I want to return to the question of pricing, because it’s one of the hardest parts of marketing to get right. Pricing is often treated as a technical problem, but in practice it’s as much cultural and psychological as it is analytical. Economists will tell you that buyers behave rationally. In the real world, they don’t. Customers bring habits, expectations, industry norms, and internal politics into every pricing conversation. Add negotiation on top of that, and it becomes v

I had a call last week with a founder that centered on when to talk about price. He sells into a highly price-sensitive market, which means the question comes up early in many of his sales conversations. My view is that it’s almost always a mistake to talk about pricing upfront. Until you’ve taken the time to understand the prospect’s business and what’s actually not working, there isn’t much of a real price conversation to have. We’ve all heard this before: “They liked it, b

High-quality leads are (unfortunately) all too rare—and they’re almost never defined by a prospect’s title, company size, or how they found you. The best leads can articulate a real business problem in their own words. They don’t need to be convinced the problem matters. There’s already pressure inside their organization to do something about it. Ideally, they can also explain what happens if nothing changes. If a lead like this comes in (and your product can genuinely addres

One of the most common things I hear from early-stage founders is: “We need more leads.” Sometimes that’s true. But more often, it’s a symptom—not the underlying problem. What’s usually happening is this: interest is coming in, demos are getting booked, and there’s activity that feels good. The demo happens and you feel good about it. Something appears to be working. And yet, nothing closes. Prospects go quiet. Follow-ups stretch into days or you get radio silence. Deals tha