- So you'll notice I'm in a different set.
I'm spending the week in Alexandria, Virginia.
My niece was born, super excited about it.
So I'm spending time here with family,
which also means I get to film in a slightly different set.
But don't worry, my trustee bad is still here with me,
which tells you that it's real.
All right.
So suppose, here's a question I have for you.
Suppose I had to make you pick.
I went to you and said look,
you've gotta pick between either building a brand,
or generating quality leads for your SaaS business.
Which one would you pick?
Which one would you actually put attention on, right?
Gun to your head, which one would you pick
if I made you do it?
So, that's the wrong question
because I would never, never, ever tell you
to pick between the two, because these days,
because SAS is so competitive,
because the bar for quality is so much higher,
because trust is at an all time low in consumers,
you can't pick between the two.
You have to have a great brand.
And when you actually build a great brand,
you're actually able to generate leads,
and generate pipeline, and grow that much more effectively.
They actually go hand in hand,
and you can't pick between the one or the other.
When you actually have a great brand,
everything actually becomes a little bit easier.
Your win rates go up.
Your competitive deals become easier to win.
Your leads start to flow more,
'cause word of mouth starts to spread.
So a bunch of stuff just starts clicking in.
So, in this episode,
I'm actually gonna dig into what makes for a great brand,
and the three principles that you absolutely need to know
to actually build your brand,
so you can use it to your advantage,
use it to your competitive advantage,
to actually grow faster.
Intro.
(upbeat music)
What's up everybody?
Welcome to Unstoppable.
I'm TK.
And on this channel,
I help SAS founders like you
grow your SAS businesses faster
with an unstoppable strategy.
If you are new to this channel,
be sure to hit the subscribe button,
and that bell icon.
That way you'll get notified
every single time I drop an episode
with the TK energy.
Now, if you're already part of my SAS coaching programs,
if you're part of this community, welcome back.
It's so awesome to see you over here.
Now, I remember for ToutApp,
we hit this point, we had these t-shirts that said
I close deals, I close deals,
because that was our brand.
We sold to salespeople.
It was everywhere.
And I remember this one point
where people were paying us $10 to buy our t-shirts.
Now, we were a venture-backed startup.
And we were not foreign
to actually giving out our t-shirts for free,
because that's what we did, what we do.
But it got to a point
where people loved those t-shirts so much,
were literally going on our website
and paying $10 just to buy them.
Now, they cost more than $10 to fulfill.
But that wasn't the point.
What that showed us was,
We were starting to get that following.
We were starting to get that group of people
that were so loyal, and they were so into it,
that they were willing to wear our t-shirts,
and rep us, and actually say our tagline,
and get it out there,
which was super, super powerful.
And that's really when I learned the power
of what a brand does to the bottom line,
to your growth,
because what we started to see was,
because of that minibrand,
it became a little bit easier to actually win our deals.
Our win rates actually went up.
It became a little bit easier to win
in competitive situations,
because they understood and trusted us more.
And it became that much easier to actually generate leads,
because when we would cold email,
we would cold call,
chances are, in certain geos,
where we really started to build our brand,
they'd be like oh yeah, I heard of you guys.
And they were more likely to engage with us,
because that inherent brand trust was already there.
So, that's the power of building a great brand.
And today,
it is impossible to actually build and scale a SaaS business,
if you aren't investing sufficiently in building your brand.
But when you do both,
everything starts to come together that much faster.
So, if you're excited to dig into the core principles
of what makes for a great brand,
and how to actually build one,
go to smash that like button.
And let's first really define what a great brand looks like.
A great brand, essentially,
is something where you actually have trust.
People tend to trust a great brand.
A great brand demands trust, and exudes trust.
A great brand is also something
where people feel like they belong.
This is kind of a connection to the reason
why those t-shirts were selling,
and people loved those t-shirts,
because we made our brand bigger than the software.
We made it as a religion for salespeople.
That's what we wanted to do.
And that's why we put the ToutApp logo on the back,
but the I Close Deals in the front.
And when people saw that,
they connected with that, and they said no, that's me.
And people wanted to belong.
And that was super powerful.
We'll talk more about that.
And the third thing that a great brand does,
is a great brand is also something
that people are happy to share,
meaning people are more than happy
to not just belong to that brand,
but because they trust them,
because they feel like they belong,
they're just as happy to tell their friends about it,
and share it.
They're proudly gonna wear it.
This is not just a t-shirt thing.
This shows up in social media.
This shows up in communities.
It shows up at events.
It shows up at meetings.
It's everywhere.
And that's what makes for a great brand.
And when you actually invest in a great brand,
everything becomes easier, just like we talked about.
So how do you actually build a great brand?
So I'm gonna walk you through the three principles.
So let's go to principle number one.
A great brand, this is brass tacks right,
nothing that I invented right?
But this is the most essential pieces you need to know.
A great brand has every well defined look and feel.
It looks a certain way, and it feels a certain way.
If you just even think about our brand,
at this point we're at a point
where people are paying for our t-shirts.
This is one of our t-shirts:
Ship Code, Close Deals.
