Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2010

This is part of my ongoing Sales & Marketing Series. In the first part of this post I talked about how sales in a startup is often evangelical , requires as consultative sale and needs constant adjustments based on customer feedback. We had 4 or 5 sales reps that had been around since the early days.

Sales 286

Sales Newsletter Technical Review Activity 286

Berkonomics

APRIL 18, 2019

So, here’s one to help you with squeezing the most out of your own available resources. For example: Hire a great sales person then fail to support him or her with a good marketing effort or a properly priced quality product, and that person will be set up to fail, and for reasons you might have fixed.

Help 120

Help Resource Product Email 120

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

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). Strategic investors validate a business, by their presence creating the very value they pay for with increased price per share purchased.

Venture Capital 295

Venture Capital Startup Class Invest 295

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Sales/Marketing.

Sales 102

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 102

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 5, 2015

In his premier film appearance in the blaxploitation send-up “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” Chris Rock inadvertently addresses a key pricing challenge faced by most entrepreneurs. Watch this 93-second clip and see if you can identify the pricing pitfall addressed in this humorous snippet. Price = Value. How Much For A Rib?

Pricing 100

Pricing Product Startup Customer 100

Berkonomics

MAY 16, 2019

There are five niches you can chose when defining your positioning strategy: price, quality, service, innovation, and elegance. Pricing strategies differentiate your business. First, and easiest to understand, is creating differentiation by price. Most anyone else can meet or beat your price any time they wish.

Company 120

Company Companies Pricing Competition 120

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 21, 2021

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. Some obvious qualifiers.

Design 156

Design Examples Competition Pricing 156

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2023

I recognized this as I was reading the classic book, ” The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need ,” by Anthony Iannarino, who is an international sales leader and expert on optimizing results. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Value is far more than cost versus price.

Startup 154

Startup Sales Entrepreneur Customer 154

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

On the other hand, the biggest winners will turn out to be much larger than the prices people paid for them and this will happen faster than at any time in human history. at this scale it’s easier for us to help fund a seed extension. However, to be a great VC you have to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time.

Venture Capital 471

Venture Capital Writing Invest Pricing 471

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

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. That student is Erin McCann who formerly worked in sales at Google, so she has some ground to stand on in her assertions.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

It takes a long immersion in the marketplace for someone to be a true insider, understand the subtleties of the competitive landscape, recognize the people who are true assets (independent of titles), and look through the propaganda of technical collateral and PR campaigns. The sales professional. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 123

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 5, 2020

Constant search for ways to increase sales and profitability. More sales are the only way to reach real business success. Entrepreneurs relish change and new technology, which lead to new sales. The ideal customer is one who sees so much value that price is unimportant. Maintain a meaningful competitive advantage.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Sales Customer Custom 117

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. Quality can be, and is, an important differentiator.

Pricing 149

Pricing Competition Coach Sales 149

socalTECH

MAY 23, 2016

TrueCar said that Edmonds will help dealers across its network gain maximum value from the service. TrueCar has been in a big push this year to become more friendly to automotive dealers, many of whom have had a highly adversarial relationship with the company, due to its focus on price transparency and pricing competition.

Truecar 124

Truecar Marketing Santa Monica Pricing 124

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 19, 2015

Computers and the Internet have now brought in a new era that relies on data to make profitable business decisions in the competitive environment. Below is a full explanation of how small businesses can leverage technology to earn a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Cloud Services. Social Media Automation Tools.

Competition 40

Competition Technology Social Media Tips 40

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

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2023

As an advisor to many startups, I often spend hours with business owners helping them anticipate every possible obstacle to the adoption of their solution, and developing a rollout plan to include antidotes. Multiple decision makers required to close a sale. Direct and indirect costs of the solution seem high.

Case Study 89

Case Study Customer Custom Study 89

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2020

As an advisor to many startups, I often spend hours with business owners helping them anticipate every possible obstacle to the adoption of their solution, and developing a rollout plan to include antidotes. Multiple decision makers required to close a sale. Direct and indirect costs of the solution seem high.

Case Study 174

Case Study Startup Customer Custom 174

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 6, 2020

I recognized this as I was reading the classic book, ” The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need ,” by Anthony Iannarino, who is an international sales leader and expert on optimizing results. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Value is far more than cost versus price.

