How Sofia grew $70k-$110k MRR, Notion nerdery, and MEL-SYD-PER dates

Howdy 🤠 

We’re back, and we’ve wrangled together something special today!

• Behind the magic of growing $70k - $110k MRR with Sofia

• How we’re using Notion → breakdown with four company use cases

• Aussie Founders Club Xmas Party, Techstars Demo Day, and West Tech Fest

CUSTOMER DEEP DIVE

From $70K to $110K MRR: How to Master Customer Pain

To do this, we’ve been focused on:

1. Sales process: Defining each stage of the sales process.

2. Deal management: How to move deals through the pipeline to increase conversion.

3. Discovery: How to ask great questions and identify IF there is a problem to solve.

And while sales process and deal management are important, the true art is in mastering discovery:

• Learning to layer questions to identify and quantify a pain

• Comfort making the prospect ‘sit in the pain’

If you’re wondering why this is so vital, it’s because it creates a clear Cost of Inaction (COI) for the prospect.

COI = The negative impact of leaving things the same.

The only way to calculate the COI is by deeply understanding:

• Symptoms: Signs of the pain

• History: What led to the pain

• Impact: The pain’s negative effect

It’s our job as sellers to unpack the above, quantify it, and create relief by presenting a future state (our solution).

So, How Do You Master Customer Pain?

1. Process

2. Patience

3. Discomfort

4. Detail

1. Honing Your Sales Process

The first thing we did was increase the time spent on sales call prep.

After Sofia learned our sales frameworks, we embedded the habit of prepared discovery. By preparing, our discovery questions have context and aren’t surface-level:

2. Practice and Patience

Working together for a few hours a week, I reviewed Sof’s sales calls one by one, and she took on each piece of feedback and began implementing.

(We use Fathom to record and review calls 👉 Claim a free month of Fathom Premium on us!)

3. Sitting in Discomfort and Not Box Ticking

Building true prospect pain can be just as uncomfortable for the seller as it is for the prospect.

Most new sellers want to tick a box once they identify a pain/problem and move on.

Instead, sellers should be ‘sitting in the pain’.

This happens with the next 1-3 questions you ask, and by helping the prospect verbalise their pain, we are making it clear and real.

The prospect isn’t meant to feel bad, but to see us as a trusted expert working with them to clarify, quantify, and understand the impact of not solving the problem.

4. Obsession in the Detail

The growth Sofia experienced from $70k to $110k in months with an 85% conversion rate from meetings attended, is only achievable by compounding obsession.

Sofia didn’t take an okay conversation as a win.

She stepped back into the arena to identify areas for improvement and to understand how that okay meeting could be perfected.

While I can't teach you how to master customer discovery in one article, here’s how to recognise if your sales calls need work:

• Your prospect is always leading the call

• You’re filling all the silence

• You’re feature-dumping because you’re unclear about what the prospect needs

• You’re leaving with no clear data, quotes, or insights that quantify the problem

• It feels like you’re pitching your solution, not having a conversation

• You feel like it went great, but you get ghosted

If you have a steady flow of sales meetings but you’re not converting, or if mastering customer pain and discovery is something you and your team need ➡️ Book a call

P.S. This is just one section in week 2 of our Sales Accelerator 😉 Speak with me to learn more about our February Cohort!

📣 We’d also love to hear your feedback on our first customer deep dive!

TOOLING

Breaking Down Our Notion Use Cases

Over the last few months, we’ve collaborated with Notion twice and were invited to the Sydney ‘Make with Notion’ event! I wanted to share some of my Notion nerdery from the Community Collective and Adelaide Notion community events with you.

In this video, I break down how I’ve used Notion across four companies. I hope it inspires you with what’s possible. Drop a note if you have a question!

🎁 🔗 Also! Our community get 6 months free on the Business plan with Notion AI, check it out here: https://ntn.so/sellanything

EVENTS + COMING UP

The EOY Roadshow Begins…

It’s nearly December, and that means one thing: EOY roadshow, woot woot! 🎉

This year I’ll be making it to:

• Melbourne for Aussie Founders Club Xmas Party (4 December),

• Sydney for Techstars Demo Day (8 December),

• and Perth for West Tech Fest (8-12 December)

Will we see you there? 👀