Insights
Notes on offers, distribution and why people buy.
Essays on marketing, running a business, sales, technology and the psychology underneath all of them — by Manish Kumar Singh.
Marketing
What share of search measures, and how it relates to market share
Share of search divides a brand's searches by all searches in its category. IPA research links it to market share, and the same research sets limits on how far to trust it.
4 min read
Technology
Why software pricing is moving from seats to usage, and what it does to predictability
Usage-based pricing ties a software bill to consumption, not headcount. Snowflake's filing and Salesforce's pricing announcement show how it works and what it does to revenue forecasts.
4 min read
Sales
How many leads a revenue target needs, worked backwards through the funnel
A revenue target converts into a lead count by dividing through deal size, win rate and lead-to-opportunity rate. Cycle length then decides when those leads must arrive.
4 min read
Sales
The email that gets a reply when a buyer goes quiet
Copy it, then read why each line is there
7 min read
Running a business
Why gross margin sets how fast a company can afford to grow
Each new customer can only be funded out of the gross profit they leave behind. Costco, Walmart and Salesforce show how far apart that figure can be.
4 min read
Marketing
Why customer acquisition cost rises as spend on one channel grows
Average cost per customer hides what the next dollar buys. Marginal returns, response curves and the ROAS-of-1 line show when added spend in a single channel stops paying.
4 min read
Productivity
You don't have a time problem. You have a decision problem.
Why better scheduling rarely fixes a busy week
7 min read
Technology
Why cloud bills rise with scale, and when leaving pays
Andreessen Horowitz found committed cloud spend averaged half of cost of revenue at public software companies. Here is how that arithmetic works and what 37signals' exit shows about leaving.
4 min read
Sales
Where the claim that 5% more retention lifts profit by 25% to 95% comes from
The 25% to 95% range appears in a 2014 Harvard Business Review article that credits Frederick Reichheld.
4 min read
Running a business
Why profitable companies still run out of cash: the cash conversion cycle
Profit is booked when a sale is made. Cash arrives later, after stock is bought, goods are sold and invoices are collected. The cash conversion cycle measures that gap.
4 min read
Marketing
Cheap clicks are the most expensive thing you'll buy
A low cost per click is a price tag, not a result
7 min read
Marketing
What the FTC's fake review rule bans, and what it changes for testimonials
The FTC's 2024 rule names six prohibited review practices and lets courts impose civil penalties on knowing violators. Here is what it covers and what it asks of testimonials.
4 min read
Technology
Do AI answers in search mean fewer clicks to websites?
Pew Research Center's browsing study found Google users clicked result links about half as often when an AI summary appeared. Google disputes the wider claim of falling traffic.
5 min read
Psychology
Nobody is watching you as closely as you think
The spotlight effect, and what it quietly costs you
7 min read
Sales
Why sales quotas push the steepest discounts into the final days of the quarter
Commission plans built around quarterly thresholds reward closing deals now at any price, and both the research and an SEC case show how that plays out.
5 min read
Consumer psychology
Why more options sometimes mean fewer sales
A famous jam study said extra choices kill sales. Later, larger studies found that's true only under specific, nameable conditions.
4 min read
Marketing
Why most A/B tests at a small company can't prove what they promise
A standard sample-size formula, laid out in one testing platform's own field notes, shows why a typical landing page needs months, not weeks, to detect a real lift.
5 min read
Technology
How Apple's tracking prompt changed what it costs to find a customer
Apple's 2021 consent prompt let iPhone owners block ad tracking. Small advertisers, not the platforms, absorbed most of the resulting cost.
4 min read
Sales
How much of a B2B deal closes before a seller ever gets a call
Gartner's buyer surveys show a growing majority of B2B purchases move forward with little or no seller contact, and pinpoint exactly where reps still get pulled in.
5 min read
Running a business
How often new businesses survive, according to the government's own data
Federal data that tracks real business establishments year by year shows a different survival curve than the one usually quoted, and industry matters more than age.
6 min read
Consumer psychology
Why a bad third option can decide which of two you buy
A weak option added to a choice of two rarely gets picked itself, but researchers have repeatedly shown it can decide which of the other two wins.
4 min read
Marketing
Why prices that end in .99 change what people are willing to pay
Charm pricing exploits a measurable bias in how people read numbers, but the same bias can make a premium price look cheap.
5 min read
A weekly letter on how people think, buy and work
One idea every Tuesday on psychology, marketing, sales, productivity and technology, with one thing to try that week.
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