Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

This is part of a series on sales & marketing. I previously covered how early phase sales teams should be “evangelical&# and consultative in nature. The first post on scaling sales dealt with “aiming&# your sales teams – making sure they were focused on the right opportunities.

Sales 289

Sales Startup Training Pricing 289

socalTECH

APRIL 1, 2016

Santa Monica-based TrueCar has named a new executive to head up dealer sales, saying on Thursday that it has named Jim Menard as its new Senir Vice President of Dealer Sales. Menard was previously President and GM of the U.S. subsidiary of Search Optics. Menard also has served at AutoTrader and vAuto. READ MORE>>.

Truecar 100

Truecar Sales Santa Monica Competition 100

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 5, 2011

Specifically what is often not in the DNA of founders are sales skills. The result is a lack of knowledge of the process and of sales people themselves. I had never had any sales training so everything we did for the first couple of years was instinctual. I boil it down to this: sales people are sales people.

Sales 316

Sales Pricing Startup Customer 316

Berkonomics

APRIL 19, 2012

Professional investors laugh when they hear an entrepreneur state, “We have no competition.” Widen your search to include companies with products peripheral to yours, where extension of their product would seem logical, especially if you plan to be successful early in making sales into their market.

Competition 189

Competition Slides Sales Ideas 189

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2010

This is part of my ongoing Sales & Marketing Series. In the first part of this post I talked about how sales in a startup is often evangelical , requires as consultative sale and needs constant adjustments based on customer feedback. We had 4 or 5 sales reps that had been around since the early days.

Sales 286

Sales Newsletter Technical Review Activity 286

Berkonomics

JANUARY 12, 2023

Management undertakes a simple exercise of calculating the increased profitability of shutting down all R&D, sales and subordinate operations, and universally notes with shock the high net profit that results – from shutting down all operations except customer service to recurring customers (as in software support operations.).

Sales 296

Sales Customer Custom SaaS 296

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 29, 2010

Competitiveness - One attribute that I believe most VCs look for in entrepreneurs is competitiveness. If you stumble on to a really good idea believe me it will get competitive really quickly. I know that people who aren’t competitive always find competitive people slightly distasteful. I had to say it.

Competition 296

Competition Entrepreneur Startup GRP Partners 296

socalTECH

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Last week, the University of Southern California 's Viterbi School of Engineering announced that it had established a new, business plan competition, the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition ([link] specifically aimed at students in the engineering school. Why a business plan competition, and why in engineering school?

Competition 154

Competition Southern California Mentor USC 154

Tech.Co

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

From apps to hardware, to KickStarter successes and international startups, we’re inching closer to finding out who will take home the title of Startup of the Year competition at our annual Celebrate Conference in October. Among the dozens of participants that applied for the online competitions, only a few progressed into the semifinals.

Competition 111

Competition Mobile Startup Technical Review 111

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 21, 2013

Some people feel that organic growth is “better” because it requires real innovation and sustained effort to create long-term competitive advantage through differentiation and efficiency. Economies of scale also apply to marketing, distribution, and sales. Even mergers and acquisitions (M&A) came quickly. New management skills.

Organization 97

Organization Competition Startup Acquisition 97

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2023

Creating intellectual property, including patents, is the kay to long-term value and a sustainable competitive advantage. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions. Once a new product is launched, a key metric is the ratio of new product sales to overall sales. Accountability.

Coach 137

Coach Metrics Competition Ideas 137

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. Assume competition and assume within the buying organization you have enemies. Why Buy Me?

Sales 150

Sales SaaS Startup Venture Capital 150

Berkonomics

JUNE 2, 2022

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? Few of your contacts will be willing to use their valuable social or political capital helping you with a sales effort, and you will definitely strain your relationship with the intermediary if not a close friend.

Ideas 156

Ideas Sales Competition Venture Capital 156

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 9, 2020

general manager ( Stefano Benatti ) — filled more orders in the first two months of 2020 than all its sales for 2019, according to Cevolini. The venture is also one of the few e-motorcycle companies drawing engineering tips from competition. Track competition is a secondary arena for Energica. In the U.S.,

Technical Review 277

Technical Review Competition Demand Sales 277

Berkonomics

APRIL 9, 2020

If it takes eighteen months to get a new product out the door and into the market, and if a product’s gross margin is ten dollars but the corporate overhead is a million a month, it will take the sale of 67,000 more units to break even than if it were to take only six months to market. The effect of being slow to market even in tough times.

Competition 156

Competition Sales Marketing Product 156

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2014

Of course, one sale isn’t really enough, so you need to get the first customer to recommend you to a second, and make sure the rate of sales ramps up quickly enough to keep the business alive and growing. If you lose money on every sale, it’s hard to make it up in volume. Sell what you have, not what you dream. Marty Zwilling.

Sales 99

Sales Customer Custom Entrepreneur 99

socalTECH

MAY 21, 2021

According to the company, its new education program, SparkED, is aimed at educators and students in a traditional education environment aspiring to achieve data science skills and bolster their resume, and career changers wanting to upskill for a competitive edge in today's job market.

Education 113

Education Training Competition Software Development 113

Berkonomics

APRIL 16, 2020

Are you salespeople making few if any sales because your prospective customers are distracted by their own problems? Your competitors will most likely be conservative at just that moment and be timid in their approach to spending lots for marketing and sales.

