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

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Here is a sample of the reading list for the course that gives you a flavor for just how modern and practical this course is. Jeff (also an HBS alum) co-teaches the LTV course with Professor Eisenmann about a student of theirs who had written a blog post about sales taking on some of my previous assertions.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

Competitiveness - One attribute that I believe most VCs look for in entrepreneurs is competitiveness. If you stumble on to a really good idea believe me it will get competitive really quickly. I know that people who aren’t competitive always find competitive people slightly distasteful. I had to say it.

Competition 296

Competition Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners 296

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2022

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Of course, both you and they will make mistakes, which are the best learning experiences.

Customer 146

Customer Custom Startup Course 146

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2014

The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. Of course, one sale isn’t really enough, so you need to get the first customer to recommend you to a second, and make sure the rate of sales ramps up quickly enough to keep the business alive and growing.

Sales 99

Sales Customer Custom Entrepreneur 99

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2021

Of course, no business wants to be the next Blockbuster , which kept charging straight ahead despite subtle clues that the Internet was changing everything. When sales fall off, you need to dig deep for the “why,” rather than just assuming the price needs to go down. Scan for unmet needs to match new products.

Marketing 162

Marketing Social Media Metrics Customer 162

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 7, 2021

The basic alignment framework of strategy, customers, people, and processes hasn’t changed, but the pace of technological, competitive, and social change has increased at an amazing rate. Make sure the inspiration that launched your vision isn’t lost in the course of a pivot or market change. Revisit your startup vision and values.

Social Media 143

Social Media Startup Framework Course 143

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. Of course, one sale isn’t really enough, so you need to get the first customer to recommend you to a second, and make sure rate of sales ramps up quickly enough to keep the business alive and growing.

Sales 96

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 96

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. Of course, one sale isn’t really enough, so you need to get the first customer to recommend you to a second, and make sure rate of sales ramps up quickly enough to keep the business alive and growing.

Sales 97

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 97

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

The path I went down after a few years was to hire more process driven people and devolved more daily operational ownership to people running individual functions such as product management, sales management, finance, etc. One of the most obvious places where you see this is in sales & marketing. Ditto the CFO.

Sales 296

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 296

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today: 1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. That’s stupid.

Startup 336

Startup Pricing Technical Review Marketing 336

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Of course, both you and they will make mistakes, which are the best learning experiences.

Customer 124

Customer Custom Startup Course 124

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 15, 2010

The real milestone, proving the business model, is that first product sold for full price to a total stranger, leaving him happy. Of course, one sale isn’t really enough, so you need to get the first customer to recommend you to a second, and make sure rate of sales ramps up quickly enough to keep the business alive and growing.

Sales 91

Sales Startup Customer Custom 91

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 27, 2010

Conventional wisdom in most companies is that “the competition is the enemy&# – it’s the rallying cry to dig deeper, get more features out the door, issue press releases citing differences and attack the competition’s weaknesses in sales presentations. Of course they’re software.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

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

DECEMBER 27, 2011

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 sales reps in January at $120,000 / year salary then you’ve taken on an extra $60,000 per month in costs yet these sales people might not close new business for 4-6 months. “COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 418

Startup Venture Capital Sales Technical Review 418

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 16, 2022

Of course, growth is implied in that equation, and is also required for maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. You might sell one of two of your widgets for $1 million each, entering profitability immediately, but then die because you can’t grow sales at that price.

Platform 118

Platform Snapchat Startup Course 118

Berkonomics

APRIL 30, 2015

Of course money motivates. Salaries or hourly wages must be within reasonable limits set by the industry and matched by the competition, both regionally and for the same job classification. And there are some industries where tools such as stock options are considered mandatory for a company to be competitive. What a title.

Design 120

Design Competition Pricing Sales 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

The most important advice I could give you before you set out in fund raising mode is to understand that fund-raising a sales & marketing process and needs to be managed. Somehow many first-time founders equate “sales” with something that is beneath them. In sales there are also three rules: Qualify, qualify, qualify.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

My background is I was a sales rep in this industry for fourteen years, with Nikon. We've created an alternative, a hybrid microscope for the price of one. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note. So how was it you were able to ramp up sales so quickly?

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 124

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

As the school year kicks off for college students, one of the big tasks of the year is buying books for their courses. Every price comparison out there, whether that's Google Products, Bizrate, or other sites, can find books, but you can only do it one at a time. Jonathan Simkin: Certainly, it is extremely competitive.

UCSD 185

UCSD Course Startup Sites 185

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Of course, there are no guarantees, but I still see otherwise smart entrepreneurs taking shortcuts in their hiring, or jumping into business relationships based on emotion or low cost. Funding is depleted before customer sales ramp up. Your customers and competition make unexpected moves. The world today never stands still.

