Brad McCrory

If I could only look at one metric forever to evaluate my new customer acquisition, it would be this one... First Order Value/nCAC 🚨 This is a ratio, not an absolute number, expressed as a percentage. I mentioned this number in my last post about the "eCommerce scorecard." This ratio includes two metrics: 1. First Order Value Profit - Take the average first order value and subtract the costs to deliver this order to your customers. This gives you the first-order gross profit. 2. nCAC - The average amount you are paying to acquire a net new customer. By dividing the former by the latter, you get a number expressed as a percentage. When this number is over 100%, it means that your first order is not costing you a penny. It covers all costs to acquire the new customer and deliver the first order. If it's below 100%, for every dollar spent on new customer acquisition, you are losing some money... For most bootstrapped eCom brands that are in scaling mode, this number should probably always be as close to 100% as possible. This ensures you are in the perfect balance of not burning money and not leaving potential growth on the table. Have you ever heard of this KPI before? 👀 #kpis #ecommerce #newcustomer

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Do you sell consumable-based products? Here’s an email flow you NEED to utilize: Every consumables brand needs a replenishment flow. It sends a timely reminder email to customers, to re-purchase before they run out of their supply (and before the purchased product is going out of stock). This is one of the few instances where you can create genuine scarcity without forcing it. That’s the beauty of consumable products - by definition, they are consumed and must be repurchased often :) That’s why this flow is so important for your bottom line. If you’re unsure how to build a replenishment flow, send me a connection request. I’ll happily walk you through it.

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Never trust a Google rep. Their current actions are bordering on predatory sales practices. We recently conducted an audit for a prospective client that launched a new account and had a “helpful” Google rep reach out to them shortly thereafter. When we looked at the account that was set up with the support of a Google rep’s support, we found Exhibits A, B, and C illustrate why you should never just take a Google ad rep’s advice at face value... A - The brand picked the default campaign settings for a "search" campaign their rep helped them build and ended up spending its entire budget on display and Search Partners – and 0% on Google search. (If you need me to explain why that’s bad, DM me - we can find a lot of ways to save you money in like 5 minutes.) B - They served lots of ads to people outside of the geo where their service works because they followed the rep’s suggestion to use the default “Presence or interest” setting – so any conversions would just lead to wasted time and money. C - They were encouraged to run Performance Max, even though they were a B2B product that was only tracking leads The client told us directly that they felt like they got a bait and switch on the outcomes vs. promised value from the Google rep, and I completely agree with them. The brand spent a fair amount of money to get nothing in return, and the Google rep went on to "help" someone else. If there’s ever an argument against “trusting the rep” and/or “trusting Google,” this is it. Whenever setting up a new B2B account, be sure to change the following settings: - In location settings, change it from "Presence or interest" to "Presence" - Make sure you turn off "Automatically created assets" or Google will randomly add copy to your ads - Turn off "Use broad match keywords for your entire campaign" or you will be ceding additional control to Google - Don't use Performance Max for B2B These are all ways that Google takes money from unsuspecting advertisers. If you think you might be in this boat, where Google is steering you in the wrong direction, please DM me or a digital marketer you trust for a sanity check.

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If you answer YES to this question you're doing outbound wrong. Do you still have "connected" as a call disposition in your SEP/Dialer? Item #23 on our outbound sales maturity checklist is "Custom call dispositions and contact stages" The default call dispositions in CRM and SEP are worthless. "Connected" "Left Voicemail" "No Answer" etc More granular call dispositions means better segmented lists for recycling / re--engagement. If you want outbound performance to compound over time you have to get this stuff right. Problem is, fundamentals are boring. This change isn't going to get you 15 meeting requests this week. But it's a piece of the puzzle of a sustainable outbound engine. There are more pieces to the puzzle. I've listed them in our outbound sales maturity checklist. I'll send it to you if you'd like. Let me know. 

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New Rule (Bill Maher Voice).... If your Pricing page doesn't have numbers on it, it's not a pricing page. It's a packaging page. Mark and I discuss - and he's clearly fired up 🔥! In this episode of #TheUnexpectedLever, Mark dives into why transparent pricing is essential for building trust, keeping buyers engaged, and weeding out low-intent prospects early. Hear his passionate take on how upfront pricing saves everyone time and creates stronger B2B relationships on the new episode of #TheUnexpectedLever If your product is worth it, why hide the cost?

