Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2023

I saw the key ones outlined well in the classic book, “ Creating High Performers ,” by William Dann, a leading coach to experienced CEOs. Your standards for product quality, sales growth, and customer satisfaction must be documented and reviewed prior to results and performance reviews.

Coach 93

Coach Satisfaction Resource Entrepreneur 93

socalTECH

APRIL 4, 2013

That''s what Los Angeles-based FieldLevel (www.fieldlevel.com) has been working on, making it easier for coaches to network and exchange information on athletes. Brenton Sullivan: What we are is a private social network and platform for coaches to connect with each other, to exchange information on athletes. What is that process?

Coach 252

Coach USC Statistics Startup 252

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2020

New product process. Training and coaching. Ongoing coaching from the top is essential to maintain the attitude and spirit. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions. Make sure all team members have some connection with the product – has either used it, or sold it, or assembled it.

Coach 144

Coach Metrics Social Network Competition 144

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2022

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Sales 147

Sales Metrics Guide Startup 147

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences. Of course, some balance is required.

Coach 128

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 128

TechCrunch LA

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

In 2019, the company came out with its first product, Kelp Jerky, which comes in four flavors, and was a product Boyd Myers thought would be a good trial run to help people see ocean-farmed kelp in a new way. We went back to the drawing board during the pandemic on a new product and invented The Kelp Burger.”.

Startup 191

Startup Los Angeles Sample Funding 191

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 7, 2020

I saw the key ones outlined well in the classic book, “ Creating High Performers ,” by William Dann, a leading coach to experienced CEOs. Your standards for product quality, sales growth, and customer satisfaction must be documented and reviewed prior to results and performance reviews.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction Resource 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2022

One of the dysfunctions I often see in my coaching and mentoring work with small businesses is team member burnout. The impact is low employee engagement , low productivity, and ultimately business failure or lack of growth. Organization acts without fairness and respect.

Coach 120

Coach Organization Demand Resource 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Much has been written about this subject in the world of manufacturing, stemming primarily from the 1990’s work by Taiichi Ohno, called the Toyota Production System (“Lean”). Lack of communication.

Startup 161

Startup Resource Training Entrepreneur 161

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2012

All the experts these days are talking about the increasing need for customer focus and maximizing sales. Typically entrepreneurs and even professional sales people think this means more emphasis on the customer selling process, when in fact it really means spending more time understanding the customer buying process (view from the customer).

Sales 96

Sales Customer Custom Competition 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2022

They skimp on the design of their website, procrastinate on the rollout to make sure the product is perfect, and get so excited about technology features that they forget about creating value for customers. I like the guidance from marketing coach David Newman’s classic book “ Do It! Don’t waste your time following up.

Marketing 141

Marketing Startup Social Media Technical Review 141

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2011

All the experts these days are talking about the increasing need for customer focus and maximizing sales. Typically entrepreneurs and even professional sales people think this means more emphasis on the customer selling process, when in fact it means spending more time understanding the customer buying process (view from the customer).

Sales 93

Sales Customer Custom Competition 93

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

The result is a loss of trust by your team, increased volatility, and lower productivity by all members of the team. Unfortunately, I often see goal misalignments with teams, such as marketing measured on sales volume, or sales measured on customer retention. Delegate control commensurate with accountability.

Startup 132

Startup Training Metrics Examples 132

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

They will often run all of the daily reports into them covering off for finance, sales, marketing, biz dev & HR. Many times they also pick up product and tech, too. Often times you find the CEO who really just likes to do product or tech. Similarly I talk to CEOs who can’t do a sales pipeline review with me.

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Women have made great inroads into the tech world in recent years, but there remains a long way to go before we reach a truly equitable state of affairs in workforce numbers, remuneration and product development. Entity’s sweet spot is a bifurcated one, Schwab said in an interview.

Mentor 297

Mentor Training Startup Course 297

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 24, 2019

Sales people know the rules and play to win, celebrating each small success along the way. Or you will risk a backlash in which employees see the effort as merely a way to increase productivity in disguise, with no reward worth the effort. Be a good coach and be creative. And pause to celebrate each new first or top score.

Metrics 120

Metrics Competition Coach Email 120

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. Here is where I see this really play out: Product Management. Most CEOs fancy their own product skills and like to weigh in on priorities. CEOs often meddle in products and dev teams hate it.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

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. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements?

Startup 112

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 112

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

Early-stage entrepreneurs rightly keep their focus on creating an innovative product or service. Growth is more than simply repackaging existing products, and adding bells and whistles or slick incentives. Switch your attention from product development to sales. Separate marketing from sales for further leverage.

