Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. For a Series A round you want to prove you have built a repeatable and scalable sales/revenue model and understand all parts of the business model. What is some of the critical metrics that matter?

Cofounder 431

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 431

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

Marketing and sales plan. But, don’t write your executive summary first—it’ll be quite a bit easier to write after you’ve written the rest of the plan. The target market section of your subscription box business plan identifies which subset of people you will focus your marketing and sales plan on. Marketing and sales plan.

Business Plan 63

Business Plan Curation Balance Sheet Intellectual Property 63

Occam's Razor

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

. + Traffic Trends Key Metrics Analysis. Onsite Behavior Key Metrics Analysis. I tend to use Hitwise a lot less, or not at all, because it is a very hard to use, it is slow, the UX/UI, metrics and reports have not really evolved over the years. Traffic Trends Key Metrics Analysis. Visitor/Audience Type Profile Analysis.

Metrics 60

Metrics Analytics Non-Compete Search 60

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 12, 2023

She is also the author of The Sabbatical Method: How to Leverage Rest and Grow Your Business. With a wealth of experience in helping agency owners find a balance between their work and rest, Alyson sheds light on how the Sabbatical Method can revolutionize the way marketing systems are handled. Appreciate it.

Restful 54

Restful Operations Framework Metrics 54

ConversionXL

MAY 19, 2020

Or maybe it’s your keyword well that’s reaching its limits, leaving you with plenty of ideas, but no clear path forward about how to prioritize them or the distribution channels for which they’re best suited. Content planning for sales and marketing goals. But the linear funnel model still has value from a content planning perspective.

Differentiation 129

Differentiation Sales Email Metrics 129

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

With leaders, however, it’s widely accepted that you should hire based on their exceptional strengths, and then fill in weaknesses using the composition of the rest of the team. In the first example of whether to implement feature X or Y, I boiled it down to “both increase sales, but only one also increases differentiation.”

Differentiation 120

Differentiation Framework Restful Software Review 120

Occam's Razor

JULY 24, 2018

work (collection, processing, reporting, analysis), processes, org structure, governance models, last-mile gaps , metrics ladders of awesomeness , and… so… much… more. Remember, tools, work, processes, org structure, governance models, last-mile gaps, metrics ladders of awesomeness, and… so… much… more. The Implications of Complexity.

Analytics 93

Analytics Framework Metrics Algorithm 93

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

What metrics do we use to see if we learned enough in Customer Discovery ? I gave my boilerplate answer, “I’m a product guy and I tend to invest and look at deals that have measurable revenue metrics. Dave McClure has some great metrics…” It was an honest but vaguely unsatisfying answer. It is related to business model.

Customer Development 227

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 227

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

In the rest of this post, I’m going to try to talk you out of building one. Keeping a growth team in sync with the rest of the company is hard. Your funnels will get out of whack with the direction the rest of the company is going. Design, Product, Marketing, and Sales get pissed that you’re not in sync. Leads are up.

Conversion 133

Conversion Technical Review Channel Engineer 133

ConversionXL

APRIL 3, 2018

Shoutout to @PeepLaja and the rest of the CXL team for making this happen year after year. Facts don’t change minds – true for both sales and customers. Work hard to define meaningful product metrics – enabler of team success. In an A/A test the distribution of p-values is random. Iterate to the vision.

Retention 106

Retention Artificial Inteligence Channel Email 106

Occam's Razor

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

I can report on pageviews and bounce rates and sessions and all the other lovely metrics we normally obsess about. Now, all those other metrics suddenly have a purpose and context. This the reason I love setting engagement goal types (remember though, don't call the metric Engagement, it's an excuse and not a metric).

Analytics 60

Analytics eCommerce Metrics Acquisition 60

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 23, 2023

The thing is, those who are afraid to be a little eccentric, a little authentic and a little different, often blend in with the rest. It's as simple as that, and that is what metrics are to me. They said sales and marketing. Meaning events, magazines, blogs, they read, so you could distribute your content there.

Community 53

Community Kuwait Cofounder Bootstrapping 53

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. But, as any startup can tell you, this opens up a tremendous set of opportunities for the rest of us. What accounts for the difference?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Occam's Razor

DECEMBER 12, 2011

I am going to attempt to significantly simply your life by recommending the critical few metrics you should use to analyze performance of your digital marketing campaigns and website. Recommend metrics / KPIs you can use based on the size of your company. Best Metrics / KPIs for Small Business Websites. Obsess about this metric.

Metrics 151

Metrics Web Analytics CPA 151

Occam's Razor

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

To ensure customer delight was delivered in a timely manner, it was also decided that Average Call Time (ACT) would now be The success metric. The success metric, ACT, did go down. Too much emphasis was on Averages (remember averages suck, distributions are better ). Metrics matter. What do you think happened?

Metrics 60

Metrics Analytics Acquisition Naming 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 22, 2010

Luckily for the rest of us, he was able to find his path to a green card, and now employs 24 Americans in West Lafayette, Indiana. The cost of creating new companies is falling rapidly, and access to markets, distribution, and information is within the reach of anyone with an Internet connection. He started Passageways Inc.

San Francisco 121

San Francisco Indiana Lean Startup 121

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 22, 2018

As a group, we’ve gotten a firmer grasp on top-of-the-funnel metrics. The traditional marketing/sales funnel (soon to be replaced by Hubspot’s Flywheel Model ) is a fantastic framework to put things into perspective. Sources for First Touch and Lead Creation get the most credit; the rest is evenly distributed.

