"Don't say who you are or the name of your company at the beginning. You need to catch their attention with what you are currently working on, and then leave them with a name or nickname that they can search for online later."
"When delivering a pitch or any type of presentation, plant your feet firmly on the ground, about hip-width apart. Be mindful of swaying and moving your hands, which can make you come across as nervous and lacking confidence."
"Founders love to talk about their technology when they should instead focus on the pain that their technology solves and the value that it creates for their customers. If you hook the audience with a searing pain point, a compelling value proposition, an attractive market and a credible team that can execute, then you will get the follow up to discuss questions they have about the technology."
"Elevator pitches are supposed to be quick, but not because you rattle off as much information as you can in as little time as possible. A good elevator pitch is concise because of how well-thought-out it is. When you slow down to deliver your pitch, you'll sound much wiser and give your audience time to absorb what you're saying."
"Elevator pitches need to be short and convey your business to an audience. I've noticed when people pitch me ideas they ramble on and on and don't actually say anything relevant. The best practice I got was during TechCrunch Disrupt launching a product five years ago. TechCrunch put us through the ringer and they helped us define what we wanted to say and how to say it concisely without rambling."
"A lot of people start going into the features and benefits of the device when they should really be capturing the attention of the listener by explaining the problem. They call this strategy "turning the knife," where you get the listener to understand and relate to the problem emotionally, then you position your product or solution as the unique and correct way of solving that problem."
"It's easy to get lost in the passion you have for your project, and oftentimes that passion, coupled with the opportunity being presented to you, can lead to desperation. It's important to have enthusiasm, but don't allow desperation to bleed into your pitch. Investors and potential partners can respect a passionate owner, but desperation almost always has the opposite effect."
"It's human nature to triangulate relevance from things we're familiar with. Whether it be investors, prominent customers or press you've received, dropping these in tasteful ways will make the audience take you more seriously. These social cues make the listener draw on these associations and connect them with what you're doing, enhancing the overall pitch."
"Starting off on this note will usually generate a “so what” reaction, causing your audience to check out. Your elevator pitch should be engaging and compelling enough to leave the listener wanting to know even more about you. Try instead to start the speech off with an interesting hook, quote or question that initially locks in their attention."
"WIIFM is an old sales jargon term for "what's in it for me?". While silly sounding, it's fundamentally on point. If you don't engage your audience during an elevator pitch enough to figure out why they should care, that is typically the end of the conversation. I like to say I help ____ to _____, as an example. Make it digestible for your audience."
"The best elevator pitches use simple words and communicates the benefits of your organization. If your elevator pitch uses words like "facilitates," "synergies," "empowering," or other overused words, re-craft your pitch. What does your organization do for its users?"
Three months earlier, we had built a five-touchpoint system to engage current clients and drive referrals. This consisted of various lunches, gifts, and casual phone calls or sharing content. I’ve seen plans like this double existing client revenues in the past. While this salesman had experienced some great wins using a few of the tactics, not everyone had responded with a referral. While there was never an expectation of a 100 percent response rate, he was losing interest because he only had a few wins so far. The program wasn’t being executed to its full potential.
An outsider could easily look at this situation and say, “Clearly, if he’d just stick to his plan, he’d hit his numbers,” and in large part they would be right. But how many of us have not stuck to our plan, not completed our tasks, and then not been happy with the results? Willpower is about sticking to the process even when your mind tells you to quit. Sticking to a process is hard, but so is being great. Successful people execute day in and day out. They perform at a higher level because their willpower is stronger than others.
At our company, we build a marketing plan each year that includes the amount of content we are going to write, events we are going to host, influencers we are going to meet, customer touchpoints we will execute, and all other sorts of marketing initiatives. This year was the first year we hit virtually 95 percent of the activities we planned out, and it’s the first year our cash flow grew by 40 percent.
Sales and marketing isn’t a “put one out, get one back” game. Rather, it’s about performing needed actions consistently according to a system that generates predictable results over a long period of time. It takes willpower to stick to these actions every day. I’ve found that the secret to developing willpower is to build systems that remove mental blocks. This focus on execution allows me to get out of my own head and just do the tasks. Here are a few of the habits I’ve built that strengthen my willpower and generate the results I’m chasing:
Willpower is a muscle, and it has to be strengthened. Like working out, sporadic repetitions don’t build muscle. What builds muscle is creating a plan and executing on it.
