YEC - 6/9 - Serious Startups

14 Pitch Pointers for New Entrepreneurs

Question: What’s your best piece of advice for a very young entrepreneur with little to no experience about to pitch their idea for the first time?

Pitch the Problem

“The worst thing you can do is pitch a solution for something no one cares about. Instead, home in on the problem you plan to solve, and who you are solving it for. ”

Wade Foster, Zapier

Research

“Thoroughly research the organization that you’re pitching to ensure your idea is in line with the company’s needs. Throughout this research, it’s also important to make sure you’re pitching the idea to someone who can actually do something with it.”

Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance

Get Ready to Be Told You’re Crazy

“The best possible response you can hope for when first pitching your idea is that people think you are crazy, that the idea won’t work and that you shouldn’t pursue it any further. That’s how all good ideas start. While there are plenty of horrible ideas that you actually SHOULD heed that advice for, the best ones tend to start that way.”

Todd Garland, BuySellAds

Believe

“If you don’t wholeheartedly believe in yourself and your idea, why would anyone else be expected to? Do your research and understand your market with confidence. Don’t let these sharks sense a taste of fear or uncertainty, otherwise they will chew you alive.”

Shahzil (Shaz) Amin, Blue Track Media

Pitch With Passion

“The absolute best piece of advice I could offer a young entrepreneur before a big pitch is to let his or her passion shine through. The excitement, drive, and motivation that drives young entrepreneurs is impossible to fake or replicate. Passion is contagious. No amount of money can buy passion. It trumps experience, and smart partners or investors will sense that excitement to succeed.”

Brittany Hodak, ZinePak

Earn Your Second Meeting With a Story

“One of the best business books I have read is “Made to Stick” by Dan and Chip Heath. They focus on the value of telling great stories — and teach readers how. Your goal in a first pitch is not to get money — it’s to earn a second meeting. The best way to gain interest is to leave your listeners with a compelling story that resonates with them long after you have left. ”

Aaron, Schwartz, Modify Watches

Go for It!

“Show your passion, detail it out as best you can — and then, listen to advice from experienced entrepreneurs. Often, eager young entrepreneurs pitch their ideas and think they’re the best things ever, so they don’t listen to any constructive criticism — and learn the hard way. That’s fine, but it’s better to listen and learn from other entrepreneurs who have already been there and done that. ”

Joe Barton, Barton Publishing

Be Receptive to Feedback

“In addition to the general nerves that accompany an idea pitch, the most frightening thought is the chance that your audience won’t like your idea. It can be tough to listen to criticism about your brainchild, but it is imperative that you filter the feedback in the most constructive way possible. If you do, the negative feedback will undoubtedly help you the most to build a stronger business.”

Charles Bogoian, Kenai Sports, LLC

Sell First, Then Pitch

“Even if you do not yet have a working product, try selling it to your target customer in person if possible. (Phone works too if you can’t in person). Sound crazy? Your potential prospect is going to give you very direct feedback on your pitch. Do they want to buy it? Why or why not? I believe the key to pitching an investor is understanding and clearly communicating your value proposition first.”

Sarah Schupp, UniversityParent

Ditch Those Slides

“TechStars taught me to start with the story. If you start with the Powerpoint, you’ll waste hours formatting slides (that you’ll likely delete later) and will box yourself into a half-baked story. Write your main value propositions on 10 notecards. Answer the standard questions about market size, revenues, and projections on another 10. Rearrange and combine the points to find your story. Voila!”

Heidi Allstop, Spill

Be Different

“Ultimately, most people won’t pay a bit of attention to the idea you are pitching. However, what they will pay very close attention to is you. The way to grab their attention and stand out from the crowd is simply to be different. Pitch in a way they’ve never seen before, even if the content is the same, and they will surely remember you.”

