The Rule of 40

Welcome to RISE UP where every Friday I share one tip for reaching your potential and building a legendary career in revenue.?

In my experience the best way to accelerate your career is to make a clear and significant impact on your organization.?

This might sound obvious.?

But simply showing up and doing your job isn’t enough to become truly indispensable. It’s impossible to realize your potential without stretching yourself to what I call your “growth edge.”

One way you can do this is to achieve the Rule of 40.

Put simply, the Rule of 40 states that a healthy SaaS company has a combined growth rate and profit margin of 40% or more.?

Following the Rule of 40 about being able to look at your business differently, in a more multi-dimensional way, and being more disciplined and efficient. When you create revenue more efficiently, you create more cash flow. The market will look for that when the IPO window opens back up.?

If you help your company reach this milestone, you will have helped build a truly durable company, and you’ll be minted as a legendary revenue leader.

But here’s the challenge: in tough times most leaders usually shift to cost cutting — but that’s only half a strategy. Put another way, no one ever cost-cut their way to greatness.?

Right now your mindset should be that “every drop of revenue matters” and mastering your revenue. That starts with answering: Where do we have leak across our revenue process??

This isn’t just my perspective either. I met with five board members from various companies last week, and noticed three new topics are being discussed — all around gaining predictability and efficient revenue growth:

-What does your 13-week revenue cadence look like?

-How are you collaborating around revenue?

-How are you governing your revenue process?

Asking and answering these questions are how you master your revenue process and achieve revenue precision. And when you have total revenue precision, you can make better and faster decisions earlier within your operating rhythm.

In short, you’ll become a legendary revenue leader.?

Building a legendary career depends on your commitment, ability, and most importantly, how intentional you are about making a clear impact on your organization.?

And there’s nothing more important or urgent right now than protecting and growing your revenue. Get that right, and your career will rise up.?

Until next week,?

Andy Byrne

Resources for running revenue like a pro

Charge: The Revenue Summit: Join us for a half-day virtual event filled with thought leadership, product announcements, and practical advice from world-class leaders on how to win every revenue moment — even during a downturn.

Podcast: CEO of Optimizely, Alex Atzberger, joined Kyle and me on The Run Revenue Show to share how to make your company more disciplined with the Rule of 40. Perfect if you want a deeper dive into today’s newsletter.

Article: What do you do when your company is expanding, but your data is unreliable? Just ask Pattern, the world’s leading e-commerce accelerator. See how they paved the path to revenue precision by getting "RevOps out of the box".