Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

The point of PUCCKA was to develop a common methodology to make sure our whole team approaches sales with the same mindset and to give us a language to talk with each other about our prospects, as in, “have you identified your customers pain point yet?”. The goal is to get the customer speaking about their organization.

Sales 367

Sales Slides Startup Custom 367

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2014

Whenever I heard why we didn’t feel a sales process at an important customer was going well (or if we lost) I would get involved myself. They like a solid product, well defined pricing, good references to sell against, a clear quota and well defined competitors. Customers buy solutions to solve their problems.

Sales 382

Sales Help Startup Pricing 382

L.A. Business Journal

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

For companies that rely on long-term customers, “churn” — a term that refers to the number of canceled or lapsed subscriptions — is a major challenge.

Help 189

Help Custom Customer Companies 189

Eric Greenspan

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

In 2007, my company negotiated an unprecedented marketing agreement with Verizon to sell their FiOS and in turn their technicians in the field would refer Make It Work services to their customers. Because the technicians didn’t really want to refer us. We thought this would bring us many new customers.

Southern California 196

Southern California Custom Customer Services 196

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 6, 2010

developing a product you might like to survey prospective customers without biasing their answers. doing a reference call on a prospective employee. But whether you’re raising money, selling to customers, looking to make an investment or whatever – listening pays more dividends than talking. Conclusion.

Startup 311

Startup Invest Course Research 311

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Whenever I heard why we didn’t feel a sales process at an important customer was going well (or if we lost) I would get involved myself. They like a solid product, well defined pricing, good references to sell against, a clear quota and well defined competitors. Customers buy solutions to solve their problems.

Sales 316

Sales Startup Pricing Custom 316

InfoChachkie

MAY 27, 2013

Last week, Divshot turned a simple April Fool''s Day joke into a marketing coup, generating nearly 6,000 Tweets and over a thousand Beta customers. The team''s ability to drive significant customer interest without spending a dime on marketing was one of the reasons Jim Andelman and I invested in the company. Share and Enjoy.

Customer 153

Customer Custom Template Startup 153

Berkonomics

JUNE 27, 2019

And that behavior results in leaving little time for outreach to the most critical component in your chain – your key customers. Then, what is a benchmark for customer outreach? But, do your customer know that they want? Do customers know what they want from their suppliers for future products? That’s bad behavior!

Customer 120

Customer Custom Course Email 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2011

Often recruiters want to handle the final negotiations on package and/or do the reference calls. I’m also reluctant to hand over reference calling. I know that no recruiter will agree with me on this point, but I’ll tell you that I’m certain there’s a positive bias in reference calls. Highly ethical.

Venture Capital 319

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Outsource 319

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

Simply, this is identifying a customer need that has economic value to them if they can solve it. This solves the customer question, “Why Buy Anything?”. If a customer knows they have a problem they need to select a vendor who best solves that problem (or they can build in-house tools). That always stuck with me.

Sales 328

Sales Custom Customer Examples 328

InfoChachkie

APRIL 25, 2011

If you are a leader at a startup and you are reading a business book, you are not closing customers, raising capital, improving your product, or spending time with your loved ones. It has also influenced my thoughts, as evidenced by the six infoChachkie blog entries which reference Art. I was not disapointed. No doubt, he did.

Technical Review 279

Technical Review Blogging Entrepreneur Class 279

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 20, 2013

Simply, this is identifying a customer need which has economic value to them if they can solve it. ” and if you can’t persuade enough potential customers they have some pain that needs fixing you probably should stick to your day job. Teams usually start with terminology that is very insular and less relevant to customers.

Sales 336

Sales Startup Competition Custom 336

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 2, 2022

Many entrepreneurs think that adapting to the new technologies, like smart phones and Internet commerce, are the key to attracting new customers. High-technology product startups, without customers, don’t make a business. Solis outlines the heuristics of social psychology that are key to building positive customer experiences today.

Customer 122

Customer Custom Social Media Technical Review 122

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

If you sell a product direct to a customer – in person or on the phone – you need to understand what their pain points are and position your product benefits against those pain points. Many, many tech companies I meet start with a set of “awesome features” and present them to me (and I suspect also to customers). Why Buy Mine?

Sales 319

Sales Startup Platform Tips 319

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are the darling of many Big Dumb Company (BDC) product marketing and customer support executives. Created by consultants to generate additional fees, such scores attempt to rate a company’s overall customer satisfaction. The higher your company’s NPS, allegedly the higher your customer satisfaction.

.Net 182

.Net Satisfaction Entrepreneur Custom 182

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

Clearly in an enterprise customer this is unlikely. The most likely outcome if you manage to interest the senior exec (for the sake of this post let me call her the CEO) is that she will refer you down the organization to somebody who would be involved in the decision. The benefits of this are clear: 1. The Case for Calling Low.

Sales 375

Sales Technical Review Organization Case Study 375

TechEmpower

JULY 31, 2023

How does it meet customers’ needs? One way to approach that last question is to use this simple model: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) How will your business reach prospects? Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) How much money will your business generate from each converted customer? What does the business do?

Metrics 260

Metrics Startup Slides Technical Review 260

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2011

Affiliate programs allow website owners to collect a small fee for referring customers to e-commerce retailers, and have been a common way for web sites to monetize their Internet traffic. The bill requires out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax on purchases if they have any affiliates in the state of California.

Web 217

Web Commerce Marketing Sales 217

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2013

This might mean helping customers buy traffic, arb’ing deals, helping with RTB pricing or trading, etc. Minimize Any Custom Work That Will Not Feed Back Into Your R&D. While I’d like to say that you should never do custom work that changes the scope of your product that’s not wholly realistic.

