April 18th, 2012
So much marketing is “me too”, if you have read one press release or marketing material you have read them all. It is always a trick about how to reach your audience and stand out from the crowd by being different. In an age of low-cost email campaigns and social media, we are actually finding that direct mail is standing out and cutting through and reaching prospects. Mailing traditional newsletters, hand-written letters or simply sending out postcards are working. People like getting mail!
3 Reasons I Like Postcards
- Cost effective - $20 for 500 postcards
- Don’t have to open an envelope
- People will actually post them on their office wall!
Below are couple of our favorite postcards:
Don’t forget to add a QR code.
March 23rd, 2012
Relationships can be very instrumental in the success of a consulting practice. When building a practice, consultants need to build business relationships with a variety of potential partners. Understanding the power of these relationships — and establishing trust and confidence — is one of the keys to growing your business effectively.
Sean Murphy is the April speaker at PATCA. Sean will share important tips and considerations for choosing partners to help grow your business. He will discuss a range of working relationships including employees, contractors, alliances, partners and co-owners.
April 12, 2012 6pm
Register at http://www.patca.org/index.php/events/viewevent/117-structuring-business-relationships-dinner-meeting
This session will explore:
- Differences between employees, contractors, alliances, partners and co-owners
- Defining the relationship roles
- What partners need from you
- How to pitch to a partner
- Tips for structuring a deal
About PATCA:
PATCA is a nonprofit professional association of independent consultants and principals who work in small consulting practices. Since its founding in 1975, PATCA members have been highly respected for their professionalism, integrity, objectivity and competence. They include experts in all aspects of business and technology and serve clients in many industries throughout the U.S. and the world. PATCA offers a free Post a Project referral service for clients searching for an expert consultant. It also provides business leads, project referrals, and consulting education to its consultant members.
March 19th, 2012
Saturday March 24, 9-11am
Ground Floor Silicon Valley, located at 2030 Duane Avenue, Santa Clara,
We are launching new Mastermind groups in response to several requests from entrepreneurs who wanted to form an advisory board of peers with a deeper understanding of each other’s businesses and shared accountability.
Come to the meeting and see if you feel comfortable with the other folks that we invite and we will work out times and locations. There will certainly be one group that meets on weekends, there may be others that meet on a workday.
The difference between these mastermind meetings and a Bootstrapper Breakfast meeting is that anyone is welcome to drop in to a breakfast, this will be the same group meeting and holding each other accountable for goals and commitments. Over time, because these entrepreneurs are more or less in the same stage of their business and meeting multiple times they will get to know each better than the average breakfast attendee.
There is no charge for this open house but if you decide to join a facilitated small group there is a small monthly subscription. Want to be notified of future open houses join Bay Area Mastermind meetup.
February 23rd, 2012
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations
“Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo!
When: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 8 am – 5 pm
Where: Moorpark Hotel, 4241 Moorpark Ave, San Jose CA 95129
For out of town attendees: The Moorpark is located 400 feet from the Saratoga Ave exit on Hwy 280, about 7 miles from San Jose Airport and 35 miles from San Francisco Airport Hotels Near Great Demo! Workshop
Cost: $620
Before May. 1: $595
This is an interactive workshop with Peter Cohan geared especially for you who demonstrate B-to-B software to your customer and channels. Bring a copy of your demo and be prepared to present it — we’ll help you turn it into a surprisingly compelling demo!
This seminar outlines a framework for the creation and delivery of improved demos and presentations to enable increased success in the marketing, sale, and deployment of software and related products. Whether it’s face to face, in a webinar, as a screencast, or as a self-running demo the ability to present the key benefits of your software product is essential to generating prospect interest and ultimately revenue. Peter Cohan of The Second Derivative gives us the recipe for a Great Demo!
“I am confident that with the insights gained from your workshop we will land more customers in fewer iterations.”
Lav Pachuri, CEO, Xleron Inc.
“Peter Cohan’s Great Demo method really works. It helped us win DEMOgod, and it has allowed us to explain our offering much more clearly to prospects.”
Chaim Indig, CEO, Phreesia
(See “DEMOgod Winner Phreesia Praises Peter Cohan Training“)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Peter Cohan, Principal at Second Derivative
Community Web Site: www.DemoGurus.com
Peter Cohan is the founder and a principal of The Second Derivative, a consultancy focused on helping software organizations improve their sales and marketing results. In July 2004, he enabled and began moderating DemoGurus®, a community web exchange dedicated to helping sales and marketing teams improve their software demonstrations. In 2003, he authored Great Demo!, a book that provides methods to create and execute compelling demonstrations. The 2nd edition of Great Demo! was published March 2005.
Before The Second Derivative, Peter founded the Discovery Tools® business unit at Symyx Technologies, Inc., where he grew the business from an empty spreadsheet into a $30 million operation. Prior to Symyx, Peter served in marketing, sales, and management positions at MDL Information Systems, a leading provider of scientific information management software. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc. and the board of advisors for Excellin, Inc. He holds a degree in chemistry.
Peter has experience as an individual contributor, manage and senior management in marketing, sales, and business development. He has also been, and continues to be, a customer.
Agenda:
- 8:00 AM Breakfast & Registration
- 8:15 AM Workshop begins
- Noon Lunch
- 1 PM Workshop Continues
- 5 PM Wrap up
Seating is Limited
For more information: Theresa 408-252-9676 events@skmurphy.com
January 2nd, 2012
MyPermissions: Checks for third party application access to your Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, and Flickr accounts.
SocialMention: Allows you to do keyword and phrase search across more than one hundred social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google, etc…
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