]]>One way to offer more is to bundle your offerings. But what if bundling doesn’t always make sense for everyone in your audience? What if they don’t want more for less? What if they want less — and are willing to pay a small premium for the convenience of less?
Long gone are the days of being forced to purchase a whole music album: With iTunes, you’re free to build your music collection one song at a time. Media companies let you forego subscriptions in lieu of per-article pricing. And massive open online courses make it possible for students to take single lessons without the commitment of a degree program.
I’ve been observing these industry changes throughout the past decade, both as an employee in product management for a Fortune 500 company, and as a strategic consultant helping organizations rethink their products. Today, as the owner of a business strategy company focused on product management, I advise my clients to consider bundling (and unbundling) strategies.
Bundling can be a valuable part of product strategy, but it can limit your choices. By unbundling your products, you can give your audience what they want, while creating new revenue streams. Follow these five steps below to discover product unbundling opportunities for your business:
Before you can break your offerings into bite-sized pieces, you need to have a firm grasp on your inventory. You might already have a tidy list of all of your offerings, or you can pull one from your e-commerce site. If things are a bit more murky, you might need to sit down with your team and talk through everything you own and sell. During this step, don’t worry about decoupling: Just focus on documenting what you have.
Next, carefully consider your audience’s needs. Why do they buy from you? What pain points are you helping them solve? If you haven’t already done the research to confidently know the answers to these questions, conduct a customer survey that helps you better understand your audience and their needs.
When I worked with a micropayment processor, we wanted to better understand consumer habits related to charitable donations — specifically micro-donations. After conducting market research and reviewing surveys on the topic, we found that men were more likely than women to be impulsive with micro-donations. By honing in on our target audience’s behaviors and motivations, we could create an unbundling strategy directed at the microprocessor’s target clients, non-profits, by incorporating micro-donations into non-profit business models with larger followings of men.
Exploring avenues for new revenue requires an examination of each of your products. How can you make a decoupled product available in a way that’s profitable for your business (and useful for your audience)? If you sell a physical good or service, think about how to break your product into smaller pieces. For example, a flatware manufacturer might be accustomed to selling sets of forks, knives and spoons — but some consumers might be looking to replace a single spoon.
While working with an online education company, our primary product was degree programs, but we had to think smaller — even smaller than individual courses. We asked ourselves: How can we break down a course to the smallest level? We started looking at learning objectives and divvied up the course materials in a way that aligned with each individual learning objective. For a digital marketing course, we could break it down to “identify the top social media platforms,” “create a social media marketing plan,” and “create a social media calendar.”
Not only were we able to bundle and unbundle the course materials, but we could actually look at different types of learners, such as auditory versus visual. By breaking the course offerings down to such a finite level, we created a customized educational experience equipped with new products to sell.
Once you have determined individual components to sell, strategize the price points that make the most sense based on your current bundled pricing and your audience’s perceived value.
Make sure that the bundled offering still provides a price break, but doesn’t underestimate the value of the decoupled products. If the most valuable piece of content in your e-book is a template, for example, don’t be afraid to make that template worth half the cost of the entire ebook.
To start the pricing process, I typically evaluate the current pricing model, the production time required, and the product’s perceived value. I also advise A/B testing to see how the market responds, and then adjust pricing accordingly.
After you announce your new products and pricing, it’s important to continuously monitor your market. What are they buying? What bundles remain big sellers? Which ones are no longer selling?
As you introduce new offerings to your audience, continue to experiment with bundled versus unbundled products. The market and your audience’s needs are always changing. Your ability to provide what the market demands relies on the effectiveness of your ongoing research and product strategy. Remaining static is not an option.
When I launched a community for “parentpreneurs,” I saw a need for family-friendly business events and conferences. After holding one in July, I have continued to be aware of the market. If someone launches a similar event, I can tweak my offering to remain competitive.
Not ready to unbundle your current offerings? You can still plan for future products. When you’re creating a new offering, be sure to design a product infrastructure that will ultimately allow you to sell products in a variety of ways later. By unbundling your product offerings, you have an opportunity to better serve your audience and create a viable stream of revenue for your business. It doesn’t get much better than that.
