Steve Blank

MARCH 2, 2011

And they’ve being doing this while driving product cost down and performance up. A Sales Closer – a salesman who can make up the sales process on the fly and bring in deals without a datasheet, price list or roadmap. They will build the sales team that follows. Corporate elephants can dance.

Silicon Valley 222

Silicon Valley Agile Customer Development Early Stage 222

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities. Three to six months after first customer ship, if Sales starts missing its numbers, the board gets concerned. The board raises a collective eyebrow.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

Sales process: buyer/ user/ influencer etc.? Veritas , was the team building a low cost, residential wind turbine that average homeowners could afford. by modeling wind speed, energy costs, homeownership density and green energy incentives. We offered some examples of what a sales funnel looked like. Demand generation?

Customer 234

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 234

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. They looked at their watches, gave our sales guy a quizzical look and left.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

While our teams have mentors, socialize a lot and give great demos, the goal of our class final presentations is “ Lessons Learned ” – about product/market fit, pricing, acquisition/activation costs, pricing, partners, etc. Technology in search of a market.

Lean 315

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model 315

Steve Blank

AUGUST 23, 2010

We’re Not Here for a Sales Call. Disabusing the audience of the notion that the visit is a sales call is vital to the customer discovery mission. Short-circuiting that process is a major “foul” that often leads to premature business models and suboptimal sales results.). But we are not here for a sales call.&#.

Customer Development 235

Customer Development Developer Customer South America 235

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. It will cost you your job.” . — No Excuses as a Core Value.

Bankruptcy 371

Bankruptcy Sales Channel Restful 371

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

Was the company attempting to be a low cost provider by introducing cheaper products to an existing market? Therefore, no, we weren’t really equipped to be the low cost provider. We knew from back-of-the-envelope calculations that I would need 3 times the combined marketing and sales budgets of the incumbents for a head-on assault. (I

Silicon Valley 141

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 141

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2009

within one year of sale, offer for sale, public disclosure or public use. Each patent filing will cost your company $10-30k and take 1-4 years. Offer for sale in the U.S.:Red Red flags: Start of sales effort, Price list, price quotation, Trade show demonstration, Any demonstration not under NDA. In the U.S.

Intellectual Property 213

Intellectual Property IP Software Review Non-disclosure Agreement 213

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?

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

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. Two paragraphs, Five bullets. It didn’t take more.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

Medical Device Distribution Channels in general are a sales team hired directly by the company. A sales team typically includes a sales person and clinical applications specialists. They assist with the sale and work with marketing to create demand. Some device industries are controlled by distributors (indirect sales.).

Distribution 224

Distribution Channel Lean Intellectual Property 224

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 9, 2020

Reforms in each of these areas will strengthen the foreign military sales process. One of the subordinate functional areas is cybersecurity, which is a foundational aspect of any acquisition that cannot be traded for cost, schedule or performance. And increasing industrial capacity. Cybersecurity is Integral.

Acquisition 284

Acquisition Technical Review Technology Security 284

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

I vividly remember the sales guy saying, “It’s only some kid in field service. Some sales guy who was too busy to take the meeting was probably retired in Maui on the commissions. Your Customers are Not Who You Think For years I thought this “million unit chip sale by accident&# was a “one-off&# funny story.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. For most companies it feels like innovation can only happen by exception and heroic efforts, not by design.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

After many sales calls, early prospects showed little rush to buy it! Leveraging my marketing skills, I successfully made what Steve calls an “onslaught launch”, generating a lot of press coverage and apparent early success. But customers didn’t agree.

Japan 292

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 292

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Cost-based Pricing versus Value-based Pricing. And they discovered that: device makers were spending $500-$800 in Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to acquire a customer. The Tidepool team went from cost-based pricing to value-based pricing. Most startups begin by pricing their product based on cost or competition.

Customer 323

Customer Churn Rate Customer Development Lean 323

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2021

During this period, startups will need to sustain business development activities and may incur additional regulatory and compliance costs to ensure their product is usable by the military. Investors are also likely to express impatience with the long timelines of defense sales.

Artificial Inteligence 326

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Startup Silicon Valley 326

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

They collected information that justified their assumptions about the problem, opportunity, market size, their solution and competitors and the their team, They rolled up a 5-year sales forecast with assumptions about their revenue model, pricing, sales, marketing, customer acquisition cost, etc.

Business Model 328

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 328

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Sales in their first fiscal year were $1.5 Costing $250,000 ($3.2 Each ATLAS I cost the NSA $1.3 ERA asked the NSA for permission to offer the computer for commercial sale. Finally, ERA’s penchant for extreme secrecy left them unschooled in the art of marketing, sales, and Public Relations. A year later, 420.

