Startups How Nike sold their first shoes |
- How Nike sold their first shoes
- Documenting the creation of your startup?
- Bringing in a “partner” post revenue
- Exiting Strategy to Pursue Startup Concept/Business, What is the best Environment?
- In need of guidance.
- How would I use more saas for a non-tech start up?
- Help with legal works.
| How Nike sold their first shoes Posted: 25 Oct 2019 01:52 AM PDT April 1964 Phil Knight's (the co-founder of Nike) first shipment of shoes arrived from Japan. He left his accountancy job and all that spring did nothing but sell shoes out of the boot of his car. To quote Knight:
EMPLOYEE NUMBER ONE Midway through 1965 Knight hired Jeff Johnson, his first full-time employee. And Johnson was an even more prolific salesman than Knight. In ten months he'd sold 3,250 pairs of shoes, which to quote Knight was a "completely impossible" feat. Johnson's selling strategy was similar to Knights. He'd go to track meets, stand on the infield and chat up high school athletics coaches. But when it came to building relationships with customers Johnson was on a whole new level. Every time Johnson sold a pair of shoes he'd create an index card for that customer. He'd jot down all manner of minutiae details: shoe size, shoe preference, favourite distance, etc … Johnson used this handcrafted database to keep in touch with customers. He'd send birthday cards, training tips, notes of encouragement before big races. Customers would write back telling him about their lives, their injuries, their troubles. Johnson had hundreds upon hundreds of customer pen pals. He had created the modern day mailing list but with a response rate of 95%. JOHNSON'S COBBLER Johnson wasn't just renowned for his mail correspondence. He went the extra mile in everything he did. Once a customer complained that the shoes didn't have enough cushion for long distance running. Johnson hired a cobbler who grafted new rubber soles into the shoes and sent them back a few days later. Soon after Johnson got a letter in the post from the customer saying he'd just posted a personal best at the Boston marathon. AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK In 1967 Knight set Johnson another impossible task. He had to single-handedly establish Blue Ribbon (which later became Nike) on the East Coast. This meant rebuilding his whole running network from scratch. What did Johnson do? Well, he worked through his index cards until he found a track star in the East who he'd shared letters with, drove to the kid's house and knocked on the door unannounced. Fortunately for Johnson, he was invited in and treated to dinner with the whole family. The next day they went for a run together and the kid gave Johnson a list of names: respected coaches, potential customers, local running clubs. Just like that Johnson's network in the East was up and running. CUSTOMERS BECOME FANS When customers become fans they start selling your own product for you. Johnson's great skill was turning customers into fans. Imagine you're scrolling through Instagram and you see an ad for a new running shoe. It's unlikely you're going to tell your friends. Now imagine you see Jeff Johnson out on the track. He sucks you in with his passion, grafts rubber soles onto your shoes, wishes you luck before big meets, eats dinner with your family, sends you birthday cards, Christmas cards, get well soon cards, free t-shirts. You don't just tell your friends about his shoes, you tell your whole running club. And that's exactly what happened. Nike sold its first 50,000 shoes on the power of word of mouth alone. A small sales team going out to track meets, talking to runners, turning them into customers, and then into fans. One by one. THE SAFETY OF GLASS OFFICES It's becoming easier and easier to come up with excuses to not recruit your first customers manually. "Well, if we're optimising for CPA, CPL, CR, CRO, CTR, CLV and of course CoCa, the value really is all online now" the suits mumble, from the safety of their glass-paneled office. All I'll say is this: Jeff Johnson started from nothing and sold 3,250 pairs of shoes from the boot of his car in less than a year. So, go ahead. Grow your Facebook page. Have fun with your follow/unfollow bots. Tweet until your heart's content. But you'll be lucky to get 325 followers in a year, let alone sell 3,250 pairs of shoes. Once you become a million dollar company it might all be online. But embrace the time you're small enough to talk to every customer and turn them into fans. One by one. THINGS THAT DON'T SCALE This story reminds me of Paul Graham's famous essay, Do Things that Don't Scale. He writes:
