An interview with Dave Boyce, Growth Lead at Winning by Design.
We sit down with Dave Boyce, Growth Lead at Winning by Design Winning by Design apply scientific frameworks and proven models to help B2B recurring revenue teams achieve impact.
How did you end up at Winning by Design and what problem does Winning by Design solve for its clients?
I have watched Product-Led Growth (PLG) prevail time and time again as I have built and sold 5 SaaS companies. When it comes to scaling, I know how important PLG will be in the future, and I know how important it will be for PLG to be integrated with other GTMs. I've known the founders of Winning by Design for years, and I love the fundamental approach Winning by Design takes to architecting recurring revenue engines. I knew Winning by Design had yet to build explicit expertise in PLG, so I called them. Not only am I leading the PLG practice, but Winning by Design talked me into running the entire Revenue Architecture program, which means I can spot and manage connections across GTMs for our clients.
As the Product-Led Growth Practice Lead, what are your main responsibilities at Winning by Design?
Winning by Design takes a fundamental approach to diagnosing a recurring revenue business. We normalize and benchmark data across the revenue lifecycle and cut it by GTM motion, so we can see where high-leverage opportunities exist for improving long-term, sustainable growth. I am responsible for all the talent on the consulting team--we call them Revenue Architects. We look for best-and-brightest minds with relevant, real-world experience. We leverage frameworks from our internal labs and work to uplevel our knowledge and skills with regard to architecting and managing recurring revenue systems. From a research and IP development standpoint, I also lead our efforts in PLG--working with leading SaaS companies across multiple segments to help them tune their PLG and PLS (product-led sales) efforts.
To get a bit more technical, what are some of the acquisition channels that have worked well for Winning by Design and why do you think that is?
Winning by Design leads with generosity. We make all our IP free and available to the public. This includes all our frameworks, all our video content, all our research papers, and all our blueprints. We regularly host workshops on topics of interest to revenue leaders--these are free an open to the public. We are the go-to content provider, consultant, and trainer for many private equity firms looking to uplevel their revenue organizations and run well-architected and well-oiled revenue machines. All this "presence" in the market leads to 80% of our business being inbound inquiries from people who have seen or experienced Winning by Design in the market--either directly as a client or indirectly as a leading voice in revenue architecture.
What role does your C-level team play when it comes to organising, operating and improving your growth funnel?
At Winning by Design, Marketing's function is to produce and distribute thought-leadership content. The more and better content we produce, and the better job we do getting it in the hands of decision-makers, the more inbound demand we create. 80% of our new business is sourced via inbound demand. Marketing does a quick check against ICP, verifies potential fit, and immediately hands over to our Managing Directors to follow up on the inbound interest.
At ColdFire, when we look at our clients' Growth strategies, they vary greatly. Some have found a single, scalable client acquisition process while others thrive on a mix of top-of-funnel strategies. If you had to summarise the high-level LeadGen strategy of Winning by Design, what would it be?
Winning by Design is committed to generosity and thought leadership. We have tactical ways of distributing our IP and converting that into interest, but at the top level, Winning by Design's strategy is to be generous with our time, experience and IP. As one might expect, economic headwinds are exactly the environment that creates turmoil within a revenue organization. Having the industry purview and experience we do, we feel lucky to be consulting in times of turmoil as well as in times of prosperity.
What is a Growth technique that you've used at Winning by Design or at previous companies which you believe is underutilized at most C-level teams - and why?
I believe the #1 most under-utilized C-level tactic is the telephone. Pick up the phone. Call your friends. See how they are doing. See how you can help. As a C-level executive, don't hide behind Marketing. Don't hide behind programs. Don't wait for someone to invite you to join their ongoing conversation--start your own! The #2 most under-utilized C-level tactic is thought leadership. Not everyone can research, and not everyone can write long-form. But everyone can post on LinkedIn. And every C-level has experience from which peers can learn. So use your voice for good!
Growth can happen using marketing and product development. Which has worked better for Winning by Design and why do you think that is?
At Winning by Design, our main bottleneck is awareness. Even though we are ranked #2 on G2 Crowd for Sales Training, even though we have worked with dozens of the world's most impressive unicorn companies--we are still not penetrated enough into our core ICP with regards to awareness. That is changing.
Has your C-level team experimented with some kind of cold outbound strategy (like cold email)? If yes what was the general outcome and if no, why not?
We have experimented with cold outbound with very little (negligible) success. In our market, if you are thinking about moving from one methodology to another, that's an event, precipitated by an action (fundraise, new hire, reorg). Cold outbound does not impact those triggers, so it's hard to generate demand from cold. In reality, the best demand generation strategy for Winning by Design is generosity-fueled inbound.
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