]]>"Your conversions will increase if you break up your checkout process into bite-sized chunks, so that each step takes no more than 30 seconds to fill out. We're all impatient, and seeing a long form to fill out that we know will take several minutes to complete will lead to cart abandonment. Clearly show the user which step they are on at the top of the page and make each step short and sharp."
"You can easily find articles online to optimize your checkout flow, but abandonment is common for all e-commerce businesses. What's important is capturing the leads that have gotten this deep. Make sure you have retargeting cookies, exit intent pop-ups, and abandonment emails set up so you can at least remarket to these visitors."
"I've seen this happen with some of my own projects, and I know I do it myself when it comes to impulse-buying sometimes. One of the biggest things that gets in the way is forcing a login when it isn't necessary. A "guest checkout" that doesn't require creating an account is a great way to reduce abandoned carts."
"Unless there is a high need for a certain product or service, consumers are not likely to make a purchase right away from a brand that they don't know well and trust. However, if you offer an immediate coupon code or gift card with their first purchase, this immediately intrigues them and gives them a reason to check out right at the point of visiting your website."
"For key demographics, a mobile device is the preferred shopping platform. And yet, many e-commerce stores offer a checkout experience on mobile that would make a saint tear their hair out. Bad UX, complex checkouts, and non-responsive interfaces are sale-killers. I've abandoned many carts because I couldn't be bothered to spend twenty minutes dealing with the registration and checkout process. "
"A lot of customers are window-shopping and they should be allowed to do so. Don't try to trap them into a purchase, when they're just browsing around. If you point out the exits and provide frequent turnarounds, then customers will feel comfortable. That's what you want: customers who are happy they made a purchase, not customers who feel forced into one. "
"It is better to include the cost of shipping in the price than to add it on during the checkout process. People see value in the product they are paying for and reason that shipping is a sort of "tax." Amazon Prime and many other brands have set the new standard for free shipping and consumers expect it now. Offer free shipping even if it means you raise the price of the product by a few dollars."
"Most customers are rightly concerned about the common problem of credit card fraud. If you haven't done enough to make your website look professional and trustworthy, certain customers are going to hear the alarm bells getting louder and louder the closer they get to filling in their information."
"In the e-commerce world, buyer remorse often happens BEFORE the purchase. It often occurs when they reach the checkout and see just how many items they've added (and how much money they've accumulated). Have a simple and quick checkout process (think Amazon's 'one-click' checkout) that gets the customer from cart to the "Thank You" page in as few steps as possible."
"First, ask yourself if you are bringing the right people to your website. On the flipside, are you speaking to their pain or need? If you see people leaving your shopping cart, consider implementing live chat to answer any questions they may have and to offer help. If they go through your shopping cart and can’t find answers, they will likely go elsewhere."
Last year, a healthy offer made its way to the table: one which promised a seven-digit payout and 10% ownership in the new joint company. Sure, the prospect of selling was appealing, especially after five years of hard work and a pretty dismal salary. Even though we technically wouldn’t be selling out entirely, we still felt the valuation was low. And in order for the acquisition to be successful, in addition to bearing additional paydays for us, the new joint company needed to be valued much higher, around $100M.
We learned a lot from this first opportunity to sell. First, there will likely be a discrepancy between how much you think your company is worth versus what others are willing to pay, especially in the case of small businesses like ours. To prepare for this, many companies take the “comparable model” approach. Look at other transactions that have taken place within your industry to see which terms are practical for your business. With this knowledge, you can make the argument your company should be similarly valued. Though these terms are often private and difficult to obtain, it’s important to do so.
At the end of the day, if you value your company at $100M but no one is willing to pay for it, then it’s up to you to become more realistic. When it comes to selling, your company is only worth what someone else is willing to buy it for. A general rule of thumb: If the discrepancy is within 15-25%, you should be able to make a deal. If it’s off by 50% or more, you’re going to have big problems.
When it comes to selling, we want to find a partner who not only had deep pockets, but who is also on board with our mission and won’t steer too far away from this path. This can be incredibly challenging, since it’s difficult to find buyers in the first place. But when the time is right, we’ll spend a considerable amount of time reaching out to funds, companies and individuals we think we’d partner well with. If selling appears to be the right move, we’ll be working extremely hard to find a partner with the best potential.
