Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2010

A while back I wrote a bunch of posts on Sales & Marketing and have been meaning to get back to that theme for a while. Even if you don’t have “direct&# sales I would tell you that “everything is a sale&# including fund raising, hiring, getting press and doing business development. You learn by asking.

Sales 346

Sales Startup Technical Review Customer 346

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

It’s the lifeblood of any organization and yet most startups don’t have any sales DNA on their teams. It’s important enough that I dedicate a tab on my blog to startup sales & marketing. But the ground we covered was awesome for anybody wanting to know more about sales. How do you get access to customers?

Software Review 300

Software Review Sales Tips Help 300

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Venture, private equity and more: Here we lump a large number of investor classes into one.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2019

Most businesses spend big money testing their brand logo, catchy marketing phrases, and demographics, but spend little time training and validating that their employees can and do deliver exceptional experiences to their customers. Keep your team happy to create engaged customers. Build relationships and stop surveying customers.

Customer 84

Customer Custom Training Satisfaction 84

Tech.Co

JUNE 3, 2022

Square is teaming up with Apple to enable the ‘Tap to Pay' iPhone functionality within the Square Point of Sale app. With it, customers can quickly use contactless payment, giving consumers an easier shopping experience while helping sellers use the Square system with even less friction. Sign up to the Tech.co newsletter.

News 155

News Newsletter Sales Tips 155

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 18, 2013

A traffic jam of expensive cars lined up to pull into the packed parking lot of MuckerLab for its second graduating class demo day. Tech Coast Angel investor Dale Okuno came out because he believes that MuckerLab attracts better talent because they keep their class size small and focused. And build great business they have.

Class 100

Class Startup Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach 100

Berkonomics

JUNE 4, 2020

That’s impressive sales leverage. And that’s why the major focus that used to be in the direct mail business to drive sales is now focused upon email marketing campaigns, social networking marketing, influencer marketing, and location-based sales using tools to recognize shoppers at the point of sale. And that’s power!

.Net 156

.Net Sales Tool Email 156

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 29, 2014

Most businesses spend big money testing their brand logo, catchy marketing phrases, and demographics, but spend little time training and validating that their employees can and do deliver memorable experiences to their customers. Keep your team happy to create engaged customers. An unhappy team member can’t create an engaged customer.

Customer 106

Customer Custom Training Satisfaction 106

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 2, 2021

“ We were targeted to a small number of very premier customers. Sales, Sony Music Entertainment, in a statement. . Instead of relying on incumbent distribution platforms, customers control the audience relationship directly and maximize engagement and monetization in a way that fits with their brand objectives.

Tool 315

Tool Commerce .Net Entertainment 315

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2017

Most businesses spend big money testing their brand logo, catchy marketing phrases, and demographics, but spend little time training and validating that their employees can and do deliver memorable experiences to their customers. Keep your team happy to create engaged customers. An unhappy team member can’t create an engaged customer.

Customer 69

Customer Custom Training Satisfaction 69

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Bring in an experienced Board and world-class leaders. Switch your focus from product development to sales. Explosive growth to an enterprise normally requires a scalable sales model, a well-documented process with incentives, training, and metrics for tracking and management.

Startup 151

Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2013

Most businesses spend big money testing their brand logo, catchy marketing phrases, and demographics, but spend little time training and validating that their employees can and do deliver memorable experiences to their customers. Keep your team happy to create engaged customers. An unhappy team member can’t create an engaged customer.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Training Satisfaction 97

socalTECH

OCTOBER 6, 2015

Los Angeles-based Appetize , a startup which is backed by Guggenheim, the Jacksonville Jaguars and San Francisco 49ers family offices, Marc Geiger of William Morris, and Roar Entertainment, has signed up Live Nation Entertainment as a customer, the company said this week. Financial impact of the win was not disclosed. READ MORE>>.

Mobile 100

Mobile Entertainment Class Sales 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions. That student is Erin McCann who formerly worked in sales at Google, so she has some ground to stand on in her assertions. Specifically, 1.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

Having the best solution is a good start these days, but a solution alone is no longer enough to keep customer attention and loyalty. The challenge is to transform and hardwire your entire team to think in these terms, rather than the default focus on distinct towers of product quality, closing the sale, or fixing a complaint.

Customer 56

Customer Custom Startup Competition 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. Customers demand more engagement and flexibility. People-centric leaders drive ownership and engagement down to their customer-facing team members.

Coach 128

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 128

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Steve's first question was, “Who are our customers?" I) took the 300 latest cards, personally wrote a questionnaire and called 300 customers. SuperMac's main customer base were color desktop professionals. All of a sudden I now had customers telling what market, how to reach them and what applications are important.

Marketing 271

Marketing Startup Sales Customer 271

Berkonomics

JULY 11, 2013

That’s impressive sales leverage. The major focus that used to be in using the direct mail business to drive sales is now focused upon email marketing campaigns, social networking marketing, building buzz, and location-based sales using tools to recognize shoppers at the point of sale.

