Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

As I talk to many of you in my role as business advisor, I still often hear the concern for maximum return to the business and stakeholders, more than a passion for sustainably enriching the lives of your customers and team. This applies to your own team, as well as customers. Make every customer experience memorable.

Customer 114

Customer Custom Satisfaction Metrics 114

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2021

Authors Adrian Gostick and Chestor Elton, with their deep backgrounds as executive coaches and organizational consultants, recommend some simple methods, consistent with my own beliefs, to reduce the pain of uncertainty, and increase productivity, in your teams and employees: Make it okay for them to not have all the answers.

Marketing 148

Marketing Coach Startup Product 148

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 11, 2022

How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups and capital markets? And then in the late 90’s money crept in, swept in to town by public markets, instant wealth and an absurd sky-rocketing of valuations based on no reasonable metrics. What happened? People were building.

Venture Capital 466

Venture Capital Startup Marketing Pricing 466

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

Here are the key reasons that I recommend that aspiring leaders focus on people before process: Customers judge the business by the people quality. Whether it be in person, on the phone, or implied in your marketing, your people and their engagement level is the key driver of customer loyalty, advocacy, and sales growth.

Satisfaction 154

Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

For many, it’s hard to make the switch from that top-down order-giving culture, and it’s hard to find the time to recruit and coach the new team members you need to scale the business to success. We all need to be humble and recognize that what we need to know about technology and the market changes daily.

Startup 147

Startup Customer Custom Ideas 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

Today, with the Internet and social media, if you aren’t visible in a positive way to everyone, including customers, your leadership efforts will be lost. You need to be visible in marketing efforts, viral videos, and interactions with key customer segments. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 08/19/2021.

Mentor 145

Mentor IBM IBM Social Media 145

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

Unfortunately, I often see goal misalignments with teams, such as marketing measured on sales volume, or sales measured on customer retention. The goal should always be coaching to solve problems, not blame assignment or negative feedback. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 10/27/2021.

Startup 132

Startup Training Metrics Examples 132