Both Sides of the Table

JULY 21, 2014

It’s when the noise stops and you can actually get customer attention, press articles and VC meetings. People attending marquee conferences with rock bands, prominent speakers, Gartner Group prognosticators and lots of other happy customers. Have sales bonus plans based on more than just sales targets.

Marketing 354

Marketing Case Study Metrics Sales 354

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2011

Understand the Gravity of the Situation for Your Customers. The obvious starting points to think to yourself are: Has something happened that fundamentally affects my customers or partners? We learned that from the original “gate.&# If you were hacked and customer passwords were stolen, get the story to your customers ASAP.

Startup 329

Startup Press Training Media 329

Berkonomics

JANUARY 19, 2017

And we rightly celebrate each such pairing, often with a mutual press release. Call it a “press release partnership.” Consider a sales relationship where your product will be in the bag of salespeople from the partner company. And sometimes that’s all we end up doing. Or an opportunity missed. Or a relationship not nurtured.

Press 120

Press Sales Training Resource 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2010

They are tasked with “getting deals done&# so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc. Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people.

Startup 323

Startup Press Development Team Review SEM 323

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

And we rightly celebrate each such pairing, often with a mutual press release. Call it a “press release partnership.” Consider a sales relationship where your product will be in the bag of salespeople from the partner company. The post Is your strategic partnership just a glorified press release?

Press 120

Press Sales Training Resource 120

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. You can always spot these types because they can’t tell you what their revenue number for last month was or what their sales target is for next month. But ask yourself, what does a COO actually do?

Startup 325

Startup Technical Review Sales Report 325

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

We hadn’t even thought about having a customer support line or who would staff it. Our customers were generally happy but they were pushing us hard for promised features. Our sales forecasts were revised downward – many times. We kept reading about their customer wins, their product releases and their biz dev deals.

Startup 331

Startup Press Customer Custom 331

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. We didn’t collude (e.g.

Cloud Computing 320

Cloud Computing Competition Press Startup 320

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 27, 2011

.&# Marketing futures can be really good for enterprise software companies where the information is passed between sales rep and potential customer in terms of near-term roadmap. But don’t let this information get out into the general press and don’t market more than a few months out. They come and go.

Marketing 380

Marketing Startup Press Technical Advisors 380

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. how much energy to put into channel partners vs. direct sales. how to build an initial sales organization. Mentorship. As You Start to Mature.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

Talented brand sales people? Understanding customer requirement ? Whatever amount you’re getting out and talking with prospects, customers, employees, recruits, competitors, press, investors, potential investors … it’s never enough. Here’s why it’s critical: 1. Recruiting. 50 coffee meetings.

Startup 410

Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 18, 2012

We just knew that we were onto an idea that no one had thought of and we had better be in the press first because, of course, there is a first-mover advantage. Number one is sales. Life is sales. Business development is sales. Winning customers is sales. Getting press is sales. Flip Burgers.

Entrepreneur 272

Entrepreneur Startup Conference Santa Barbara 272

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on startup advice but also filed under my sales & marketing posts. The only problem is that you can’t afford all of these expensive direct sales reps to go and sell it. Sort of amortizing the costs of their sales reps over more products. You decide to go out and hire a sales rep.

Startup 293

Startup Sales Marketing Product 293

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

For much of 2013 I watched the press write articles about how the YouTube “MCNs” (multi-channel networks) were doomed and tried to square that with the data I was watching at the one I invested in, Maker Studios, who has had one hell of a year. I agree with YouTube (that they provide more (hosting, ad sales, etc.)

Networking 366

Networking Media Content Customer 366

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

Maybe they’ve hit a few set backs: They’ve struggled to raise money, they haven’t gotten press coverage or they haven’t gotten accepted to present at prestigious conferences. It ends up being a turn off to potential employees, investors, business partners and the press. It’s your job to persist.

Venture Capital 389

Venture Capital Email Startup Conference 389

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2010

File this under both Startup Adivce and Sales & Marketing Advice. Use the fact that you were on an anointed list to build credibility when you eventually approach journalists (and VC’s, customers, employees). Oh, and Demo charges the startups $18,000. Robert’s article is worth reading. Make yourself available.

Tips 307

Tips Startup Press Blogging 307

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2010

Last week, Los Angeles-based HauteLook (www.hautelook.com), an online private sales site, scored a major round of funding--raising $31M from Insight Venture Partners. Adam Bernhard: We're a platform that does flash sales. Adam, thanks for the time. We work on behalf of brands, as a web site that has a membership base of over 2.5

Sales 224

Sales Email Startup Sample 224

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about The Silent Benefits of PR in which I pointed out that most young companies I encounter don’t fully grasp the benefits of PR because they are less measurable than product milestones or customer acquisition analyses (like CAC/LTV). Make sure you’re not spewing out meaningless reams of press releases.

Press 319

Press Startup Writing Training 319

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. While I’m a huge believer that sales bonuses should always be uncapped, I think capping PBW’s is a good idea.

