Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. But through nearly a decade of startups I learned that sales comes down to three essential elements: 1.

Sales 319

Sales Startup Platform Tips 319

Berkonomics

JUNE 2, 2022

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? Few of your contacts will be willing to use their valuable social or political capital helping you with a sales effort, and you will definitely strain your relationship with the intermediary if not a close friend.

Ideas 156

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 31, 2023

Selecting the right sales channels is one of the first strategic decisions that every startup faces. Nurturing stage email performance. That makes it easier to collect results indicators, including number of emails sent, open rate, click rate, and email bounce rates. Don’t just use these in isolation.

Metrics 102

Metrics Demand Paramount Content 102

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

The short answer is that you should have multiple versions of your “pitch deck” (a short, visual presentation in Keynote, PPT or similar and shared as a PDF) and each occasion has a specific goal. Remember that the goal of an email to a VC or an introduction from a trusted mutual connection is simply to get you the meeting.

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 27, 2018

Almost anyone who has sold a company has a story to tell about their good deal, the problems with the buyer, a last-minute change of terms, or more. I’ve been offered $15 million for my company and my partner is suing me for all I am worth. How the industry was growing around the company. The background for my story.

Sales 120

Sales Web Design Web Design 120

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

And the cost to the company of those meetings? . Staggering, if you take into account the lost production time of those present, not just the salary cost. Email readers, continue here…] The concept of a scrum is a good one to use in many cases of immediate need to coordinate a working group.

Conference 177

Conference Email Report Sales 177

Berkonomics

JULY 26, 2018

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

Sales 226

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 226

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2020

Selecting the right sales channels is one of the first strategic decisions that every startup faces. Nurturing stage email performance. That makes it easier to collect results indicators, including number of emails sent, open rate, click rate, and email bounce rates. Don’t just use these in isolation.

Marketing 174

Marketing Invest Demand Metrics 174

Berkonomics

JULY 11, 2013

There is such leverage in high gross profit margins once a company is past breakeven. A ten percent increase in revenues for a company with 50% gross margin and 5% net profit before the increase would double net profit for the period with that ten percent increase in revenue. That’s impressive sales leverage.

.Net 207

.Net Sales Tool Social Network 207

Berkonomics

JUNE 15, 2017

From the moment such an investor looks seriously at your company, the investor or VC partner is thinking of the end game, the ultimate sale of the company or even of an eventual initial public offering. So be aware that professional investors are in your company for the eventual large profits at the liquidity event.

Venture Capital 243

Venture Capital Sales Invest Class 243

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 18, 2018

Managers almost always believe that stakeholders understand the pressures of the business and the circumstance of the present. And it is that disconnected employee, usually one or more of the better performers, that starts looking for a job when times look bad for a company. The chasm between management and employees.

Layoffs 240

Layoffs Class News Email 240

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

There’s the sale of a company, where as a board member, I asked the CEO to name his asking price and then go home and wait the result. There’s the disengagement with an angry employee threating to sue the company. Email readers, continue here…] All of the above issues are personal to a CEO, founder or entrepreneur.

Pricing 156

Pricing Examples Training Email 156

Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2018

There are those in the recruiting industry that have attempted to do so and depending upon the size of the company and the position replaced, seeming to settle upon astronomical lost costs that overwhelm most of our ability to understand. Everyone but the sales VP was present as anticipated.

Training 226

Training Course Sales IBM 226

Berkonomics

MAY 24, 2018

Years ago, when I was CEO of my record manufacturing company in Hollywood, I happened to walk around the plant into the press room just as Bobby, one of the employees’ favorite coworkers, was offering stolen merchandise to his fellow pressmen from a bag he was carrying. How your decisions affect your company.

Press 226

Press Hollywood Email Organization 226

Tech.Co

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Currently, TikTok relies heavily on digital advertising to bring in revenue, although this has not been as reliable of a profit stream in recent months as it has previously and is forcing the company to look for alternative ways to make money. Please fill in your email. Get the latest tech news, straight to your inbox.

Social Media 148

Social Media Startup Commerce News 148

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know that you can use an email system with this to track my open rate, whether I forwarded the email, the IP address where I read it, whether I was on a mobile device or a wired computer and you can tell who else read the document. after all you aren’t presenting this at TED. I’ll explain why in this post.

Funding 239

Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

Tech Zulu Event

JULY 8, 2011

The Spotlight is shining down these amazing LA companies! And now without further ado I present the Spotlight: LA Tech Summer Winners: Spotlight Companies. It gives music companies a direct pipeline to market their products and services to music fans. 10 min per presenter). wonder what that might be?

CalTech 100

CalTech Technical Review Company Companies 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2010

Thursday night was the unveiling of the newest batch of Launchpad LA companies. We held a 90-minute demo session where 150 of LA’s VC’s and senior technology executives watched the LPLA V2 group present in small groups of 12-15 each. Have a look at the companies below.

Company 276

Company Companies Startup Southern California 276

Berkonomics

JUNE 27, 2019

Especially in your growing company, you are drawn into daily process issues by all of your direct reports, often responding to questions and problems, leaving little time for strategic thought. We often ask our sales people to “find the pain” and show how our product solves that pain problem. That’s bad behavior! Find the pain.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Course Email 120

Berkonomics

JUNE 11, 2020

Solar panel installations break even only after over years of use, even with subsidies offered by the electric companies or by the Federal government. And adoption of solar technology for home and business was relatively slow until solar companies began offering systems as rentals with guaranteed returns.

