Startups can devote all their time and resources to making every sale themselves. Or they can have customers proactively selling for them.
Make Evangelists, Not Sales
Evangelists have more clout because they have the best interests of others at heart, where salespeople usually have their own best interests at heart.
For people to evangelize for you, your product needs to be “good news” to somebody. People need to believe in your product, and believe that it makes the world a better place.
As a leader you must frequently tap into your passions. But don’t let yourself be ruled by unhealthy emotions, positive or negative.Unchecked emotions lead to incorrect conclusions and bad decisions.
A Leader Must Always Control Their Emotions.
It is the responsibility of a leader to remain in command of their emotional responses, and never to make decisions under the influence of anger.
– From The Startup Daily
Having low prices or outstanding service is no longer enough to beat the competition. These things are just the price of admission.
Creativity is the Only Sustainable Competitive Advantage
The ability to improvise, solve old problems in news ways, and adapt faster then everyone else is the most important skill in an age where change is the only constant.
There are many advantages to bootstrapping your business. But if you need to borrow money, don’t wait until you are desperate.
The Best Time to Borrow Money is Before You Need It
Desperation repels people, and puts you in a weaker negotiating position, allowing the lender to dictate the terms of the financing.
People are attracted to businesses that are on the right track, and want to be part of a success story.
When you have a great product of course you want to tell your prospective customers about all the great features and benefits of your offering. But don’t lead with that information.
Don’t Talk About Features and Benefits, Talk About How People Will Feel After They Buy
The details should be available to help people justify their purchase, but after they have bought into the feeling of owning the product.
The drive to fight and win against an enemy will stir passion in your employees and your customers.
Having an Enemy to Overcome is a Powerful Motivator
Your enemy doesn’t have to be your competition. Your enemy doesn’t have to be your competition. Your fight can be a cause such as “ridding the world of bad software.”
Having a clear flag for people to get behind will attract people to your cause.
Society has gone full circle. No matter how fast technology transforms the world around us, human needs don’t change. The Internet is enabling a return of the best qualities of the way life used to be.
Social Media Has Made the World One Big Small Town.
The things that once mattered most in small town life are important again, but on a global scale: reputation, word of mouth, and one-on-one personal relationships
– From The Startup Daily
US “adspend” in the first quarter of 2011 grew by 4.4pc over the same period in 2010 to reach US$32.5bn, new data from Kantar Media reveals.
The media research and insights company said that first quarter performance fell below 2010 levels, but that the ad market has now achieved five consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth.
“With the advertising recovery in its second year, 2011 gets benchmarked against the elevated spending levels of last year and that makes for tougher comparisons,” said Jon Swallen, SVP research Kantar Media Intelligence NA. “Despite slowing growth, there are positive signs. The market expanded by US$1.4bn during the first quarter which nearly equals the amount of gain at the start of 2010 when the recovery began. In addition, a rising proportion of advertisers are increasing their ad budgets and this indicates spending growth is still rippling outward through the market.”
According to the research, TV expenditure rose by 5.3pc, internet display advertising was up 14.6pc, radio grew by 1.3pc, magazines increased by 4.5pc, while outdoor surged 12.5pc. Spend on newspapers, however, declined by 2.1pc, with local newspapers down 1.1pc, national newspapers down 7.5pc and Spanish language newspapers falling 7.4pc.
The research also reveals that spending among the 10 largest advertisers in the opening quarter of 2011 was US$4,279.6m, up 6.7pc on the first quarter of 2010. Among the top 100 marketers, a diversified group that accounts for nearly half of all measured ad expenditures, budgets climbed 4.8pc.
Procter & Gamble topped the spending league with an outlay of US$719.8 million, down 5.9pc.
Four automotive advertisers were in the top 10, for the first time since Q1 2004. Chrysler Group boosted ad budgets by 58.6pc to US$319.7m. The company used Super Bowl XLV to launch a new brand positioning advertising campaign with a two-minute commercial featuring Detroit rapper Eminem.The spot, which showcased the new Chrysler 200 and the tagline ‘Imported from Detroit’, was voted ‘Best Super Bowl Ad’ by YouTube’s Ad Blitz.
Everyone knows that listening to your customers is good, but don’t let your existing customers be the only voice you hear.
Listen to Your Potential Customers, Not Just Your Existing Customers
A larger opportunity often exists with a whole new population of customers with simpler needs at a lower price point. Letting your existing customers define your product means you will exceed the needs and cost requirements of those potential customers, leaving an opening for your competition.
U.S. Automakers learned the hard way that you don’t effectively solve quality problems by adding more inspectors at the end of the assembly line.
Focus on Prevention, Not Solutions
More dramatic results will be found by improving the system that allowed the problem to happen in the first place.
Next time you are solving a problem in your business, look for solutions further upstream.
