by Brant | Sep 13, 2010 | Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Lean Startup, Process-Oriented Marketing, Sales and Marketing Roadmap, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development
Welcome to the maze of complex B2B sales. Did you think B2B sales was going to be straightforward; based solely on rational, business-savvy calculations? Based on the bottom-line? Most everyone recognizes that the B2C sales process requires appealing to consumer’s emotions. But believe it or not, business buyers, influencers and users are human, too, and thus are not-exempt from emotional decision making. Ego, hierarchy, competitiveness, fear, grandstanding, sycophantry join budget, market share, revenue, profits, risk, time, resources in the sale.
The “Status Quo Coefficient” represents that which you must overcome above and beyond the pain your product solves, in order to make a sale.
by Brant | May 12, 2010 | Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Lean Startup, Marketing Help, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing
I hope my PR friends won’t hate me after this post, but the point needs to be repeated: Startups should not hire PR agencies. It seems not a week goes by without hearing about young companies blowing huge wads of cash on “marketing” they’re not ready for. Some entrepreneurs get in this fix because they fail to distinguish between PR and other marketing tactics. They know intuitively or are told they ‘need marketing,’ but the first thing they think of is PR. As I’ve mentioned before, PR <> Advertising <> Word of Mouth <> Social Media, etc.
Before you hire a PR agency or even consider PR, the first thing you need to understand is what you are trying to accomplish, what is your objective. Second, you should consider whether that objective is right for the stage of your business. If you are an early startup, pre Product-Market fit, or even pre “Sales and Marketing Roadmap,” you should not hire a PR firm.
by Brant | Nov 26, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing
Three beautiful words. When used together, one of the most wonderful — if not most underused — phrases in our lexicon. Am I being hyperbolic?
Modern culture dictates that we claim to know, so we spend a lot of time knowing stuff. We expend much effort displaying our expertise. If we personally don’t know something, we rely on designated “experts,” who tell us they know (despite their unimpressive track record). We know where the stock market is headed. We know how countries will respond to “liberation.” We understand the ins and outs of other cultures. In relationships, we do not hesitate to state unequivocally the others’ thoughts, intentions and motivations. At some point in the past, we have “known” the world is flat, the sun revolves around the Earth and that spontaneous generation exists. Collectively, we know both that “God Exists” and that it doesn’t. We know that the people in our tribe are more intelligent, moral, and civilized than in theirs. Of course, they say the same thing.
by Brant | Nov 18, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Marketing Help, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing
I don’t know who is more exasperated, entrepreneurs flummoxed by marketers or me, upset that another entrepreneur has been flummoxed by marketers! People, language is for communication and marketing terms, abused as they are, fall somewhere within the scope of...
by Brant | Sep 3, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing
A technical CEO learning marketing is the equivalent of a sales/marketing CEO learning development engineering. Not. I am not a developer. If push comes to shove, I can code in PHP, or develop shell scripts, and truth be told, I did take a couple of ECE courses in...
by Brant | Aug 20, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Metrics-Driven Marketing, Process-Oriented Marketing, San Diego
Unlike my classmates who headed to Silicon Valley from UC Davis upon graduation, I moved to Washington DC to work for a defense consulting firm. After a couple of years, “I dropped out” to write a novel, which I subsequently finished, explored the country...
by Brant | Jun 20, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing
The toughest part about practicing customer development is getting started. You already know that customers are not going to magically find you because you have a great product, work hard and are good looking. Now that you’ve realized how big the world is and that using a megaphone from your roof top is a poor method of user acquisition, what’s next?
Presumably if you are committed to the principles of customer development, you are already committed to “getting out of the building.” Before you can interview potential customers, however, you have to find potential customers to interview. Unfortunately, there are no magic bullets. This is painstaking work. Just as with other portions of the customer development model, to find early adopters you make assumptions, test, and iterate. If you are having trouble getting started, try these steps:
by Brant | Mar 24, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Process-Oriented Marketing, Sales and Marketing Roadmap
I am sensing marked uptake on the concept of conducting serious customer research in order to jump start high tech start-ups. It’s about time. There’s definitely buzz building around Steve Blank’s customer development methodology. Ego dictates that...
by Brant | Feb 17, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing
As with most marketing terms, the phrase “market segment” is often tossed about carelessly by entrepreneurs, technologists, and yes, even by some marketers. To my mind, however, segments are a cornerstone of market-driven business plans. Market segments...
by Brant | Feb 12, 2009 | Brant's Rant, Economy, Metrics-Driven Marketing, Process-Oriented Marketing
I just got off a webinar about lead gen in today’s economic environment. I was pleased to see several process-oriented and metrics driven marketing recommendations, including: need to be revenue focused, rather than # of leads focused; marketing taking greater...
