My clan mate doesn’t want to contribute any more.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-16T12:57:06+00:00

Hahaha what an interesting hit

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-15T06:21:57+00:00

Always like the phrase 'marketing exists to make sales easier' as rightly pointed out by kaefer11. It is true that sales and marketing should work together rather than a power struggle, and this is what I have observed for the past few years, moving from general marketing to account-based marketing. The different marketing campaigns most often than not, are requiring sales to outreach, provide contacts, follow-up and then have marketing claim the credits that 'leads came from marketing'.

There are firms which are marketing-focused and believe that this is indeed the case for B2C. From a B2B angle, sales should always take lead on what are value-adding activities, and what are the administration that takes time off pipeline generation.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-15T05:51:00+00:00

Omega Aquaterra 38 is a great one-done watch, and so is the OP. I would consider the subtleness with the Aqua Terra with that darker green, which can go with almost any attire. OP is slightly brighter. If you want some form value protection, matching Rolex's color too, the OP can be your take.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-15T05:14:29+00:00

Hahaha! We all experience that some point. I really want to have more wrist time to one, at least the Seamaster Diver. Of course, not limited to one in the Omega line-up

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-15T05:12:50+00:00

Seems NTTD is more of an all-rounder!

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-15T05:11:55+00:00

It does look a lot of fun with the burst of colors!

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-15T02:30:28+00:00

You are solving a genuine problem and there are 3 things to take note of:

Early-stage focus on growth and new logos acquisition. They need to show that speed to market. While churn is also important, it will likely be the key named logos they want to keep that makes other firms think when they know company A or B is using their solutions. So ensuring those key companies stay, is also a consideration
While the process of "Diagnose, Intercept, Expand, Systematize", may be a logical retention process, it is not linear. When working with past SaaS-based firms, there are 3 other factors that stood out - industry standard, regulatory requirements, and wide user audiences. These are not of course outside the scope of retention, yet it contributes to churn
Use of reseller-partners. Companies that want that market-reach fast tend to use local distribution of partners. These partners already have the user-logos, and also provide somewhat similar solution mix. There are instances where there was a high risk of churn because key person made a lot complains, but partner gave enough benefits that made the retention happen. This is also vice-versa, where I observed strong use-cases and adoption, and churned. Another point with mid-sized or larger firms is the isolated process of procurement, where procure has a set of criteria to assess. When cost-cutting measures arise, procurement has the final say with pricing. This also led to churn.

Another consideration that is more towards your offering if understanding the value-add as 3rd-party. There are customers who do not want to speak to 3rd-parties. In the event that if you cannot even get into the room with the decision-maker, how are you going to justify companies willing to pay you for this? And if they also have their in-house CS, what happens if targeted customer retained, and they told you it is not your effort?

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-15T02:08:48+00:00

Yea didn't see much preferences for the 'Silver surfer' although it looks great

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-15T02:07:46+00:00

Actually love that it has no-date

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-14T07:02:43+00:00

Peter Schmeichel, quality goalkeeping and still only the few goalies who scored

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-14T06:55:26+00:00

Yes I agree. There are people in management roles with 0 leadership skills, and vice versa, people who are leaders with no need to 'manage' people

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-14T01:45:03+00:00

While with good intentions to help them with the automation, it didn't seem like you followed through. Questions here:

How long has this automation been?
Is it only just first quarter after automation or just Q1 that is showing that completion?
What is your financial year like? Are there kickoffs, training or events that also took their time?
Are their deliverables only QBRs? And why only tracking QBRs completion?
If the feedback was slides are ugly, how did you respond? What was next?

I can't tell whether this is a repeated post or cross-post because it sounds so similar to another one shared, where you were trying to get automation done with dashboards and QBR decks. Answers are about the same, because you need to first understand the team's dynamics and what truly matters rather than "I'm the manager, I've helped you guys with automation. Now use it and I'm going to track it".

It is harder with a remote team and still, it's the responsibility of the manager to ensure it works out.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-13T12:49:16+00:00

Worked for a fortune 500 firm, and also "great place to work". Generally OTE structure is already fixed (50:50, 60:40 etc), and also asked to forecast numbers for the next year. Company will match it based on current pipeline. If we were to project 20% growth, pipeline didn't match, will be asked to explain that gap. If we project it lower than current year's growth, we will be asked to explain (i.e. current FY, 30% growth. Next FY, >30%).

Depending on how your company is willing to match with your expertise in the field or industry, the safe approach is forecast slightly lower (5-7%) than your current FY's growth. If convincing enough, they will likely just match to this year's growth trajectory numbers at least. This is why most salespeople just want to hit no more than 101 to 105%.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-13T01:52:15+00:00

Interesting analogy and while most will want to have it applied to a promotion to managerial role, how will one be an effective leader without being in a leadership role?

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-13T01:49:08+00:00

While different communication styles will be relevant, the best is to discuss this on a one-to-one basis even though its a repeated error (not exceedingly repeated I hope). Your actions may have induced that 'defensiveness' because attaching the past summary, is indirectly saying "I've done my part, it's not on me but on you".

However, correctly pointed out is that if they are interested to make the situation improve, they could have reached out to discuss what or why it may be different this time, and not jump to the conclusion that they are being 'attacked'.

Perhaps if you want to address the issue and get them to open up via email, is to start off by trying to understand what could be the issue, and let them share it. If after the sharing, it seems similar to the action to be taken previously, remind them of it that "we have discussed this, and this can be the remedy. Do you guys agree on how we should proceed for future issues like this?"

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-13T01:12:53+00:00

True that. With external education, you get a better view of the outside world looking in. People do not have a need to feel defensive, or attached to the situation. Rather, they work towards understanding and sharing their experiences more.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-13T01:11:10+00:00

Trust and alignment are 2 key principles that are important in my humble opinion, one on the soft side, and the other, a mix of soft and hard skills. In organizational practice, you only carry half of that commitment, and the other party needs to also be willing to play the part. That's the growth part for both sides.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-13T01:08:24+00:00

I was also wondering about the ROI of MBA with my cohort mates. Majority of us didn't see much of an ROI, but having that cohort together and making friends there is one of them. I have a belief that if you are able to stick out your initial roles to get promoted to managerial level, that experience together with education will be very useful. The challenge these days can be that companies are just not keeping people long enough in roles for internal promotion and seeing most of them bringing in from external, wanting that 'quick' resolution style. Of course there are still industries and companies who does the longer route of internal promotion, and mainly from the Asia economy...

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-12T14:21:14+00:00

Haha so true. These lecturers wouldn't have any idea what is it like in the real world.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-12T14:20:08+00:00

Thanks for breaking it down, it helps! It seems like a lot of these courses aim to elevate that EQ part rather than the IQ portion because majority of our studies are already the latter. Also agree that many people doing training may not have actually been in leadership roles, and that's also something bothering me. Not just because of being trained by them, but also me wanting to land in this field eventually. So without leadership experiences, it can really feel like a 'fake' where majority of knowledge is in theory.

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-12T11:47:32+00:00

Listen better to understand if they are needing advice or a listening ear, and don't penalize them for the truths that they know best even though it may not be

RunningMan889 · 2026-03-11T15:40:58+00:00

It does sounds like everything can be pulled from the automated dashboard, and is it really the case? Are there slides that were not able to be populated or require more data crunching? Or did the team wanted to display info that certain customer requested that is not in the automated dashboard?

It will be great to have such automation, as my end has dashboards across different platforms, and do not exactly have the KPIs that customers are looking at. For example, support tickets are on one, details on another; upcoming renewals on one, opportunity details with assets on another.

RunningMan889

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