Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 23, 2021

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. Incentives should be a combination of metrics and recognition to highlight results. Incent and reward employees who delight customers.

Customer 369

Customer Technical Review Metrics Employee 369

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 6, 2024

Sales incentives play a critical role in motivating employees. Definition and Importance of Sales Incentives Sales incentives are bonuses and rewards employees receive to inspire and improve their work performance. Companies find that implementing sales incentives boosts morale and improves overall productivity.

Employee 158

Employee Sales Artificial Inteligence Technical Review 158

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Define hard (data) and soft (anecdotal) metrics on the change, as well as on the quality of your leadership. That means you have to start with assessing the current state against the same metrics, before you can assess progress or change. Make sure metric results are available to the team, to keep them motivated.

Metrics 387

Metrics Technical Review Leadership Framework 387

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 2, 2021

Customers today quickly get beyond these, and put a competitive priority on the experience of others, reflected in reviews and social media, and their own total experience with your sales process, delivery, returns, and support on their schedule. You need to be part of a larger ecosystem.

Software Review 355

Software Review Algorithm Global IPO 355

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Put simply – you need enough users in a segment who care about what you’re doing to dictate investing further in the product or in sales & marketing resources. One of the things I have observed over the years is that a hard charging sales oriented founder/CEO can often hide the defects in a product. The money quote.

Technical Review 401

Technical Review Startup Business Model Non-Compete 401

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2021

No matter how passionately you believe that everyone needs one, and positive feedback from friends and early adopters (false positives), before you invest in scaling the business, make sure you set and meet good metrics in cost of customer acquisition, recurring sales, and margin.

Technical Review 329

Technical Review Merger Software Review Acquisition 329

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2022

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. You must have a strong Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) with a clear strategy for spending, and metrics to gauge results.

Acquisition 250

Acquisition Cost Customer Sales Cycle 250

Steve Blank

MARCH 15, 2017

His company had marched through customer discovery, learning about the customer problem, validated solutions and was now scaling sales and marketing. After a few months of talking to customers and working with sales, we defined the marketing Mission (our job) as: Help Sales deliver $25 million in sales with a 45% gross margin.

Startup 329

Startup PR Public Relations Channel 329

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 2, 2020

The non-marketing parts of the business (sales, finance, and the CEO) don’t care about more marketing “stuff”; they want more leads, more sales, and more profits. They run the campaign once and then declare it was successful based on vanity metrics. In your experience, how do sales teams react to Agile?

Agile 264

Agile Marketing Campaign Sales 264

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2021

A required metric is average days to payment compared to expectations. In business, when you lose money on every sale, it’s hard to make it up in volume and still be profitable. Considering the job done once a client has been invoiced. A startup must ensure that the payments are collected per agreed terms. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Finance Startup Salary 379

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Unlocking the Power of Data: Transforming Metrics into Actionable Insights written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast with John Janstch In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interviewed Peter Caputa, CEO of Databox, an innovative player in the realm of marketing analytics.

Metrics 92

Metrics Analytics Forecast Software Review 92

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2022

billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana. But it is an important metric for firms in pursuit of explosive growth. Maxwell Wessel, in a classic article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject, points out the exception successes of Zappos in Las Vegas, Sendgrid’s massive growth in Colorado, and RightNow’s $1.5

Las Vegas 309

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Arizona Montana 309

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Cash flow is a basic survival metric for every startup. Waiting until you have something to sell before bringing on a sales and operations staff. Getting a sales contract before manufacturing inventory. Desperate entrepreneurs lose their leverage and die young. Social media is not rocket science.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Often board members themselves don’t do the work to say “what metrics would we like to see.” Any great board member should tell you, “please don’t create any performance metrics or materials that analyze the business that you’re not already creating for your own management’s use.” Sometimes they don’t even know.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

EBITDA is the most important profitability metric to consider as many valuations are based on a multiple of this metric. Therefore, the higher your EBITDA is, the higher the price you can demand in the sale of your business. Last but not least, Profits refers to the profit that your company is able to generate.

Exit Strategy 246

Exit Strategy Intellectual Property Valuation Metrics 246

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

" Revenue doesn't pay your bills, GM does  —  @msuster 2/ Founders obsess with revenue as a vanity metric. But if you want to add some in the comments section on Medium and I’ll make sure to read them. Some even grow "bad" revenue just to show growth. Things happen, people tire, sometimes tragedies.

Founder 242

Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 1, 2022

It’s easy to jump to conclusions and attack the symptoms of a new problem, such as blaming the marketing team for declining sales. Put metrics in place to track decision results. Dig for the root problem rather than fixing symptoms. Quick decisions and biases can be very costly. Analyze market events in the context of emerging trends.

Technical Review 302

Technical Review Social Media Metrics Hosting 302

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2019

billion dollar sale to Oracle from Bozeman, Montana. But it is an important metric for firms in pursuit of explosive growth. Maxwell Wessel, in a classic article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject, points out the exception successes of Zappos in Las Vegas, Sendgrid’s massive growth in Colorado, and RightNow’s $1.5

Las Vegas 243

Las Vegas Silicon Valley Arizona Montana 243

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

This required a repeatable and scalable sales process, which required a professional sales staff and a product stable enough that customers wouldn’t return it. While 20th century metrics were revenue and profit, today it’s common for companies to get acquired for their user base. People had to actually pay you for your product.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 3, 2020

Whether you are an online retailer with products that may sell out or alter over time, or your site is consistently being updated with fresh content that makes older blog posts and articles somewhat redundant, you don’t want search engines to display deleted content or out-dated products in key SERPs as this will negatively impact key metrics.

