Steve Blank

JULY 22, 2010

Startup CEO’s can’t delegate sales and expect it to happen. Here’s an example in a direct sales channel. Sales Process. Next, he took me through his sales process. In fact, the few times he had asked to go out in the field the VP of Sales said, “Not yet, I don’t want to waste your time.”. I put my fork down.

Forecast 270

Forecast Sales Customer Customer Development 270

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

In Discovery startups take all their hypotheses about the business model: product, market, customers, channel, etc. CEO – “Well, we’ve missed our sales numbers for the last six months.” What does this have to do with missing your sales plan? The CEO asks the VP of Sales to join us in the conference room.

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 248

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Five Easy Pieces – The Marketing Mission After a few months of talking to customers , talking to our channel and working with sales we defined the marketing Mission (our job) was to: Help Sales deliver $25 million in sales with a 45% gross margin. The same was true for the Product Marketing group.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

JULY 24, 2012

The VC’s suggested I should spend a day at Onyx Software, an early pioneer in Sales Automation in Seattle. Their VP of Sales was about 6’ 3” and seemed to be almost as wide. But in that one day I had learned a lot about sales automation that would shape my thinking when we founded Epiphany. I Know A Great Customer.

Seattle 259

Seattle Cofounder Engineer Sales 259

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2010

Each sale requires us to handhold the customer and takes way too long to close. He took a deep breath, looked around the boardroom table and then proceeded to outline a radical reconfiguration of the product line (repackaging the products rather than reengineering them) and a change in sales strategy, focusing on a different customer segment.

Business Model 332

Business Model Agile Customer Development Startup 332

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

How can we attract buyers to our channel before they make purchasing decisions? Sales process: buyer/ user/ influencer etc.? as well as channel partners and cloud industry technology consultants. We pointed out that get, keep and grow customers are different for physical versus virtual channels. Demand generation?

Customer 234

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 234

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2013

The Roominate dollhouse building kits are being sold via their own website and soon, retail channels. But we were meeting to talk about sales and marketing. They outlined their retail channel and PR strategy and told me about the type of consultants they wanted to hire. Hiring Channel Sales. “So They learned a ton.

PR 314

PR China Lean Channel 314

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. After running Microsoft for 25 years, Bill Gates handed the reins of CEO to Steve Ballmer in January 2000.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. After running Microsoft for 25 years, Bill Gates handed the reins of CEO to Steve Ballmer in January 2000.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2014

They had direct interaction with customers and controlled a sales channel which allowed them to negotiate their own deals with customers. Skunk works had control over their sales channel and had direct customer feedback. Skunk were advanced/disruptive product groups organizational isolated from the rest of their company.

Channel 286

Channel Customer Development Distribution Restful 286

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2013

The Roominate dollhouse building kits are being sold via their own website and soon, retail channels. But we were meeting to talk about sales and marketing. They outlined their retail channel and PR strategy and told me about the type of consultants they wanted to hire. Hiring Channel Sales. “So They learned a ton.

PR 206

PR China Lean Channel 206

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2011

When I was in my 20’s, I was taught the relationship between marketing and sales over a bonfire. And once we went public, we hired a veteran VP of Sales from Honeywell. As we typically did, I printed up several thousand to send out to the sales force. Why don’t you come over to corporate. What the heck??” A marshmallow roast?

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley Channel Cofounder Demand 267

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model? before you ship.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2017

In addition to customer discovery, creating end user demand, and product strategy, Marketing also serves as a service organization to sales. It drove me crazy when we failed to deliver a project for sales on time or we missed a media deadline. . — No Excuses as a Core Value.

Bankruptcy 371

Bankruptcy Sales Channel Restful 371

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

But other critical hypotheses such as activities, resources, partners, channels needed testing offshore. channel partners and Chinese manufacturers and customer acquisition and activation programs outside their home country. to understand distribution channel landscape, potential partners and rough cost of customer acquisition.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

. ———— T o: Marketing Department From: Steve Subject: Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters Generating Leads Ownership If your company is going to a show to generate leads, then sales owns the show. This is worthy of an open and honest discussion with sales up front. And inviting to the booth/dinner/private demo.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

It describes the product/service, who is it for, what channel sells/deliver it, how demand is created, how does the company make money, etc. Sales teams are commission-based, executive compensation is based on EPS, revenue and margin, business units on revenue and margin contribution, etc. What Does this Mean?

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

We were charging a really high up-front annual fee to these providers and the end result of that was a pretty long sales cycle. We tested the new strategy with several customers in the pipeline and it took our sales cycle from about 60 days to 1 week. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 142

Steve Blank

APRIL 15, 2011

This week they were testing one of the most confusing sections of a company’s business model – Customer Relationships - the activities used to “Get, Keep and Grow” customers in a physical or virtual (web or mobile) channel. The team put together their sales funnel and started testing demand. The Week 5 Lecture: Channel.

