Three beautiful words. When used together, one of the most wonderful — if not most underused — phrases in our lexicon. Am I being hyperbolic?
Modern culture dictates that we claim to know, so we spend a lot of time knowing stuff. We expend much effort displaying our expertise. If we personally don’t know something, we rely on designated “experts,” who tell us they know (despite their unimpressive track record). We know where the stock market is headed. We know how countries will respond to “liberation.” We understand the ins and outs of other cultures. In relationships, we do not hesitate to state unequivocally the others’ thoughts, intentions and motivations. At some point in the past, we have “known” the world is flat, the sun revolves around the Earth and that spontaneous generation exists. Collectively, we know both that “God Exists” and that it doesn’t. We know that the people in our tribe are more intelligent, moral, and civilized than in theirs. Of course, they say the same thing.
Everyday, millions go to work knowing what their customers need and know how to market and sell to them. Getting feedback on business plans from a “panel of experts” is often an exercise of pure bloviatng. Executive teams sit at conference tables playing “pass the conjecture.”
Einstein wrote about a lack of knowledge being the key to learning.
Continue reading 'I Don’t Know'»
I don’t know who is more exasperated, entrepreneurs flummoxed by marketers or me, upset that another entrepreneur has been flummoxed by marketers!
People, language is for communication and marketing terms, abused as they are, fall somewhere within the scope of language. To communicate you need to learn the terms. To practice marketing or to hire a marketer you need to grasp some basics. Please.
Marketing Help Rule 1.
(<> means “not equal to”)
Blogging <> PR <> Brand <> SEO <> Logo <> Advertising <> Tagline <> Messaging <> FaceBook <> Positioning <> Twitter <>Lead Gen <> [Enter mktg term here]
Marketing Help Rule 2.
Trust me, you don’t need all the marketing tactics listed in Rule 1.
Marketing Help Rule 3.
The right marketing tactics for you, right now depend on WHO your prospective customers are and WHAT stage your company is in.
Marketing Help Rule 4.
All Marketers have a core competency (or two). Regardless, (almost) all Marketers will sell (almost) all marketing services.
Marketing Help Rule 5.
You need marketing to grow your business. And more likely than not, you need or will soon need help marketing. Admit it.
For a moment, forget everything you know or think you know or have heard about marketing. Start with a clean slate.
Now imagine you are a new customer of a particular product or service. You just finished buying. You are a bit giddy: Continue reading 'Entrepreneurs: Know Thy Marketing!'»
A technical CEO learning marketing is the equivalent of a sales/marketing CEO learning development engineering.
Not.
I am not a developer. If push comes to shove, I can code in PHP, or develop shell scripts, and truth be told, I did take a couple of ECE courses in college; courses which inexorably told me I was not going to be a developer.
My path to becoming a marketer was unusual, I think, which has had both its advantages and disadvantages. I like to think I’m a “technical marketer,” rather than what I call a “Madison Ave” marketer; not to dis the later, since they have their role to play in the grand scheme of marketing. By technical marketer, I don’t mean one who only markets technical products, or who does only “product marketing” in the industry vernacular, but rather a marketer who uses processes and actionable metrics to achieve near term business objectives that lead to realizing company vision.
IMO, development is harder than marketing. Continue reading 'The Truth About Evil Marketers'»
Unlike my classmates who headed to Silicon Valley from UC Davis upon graduation, I moved to Washington DC to work for a defense consulting firm. After a couple of years, “I dropped out” to write a novel, which I subsequently finished, explored the country for 3 months, finally landing in San Francisco and beginning my career in technology.
My book was (is) trite and sophomoric. After all, what insights do most 20-somethings have worth sharing? A lack of experience — a lack of failure — makes pontification shallow. One of my younger brothers, who was trying to make a living as a painter at the time, had a great comment. He said that he felt my book, like his art, was merely trying to say too much. That it wasn’t that we didn’t have good things to say, but that there was lack of discipline in focusing and examining in greater depth a few ideas, rather than “letting it all hang out.”
I think young entrepreneurs suffer from a similar malady. Continue reading 'Customer Development Presentation'»
The toughest part about practicing customer development is getting started. You already know that customers are not going to magically find you because you have a great product, work hard and are good looking. Now that you’ve realized how big the world is and that using a megaphone from your roof top is a poor method of user acquisition, what’s next?
Presumably if you are committed to the principles of customer development, you are already committed to “getting out of the building.” Before you can interview potential customers, however, you have to find potential customers to interview. Unfortunately, there are no magic bullets. This is painstaking work. Just as with other portions of the customer development model, to find early adopters you make assumptions, test, and iterate. If you are having trouble getting started, try these steps: Continue reading 'How to find early adopters'»
Comments (1) 
Themocracy