Minnesota 281

Minnesota Engineer Minneapolis Silicon Valley 281

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

The implications for entrepreneurs is that each of these (market risk versus invention risk,) require radically different financing models, a different type of venture investor, different timing for hiring sales and marketing, etc. Am I in a company with “invention risk?

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

An early indication that you’ve found the right business model is when you believe the cost of getting customers will be less than the revenues the customers will generate. For web startups, this is when the cost of customer acquisition is less than the lifetime value of that customer. Cost Per Acquisition Paid. Web Metrics.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

JUNE 24, 2013

for high-volume lower cost cars and by continuing to innovate. Yet when Tesla provided consumers with a direct sales alternative, the rent seekers – the National Auto Dealers Association turned its lobbyists loose on State Legislatures robbing consumers in North Carolina, New York and Texas of choice in the marketplace.

North Carolina 335

North Carolina New Jersey New York Government 335

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2020

Which of these actions would impose the greatest cost on China if implemented? Mid-term, Limited Use of Force: The year is 2025, Taiwan has yet to budge on the sale of microchips. For example, how do you address a capability shortfall if you eliminate a weapon system in the near term? Key obstacles to adopting your proposed solution.

Technical Review 322

Technical Review Taiwan Technology Design 322

Steve Blank

APRIL 1, 2020

Any place with a fixed cost that relies on foot traffic will come under pressure. Cut costs to stay alive for 24 months. Sales pipeline/forecast. Payroll costs/other variable costs. See if your fixed costs are really fixed, or will they agree to defer some for higher payments at a future date.

South Korea 333

South Korea Salary Business Model China 333

Steve Blank

APRIL 15, 2011

Veritas , the team building a low cost, residential wind turbine. But the big project for the week was testing and analyzing Customer Acquisition Costs. The team put together their sales funnel and started testing demand. The team put together their sales funnel and started testing demand. The results were disappointing.

Customer 247

Customer Cloud EC2 Channel 247

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Trip 1 to China to understand manufacturing landscape, potential partners and rough cost of goods. to understand distribution channel landscape, potential partners and rough cost of customer acquisition. sales office. Trip 2 to the U.S. Test product/market fit in the U.S. Test channel and demand creation activities in the U.S.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Imagine a chart that’s 300 lines long for each component and you have to strategize when you’re going to buy this component and how far in advance you need to purchase it in order to get the price you need to get your cost of goods sold low enough that you’re going to make money on this thing. .

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2016

Team Sentinel is trying to use low cost sensors to monitor surface ships in a A2/AD environment. This team is actively working to identify viable responses to these battlefield inevitabilities. If you can’t see the presentation click here. The team appreciates that the problem include the sensors as well as the analytics of the sensor data.

Social Media 132

Social Media Customer Programming Video 132

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2011

They learned that their hypothesis that large companies would want to lower IT costs by selling their excess computing capacity on a “spot market” didn’t work in the financial services market because of security concerns. What sort of sales structure and salesforce does it require? How do we access the buyers and sellers? Veritas D.C.

Cloud 228

Cloud Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development 228

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2016

Team Sentinel is trying to use low cost sensors to monitor surface ships in a A2/AD environment. This team is actively working to identify viable responses to these battlefield inevitabilities. If you can’t see the presentation click here. The team appreciates that the problem include the sensors as well as the analytics of the sensor data.

Social Media 120

Social Media Customer Programming Video 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.). Most startups die here.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 24, 2013

for high-volume lower cost cars and by continuing to innovate. Yet when Tesla provided consumers with a direct sales alternative, the rent seekers – the National Auto Dealers Association turned its lobbyists loose on State Legislatures robbing consumers in North Carolina, New York and Texas of choice in the marketplace.

North Carolina 227

North Carolina New Jersey New York Government 227

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

What are your hypotheses around customer acquisition costs? General Marketing, Sales Funnel, etc. Actually engage in “search engine marketing” (SEM)spend $20 as a team to test customer acquisition cost. change messaging on site during the week to get costs lower, team that gets lowest delta costs wins.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

In turn, these new strategies drove the need for companies to be structured around functions (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, etc.). In the 1920’s companies restructured from monolithic functional organizations (sales, marketing, manufacturing, purchasing, etc.) In the U.S. each with its own profit and loss responsibility.

Business Model 333

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 333

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. With that information in hand, Engineering estimates delivery dates and development costs. We had no clue what our market was when we first started.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

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

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120