Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Start-up Lessons. &# If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here. Imagine you pour 5 years of your life into your next gig and it starts to become successful. Many times the answer is ‘no.&# The problem is that you’re opening yourself up to a claim by one of these people that you somehow stole their ideas. Starting with 25% is even harder.

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Startup IP HTML RSS 365

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 28, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Lessons. I started my first company in 1999 in London at the height of the dot com craze. 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. We kept reading about their customer wins, their product releases and their biz dev deals. It didn’t add up to me.

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Tech Coast Venture Network

APRIL 22, 2010

Virgina Lorimor There are several options for financing a start-up business that tend to follow a natural course in a business’ development: Personal Investment. This is where all entrepreneurs have to start. With rare exception, you will need to finance personally (or with friends and family to the point of revenue and/or significant customer pre-order or commitment). If you are pre-revenue, have pre-sales, letters of intent and/or customer commitments.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 4, 2023

Businesses see this as the Holy Grail for finally being able to predict who, where, and when customers will buy their existing solutions, and what their future solutions must look like to be attractive. Marty Zwilling< Big Data Colin Strong future customer trends human data

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Customer Custom Social Media Commerce 112

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2022

We are living in a new generation of business, where customers drive the experience, and highly engaged employees are required to keep up with customer expectations. True leaders are tenacious, determined, and self-starting. business leadership customer experience D.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 24, 2022

Entrepreneurs and business executives seem to be even more focused on their technology than the rest of us, and less inclined to listen to the voice of the customer, even if they remember to ask. Real two-way conversations with real customers, including the all-important body language, are unheard-of these days. I doubt if any of these are really listening to their customers. It’s easy to focus first on selling, and to treat all customer input as objections to be overcome.

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Customer Custom Product Study 102

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 14, 2021

With the advent of the Internet, social media, and instant communication via texting, customer expectations for service, as part of their entire customer experience, have changed. Company finds customers based on interests. Technology must improve the customer experience.

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Customer Custom Social Media Design 171

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 20, 2023

Technical entrepreneurs love their technology, and often are driven to launch a startup on the assumption that everyone will buy any solution which highlights this technology. Instead, they need to validate a customer problem and real market need first.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 13, 2020

Having the best solution is a good start these days, but a solution alone is no longer enough to keep customer attention and loyalty. Your competition is global, so today’s customers are demanding world-class service. Tie customer experience to all compensation and recognition.

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Customer Custom Services Satisfaction 168

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

Most startups are happy to find any customer, and will hang on for dear life to every one. Likewise, you have to rank your customers, fire the troublemakers, and eliminate unfit ones. Your top clients or customers need to know they are special, to feel special.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2022

Today’s customers are much more in control of their buying decision, as they have more choices and more information than ever before. Bloom’s classic book, “ The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers.” This new world is all about empowered customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Today’s customers demand more than a good product; they expect a great customer experience. A few companies are leading the way, including Apple with their iPad and iPhone, offering irresistible stores with friendly experts, elegant packaging, and customer service that never ends.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2021

In addition to obvious economic challenges, the emerging generation of customers is determined to radically change the rules for customer engagement. I summarize here my interpretation of his key points: Take heed of serious next generation customer expectations.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2022

As a startup advisor, I see too many entrepreneurs get distracted by technology or their favorite cause, and then wonder why they can’t find an investor, attract customers, or build a long-term business. Value to second-order customer advertisers is key.

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Customer Custom Competition Netflix 101

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2020

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2021

Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience has not improved. Know your customers intimately.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2021

Yet, these days, I am seeing overwhelming evidence that customer buying decisions, especially with consumers, are often based on emotional and psychological factors , including passions from others, your experience, and social relationships. Highlight benevolence to customers and society.

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Customer Custom Social Media Guide 171

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 25, 2021

Today’s customers are overloaded and overwhelmed by too much information, so making a decision is a challenge. In my role as an advisor to startups, I often have to remind entrepreneurs to think more like sales people from day one, in finding a real problem to solve and designing the solution.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2022

Most businesses spend big money testing their brand logo, catchy marketing phrases, and demographics, but spend little time training and validating that their employees can and do deliver exceptional experiences to their customers. Keep your team happy to create engaged customers.

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Customer Custom Services Satisfaction 120

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 22, 2021

As I talk to many of you in my role as business advisor, I still often hear the concern for maximum return to the business and stakeholders, more than a passion for sustainably enriching the lives of your customers and team. This applies to your own team, as well as customers.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

This post is part of my series “ Startup Lessons &#. Elephants, Deer and Rabbits – Some thoughts on start-up segmentation. I know that this advice won’t apply to every possible startup – but I think it applies to many. When you start your company the very first question you need to ask yourself is which kind of customers do you want to serve. These are really massive customers. And this is not just a problem at start-ups.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

Yet, as a business consultant, I often find minimal focus on improving employee engagement and assessing their customer-facing performance. I assure you that even one or two employees with bad attitudes or lack of customer attention can override the best efforts of everyone else.

