Version One Ventures

JUNE 13, 2013

It’s typically much easier to add sales expertise to a product-driven organization than it is to add product focus to a sales-driven start-up. Sales is more of an execution game, meaning a start-up can hire senior executives to shape and refine the sales and distribution strategy. Today, it’s a different story.

Sales 145

Sales Product CTO Hire Sales Cycle 145

View from Seed

MARCH 3, 2015

Ellie Mirman was the first marketer hired by the CMO of HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software startup that IPOed in 2014. EM: My rule of thumb is to look at the length of the sales cycle. Some startups have really long sales cycles. Some have short, more transactional cycles.

Marketing 120

Marketing Sales Cycle Startup CTO Hire 120

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 18, 2024

You start hiring freelancers and then maybe employees. And then after a while you're like, well, there's so many people, I'm going to hire a manager. John (10:52): Yeah, you got to make enough money to hire somebody else to do the work or to delegate the work, right? We need to be able to hire some people.

Framework 62

Framework Sales Cycle Sales Hiring 62

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 9, 2021

There are thousands of sales tools that focus on making life easier for the sales team—yet none built with the buying experience in mind. This is the perfect example of how sales aren’t truly focused on the most important person in the sales cycle: the buyer!

B2B 87

B2B Sales Technical Review B2C 87

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

Hiring Has Changed: Before the press was a way of generating interest for hiring. Word of mouth spreads faster and sales cycles are shorter. Contrast this to just a few years ago when it seemed every startup was jumping up and down to shout about their initial raise. What’s changed?

Technical Review 117

Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 117

ConversionXL

MARCH 13, 2019

B2B buyers have two key differences that impact marketing and website design choices: A more complex sales cycle; Niche targeting. A more complex sales cycle. B2B sales cycles can last for months, even more than a year. Measuring success before the sale.

B2B 130

B2B eCommerce B2C Sales Cycle 130

Austin Startup

JANUARY 20, 2021

With that, here are five tactical examples of how to apply speed in sales at startups. Hire Fast, Fire Fast Many startups live by the principle of “Hire Slow, Fire Fast.” On the flip side, I disagree with the “hire slow” part. Once you have decided to fill a role, hiring is a simple process, a series of steps.

Sales 64

Sales Startup Sales Cycle Revenue 64

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 8, 2016

by Jonathan Whistman, author of “ The Sales Boss: The Real Secret to Hiring, Training and Managing a Sales Team “ Most of get into a particular business because we love whatever the idea or market is that we’ve decided to pursue. Do you have a repeatable sales process in place? This is a recipe for disaster!

Hiring 100

Hiring Salary Sales Cycle Sales 100

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

If you are not in a position to hire more personnel to manage different areas of your operations then it’s likely you’re still the wearer of various hats within the business – meaning you need a streamlined system that makes business operations as easy as possible, takes minimal time for you to manage and effortlessly keeps you in control.

Software Review 187

Software Review New Zealand Stock Database 187

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

The perks of being early in the marketplace are obvious: shorter sales cycles due to lack of competition, less competition for top talent, and so on. I would rather build product, learn new code, and read Hacker News than suffer through awkward hiring interviews. Well, as my grandma would say, “Tough noogies.”

Startup 120

Startup Cofounder Software Review Sales Cycle 120

Up and Running

JUNE 27, 2018

Too often, business owners are tempted to hire the crème de la crème right at the outset. The value of hiring slow: Hiring high-caliber staff early in the game may take its toll on your time, money, and other resources. The good news here is, you don’t necessarily have to hire in-house marketers.

Marketing 109

Marketing Social Media Campaign Sales Cycle 109

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 15, 2021

To meet these critical goals, a sales report should cover all of the following topics: Daily goals and quotas. Average time for completing the sales cycle. Number of sales calls, their duration, and success ratio. Total number of new sales opportunities per day. Daily conversion rate. Landing page conversion rate.

