From Impossible To Inevitable: How Hyper–Growth Companies Create Predictable Revenue

PRAISE FOR FROM IMPOSSIBLE TO INEVITABLE

"If I′d have had this book at my last company, we would have scaled 4x faster. Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin have brought to the masses what only a few extreme experts have been able to figure out. I get asked all the time from people, ′What should be the next book I read?′ this is it. Don′t think twice, just get it, devour it and do it."
Bubba Page, CEO, QuotaDeck

"Aaron and Jason, I don′t want to freak you out like ′who is this weirdo,′ but you are so awesome that I′d rather meet you in person than anyone famous like Tim Ferriss, James Hetfield or Richard Branson! In your new book, my favorite sections were how to implement Customer Success and Nail A Niche. Plus, the case studies, with real world examples and specific tactics, made this book invaluable."
Loren Yadeski, COO, Crimcheck

"In the ′Do The Time′ part of the book, Aaron and Jason brilliantly illustrate a message that entrepreneurs and everyone need to hear, see and feel: success is not overnight. It takes brutal hard work but, in the end is worth it."
Mark Roberge, CRO, Hubspot and Author, The Sales Acceleration Formula

"We used the ′Nail A Niche′ ideas to grow to our first $2 million on inbound leads alone, by hyper–focusing on a specific problem: re–using social existing media content."
Laura Roeder, Founder, MeetEdgar.com

"Jason and Aaron clearly laid out for me which tactics to use for early stage funnel building versus accelerating pipeline conversion, to avoid wasting my marketing spend and energy. This book offered me plenty of hands–on details to put these concepts into action."
Lucia Marchese, SVP Global Marketing, SunGard

"As an employee, reading the section on ′Embracing Employee Ownership′ was dead on. I used to think my boss was a jerk. But after reading this section, I realized he wasn′t. He was trying to help me out and challenge me to do my best here. I′ve been a complainer, but this section changed my whole perspective."
Chelsea Sanchez, Sales, Agility Recovery

Visit FromImpossible.com for Free Resources & "Director′s Cut" Material

Preface: Systematizing Success

Lessons from the world′s fastest growing companies

PART 1: NAIL A NICHE

Chapter 1: NICHE DOESN T MEAN SMALL

ARE YOU SURE YOU RE READY TO GROW FASTER?

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU VE NAILED A NICHE

ACHIEVE WORLD DOMINATION ONE NICHE AT A TIME

THE ARC OF ATTENTION

Chapter 2: SIGNS OF SLOGGING

ARE YOU A NICE–TO–HAVE?

BIG COMPANIES SUFFER TOO

WHERE AARON WENT WRONG

YOUR CURRENT STRENGTH CAN BE A FUTURE WEAKNESS

Chapter 3: HOW TO NAIL IT

WHERE CAN YOU BE A BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND?

WORK THROUGH THE NICHE MATRIX

HOW AVANOO NAILED IT

JASON S 20–INTERVIEW RULE

Chapter 4: YOUR PITCH

IF YOU WERE A RADIO STATION, WOULD ANYONE TUNE IN?

