A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 23, 2010

Of course you're going to position your company with a unique offering: exclusive features, a distinctive culture, a refreshing pricing plan, an innovative sales strategy, etc. If they don't already know they have the pain, the sales process is going to be excruciating. "No one is doing it like we are.".

Software Review 275

Software Review Technical Review Software Advertising 275

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 28, 2014

Large company should send a few emails to the customer base, generating easy sales at no cost, and the revenues are split. Let’s also assume that WP Engine will receive $50 per sale, which is higher than the typical offer. Said another way, how can you grow the larger company in a way that matches their existing business model?

Startup 293

Startup Hosting Distribution Revenue 293

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

(Probably technical with no sales or business experience, so they need someone for that role.) Probably defense, a place where you have to “know someone” and “know how the game is played” to participate at all, where the founders aren’t those people, so they’re dead unless someone like you runs sales.)

Hiring 230

Hiring Washington Startup Matching 230

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 10, 2010

These companies typically make money either by charging sellers for listing (akin to the yellow pages) or by charging a sales commission (akin to a "finder's fee"). These are distinct operations — different clients, different technology, different sales process — almost like two separate companies. So what's the problem?

Business Model 310

Business Model Finder SEO Bootstrapping 310

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

I was working on my first true “enterprise sale.&# (If you aren’t familiar with the professional mosh-pit that is enterprise sales, here’s a primer.). But mostly it’s because of the traditional enterprise sales dance, reminiscent of the lumbering mating dance of the great blue whale.

Bootstrapping 312

Bootstrapping Sales Texas Salary 312

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

There are things you can get for sales force if you use salesforce.com. First of all, the enterprise level processes and the one like you described, where there is one or two people just trying to do basic sales with Highrise, extremely different context that they operate in, and different price points, by the way.

Widget 204

Widget Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 204

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Another idea would be to say matching up. the sort of pain solution match-up process can work. And I really believe I can do, on the sales part, so much more if I have additional people. Jason: That’s true in engineering; it’s true in sales; it’s true in marketing. Is it more the marketing/sales side?

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 4, 2011

Most sporting contests culminate in a single-elimination tournament, meaning that after each match the winner continues and the loser goes home: At the end, only one contender will be undefeated, which makes it seem logical to crown them the undisputed champion. But I’m not so sure we know that skill/luck proportion.

Distribution 235

Distribution Matching eCommerce Revenue 235

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 28, 2011

So, what I mean is, especially at the beginning, you want so bad to get that big sale, or get that big customer name on the website, or add some feature, because you only have three customers, and they’re asking for something. Or, yeah, you didn’t want a business that was 70 hours a week. It’s the name of the game.

Cofounder 223

Cofounder New York Conversion Entrepreneur 223

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 29, 2010

But later I was poking around the data myself and decided to add a category for "Others": Some people call this the Long Tail — a pattern wherein a few big players are far larger than any other single player, but when you add up all the little players they collectively match or — as in this case — tower over the big players.

Metrics 257

Metrics Analytics Conversion Ratio Texas 257

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MAY 22, 2012

All this makes for an arduous sales process just like with big companies. But although they have the process and controls of a large company, they don’t have the budgets to match; there’s no large reward for successfully navigating the painful, Herculean sales adventure. Worst of both worlds. Why is it like this?

Marketing 235

Marketing RSS Employee Software 235

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 20, 2011

I recently helped a friend broker the sale of his small, bootstrapped company. This is a smart guy with experience and a logical approach to such things, but the way he was initially trying to value his company was not only wrong, but the wrong way to think about the entire sale. To stoke an existing sales channel.

Sales 260

Sales Channel Cofounder Valuation 260