Sales 78

Sales Startup Social Media Technical Review 78

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 31, 2010

As your company develops multiple offices, hires a larger number of sales people or increases product complexity over time this kind of tacit knowledge doesn’t scale. We had 4 or 5 sales reps that had been around since the early days.

Sales 286

Sales PR Forecast Technical Review 286

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Recruits, hires, and retains the very best talent for the company. Hiring & Firing the CEO. As things got bigger we hired a head of European sales and a head of European marketing. In your case this might simply be a VP of Sales or Customer Support for multiple locations. Selling the company.

Ireland 319

Ireland Sales Bankruptcy Germany 319

Small Business Force

AUGUST 27, 2017

During this initial period, not one sales person was there longer than seven months and most had less than four months on the job. The company didn’t have great results over this time, with only two sales, generating minor revenue. The CEO and founder, who hired and fired the staff, blamed the lack of sales on two things.

Sales 30

Sales Sales Cycle Product Technical Review 30

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

"Our plan is to have seven figure revenues and be profitable by Q3, in addition to to seven new hires by end of the year," he says. Since joining the program, he has seen an increase in ad sales and also received new investment capital. Jim Dolan, the CEO of Action Online , is looking to launch in May and redo their YoJo.com site.

St. Louis 118

St. Louis CTO Hire Fractional CTO Entrepreneur 118

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

A college degree is great if you’re looking to get hired. 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.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 142

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 25, 2017

For instance, if you made a bad investment, you can cut your losses and walk away; if you hired the wrong employee , you can let them go; or if you created a partnership in a business you’ve come to hate, you can sell out your share. Something may turn out to be less promising than it initially seemed to be.

Lean 61

Lean Technical Review Sales Cycle Sales 61

YoungUpstarts

JULY 17, 2013

The critical key at this stage is to remember that the more credible and demonstrable your claims are to your potential customer, the shorter your sales cycle will be and the higher your close percentage will be. The great people you hired are depending on you to expand their horizons, and you are in this for the long term.

Georgia 238

Georgia Sales Cycle Atlanta Business Model 238

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2020

All your assumptions about customers, sales cycle and most importantly, revenue, burn rate and runway are no longer true. If you are selling to businesses (a B-to-B market) have your customers’ sales dropped? If so, whatever revenue forecast and sales cycle estimates you had are no longer valid. Laying off people?

Burn Rate 436

Burn Rate Startup Valuation Sales Cycle 436

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

A college degree is great if you’re looking to get hired. 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.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

A big downside of the high-touch sales model is that the CAC is out of control, and the sales cycles are extremely long. As you can see in the graph below, high-touch sales is a leading indicator of CAC. A high-touch sales process can balloon customer acquisition costs. Perfect for hyper-niche solutions.

Marketing 289

Marketing Sales Cycle Acquisition Sales 289

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 30, 2022

Face-to-face engagement is important, especially at vital points in the sales cycle or while creating relationships. 15- Study supply chains and hiring trends. In fact, connecting with customers and prospects is one of the most difficult tasks facing business leaders today. Thanks to James Wilkinson, Balance One Supplements !

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Green Technical Review Social Media 124

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

A CTO will guide your product strategy, market validation, architectural decisions, process optimization, recruiting, and hiring. They shorten the sales cycle, mitigate risks, and provide assurance in the context of technical due diligence. They provide a variety of compliance solutions for such cases as SOCS and PCI.

Fractional CTO 54

Fractional CTO CTO Hire CTO Technical Review 54

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 4, 2020

You know what your strong suits are and if this isn’t up your alley consider hiring somebody or using a specialized program to assist you in the task. This can be done by studying last year’s sales cycles. It can be expected that assuming no special condition affects the sales of your product(i.e. Optimization Products.

Management 91

Management Stock Demand Sales Cycle 91

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2013

As you go through the sales cycle with your customer, there comes a point when it’s natural for the transaction to conclude. I’m not suggesting that a startup founder has to do all the selling, and doesn’t need to find or hire people whose focus is marketing and sales. Perfect your natural ask.

