The leaves are falling faster than you can say hockey stick growth curve.

Hi friend! 👋 

The leaves are falling faster than you can say hockey stick growth curve. Come to think of it, who can actually say that without feeling like they just hit the bull💩 generator button?

In this growth letter, we compiled our best reads on low-touch sales companies. 🤝

And even if you are not currently working at a low-touch or no-touch sales company, some of the learnings still might provide you with some interesting ideas on how to develop things at your business.

(And just to be clear, a low-touch or no-touch sales model isn't the holy grail for fast growth just like that. We see it more as the basis for a mindset and something to always learn from. 🧠)

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Having a top brand is important!

This is an interesting thing we notice with our customers.

Companies that have longer sales cycles (and have been around longer) tend to — in some shape or form — put an emphasis on brand and brand awareness.

While product-led, no-touch sales companies may not focus on this as much from a strategic perspective.

In this article, someone who calls himself nerdyjoe (👀) elaborates on the importance of branding.

Our key takeaway 🖖

Having a recognized brand is no magic silver bullet, but it creates a strong foundation for any marketing efforts.

Just think of one random example: would you rather click on a display ad of a company you never heard of, or on one of a company that you've heard many things about?

Yep. That's how it goes.

If you only read one sentence: 'In other words, people easily engage with Lemlist’s content and emails because they love what they do, they love who they are.'

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You can't win 🤷🏻‍♀️

Admittedly, a bleak opening for a section.

But our excuse is that that is actually how Freshworks founder opened the company's recent S-1 filing. This article takes a closer look at how Freshworks ended up breaking through and had a valuation of $8.9 billion.

There's probably more that went into this but three key ingredients are defined here:

Our key takeaways 🖖

• Focus on users, not just buyers. Freshworks’ user is the frontline employee who’s interacting with customers every day. These folks have come to expect consumer-like experiences similar to what they used in their personal lives
• Being found organically when people solve a pain problem. Freshworks focuses on being found ‘organically’ (i.e., via free or low-cost channels) rather than with expensive paid marketing and outbound sales efforts
• Making it easy to get started without talking to a rep. Freshworks then puts its money where its mouth is, making it simple and easy for folks to trial the product and quickly onboard users

These things are so important because they actually point to something else.

• Focusing on users, not just buyers — Freshworks really understands the problem they are solving, and their product solves an actual problem in the first place. All products claim they solve a problem, but how many actually are?
• Being found organically. This means Freshworks has their position nailed down, and they can ensure they are found for the right things. Otherwise, those incoming users who came through the 'wrong' organic channels wouldn't become paying customers.
• They have created a friction-free buying and onboarding process.

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Growth models

Before you embark on a growthhackingmarketinginsanehockeysticktypagrowth you need to identify your company's growth model. Understanding this is crucial before moving forward.

According to Segment.com, there are 4 main growth models:

• User-generated content
• Viral invite loop
• Paid acquisition
• Two-sided marketplaces 

If we could add something, what would it be?

We'd love to add that you should not rely on one channel only with your growth.

Think of advertising like crystal meth. It has an effect in the beginning, but then you need to spend more and more to get the same effect. At least, that seems to be the common ground on meth and other drugs.

Don't do drugs, kids. And don't build your growth on channels that give you a short-term high but are not sustainable, otherwise, your growth will look like.... well, you get the point.

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Customer Spotlight of the month: Toggl Plan ❤️

Toggl Plan is a work management software built for small teams delivering projects to customers. They have project and resource planning features that are both easy and fun to use. 

We are proud of 🎉

We are proud of working on Toggl Plan's new website. And it was great working together with the Toggl Plan team on shaping out their adjusted positioning and messaging and of course speaking to their customers and learn how Toggl Plan provides value for them. 

What didn't go so well

It's difficult to balance short-term quick wins and long-term strategic actions. And we, too, struggle with this. How are you tackling this in your marketing teams? 

What's next 🔍👀

Now, we are exploring paid acquisition. After extensive strategic months together, we want to put the new messages and website (soon to launch) to the test and see if these will convert ideal customers for Toggl Plan.

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🎙 🎙 🎙

[Podcast] How Customer Research Can Help You Grow 

I have to ask: are you (really) Customer-Led? I’m asking, not to torment you, but because, according to the latest Growth Hub Podcast guest (Aggelos Mouzakitis), NOBODY IS!

Aggelos is Growth Product Manager at Growth Sandwich and, in this episode, he and Edward talk about how customer research can help B2B SaaS companies grow and how to place the customer at the core of everything you do. A great episode to discover here.

🎙 🎙 🎙

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What's up at Advance B2B?

Recently, we've been just trying to adjust to this new normal, whatever that means. We've been thinking about it so much that Hanna actually decided to turn it into a blog post. You can read that post here.

Remember, you can always send us your greetings, ideas, and thoughts by replying to this email. We’d love to hear from you, and we'd appreciate your feedback! 💌

Take care!