.Net 207

.Net Sales Tool Social Network 207

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Venture, private equity and more: Here we lump a large number investor classes into one. For you who fit that description, nice work.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service. Don’t be afraid to test your ultimate entree on customers. Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

GrubMarket , which provides software and services that help link up and manage relationships between food suppliers and their customers — which can include wholesalers and other distributors, markets and supermarkets, delivery startups, restaurants, and consumers — has picked up $120 million in a Series E round of funding.

Startup 249

Startup Platform Software Los Angeles 249

Berkonomics

AUGUST 2, 2018

There are five major classes or niches a company should examine and make its own in calculating positioning in the marketplace. There are exceptions, based upon cost of sales. Mercedes offers a premium automobile with its customers expecting luxury first, quality second, service third, and price a distant fourth. Innovation.

Pricing 226

Pricing Competition Examples Class 226

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 9, 2022

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to getting ahold of an appointment for your hair or another treatment…that’s a different story: The bespoke nature of a lot of the work has meant that a large swathe of the professionals providing these services have stayed offline when it comes to interfacing with customers.

Help 195

Help Startup UCLA Tool 195

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

There is nothing more pure than building a product, putting it out in the world and seeing paying customers using your product and in some cases loving it. Sam’s vision was to build a world-class “reverse logistics” company that could be as ambitious as Amazon has been in delivering goods to our houses.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

InfoChachkie

JUNE 16, 2016

Custom Wharton Degree. When I arrived at Wharton many moons ago, I was told that all first-year students take the same set of Core classes. Like a sheepeople, I dutifully signed up for the required classes. I handed him my class enrollment form, which he quickly scanned, murmured something unintelligible and signed.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Class Course Writing 100

Eric Greenspan

APRIL 11, 2013

If you knew what your customers were thinking (and saying) about your product, service, or staff, imagine what you could do with this data. I once tweeted “hello from first class” to @virginamerica and they responded immediately with “what are they serving for lunch today?” If they need more, you can sell them.

Customer 117

Customer Custom Class Services 117

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 19, 2020

Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first. Don’t create solutions looking for a problem , since investors ignore these, and customers other than early adopters will be hard to find. Customers buy solutions, not technology. Prototype your solution for customers, and discount friends and family.

Technology 127

Technology Marketing Social Media Customer 127

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 16, 2021

Richard Branson’s adventurer escapades are legendary, and Steve Jobs made new product presentations an experience, as well as a sales pitch and an education. Great entrepreneurs remember that great design motivates and excites customers, often even more than function. Customers buy from people, not companies.

Marketing 157

Marketing Design Entrepreneur Ideas 157

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service. Don’t be afraid to test your ultimate entree on customers. Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements? Make them “feel the love.”

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Steve Reich

JULY 6, 2020

The shiny object is really important in the sales cycle, but there is no sustainable advantage to be had. Your real advantage comes from touching your customers frequently in the Digital channel. Presenting a relevant offer requires marketing data analysis to make sure the right customer sees the right offer. I was flat wrong.

Technology 87

Technology Customer Custom Class 87

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2012

The irony is that currently both these onetime best in class companies are now in deep trouble. Both companies were spending big bucks to advertise yet the offer left me cold and I must not be alone in this as both companies have slumping sales. What IMVU thought was game changing technology was not why customers used the software.

Customer 72

Customer Custom Blogging Startup 72

socalTECH

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Our transaction-focused methodology delivers low risk, best-in-class business terms, rates and service levels for our customers. Vice President, Sales and Marketing , Stanton Chase International. Over the past 3 years, we have advised on 100+ transactions with a total contract value exceeding $2 billion.

SoCalTech 138

SoCalTech Outsource SaaS Report 138

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it. Of course branding is many things and this post doesn’t attempt a master class. Ariel understood her customer?—?the

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2019

Here at OIX, what we've done, is purpose built a cloud-based solution that allows customers to find those tax credits and incentives, and incentive discovery database. Laurence Sotsky: The product is really fantastic, so we've been focusing on marketing and sales. This deal really checked all of those boxes for me.

Startup 100

Startup Venture Capital Southern California Entertainment 100

Tech.Co

MAY 18, 2017

ServiceTitan is the service management software that helps leading home services businesses generate more leads and close more sales. TaskUs is a customer care and back office support company that helps companies provide exceptional experiences for their customers. StackCommerce. The Agency. The Camp Transformation Center.

Los Angeles 220

Los Angeles Angel Startup Outsource Development 220

InfoChachkie

MARCH 2, 2015

I treat each of my classes as a product that the students are paying a lot of money to consume. For instance, I assign an Ombudsman in all my classes in order to gather anonymous feedback. Thus, diligent students leave my classes with insights and tools they can directly apply to their jobs after graduation. Challenging.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Class Course Case Study 100

socalTECH

AUGUST 7, 2014

The Vice President of Business Development reports to the CEO and is responsible for the direction and management of all worldwide sales operations direct and indirect, including market competitiveness, pricing, compensation, and distribution. NO OTHER APPLICANTS WILL BE CONSIDERED. Business Development Director, Colony Logic - Los Angeles.

SoCalTech 124

SoCalTech SaaS Los Angeles Platform 124