Though money is certainly a dominant factor, it’s not our only driving force as a company. So we’ve continued to roll the dice, a decision based primarily on gut feeling and knowing what is best for the company — or at least what feels best. Having a great business partner makes this much easier, as we’re in constant conversation regarding when to sell.
We knew that if we could continue to double our sales, we could hold off, keep scaling the business, and in the end be much better off. And we did just that. Still, after partly achieving what we set out to do, a sale seems inevitable.
Part of being an entrepreneur is taking on greater financial risks in order to operate and organize the business you set out to create. If we were to sell to a private equity company, one that would likely increase commissions to double profitability, our brand value would be damaged, and in a few years I’d likely find myself battling the same problems I had with the ticket industry five years ago. For the time being, we’ll continue “rolling the dice” for as long as the company can afford to, or until we meet the perfect potential buyer.
As of now, we can afford five more years of being our own growing entity without compromising our mission. If (and when) the time comes for us to sell, I hope that my driving motivations will be to maintain a company whose intentions are good and to keep the business on the path forward in this difficult industry.
]]>After completing my graduate studies in industrial engineering, I researched the luxury real estate market and the increasing demand in natural stone. With Turkey having one-third of the world’s marble reserves, I took advantage of my heritage as a Turkish American and pursued my business plan with confidence.
The first thing I aspired to do is find the right kind of natural stone to sell. I knew I had to offer something that builders actually needed. That meant coming up with a niche product, marketing it the right way, and having direct access to the inventory.
Here are my own business strategies and practices that you can adapt for your own business:
I was already aware that natural stone was becoming more popular in modern builds. Keeping this competition in mind, so I had to get creative and focus on selling a niche product. In my line of business, this equates to window sills and thresholds, which are interchangeable with any type of flooring.
To find your own niche product, find something people actually need, not just want. Make sure you can get that product at a wholesale price so that you can offer it to buyers at an even lower rate. Then, be sure you have direct access to the inventory. Eliminate any third party vendors who might cause delays.
Traditional marketing strategies alone won’t work. National and international trade shows have helped us reach new areas at a lower cost than hiring an area sales representative.
But while trade shows and print ads are all part of our strategy, you must also strive to be the leading company online. You also shouldn’t ignore the word-of-mouth factor when it comes to referrals.
You want to choose a niche product that is easy to stock and deliver — something that doesn’t make the customer wait too long. If you can offer it at a discounted price, then you’re really in business.
By making marble window sills and thresholds a main-line product, buyers have been more eager to come to us because they know that the product they’re looking for will always be in stock. Furthermore, they don’t have to deal with long lead times for custom orders.
Strategically place your business near the manufacturer that supplies your product. If your product happens to be overseas, then make sure your business is based in a city that can readily receive your inventory, especially if you’re receiving it by boat.
Having direct access to our quarries and being based in South Florida near the Port of Miami (where we receive a consistent shipment of inventory) keeps our warehouse fully stocked at all times. Providing this kind of reliable service can quite possibly lead you to become the leading provider of your own niche product.
Once I gained the attention of a vast amount of customers who learned about my niche products, I took advantage of the opportunity and expanded our inventory, providing additional options like travertine, glass, and engineered stone.
Consider providing new offerings directly associated with your current inventory to give your customers more. For example, if you’re in the business of selling sewing needles, find out where you can acquire lots of thread in a variety of colors at a wholesale price. It’s all about finding a relatable product that’s as equally in demand as your mainline product.
Another key factor in making millions of dollars is making your business scalable. As demand increases, vendors and production facilities play a key role in supplying timely orders with good quality. Therefore, you have to treat your vendors just as kindly as your clients; they are, after all, the backbone of your success.
Buyers not only want to invest in a product that they can trust; they also want to invest in the business behind it. All of this means nothing if the customer — and in fact, everyone involved with your business — isn’t happy, or at the very least satisfied. It’s all quite simple: Keep clients happy, and they’ll keep coming in. If you instill the same ethics and service mentality for your multi-million dollar business in everyone involved (down to employees and vendors), your success will only grow.
Think about it this way: In the textile and garment industry, everybody sells shirts and pants. They typically keep some basic, standard size of buttons or zippers as an accessory in case it’s needed for an immediate supply. Marble window sills and thresholds are just like those buttons and zippers; however, the difference with us is that we stock all the colors and sizes you can imagine in large quantities.
