An Archipelago the Size of Indonesia!
Cute Isn't What Early-Stage Companies Should Aim For
Hello Gobbledeers,
An interesting phenomenon in tech is that suddenly something exists that didn’t exist before. And then suddenly that thing doesn’t exist anymore.
Where’d all the Flat People on SaaS homepages go? That Tweet is from less than three years ago. All four of those companies have shed their primary-colored flat-illustrated friends. It’s not just those 4 - I can’t find any flat illustrated SaaS people anymore. Did they all get COVID? Did they move to Boise or Austin like everyone else? They were everywhere, then they were nowhere.
Flat People were a graphical way of saying “we’re a modern tech company” without having to fill the site with Gobbledy about how “modern whatevers choose XXXX.”
I thought of the Flat People when I woke up last week and POOF! all of a sudden there were a bunch of Product Led Growth CRM platforms. Like one day there were none, then the next day there were many.
I say “Product Led Growth CRM Platform” but they’re also calling themselves “Product Led Sales Platform” (Endgame and Pocus and Calixa); “Product Led Revenue Platform” (Correlated); “Product Qualified Lead Platform” (Headsup); “Collaborative CRM for Data Driven SaaS Companies”1 (Breyta); and “Product Qualified Lead Contact Scoring” (Breadcrumbs).
Regardless of what they’re called, these companies that I had never noticed until last week all do something similar - give sales teams some indication of what free-trial users are doing in their platform so that they have a better idea of who might be interested in upgrading to the paid version.
I thought it was worth digging into these companies’ websites because they’re all early stage companies looking at the Play Bigger handbook for how to create and own a category.
And every single one of them is missing the opportunity to tell prospects why they should select them over a competitor.
I’ll share my thoughts on how new companies in a new space can use their websites to tell a story, but first I needed to point out a snippet from Breadcrumbs’ website:
If you’ll just hold on one second, I need to talk to Breadcrumbs one-on-one. Just for a moment, I promise.
So listen, Breadcrumbs. I don’t want to get into why “is” isn’t capitalized on this grab from your website. That’s a discussion for another day. But you’re a young company, and you’re spending some of that phat venture cash to drive people to your website. And the people you’re driving to your website? They’re comparing you to your competitors. And your competitors don’t say “OMG.”
And I’ve been thinking about “an archipelago the size of Indonesia” for the past 4 days. It’s so oddly specific. And are your prospects supposed to know if Indonesia is large? And an archipelago? And are you really going to make me look up “archipelago?” Because either I know what an archipelago is, in which case I’m thinking, “why in God’s name are you talking about that?” or I don’t know what it is and I’m thinking, “OMG, WTF Is an Archipelago?” Also, I’m correctly capitalizing “Is.”
Lesson Number 1: Even when you’re early stage, don’t get too cute.
These product-led growth CRM tools appeared out of nowhere (like Ube flavored everything) and anyone in the market for one of these is faced with trying to figure out how all of these platforms differ from each other.
But every one of these companies uses their website to “educate the customer” about what a platform like this does, rather than using their website to show exactly who their product is for and why it’s better than the alternatives. They all say something to the effect of “turn product data into revenue” (Pocus) or “turn your customer data into playbooks” (Correlated) or “Turn signups into revenue” (Calixa). Everything gets turned into something.
(Also, since I brought it up: “Educate the customer” is something software marketers say when their company has built a product that nobody wants. “Oh, if only these poor morons were EDUCATED, they’d know they’d need this!” I have some bad news for all of us marketers - nobody wants to be educated. Nobody wants to feel like they don’t know what they’re doing. Or that they’re too ignorant to know better. People want to hear that they’re brilliant, and that they’ve made great choices, and that you can make those great choices EVEN BETTER. But I don’t have to tell all of you, because the fact that you’re reading this means you’re already super smart.)
And now that we’re here, I’d like to thank Gobbledy Charter Subscriber Julie D. for sending me this classic article titled “Hubris vs. Humility” which makes the same point. (Or, based on time-space continuum constraints, I may be making the same point as it made 12 years ago). The “hubris” refers to TiVo, which was a better VCR but refused to allow it to be marketed as a “better something” and (ahem) wanted to create its own category and blah blah blah, goodbye TiVO. Whereas the “humility” refers to Blackberry (funny enough), which marketed itself initially as a better version of a pager, and - before imploding - built a massive business selling a better version of something people loved rather than a totally new thing that nobody understood. (This is, of course, before it became an “email device” which was just a crappier something else…)
Lesson number 2: If you’re one of 8 companies in a new space, I think you have two jobs:
Tell people that you’re a better version of something they already have. (Similarly, you also have the option to tell people you make a thing they have even better). If they already have it, that means somebody bought it (you have a buyer), and they paid for it (they have budget), and if you can convince them this is a better version of that thing they love, then they’ll be open to hearing about it (they’ll create a project to implement it.). If you’re a brand new something something, there’s no buyer, no budget and no project. Best of luck.
