Hana Abaza - Unicorns, ice cream and puking rainbows: driving growth from Startup to scale (Turing Fest 2019)

Identifying (and prioritizing) opportunities for growth in a startup can be hard. Competing priorities, warp-speed changes, and fast-growing teams could spell a recipe for disaster - unless you know how to use the chaos to your advantage. In this session, Hana will talk about lessons learned driving growth at scale, zooming in on a cross-section of key areas in B2B SaaS including:

- How to build a positioning and messaging framework
- Operationalizing it across your teams
- Avoiding lead source bias and optimizing for a sales team

Transcript

1. Unicorns, Ice Cream and Puking Rainbows Hana Abaza 
 Director of Marketing, Shopify Plus @hanaabaza
3. Revenue in Millions 0 250 500 750 1000 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
4. Gross Merchandising Volume in Billions 0 12,5 25 37,5 50 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
5. 820K+ Number of Shopify Merchants 175+ Countries around the world Shopify By The Numbers
6. 5600+ Total number of Shopify Employees 72% Started after me (!) Shopify By The Numbers
8. Starting from scratch #dreamjob
9. Hana’s Checklist Demand People Budget
13. Challenges: Chasing the firehose Low hanging fruit
 Pent up demand for marketing Sales was getting “creative" Plus was different
15. Challenges: Chasing the firehose Low hanging fruit Pent up demand for marketing Sales was getting “creative" Plus was different
16. Challenges: Chasing the firehose Low hanging fruit Pent up demand for marketing Sales was getting “creative" Plus was different
17. Challenges: Chasing the firehose Low hanging fruit Pent up demand for marketing Sales was getting “creative" Plus was different
18. Self-serve No Touch More like B2C One decision maker High Touch Longer sales cycle Multiple touch points Multiple decision makers
19. Back to Basics Shared understanding of marketing & growth Identify what’s missing that’s mission critical Focus your team, work with your partners
20. Back to Basics Shared understanding of marketing & growth Identify what's missing that’s mission critical Focus your team, work with your partners
21. Back to Basics Shared understanding of marketing & growth Identify what’s missing that’s mission critical Focus your team, work with your partners
22. We’re using the same words, but are we saying the same thing?
23. I asked people what they thought we do… Send emails! Get leads! Write blogs! Advertising Twitter! Make slide decks! They do HubSpot Make things look good!
24. pragmaticmarketing.com
25. What We Do FOUNDATIONAL Positioning, brand, messaging, segments
 (Output: assets, sales deck, website etc.) CAMPAIGNS Go-to-market, product/feature launches,
 brand campaigns EXPERIMENTATION Product testing, A/B testing, optimization, segments, paid channels ALWAYS ON Email, content, social, enablement, communications
26. What We Do FOUNDATIONAL Positioning, brand, messaging, segments
 (Output: assets, sales deck, website etc.) CAMPAIGNS Go-to-market, product/feature launches,
 brand campaigns EXPERIMENTATION Product testing, A/B testing, optimization, segments, paid channels ALWAYS ON Email, content, social, enablement, communications DATA, INFRASTRUCTURE & OPERATIONS
27. What We Do FOUNDATIONAL Positioning, brand, messaging, segments
 (Output: assets, sales deck, website etc.) CAMPAIGNS Go-to-market, product/feature launches,
 brand campaigns EXPERIMENTATION In-product testing, A/B testing, optimization, segments, paid channels ALWAYS ON Email, content, social, enablement, communications DATA, INFRASTRUCTURE & OPERATIONS Where I spent the first 6 months
28. How are we positioned in the market?
29. But, what exactly is 
 positioning?
30. April Dunford CEO, Ambient Strategy Marketing is about making it easy for people to find, evaluate and buy your products. Positioning is figuring out what your product is in the first place. “
31. Marketing can polish a turd. Positioning can turn turds into fertilizer. “ April Dunford CEO, Ambient Strategy
32. How do people think about your product?
33. But how?
41. Positioning isn’t something you make up. It’s something you uncover by looking at the right inputs.
42. Inputs Customers you won Customers you lost NPS or CSAT Product usage Website data Search data Campaign data Sales data Market insights Internal teams
43. WHAT IS IT? Plain language. 
 No jargon. WHO IS IT FOR? Be as specific as 
 possible. WHAT CATEGORY? New vs. established. Frame of reference. HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENT? 
 Be honest. WHY SHOULD I CARE? What’s in it for me? 
 Benefits and value. ALTERNATIVES? Status Quo, Competitors, Frenemies
44. WHAT IS IT? Plain language. 
 No jargon. WHO IS IT FOR? Be as specific as 
 possible. WHAT CATEGORY? New vs. established. Frame of reference. HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENT? 
 Be honest. WHY SHOULD I CARE? What’s in it for me? 
 Benefits and value. ALTERNATIVES? Status Quo, Competitors, Frenemies Tweet at April, maybe she’ll give me commission ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ @aprildunford
45. WHAT IS IT? Plain language. 
 No jargon. WHO IS IT FOR? Be as specific as 
 possible. WHAT CATEGORY? New vs. established. Frame of reference. HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENT? 
 Be honest. WHY SHOULD I CARE? What’s in it for me? 
 Benefits and value. ALTERNATIVES? Status Quo, Competitors, Frenemies
46. WHAT IS IT? Plain language. 
 No jargon. WHO IS IT FOR? Be as specific as 
 possible. WHAT CATEGORY? New vs. established. Frame of reference. HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENT? 
 Be honest. WHY SHOULD I CARE? What’s in it for me? 
 Benefits and value. ALTERNATIVES? Status Quo, Competitors, Frenemies Product Price
47. You can also differentiate on experience
49. Hana’s checklist Same price Same quality Same effort to assemble Same number of f-bombs dropped during assembly
54. How should we say it?
55. How do people talk about your product?
56. Messaging and branding is an expression of positioning It should be clear but allow for room to customize/localize to the audiences
57. This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative? Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Expand upon key messaging. Why does this matter?
58. This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative? Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Expand upon key messaging. Why does this matter? Proof points
59. This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative? Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Expand upon key messaging. Why does this matter? Proof points Product Story
60. This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative? Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Expand upon key messaging. Why does this matter? Proof points Product Story “Big C” Content
61. For example, Shopify Plus 
 looks like this…
62. Your customers are ready for the future of commerce. Are you? Grow bigger, 
 faster Sell where your customers are, and where they will be Choose better software 
 (as a service) Stop worrying, 
 start selling Partners, not Vendors Focus on your business, not your website. Let Shopify Plus power your store while you focus on driving growth, boosting revenue and making customers happy. Commerce is changing fast and you need a platform that will change with it. Sell on social, mobile, in marketplaces, IRL - or anywhere else! Shopify Plus lets you be where your customers are now - and where they will be tomorrow. Leverage the benefits of a SaaS solution without losing the ability to customize and scale your business. Execute with speed and agility while we do the heavy (IT) lifting. There’s a lot to worry about when growing a business - your store crashing shouldn’t be one of them. We cater to the world's biggest brands, processing billions of dollars in sales without batting an eyelash. You’ll have an army of people behind you including a dedicated Merchant Success Manager, launch partners and access to a world-class app and partner ecosystem to grow your business.
63. Your customers are ready for the future of commerce. Are you? Grow bigger, 
 faster Sell where your customers are, and where they will be Choose better software 
 (as a service) Stop worrying, 
 start selling Partners, not Vendors Proof points Product Story “Big C” Content
64. Both will (and should) evolve over time. Market changes, feedback loops, competitive landscape, product evolution
66. These people self-educate and buy into your vision
67. Content, tactics and channels change. These people need case studies, proof and validation
71. Does your product? Save time Save money Make money
72. So does EVERYTHING else
73. Macro Benefit Too abstract Lots of “same-ness” Becomes meaningless
74. Macro Benefit Feature / function Too abstract Lots of “same-ness” Becomes meaningless Misses the “why” Company centric, not customer centric
75. Macro Benefit Feature / function Too abstract Lots of “same-ness” Becomes meaningless Misses the “why” Company centric, not customer centric The Space Between
76. Macro Benefit Feature / function Too abstract Lots of “same-ness” Becomes meaningless Misses the “why” Company centric, not customer centric The Space Between benefit + why it matters + how you help
77. key ingredient: an opinion
78. As a market matures, we 
 see more sameness
80. Who is going to do all the things?
81. 3 Phases of Evolution
86. FOCUS Go deep. Find your most impactful growth lever and lock it down. Build the foundation. GROW
 