There's no better example of this than Phil Knight and Jeff Johnson. They went out and got their customers. They made Nike succeed. *And before anyone on Reddit points this out, technically these weren't Nike shoes Knight and Johnson were selling. They were Tigers shoes imported from Japan and their company was Blue Ribbon. Blue Ribbon later became Nike. Thank you for reading. I write about real-world marketing examples (like this one) over on marketingexamples.com. There's also an email list here if you'd prefer to get the case studies in your inbox. All free :) Any questions, I'll be floating in the comments :) [link] [comments]  |
| Documenting the creation of your startup? Posted: 24 Oct 2019 06:32 PM PDT Any thoughts on documenting the creation of your startup? I'm currently working on a software product and I thought it might be fun to document that journey - streaming programming sessions, posting progress on Instagram, etc. It might be a good way to gain users for the product, get feedback, put the product in the minds of people, and stay motivated. Or would it be better to keep my head down and keep progress to myself? [link] [comments]  |
| Bringing in a “partner” post revenue Posted: 24 Oct 2019 04:09 PM PDT I'm a one-man shop right now, and I'm currently doing 5k/month recurring revenue on yearly contracts. I have outsourced all of my tech, and there is a ton of room left to move, and I'm looking to bring in a friend in who is an absolute killer and will take over all of the tech. I already have 20+ SMB customers, lots of room for growth. Right now current valuation is ~2M. What's the standard for this? Stock options? I know there are a million variables, what should I consider? I don't want to insult him, because he currently has his own business and I'm asking him to leave it, but I also can't give him a ton because I spent 2 years getting it to this point Struggling right now because the convo is coming. [link] [comments]  |
| Exiting Strategy to Pursue Startup Concept/Business, What is the best Environment? Posted: 24 Oct 2019 03:44 PM PDT I've come the realization that corporate America is not for me. Pay and security is great, but I seek to achieve greater things on my own route. I have technologies and concepts to pursue, but am distracted by working in a corporate setting as the environment is toxic. In the aims of pursuing my objectives, is it irrational to pursue a new setting. A few options to come to mind:
Of the three settings, which is the best incubator? Furthermore, what additional settings am I missing? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Oct 2019 01:03 PM PDT I have been researching and following Eric rises to lean start-up methodology. I am currently working on developing a prototype for a small group of people to test and then making improvements then. In terms of the legal side of things I'm stuck in limbo, do I seek to get my trademarks sorted now and would I need to register a company now or would that be needed later on when I start looking to actually do develop the app. I'm based in the UK London and would love to speak with someone maybe over a phone via WhatsApp or via LinkedIn to discuss more on what direction I need to go, a little bit of guidance and mentoring would be welcomed. [link] [comments]  |
| How would I use more saas for a non-tech start up? Posted: 24 Oct 2019 12:33 PM PDT I am in the works of starting a non-tech start up. According to the sidebar this is okay to talk about in here, so please don't crucify me! That would be ironic. I am looking to start manufacturing company and/or ecommerce. I've noticed in non-tech start ups, and in small businesses they do not use saas and web apps as efficiently as tech start ups. The focus in ecommerce and small business is typically in digital marketing, strategy and manufacturing. For a ecommerce business like for example selling womens/mens casual shoes($60 - $150), what would you kindly suggest as the type of saas to use for marketing, especially tracking customer retention and other metrics, and in organizational saas for project management and reporting metrics? I feel I should be looking to uses saas on just about everything and hiring local/overseas experts in these saas? Should I be looking at the realm of 10 - 15 saas apps, maybe even more? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 24 Oct 2019 12:26 PM PDT Can anyone provide pointers regarding anything and everything that has to be done legally before starting an online platform that in future hopes to turn into a company providing support for the growth of other start-ups.? Going by the common perception that legal works are time-consuming and require a lot of money to be spent, are there any routes that provide an easier process both financially and time-wise.? Since we are not only trying to come up with a strategy for our own platform but for all the client start-ups that we hope to support as well. [link] [comments]  |
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