Hi friends - Welcome to Q2! Are you ready? If not, hopefully this newsletter gets you a little closer.

This week, we’re going to talk about your lowest hanging fruit…your easiest wins…your warmest sources of pipeline.

But before we dig into this week’s lesson, I want to share a great resource with you!

Have you heard of The Midnight Text? If not, check it out. It’s a newsletter produced by my friends at Forum Ventures.

What is it?

Answers and advice for the raw and real questions...and unexpected curveballs that keep founders up at (mid)night.

It's a refreshingly authentic and vulnerable series that I think you’ll really enjoy and get value from.

I joined them as a guest author for this week’s piece on what to do “When your lead investor pulls out at the last minute”.

Your warmest sources of sales pipeline now and always

Sometimes we get too caught up chasing ‘new’ things, and we forget to work with what we already have.

So, what do we already ‘have’ that we can work with?

#1 Revisit Lost Opportunities

Just because someone wasn’t ready to buy from you before, doesn’t mean that answer can’t change.

• Maybe they didn’t have time or resources to prioritize your solution…but now they do!

• Maybe you were missing a critical feature they needed to say yes…and now you have it!

• Maybe they went with a competitor last time…but it’s not as great as they thought it would be…and they are open to re-evaluating your product.

Priorities change. Budgets change. Needs change. Competitors change. And your product is changing.

One of the biggest deals I ever closed was on my 4th attempt! Don’t give up.

➡️ Action Item: Pull a list of your Closed Lost Opportunities from your CRM and review them to see which ones make sense to revisit. Do this every quarter. Make it a nonnegotiable ritual.

#2 Job Changes

Just like priorities, budgets, and needs change…people change.

• Maybe Joe Smith was the decision maker and didn’t vibe with you, but Joe is out and Sally is in! Try again.

• Maybe Jane was a huge champion and advocate of your product…but couldn’t get internal budget approval or consensus at Company X. But now Jane is at Company Y and you’ve got another opportunity to try again!

• Maybe Phil was a power user of your product, and just took a new role at a Company Z. Call him up!

Bonus: Various studies report that people are more likely to take a meeting with you within the first 90 days of their new role.

And that makes sense if we think about it -

• They’ve got more time than usual before they are fully immersed in their new role.

• They are probably excited about their new job - a fresh start! They’ve got renewed energy to problem solve.

• They might be looking for ways to add value or stand out right away and your product might be a way to do that.

➡️ Action Item: Leverage Apollo’s Job Change Enrichment tool to identify people from your CRM who have changed jobs. Just connect your CRM to Apollo and review this information at least once a month.

#3 Client Referrals

Trust is the most valuable currency when it comes to building pipeline, and your current customers hold the most trust with your prospective buyers.

Only 11% even ASK for referrals.

I’m sure all of you get organic referrals without asking…but how many more would your clients give if you did ask? Only one way to find out!

Now the trick here is to do it thoughtfully…

➡️ Action Item(s):

1. Review your clients network using LinkedIn (Sales Navigator makes this significantly easier using lead filters to see who specifically they know that fits your ICP - screen shot below).

2. Send a thoughtful note with your ask and a forwardable email to make their life easier. Some great resources on how to structure these emails linked here and here.

3. Rinse and repeat. Pick 2-3 clients or close ecosystem partners to review each week - mine their networks and send the requests.

These are tactics you can return to every week, month, and quarter to leverage what you already ‘have’. Warm pipeline for the win.

See ya next week!

Want to learn more about how I help startups increase their revenue by 150-590%? 👀 

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With love and gratitude,