ELEVATOR PITCHES ARE ALWAYS FRUSTRATING

THEY DON T CARE ABOUT YOU : 3 SIMPLE QUESTIONS

PART TWO: CREATE PREDICTABLE PIPELINE

INTRODUCTION: LEAD GENERATION ABSOLVES MANY SINS

Chapter 5: SEEDS CUSTOMER SUCCESS

HOW TO GROW SEEDS PREDICTABLY

CASE STUDY: HOW GILD DROPPED MONTHLY CHURN FROM 4% TO 1%

CASE STUDY: CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE AT TOPCON

Chapter 6:  NETS INBOUND MARKETING

THE FORCING FUNCTION YOUR MARKETING LEADER NEEDS: A LEAD COMMIT

CORPORATE MARKETING VS. DEMAND GENERATION

CASE STUDY: ZENEFITS FROM $1 MILLION TO $100 MILLION IN TWO YEARS

INBOUND MARKETING: A 4–POINT PRIMER

HEROIC MARKETING: WHEN YOU HAVE NO MONEY AND LITTLE TIME

Chapter 7: SPEARS OUTBOUND PROSPECTING

WHERE OUTBOUND WORKS BEST AND WHERE IT FAILS

OUTBOUND LESSONS LEARNED SINCE PREDICTABLE REVENUE WAS PUBLISHED

CASE STUDY: ZENEFITS OUTBOUND LESSONS

ACQUIA: OUTBOUND S ROLE IN A $100 MILLION TRAJECTORY

GUIDESPARK: FROM ZERO TO $10 MILLION WITH OUTBOUND

TAPSTREAM: STARTING FROM SCRATCH

CHAPTER X: WHAT EXECUTIVES MISS

PIPELINE CREATION RATE: YOUR #1 LEADING METRIC

THE 15/85 RULE: EARLY ADOPTERS AND MAINSTREAM BUYERS

WHY YOU RE UNDERESTIMATING CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE

CHAPTER 8: WHAT EXECUTIVES MISS

PIPELINE CREATION RATE: YOUR #1 LEADING METRIC

THE 15/85 RULE: EARLY ADOPTERS AND MAINSTREAM BUYERS

WHY YOU RE UNDERESTIMATING CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE

PART 3: MAKE SALES SCALABLE

Chapter 9: LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES

GROWTH CREATES MORE PROBLEMS THAN IT SOLVES BUT THEY ARE BETTER PROBLEMS

JASON S TOP 12 MISTAKES IN BUILDING SALES TEAMS

ADVICE FROM THE VP SALES BEHIND LINKEDIN AND ECHOSIGN

Chapter 10: SPECIALIZATION: YOUR #1 SALES MULTIPLIER

WHY SALESPEOPLE SHOULDN T PROSPECT

CASE STUDY: HOW CLIO RESTRUCTURED SALES IN 3 MONTHS

CAN YOU BE TOO SMALL, OR TOO BIG, TO SPECIALIZE?

SPECIALIZATION: TWO COMMON OBJECTIONS

SPECIALIZATION SNAPSHOT AT ACQUIA

CHAPTER 11: HIRING BEST PRACTICES FOR SALES

SIMPLE HIRING TRICKS

WHEN DOING SOMETHING NEW, START WITH TWO

CHAPTER 12: HIRING BEST PRACTICES FOR SALES

SIMPLE HIRING TRICKS

WHEN DOING SOMETHING NEW, START WITH TWO

THE $100M HUBSPOT SALES MACHINE: RECRUITING AND COACHING ESSENTIALS

CASE STUDY: HOW TO CUT DOWN ON WASTED INTERVIEWING TIME

CHAPTER 13: SCALING THE SALES TEAM

IF YOU RE CHURNING MORE THAN 10% OF YOUR SALESPEOPLE, THEY AREN T THE PROBLEM

ZENEFITS CASE STUDY: SCALING SALES FROM 2 TO 350 REPS

PUT NON–SALES LEADERS ON VARIABLE COMP PLANS, TOO

TRUTH = MONEY

PIPELINE DEFICIT DISORDER

ARE YOUR ENTERPRISE DEALS TAKING FOREVER?

FIVE KEY SALES METRICS (WITH A TWIST)

Chapter 14: FOR STARTUPS ONLY

EVERY TECH PRODUCT SHOULD HAVE A SERVICE OPTION

WHAT JASON INVESTS IN + DO YOU NEED TO RAISE MONEY TO SCALE?

WHAT THE HEADCOUNT OF A 100–PERSON SAAS COMPANY LOOKS LIKE

PART 4: DOUBLE YOUR DEALSIZE

Painful Truth: It s hard to build a big business out of small deals.