If you want to make millions selling a product in a competitive industry, all you have to do is find your own version of buttons and zippers with a good source, a good marketing plan, and a good attitude.
]]>If your cold emails look like this, you are doing it wrong:
“Hi Justin, hope you’re doing well! Can we schedule a short meeting to discuss our company services at your convenience?”
There are several reasons why cold emails fail: These can include anything from bad subject lines, to emailing the wrong contact, to not personalizing your message enough. Unfortunately, it is pretty easy to create bad cold emails.
Because quality cold emails are so rare these days, I came up with a simple formula I call “QVC” to help people increase their responses.
You don’t want to worry about introducing yourself in the very first sentence; this immediately tells the recipient that they don’t know you. Aside from the subject line, this is the single most important element of your entire email, because it’s what shows up in preview panes in their email client and on their phones.
You can introduce yourself and your offering in the next section. However, you want to focus on your benefit here. This means you should replace the “I” and “we” with a “you” in this portion of the email.
Lastly, you want to close the email with another question. Ideally, a question that is easy to respond to while helping the conversation advance to the next stage.
Using the QVC framework, I’ve been able to generate a 45% open rate on my cold emails. Even better is the combined 14% response rate (31% combined between the first two emails).
Two things need to happen with your cold email subject lines. One, you want to capture their interest, and two, you want to avoid being flagged as spam. Believe it or not, 69% of email recipients flag an email as spam solely based on the subject line.
Emails that have “Re:” perform higher than any other subject line. This is especially important for follow-up emails: Include your previous email correspondence in your follow-up for easy reference, while using “Re:” at the beginning of your subject line.
If you are having a hard time coming up with a great subject line, don’t stress. Studies show an 8% improvement in open rates with no subject line at all!
Unfortunately, 44% of salespeople stop following up after two attempts. Meanwhile, 80% of sales occur after five attempts. Don’t just quit after one or even two emails.
You also want to avoid the typical “checking in” or “I haven’t heard back” follow-ups. Instead, try to bring value. Use a case study for one follow-up, ask a question for another follow-up, link to a relevant blog post for another, or focus on a different benefit than what you did in your previous emails.
By writing cold emails with the intention of getting a response, you are helping your future email deliverability. This is because you are showing engagement. Any response is a good response (even when they request to never be emailed again).
In addition, by having a more naturally flowing email, you help reduce your risk of being flagged as spam.
Lastly, you won’t have to burn through so many of your ideal prospects, because you’ll be converting a higher percentage of them into actual conversations that move the sales process forward.
If they do respond and are interested in what you offer, I recommend sending them a link to your calendar to book a time to chat further. Don’t try to simply close the deal via email.
]]>Whether you think the holidays matter to your business or not, they do. Nearly 20% of all sales happen during the holidays. As an e-tailer managing over a dozen e-commerce-only sites, I have noticed a sizable increase in sales starting in November. Now is the time to get the ball rolling for the holidays: Here’s what you can do to get your website holiday-ready.
Before they turn to the internet to buy, holiday shoppers turn to the internet for ideas. They might know that a family member or friend has an interest in what you sell, but it’s likely that their knowledge stops there. Here are a few ways you can start creating content now:
If you outsource your content, send assignments to your freelancers as quickly as possible.
Online holiday shopping begins with a Google search. If the enticing new content you’ve created is buried in the search-ranking abyss, no one will ever see it, and it’ll be worthless.
Identify holiday-specific keywords and phrases that sync with your new content. Remember that people aren’t shopping for “camping gear,” they’re shopping for “camping gear holiday gift ideas.” For our jewelry brand, we identify searches like “holiday proposals” and “holiday marriage proposals,” which we start optimizing for early in the year.
But remember: It’s incredibly difficult to target keywords based on data from last holiday season. In the case of holiday SEO, just go with your gut. What would you be searching for if the roles were reversed and you were the shopper?
Load time and page speed have a big impact on your bottom line 365 days a year, but never more so than during the frantic holiday rush. A single second delay can trigger a 7% drop in conversions. For a retailer making $100,000 a day, that’s a loss of $2.5 million per year. But luckily, increasing page speed is a relatively quick and easy fix.