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Customer Custom Metrics Training 144

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.

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Customer Custom Social Media Guide 119

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 25, 2022

I’m sure you have all noticed how today’s customers have changed the way they shop, but I still find, as an advisor and consultant, that many of you aren’t sure how to deal with the new mode, or are still waiting for things to get back to the old normal.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2020

The world keeps changing, and visible business strategies that worked well in the past, including being the premium brand or low price producer, simply don’t get the customer loyalty they once did. Today, customers are looking for real relationships, a memorable shopping experience, and satisfaction of a higher purpose. What you say in your mission statement means nothing unless customers see you and your team living it every day. Highly focused customer segment targeting.

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Customer Custom Satisfaction Summary 133

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Today’s customers are much more in control of their buying decision, as they have more choices and more information than ever before. Bloom’s classic book, “ The New Experts: Win Today's Newly Empowered Customers.” This new world is all about empowered customers.

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Customer Custom Summary Course 123

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2021

Customers are people too, so customers tend to take their relationship with a brand personally. But how do you know if your brand is projecting warmth and competence to your customers? Selling to loyal customers is 3 to 10 times cheaper than acquiring new customers.

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Customer Custom Commerce Social Media 106

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2022

It started with an email survey on your last stay at their hotel, but now includes requests for online product reviews, to social media input on the design of future products. They do it because engaged customers become loyal advocates and buyers.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. There are people who tell startups that they should hire the most senior people that they can find. It is tempting because you not only see that they were VP Sales at 3 other startups but also that they have great access (according to their resume) to senior executives at companies you’re trying to target. Bringing in a senior person who’s “done it all before&# is often a mistake in a startup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2020

Maybe we haven’t seen the results yet, but there are thousands of startup opportunities to offer new alternatives and services, to replace those destroyed by the crisis. disruptive change pain level startup idea

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Customer Custom Ideas Outsource 164

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2020

Entrepreneurs and business executives seem to be even more focused on their technology than the rest of us, and less inclined to listen to the voice of the customer, even if they remember to ask. I doubt if any of these are really listening to their customers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 17, 2018

For decades, efforts to satisfy customers have been built around demographics – capitalizing on race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other attributes. Customer personalities define customer experience, and sets what they love, and what they hate. Even businesses with highly specialized market segments will find it more effective and simpler to focus on who customers are as people, rather than the “what” of their demographic attributes.

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Customer Custom Social Media Training 99

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

There is nothing quite as thrilling in business as igniting a startup and watching it blossom. Especially when starting a company with personal savings or money from relatives and friends, early signs of success are intoxicating. Each new customer, each mention in the press or online adds to the feeling of early accomplishment. Starting up

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Writing Hollywood Press Email 120

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

We all like to think of startups as “non hierarchic&# organizations and to some extent that should be true. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact). As a CEO you never stop needing to go on sales calls (or to work the phones in telesales or customer support) and ceasing to do this as your company grows because you’re focusing on investors, recruiting, PR or whatever is a mistake.

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Startup CTO Oracle Sales 308

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. 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. Plus, we’re all allured by the false sense that our contract with BigCo is going to “make us&# because once they start using us it will spread like wildfire and the revenue will flow in.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. When you’re an early-stage startup that hasn’t raised any institutional money you end up doing almost every job function of the company yourself. This can often happen when there is a good product built but no real customer adoption yet. When I founded my first company along with Brian Moran (whose idea it was) I had no real experience running startups. He was to head up UK operations.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2020

Entrepreneurs have always believed that their product or service must show real value to customers, but today the smart ones are even able to make their marketing valuable. Customers don’t even see this as advertising. Customers relate to other humans and relationships.

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Customer Custom Marketing Content 126

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 27, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. BEFORE YOU START. Example: Work Experience can be broken down into: has managed a team, has led direct sales efforts, has worked for a startup before, etc. 2.Create a process - Create a process that you’ll use to recuit people before you start. When I run the process without a recruiter I set up a gmail account specifically for the job. I usually say right before I start interviewing (e.g.

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Startup Sample Examples Sales 301

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. No advice I give will ever apply to 100% of companies, 100% of startups or even 100% of tech startups. I just want to state that up front because while I believe that this post will apply to most startup technology companies out there, I’m sure there will be exceptions. Let me start by saying that most channel relationships don’t work.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 11, 2020

They forget that adapting their company and themselves as their customers evolve is the key to long-term survival. Think of Blockbuster and Toys ‘R’ Us , both of whom missed customer changes and the move to online. Create an overt strategy to react to emerging customer trends.

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Customer Custom IBM IBM 140

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have. When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. Many people start companies arse backwards.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 22, 2021

Every business I know is intimately familiar with outbound marketing, or pushing your message out to customers through email, newspaper, and television advertising. Only a few really understand the process and value of inbound marketing, for pulling customers to your brand.

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Marketing Customer Custom Social Media 172

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 4, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. But through nearly a decade of startups I learned that sales comes down to three essential elements: 1. Customers seldom like to buy unless they perceive they have options.

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