Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2021

Ask everyone to update their resume, and personally call probable references, so there are no surprises. That means questioning each of these key players, and calling references or prior associates. Sales and marketing strategy. If everyone gives a different story, you have no story. Personnel situation is stable.

Technical Review 152

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 152

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

A small advisory board of outside people with experience in your domain can give you the unbiased feedback you need, as well as connections for setting up distribution and sales channels. Focus on collecting customer references. Talk to industry experts and investors. Plan and execute a pilot or local rollout.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Pricing Software Review Customer 88

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk.

Software Review 154

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 154

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

A small advisory board of outside people with experience in your domain can give you the unbiased feedback you need, as well as connections for setting up distribution and sales channels. Focus on collecting customer references. Talk to industry experts and investors. Plan and execute a pilot or local rollout.

Product 159

Product Technical Review Pricing Software Review 159

Tech.Co

MAY 31, 2023

But while competition remains fierce, the advancement and accessibility of smart solutions are making it easy than ever for startups to find their feet. Best Communication Tools for Startups Communication tools refer to any type of technology that helps businesses stay connected. Here are a couple of our favorites. From its 4.3-inch

Tool 126

Tool Startup Software Review Technical Review 126

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

Hiring requirements must be anticipated and implemented with the same precision and tracking as manufacturing volumes, sales leads, and customer service. Your gut-feelings are important, but need to be validated by normal background and reference checks. Hiring before organizational structure is defined. Quick to hire and slow to fire.

Organization 104

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 104

Berkonomics

JUNE 27, 2019

[Email readers, continue here…] We all remember the story of FedEx, where future customers didn’t know they wanted “absolutely, positively overnight” until they saw what that could do to make their businesses more competitive. We often ask our sales people to “find the pain” and show how our product solves that pain problem.

Customer 120

Customer Custom Course Email 120

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). 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. Connections?

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2022

It refers to multiplication factors that occur when complementary actions or approaches are used together for greater impact. Any increase in brand recognition, as well as personal connections, is a multiplier to your existing marketing and sales efforts. Marty Zwilling First published on Inc.com on 7/19/2022.

Marketing 119

Marketing Social Media Mentor Conference 119

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 4, 2020

Hiring requirements must be anticipated and implemented with the same precision and tracking as manufacturing volumes, sales leads, and customer service. Your gut-feelings are important, but need to be validated by normal background and reference checks. Hiring before organizational structure is defined. Quick to hire and slow to fire.

Organization 135

Organization Satisfaction Entrepreneur Screening 135

socalTECH

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Those references drive trillions of dollars of commerce. We're really latching onto the growing trend of building products that detect product references in social messaging. We automatically add tracking and point those product references to e-commerce merchants. They're doing that billions of times a day.

San Diego 159

San Diego Social Media Commerce Snapchat 159

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. Call out your top competitors, highlighting your sustainable competitive advantage, including patents, trade secrets. and trademarks.

Product 169

Product Summary Startup Examples 169

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 3, 2012

This refers to a change from an application to a platform, or vice versa. This refers to the monetization or revenue model. In sales terminology, the mechanism by which a company delivers it product to customers is called the sales channel or distribution channel. Platform pivot. You can’t do both at the same time.

Course 109

Course Startup Platform Entrepreneur 109

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 17, 2015

Make sure everyone accurately posts their role with your startup on social media profiles, resumes, and references. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. For reference, here is a quick summary of key elements which most investors include in their due diligence process: Key personnel review.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Entrepreneur 108

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2018

controlling your psychology ) you no doubt have heard me say that raising capital is a sales & marketing process. This is Sales 101. If you’ve read any of my ongoing series on fund raising from venture capitalist (episode 1?— ?controlling that’s a lot riding on your pitch and the willingness of the sponsoring partner to advocate.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Technical Review Invest Slides 314

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales. The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk.

Software Review 88

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 88

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

This refers to a change from an application to a platform, or vice versa. This refers to the monetization or revenue model. In sales terminology, the mechanism by which a company delivers it product to customers is called the sales channel or distribution channel. Platform pivot. You can’t do both at the same time.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Startup Platform Customer 102

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. Gather some representative customer contacts, and give them your best sales pitch, including price, channel, and support. Get a reference customer. Use focus groups. Marty Zwilling.