If you want one of these I'll link to it below.
And we sell them at cost,
we're like, we don't make any money on these.
But people are willing to buy these,
because they're like yeah, ship code, close deals.
Those are the two levers that matter most.
I'm a founder.
I wanna get in on that.
And that's cool.
But the reason we actually are starting to spread,
is because we have a certain look,
we have a certain feel.
And when founders look at it,
when they actually look at the t-shirt,
when they look at our tagline,
when they look at our logo,
when they look at our branding,
when they look at our colors,
it evokes a certain feel.
It evokes a certain look, and certain feel to it.
And that's very purposeful, and very crafted.
And it's not just about getting branded t-shirts,
or staplers, or billboards.
It's about really thinking deeply
about what is the look and feel,
and how do we make it where it's consistent everywhere?
That's the third piece on a great brand.
It needs to look and feel
in a very distinct and purposeful way.
But it also needs to be consistent everywhere.
A lot of times, consistency is where people go wrong,
when it comes to brands.
They're not consistent across all their channels.
They're not consistent across all their material.
They're not consistent in their messaging.
They're not consistent in their website.
And because it's not consistent,
it doesn't stick, it doesn't take.
And because we're consistent about our brand,
and the great companies are,
that's when human beings are starting
to notice the pattern over and over again,
and they're starting to say, hey,
there's something to this,
'cause I'm seeing it everywhere,
'cause they see the familiarity,
and it builds over time.
So principle number one is,
you gotta think deeply about your brand.
And this is the part
where people start, and then stop, with brand,
which is why a brand gets a bad rep.
But you still have to do it.
Think about your consistent look, feel,
and actually making sure
that you drive that consistency across all touchpoints.
That's principle number one.
Once you've defined principle number one,
the second thing that you absolutely need to do
for your brand to actually make it work,
is actually define your strategic narrative,
or your manifesto.
And that needs to be tied to your brand.
When you think about the Unstoppable brand,
if you've download our five-point guides,
if you've watched enough of my videos,,
there's a specific manifesto we have.
It's, gotta have an unstoppable strategy.
Only 4% of startups actually graduate
from the seed stage to an actual Series A.
And that number varies over time,
but the numbers we've looked at,
that number is very low.
And in order to win,
you need to actually have a strategy.
And that's why we have unstoppable as our brand.
That's why we have TK as a brand.
That's why we have Ship, Code Close Deals.
We have this narrative around what we do.
It's not just about building SaaS businesses.
It's about building SaaS businesses
with an unstoppable strategy.
It's about thinking about the levers
that matter the most: ship code, close deals.
Those are the two things that matter the most.
We've thought about this manifesto.
We've thought about this narrative.
And a lot of times, we'll look at a brand,
we'll think about the logo, they'll look at the colors,
they'll put it everywhere.
But they haven't thought about what does it mean?
What does it mean to us?
Why do we exist?
And how do you actually talk about a transformation,
or a different way of doing things?
This is where it really comes together.
Now, we talk about this a lot on this channel as well.
When it comes to B2B SAS companies,
no one wakes up in the morning and just wants software.
But they want transformations.
And this goes into brands.
Brands need to represent some sort of change.
It needs to represent some sort of transformation.
And that is super important,
which is why the second principle you have to embrace,
is that you have to think about the strategic narrative,
what is that for your brand?
How do you communicate, hey, this is what we stand for,
and if you do too, then you belong.
And it's an us versus them type of thing,
meaning, it's a transformation,
and you're either with us or you're against us,
but you can belong, you can join us.
That's the kind of thing
that makes people gravitate towards brands.
That's the kinda thing that people look at and say,
oh this is different.
But I believe in this, and I connect with this.
And then they actually put on the gear,
or they sign up and they enroll in this movement.
Great brands actually have movements around this.
And then they say, hey, you gotta get in on this,
and they start spreading it.
And that's where brands and leads really start to connect,
because the brand mobilizes people,
and then the leads follow.
Are you guys starting to get this?
So I have a third principle.
But before I go into the third principle,
let me just pause here for a second.
This is a very different way to approach a brand.
You're starting to see the power in this,
You're starting to see how first,
you gotta get the look and feel down.
Like brass tacks.
But they you've got to follow it up
with the proper narrative,
on how you really differentiate.
And when you do these two things,
all of a sudden it's not just about the colors
and the look and fee,
but it means something for people.
And it mobilizes people.
And it's bigger than the software you create.
But it's a movement, a transformation.
And then the software follows,
and the people follow, and the leads follow.
But if you do these two things,
it puts you in a different category.
If you're starting to see the power in this,
can I just get a yes in the comments below?
Also smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
It really like it when you do that.
I love it when you do that.
And my team loves you for it when you do that.
So, go do both.
Also, if you're in this stage
where you're growing your SaaS business,
and you're like look, we've gotta get our brand right,
well more importantly,
we have to get our strategic narrative right.
What is this movement?
How do we communicate that?
How do we differentiate ourselves?
How do we get people to become rabid fans?
That's why you create a manifesto.
