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- the bad (good) news about change
the bad (good) news about change
also: Joel Klettke on messaging and Vincent Vega on pricing pages
Pavlo Cherniakov
June 16, 2024
Hey,
Over the past few weeks, my living situation, expenses, and the time I spend with my daughter went through a… radical transformation, and it wasn’t great.
A common response to a personal crisis is a complete implosion and shutting down. This was my response on more than one occasion in the past.
To my own surprise, this time I didn’t shut down. Instead, I got myself busy with a laundry list of damage control items. Also, writing this weekly newsletter and staying active on Linkedin saved me from getting in my head too much. (Thank you!)
So instead of wallowing in self-pity, I took this opportunity to fix what can be fixed, with what’s at my disposal, when I can. (And it works.)
And since you subscribed to this to read lessons on B2B SaaS messaging, I have no choice but to turn a personal crisis story into a teachable moment about business.
The good news is, this one’s fairly simple, and isn’t even that much of a stretch.
The bad news
See, change is inevitable.
Whether it’s a direct result of your actions—as well as inaction—or an external force outside of your control, things will also be in motion.
Your product will get more features.
Your customers’ needs will change.
Your direct—and indirect—competitors will change their products and how they do marketing.
Some of the competitors will become irrelevant, new ones will appear.
Any of the billion-dollar companies can release a free, good-enough alternative to your product, and bite a chunk of everyone’s customer base away.
The bad news is, there’s nothing you can do about it. All of it can happen, some of it will happen.
I’m not BIG on Marvel, but this is too relevant to leave out.
The good news
Someone—probably my friend Skyler?—said recently:
You can only control 2 things — your attitude and your effort.
So when change happens—and it always does—you can act on it instead of trying to convince yourself the change isn’t there.
But how does this connect to messaging?
See, a few months ago, I asked Joel Klettke what one thing he wished founders and PMMs knew about messaging:
I wish they knew that messaging’s something that needs underlying systems and processes to support the ongoing refining you need to do to compete.
People think it’s a “one-and-done” exercise.
Messaging isn’t something you do once.
It’s not even something you do every couple of years when you get around to painstakingly updating your website.
Rather, I recommend my clients to think of messaging as an average of your best-landing sales pitches lately.
This is why sales-led companies tend to have better website messaging.
Now, here’s a test for you: go to your website and read your homepage hero out loud.
Do you think you’d be able close a warm lead—who fits your ICP perfectly—with what you’ve just said?
I call this the Burrito Test, and if your homepage fails it, you may want to update your messaging ASAP.