Be very, very specific who you’re for. The companies I’ve mentioned say they’re for “modern go-to-market teams” or “for PLG teams” or “product-led sales teams.” In what industry? What size? What are they using now? What’s a non-modern go-to-market team? Like it’s made up of a blacksmith, a barrister in a wig, and someone from the typing pool? Is there a very, very, very specific pain point? You may be thinking, “Goddammit, Jared, we said ‘for PLG teams,’ isn’t that enough?” And the answer is, no. No it’s not.
I’ve been trying to figure out the right time to bring “O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream” into Gobbledy, and apparently now is that time. There are roughly 32,000 hand creams on the market, all of which do the same thing: they moisturize your hands via a cream-based mechanism. If you have a bunch of products that do roughly the same thing (sound familiar?), you need to position the product carefully. Narrowing your target does NOT mean “have a small market.”
The official hand cream of the Gobbledy Newsletter...
O’Keeffe’s is hand cream for people who work with their hands and have extremely dry cracked hands. How do I know that? Because it’s called “Working Hands.” And it says on the package that it’s “for extremely dry cracked hands.” Sometimes marketing is so super freaking obvious.
If you’re one of the newfangled product led growth CRM companies (I actually just typed PLG CRM, then a punched myself in the face), ask yourself - What Would O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream CMO do? (Email me if you want a WWOKWHHCCMO bracelet). What’s the most obvious way to tell people what you do and who, exactly, you’re for?
The point of this piece was not to crap all over early stage companies. We are nothing if not positive and optimistic here!
Which obviously means that I’m about to crap all over a couple of early stage companies. I really don’t want to. It’s not helpful. But I think these three examples are illustrative of ways that Series A and B startups get distracted from their main goal: show that you can sell your product in a repeatable way. And the best way to do that is to tighten your target market and speak to that market directly.
Example 1: Don’t Say That Teams Aren’t Doing Their Jobs
Breadcrumbs, again. In fairness, they actually do some really nice things on their website. They’ve got fun, unique illustrations. They use an arrow to draw readers’ eyes where they want it to go.
But then, this:
Please, please don’t be negative on the homepage. If sales is complaining about “how lousy marketing leads are” and marketing is “sick of” it, you don’t need software to fix that, you need someone to get the marketing and sales people in a room together to have a conversation. I’m sure they’re just trying to be cute. Cute isn’t what you’re aiming for.
Example 2: Don’t Say That How A Company Works Now Is Terrible
Hi Pocus. Maybe “awful” is a little strong:
Is any company going to say, “Y’know, I’ve been treating my Product-Lead Sales teams in an awful manner.” No, they’re not. So no company will think that this product is for them, because no company is saying, “I handcuff my sales teams and make working here awful! Is there a tool that can help me?” Just as cosmetics companies don’t say, “Lots of women agree, you’re ugly” turning the message positive is far more effective. Nobody thinks they suck.
Example 3: Make Sure the Graphics Are Actually Conveying the Right Point:
Workbase is a more developer-focused tool in this space, and they include this illustration on their homepage:
What’s notable is that on the right they say how you can organize your work in one place “unlike intimidating tools like Salesforce.”
I do like that they call out a competing tool - that’s fantastic and for whatever reason, very few companies do it.
But look at that illustration on the left? All those rows and fields and SQL expressions. (I know it’s small, sorry!). If that doesn’t intimidate you, certainly Salesforce isn’t going to intimidate you. And if this is a developer-focused tool, are developers really going to be intimidated by Salesforce? And if they are, you think they’re going to admit to themselves that they’re intimidated by Salesforce?
If you’re going to use screenshots from your product, make sure it’s actually making the point that you want to make. The point here might be instead: All the power of Salesforce with workflows that eliminate 75% of the work.
As a new company - you have a clear enemy (Salesforce) and a clear reason to purchase (faster workflows) without telling people the past decisions they made were bad.
Your prospects just want to hear how much more brilliant you’ll make them.
Gobbledy Category of the Year Award Nominee