Startup 131

Startup Entrepreneur Examples Customer 131

socalTECH

APRIL 26, 2017

My background is I was a sales rep in this industry for fourteen years, with Nikon. We've created an alternative, a hybrid microscope for the price of one. We got first place in that competition, and they followed up with a $2M investment in the form of a convertible note. So how was it you were able to ramp up sales so quickly?

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels Startup Sales Slides 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 28, 2018

If a consumer will pay a fixed price for a product or service then the battle over who gets the margin in any sale is between the person who merchandises a product and the person who manufactures it. Many of us learned about substitute products in undergrad economics courses. Here are some ideas of what I believe matters.

Product 296

Product Course Customer Custom 296

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Of course it makes no sense to have great people management and a crappy product. But I would posit that in order to sustainably build great products in an intensely competitive industry with skills shortages – people management is one of the most critical soft skills organizations need. And, yes, it is politics at its purest.

Startup 340

Startup Technical Review Course Press 340

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2015

The initial Apple/AT&T deal was of course limited to the geography in which AT&T operated and thus after its initial success Apple had a template for exclusivity agreements in other countries. Why Exclusivity Matters to Your Customers or Business Development Partners. Why Exclusivity Gives You Extra Leverage in a Negotiation.

Outsource Development 150

Outsource Development Startup Customer Custom 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2014

Last year at this time I spoke at VidCon and gave this presentation in which I said YouTube was “the Walmart of Online Video” but I also commented that I felt YouTube was vulnerable to competition because their rev share to MCNs wasn’t high enough to allow MCNs to build a profitable business inside of YouTube.

Invest 291

Invest Content Media Networking 291

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 17, 2013

For starters, here is my selection of some key metrics that every six-sigma joint like GE tracks without thinking, but that too many small businesses haven’t yet formalized: Sales revenue. Of course, everyone is happy when the numbers keep going up, but the data needs to be mined constantly for deeper meanings and trends.

Metrics 100

Metrics Technical Review Sales Customer 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

Here is my selection of ten key metrics that every six-sigma joint like GE tracks without thinking, but too many small businesses only monitor haphazardly, if at all: Sales revenue. Sales is simply defined as income from customer purchases of goods and services, minus the cost associated with things like returned or undeliverable merchandise.

Metrics 106

Metrics Startup Sales Statistics 106

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 30, 2015

Almost instantly, via the Internet or on their smartphone in the store, they can find the lowest price alternative or their favorite features, without waiting for push marketing or listening to your best sales person. Of course, both you and they will make mistakes, which are the best learning experiences.

Customer 101

Customer Custom Startup Course 101

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 22, 2018

As for what will happen at the store, Fifth Wall’s Adam Demuyakor tells me “There will be deployment of scooters, charging of scooters, and some sales of apparel and accessories that are related. And with similarly cheap pricing, the decision of which to use comes down to brand affinity.

Santa Monica 221

Santa Monica Startup Technical Review Education 221

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

The vision part is fine, but successful entrepreneurs have found that the extreme uncertainty of a new product or service usually requires many course corrections, or “pivots” to find a successful formula. Channel pivots usually require unique pricing, feature, and competitive positioning adjustments. Channel pivot.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Startup Platform Customer 102

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 25, 2016

So when Sam Rosen came to me with the idea of disrupting storage with a product that is priced cheaper than existing incumbents and he could build a product that is a better service I was intrigued. billion in sales and thus controls less than 10% of the market. The US market is worth more than $25 billion and Europe is the same.

Startup 150

Startup Marketing Study SEO 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 27, 2017

Every new business or product owner wants to attract the broadest possible audience, so they are prone to adding more features, multiple sales channels, and appealing to every demographic. Now, of course, they all do much more, but those things came later. Realistically characterize the competition.

Entrepreneur 63

Entrepreneur Competition Customer Custom 63

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 27, 2018

Of course, you wouldn’t include this data in your customer product pitch. Business model showing costs, pricing, and margins. Potential investors love to see gross margins in the fifty percent range or greater, with recurring revenue through subscriptions, follow-on sales, or services.

Product 58

Product Slides Entrepreneur Invest 58

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 1, 2013

Learning experience includes: on-demand online video tutorial courses, live video-conference workshops, as well as individual online consultations, live workshops, and group programs. Mike’s work in sales, marketing, distribution, and business development is essential to customer acquisition, growth, and scalability. How does it work?

Web 93

Web USC Course Guide 93

InfoChachkie

MARCH 16, 2010

My House Is Not For Sale. Even the eccentric King of Pop communicated the price he was willing to pay. Our response was that there was no “price” as our company was not for sale. As we were not engaged in selling our company, a “price” was nonexistent. What is that price?”. free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Company 160

Company Companies Pricing Santa Barbara 160