Sell ugly carrots and bruised bananas for $386M
The story of how an entrepreneur has made a fortune selling clumsy fruits...and other leading marketing stories
Hello/Bonjour/Konnichiwa👋
Welcome to another edition of “Call To Action.”
There’s so much SaaS marketing activity all around that we probably need a separate SaaSGPT to track what’s happening. 🤪
Spoiler alert: This is going to be a long newsletter of all the awesome marketing posts in the last week on LinkedIn, Twitter, Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, TechCrunch etc.
Okay folks, let’s jump right in.
Story of the week | Sell ugly carrots 🥕 and bruised bananas 🍌 for $386 Million
Would you eat a carrot that is misshapen? Or a banana that doesn’t have the right yellow hue?
Think about it - a carrot is still a carrot. A banana is still a banana.
You’d surely eat it because it still tastes the same.
But, a lot of people don't. So, farmers in the US have no choice but to dump those veggies and fruits. It is a headache for them to get rid of these fruits because retailers won’t stock ugly farm produce.
That’s when Abhi Ramesh steps in. It is 2019 and he senses a business opportunity and starts a Shopify store of perfectly imperfect produce.
He’s already dabbled in a few startups before and calls his store Misfits Market. It grows to 90,000 customers.
However, the mother of all calamities strikes in March 2020 - COVID-19.
Abhi’s business almost crashes to the ground before a lifeboat saves it.
Read Abhi’s special story in Jon Davids’s excellent LinkedIn post. For the record, his business has made $386 Million in the last 24 months.
Curious to know more about Misfits Market? Watch the video here.
How to do founder-led sales in 2023 👊
If you’re a startup founder and you find yourself hitting the wall every time you pitch to prospects, try the ‘No-oriented Question Play’.
Let us explain.
People hate to say ‘Yes.’
So, what’s the alternative?
Simple. Get them to say ‘No.’
Ask them questions like:
“Is now a bad time to talk?”
“Is it a ridiculous idea to …?”
“Have you given up on …?”
Great hooks = more views = more leads 🕺🏻
Think about the last time you opened an email because you liked the subject line.
(Come on, be honest - wasn’t it this email? 😜)
But, that’s what a great hook does - it piques you, it makes you curious like a 5-year -old peeking inside her dollhouse.
In this LinkedIn post, SEO and content guru Jake Ward gives out the 7 hooks that have given him 1.8M views.
Clear or Clever 😃
Can you spot the difference between these two headlines?
Headline #1: “Guaranteed fraud protection for ecommerce merchants”
Headline #2: “Have you built a clunky SaaS product?”
The first is Clear, while the second one is Clever.
So, when do you use Clear and Clever - Michal Eiskowitz explains in this LinkedIn post.
7 viral marketing lessons you need to know 😇
Take a look at this copy structure:
— I had a problem with …
— It hurt because …
— I tried to solve it with …, …, and …
— Until I finally found … solution
— Now I am …
There it is, you’ve just figured out a really powerful marketing superpower, i.e., your own story⚡️
Read Chase Dimond’s LinkedIn post on the 7 most valuable marketing lessons all of us need to know.
How to be a rainmaker in 10 steps ⛈️
Okay, this one isn’t exactly from last week. Still it is an insane post that only the legendary Matt Gray can pull off.
He closed ~$3 Million in sales using 10 tactics. One of that is a cold email outreach he suggests:
***
Subject: 15 min. chat on [insert date]
Hey [name], I noticed [personalized intro]. I'd love to chat with you about how [our product can help you do ....].
Do you have 15 mins to chat on [insert date]?
***
Need we say more? ✅
The secret to cold emails? Serve it warm 🌤️
Staying on the topic of cold emails…the best way to write cold emails is to warm them up.
Aazar Ali Shad says that no matter how rich a person is, they have a need.
Your job is to figure out that need and you’re done.
In this Twitter, thread, Aazar Ali tells us what worked for him when he wrote those cold emails.
We loved his 6th tip which is - “Treat your subject line like a movie trailer.” 🌟
News of the week | Y Combinator makes a ‘boss’ move 😎
Okay, here’ the big news of the week that should please all our founder friends.
Y Combinator released a public founder directory which we think is a ‘boss’ move.
Their founder roster is close to ~10,000 but it was a closed list until now.
So it only made sense to democratise this list to help other founders, salespeople, and even job seekers is just awesome. 🫶🏻
They’ve even published a startup directory of all Y Combinator funded companies.
What you still need to know…
TK Khader, founder at Unstoppable, says a shitty marketer has 18 months before the CEO is going to call his bluff. We think it is much lesser than that. CEOs who know and understand marketing will do it in 6-9 months.
Know the two words that Jeff Bezos obsesses about in every one of his interviews (since the time he founded Amazon)? It is CUSTOMER OBSESSION. Brandon Arvanaghi, CEO at Meow has watched each of Bezos’s interviews 100s of times for this insight.
Organic marketing is free. Really? So, what about the time your social media marketers spend obsessing over that graphic? Or, what about the time you spend speaking to your guests on podcasts? Nah - nothing is free. That’s what Mary Keough explains how organic marketing requires time from founders, marketing SMEs, videographers etc.
See ya all with more marketing stories next week. If you liked what we put together for you, don’t forget to share this newsletter with your friends - we’ll be grateful. 🫶🏻
And oh, we almost forgot. Did we tell you that yours truly ran his first half-marathon last Sunday?
Credits: Header picture of Abhi Ramesh, Misfits Market by CNBC