Nail it before you Scale It

One of the most commons problems within any size technology business is premature product scaling - attempting to scale the business (sales, marketing, support, R&E, etc) ahead of revenue. Premature scaling can be fatal for startups as cash flows fail to support the growing organization, however exactly the same problem exists within big companies - enthusiastic adoption of an unproven product or solution before ready can defocus the organization and waste resources.

Once a salesperson spends their precious time on a new product or solution that does not generate sales (or commission), getting their time back is challenging. Likewise for customers or partners who have spent time on a solution not yet ready. Once a solution is pushed prematurely, the product is behind the eight ball in the market and must earn back lost ground.

Product Discovery is a term used by Product teams to ensure that they are iterating to find the right product, however this also applies to GTM teams. Do we have the right route to market? Do we have it priced and packaged the right way? Do customers see the value and have available budget? Do we have the right sales scripts and collateral? Just as product development teams are iterating to find the right feature set, so are GTM teams iterating to find the right market fit and formula.

A great sales person can sell almost any product - and maybe with a superhuman effort you can sell it 1,2, or 5 times. Can you replicate this as you add more sales and marketing resources? The right formula allows you to replicate the sale multiple times and know exactly what is necessary to sell 10, 50, 100 and 1000+ times. The right formula is what allows companies to go into hyper-growth.

The goals of any new product or solution have to be to find the right "formula to scale" - while this process can be extremely difficult, measuring can be straightforward. Set goals and targets to confirm the length and repeatability of sales cycle e.g. For an Enterprise SaaS service you may set goals such as:

• Close 5 subscription customers in next six months
• Above 500 users
• With Gross Margin of 80+%
• Sales cycle of less than 3 months

Another effective method is to analyze all sales to date and look for the repeatable patterns - there are AI based solutions that help by analyzing your CRM to look for not so obvious patterns in industries, buyers, seasonality etc.

Within large organizations one of the most effective methods to prevent premature scaling is to clearly define to the organization that the product is still in discovery by using terms such as Limited Availability. Limit premature scaling by restricting to a smaller series of salespeople, GEOs, industries, languages, etc - whatever allows you to validate the formula needed prior to moving to worldwide General Availability. Your GTM stakeholders (Sales, Marketing, Customers, Partners, etc) understand that a solution in Limited Availability is different to a product in General Availability - make the limitations clear.

Introducing any new product or solution is difficult - keeping the organization aligned with the stage of product GTM readiness and preventing premature scaling is key to long term market success. Having the right formula means that you have Nailed It, and now it's time to pour on the resources and Scale It.