2009, Customer Development, PR and Sales

Lessons Learned: What is customer development?

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 8, 2008 What is customer development? But too often when its time to think about customers, marketing, positioning, or PR, we delegate it to "marketroids" or "suits." Many of us are not accustomed to thinking about markets or customers in a disciplined way.

Customer Development

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer

SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent.

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.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR

SuperMac War Story 9: Sales, Not Awards « Steve Blank

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. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales. He had teamed up with a former product manager at P&G to deliver seminars on just this subject.

Sales

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas

The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development.

Customer Development

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer

SuperMac War Story 5: Strategy versus Relentless Tactical.

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

It was an educational mission to tell the story of who our customers were (and by inference who all the graphics board customers were) and why the current reviews of these graphics boards weren’t adequately measuring what was important to this large market. The head of the PR agency agreed that we would work together as a team.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review

Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 2

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.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development

The Leading Cause of Startup Death – Part 1: The Product.

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development

Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 1 « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

As the company gets larger and a large professional sales organization kicks in, its second priority is to generate qualified leads. Before you go to a trade show sales and marketing need to agree to measurable goals. you know they’re expensive in time, dollars and resources.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development

Lessons Learned: Product development leverage

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. Labels: product development 2comments: Anonymoussaid.

Product Development

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product

Elephants Can Dance – Reinventing HP « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

Things Change In 1956 Hewlett Packard (HP) was a 17-year old company with $20 million in test equipment sales with 900 employees. It was priced at $22,000 – equivalent to about $140,000 in 2009 dollars. I’ll show you the memo in a second. But first some background.) It was still a year away from its IPO.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile

Lo, my 2295 subscribers, who are you?

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Lo, my 2295 subscribers, who are you? Ive previously written about the advantages of having a pathetically small number of customers , and how to get started with customer segmentation. it seemed time to return to the subject of investigating who my customers are.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

SuperMac War Story 2: Facts Exist Outside the Building, Opinions.

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

I wanted to understand how customers bought our products. I knew we were selling through a multi-level indirect sales channel. That’s a mouthful to say that our sales people didn’t sell our products directly to a customer. Market messages to indirect sales channels are just like that.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review

Lessons Learned: Don't launch

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 13, 2009 Dont launch Heres a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Do your customers really read TechCrunch? If not, do not launch there.

San Francisco

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage

Rocket Science 4: The Press is Our Best Product

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Out of the Ashes A few of the key tenets of Customer Development , came from the ashes. The Customer Discovery lessons of “get outside the building and test your hypothesis with customers,&# and “the founders need to hear the results,&# came from this debacle.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Product RSS California

The Sharp End of the Stick « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

It became clear to me that the mission of marketing in most companies has to be to support sales. While this may seem obvious to anyone not in sales and marketing, trust me, in a technology company this is a conceptual breakthrough. Every marketing communication hire couldn’t wait to produce the next great ad or PR program.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California

Your Business “Driving Force”

market-by-numbers.com

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Market By Numbers on Twitter | Entries RSS | Comments RSS Market By Numbers High-Tech Marketing and Customer Development Home What is Customer Development? Sales or Marketing Company’s method of sales or marketing is unique or stands out compared to others who sell similar products. Please Share!

San Diego

San Diego RSS Lean Elevator Pitch

Marketing Metrics 101 for B2B Startups

www.rocketwatcher.com

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

For those of us selling to businesses however, particularly where there is a sales team involved and a pipeline to track, the world is quite different and Dave’s metrics don’t cover everything you need to track. For long sales cycles, it is important to measure this to estimate marketing ROI for tactics in the short term.

B2B

B2B Metrics Marketing Startup

Engagement loops: beyond viral

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 16, 2008

I wrote about this challenge for iPhone developers, in an essay on retention competition : the battle over what icon the user will click when they go to the home screen. At that point, theres no opportunity for marketing or sales; the battle is already won or lost in the persons mind. June 18, 2009 11:20 PM JakeRsaid.

Viral

Viral San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment

How to Name Your Startup

www.rocketwatcher.com

DECEMBER 5, 2011

customer development. customer retention. customer service. December 2009. November 2009. October 2009. September 2009. August 2009. April 2009. March 2009. February 2009. January 2009. competition. content marketing. early adopters. innovation. leanstartup.

Naming

Naming Startup Product Name Framework

From Nothing To Something. How To Get There.

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Tweet View Comments Guest Author Sep 20, 2009 This guest post was written by Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg. Everything Seth said is absolutely spot on, except I’d encourage founders to make sure they do some customer development (even in the consumer space) in parallel to cranking out the first product. How To Get There.

Technical Review

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review

Lessons Learned: What is a market? (a guide for hackers)

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, February 12, 2009 What is a market? (a Why do you think outsources have been happy to generate all this PR the past few years about people losing their jobs to India? Toughest part of the sale is to get agreement that you really can deliver benefits that they didnt previously know were possible.

San Francisco

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Ruby Lean

Startup Tools

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Reply Crystal Williams , on April 12, 2009 at 10:38 am said: Hi Steve! I am both an avid entrepreneur and book worm but must admit to having not read most of the books on your list. It is certaintly a great list to motivate me to get reading again. Keep up the great work! … Thanks!

Software Review

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics

The cardinal sin of community management

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, September 11, 2009 The cardinal sin of community management Once you have a product launched, you will the face the joys – and the despair – of a community that grows up around it. There are many articles by many experts ( myself included ) extolling the virtues of listening to customers.

Community

Community Management Lean Software Review

StartUpRoar

Lessons Learned: What is customer development?

SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent.

Trending Sources

SuperMac War Story 9: Sales, Not Awards « Steve Blank

The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

SuperMac War Story 5: Strategy versus Relentless Tactical.

Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 2

The Leading Cause of Startup Death – Part 1: The Product.

Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 1 « Steve Blank

Lessons Learned: Product development leverage

Elephants Can Dance – Reinventing HP « Steve Blank

Lo, my 2295 subscribers, who are you?

SuperMac War Story 2: Facts Exist Outside the Building, Opinions.

Lessons Learned: Don't launch

Rocket Science 4: The Press is Our Best Product

The Sharp End of the Stick « Steve Blank

Your Business “Driving Force”

Marketing Metrics 101 for B2B Startups

Engagement loops: beyond viral

How to Name Your Startup

From Nothing To Something. How To Get There.

Lessons Learned: What is a market? (a guide for hackers)

Startup Tools

The cardinal sin of community management

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