You also don’t want Google or your users to discover broken pages or links, as this could reduce your credibility. To scan your site for broken links and 404 errors, use tools like Screaming Frog. Use Link Redirect Trace to make sure all of your 301 redirects are operating correctly, there are no unnecessary redirect loops, and you’re not sending Google or visitors to the incorrect pages.
Having a cheap, shared hosting company during the holiday shopping season is almost never worth the associated savings. If you’re doing everything right, it’s likely that you will see a big boost in traffic over the holidays. But if this increase in visitors results in crashes, slowdowns, or even worse, website shut-downs, then what have you gained by cutting costs? If you truly can’t afford a few dollars — or a few hundred dollars — a month for the critical service of a dedicated server, consider making room in your budget for better hosting for just a few months until the start of the new year.
Holiday shopping often means shopping on mobile. Google recommends considering your users’ mobile experience, as it’s important to those who visit your website.
Take time to learn the difference between how content behaves on different devices, like tablets, smartphones, multimedia phones and feature phones. Upgrade your website to a responsive web design so that it looks good on all devices.
During the holidays, there’s intense pressure for retailers to get their promotional codes listed at the top of major coupon and discount directories. Directories want to offer the most valuable, useful coupons. For the holidays, up the stakes with extras like free shipping.
As part of their “HTTPS everywhere” promotion, Google strives to make all websites more secure with the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure, or “green bar” URL strategy.
Not only does HTTPS make sites more secure during the critical holiday shopping season, but Google considers it an important search ranking signal. Better security at checkout doesn’t only benefit your customers: It also benefits you, as a single security breach can impact your website and traffic for many holidays to come.
With 20% of all business being done in a just a few frantic, critical weeks and months of the year, the holiday season is crucial for every website, even if a company does most of its business in a physical store. The holidays are right around the corner: Take the time to plan, prepare and prevail.
]]>Street teams interact directly with consumers to get them excited about your brand and connect with it on a more personal level. This excitement translates into direct action – whether you want consumers to download your app, sample your product, attend an event, or use your service for the first time.
My company recently worked on a nationwide project for one of today’s top ride-sharing brands. The goal was to build brand awareness as well as have consumers download the brand’s app by offering coupon codes for their first ride with the company. We hired and trained event managers and brand ambassadors for mobile street team events in 11 markets and activated street teams on college campuses around the country. Brand ambassadors talked to almost 1,500 consumers during the 5-month campaign, with 20 percent of consumers downloading the app and using the coupon code.
When executed correctly, a street team initiative can increase brand awareness, build loyalty and increase sales. But when executed incorrectly, a street team initiative can waste money and damage a brand’s reputation. If you have ever encountered an untrained street team glued to their smartphones, clustered together and blocking the sidewalk, or shouting at you as you walk by, you know what I mean.
The following are my top nine tips for successfully using street teams to increase brand awareness and acquire new customers:
Street teams are a way to bring mobile apps and other online offerings to life. Rather than staring at a screen, consumers get to interact directly with products and services, and their questions can be answered by the person standing right next to them. In today’s digital age, building a personal connection with consumers goes a long way towards fulfilling your brand’s goals.
A version of this post originally appeared on Forbes.
]]>At the time, I was at CareerBuilder, heading the Pacific Northwest territory for the mid-markets division. I can clearly remember the uphill battle our team faced while calling customers and prospects to renew job postings. In order to succeed, we started learning about where our customers were failing and what they were still spending money on. We stopped having the same old sales conversations.
It turns out we had been focusing on the wrong competition all along. They still needed to hire talent, but the top or niche candidates they wanted couldn’t be found on traditional job sites. To remedy this, we pitched ourselves and our sites for the next two years on selling against recruiters instead of simply being a job site. We focused on hard-to-fill and executive openings and found customers willing to spend big budgets to solve key needs in their business.
Even with an economic downturn, we didn’t blame something that wasn’t under our control. Instead, we took a hard look at our sales strategies and found areas that would allow us to prosper even in grim situations. Here are some top tips to maintain peak performance in a downturn:
The key to above-average sales performance is to do both. Work the hours needed but continuously improve your sales execution by always learning. If you put in more hours than anyone, focus on improving every day, and constantly be looking to learn, you will see the results pay off.
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