042: The Art of Customer Validation with Whitney Casey
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
Release Date: 12/19/2017
044: World-Class Customer Service with Scott Porter
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
"Our company mission is to help people experience the joy of food" - Scott Porter What comes to mind when you think about customer service? Do you think about United Airlines and the infamous passenger escort? Do you remember that restaurant server who rolled her eyes when you asked for gluten-free? Or do you think about that grocery store clerk who remembered your first name and asked if your child was feeling better? We all know what it feels like to have an incredible customer experience. We evangelize, we promote, and we rave about those companies. The same is true of horrible...
info_outline
043: Selling the Public Sector with Patri Founder Josh Ellars
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
Throughout this season of SalesFounders we have covered a number of themes that seem to exemplify winning startups: Leveraging domain expertise, validated learning, mentorship, and strategic sales growth. Josh Ellars, founder of Patri, exemplifies all of them. In fact, his startup story is a case-study in how each of these components blend together to create a powerful growth trajectory. Josh believes that a founder needs critical feedback and an openness to adaptation. On this episode Josh explains how he has leveraged 10 years of public sector sales expertise, 10,000 linkedIn connections, a...
info_outline
042: The Art of Customer Validation with Whitney Casey
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
Most entrepreneurs acknowledge the importance of customer validation. Few, however, are as curious or relentless in the pursuit of customer feedback as Whitney Casey. Following her Emmy-winning career as a talk show host and NYC anchor, Whitney created Finery.com, a startup in the Fashion/Technology space. Along with her best-friend and co-founder Brooklyn Decker, Whitney has assembled a stellar team of brainiacs, in NYC, who are revolutionizing the way you interact with your wardrobe. Whitney joins us this week to explore the value of customer feedback and the strategy every founder...
info_outline
041: High Velocity Sales Growth with Justin Edwards
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
Justin Edwards is the VP of Sales Practice at Mercato partners. His focus is optimizing and accelerating sales performance within each of their portfolio companies. Leveraging his sales experience in startups and Fortune 100 organizations alike, Justin has demonstrated a unique ability to help founders identify sales inefficiencies and develop highly scalable sales teams and processes. ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: Modeling high velocity sales growth Looking at people as the underlying engine for sales acceleration Identifying the 5 traits of success in your sales environment, and...
info_outline
040: Win-Loss Analysis with Clozd Founder Spencer Dent
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
Knowing why you win and lose deals might be the most valuable information your company can have. Unfortunately, 60% of sales professionals are wrong about why they win and lose deals. Not surprisingly, founders make critical errors when they use such assessments in strategic decisions. My guest this week is Clozd founder, Spencer Dent. Leveraging his experience at Bain, and Qualtrics, Spencer co-founded Clozd with the mission to help companies uncover the truth about why they win and lose. On this episode, Spencer shares some of the most common pitfalls, and why win-loss analysis...
info_outline
039: Crafting the Perfect Sales Pitch with Pitch Queen Michelle Weinstein
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
Michelle Weinstein, also known as The Pitch Queen, has leveraged an exciting sales career, and an entrepreneurial rollercoaster to refine a skill that has become her secret weapon - the Pitch. Michelle has pitched her way into Costco, onto Shark Tank, and into the world of millionaires, athletes and coaches. Michelle joins SalesFounders this week to talk about the art of the Pitch and a few of her strategies to help entrepreneurs build relationships, gain rapport, and generate powerful sales traction. ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: Facing adversity - lessons from a failed startup...
info_outline
038: Bridging the Sales Gap - Founders Weekend Keynote
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
"More than 90% of startups fail, due primarily to self-destruction rather than competition." The Sales Gap is perhaps the most daunting stage of entrepreneurship. Most founders will agree that their primary objective is to leverage product market fit into scalable sales growth as efficiently as possible. However, the majority of startups self-destruct during this transition as a result of premature scaling. In this keynote excerpt from Founders Weekend, Brad Harker explores the concept of "sales validation," and the roadmap he has developed to help organizations preempt the dangers of...
info_outline
037: Social Selling for Startups with Steve Nudelberg
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
"Nobody want’s to be sold anymore.” With so many products and solutions competing for our attention, buyers want simple solutions from people they know like and trust. Meet Steve Nudelberg, author, speaker, and “serial salesman” who has built a successful career by being valuable, authentic, and connected. Steve will argue that, for more startups, cold calling is a waste of time, and that entrepreneurs should spend less time hiding behind their brand and more time engaging with their customers. On this episode, we explore the evolving sales landscape, the biggest sales challenges...
info_outline
036: Direct to Consumer Sales Strategy with Ace Marks Founder Paul Farago
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
Ace Marks is a brand of handcrafted Italian dress shoes that has leveraged a direct to consumer sales strategy to disrupt one of the most established industries. In the past year alone, Ace Marks have sold in more than 80 countries, and has become the worlds most funded footwear project through Kickstarter. Founders Paul Farago and Julian Gonzalez join SalesFounders to talk about their relentless focus on customer experience, the domain expertise behind this disruptive brand of luxury shoes. On this Episode we Discuss: Leveraging domain experience around the needs of the customer The...
info_outline
035: Product Validation and Crowdfunding with Enventys Partners President Roy Morejon
SalesFounders - Startup Sales Growth | Venture Capital | Crowdfunding | Sales Strategy |
Roy Morejon is the President of Enventys Partners, a full-service product launch agency that has created more than 450 brands, 65 companies, and made over $1 billion for entrepreneurs and corporations. Roy's passion is helping entrepreneurs launch great ideas and Eventys Partners has a comprehensive solution that supports entrepreneurs with everything from product design and development, to crowdfunding and marketing. Roy joins us this week to talk about product validation and the system that has helped 21 brands break the million dollar crowdfunding mark. On this Episode we Discuss: ...
info_outlineMost entrepreneurs acknowledge the importance of customer validation. Few, however, are as curious or relentless in the pursuit of customer feedback as Whitney Casey. Following her Emmy-winning career as a talk show host and NYC anchor, Whitney created Finery.com, a startup in the Fashion/Technology space. Along with her best-friend and co-founder Brooklyn Decker, Whitney has assembled a stellar team of brainiacs, in NYC, who are revolutionizing the way you interact with your wardrobe. Whitney joins us this week to explore the value of customer feedback and the strategy every founder should model before attempting to scale.
ON THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
- Finery - the first wardrobe operating system
- When to hire vs outsource developers
- A validation strategy every founder should adopt
- How to elicit the most authentic customer feedback
- The power of honest feedback from users, even if "your baby is ugly"
- Product Development discipline and the challenges of “feature creep”
- 6 revenue sources and the customers lifecycle.
- Choosing the right investors - “make sure you find smart money”