Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 21, 2013

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service expected. Train and coach continuously.

Customer 92

Customer Custom Startup Services 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2022

These authors reference real cases and real business leaders, based on their decades of experience in building companies and executive coaching. I offer here their summary of purposes and inspirations that have motivated existing business leaders, with insights from my own mentoring and coaching experience.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Coach Mentor Customer 143

Berkonomics

JUNE 15, 2012

One important element of positioning a company is pricing strategy. There are five niches you can chose when defining your positioning strategy: price, quality, service, innovation, and elegance. First, and easiest to understand, is creating differentiation by price. Service is a remarkable differentiator.

Pricing 149

Pricing Competition Coach Sales 149

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2023

Any startup coach or business advisor will tell you that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start your journey by inventing the ultimate entre. You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? But don’t practice too long.

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

socalTECH

MAY 30, 2019

I think, to be a great entrepreneur, you have to look at what is missing in the category that you will be playing in the industry, and figure what you can deploy with a little bit of strategy and technology to bring a better service and price. People were not just going to Google, they were looking all over the place.

Content 193

Content Social Network Coach Help 193

Berkonomics

JUNE 29, 2017

I was so enthusiastic that I coached the entrepreneur to approach his mother, who invested $50,000 under the same terms as my investment. The rest of us were shocked and disappointed that after weeks of work and a fair price, we were left with nothing but to follow his lead and disengage.

Invest 243

Invest Entrepreneur Sales Startup 243

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals. Marketing shapes the concept, branding, packaging, pricing, and positioning. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Certainly, bootstrapping is a preferred method of funding growth if it does not hold back the speed of growth or hobble the quality of product or service to the extent that better-funded competitors can overtake the business. There is a lot to say about retaining control. It is most often a win-win for both you and the strategic partner.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

Any startup coach or business advisor will tell you that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start your journey by inventing the ultimate entre. You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service. Have you set the right price for your entree, and correctly included all costs? But don’t practice too long.

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

He had an idea for a startup that would help consumers better book service jobs and would take on Service Magic, which he believed had a business model that could be disrupted. I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. When Ethan was considering leaving Google we talked about it.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2017

Most of the guidance you see for entrepreneurs is aimed at those who are selling a product (Apple, Tesla, Xiaomi), or selling a service (Uber, Airbnb, Snapchat). The challenges for making money and survival in these professional services worlds are different, maybe even tougher. Set pricing to assure both revenue and profit.

Social Media 56

Social Media Pricing Technical Review Demand 56

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2016

The days of pushing new and marginal performers into customer service are gone. A mission of superior customer service is more than words in the board room or words in front of customers. Provide coaching and mentoring as well as training. Every job on your team drives your customer experience.

Customer 55

Customer Custom Startup Coach 55

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals. Marketing shapes the concept, branding, packaging, pricing, and positioning. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 8, 2018

Any startup coach or business advisor will tell you that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start your journey by inventing the ultimate entre. You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service. Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? But don’t practice too long.

Startup 81

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 81

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

In practice it can be a fine line between sparring partner / coach and stepping over the line to brute-force persuasion. But where you need to be careful is in either “cutting side deals” with the execs such as huge CEO pricing discounts (unless that’s the agreed sales plan) or committing to features to win a deal.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

We had the final terms of our agreement fairly well boxed in within a range of about 5-7% on price and within 30 days on move-in date. I obviously preferred the lowest price and I wanted the latest move-in date. She told me, “start with the price you want but the move in date he wants.&#. I value the service they provide.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2016

Any startup coach or business advisor will tell you that, on your way to being a great chef, you don't start your journey by inventing the ultimate entre. You need a good cook, good marketing, and first-class service. Have you set the right price for your entrée, and correctly included all costs? But don’t practice too long.

Entrepreneur 93

Entrepreneur Startup Coach Metrics 93

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

I was so enthusiastic that I coached the entrepreneur to approach his mother, who invested $50,000 under the same terms as my investment. The rest of us were shocked and disappointed that after weeks of work and a fair price, we were left with nothing but to follow his lead and disengage.

Resource 149

Resource Startup Invest Entrepreneur 149

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2015

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals. Marketing shapes the concept, branding, packaging, pricing, and positioning. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Startup 108

Startup Sales Metrics Entrepreneur 108

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals. Marketing shapes the concept, branding, packaging, pricing, and positioning. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Startup 56

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 56

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2013

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Leaders are needed to coach each salesperson, keep the team on message, and spur new growth and goals. Marketing shapes the concept, branding, packaging, pricing, and positioning. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Sales 96

Sales Metrics Startup Entrepreneur 96

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2013

The portfolio should be much more than just product improvements, and should include better business models, customer service improvements, as well as continuous process improvements. Training is coaching, rather than criticizing, to improve the outcome next time. Set your standards very high. Train all the time.