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Two weeks ago 🏄‍♂️ Scott Leese told me, “Outbound sales, as we know it, is dead.” Here’s why Scott thinks he’s only got 3-4 years left as a sales consultant (and what the future of B2B sales looks like): 1. The trend in response rates is going one way… DOWN. The biggest objection I get when I say “the Predictable Revenue model is dead” is “YOU'RE AN IDIOT because you have a $25k ACV and outbound sales never should have worked for that anyway.” It’s undeniable response rates are down 50% the last 18 months. Let’s say that wiped out my $25k deal and now the floor is $50k. What do you think happens over the NEXT 18 months? Response rates will be down ANOTHER 50%. So now we’re at 100k floor. What about 18 months after that? Down ANOTHER 50%. Now we’re at a $200k floor for outbound. How many reps employed today sell something under $200k? Almost everyone. 2. Usage of traditional channels is going one way… DOWN. Scott and I both have our ringers off 24/7 and don’t use the phone at all. We both only read emails from people we know, and don’t even look at emails from people we don’t know. Wait for the next generation. Scott has a 14 and 16-year-old, who literally NEVER use email, don’t text, and communicate with Snap and Insta DM only. We’re currently seeing cracks in the foundation, but soon a generational change will lead to collapse. 3. Fewer buyers are interested in speaking to salespeople every day. Scott told me that he just purchased a $1.1m investment property in Chicago without speaking to a single person. He brought up that Amazon is crushing every mom and pop store because you can sit on your couch, press a few buttons, and get anything you want. Old dogs on LinkedIn (and I’m 43) insist people want to talk to people. I think they’re wrong. TAKEAWAY: Outbound Sales, as we know it, is on the brink of collapse. It’s not IF, it’s a matter of WHEN. What’s the future of B2B sales look like? We’re entering an era where sales teams will act more like editorial teams. It’s a NEW MODEL centered around creating MAXIMALLY AUTHENTIC content that meets the buyers on the platforms they’re living on. Teams will be much smaller, with WAY bigger reach. They’ll be scaling human-to-human connection. Sales teams will have one “builder” who will constantly be working on the machine that listens to signals from the content engine and nudges prospects down the funnel, capturing them when they’re ready to buy. Sales cycles will be shorter because the awareness, education, and nurturing will be virtually zero-touch. These teams will be lean, hyper-efficient, and fun to work for, because reps are basically artists who spend most of the day creating and only speaking to prospects when they’re ready to buy. The sales leaders of tomorrow will either be able to: 1. Build audience over organic social media 2. Engineer scalable signal-based selling machines If you can’t do one of those two things, you’re walking the plank.

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📨 Not Landing in the Primary Inbox? Cold email deliverability is everything. If you’re not landing in primary, it’s time to rethink: ✅ Use multiple inboxes (warmed for 2 weeks). ✅ Diversify with generic domains. Example: cleaningpros dot com. ✅ Split-test offers, not just subject lines. Combine cold email with Facebook retargeting. Prospects who don’t reply to your email may respond to an ad. Dual-channel = higher conversions.

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I got scammed. It cost me $6,000. Here's what happened: I was still relatively new to the wholesale business model on Amazon. I hadn't yet figured out how to properly vet suppliers. So when a supplier made a claim, I tended to believe them. I was in contact with a video game distributor. They had 30+ SKUs that looked to be profitable to resell on Amazon. I'm talking 20%+ gross margins on products that sold 500+ units per month. They had plenty of available stock with minimal lead time. Not exactly realistic and this should have been a huge red flag. The rep assured me the goods were fine and that we'd make a great profit. So I placed an order for $6,000. Sent them to FBA and sales started rolling in. But then so did the returns. Every single unit we sold got returned. Come to find out: The games were only compatible with European consoles. Customers would go to play the games and they literally didn't work. The returns were useless and I was out $6,000. Lesson learned. When the deal looks too good to be true, it is. Follow me Corey Ganim for daily posts like this and repost ♻️ this to your network to help another seller avoid this trap.

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Number 1 issue with how the sales funnel is tracked: Overwriting data. Why? The buying process is not linear. Many buyers sent to sales do not become customers (arguably, for most companies, 99% of them do not become customers). So, the buyer is set to a Recycled status, and marketing does its job, and after a while, the Buyer is sent to sales again. At this point, all the date stamps get overwritten or cleared (e.g. Sales Ready Date, Working Date, etc). So, if you had 100 Sales Ready in June, and 50 of them were recycled and then became Sales Ready in October, your report for # of Sales Ready in June is now 50. If your conversion rate from Sales Ready to Pipeline for June was 20% it's now doubled to 40%. You're cannibalizing your data. Which is really confusing/annoying for the people looking at the reports. How can you plan or improve if your data is being lost? The better way is to create a record of each "journey." Like in the image where we have 4 attempts through the funnel for 1 buyer. Create a record each time you send a buyer to sales. Then, update it as the buyer progresses. Then close it if they get Recycled. And create a new record when they are sent to sales again. We prefer to use a custom object in SFDC for this. It retains the data. Keeps your reports looking good, and your team/leadership sane. #gtmoperations #marketingoperations #revenueoperations  