 Start to add from the bottom of the funnel up. Most teams go too broad, too soon and dilute their impact. SCALE
 
 Go broader and up 
 the funnel. More specialized roles, channel diversity, higher complexity. Start Where You Are
87. What We Do FOUNDATIONAL Positioning, brand, messaging, segments
 (Output: assets, sales deck, website etc.) CAMPAIGNS Go-to-market, product/feature launches,
 brand campaigns EXPERIMENTATION A/B testing, optimization, segments, 
 paid channels ALWAYS ON Email, content, social, enablement, communications DATA, INFRASTRUCTURE & OPERATIONS
88. But how?
89. Focus on outcomes
90. Let’s start with sales
91. - Sales Person #1 “Adwords leads are bad.”
93. - ALL the sales people “Adwords leads are bad.”
94. - Marketing Team “We’ll show them the data!”
95. They didn’t understand the context
96. Lead source bias was ingrained in the story
97. So we worked with sales leaders to test a hypothesis
98. Lead Source Bias Test 
 Lead Source 
 Adwords Contact Us
99. Does source even matter?
100. What’s More Meaningful for a Sales Rep? Lead Source = Adwords OR They converted on a page about multi-channel ecommerce
101. The right context Landing page copy Search Query Tech Stack Demographic Info Behavioural Info
102. Context is king
103. - David Packard, Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.”
106. @hanaabaza