Customer 247

Customer Cloud EC2 Channel 247

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2019

Distribution channels, brand loyalty, etc. The hard part in a company is not getting a demo or setting up an internal accelerator, it’s getting something delivered all the way through your existing sales channel. Challenge two – Large companies are dealing with startups that are funded with unimaginable capital.

Incubator 331

Incubator Lean Programming Government 331

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Funding challenges and other issues founders face in the early days of starting up were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

We were charging a really high up-front annual fee to these providers and the end result of that was a pretty long sales cycle. We tested the new strategy with several customers in the pipeline and it took our sales cycle from about 60 days to 1 week. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

A business plan has a set of assumptions (who’s the customer, what’s the price, what’s the channel, what are the product features that matter, etc.) You can almost set your watch to six months or so after first customer ship, when Sales starts missing its “numbers,” the board gets concerned and Marketing tries to “make up a better story.”

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 247

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I believe that: 1) a product is just a part of a startup, but understanding customers, channel, pricing, etc. How does it differ on the web versus other channels? General Marketing, Sales Funnel, etc. Did anything change about Value Proposition or Customers/Users or Channel?

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

JUNE 6, 2016

Prior to his investing and advisory career, Evangelos spent 20+ years in high-technology industries, in executive roles spanning operations, marketing, sales and engineering. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111. He was the CEO of two startups. Want to be a guest on the show?

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Analytics 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2010

And he proceeded to lay out a fairly complex and innovative sales and marketing strategy for our next 18 months. I could implement any marketing plan sales handed to me regardless of how complex. One day the CEO called me into his office and asked, “Steve I’ve been thinking about this as our strategy going forward. What do you think?”

Customer Development 307

Customer Development Singapore Channel PR 307

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

These new entrants disrupted their food categories by offering high quality proprietary recipes, outsourcing their manufacturing, and using their cash and resources on sales and marketing to build distribution and a differentiated brand. Krave generated ~ $35 million in net sales over the last 12 months.

North America 120

North America Lean Customer Development Distribution 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

You’ll realize you’re ready to exit the Search step when you have customer validation: You’ve found a sales channel that matches how the customer wants to buy and the costs of using that channel are understood. writing the HR manual, sales comp plan, expense reports, branding guidelines, etc.).

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2016

Lessons learned from starting up and teaching entrepreneurship were the focus of an interview with the latest guest on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Do we hire 50 sales people? Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder DC Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2010

Confronting the reality that one of these hypotheses is wrong (finding out you have the wrong sales channel, revenue model, target market or customer) creates a crisis. The result is an updated business model not a fired VP of Sales. Pivots are Business Model Insights. The Business Model/Customer Development Stack.

Customer Development 329

Customer Development Business Model Developer Customer 329

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

Once your business model (market, customers, features, channels, pricing, Get/Keep/Grow strategy, etc.) Once a company has found a business model (it knows its market, customers, product/service, channel, pricing, etc.), There are no sales, marketing or business development departments when you are searching for a business model.

Search 320

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 320

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

Channel is changed to Deployment. Distribution Channel changes to Deployment. In the commercial world we ask, “What type of distribution channel (direct sales, app store, system integrator, etc.) Change Channel to Deployment. Customer Segments is changed to Beneficiaries. Changed Customer Segments to Beneficiaries.

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

The initial hypothesis for Epiphany (from my much smarter partner Ben ) was that as departments in the enterprise (manufacturing, finance, customer support sales) became automated, the marketing department would eventually get its turn. This is more challengine than it appears, and method of insulation is supporting varied input channels.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2016

The radio show airs on SiriusXM Channel 111 (weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). ” They said, “It’s OK, I’m going to buy it once it’s for sale so I’ll be your first customer.” So we use a partner channel, we do telesales and we do a lot of email.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Morocco Arkansas 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Yet we used the product development model not only to manage product development, but as a road map for finding customers and to time our marketing launch and sales revenue plan. After that there’s a discussion of how the product will reach the customer and the potential distribution channel. Marketing is at its peak.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

This makes sense in a company where your customers, channel and competition are known. Large companies had VP’s of Sales and Marketing, so VC’s made startups organize that way as well. In an existing corporation, the business plan is the execution document for sustaining innovation. This years winner were: 1. XoomPark , BYU.

Business Model 263

Business Model Customer Development Utah Business Plan 263

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2011

Last week the teams were testing their hypotheses about their Channel (how a company delivers its value proposition (i.e. If this had been a real startup rather than a class we would have had the team test many more variants on customer segment, revenue models, channels, etc before such an extreme move.). Week 7 of the class.

Revenue 213

Revenue West Virginia Oklahoma Oklahoma City 213