Key Take-Aways from Fri-Nov-3 Bootstrappers Breakfast
We had a good discussion at this morning at Voyager Coffee in San Jose for the Fri-Nov-3 Bootstrappers Breakfast. Here are some key items we discussed and my take-aways.
We had a good discussion at this morning at Voyager Coffee in San Jose for the Fri-Nov-3 Bootstrappers Breakfast. Here are some key items we discussed and my take-aways.
In this podcast, Étienne Garbugli and Sean K. Murphy discuss several proven approaches for how founders can learn sales on the job.
A simple but very useful model we like for the customer buying process is “Understand, Believe, Act.” This post explains what it is and how to apply it.
Customer care is treating your customers with respect and dignity. It requires curiosity and empathy on everyone’s part in a startup.
Land and EXPAND the fasting path to expand your bottom line. A key area where many companies don’t focus as much as they should – is expansion within their existing customers
Is this you? You have put their heart and soul into developing your product. You launch your dreams and then nothing…nobody buys
A conversation with Brendan McAdams about what’s involved in drawing a map of the customer organization as part of an enterprise sale.
Brendan McAdams and Sean Murphy discuss cultivating luck in business endeavors and relationships.
An extract from a highly interactive session with Thomas Ahn at the Lean Culture Meetup on Mar-25-2021 where he answers “what makes for an effective investor pitch?”
Some people are natural connectors. Sean Murphy is one of those. In this video, he shares one of his secret to network maintenance. He frames maintaining your professional network as counting your blessings. Your network is a long-term investment. It takes the time to nurture and grow your relationships.
Lean Canvas Operations is part of a five part series by Ed Ipser where he explains how to use the Lean Canvas and what it is good for.
An enterprise sale is a significant source of opportunity for startups, but it is a complex undertaking with many moving parts and many people involved. This article is the result of a collaboration with Brendan McAdams (@BrendanMcAdams), a sales and marketing professional focused on B2B clients in healthcare.
Sean Murphy explains to a client why startups should just sell the results to reduce a prospect’s perception of risk in a new tool.
Here is video and slides from Feb-11-2021 talk “Landing Your First Ten Customers” at the Lean Culture Meetup. I have included some supplemental resources for further reading.
The key challenges to getting your first ten customers relate to understanding the customer buying process and managing the startup learning process for need, impact, customer definition and message.
You learn sales by doing sales: as a founder you must sell. Sales is a conversation, marketing is a broadcast. Marketing gets the phone to ring, sales takes the call and closes the deal.
“Sales Craft: Proven Tips, Tactics and Ideas to Elevate Your Sales” by Brendan McAdams is a quick read, well written and clearly based on practical experience.
Work with trusted partners open kimono: disclose relevant financials, plans, and internal processes to increase synergy. Play a long game.
To close enterprise deals is a complex undertaking that requires you to orchestrate a mix of conversations and other activities with three kinds of stakeholders: technologists, managers, and executives.
It’s not uncommon for CEOs who are engineers is to hire someone to focus on sales. But unless they know how to sell their product, this is a mistake. CEOs need to learn the basics of how to sell their product so they can manage the sales function.