B2B 131

B2B Marketing Analytics Campaign 131

ConversionXL

MARCH 19, 2020

Although the company created an incentive plan to boost sales, its sales growth fell from 19% before the recession to 8% after—five percentage points below Staples’ postrecession sales growth rate. And it’s more important than ever to communicate to their customers, prospective customers, and the rest of their industry.”.

Marketing 121

Marketing Campaign Non-Compete Lean 121

Up and Running

OCTOBER 21, 2014

The rest is just going to build off of this step. A sales forecast. Help the business owner define how credit fits into the overall sales and marketing plan. Order and distribute leaflets. Day 23-24: Start introducing yourself on the phone, start pitching your business, start in-field sales, start reaching out.

Elevator Pitch 166

Elevator Pitch Software Review SBA Business Plan 166

Occam's Razor

AUGUST 9, 2016

Along the way I'll share some of my favourite metrics and analytics best practices that should accelerate your path to becoming a true Analysis Ninja. At this point you'll be a little confused about some metric or the other. Go, read one of the best pages in the Analytics help center: Understanding Dimensions and Metrics.

Analytics 60

Analytics Metrics eCommerce PPC 60

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

In any experiment, some metric within some group usually changes, but whether we’ve invested in the statistical rigor to discover it is another question altogether.”. Knowing these finer details can help meaningfully shift your metrics in a positive direction, where they may have once been plateauing. Image Source. Possibly not.

Chad 112

Chad Mobile Technical Review Aggregator 112

Up and Running

DECEMBER 14, 2016

There are metrics to review. I use Mailchimp for the distribution of weekly newsletters, and for list growth via opt-ins for multiple types of campaigns. Automated emails help you appeal to your market’s needs and steer them to your sales funnel. Live by your sales.”. MailChimp helps you with all of these things.

Email 60

Email Small Business Marketing Campaign 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures. They’ve learned the best distribution channel to get the product from their company to the customer.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

ConversionXL

JUNE 9, 2019

While scroll maps work for any length of page, they’re especially pertinent when designing long-form sales pages or longer landing pages. User viewing time was distributed as follows: Above the fold: 80.3% They read the most important headlines and subheadlines, but read the rest of the text selectively. Image source ).

Algorithm 111

Algorithm Analytics Conversion Stock 111

ConversionXL

AUGUST 5, 2014

A closer look reveals the search functionality just blends into the rest of the design, and isn’t intuitive to find when needed. In one line, he couldn’t be clearer as to why you must pay attention to these metrics. means something very different to 99% of the rest of the world.

Search 107

Search Design eCommerce Technical Review 107

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

In other words, how can we adapt the Business Model Canvas when the metrics of success for an organization is not revenue? The rest of this blog post explains the how and why of these changes to the canvas. Distribution Channel changes to Deployment. Here are our collective thoughts. Channel is changed to Deployment.

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

Sales and marketing oriented, networking, that’s my expertise. It seemed simple: How could we get free beer for the rest of our lives? Colleen: Currently it’s all about distribution. We make our money in beer distribution, not so much on the food side. What are the most important metrics that you watch in your business?

Oregon 60

Oregon Distribution Portland Georgia 60

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

We’re looking at our lean business planning is about strategy, tactics, concrete specifics including milestones, metrics, tasks and schedule, and essential numbers to run a business, all of which lead to managing cash flow. That’s the sales forecast, the spending forecast and the cash flow. That’s a sales forecast.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Maybe you are wondering which metrics to track, or whether or not you should take out a loan for your business. Which metrics do you most rely on to understand your business itself. The question is what metrics do you most rely on to understand your business’s health? What specific metrics should they be monitoring?

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 27, 2022

Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell, and frankly who doesn't check out the salesman podcast, where host will Barron helps sales professionals learn how to find buyers and win big business ineffective and ethical ways. And if you wanna start someplace, I recommend the four step process to influencing buying decisions.

Community 68

Community New York Small Business New York City 68

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

running regression analyses against success metrics), but we knew what our “ideal customer profile” looked like for the most part, and we knew which customer profiles were worth the most money to us generally. How are they organized and distributed? We never did a full structured analysis on behavioral correlations (e.g.,

Software Review 115

Software Review Design Agile Analytics 115

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 21, 2013

If you're working on the Sticky Engine of Growth , you're focused on very different metrics from those that you care about in the Viral Engine of Growth. Finding your One Metric That Matters But it's not enough just to know "normal". It's also vital to know what the most important metric is to your business right now.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Metrics Churn Rate 167

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

billion for a company with less than $50 million in sales. In the Fall of 2008, the credit crisis wiped out mergers and acquisitions as a path to liquidity as M&A collapsed with the rest of the market. My own metric is that you need experience >= 1.5 So what’s left? Warning sign? At best. ~ Is 20 years enough?

Silicon Valley 233

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 233

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 15, 2016

After all, the goal is to systematically improve the success of a business, whatever that means metric-wise. The differences, much like the differences of B2B optimization in general, mostly come down to differing business cycles, purchasing decisions, and success metrics. Could be wasting sales and customer success time if not).

Conversion 48

Conversion Churn Rate Retention Metrics 48

ConversionXL

AUGUST 27, 2019

I say “execute” because MarTech can be used to publish, distribute, optimize, or track and measure. These customer values are recorded as dimensions and metrics (as you can see in our tracking plan example below). You’re exposed to bold sales messages. Segment translates our data so it can be sent into the native tools.

Analytics 124

Analytics Naming Metrics Campaign 124

Occam's Razor

JANUARY 31, 2017

I'm assuming for the rest of this post that either you are the person responsible for presenting the output of the analytical efforts OR you are working with a person who will present and that they are curious and will commit the time and intellectual horsepower required. An important assumption. It should have just focused on those two.

Audience 60

Audience Analytics Green Metrics 60