Examples 156

Examples .Net Pricing Email 156

Berkonomics

MAY 2, 2019

So, you’re managing all that work, all those interruptions, all those texts and pesky emails. So, where do you get those sparks of genius that could change your company and change the world? They search for areas unexplored, or those covered by companies with less of a vision for quality, service or innovation. Sound familiar?

Email 120

Email Training Entrepreneur Sales 120

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

Sales people are incentivized by money. They usually are able to calculate what’s in it for them before they make the final presentation and ask for the order. First, forget the extremes in cost of goods or labor costs for the sake of ease in calculation – and for more effective motivation for the sales staff.

Sales 120

Sales Pricing Email Examples 120

Berkonomics

JANUARY 31, 2019

Let’s dive a little deeper and present some “gray area” scenarios to consider. And because there was consideration paid to you in the sale, that clause is binding upon you and is effective almost everywhere. The estate of the bankrupt company retains and can resell those rights into the infinite future.

Patents 120

Patents Sales Product Email 120

Berkonomics

JANUARY 31, 2019

Let’s dive a little deeper and present some “gray area” scenarios to consider. And because there was consideration paid to you in the sale, that clause is binding upon you and is effective almost everywhere. The estate of the bankrupt company retains and can resell those rights into the infinite future.

Patents 120

Patents Sales Product Email 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Many MBA programs still cater too much to the needs of large, corporate management jobs or prepare students to enter big consulting companies or investments banks. I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. My guess is that we are likely in total agreement.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

After presenting a “state of the company” report at a national meeting of resellers for a company where I sat on the board, I was approached by one of the audience members, complimenting my presentation and stating, “I have a problem. The company of eight was engaged in web design, hot at the time.

Sales 149

Sales Web Design Web Entrepreneur 149

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2021

Businesses want experienced people who get their hands dirty, rather than experts who give presentations, make recommendations, and disappear. An approach I suggest these days is for freelancers to contract for the actual role, probably part-time, of startup CFO, VP of Sales, or President. Let’s face it, consultants have a bad image.

Startup 150

Startup Slides Email Customer 150

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

Email readers, continue here…] Whatever the problem, the person or board to whom you report does not want to hear about it after it has become a threat to the enterprise. Three weeks later, the Board received a communication from the CEO that the company had only weeks of cash left and immediately needed another round.

News 120

News Statistics Resource Sales 120

socalTECH

MARCH 1, 2018

This year, we're again sponsoring the Recurring Revenue Conference (www.recurringrevenueconference.com), presented by Sutton Capital Partners. Whether that's our help desk, our account managers, or even the sales guys, to a certain degree, we put the customer first.We Kevin Anderson: I think a couple of things. Kevin Anderson.

Customer 113

Customer Custom Services Conference 113

Berkonomics

JANUARY 26, 2017

The most striking example was the one hundred–million–dollar purchase of one of my companies by a New York private equity investor using only five million of its cash. Email readers, continue here…] There are so many ways to satisfy a seller, sometimes a seller’s ego, by making a price seem higher than the reality of the purchase.

Pricing 120

Pricing Sales Tool Equity 120

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

Email readers, continue here…] Over the years, I have been delegated by more than several entrepreneurs and boards to negotiate critical agreements, sometimes to sell the company or merge it with another. Removing the emotion from a negotiation. A story of a big win-win.

Pricing 120

Pricing Sales Tool Entrepreneur 120

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 7, 2019

Email readers, continue here…] Over the years, I have been delegated by more than several entrepreneurs and boards to negotiate critical agreements, sometimes to sell the company or merge it with another. Removing the emotion from a negotiation. A story of a big win-win.

Pricing 120

Pricing Sales Tool Entrepreneur 120

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? Every sales person with a bit of street history will resonate with this question. Email readers, continue here…] Using your attorney or accountant to find who is close to the decision maker sometimes works.

Ideas 120

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 120

Berkonomics

JULY 9, 2011

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

Sales 222

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 222

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 24, 2011

I have long wanted to write about FNAC (feature, not a company) because it’s part of my normal lexicon to push teams that present to me to think harder about where the economics in their industry is coming from. It somehow implied that they “weren’t a real company&# in some people’s eyes. It lingered.

Email 270

Email Writing Blogging Competition 270

Berkonomics

AUGUST 20, 2015

I thought of this in a recent liquidity event in one of my portfolio companies. The company provides identity theft protection, and took a large round from a private equity firm, which returned about eight times investment in cash to the early angels, and still left them with all their stock in the deal, an outstanding result.

Equity 120

Equity Email Sales Invest 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2022

I know companies who collect sensitive data from consumers all the time, and still seem to keep a trusted image (Amazon.com, Ebay). Here are a few specifics on how to be part of the solution, without the costs, rather than part of the problem: Put a personal face and address on your site; don’t hide behind an “info” email address.

Custom 137

Custom Customer Technical Review Symantec 137