Architecture 251

Architecture SEO Web Development Engineer 251

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 27, 2019

For example, when delivery costs and delays were still a major online sales hurdle, Amazon Prime membership was invented to offer free next day shipping. Incorporate AI-powered data and metrics systems. These days, speed of delivery, rate of change, and automation are key, so these elements get attention for every customer.

Global 308

Global Marketing Technical Review Algorithm 308

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2019

Too many business owners still think of “ customer support ” as an after-sale process to rectify customer problems with completed transactions. Customers expect you to provide access via their mobile devices, as well as being responsive to sales and support questions on social media and multiple Internet channels and partners at their whim.

Customer 211

Customer Social Media Metrics Technical Review 211

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 2, 2021

These courses can vary significantly, ranging from compliance training, certification management, and even sales enablement. Types of Metrics Provided by an LMS. Other metrics provided include reports on peer review activity, fastest answers given, sharing activity, content views, and so on. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

Management 173

Management Software Review Metrics Retention 173

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

With some practice you can translate the topline, account, or Program Element (PE) Line changes into a sales Go-To-Market strategy, or at least a hypothesis of who to call on. And which have converted to portfolio management, which have tried OTA contracts, as well as highlighting those who are doing something novel with metrics or outcomes.

Programming 249

Programming Customer Portfolio Government 249

The Startup Magazine

JULY 24, 2024

Another major factor is the seasonality of sales. Regularly reviewing performance metrics can help identify areas for improvement. By using FBA, your products become eligible for Amazon Prime, which can significantly improve sales. For instance, a lightweight item incurs lower fees compared to a heavier one.

Cost 167

Cost Technical Review Software Review Stock 167

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Sales is all about how to get more customers, and relationship funnels prioritize establishing a genuine connection with your customers. Relationship funnel vs. sales funnel — What’s the difference? It’s easy to confuse relationship funnels with traditional sales or marketing funnels, however, they differ significantly.

Sales 152

Sales Audience Social Media Email 152

ConversionXL

MAY 27, 2022

Sales intelligence platform Cognism cut their lead generation efforts by 90% in 2021. In this article, you’ll learn how to build a demand generation funnel that fuels the pipeline, shortens the sale cycle, and generates revenue. Stage 1: Target the right metrics for an effective long game. email, ads, retargeting, etc.)

Demand 124

Demand B2B Distribution Channel 124

ConversionXL

JUNE 16, 2022

In this article, we’ll explain how to create a marketing playbook to align your teams and boost your sales opportunities. If a social media follower clicks through a casual post to see a formal sales piece, their experience changes, as does their impression of Visme as a brand. A marketing playbook gets everyone on the same page.

Campaign 149

Campaign CTO Marketing Social Media 149

Duct Tape Marketing

JULY 11, 2024

But it's metrics and metrics. So a metric represents a widget. And this allows us to give that connection and the alignment to the team and that word widget and that word metric in regards to a three year highly achievable goal connects your team to where you're going. And that's the difference.

Framework 90

Framework Leadership Widget Metrics 90

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

It wasn’t just front-end processes like sales tools, marketing funnels, dynamic pricing, driver routes and so forth but we also had to build comprehensive systems to manage numerous warehouses across four different cities. Summary Startups are fun and exhilarating and filled with challenging problems to solve.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 8, 2024

Factors to Consider Before Taking on Debt The debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) is a financial metric lenders use to assess a business’s ability to cover its debt obligations. Effective marketing and sales initiatives are essential to succeed.

Finance 147

Finance Technical Review Metrics .Net 147

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 20, 2024

While both methods aim to drive customer engagement and boost sales, they differ significantly in terms of strategy, effectiveness, and overall reach. Measuring Success: Quantifiable Metrics When it comes to tracking the success of an advertising campaign, geofencing has a clear advantage over traditional methods.

Advertising 147

Advertising Technical Review Audience Mobile 147

The Startup Magazine

JULY 7, 2023

sales commission, raw materials, and packaging) and fixed costs (property rental, company car instalments, etc.). But it is important to be diligent in keeping track of everything from sales to petty cash and stationery purchases. For starters, what are the key metrics that are measured by successful companies in this sector?

Connecticut 183

Connecticut Entrepreneur Software Review Cost 183

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 8, 2021

That’s why Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is such a critical metric. In most cases, it includes: Salaries of sales and marketing teams Advertising spend on acquiring new customers (Search/Display Ads, Social Ads, Sponsorship, etc.) LTV/CAC – Understanding the golden metric. Segmenting CAC to prioritize channels.

Acquisition 135

Acquisition Churn Rate Cost Customer 135

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 9, 2025

Outsourcing SEO can also channel opportunity costs into other areas of business, such as sales and customer service. Education and ongoing support are often included in the package, allowing businesses to engage confidently in discussions about SEO strategies and performance metrics with their clients.

SEO 86

SEO Search Engineer Retention 86