Product 94

Product Pricing Customer Custom 94

InfoChachkie

APRIL 13, 2015

Because I am cheap and I know that car dealers are incentivized by the manufacturer to hit quarterly and annual sales goals. Thus, the value of a sale at the end of a quarter can be significant, if the sale contributes to obtaining a manufacturer''s incentive. Avoid The End-Of-The-Quarter Trou Drop.

Pricing 100

Pricing Startup Sales SaaS 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2015

None should be considered competitive mutually exclusive to any other. Traditional marketing is sales-focused, one-way push. This will insert your brand into the online and offline conversations, drive traffic, and drive sales, at the lowest possible marketing cost. These give good customer connection and SEO.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Marketing Resource 108

Frank Addante

OCTOBER 3, 2013

CRM companies like Salesforce.com used to refer to themselves as Sales Force Automation (SFA) companies. SFA essentially replaced an old system of spreadsheets for contact management, forecasting, sales pipeline organization and sales management. Sales reps, however, were resistant. The benefits are clear.

Advertising 76

Advertising Sales Organization Customer 76

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2012

In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. Gather some representative customer contacts, and give them your best sales pitch, including price, channel, and support. Get a reference customer. Use focus groups.

Entrepreneur 99

Entrepreneur Pricing Customer Custom 99

socalTECH

APRIL 18, 2017

There are so many more brands and competition. They love our service, because we actually give them direct access to who their exact target customer is, which is affluent Millennials, which Nelson refers to as Upscale Millennials, who have good jobs, and don't live in their parents' basement.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Services Sales Customer 124

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. An obvious example would be in sales. By going on sales calls you pick up directly the feedback of what customers want and also what they’re telling you about competition.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2017

None should be considered competitive mutually exclusive to any other. According to a recent social media industry report , 92 percent said that social media is important to their businesses, and more than half report it helped them improve sales. Traditional marketing is sales-focused, one-way push.

Media 59

Media Marketing Social Media Resource 59

InfoChachkie

MAY 16, 2011

1) Expect Independent Channel Sales Reps To Perform Missionary Sales. Rationale: I cannot afford to hire a direct sales force. Fallacy: Third-party, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) representatives succeed once the sales process is defined, proven and documented. Public relations at a startup is a sales process.

Startup 242

Startup Outsource Development Outsource Sales 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

socalTECH

JULY 31, 2013

In addition, we''ll be using those funds for sales and marketing, to go into new verticals and new markets, and to build our sales and marketing team. So far, we''ve put lots of investment into the engineering and technology side, and we''re now shifting to sales and marketing.

Technical Review 213

Technical Review Software Review Networking Technology 213

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2015

A small advisory board of outside people with experience in your domain can give you the unbiased feedback you need, as well as connections for setting up distribution and sales channels. Focus on collecting customer references. Talk to industry experts and investors. Plan and execute a pilot or local rollout.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Pricing Startup Software Review 108

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 15, 2011

In other words, once they are convinced that the product works, they assume their price, sales channel, and marketing will bring in the customers. Gather some representative customer contacts, and give them your best sales pitch, including price, channel, and support. Get a reference customer. Use focus groups.

Startup 93

Startup Pricing Customer Custom 93

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2013

Ask everyone to update their resume, and personally call probable references, so there are no surprises. That means questioning each of these key players, and calling references or prior associates. Sales and marketing strategy. If everyone gives a different story, you have no story. Personnel situation is stable.

Technical Review 97

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Summary 97

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2012

Bloom’s “ The New Experts ,” that today’s customers are armed with three lethal weapons – instant access to information about every potential purchase, immense choice, and real-time comparison of competitive prices. You have to create customer preference at this moment or the customer will vanish – probably forever. Your make-or-break moment.

Customer 93

Customer Custom Startup Competition 93

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. Looong Appendix (only for those interested in reading another story about losing a sale & key lessons): A personal story of losing a sale that haunted me for years.

Outsource Development 333

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 333

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

On the product side, once you have a proven product and business model, all you need is money to build inventory, and a sales and marketing operation to drive the business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage.

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 25, 2010

I believe that it is part of the DNA of an entrepreneur – being so competitive that you’re practically sick when you lose. They’re competitive. Looong Appendix (only for those interested in reading another story about losing a sale & key lessons): A personal story of losing a sale that haunted me for years.

Outsource Development 328

Outsource Development Software Review Technical Review News 328