Chapter 15: DEALSIZE MATH

WHAT JASON LEARNED: YOU NEED 50 MILLION USERS TO MAKE FREEMIUM WORK

SMALL DEALS GET YOU STARTED, BIG DEALS DRIVE GROWTH

CHAPTER 16: NOT TOO BIG, NOT TOO SMALL

When you can t turn small deals into big ones

IF YOU HAVE CUSTOMERS OF ALL SIZES

Chapter 17: GOING UPMARKET

IF YOU DON T WANT SALESPEOPLE

ADD ANOTHER TOP PRICING TIER

PRICING IS ALWAYS A PAIN

GOING FORTUNE 1000: BY MARK CRANNEY

PART 5: Do The Time

Chapter 18: EMBRACE FRUSTRATION

ARE YOU SURE YOU RE READY FOR THIS?

EVERYONE HAS A YEAR OF HELL

COMFORT IS THE ENEMY OF GROWTH

REACHING ESCAPE VELOCITY

Chapter 19: SUCCESS ISN T A STRAIGHT LINE

THE ANXIETY ECONOMY & ENTREPRENEUR DEPRESSION

MARK SUSTER S QUESTION: SHOULD YOU LEARN OR EARN?

WHEN A STRAIGHT LINE ISN T THE SHORTEST PATH TO SUCCESS

CHANGE YOUR WORLD, NOT THE WORLD

PART 6: EMBRACE EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP

Chapter 20: A REALITY CHECK

DEAR EXECUTIVES (FROM EMPLOYEE)

DEAR EMPLOYEE (FROM EXECUTIVES)

PS: DEAR SENIOR EXECUTIVES, DON T GET LEFT BEHIND   (FROM CEO AND BOARD)

ARE YOUR PEOPLE RENTING, OR OWNING?

Chapter 21: FOR EXECUTIVES: CREATE FUNCTIONAL OWNERSHIP

A SIMPLE SURVEY

NO SURPRISES

FUNCTIONAL OWNERSHIP

CASE STUDY: HOW STRUGGLING TEAM TURNED INTO A SELF–MANAGING SUCCESS

To Turn Things Around

Chapter 22: TAKING OWNERSHIP TO THE NEXT LEVEL

FINANCIAL OWNERSHIP

MOVE PEOPLE AROUND

THE 4 TYPES OF EMPLOYEES

PART 7: DEFINE YOUR DESTINY

Chapter 23: ARE YOU ABDICATING YOUR OPPORTUNITY?

YOUR OPPORTUNITY IS BIGGER THAN YOU REALIZE

HOW TO EXPAND YOUR OPPORTUNITY AT WORK

YOU NEED SOME HUMDRUM PASSIONS

YOUR COMPANY ISN T YOUR MOMMY OR DADDY

BACK TO FORCING FUNCTIONS: HOW TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF TO DO THINGS YOU DON T FEEL LIKE DOING

SALES IS A LIFE SKILL

SALES IS A MULTI–STEP PROCESS

Chapter 24: COMBINING MONEY AND MEANING

MEANING GONE WRONG

WHAT S YOUR UNIQUE GENIUS?

IGNORING REAL LIFE DOESN T MAKE IT GO AWAY

AARON: HOW THE HELL DO YOU JUGGLE 9+ KIDS AND WORK?

AARON ROSS (@motoceo) is married with 12 children (mostly through adoption), loves motorcycles, and keeps a 25–hour workweek. He′s a popular keynote speaker and the best–selling author of??Predictable Revenue,??called "The Sales Bible Of Silicon Valley." Aaron cofounded the software company??Carb.io.

JASON LEMKIN (@jasonlk) founded SaaStr.com, the largest community of SaaS founders on the planet,??and has invested in SaaS companies worth collectively in excess of $1.5 billion. Jason was CEO of EchoSign, and led it from $0 to $100 million+ in revenues and a sale to Adobe. He is married with two kids, runs every single damn day, and loves anything related to Hawaii.