Software Review 321

Software Review Software Services Companies 321

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Think of these as the big upfront questions: Who are the customers? Please be able to provide me with a few specific examples of different types of customers, what they need, what the system will do for them. Refer a friend? Customer Service Support - Do you need specific interfaces and support for customer service?

Development 396

Development Develop Startup SEO 396

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Think of these as the big upfront questions: Who are the customers? Please be able to provide me with a few specific examples of different types of customers, what they need, what the system will do for them. Refer a friend? Customer Service Support - Do you need specific interfaces and support for customer service?

Development 384

Development Develop Startup SEO 384

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are the darling of many Big Dumb Company (BDC) product marketing and customer support executives. Created by consultants to generate additional fees, such scores attempt to rate a company’s overall customer satisfaction. The higher your company’s NPS, allegedly the higher your customer satisfaction.

.Net 168

.Net Satisfaction Custom Customer 168

socalTECH

JUNE 4, 2014

Tillster reported that it has been selected as a "preferred partner" for Pizza Hut and KFC''s global franchisees, a link which makes Tillster''s restaurant ordering system a reference for ordering applications. Financial impact of the win was not annonuced.

Mobile 147

Mobile Report Web Los Angeles 147

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

It is what is commonly referred to as “vanity metrics” as in, “Look at how many more followers I got us! Customers have long included some of the biggest names in social commerce and online gaming plus startups like TopSpin, Local Response, Maker Studios, StockTwits and the like. The other major pilot customer was.

Marketing 307

Marketing Technical Review Startup SEM 307

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

When you’re hiring most reference checkers focus on the person’s former bosses. Just literally this week I had breakfast with a guy giving a reference who said, “He’s brilliant. In fact, just a short Google search reveals that I’ve referred to him frequently through the years. But he knows it.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

Service as a bridge to a product business - One of the best ways for young startups to finance their business without any dilution is what I call “customer financing,&# which is mostly only possible in businesses that target businesses rather than consumers. You own the IP you create. It’s pure irony.

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

I have no reference point from which to judge whether you were higher on the y-axis 3 months ago or lower. You’ll be able to give them an update on key hires, pilot customers, key tech innovations – whatever. And remember, if we get married you’re stuck with us, too. Hopefully by then you’ve made good progress.

Invest 411

Invest Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 411

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 12, 2013

He shared tons of information about how how they were using marketing to quantitatively make marketing decisions at HauteLook and acquire customers for prices that were far cheaper than similar companies. I made some reference calls. I instantly hit it off with Greg because we was a fountain of knowledge. They were effusive.

Venture Capital 360

Venture Capital GRP Partners Startup Invest 360

socalTECH

MAY 16, 2013

It''s not infrequently that we''re pitched by a startup saying they are the ''eHarmony for X'', referring to the Santa Monica-based online dating and relationship site''s reputation. However, is the next ''eHarmony for Jobs'' actually eHarmony itself? called itself that in August, as has job matching service RoundPegg.

eHarmony 174

eHarmony Services Report Santa Monica 174

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 3, 2013

But what if you’re a credit card company and you want to know where to find your next customers? Already 2/3rds of our customers are ingesting 2 or more data sources including Facebook, Tumblr, WordPress, Bit.ly Ming who the hero of so many customers whose primary reference to other customers is, “make sure you get a Ming.”

Social Media 358

Social Media Yammer Invest Organization 358

Berkonomics

MAY 4, 2017

With a wide track, angled aggressively at the curves, and being told to hug the wall on the straightaways, there was little reference available to a novice driver as to speed. I had that thrill when a student at the Richard Petty Stock Car School of Driving at a motor speedway in California.

Metrics 266

Metrics Screening Email Custom 266

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

Boss Reference - Your potential boss will check your references. Even if the reference did not work directly with your future manager, they may still have valuable insights that would otherwise be impossible for you to uncover during the interview process. You should do the same. Silver Lining.

RSS 229

RSS Entrepreneur Startup Email 229

socalTECH

JANUARY 22, 2014

Intuit--which runs its TurboTax unit out of San Diego--said it will give customers $10 for every friend they refer to TurboTax for online tax preparation, up to $200. Intuit says it already has 26 million customers for the online tax preparation service. READ MORE>>. intuit turbotax referral filing preparation software'

San Diego 138

San Diego Custom Customer Software 138

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

Simply put – I’d be in search of a VC who had an intuitive sense of my product, my customers, my organizational issues, my competitors, etc. If I were looking at which VCs to choose I would reference strongly for which ones are supportive in good times and bad. The best way – of course – is to reference check.

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. Due diligence always involves on-site visits, informal discussions with any or all members of the team, vendors, and good customers as well as bad. Traction in the marketplace.

Technical Review 151

Technical Review Startup Satisfaction Invest 151

InfoChachkie

JULY 7, 2016

As such, I understand the degree to which hand waving and vaporware can influence investors and potential customers. An interface that is engaging can fool customers into trying a sub-par product. However, if a product with a mediocre GUI is consistently adopted by customers, it may signal a lucrative investment opportunity.

Venture Capital 176

Venture Capital Product Software Review Technical Review 176

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

Let’s assume you run a Customer Support software company. Do you simply begin by asking, “I’d love to understand what your objectives are in customer support? You need to identify a customer problem and talk about how your solution meets the needs of that problem. Where are your current pains?&#.

Sales 314

Sales Startup Venture Capital Custom 314