Entrepreneur 134

Entrepreneur Startup Sales Customer 134

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 9, 2020

It takes a long immersion in the marketplace for someone to be a true insider, understand the subtleties of the competitive landscape, recognize the people who are true assets (independent of titles), and look through the propaganda of technical collateral and PR campaigns. The sales professional. The financial suit.

Technical Advisors 123

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Startup High Tech 123

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

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2011

We are an offer-based platform that allows users to negotiate the price they buy and sell tickets for, on the secondary market. Educate us, and explain what's different about how you are handling ticket sales and how that's different from the many others out there? That's a completely inefficient way to price tickets.

Ticketmaster 253

Ticketmaster Pricing Sales Activity 253

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

MakeSpace (as he named it) would help you get your excess goods into low-cost warehouses. In the case of MakeSpace we had huge initial successes in New York City as Rahul led the scaling of our drivers, our trucks and our warehouses and we figured out the right price points to beat the local competition. were more distributed.

Startup 286

Startup Technical Review Customer Custom 286

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). Strategic investors validate a business, by their presence creating the very value they pay for with increased price per share purchased.

Venture Capital 266

Venture Capital Class Invest Equity 266

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. You know, frenemies. When Enemies are Good.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

Berkonomics

APRIL 30, 2015

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. Of course money motivates.

Design 120

Design Competition Pricing Sales 120

InfoChachkie

JULY 28, 2015

My House Is Not For Sale. Even the eccentric King of Pop communicated the price he was willing to pay for Neverland. Our response was that there was no “price” as our company was not for sale. What is your price?”. Do Nothing – Taking no action was the potent competition faced by Citrix.

Company 100

Company Companies Santa Barbara Pricing 100

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

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

In the old days, key employees were rotated through all roles as part of their training, to help them understand the business. Relationships also build loyalty, get referrals, and drive more sales. That customer experience is the best competitive advantage you can have, and the best predictor of long-term success.

Customer 147

Customer Custom Technical Review Metrics 147

socalTECH

APRIL 12, 2012

We partnered with the world's largest distributors, Ingram Micro and others, to provide great services, prices, and products to consumers. We have traditionally have focused on a product centric approach, where a consumer comes to our site to help find the lowest prices on a product easier. We're here to help them grow.

Sites 210

Sites Commerce Pricing Product 210

Tech.Co

NOVEMBER 17, 2017

Each week, TechCo features tech startups that can help streamline your daily life. PerfectCube is a retail data analytics platform that gives retail owners and managers quick access to meaningful data that helps them succeed in a highly competitive market. How do cloudy days affect sales? How do windy days affect sales?

Artificial Inteligence 93

Artificial Inteligence Startup Platform Training 93

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2013

In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. Customer technical personnel loved it, and it worked, so he was totally devastated when he couldn’t sell one for a “reasonable” price in the first two months of hard work.

Product 94

Product Pricing Customer Custom 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2021

Find out if something very similar is already selling, and who your competition would be if you proceed. Ask some potential customers to see if there is real interest, and start thinking about price versus cost. Before you get too excited, it’s time to do some homework. Look hard at the technology for feasibility and risk.

Ideas 136

Ideas Entrepreneur Mentor Resource 136

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 7, 2013

Business intelligence analyst IBIS World estimates that VDR industry sales will grow by 16% this year to nearly $730 million. But a lack of competition has also lead to a lack of innovation, resulting in low customer satisfaction and frequent complaints of difficult-to-use products. Steering Innovation In The $730 Million VDR Industry.

Mobile 91

Mobile Report Pricing Tool 91

Berkonomics

MAY 2, 2012

Here’s one to help you with squeezing the most out of your available resources. Hire a great sales person then fail to support him or her with a good marketing effort or a properly priced quality product, and that person will be set up to fail, and for reasons you might have fixed. The first “P” stands for people.

Resource 228

Resource Product Email Competition 228

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 20, 2018

I recognized this as I was reading the classic book, ” The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need ,” by Anthony Iannarino, who is an international sales leader and expert on optimizing results. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Value is far more than cost versus price.

Startup 98

Startup Sales Entrepreneur Customer 98