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Thinking about Product-Led Growth for your biz? 🚀 In this episode, I chat with PLG expert Wes Bush from ProductLed.com. We go step-by-step on how to decide if PLG is a fit and how to make it work. Topics: ✨ What is PLG? 🔍 Is PLG right for you? 💡 Frictionless onboarding 👇 Full episode below

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ICP is dead. 💀 If that's how you're finding leads... 😬 The solution? Move to ICS. Now. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) = broad strokes Ideal Customer Situation (ICS) = laser-focused targeting Here's why ICS crushes ICP: 1. Pinpoints specific pain points 2. Identifies trigger events 3. Allows for hyper-personalization 4. Increases conversion rates How to define your ICS: • Map your Total Addressable Market (TAM) • Identify 4-6 key data points that qualify a lead (How do you define a great lead vs a bad lead) • Use Clay.com to find and enrich these data points at scale • Score accounts based on ICS fit (7+ score = SDR prospecting priority) Stop wasting time on "good enough" leads. Target your BEST fit leads with ICS. https://buff.ly/3TXBTDR

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Customer Acquisition is good. But DTC brands should focus more on this... Enter Customer Retention Keeping customers is key. Happy customers spend more. Loyal customers bring friends. Let’s uncover why customer retention is important for you: 1. Cost-Effective:  ↳ Keeping a customer costs less than finding a new one. 2. Loyalty:  ↳ Happy customers buy more and tell their friends. 3. Steady Sales:  ↳ Regular customers mean steady sales over time. Now you understand the WHY behind it. Perfect! Here is how you can do it: 1. Listen to Customers: → Ask for feedback. → Use surveys to know what they like or dislike. 2. Great Service: → Be quick to help. → Solve problems fast and with a smile. 3. Reward Loyalty: → Give special discounts. → Offer rewards for repeat buys. 4. Stay in Touch: → Send emails with news and offers. → Personalize messages to make them feel special. Strong retention builds strong brands. Customer love drives growth. Retention is your secret weapon. Tell Me: What’s your best tip for customer retention? PS: Need help boosting customer retention? DM “RETENTION”

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Hot take: selling in B2B is actually easier than DTC. (My B2B team is probably rolling their eyes right now). In DTC, the brand is selling and communicating to the buyer directly. That buyer's decision making is non-linear and subjective: • Do I want this thing • Do I even need this thing? • What about these 5 other things? • Will it actually make me feel better / happy? This is where a lot of the concept of "brand" comes from. There's a status association with certain products and the network effect of that individual buyer's psychology with all of their other "inputs." In B2B, it's actually super simple. A product or service needs to do one of two things: 1. Make the company money 2. Save the company money Really highly valuable products do both. If you -- as a seller in a B2B context -- can demonstrate to your prospective client justification for why it will do one or both of those things (make or save money), then it's an "easy" decision. The difficulty in B2B comes in from the nature of the buying committee, high contract values, budgets, and long decision cycles. You have to do the convincing at multiple points of the organization, and those stakeholders might have different priorities, might not believe you, etc etc. But again, if your pitch is clear and credible, and the scenario that you present is pretty undeniable, why would any organization refuse you? (Note: this doesn't really apply to true enterprise sales because enterprise is more like dealing with a small country than an actually functional and coherent organization). But if you're, like me, selling services for 5-6 figures a month to brands that are sub $1 billion in revenue, it's straight forward: "Here's how I'm going to make you more money than I cost." "Here's how I'm going to save you more money than I cost." If you want to see my pitch first hand -- reach out and I'll show you how we can pay for ourselves easily. #b2b #sales #revenue

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Most DTC brands are carrying too many SKUs. Mostly dead weights. Most brands, including our clients, can remove 40-50% of their product range without any substantial loss (max 10% or less). A few obvious benefits are -  - High margins (due to increased purchasing power) - Better inventory management (due to lower counts) - Low operational challenges But from a marketing perspective, it leads to - - Higher conversion rates. Remember the famous Jam case study. More options lead to action paralysis. With a few products, you can provide a detailed product page and shopping experience (like Apple). Also, it saves you from wasting advertising dollars on low converting product range. - Higher customer loyalty Low SKUs enable a better connection for the customer as well. They expect and get a more consistent experience. Due to a higher focus on product quality, they associate the brand with specific, high-quality offerings. Brands agree to the benefits of carrying a small range but still take too long to pull the trigger. The most common argument I hear is around cross-selling, and repeat purchases. More products lead to more options for brands to promote. I agree. But you don't need to launch new product lines that just sit there. You can always do that with - - Launching limited editions - Exclusive drop - Variations of color or flavor. Launching and removing product lines creates a different buzz than carrying non-performing items. Product portfolio optimization is crucial to profitable growth. Optimizing your product lineup every quarter can help you reduce your costs, and improve margins, conversion rates, and retention rates. #dtc  #ecommerce I am Rahi Jain I help ecommerce brands get profitable growth using our 4C Framework (Catalog, Customer, Channel, and Cash)

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