Startups 500 Startups partner explains how to close enterprise sales |
- 500 Startups partner explains how to close enterprise sales
- 6,450 words that built a billion-dollar business before the internet
- How did you deal with domain squatters?
- Compensating open source contributions
- How much should one disparage competitors?
- So this might sound ridiculous, but is it possible to seek a specific individual as a potential investor in my startup?
- Any feedback on this job offer I got from a startup relative to my qualifications? Appreciate any help..
- custom packaging for my product
- Investing in Startups as an Angel or LLC
- Rookie Question: How do freelance developers get access to a website to fix/implement things?
| 500 Startups partner explains how to close enterprise sales Posted: 28 Mar 2018 02:41 PM PDT This is an interview with Rob Neivert, B2B partner at 500 Startups, about how to close enterprise sales. He has worked at eight startups and invested in 70 companies. Key takeaways and timestamps are below. Rob shares some fun stories, like how changing a website's color helped him close a $2 million deal. Key Takeaways
Timestamps [1:43] When Rob's four-stage sales framework applies. [2:31] What should you learn about the potential customer? [4:00] How to collect a prospect's KPIs and use it to get initial meetings. [5:13] Sales intelligence tools you can use for research. [5:19] Should you cold-call? [6:28] How to use cold-calling to collect information. [7:06] Best cold-calling or emailing strategies. [8:05] Which seniority level should you contact first? [9:25] Creating an "internal champion" to become your insider and help you win deals. [10:30] How do you generate inbound leads? [11:20] Marketing automation tools. [11:27] What questions you should ask once a lead engages you? [13:22] Engaging leads properly; Ask questions, listen, and respond. [15:30] Why you should wait to demonstrate your product. [16:33] How to start your demo, and what to avoid. [17:15] Examples of quick wins. [18:14] How showing features during a demo can solve problems [19:58] Nine ways to optimize your demo. [21:46] When do you switch from pitching to the final stage of closing? [22:35] How do you negotiate for the pricing you want? [23:48] What do you do when a sales process stalls? [24:20] What is a drip campaign? [25:27] What Rob avoids while pushing a sale. [26:20] How much of the process should be done by founders vs. dedicated salespeople? [28:18] What actions to take after a sale has closed. [link] [comments]  |
| 6,450 words that built a billion-dollar business before the internet Posted: 28 Mar 2018 02:55 AM PDT On October 19, 1948, Merrill Lynch published a 6,450 word ad in the New York Times. It cost them about five thousand dollars to run the ad which Louis Engel convinced his bosses was a good idea. The ad had no explicit references to the brokerage firm and was blandly titled, "What Everybody Ought to Know about This Stock and Bond Business" At the bottom, the bottom right of the page was a little call to action that acknowledges Merrill Lynch as the sponsor and invited the reader to request free reprints of the ad in pamphlet form. Engel who had only been at the firm for two years gave his superiors two major concerns. First, such free information and education were sure to benefit their rivals. Secondly, why would anyone respond to getting a pamphlet of something they could simple tear out of the paper? Before I share with you the results, it's important to note that Merrill Lynch first tested this concept in a smaller publication in Cleveland. This is important because testing is important before you invest heavily in any campaign or promotion. Back to the story… The Cleveland experiment had encouraging results. After Engel published his ad in the New York Times, Merrill Lynch received more than five thousand requests from potential customers. What's amazing is that they received hundreds of long and thoughtful letters from appreciative readers. One person said: "God bless Merrill Lynch; …I have been wanting to know this all my life;…I owned stocks and bonds and I never really knew what I owned." The firm run the same promotion, or slightly edited versions, in newspapers across the country for the next few months and years. They are said to have received over three million responses and millions of customers. You can imagine the impact such an ad had on their business. Decades later, Merrill Lynch is a part of Bank of America and manages of over $2.2 trillion in client assets. Do you think this will work today?
