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?

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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.

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Startup Sales Course Competition 319

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.

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Press Startup Email Sales 341

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.

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Email Writing Conference Mobile 250

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.

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Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

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.

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Venture Capital Sales Invest Class 292

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.

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Sales Startup Venture Capital Funding 150

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).

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Networking Software Review Email Press 241

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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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.

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Sales Tool Writing Customer 120

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 4, 2018

I cannot recall ever attending a closing dinner for a sale in which we returned only a portion of the investor group’s money. In fact, I don’t recall any formal post-sale meeting at all; even to digest the lessons learned from the entire experience, a missed opportunity for all. Sometimes, there is embarrassment or shame.

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Sales Entrepreneur Writing Invest 136

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

For starters you have to realize that fund-raising is a sales process. A brochure is an easy out for you in the sales process without being rude. We did some outbound sales & marketing, we responded to some inbound enquiries that came “over the transom” from marketing activities and we responded to RFPs (requests for proposal).

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Funding Venture Capital Startup Email 336

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. .

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CTO Hire Layoffs Commerce Email 197

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!

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Startup Entrepreneur Course Capital 317

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.

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Venture Capital Startup Email Networking 397

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.

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Invest Sales Resource Email 243

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.

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Venture Capital Sales Entrepreneur Startup 308

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.

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Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

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.

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Venture Capital Sales Invest Class 243

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?

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Startup Blogging Venture Capital Writing 391

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.

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Sales Customer Custom Pricing 226

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.

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Venture Capital Equity Sales Invest 256

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.

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Invest Capital Startup Entrepreneur 296

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 29, 2016

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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.Net Sales Customer Custom 226

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?

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Carson Content Los Angeles Press 291

Berkonomics

MAY 25, 2017

Email readers, continue here…]. Assign one of our corporate employees to support sales and installation efforts by all distributors. Note that the strategy calls for cooperation between business development, sales, marketing, product development, installation and support. EMEA, Asia, Latin America.

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Resource Training Sales Demand 243

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 14, 2018

I know that you can use an email system with this to track my open rate, whether I forwarded the email, the IP address where I read it, whether I was on a mobile device or a wired computer and you can tell who else read the document. What should not be in your deck?

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Funding Venture Capital IP Email 239

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

The team failed to understand that marketing's primary role at a startup is to drive sales. the VP of Sales the richest person in the company. Number two (was) to create end-user demand and drive it into our sales channel. Number three (was) to make our products understood by our sales force and channels.".

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Marketing Startup Sales Customer 271

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 23, 2021

Email readers, continue here…] We worry over projections and fix our budgets to match, and then we manage to the revenue and costs of the budget. But what if we separate ourselves from that mindset long enough to search for and find sparks of success sometimes buried within our sales statistics.

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Resource Statistics Email Product 296

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 25, 2014

Enterprise Sales – The very first thing a potential customer does when you email or call to set up a meeting is Google you. but didn’t convert to sales. People give them attaboys. Press matters. You can’t measure the retention benefits but I promise it exists. Just like negative press hurts.

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Press Google Course Writing 415

InfoChachkie

APRIL 7, 2014

For instance, at Expertcity (creator of GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting, acquired by Citrix), I recall running down the hall high-fiving members of my sales team while yelling, “Booyah!” Approximately a year later, the company’s revenues had grown significantly and there were no chest bumps after we finalized a multiple six-figure sale to Oracle.

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Startup Oracle Journal Email 262

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 10, 2013

It would be yet another distraction for this fledgling CEO and he felt he needed to focus on biz dev, sales, marketing and fund raising. So he sent me the emails from these CEOs confirming I was wrong and a message saying he had already fired the employee and paid him 6 weeks (actually, it was two employees for what it’s worth).

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Resource Organization Venture Capital Startup 344

Berkonomics

MARCH 28, 2024

Email readers, continue here…] It is the board, made up of individual members, that is responsible for the care and maintenance of the corporate person. They can elect directors for their class of stock, approve mergers and acquisitions; approve increases or changes to the capital structure of the company and other more minor actions.

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Class Coach Invest Sales 282

Berkonomics

APRIL 16, 2020

Email readers, continue here… ] DURING THIS CRISIS: Having no plan is like having a bad plan. Are you salespeople making few if any sales because your prospective customers are distracted by their own problems? What are you doing today to modify behavior during this crisis?

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Layoffs Sales News Marketing 218

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 12, 2017

As executives we’re all seemingly accessible at any moment to anybody via email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Text. We’re expected to be at conferences, events, sales meetings and be publicly visible. It’s why sometimes I respond to emails in 5 minutes at other times I go dark for a week at a time.

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Activity Blogging Email Startup 297

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 2, 2017

Even after discouraging him from this backwards method of infrastructure-building, he kept bringing up the subject in subsequent months as new senior managers and sales people were hired, each starting with an orientation week at the Asian headquarters then returning to work from home.

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Startup Class Email Tool 256

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2011

Talented brand sales people? You send them update emails. Are you looking for great engineers? A smart young marketing exec? If you wait until you need to fill somebody in a roll you’re losing valuable time as an entrepreneur. You should always have a steady stream of “friend of the firm&# hanging around your company.

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Startup Writing Press Venture Capital 410