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The Danger of Crocodile Sales

Both Sides of the Table

I’d like to talk about Crocodile Salesmen in 3 scenarios: 1) when YOU are selling (or someone on your team), 2) when you are trying to recruit a sales person. But how to apply “listening&# in a sales meeting? Beware of Crocodile Sales. I still do this sometimes, too. Always “test your understanding.&#.

Sales 314
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The Big VC Thaw – Why The Market is Moving Again (part 2 of 3)

Both Sides of the Table

In my previous post, The VC Ice Age is Thawing (for now) I wrote about the reasons why the VC market came to a screeching halt in September 2008 and remained largely shut until at least April 2009. There are now signs the VC market has gathered pace meaning it’s a great time to be fund raising.

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Is Going for Rapid Growth Always Good? Aren’t Startups So Much More?

Both Sides of the Table

He also nails the reason why venture capital is still necessary to grow large businesses quickly in a world where the costs of running startups have fallen dramatically. “Why do founders want to take the VCs’ money? .” After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital!

Startup 390
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MindTouch Picks Up $12M For Customer Self Service Software

socalTECH

MindTouch, which was founded by Steve Bjorg and Aaron Fulkerson back in 2005, said the funding will go to increase its integration with software such as Salesforce, SAP, and Oracle, and grow its marketing, business development, sales, and engineering teams.

Custom 100
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People Management: Startup Teams Should Dip but not Skip

Both Sides of the Table

This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. An obvious example would be in sales. I also liked to sit in on sales pipeline meetings.

Startup 308
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One of the Biggest Mistakes Enterprise Startups Make

Both Sides of the Table

The era of VCs investing in successful consumer Internet startups such as eBay led to a belief system that seemed to permeate many enterprise software startups that hiring sales or implementation people was a bad thing. But the “no sales people” mantra isn’t what I’m here to take on.

Startup 403
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An Inside Scoop on the Funding Environment and What it Might Mean for You

Both Sides of the Table

forward sales with some as high as 12x sales. Collectively we chose growth and the market was rewarding high growth rates over any other factor so we felt that we ought to bring in an experienced CEO who had taken companies public, who had led large, international sales organizations and who was poised to take Invoca to the next level.

Funding 150