Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2017

First customers are critical. Your first customers for any product or service form your reference base, the important group of allies that your marketing and sales people rely upon when attempting to create buzz and make a mass market for a new product. Make your customer a partner in the process.

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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. They expect you to be there, to know their history as a customer, and to treat them with priority and respect.

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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 is a key moment where your customer acquisition costs go way down, and your profits go way up.

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Customer Custom Startup Course 146

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 5, 2018

Los Angeles-based RingDNA , which develops analytics software used for understanding the sales process and sales conversations, said last week that it raised $30M in a growth capital funding. The funding was led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity (GS Growth), and also included Palisades Growth Capital and Bryant Stibel. READ MORE>>.

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Sales Artificial Inteligence Equity Web 140

socalTECH

AUGUST 30, 2011

The firm said its new Mobile Sales Force Automation SuiteApp, built on top of NetSuite, provides access to opportunity/customer data, sales forecasts, and real-time calendar and task management.

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socalTECH

JULY 18, 2019

Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand , which provides cloud-based learning and talent management tools, has linked up with a sales training company, Sandler Training, on a new sales training subscription, the two said today. Financial details of the partnership were not announced. Pricing on the new subscription was not announced.

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Cornerstone OnDemand Training Sales Santa Monica 113

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2022

As a business consultant and angel investor, I often ask for your own assessment of marketing ROI , or customer acquisition cost (CAC). Leaders and investors need to know if you have and are tapping into your key sources of relevant data, including web analytics, sales management data, and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

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Customer Custom Acquisition Technical Review 100

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. For example, I commonly see metrics to keep track of revenue per employee, overtime, and absenteeism, but I don’t often see measures of overall customer satisfaction with individual employees.

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Custom Customer Technical Review Metrics 147

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. The challenge is to transform and hardwire your entire team to think in these terms, rather than the default focus on distinct towers of product quality, closing the sale, or fixing a complaint.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2023

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. Now customers seek out people who are willing and able to add value, with expertise and insight, even before they have a product. The key is consistency.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2014

I spend a lot of time with startups and thus hear many companies talk about their approach to sales and their interactions with customers. From these meetings you can really tell the leaders that care deeply about their customers and those the look down on them. You’d be very wrong. You can’t.

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Customer Custom Venture Capital Software Review 341

socalTECH

APRIL 25, 2018

Los Angeles-based TaskUs , which provides outsourced customer support and other back-end support for technology companies, said today that it has named Jarrod Johnson as Chief Customer Officer. Johnson was previously SVP of Sales at TaskUs, and will be based in the company's Dallas offices.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 20, 2017

Santa Barbara-based TrackStreet , a provider of internet brand protection and analytics software, said today that it has named Ryan Erickson as Vice President of Sales. Erickson was most recently Vice President of Sales for Teva North America, a division of Deckers Brands, and also has served at Timberland, Rockport and Reebok.

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Sales Santa Barbara Software Review Technical Review 124

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. 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?”.

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Sales Customer Custom Examples 328

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2017

Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand , which develops human capital management and employee learning software, has cut its sales head count, and shuffled its sales and services organizations, the company said late Wednesday.

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Cornerstone OnDemand Sales Santa Monica IBM 100

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 27, 2020

Shops available to willing Los Angeles customers to cover everything from home goods, cosmetics, and clothes to even vinyl records. That could have an impact on retail sales that were already projected to be dismal. decline in total US retail sales this year, and a 14.0% decline in total US retail sales this year, and a 14.0%

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socalTECH

AUGUST 21, 2018

Los Angeles-based Postie , the machine-learning-meets-diirect-mail startup backed by Bonfire Ventures and Crosscut Ventures, said today that it has named Zev Gollender as the company's Head of Sales. Gollender was most recently Vice President of Media Sales at Taboola, and also has served at Adiant and AOL.

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Artificial Inteligence Sales Los Angeles Acquisition 100

socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2018

As part of our sponsor relationship with the conference, we're running a series of interviews with speakers from the conference about their experience in the area of recurring revenues, customer service, and similar topics. What's the biggest lesson you've learned about retaining and keeping your customers using the subscription model?

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Customer Custom Conference Social Media 166

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. Build relationships and stop surveying customers.