Startup 101

Startup Training Study Customer 101

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Ask them for a meeting to review your pricing strategy with you. Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. Already covered.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2012

The portfolio should be much more than just product improvements, and should include better business models, customer service improvements, as well as continuous process improvements. Training is coaching, rather than criticizing, to improve the outcome next time. Set your standards very high. Train all the time.

Training 109

Training Startup Study Customer 109

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

I’ve spent hours this week reading about the firing of the head coach and personnel manager of the football team I support – The Philadelphia Eagles. His name was Chip Kelly and he came off of a very successful stint as the coach of the collegiate Oregon Ducks. This is something I try to coach against. Empowerment.

Startup 150

Startup Coach Course Invest 150

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 29, 2014

for a no ad experience – only a small price to pay compared to say a GPS watch. Another service is available called “MVP” and gives users more advanced maps options and additional features such as heart rate analysis, route genius, mobile coaching, and in-app camera to name a few.

Social Media 83

Social Media Activity Startup Help 83

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. Yes, I know it’s my job as the CEO to be the coach for people and that’s fine. The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Entrepreneurs are likewise well served to seek out and cultivate transitory relationships with service employees whom self-important professionals generally overlook, such as: waitresses, car rental agents, flight attendants and call-center agents. Without hesitating, he gladly knocked 20% off the price.

Class 100

Class Southern California Startup Slides 100

AeA Los Angeles Council

APRIL 10, 2008

Having been both a marketing & sales executive, I have seen first-hand how silos between these two departments can exist while products (or the sale of services) still "succeed" despite the rivalry. But there's a high price to pay when you consider that it affects the well-being of your company culture. Directors of Marketing.

Sales 45

Sales Marketing Woodland Hills AeA 45

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2010

In exchange for all partner services, they generally receive a discount of up to fifty percent from prevailing US list prices. He resides on the West Coast, and has long helped entrepreneurs there, as well as providing turn-around assistance as interim CEO, and International coaching.

Startup 85

Startup Outsource Development Training Resource 85

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

Ramdani said that astrologers have been particularly successful on Snipfeed, since fans can book a variety of asynchronous services at a wide range of prices.

Platform 286

Platform Commerce Startup Tool 286

Tech Coast Venture Network

AUGUST 11, 2015

Great benefits and a workplace that is fun and dedicated to making customers happy all fit in with the Zappos approach to company culture — when you get the company culture right, great customer service and a great brand will happen on its own. Takeaway: Zappos hires according to cultural fit first and foremost. Southwest Airlines.

Examples 100

Examples Company Companies Google 100

Tech Coast Venture Network

AUGUST 11, 2015

Great benefits and a workplace that is fun and dedicated to making customers happy all fit in with the Zappos approach to company culture — when you get the company culture right, great customer service and a great brand will happen on its own. Takeaway: Zappos hires according to cultural fit first and foremost. Southwest Airlines.

Examples 100

Examples Company Companies Google 100

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 24, 2011

John Wooden, US basketball coach. A down market results in a much higher propensity for companies to negotiate below their list prices and to even barter for in-kind services. Measure Thrice, Cut Once. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”. That is correct, do not measure twice – measure thrice.

Company 257

Company Companies Startup Study 257

socalTECH

JULY 29, 2009

Milo Sindell: In terms of business model, it's a subscription service. More recently, we licensed our platform to leadership guru Marshall Goldsmith, so that he could transform his $200,000 coaching engagements into a virtual program, so that a much wider audience could benefit from Marshall's process and work.

Geni 100

Geni Web Guide Platform 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2019

Traditionally, you just worried about the quality of the sales transaction (price, speed, service), but the “customer experience” now includes ease of pre-sale shopping, post-sale support, with a connected relationship throughout. Provide useful prompting to prevent future pain. Anticipate and meet customer needs not yet realized.

Customer 96

Customer Custom Coach Pricing 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2012

Find the C-level executives behind the scenes, or the key influencers, or the personal relationship connections that can override simple price and benefit arguments. Provide coaching early in the sales process; avoid last minute interventions. Often the real buy decision is not made by the person doing the interaction.

Sales 96

Sales Customer Custom Competition 96