That's where you actually build up
a proper go-to-market strategy.
This is exactly what I work with founders on,
inside of my SaaS Go-to-Market coaching programs.
So if you're growing your SaaS business,
and you want to actually deploy these principles,
and you want a framework to follow,
be sure to check out my coaching program.
I'll you more about it at the end of this video.
But lets go to principle number three.
Principle number three is,
once you have these two things in place,
then you've got the foundational pieces of a brand, right,
of what makes for a successful brand.
But, you can't end there.
You have to make it super easy to spread,
and super easy for people to enlist.
That's how you grow the awareness around a brand.
And when you grow that awareness,
you get more trust, you get more rabid followers,
when you have that, all those other things
that we really care about like pipeline, and leads,
and word of mouth, starts to come in.
So how do you do that?
Principle number three is,
you actually have to make it easy to join,
and easy to represent, and easy to spread.
We get a lot of people that find us on this YouTube channel
because another founder told them.
We get a lot of people
that join our coaching program through referrals.
We get a lot of people that are following me on LinkedIn
or on Twitter, or buying our t-shirts,
because they heard it from a friend,
or saw a friend wearing one.
That's the power.
And the reason that exists
is because we make it super easy
for people to actually join, represent,
and spread our thing.
Now, this is not just my thing.
This ship code close is not just my thing.
It's our thing.
Like, Unstoppable Strategy, it's not just my thing.
It's all the founders
that are part of this movement, this community,
'cause we wanna build epic SaaS businesses
with an unstoppable strategy.
And the reason that feels that way,
and hopefully you feel that way too,
is because we make it easy to join.
You can join our YouTube community.
You can join one of our coaching programs.
You can buy our t-shirts,
which we sell at cost.
We have a tagline, we have social media,
people are DMing me on Twitter,
and Instagram, and Messenger, like all over.
And it's because it's like hey,
all SaaS founders, B2B SaaS founders,
that's what we're about.
We wanna have an unstoppable strategy.
We wanna win.
We wanna beat those trends
that are crazily stacked against us.
Let's do this together.
Because we make it easy to rep and join,
it becomes easier for more people to join
and spread the word.
It's the power of mobilizing the brand.
So, let's recap.
Number one, what is a great brand?
A great brand is a brand that actually exudes trust,
actually communicates a sense of belonging,
and also is something that people want
to be sharing with their friends.
Now, the core principles.
You wanna do the basics, which is have a look, feel,
be consistent about it.
Number two, craft your manifesto.
What is the manifesto around your brand?
It needs to be bigger than the software.
It needs to be about the people you're service,
your ICP, and have a manifesto around them.
And then you wanna make it easy to join, to rep, and share.
And when you do that, and you have these three pieces,
all of a sudden, it seems dumb to not do brand,
and still expect leads.
It starts to work hand in hand.
And you start to compete at a whole different level.
And your competitors are gonna be like,
what are they doing?
Why, you could be a much smaller team,
and much less funded,
but you still kick their ass,
because all of a sudden,
you're competing in a different way.
While they're trying to play checkers,
you're playing chess.
And that's the power of a great SaaS brand.
So if you got value from this video,
be sure to smash that like button
if you haven't already.
Also, if you wanna deploy this strategy,
if you wanna develop a really differentiated brand
with a strategic narrative,
all around a core ICP,
if you really wanna turn your company beyond just software
into a movement,
this is one of the things that I coach you on
inside of my SaaS Go to Market Coaching Program.
We have over 50 founders in the program.
We're super excited about it.
It's been amazing and truly a privilege
to serve all the founders in it.
And we're accepting more founders into the program.
So, the way it works is,
you just need to go to tkkader.com/gtm,
tkkader.com/gtm.
When you go to that page,
you get all the details on my go-to-market program.
And at the bottom, you'll be able to apply to join.
The reason we do an application process,
is because we wanna make sure you're the right fit,
and we're the right fit, to actually help each other.
So, in order to do that, you just fill out a little form.
We get on a call, get on a call with me.
And we'll review exactly where you are in your SaaS business,
and whether we can actually help you grow.
And based on that, if it's a fit,
we're off to the races and we start working together.
There's three key things we work on
inside of the Go-to-Market program.
Number one, we hone in on your ideal customer profile,
your market strategy.
Number two, your strategic narrative,
based off of ICP, they go hand in hand.
And then we help you mobilize it,
through a Broadway show.
And these three pieces actually help you
build a scalable go-to-market strategy,
and go-to-market machine that helps you grow faster.
So just go to tkkader.com/gtm and apply to join.
We'll get on a call, we'll review,
and we'll see how we can work together.
If you got values from this video,
be sure to smash that like button,
be sure to hit the subscribe button and that bell icon,
'cause I drop a video like this two to three times a week.
And lastly if you know another SaaS founder,
and they can get value from this,
they're another SaaS founder,
please share this video with them.
It means the world to us.
I will link to all the resources and videos we talked about
down below as well.
You can go there.
Lastly, remember, everyone needs a strategy for their life
and their business.
When you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK.
I'll see you in the next episode.
(bright music)