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Customer Custom Services Training 123

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 3, 2019

Our interview today is with Amos Schwartzfarb , the author of Sell More Faster: The Ultimate Sales Playbook for Start-Ups , which comes out tomorrow, Wednesday. We caught up with Amos to learn about his new book, and to gain some tips for startup entrepreneurs on how to figure out when you're actually ready to scale your sales team.

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Sales Startup Custom Development Framework 113

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. Make every customer experience memorable.

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Custom Customer Satisfaction Metrics 114

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 16, 2019

Today’s customers are overloaded and overwhelmed by too much information, so making a decision is a challenge. You may think this is only important to your marketing and sales people, but in reality it doesn’t matter how great your product or technology might be, you won’t succeed if you don’t understand your target customer decision process.

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Customer Custom Sales Social Media 107

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 17, 2013

In my first enterprise software company we developed a methodology for sales that we called PUCCKA. Having a methodology instead of just going on random sales visits helped force a bit of rigor and honesty amongst team members about how well or not we thought we were doing. The best sales meetings are discussions.

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Sales Slides Startup Customer 367

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. Expand into key new sales and delivery channels.

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Customer Custom Examples IBM 143

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. Customers don’t buy the impossible dream. If you lose money on every sale, it’s hard to make it up in volume.

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Sales Customer Custom Entrepreneur 99

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2013

One of the questions I’m most often asked by CEOs is how to hire sales people. I’ve also written extensively on sales and on which sales execs to hire and how to think about the different kinds of sales leaders. Clearly in an enterprise customer this is unlikely. Call high, and get passed down or; B.

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Sales Technical Review Organization Case Study 375

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 9, 2013

This is final part of a series that describes a sales methodology for technology companies or frankly many other types of companies, too. Well think of it this way – you have your sales process. You know exactly when you want to sell to this customer and presumably it’s this quarter! Unique Selling Proposition.

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Customer Custom Marketing Newsletter 324

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

Key Functions with High Impact Generative AI is revolutionizing sales by enabling dynamic pricing and personalized customer interactions, boosting conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Post-sale, AI analyzes customer data to improve service and loyalty, making it a cornerstone of modern sales methodologies.

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Generative AI TechEmpower CTO Hire Outsource Development 295

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.

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Sales Startup Pricing Customer 316

socalTECH

MAY 16, 2019

For our interview this morning, we caught up with Isaac Garcia , a serial entrepreneur who previously founded and sold his last company, Central Desktop, and now is working on a new startup, Sales Insider. What is Sales Insider? Isaac Garcia: Sales Insider is a talent marketplace for hiring software sales reps.

Sales 133

Sales Startup Software Marketing 133

socalTECH

MAY 23, 2018

Playa Vista-based Appetize , which develops modern, tablet- and handheld-based point of sale (POS) systems, has added a number of high profile customers, and says it has seen record growth this year. The company's point-of-sale terminals and software are a significant upgrade from legacy point-of-sale terminals.

Customer 100

Customer Custom Sales Education 100

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.).

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Sales Customer Custom SaaS 296

Berkonomics

JANUARY 9, 2020

One of your employees is approached by an employee of a customer or of a supplier, stating that “It sure would be great to work in your company.” was the short reply from the hotel owner to the CEO, shocking the CEO looking for a closer relationship and future sales. The recruitment traps. State your policy clearly.

Customer 156

Customer Custom Innocal Email 156

TechCrunch LA

MAY 3, 2022

Upgrade’s e-commerce marketplace has two sides: one that enables consumers to choose a vetted stylist and have their wig colored or customized based on their desired look. However, although they are providing such significant value, a lot of them operate with limited funding and resources, which ultimately affects the customer experience.

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Tool Customer Custom Marketing 179

socalTECH

APRIL 8, 2020

Irvine-based Digital Motors says it is offering up the ability to add online auotmotive sales in 24 hours to car dealerships, allowing any car dealership to turn their website into an online store.

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Sales Tool Customer Custom 113

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. Now customers seek out people who are willing and able to add value, with expertise and insight, even before they have a product. The key is consistency.

Customer 127

Customer Custom Marketing Content 127

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.

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Sales Newsletter Technical Review Activity 286