Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2017

In fact, I can condense the sum of my business experiences into eight key disciplines: Start with a total and ongoing customer focus. Don’t assume anything until you have done market research and listened to real customers. Then assume the customers will change over time, so never stop listening.

Ideas 72

Ideas Startup Metrics Entrepreneur 72

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2017

As a startup, you need to use your limited resources to excel at a few core things for your best customers, in order to stand out and get the momentum going. Your customers’ biggest need is not for more things. Your best strategy is to find more customers that fit the things you do best, rather than building more things.

Competition 65

Competition Social Media Metrics Customer 65

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2017

Frame the way you want to change the world, and make it about the customer. Decide what to measure and create metrics. Make sure your measurements are customer-oriented, as well as focused on internal processes. What has your business done lately to excite your existing customers and keep them loyal?

Startup 81

Startup Metrics Organization Ideas 81

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 31, 2017

“Sleeping giants do wake up,” I always say, to remind new business owners that nobody cares what you do when you are not a threat, but when you get some real traction with customers, competitors will come out of the woodwork with a vengeance. You need quantified value for customers to see, feel, and pay for.

Metrics 58

Metrics Resource Startup Training 58

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 10, 2018

They want to grant deserving customers special concessions, or fix a broken process, but are convinced it may cost them their job, or find that no one above them seems to care. If these still exist in your organization, they are huge red flags and you can be certain that you are losing your best employees as well as customers.

Startup 62

Startup Organization Customer Custom 62

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2017

But the reality is that sellers are no longer in charge of the customer buying process. Kristin Zhivago, in her classic book “ Roadmap to Revenue ,” makes the point that the selling system is broken, since sellers no longer sell the way customers are buying. The best way to do this is with real customer interviews.

Search Engine Optimization 58

Search Engine Optimization Startup SEO Customer 58

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2017

In my view, that’s why “two heads are better than one” in starting a business – one with the passion and skill to create an innovative solution, and the other with a business savvy, customer focus, and the ability to build and lead a team. Businesses are driven by your team, investors, partners, and most of all, customers.

Ideas 67

Ideas Product Startup Satisfaction 67

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2017

Having a website won’t help if customers can’t find it. Use social media to actively engage with your customers. Many businesses ignore social media, other listen on one or more channels, while the best talk as well as listen to customers and potential customers. Focus on providing memorable total customer experiences.

Social Media 57

Social Media Search Engine Optimization Startup Customer 57

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2017

True business success and leadership starts with real personal values, extends to building a team, and finally to inspiring customers and your community. In business, consistency is the key to productivity and trust by team members and customers alike. The days of educating customers to sell your current solutions are gone.

Case Study 55

Case Study Customer Custom Entrepreneur 55

StartUp Beat

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

In 2017, these sorts of collaborations between big brands and influencers are only to increase.”. Influencers don’t always post what they agreed to, and many campaigns fall short of expectations due to a lack of actionable, metric-driven insights.

Social Media 40

Social Media Software Review Media Marketing 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 8, 2017

You can jump into social media with a poor brand definition, poorly focused content, unrealistic expectations of customer service, or be killed by malware or viruses. For some customers and many investors, a heavy focus on social networks and viral marketing may be a negative, rather than a positive.

Social Media 58

Social Media Media Platform Tool 58

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

From his own successes and failures in this domain, he explains how the rules and customer expectations have changed in today’s world, and he offers some practical guidance on how to survive in this new world. Flexible business models, including value-based pricing, bundling, and custom proposals are the places to begin.

Social Media 56

Social Media Pricing Technical Review Demand 56

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2017

The command and control leadership of the past is proving to be too inflexible, devoid of values, and not empathic to people issues – customers, employees, and partners. Due to social media and the Internet, these relationships now need to extend to customers, partners, and suppliers. Company culture drives decision making and process.

Company 55

Company Companies Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 6, 2017

Technology is not the solution per se , but it provides the key enablement, drivers, and support for the required flexibility, integration, communication, metrics, and affordability that are required in the workplace today. The costs of these elements will be more than repaid by employee engagement and customer loyalty.

Satisfaction 67

Satisfaction Coach Startup Organization 67

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2017

It’s the same for customers and products, where analytics have long proven their value. Efficiency in the workplace is the time it takes to do something, but it can ignore work quality and customer impact. Use data analysis and metrics to measure for results. Marty Zwilling First published on Huffington Post on 12/09/2017.

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Tool Entrepreneur Statistics Metrics 53

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Yet these same entrepreneurs often quickly get set in their ways, and find themselves resisting changes to their own business, and begin to fear further customer change in their domain. The constituents of every business success go far beyond customers – they include employees, partners, investors, vendors, and may even include competitors.

Press 56

Press Tool Metrics Startup 56

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2017

Some things need to be done whether we like them or not; for example, daily cash-flow analysis and business metrics. They see customer support as positive lessons to improve quality and processes. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 08/02/2017. Start your day with a positive business challenge.

Software Review 57

Software Review Technical Review Startup Press 57