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When customers are left waiting for updates, responses, or resolutions, their trust in your business erodes. In the fast-paced startup environment, where every customer counts, delays can quickly spiral into lost opportunities and tarnished reputations. Teams waste time manually sharing information instead of focusing on customers.
Yet in this age when customers have a thousand alternatives, and are overwhelmed by a multitude of messages, sales efforts can make or break a business. In fact, I believe modern entrepreneurs need to be super sales people, in the most positive sense, to their team as well as customers. No pain usually means no sales.
As a consumer, I rarely pay attention to your marketing pitch, but I certainly always remember a exceptionally positive total experience with your team, based on a memorable set of interactions from first contact to discussions with friends. Incent and reward employees who delight customers. That approach still is meaningful today.
Market your solution and user benefits, not the mysterious technology behind it. I see lots of new software put together on a shoestring as a “proof of concept” – but then gets rolled out to customers “asis” due to lack of time or money to “harden” the product. Don’t take shortcuts on these.
Success often hinges on careful strategic planning and adapting to market shifts. Entrepreneurs need to define their market niche and craft effective competitive strategies to counteract competitive pressures. Startups must tackle challenges from scarce resources to changing customer needs proactively.
Marketing is everything these days. You can have the best technology, but if customers don’t know you exist, or they don’t know how your technology solves a real problem for them, your startup will fail. Yet I see many technology entrepreneurs that focus on the basics of marketing too little and too late.
How To Sell Customer Experiences Not Customer Service written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with Jeannie Walters In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeannie Walters.
Consult with Ease: Personalize Your Customer Stragtegy Using AI written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with David Edelman In this episode of the Duck Tape Marketing Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Edelman , a seasoned digital transformation and marketing expert.
Every new business I know dreams of building momentum in their business, where growth continues to increase, customers become your best advocates, and employee motivation is high. Unfortunately, with limited resources, this isn’t possible, and it frustrates customers and the team. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.
Scale Your Business with Precision: A Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing the Marketing Strategy Pyramid written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing Want to stay ahead of your competition and keep your business growing? A solid marketing strategy and understanding the Marketing Strategy Pyramid are key.
For example, these professionals can develop detailed cash flow forecasts that consider market trends and business-specific challenges. Offer Early Payment Incentives Late payments from customers are one of the most common reasons startups struggle with cash flow.
Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done.
Companies are rightsized quickly now as markets change rapidly, and business professionals are quick to jump to new opportunities for growth and survival, with no ties to special benefits or pension plans. Here are some examples: Marketing Professional. Sales Professional. I’m sure you can think of a dozen more examples today.
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.
Businesses require an equally elegant business model, with the right price, messaging and delivery channel to the right target customers to keep the dream alive and growing. The founder had simply not done the work to validate a price and customer segment. Match with competitor prices and market demographics.
But ops & customer support is another 17-20% of revenue and arguably you couldn’t run the business if you took that away. Sales and marketing has been 30%+ basically forever, though undoubtedly Airbnb has enough brand recognition and loyal customers that if you turned off marketing spend then revenue would drop but not to zero.
They couldn’t possibly understand the new social media culture, new technologies, or have the determination to beat their younger counterparts in the market. Pew says the Boomer demographic is the largest mainstream pool of experienced talent in the market today, and will be for the foreseeable future. Manage customer service.
I like the summary of the competitive reality in a new book, “ Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age ,” by Ram Charan, who relates a wealth of current experience from global clients: Customers expect a personalized experience. Features, availability, and brand are just the price of entry.
For entrepreneurs, effective networking is required to find investors, partners, and customers. They are too busy with the “crisis of the moment” to focus on follow-ups that may save a major customer, close a partner deal, or solidify a process that isn’t working well. Effective marketing. Customer retention.
Finding a customer for your product in the Department of Defense is hard: Who should you talk to? Looking for DoD customers How do you know if they have money to spend on your product? How do you get their attention? It almost always starts with a Program Executive Office.
I suggest looking for painful problems to solve, rather than “easier to use” or “nice to have” solutions, for customers with money. Customers line up to believe and buy from people who are viewed as leaders or experts relative to a specific solution. Collaborate with customers to tune your solution.
Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. Due diligence always involves on-site visits, informal discussions with any or all members of the team, vendors, and good customers as well as bad. Traction in the marketplace.
The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Commit to a major customer. Joint venture with distributor or beneficiary.
Hypothesis-Driven Growth: How to Turn Data into Revenue written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interviewed Doug Davidoff, the founder and CEO of Lift Enablement and the author of The Revenue Acceleration Framework.
