Berkonomics

JULY 17, 2025

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once. Why buy IT?

Sales

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I’ve taken to saying, “Email is our personal to-do list that anybody adds to – whether they know us or not.” about their marathon 4-hour sessions to get to zero inbox or somebody else claiming email bankruptcy ( definition if you don’t know it already ). I have taken to limiting my outbound email.

Email

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2012

Your entrée to sales meetings. And in most cases I would heed Fred Wilson’s advice about the “double opt-in” email for intros – where you ask for permission before green-lighting an unsolicited introductions. Helping with a Sales Lead. And then there is the email blaster / form letter introducer.

Email

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 23, 2013

Every sales organization with more than a handful of reps or that is across multiple offices or time zones would benefit from having a sales methodology. But the number one reason sales stall when customers see the value in what you do is because they often don’t have a reason to buy NOW. The USP solves the, “Why Buy Me?”

Sales

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

It’s the lifeblood of any organization and yet most startups don’t have any sales DNA on their teams. It’s important enough that I dedicate a tab on my blog to startup sales & marketing. But the ground we covered was awesome for anybody wanting to know more about sales. What is your sales process?

Software Review

Berkonomics

JANUARY 28, 2016

A recent Experian marketing survey revealed that 52% of all email opens are from mobile devices, and that 38% of all clicks are from mobile devices. Experian looked at three hundred brands and 21 billion emails – a few more than you or I have as a resource for our marketing intelligence. How about your emails? Same thing.

Email

socalTECH

JULY 24, 2014

The people we spoke with told us that CRM sucks, and sales people have to use this software, but don''t like to use it. When you arrive here, you have to find a house for your family, but on the next day I was sending out emails, and people started showing up on our doorstep telling us they wanted to set up a contract for PIpeliner.

Sales

InfoChachkie

JANUARY 14, 2013

If you have your eyes and ears open, you can discover sales lessons in unexpected places, including the cable TV show, Say Yes To The Dress. There are a number of solid sales techniques on display by the Say Yes team. Throughout the sales process, they continually probe and modify their sales approach, based on the bride's feedback.

Sales

Berkonomics

MAY 19, 2022

A recent Experian marketing survey revealed that 52% of all email opens are from mobile devices, and that 38% of all clicks are from mobile devices. Experian looked at three hundred brands and 21 billion emails – a few more than you or I have as a resource for our marketing intelligence. Responsive” emails and a test.

Email

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 29, 2014

They get pissed off if a senior executive at Google doesn’t take a meeting with them, if people are late to their meetings or if they have emails that are unreturned. The 70% of entrepreneurs that simply can’t get past an un-responded-to email. You need to know how to write good & action oriented emails.

Venture Capital

Berkonomics

APRIL 27, 2023

Everyone who manages a company, a workgroup or a sales force wants to write as many new deals as possible and is usually wary about doing anything that might threaten the positive outcome of a pending sale. Will you enforce a deadline if you could lose the sale? The post Are you a dictator about sales deadlines?

Sales

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

I got an email recently from my friend & fellow VC, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners in Boston. 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. Specifically, 1.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 20, 2014

It is the bane of every startups existence because it takes up so much time, it is so competitive to sign people and it feels like unproductive time because it’s not moving the ball forward on product, engineering, sales, marketing, biz dev, fund raising. It consumes time and energy and the payoff doesn’t come for a long time.

Press

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2017

We spoke with Andrew about how the company pivoted from its original model after finding a huge amount of traction for its sales software and data, and its ability to guide brokers on the best practices for them to close more deals, which it is now offering as software-as-a-service. What is Digsy? It worked well. How did that work?

Sales

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 17, 2019

Having read his latest op-ed on email I know why I erred towards the side of of not loving his book as much as some did. Apparently he’s an “organizational psychologist professor and thinks that it’s rude not to answer email. I also surmise that perhaps organizational psychologists don’t get as much unsolicited emails as some of us do.

Email

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. Email updates frequently. Key point – if your emails are as long as my blog posts you’re forked. Make your emails actionable.

Tips

Berkonomics

AUGUST 10, 2023

From the moment such an investor looks seriously at your company, the investor or VC partner is thinking of the end game, the ultimate sale of the company or even of an eventual initial public offering. There is no middle ground. Resetting your priorities Taking money from these sources involves resetting priorities over time.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2015

I write about sales often both because it’s the lifeblood of any organization and because in my experience it is the area in which more startups are least experienced or inclined. I also write and talk about it frequently because raising capital is a part of sales and this is important for entrepreneurs to understand.

Sales

InfoChachkie

JUNE 23, 2014

Absent a human gatekeeper, you can capture a busy individual''s attention by crafting a compelling and pithy email subject line, voicemail message, Tweet, Quora or Facebook message. It could be a significant sale to a large enterprise, the opening of a new office, a key hire or a promising partnership. Sue.Who@acme.com).

