for your favourite platforms
Compensation and sales budgeting experts
Commercially focused CFOs
Certified Leadership coaches
Sales trainers
CMOs, Google Ads specialists
Expert Copywriters
Interim HR leaders and trusted recruitment firms
Don’t tell me you thought it was JUST ME that helped companies 4-10X pipeline?!
If you’re feeling a little concerned about your revenue growth then we have a few things to help you find the answer:
Evaluate Your Strategy → Curious about where your Go-to-Market strategy stands? Discover key areas for improvement. [Take the Assessment]
GTM Insights → Want to learn more about Go-to-Market strategies? Check out our latest insights on YouTube. [Watch Now]
1-1 Consultation → Need personalised advice? Book a 1-1 consultation, and I’ll help you map out your next steps. [Book Here]
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You're either generating revenue, retaining revenue or both - either way, this newsletter is my way of distilling 16 years of GTM experience into weekly nuggets to help you and 1000+ other industry leaders get unstuck and grow your business.