Many passionate entrepreneurs fight to add more features into their new products and services, assuming that more function will make the solution more appealing to more customers. Focus is the art of limiting your scope to the key function that really matters for the majority of customers.
A business plan is the outward facing definition of the business you hope to drive with your hardware solution, with a hardware overview in the intro to highlight customer value and competitiveness. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value. Quantify the market opportunity in business terms.
In other words, inventions are necessary but not sufficient to create real value for investors and customers. So what do investors look for in qualifying you for that million dollars you need to take your invention from your garage to the market? You need a viable business model and customers.
You alone will never find enough hours in a day to keep with all the challenges of sales, support, and scaling the business, in addition to developing and delivering your solution. In addition to locking in his leadership position in electric vehicles, he has also used his patents to negotiate faster growth in his market.
In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers. Missions and products that are too broad confuse your team, your customers, and potential investors. Marketing and sales chasm. Marketing costs can be a deep hole.
Often, despite your passion and expectation, customers don’t immediately see the value and need that you see, and you have no idea why the initiative is stuck , and what could be the real customer issue or fix. Customers won’t buy what they can’t find or don’t understand. Customers need supporting approvals to fully benefit.
If you are the hot-shot technical innovator that invented your solution, make sure you have an equally adept business and marketing expert to complement your skills. “If Pivot early, as required, to tune your features and marketing to meet the market and technical realities. Look for validation from your mainstream customers.
Contact key vendors and existing customers. This will cover the technology, the current state of development, and customer satisfaction. If the product is in customer hands, expect some customers to be interviewed. Size of the market. Sales and marketing strategy.
Every startup lucky enough to get some traction gets to the point where they decide to hire some “regular employees” for sales, marketing, and administrative tasks. It’s what every customer looks for in every transaction. Sales will be the organization’s sole focus.” Employees will lose focus on their work.”
Idea people must surround themselves with people who build momentum and get things done, including production, marketing, finance, and sales. Gates was a software developer genius, but Ballmer upheld the marketing and business side. They soon find that the market and competitors are changing faster than they are.
Others schedule exhaustive training sessions for everyone on the team, including showcase customers, to make sure that everyone paints a consistent picture. Due diligence always involves on-site visits, informal discussions with any or all members of the team, vendors, and good customers as well as bad. Traction in the marketplace.
Companies are rightsized quickly now as markets change rapidly, and business professionals are quick to jump to new opportunities for growth and survival, with no ties to special benefits or pension plans. Here are some examples: Marketing Professional. Sales Professional. I’m sure you can think of a dozen more examples today.
get the attention of the market they choose. Having a great idea in the wrong place won’t get you the funding you need, the experienced domain experts you want, or the pilot market results you need for survival. billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana. It’s just the first of many. Exposure is another key ingredient.
Don’t forget to add all pesky “overhead” costs, with fixed elements, like rent, insurance, and administration, and variable elements, like delivery, customer support, and commissions. If you expect payment in 30 days, many customers will stretch this period to 45 days or even 90. This difference will kill your profit margin.
Source: Pexels Source: Pexels Customers Can Always Find You The great thing about having a solid online website is that you will have a constant online presence. An up-to-date website also ensures that your customers can access what they need when they need it. When you do, you’ll simply need to hire a web design agency.
After paying R&D costs, product development, packaging, staff costs, and more, start-ups often look for ways to market and scale on a relatively tight budget. Below are five effective marketing tips to help launch your new business: 1. Influencers fall into a similar category, but they are often more of a niche market.
His focus is primarily on improving the results for traditional sales professionals, but I’m convinced that the same principles are equally critical for entrepreneurs selling their startup to investors, strategic partners, and customers. These attributes include the following: Specific moment-in-time indication.
Enhancing Your Brand’s Value with White Label SEO A white label SEO company allows you to offer expert SEO services under your own brand, strengthening your market position and credibility. This strengthens customer relationships and drives long-term growth.
Most of the machines were custom-built to crack a specific code, and increasingly used a new ERA invention – the magnetic drum memory to process and analyze the coded texts. Sales in their first fiscal year were $1.5 ERAs systems were designed to solve problems defined by their Navy code-breaking customer.
Another major factor is the seasonality of sales. You can explore Amazon ecommerce fulfillment services to improve customer satisfaction and streamline operations. By using FBA, your products become eligible for Amazon Prime, which can significantly improve sales.
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