Sales 263

Sales Entrepreneur Sales Cycle Matching 263

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 19, 2013

Hire more educators and engineers. The common belief is that good sales people are good relationship builders. The 7 Essential Practices of the New Sales Professional The 6 Disciplines of the New Sales Professional 5 Ways That Content Marketing Has Changed The Art Of Selling Installing a Selling System 5 Stages of the New Sales Cycle.

Sales 69

Sales Marketing Lead Generation Semantic 69

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Sales is a rigorous occupation full of difficult challenges and stress-inducing interactions, even when everyone is meeting their numbers. Longer sales cycle. How do you know if your sales team is in need of a morale boost? At Peak Sales Recruiting , we have helped B2B sales leaders hire A-Players for many years.

Sales 138

Sales Sales Cycle Acquisition B2B 138

A Crowded Space

AUGUST 27, 2014

This creates a hurdle for a company to adopt the software solution that may create longer sales cycles or lower sales conversion. . Sales cycle decreases . Sales conversion increases. Now imagine Optimizely + a Designer Marketplace. Value from SaaS increases. The Marketplace gets better. .

Sales Cycle 110

Sales Cycle Software .Net Business Model 110

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2012

As you go through the sales cycle with your customer, there comes a point when it’s natural for the transaction to conclude. I’m not suggesting that a startup founder has to do all the selling, and doesn’t need to find or hire people whose focus is marketing and sales. Perfect your natural ask.

Product 227

Product Sales Cycle Matching Social Media 227

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 13, 2017

As you go through the sales cycle with your customer, there comes a point when it’s natural for the transaction to conclude. I’m not suggesting that a startup founder has to do all the selling, and doesn’t need to find or hire people whose focus is marketing and sales. Perfect your natural ask.

Sales Cycle 120

Sales Cycle Social Media Matching Differentiation 120

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

Here are some suggestions on how to maintain a bootstrap mentality while running your organization: Hiring. Hiring is the key element in any startup and every success story is as good as its team. Going on a hiring spree on receiving funding will ensure that you burn before you earn. Spend Wisely. Barters and Associations.

Bootstrapping 100

Bootstrapping Cofounder Startup Sales Cycle 100

The Startup Magazine

APRIL 23, 2020

AR shortens the sales cycle and simplifies the act of buying. From having a virtual salesperson helping consumers buy, to having a local tourism guide, AR can help explain a product, service or place with consumers. TSM: As your company grows, what are the primary challenges? Quality control?

South Africa 125

South Africa Las Vegas Founder South Carolina 125

Duct Tape Marketing

FEBRUARY 22, 2017

While big ticket products might carry longer and more complex sales cycles, high-end buyers are just as lazy as the rest of us, so they use the same methods: Google, social media, and yes, their inboxes. Hire a virtual assistant to find your targets’ emails and other information. Day 1: Post hiring ad for lead generation VA.

Curation 44

Curation Lead Generation Technical Review Email 44

Version One Ventures

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Today, we already see marketplaces for more complex transactions… for example booking a location and photographer for your wedding ( www.weddingful.com ), hiring a web designer to create your next mobile app ( www.ooomf.com ), or finding short-term rentals for pop-up stores ( www.storefront.com ).

Sales Cycle 157

Sales Cycle Lead Generation Web Portfolio 157

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 12, 2017

Those milestones may be revenue, profit, product release, signed partner agreements, key hires, or any other steps that show a venture is achieving liftoff and is ready to scale. Very often an investment will be staged, with subsequent tranches being tied to reaching documented milestones.

Term Sheet 48

Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence Merger 48

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2011

As you go through the sales cycle with your customer, there comes a point when it’s natural for the transaction to conclude. I’m not suggesting that a startup founder has to do all the selling, and doesn’t need to find or hire people whose focus is marketing and sales. Perfect your natural ask.

Sales 234

Sales Entrepreneur Sales Cycle Matching 234