Business Book Review 001
Aaron Ross and Jason Lemkin
My Take:
From Impossible to Inevitable is a practical, systems-based approach to revenue growth. Built on the best practices of the tech unicorns of the 2010s, the book demystifies revenue growth and has applicable lessons for anyone trying to grow their revenue.
Why I Read This:
In 2021, our company had a large growth surge. But with that growth in revenue came a growth in capex, headcount, and opex. With these raised stakes, it became critical that revenue was predictable and controllable. I picked up this book and Hacking Growth to get a lens into how tech companies managed this against immense expectations, and pick up a few techniques I could apply to make revenue predictable.
Notable Quotes
“It's easy and fun to dream about success. Making it happen, and keeping it going, is a lot tougher. And far more rewarding.”
“Successful entrepreneurs care more about the brutal truth than about being right or looking good. They take responsibility for results, not intentions.”
“Turn your revenue funnel into an hourglass by tracking how Customer Success affects revenue.”
What Stayed With Me:
The book lays out seven components to its growth recipe. Three in particular stuck with me:
Create Predictable Pipeline
Build a repeatable process for generating qualified leads
Make Sales Scalable
Specialize roles and systematize sales processes
Be Prepared to "Do the Time"
Accept that sustainable growth takes years of disciplined execution.
These ideas helped us build a weekly lead replenishment system, develop simple sales processes for new and existing business, and invest in continuous training so that our team had the tools and mentality to execute consistently.
In doing so, we were able to more confidently launch products into the market, find and seal revenue leaks, and get much clearer forward visibility on revenue.
Who I’d recommend this to:
Owners and sales & marketing leaders who are moving past the scrappy startup phase and need to build a more predictable revenue engine