Networking

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2015

Email is efficient. I email often. I always follow important emails with a call. You CANNOT do this on email. A very common experience … One person emails some thoughts. And anger leads to more email, which ends in a flame war. Now go pick up the phone and stop hiding behind emails. Well, I am.

Startup

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

Everyone who manages a company or its sales force wants to write as many new deals as possible, and is usually warry about doing anything that might threaten the positive outcome of a pending sale. Deadlines are an important sales tool. The most powerful tool you have in a sales environment is a deadline.

Sales

TechCrunch LA

JANUARY 26, 2022

Glossier, the popular beauty brand led by former blogger Emily Weiss, let go of 80 of its corporate employees today, according to an internal email obtained by Modern Retail. E-commerce sales typically account for 80% of Glossier’s revenue, the Business of Fashion reported last July. .

CTO Hire

Berkonomics

JANUARY 19, 2017

Consider a sales relationship where your product will be in the bag of salespeople from the partner company. Depending upon the size of the companies and complexity of the products or services involved, it is fair to assume that you’ll need to dedicate a resource to this effort, sometimes a full time resource at that.

Press

Berkonomics

AUGUST 8, 2024

To some it is financial security, building a base of wealth created from the increased value of the enterprise at the end point of sale or at an IPO. Email readers, continue here…] The best advice to anyone considering this course of action is to measure one’s ability to take the risk. Vision, risk and capital, oh my!

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 13, 2011

Here’s my advice: A got an email from a young, super bright entrepreneur today. He responded by emailing the COO and asking him to lunch. I get emails all the time from people asking me on a first date and saying, “how about if I buy you dinner.” A guy I would love to work with – maybe even hire myself.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2012

The process for raising money from a VC is a sales process and as such much of what is taught in enterprise sales can be applied. While this post is written about raising venture capital (which I always remind entrepreneurs IS a sales process) the lessons can be applied to any sale or biz dev deal.

Venture Capital

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Email readers, continue here…] In later insights, we will explore the legal and ethical responsibilities of board members. The investor organization is granted the seat as long as the investment remains, and the documents often name the first representative assigned by the investor group to the position.

Invest

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

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 12, 2015

Email readers, continue here…] But beware. If it becomes a part of your long term sales message, there is risk that you will set expectations you cannot achieve. Offer “fast” when it works for you to close a sale that would not have been likely otherwise. Red Adair said, “…pick any two.”

Resource

Berkonomics

JUNE 15, 2017

From the moment such an investor looks seriously at your company, the investor or VC partner is thinking of the end game, the ultimate sale of the company or even of an eventual initial public offering. Taking in angel or venture money requires a setting of an entrepreneur’s expectations that may come as a shock at least at first.

Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 1, 2011

That was back when VCs weren’t so quick to respond to emails. As with tonight I got my kids to bed, did some email, caught 30 minutes of the news then sat down to type. Just like a sales person at the end of a quarter. I still have to get sales, operations, finance, HR & corp dev right to win. I did that?

Startup

Berkonomics

JULY 26, 2018

These are so succinct, so well defined, so precise that everyone in sales and everyone involved in marketing must be able to answer these three questions without pause, and convincingly. It would pay you to work over this set of questions in a special session with sales, marketing and senior management in the room at once.

Sales

Berkonomics

MARCH 8, 2018

Otherwise, you might picture an event in which the sale of a company to be consummated a few months before full vesting could cause a board member to find ways to vote for delays or even against a sale of the company, awaiting full vesting of his or her options.

Venture Capital

Berkonomics

AUGUST 17, 2023

Preparing for the game… If you have been following our recent insights, you’ll be up to speed knowing that professional investors negotiate tough terms, from provisions of control over asset acquisition, eventual sale of the company, future investments, forced co-sale when others attempt to sell their shares and more.

Invest

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 23, 2016

According to the company, it is using information from point-of-sale (POS), email, loyalty, online ordering, and other areas to help give restaurants a single, unified view of their individual customers, and helps those restaurants identify growth opportunities based on that data. READ MORE>>.

Software

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 19, 2015

Sales people (and website customer acquisition folks) all think in terms of funnels and yet non-sales professionals seldom do. Every night before I went to bed I would say to myself, what one thing could I do to make progress on this hire, which is why people who worked with me on it probably noticed a lot of late-night emails.

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 25, 2011

You can monetize via Google Ad Sales before you have enough revenue to build your own sales team. ” And then you can build email lists and market video content to your fans in the same way Gilt Groupe markets its clothes to its end consumers, making it an insanely scalable business. Sound familiar?

Carson