Startup 298

Startup Sales Slides Metrics 298

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2017

The most obvious way to explain this is with sales people. If you hire 6 senior 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 6 months. COGS” represents the amount that each sale costs you.

Startup 227

Startup Venture Capital Sales Course 227

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 30, 2011

In the initial phases of any new market you’re developing a product (hopefully with a minimal set of features), getting feedback from customers, refining your product based on user feedback and then re-launching your product. I had my sales teams telling me we needed certain features to be competitive. Rinse & repeat.

Development Team Review 374

Development Team Review Technical Review Startup Resource 374

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2017

They are tasked with “getting deals done” so they race around talking to tons of potential partners inking anything from channel sale deals , product integration, international distribution agreements, co-marketing arrangements, M&A discussions, etc. Here’s how it goes: You have a business development group with two people.

Activity 164

Activity Conference Press Case Study 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 12, 2019

Much has been written recently about the requirement to focus today on the total customer experience, as a competitive edge or even for survival. The challenge I hear from savvy business owners and entrepreneurs operating on a shoestring is that providing a superior customer experience costs money.

Customer 96

Customer Custom Coach Pricing 96

Eric Greenspan

JULY 3, 2012

Our customers benefitted from this and saved thousands over the years as a result. But later in 2011, new customers slowed, appointment bookings slowed and average appointment time dropped. In May of 2012, sales dropped drastically. Sales remained sluggish during this period, but we were not giving up. I was wrong.

Capital 234

Capital Pricing Press Customer 234

Berkonomics

MAY 16, 2013

Record plants were noisy, dirty places, using chemicals I can only imagine now rest somewhere in the ocean, to electroplate the “stampers” and press the records. That is sudden change, brought about by the fast acceptance of the cassette, which in turn gave way to the next technology, CDs, after a rather short lifecycle.

Southern California 228

Southern California Social Network Press Guide 228

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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. So if all I need to do is make some customer calls, interview potential employees or help with his fund-raising decks – hallelujah. Assigns tasks.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

The best ones bring in more executive leadership so you can appropriate allocate resources across sales, marketing, product, engineering and support. If it’s an enterprise software company you can no longer rely on tacit knowledge to win sales campaigns. B round companies need to also look for scaling opportunities.

Startup 381

Startup Resource Venture Capital Activity 381

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

You fish where your customers are. I know this category has gotten a lot of press. And Austin Murray runs sales & marketing – a role he also held at JAMDAT. Management, SVP North American Sales and SVP European Publishing. And I’ve personally played with all of the major applications in this space. .&#

Gogii 310

Gogii Invest Blogging Startup 310

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

I was looking for a person to head up my UK sales team. But he also used to opportunity to emphasize that he is full of stamina, works late and hard and had always performed well in his previous sales leadership roles for which he’s be happy to provide pay slips as proof. One of the people who came to see me was named Nick.

Venture Capital 264

Venture Capital Startup Training Sales 264

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009

I recently wrote a blog post here in which I argued that the best VC meetings are discussions and not sales pitches. Many people agreed and added that even the best sales meetings are also discussions and not pitches. This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC.&#. Importantly he did have a presentation ready to go.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Advertising Yahoo 288

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers. I learned how to integrate customers into our product development process. I learned how to get press coverage when we were no longer “hot.&# I learned how to manage costs effectively.

Startup 285

Startup Venture Capital Sales Software Review 285

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2018

Founders read the tech press every day filled with stories about these $20 million fund-raisings by this firm and that firm and it sounds like everybody else is doing it except for you. When you read about the funding in the press it sounds like it was a walk in the park. But if you can stay in the game you can often find that one yes.

Press 232

Press Funding Venture Capital Technical Review 232

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2021

Switch your focus from product development to sales. Explosive growth to an enterprise normally requires a scalable sales model, a well-documented process with incentives, training, and metrics for tracking and management. Of course, customer relationships, and penetration into new market segments are also critical elements.

Startup 151

Startup Course Sales Entrepreneur 151

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

I have no quarterly sales targets for the first time in a decade – For anybody who’s ever been in a company with sales targets you can attest to what a fire drill the ends of March, June, September and December can be. You get on a plane at a moment’s notice because a senior customer agreed to meet you.

Venture Capital 312

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Entrepreneur 312

InfoChachkie

MAY 9, 2011

Relinquish Press Release Capabilities. The resulting credibility will help you establish future business development and customer relationships. Your pitch will be far more compelling to prospective customers and business partners when you have physical evidence of your partnership with a BDC. Deploy a Free Pilot.

Outsource Development 170

Outsource Development Entrepreneur Press Technical Review 170

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

Focus on your customers and don’t obsess about deals or keeping up with your competitors releases.&#. It’s far easier (and sexier) to spend your time working on deals – the chase, the negotiation, the secret dinners, the combination of assets, the PRESS STORY! They always have big lovey-dovey press releases.

Technical Review 276

Technical Review Startup Press Pricing 276