For more testimonial videos see Peter Cohan’s YouTube Channel. We are offering another Great Demo Workshop October 12 in San Jose:
Create and Deliver Surprisingly Compelling Software Demonstrations
“Do The Last Thing First” — the recipe for a Great Demo!
When: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 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
Cost: $590
Before Sept. 28: $566
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!
“Sean Murphy adds tremendous value for startups in setting them up “getting out of the building” and how to make sense of the data they’ve gathered. He’s one consultant I personally know (I’m sure there are others) who doesn’t confuse his role with the founders. I think of his consulting firm as a “force-multiplier” for Customer Development.”
Steve Blank in a discussion in the comments for “Consultants Don’t Pivot, Founders Do“
I got the following E-mail from an entrepreneur on Friday
Heard a lot about you and been meaning to connect! Appreciate you taking a look through my blog and your comment was awesome. Is skmurphy.com your main thing right now? What else are you working on?
What follows is my answer, in case you had the same question.
We do customer development and new product introduction consulting in B2B markets for expertise driven products. Typically companies or consultants who want to turbocharge their practice with technology –we recently worked with a team that had developed a 1.2 mm thick heat pipe made from nanomaterial that can be used for LED, high performance computing, and electric vehicle applications).
I don’t like to travel but we have a global practice with about 2/3 of clients in Silicon Valley (either HQ, for events, and/or deals in Silicon Valley) and 1/3 in North America, Europe, or Asia. We collaborate with remote teams using a variety of technologies including skype, CentralDesktop, and GoToMeeting.
We help with strategy (typically bringing clarity and a priority to a set of problems and/or opportunities), pricing, negotiation, sales presentation preparation, and early market exploration. We have a strong focus on sales because a paying customer is not a market hypothesis but a fact, offering proof that your product and go to market strategy are viable.
I am not very fond of the word pivot, I think most successful startups actually build on “problem/founder fit” and need to zoom in on where they offer the most value to get established. I have taken an entrepreneurial approach to life (punctuated by education a number jobs in large companies) for more than three decades.
We also do
Bootstrapper Breakfast in about 7 locations in Silicon Valley, Chicago, and Minneapolis. www.bootstrapperbreakfast.com That started more than five years ago now.
The common thread is small group discussion as a way of facilitating knowledge sharing and learning. The breakfasts normally have 8 to 16 people around a single table, the book club is a panel discussion between 3-5 people with questions from the audience to keep it lively and engaging, and the workshops we normally cap at between 16 and 22 depending upon the subject matter. Private workshops are with one team and their advisors and typically are 3-6 people
I met Ron Fredericks of LectureMaker when I was co-chair of the SDForum Marketing SIG in 2006. Ron was clearly a very bright engineer with a passion for both embedded systems and video (@DoMoreWithVideo). We kept in touch and last year he e-mailed me that he had opened a video studio in Sunnyvale. We have used his studio to create two short videos:
I enjoy working with Ron, he is a true professional in his approach to video production. He is committed to quality work and consistently delivers results that make me and my business look good. The convenience of his studio in Sunnyvale allows us to do short videos as needed. The option to take two hours and turn out a 30-60 second for an upcoming event or new product or service have proven to be a very useful addition to our repertoire of extended capabilities.
When we first started working with SKMurphy our product was complicated and our message was even more complex. SKMurphy helped us focus our product on a market that we could succeed in and create a message that was sharp, crisp and quickly show value add. They helped us understand that people’s attention spans were short, and that you only have a very limited time to send your message. Quality and relevance were of the essence, not quantity or complexity.
SKMurphy helped us select potential customers, set up presentations and demonstrations, and listen carefully to what the customer was saying. They helped us differentiate between customers that had a real need and what their pain points were from the customers that were just being polite and would potentially lead us on and waste our time. They gave us advice on how to negotiate evaluation and pricing terms, how to close a sale and strive for a purchase order.
In very short time, SKMurphy helped us get ready for two trade-shows, DVCON and DAC. Without interfering too much with our day to day business we were able to organize and successfully execute two shows. Being a small company keeping expenses down was a must. They knew how to get the most out of a tradeshow with the least amount of money.
Their experience with tradeshows is immense. They knew what the important things to do were. And a lot of time these things could be done very inexpensively. They helped us with slide shows, demonstrations, posters, banners, press releases, press interviews, and all the detail logistics that go into making a show. Both or our shows went effortlessly and flawlessly. We were not distracted by any unrelated to business and 100% of our energy could go into sales and lead generation.
Sean Murphy’s knowledge of the industry, the individual companies and the people involved is enormous. He has good instincts determining which people to spend time with and which people to avoid. He knows which people are going to help you and have upside potential for your company and which people are not, are clear competitors and should be avoided.
