The Kids Are Fighting: you don't need everyone to like you
Lindsay Rios on the line she is known for with founders, why stalled revenue is almost never a sales problem, and the honest note to self that isn't a compliment.
Lindsay says she was born not caring much what people think, and she calls it a superpower instead of a flaw. Three years into running her own shop as owner of GTM Done Right and a fractional CRO, she got honest with me about the stuff under the hype-woman reputation. The whole conversation rests on one idea she will not apologize for: you do not need everyone to like you. You need your actual customers, and you need to be fully yourself while you find them.
Her line with founders is the kids are fighting. When revenue stalls, the room assumes sales is broken. Her read is that it is almost never a sales problem: marketing, sales, product, and customer success are each quietly chasing a slightly different customer until the whole motion breaks. And the fix is not a new CRM or a new pricing model, because process will not save you until the culture changes. There is gonna be a lot of feelings first.
She is also candid about the year she overextended. After the worst first six months most founders can remember, the best work finally showed up, and she said yes to too much of it out of fear there would be nothing come February. The honest line in her own review is the one that is not a compliment: you said yes when you knew you shouldn't have. Her answer is to take your work seriously and not yourself, because there are no real emergencies in go-to-market.
“I'm so good at reminding other people who they are. I'm not very good at doing it to myself.”
Notes
- When revenue stalls, the fight is almost never a sales problem. It is marketing, sales, product, and CS each chasing a slightly different customer.
- You do not need 5,000 people to like you. You need your actual ICP, so do the things that disqualify the wrong fits early.
- Process will not save you until the culture changes. A new CRM and new pricing come with a lot of feelings.
- Her regretted yeses came from fear, not strategy. She would not ship bad work, so she overextended herself instead.