Startup 97

Startup Sales Metrics Guide 97

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). For you who fit that description, nice work. There is a lot to say about retaining control. It’s an option, even though an expensive one.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

Over time you start to figure out who you customers are and how to sell to them or how to get them to adopt your products if you’re a consumer-oriented startup. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. how to build an initial sales organization. how to market our products and company.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2018

New product process. Training and coaching. Ongoing coaching from the top is essential to maintain the attitude and spirit. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions. Make sure all team members have some connection with the product – has either used it, or sold it, or assembled it.

Entrepreneur 64

Entrepreneur Coach Metrics Competition 64

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2019

Image via Pexels Every business needs repeatable processes to grow and thrive, but modern business processes need the right people to make them efficient and productive. In addition, today’s customers judge a company by perceived people relationships through social media, phone conversations, and sales experiences.

Coach 94

Coach Organization Mentor Startup 94

socalTECH

MAY 30, 2019

What we saw with CareerArc, was there was already a tremendous amount of investment in the middle of the market, with all of these different services and products that went into taking care of an employee when they were hired until they were let go. You've got to have great sales enablement. Your finance has to be world class.

Content 193

Content Social Network Coach Help 193

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. This can save them grief, as well as reduce your own marketing and sales costs.

Customer 96

Customer Custom Coach Pricing 96

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2016

Increasingly I find myself engaging executive coaches at companies an trying to help executive teams get 360 degree feedback. The best leaders I know encourage coaches to come in and are willing to listen to feedback about themselves. In fact, I’d observe that most board meetings don’t on this important topic.

Coach 150

Coach Technical Review Framework Google 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

VCs should be more of a coach than proscriptively telling you what to do. Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. I think of VCs as coaches. I call them “ VCs Seagulls.” Connections? EQ and Team Leadership?

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2022

The classic book, “ Hunting in a Farmer's World: Celebrating the Mind of an Entrepreneur ,” by serial entrepreneur and business coach John F. Only a few of these slide into farming, as the company grows in employees and products. Dini makes the case that entrepreneurs are hunters, while the rest of us (large majority) are farmers.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Marketing News Slides 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2021

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. Engaged people are more productive than your best process. Only people can look ahead and prepare for the future.

Satisfaction 154

Satisfaction Demand Resource Competition 154

Berkonomics

MAY 16, 2019

Certainly Walmart, Target and others have gotten the attention of their potential customers using price as the primary leader to drive sales. The iPad created an entirely new market segment from what was for over a decade a sleepy niche computer tablet market dominated by a few small-selling products aimed at niche markets.

Company 120

Company Companies Pricing Competition 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2023

In this context, I was impressed with the insights provided in a new book, “ Stay Sane In An Insane World ,” by peak performance coach Greg Harden. In business, these cover the gamut from vision, creativity, innovation, to sales, financial management, and negotiation. We all have strengths and weaknesses.

Mentor 104

Mentor Startup Coach Satisfaction 104

Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2018

First, the costs for under-performance are both tangible and intangible, with lost revenues, lost opportunities, lost savings and loss of productivity from low employee morale difficult to estimate. Everyone but the sales VP was present as anticipated. That is a shock in so many ways. A personal story illustrates the point too well.

Training 226

Training Course Sales IBM 226

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2022

Becoming a totally connected business leader is a very different challenge from building a product, or defining a good strategy. For example, Yvon Chouinard, when he was growing Patagonia , recognized a serious interest in helping the environment, and capitalized on it by dedicating a percent of sales to environmental protection.

Mentor 108

Mentor Social Media Coach Customer 108

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2023

With pervasive access to social media, customers no longer differentiate poor product repair and replacement from a poor shopping experience or customer usage satisfaction. Your challenge is to excel in all elements of a customer interaction, from pre-sales to long-term advocacy and image. Inflexible processes.

Competition 109

Competition Services Customer Custom 109

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. If you can’t identify customer interest, it doesn’t matter how good your product is. Have you projected sales and marketing costs, cash flow, and capital requirements?

Startup 156

Startup Coach Metrics Marketing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2020

Many of the entrepreneurs like you that I have met in my role as a business advisor are really product creators versus business creators, convinced that a great product will generate a great business. In most businesses, this means selling something, and proving that your product or service has value.

Metrics 140

Metrics Entrepreneur Coach Satisfaction 140

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2016

New product process. Training and coaching. Ongoing coaching from the top is essential to maintain the attitude and spirit. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions. Make sure all team members have some connection with the product – has either used it, or sold it, or assembled it.

Coach 64

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 64