David Ogilvy modeled Louis Engel's approach and created 17 ads for his business. In one report David Ogilvy said he had sold over 1.4 billion dollars' worth of advertising. Would you like to know how to use these same strategies to increase your market share? Make it a focus to educate your market better than any competitor can. The better advised a person is, the more likely they are to hold you in high regard as an expert. [link] [comments]  |
| How did you deal with domain squatters? Posted: 28 Mar 2018 04:17 PM PDT I'm trying to come up with a name for my app and two of the obvious criteria I'm looking at are 1) not used in the App Store, and 2) available domain name. Of course there are other criteria but at the moment I'm just poking around on thesaurus.com typing in every term I can think of that relates to my app, and once in a while a seemingly viable word comes up, but the related domain name is occupied by one of those non-content "we know you got here accidentally but hope you give us some ad revenue" pages. Some of them have a "buy this domain" link. Unfortunately I'm coming to the conclusion that every dictionary word that isn't an actual company already has been bought by a domain squatter, and I guess I'm not creative enough to come up with a silly spelling (although I now understand why so many apps are named that way). I don't even know what these squatters charge to part with these names but I can't imagine it's paltry, and I'm starting up on a shoestring budget (self funding from my day job). The idea of forking over thousands of dollars to a bridge troll really rubs me the wrong way. Do I just have to hold my nose and pay the ransom? [link] [comments]  |
| Compensating open source contributions Posted: 28 Mar 2018 09:25 AM PDT Hello all, My product is consumer-facing and has two codebases - one that is completely open to contributors and one that is closed mainly because it involves subscriptions and such (e.g if subscribed, show this, otherwise show that). Some contributors bring a lot of value and once I start charging for the product, I'm not sure how they will take it. What are some ways for compensation? I'm thinking to let them use the product for free but I don't know if that's enough. One of the main contributors has been working on features/updates/bug/issue remediation consistently for the last couple of months. I even added him to the GitHub organization and gave him write privileges just so I could be more hands off. I do trust him and feel he deserves more than the rest and may even bring him as a partner. Do you have any experience in building an open-source Saas product? What would you do in this situation? Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| How much should one disparage competitors? Posted: 28 Mar 2018 05:33 PM PDT I'm currently working on building ads and the About section for a social media platform. There is a lot wrong with social media, to the point where you can write entire papers about the matter. Of course, the important thing is promoting the platform itself and focusing on what it does right. Pointing out issues in the competition is a good way to show the platform in a good light, but how many digs against competitors is too much? Should it be kept to a minimum, with vague references here and there, or should it be more aggressive? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Mar 2018 09:41 AM PDT I have been working for a while on my fashion luxury brand, and I always admired a now retired previous CEO of a very popular luxury brand today. Said person is a billionaire, so chances are slim to none, but how do you seriously present a legitimate offer of interest to someone of this size and power? I figure only related people in the fashion industry could truly either see potential or chance of my brand succeeding. If possible, how would you go about such doing such a task? Thanks guys! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 Mar 2018 07:58 AM PDT so i just wrapped up getting my masters degree in mechanical engineering . already have an undergrad in mechanical engineering as well. from 2013 to 2016 i founded and ran a startup. we raised a bit of money (low six figures), was accepted into an accelerator out in the Silicon Valley, and ended up being acquired. i was the lead developer, the finance guy, dealt with regulations, and marketing/business development. while i was getting my masters, i had a gig as a software engineer for about 4 months as well. i received an offer for being a product manager out in San Francisco for a company in the same sector that my old startup was in. offering $125k compensation. the startup is only 3 people big right now, but has already raised a seed round. early product is more-or-less built as well, so a decent amount of risk is already removed. so my questions:
obv i've done a BUNCH of research, but wanted to get a more subjective opinion as well from people like you. from my research, $125k compensation is slightly on the lower end for PMs in SF (looks like they avg $110k-$200k). but this doesn't factor in equity. another thing is im currently in mizzou, so cost of living is very low. from what i've seen online (nerdwallet.com), $125k in SF is the same as $66k in kansas city... does that sound about right? brutal. at the end of the day.. trying to figure out if this is worth taking and moving away from family (im very close with my family.. my idea is to travel home semi-regularly to still stay in touch.. it cant be that difficult to maintain close family ties remotely can it? thoughts?), or if i should pass on the offer and search for better offers local (which could take a LONG time) im leaning towards taking the offer, but countering with 10% more salary and also clarifying equity. [link] [comments]  |
| custom packaging for my product Posted: 28 Mar 2018 07:24 AM PDT I have a lightweight and very flat (less than 5 ounces) product that I'd like to have arrive in a snazzy packaging and unsure what options are out there? Do companies typically create their own packaging? If so, where does one get the materials and designs need to fold the packaging? Found someone online that creates boxes but they are charging $1/unit.. blah.. not friendly with the startup budget in my opinion. Anyway, wondering what anyone else out there as done to add a great marketing spin on their shipped products? [link] [comments]  |
| Investing in Startups as an Angel or LLC Posted: 28 Mar 2018 09:33 AM PDT Hello, A few friends of mine are interested in investing in some startups, each of us willing to stake ~20k. We are all accredited investors. My question is, many of these startups require minimum check sizes. Our idea was to form an LLC to pool our money, but a big hurdle is some of the taxes, legal, and management fees that come with that are very high, some estimates show 10k per investment. This would only make sense if the check size was very large to spread that out. How do most people handle this issue? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Rookie Question: How do freelance developers get access to a website to fix/implement things? Posted: 28 Mar 2018 02:48 AM PDT Yes I am sure this is a simple question but I am new to this and would like to know, just incase I accidently let someone hack my site. What is the usual practise for a freelance developer to get access to a WordPress or WooCommerce page to fix issues or implement a theme they designed? Right now my site is pretty much blank it just as a Plug-in I purchased for $100+ installed, but I dont know what usually happens when someone hires a freelance developer. Do you provide your WP login details, is there a 'Dev' access login etc? Any advice is appreciated, I am sure this is a pretty straightforward question for seasoned startup entrepreneurs [link] [comments]  |
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