So you thought finding your Product-Market fit was the hard part? Nope. Scaling to millions in revenue is just as tough. Lowell Ricklefs, CEO at FlexMinder, helped companies scale from $0 to $50M in revenue and made successful exits of $110M and $260M. He's passionate about scaling sales, operations and product strategy for B2B startups. His secret sauce? Finding the right message to communicate with your customers. Lowell is a pretty unique guy. He's worked for both Fortune 500 companies and fast growing startups, and has been on both sides of big acquisitions.

1. S
From 0-1,000
Gotta catch ‘em all

2. The progression
S Problem
S Idea
S Product
S Market – Initial Customers
S Scale
S Exit

3. Strategy
S Who is your customer?
S Consumer
S Employer
S B2B
S Title – CEO/CFO/Director/Product Manager?
S Where can you find them?
S Why would they switch from what they do today?
S What does your product do for them? Why does that matter? Why does that matter?
S Pricing – How much will they pay? How much do you need to be a viable business? Target $1M ARR

4. Focus on their Pain
S Not you and your product
S “My name is Lowell and I work for FlexMinder and we
have software that automates the claim submission process
for your participants”
S “We reduce debit card substantiations by 75% for TPA’s”

5. Don’t use weak language
S “I am sorry to bother you” “If you have time”

6. Obsession with listening
S You only have a business if someone sees the value and is willing to pay for it
S Brutally honest feedback
S Survey existing/potential customers
S Speak with them (Skype/phone/f2f)
S What pain does it solve

7. Vitamin or Pain pill?
S Pain relief is much more urgent (for the buyer)

8. Messaging
S Capture interest
S Every word matters
S Earning the right to get more of their time
S A/B test to get it right
S Use free panels (like Toluna.com)

9. Expansion
S ID the profile of your customer
S Find more just like them
S Referral program
S Channels
S Partnerships

10. Fishing (lead gen)
Marketing/Advertising
S Paid
S Facebook (Desktop/Mobile)
S Search (Adwords)
S SEO
S Conference
S Cold calling
S Drip campaign

11. Hunting
Conferences/Cold Calling
S What conferences do your target customers attend?
S Speaking slots (not the paid ones)
S Display
S Guerilla marketing
S Coffee
S Breakfast/lunch/dinner

12. Automated follow up
S Drip campaign (email – weekly/monthly)
S Outbound calling reminders

13. Basics
S CRM