No more PULL Hypotheses! (introducing the PULL Anecdote)

Maybe the MOST frustrating thing about being a founder or product leader is when you have an amazing product that solves a critical pain point for a customer, they tell you they have that pain point or need your product and then ... they don't buy. *cue exploding head emoji*What gives!?In this episode, we discuss Rob's take on what actually causes customers to purchase anything: the absence of other options. It has HUGE implications for how you run discovery, what solutions you develop, how you pitch / demo / price, and more. Full post ("They should buy but don't")Last week's post: PULL =/= Urgent Problem  LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

Feel anxiety about sales calls? Dread? Or find that you’re on a sales “emotional roller coaster” talking with customers (if so, we’ve all been there)Today we’re digging into the mindset behind feeling comfortable - even excited - about sales calls. And how to use customer demand and the formula from the PULL framework to make sales calls something you don’t dread. This post: “The Zen of sales”  Post: The Demand Lens PMF Camp / Group Cohort info: LINK Rob on Lenny's Podcast: LINK LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

If you could only take *one action* that would cause the fastest growth possible for your startup, what would you do? Cue: The Case Study Factory.  Rob breaks down why this is the mental model the fastest growing startups use to cause their products to blow through all speed limits. The key is in thinking about your startup as a factor for producing success case studies - and understanding the machines (Pipeline + Sales + Delivery) in your factory and how to optimize them. Recommend checking out the Substack post: How to grow the fastest Want Rob to help diagnose your bottleneck? Info here LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

We're answering your questions in this bonus! These are all taken from comments in YouTube. Leave a comment on an episode or email me: [email protected].  What changes about PULL in crowded markets w/ competition?Are "Mandatory to buy" and "Weird not to buy" different? How has AI changed the outbound / pipeline game?What is PULL for Workday if it's not a good user experience? (HR software) Does PULL apply to B2C, or just B2B? LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

This one is for all the analytical founders in our audience. "Me-search" (the act of analyzing your own experience and projecting onto a group, like in marketing) is a villain in business schools, but Rob argues that it does hold an important insight within your reach: Understanding how humans are not robots and more deeply grasping what PULL is and "feels like" - which is the driving force behind your startup. We discuss when an analytical approach vs. "feelings" is appropriate, and how to do the "me-search" exercise in your life to build the instinct of looking for PULL for customers, not rational arguments.Read the full Substack post: In defense of "me-search"LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

There's a frequent question that Rob gets from founders who are developing new technologies - it takes forms like: What if I'm creating a new category? What if the customer doesn't know they need our product? Today, we're digging into the concept of "Latent Demand" - what a customer prioritize right now if only there was a way. The critical concept here is that a customer is leaning against something. In this episode, we'll try to understand what that looks like and implications for founders who suspect they are targeting a "latent demand" in customers.Blog post: Latent Demand in Rob's substack, The Physics of StartupsLinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

There's a bug in a founder's brain (or at least mine) that likes to fantasize about all the benefits for customer (alleviating pain points, delivering value, helping differentiate, ...), while ignoring the more important question: "Could they *not* buy?" Rob helps us understand a different standard from what founders have historically used, which is requisite for a startup to find PULL at scale and hit hypergrowth: Is buying mandatory, or is it just optional? There are some very subtle things that founders do wrong related to this, including: Focusing on "happiest / most satisfied / most valuable" customers rather than the ones for whom buying is mandatory Thinking probabilistically about customers ("4 in 10 customers with XYZ buy") instead of deterministically ("This very specific customer cannot not buy my product") Hope this one helps you reframe the way you think about your ICP - because really, it's the most important early decision we founders make.  Full Substack post: Is buying optional? Rob's ICP AI skill: https://github.com/RSSnyder13/icp LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

Customer discovery can be very intimidating. What do I ask? How do I build a connection? How do I improvise? We're digging into how Rob thinks about discovery, common mistakes, and ways that Rob uses to uncover real customer PULL that leads to purchases. For anyone who has waded into the murky waters of untangling what customers say, hopefully this helps to develop your intuition around what you are trying to achieve and how to get there. Read this week's Substack: 37 ways to ask about PULLTopics covered: What we're really trying to do with customer discoveryHow to ask about "all of PULL" in one question, rather than breaking into pieces and wasting timeThe "fallback questions" to have in your hip pocket if early responses are frustratingly vague / not revealing PULLThe "break glass in case of emergency" optionHow your approach to discover should change after you find PMF LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

Every founder has a million different things they could be doing, but where should they focus? What will actually move the needle and unlock their business to take off?In this episode, we get an inside view on how Rob works with a new startup that comes to him. Objective #1: Find the right place to focus. For you to run this same diagnostic on your startup or product, you need a conceptual model of what a startup is (the case study factory), a causal model of why startups take off (PULL) and then a practical approach that identifies where you should focus.Post: The Product-Market Fit MapResources for each spot you might find yourself in: Developing a causal model: Because / Despite Conceptual model of your startup: The B2B standard No idea or customers:  Inverting the idea stage (with Cyberstarts)Can't get sales calls: Phenomenology of cold outbound Multiple different case studies: No more PULL hypotheses More push than pull: Are they pulling? Getting calls, not converting to sales: Buying is weird and rare Converting sales but churn: Retention is the hard part Attacking the bottleneck: Strict productivity LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/

There's a lot going on with a first sales hire - When? Who? What to hire them for?It's a question that Rob sees from a few angles, often taking the form of: "I can't sell my product but I think someone with sales experience can" or "My sales calls are showing promise but aren't closing and I think someone else would do a better job."Rob's take: You need to understand your case study and the way that your startup is operating like a factory. When volume is running through and you become the bottleneck, that's the moment. Rob and RC dig into this concept and what it means for founders in this situation. Post: When are you ready to scale sales?LinksRob's Substack: The Physics of Startups AI Rob waitlist: https://robsnyder.org/ai-robWork with Rob 1:1: https://www.robsnyder.org Get The Power of PULL: Amazon (https://amzn.to/48KC1yv), Barnes & Noble: (https://bit.ly/4dyMTSv)Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rsnyder1/