Layoffs 218

Layoffs Sales News Marketing 218

Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Satisfy the seller’s need to claim a higher sales price victory by moving a substantial part of the price into a future earn–out or using the target company’s own cash to pay part of the price, or asking the seller to finance a significant piece of the sale. Offering too little in an acquisition to satisfy the seller? What power!

Pricing 156

Pricing Sales Examples Tool 156

socalTECH

JULY 17, 2019

Gina Callari: That's our competitive advantage. Although we have worked with and collaborated with some other companies out there who have been creating CG and VR assets for OEMs, we don't find that as competitive, because they're only working on a launch of a vehicle and creating that high visual experience for one particular vehicle.

Sales 124

Sales Research Content Edmunds 124

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

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. That student is Erin McCann who formerly worked in sales at Google, so she has some ground to stand on in her assertions.

Startup 319

Startup Sales Course Competition 319

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

A few years ago, I saw a classic primer on the key elements of great online content that I like, in “ Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition ,” by Michael Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com. Lacks a sales angle. They are a shortcut that can put you far ahead of your competition.

Content 146

Content Newsletter Competition Writing 146

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

Of course, one sale isn’t really enough, so you need to get the first customer to recommend you to a second, and make sure rate of sales ramps up quickly enough to keep the business alive and growing. If you lose money on every sale, it’s hard to make it up in volume. A product, without customer support, is not ready for sale.

Sales 96

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 96

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 226

Sales Customer Custom Pricing 226

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 30, 2010

In my own effort to keep up with the times, I just finished a new book by Landy Chase, titled “ Competitive Selling: Out-Plan, Out-Think, Out-Sell to Win Every Time.” Establish the competitive playing field early. Selling around tough competition. Learning to negotiate properly is the key to every competitive sale.

Competition 92

Competition Entrepreneur Startup Customer 92

TechCrunch LA

AUGUST 11, 2021

Linktree leads the space, securing a recent $45 million Series B raise to build out e-commerce features, but Beacons boasts competitive creator monetization tools with just a $6 million seed round in May. Snipfeed is free to set up, but if you make sales, the company takes 15% — this percentage is inclusive of any transaction fees.

Platform 286

Platform Commerce Startup Tool 286

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. If you hire truly talented people you end up definitionally with a lot of competitive peers who will inevitably jockey for resources and control. Do you hire more sales people?

Entrepreneur 385

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Sales/Marketing. Be specific on sales channels and marketing initiatives. Competition. Investors look for a sustainable competitive advantage, like a patent. What are your costs?

Sales 102

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 102

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2012

All the experts these days are talking about the increasing need for customer focus and maximizing sales. Typically entrepreneurs and even professional sales people think this means more emphasis on the customer selling process, when in fact it really means spending more time understanding the customer buying process (view from the customer).

Sales 96

Sales Customer Custom Competition 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2020

Creating intellectual property, including patents, is the kay to long-term value and a sustainable competitive advantage. From time to time, include customers and sales members in ideation sessions. Once a new product is launched, a key metric is the ratio of new product sales to overall sales. Accountability.

Coach 144

Coach Metrics Social Network Competition 144

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2021

If your innovation is real, it brings added value to the table, so most customers, especially early ones, are willing to pay a premium over competitive products. Small but important options to provide expedited delivery, or priority service can significantly increase your average sale, without being tagged as a higher price.

Pricing 145

Pricing Startup Competition Examples 145

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2011

All the experts these days are talking about the increasing need for customer focus and maximizing sales. Typically entrepreneurs and even professional sales people think this means more emphasis on the customer selling process, when in fact it means spending more time understanding the customer buying process (view from the customer).

Sales 93

Sales Customer Custom Competition 93

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

Los Angeles-based Velocify , the developer of sales lead management software, has been acquired by Ellie Mae , in a deal worth $128M in cash, Ellie Mae said last week. Velocity's software is used for sales lead management. READ MORE>>.

Tech Coast Angels 124

Tech Coast Angels Sales Competition Los Angeles 124

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 24, 2022

Well, even though that acquisition is still playing itself out on the field of battle, it appears quite clear that the new parent has directed its new subsidiary to abandon the lower end of the market and focus upon the larger sales, corporate customers, and major brands. Opportunity can come when least expected.

Resource 156

Resource Competition Examples Customer 156

TechCrunch LA

DECEMBER 8, 2020

He did note that in the four markets where the company has gone live since launching its business in January 2019 — San Diego, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire , and Sacramento — has yielded an annualized revenue run rate of over $400 million in gross merchandise value (the total value of home sales transacted on its platform).

Sales 282

Sales Demand San Diego Funding 282

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 29, 2023

I recognized this as I was reading the classic book, ” The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need ,” by Anthony Iannarino, who is an international sales leader and expert on optimizing results. His focus is on sales, but I see the same skills needed for entrepreneurs. Opening relationships and creating opportunities.

Startup 154

Startup Sales Entrepreneur Customer 154

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 10, 2023

Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Marketing, sales, support, and service operations. No mention usually means no plan and not competitive.

Outsource Development 115

Outsource Development Startup Competition Ideas 115