opportunism – Market By Numbers

April 28, 2009
By brantcooper
13 Comments
in Brant's Rant, Customer Development, Sales and Marketing Roadmap, Startup Marketing

Customer Development Gut Checks

Through the evolution of their start-ups, entrepreneurs will face many inflection points, at which decisions made or not made will determine their future. The painful truth is that a wrong turn may lead to its demise, whereas a right turn leads to another inflection point.

Relevant to ongoing discussions about Blank's "Customer Development," I wish to highlight a few of these "inflection points."

The first step in Blank's model is "Customer Discovery." This step seeks to answer this fundamental question: Read More »

February 9, 2009
By brantcooper
1 Comment
in Brant's Rant, Metrics-Driven Marketing, Process-Oriented Marketing, Startup Marketing

Process-Driven Sales and Marketing

A couple of years ago, a colleague and I began developing a process-oriented way to lead companies toward gaining market traction. The idea was born out of a conversation my colleague had with a partner at Sequoia Capital about how to significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the classic high-burn, low return tactics of typical B2B software start-ups.

So to oversimplify, the classic failure might look like:

Build financial model based on revenue and go-to-market assumptions and present to the Board;
Develop product;
Hire VP of Sales w/ relevant contacts;
Build sales plan based on promises to the board;
Hire field sales team;
Hire marketing person to support sales;
Burn cash, miss milestones;
Go back to board with new assumptions;
Build sales plan based on new promises;
Rinse. Repeat.