James Simpson, GoldFire Studios

Read Successful Blogs

“Read blogs from successful entrepreneurs who have written about raising money and pitching their ideas. I have written about raising our $2.7 million. I would not suggest reading business professors’ blogs. Instead, read about people in your business and in your space — people who go to pitches. Find someone who is recent and understands the experience and its challenges.” (Editor’s Note: Try these entrepreneur blogs.)

Jordan Fliegel, CoachUp

Relax

“Many young entrepreneurs feel very tense and second-guess themselves during pitches. You’ll be okay, even if you don’t land this investment. Relax and be confident; you will do so much better.”

Yosef Martin, Merchandize Liquidators LLC

Have the Answers

“Sit down with your team (or a friend), find any potential weak spots in your idea and figure out how to solve them. Investors always ask the “unexpected” question, so do your best to anticipate them in advance. The best feeling is walking away from your first pitch knowing that you had a good answer for everything they asked — and, as a bonus, it leaves a good impression.”

Benish Shah, Before the Label

37 Tips for Motivating Your Startup’s Employees

A good job is hard to find, but every entrepreneur knows a good employee is even harder to keep. As an entrepreneur, one must ensure his or her company is staffed with people who look forward to coming to work every day for more than a paycheck.

Through the years, I found that it was easy to keep employees motivated – all I had to do was provide them with a leader worth following and tasks worth fulfilling. But after almost seven years in business, I still find myself searching for new ways to maintain productivity while providing each individual with the drive they need to perform to the best of their ability.

Here’s how I do it:

Support new ideas. When employees come to you with an idea or a solution to a problem they believe is for the betterment of the company, it’s a sign that they care. Supporting new ideas and giving an individual the chance to ‘run with it’ is motivating, whether or not it works out in the end.
Empower each individual. Every single individual contributes to the bottom line. Empowering them to excel in their role, no matter how large or small, creates a sense of ownership that will lead to meeting and exceeding expectations.
Don’t let them become bored. I get bored easily, so I assume my employees also have a short attention span. Host a cupcake bake-off, plan a happy hour, start a push-up contest in the middle of the office on a Wednesday, or allow a different person to run the weekly meetings to break up the monotony.
Celebrate personal milestones. About seven years ago, as a company of fewer than 10 people, we celebrated each employee’s birthday, work anniversary, engagement, and even personal milestones. Today, as a company of over 100, we still celebrate these milestones. It never gets old.
Acknowledge professional achievement. Everyone wants to be recognized. The acknowledgement of a job well done coming from upper management or the owner of the company will mean more to an employee than you think.
Listen. This is probably the easiest thing you can do for an employee; yet, it can also be the most difficult. Carving out some time each day to listen to anything from concerns to ideas will not only make your employees happy, it will also provide you with much-needed insight on your business from the people who help keep it running.
Encourage friendly competition. A competitive environment is a productive environment. Encouraging employees to participate in competitions or challenges is healthy and may actually lead to increased camaraderie.
Allow pets at work. My two dogs come to the office every day, and all of my employees are welcome to bring their pets to work. Pets make people happy and bring a sense of companionship to the office.
Reward accomplishments. When a pat on the back or a high five just won’t do, monetary incentives always seem to hit the spot.
Create attainable goals. Setting goals are important, but ensuring they aren’t set too loftily by the employer or employee will help determine whether or not the goal is achieved come year-end evaluations.
Be clear with expectations. Don’t leave too much to be determined. Set clear expectations so you can plan for specific results.
Encourage individuality. Everyone is different. Encouraging individual personalities to shine through will not only help create a diverse and dynamic culture, it will also foster an open and accepting work environment. We have a lot of characters here at JBC – the more the merrier.
Be a leader worth following. This point falls in my lap alone. If my employees don’t perceive me as a worthy leader, how can I expect them to believe in our mission and help to achieve it?
Set an example. Or two or three. I can’t expect my employees to do anything that I wouldn’t do. I always ask myself if the expectations that I set for my employees are comparable to the expectations that I would set for myself.
Make things interesting. Shaking things up every now and then is a good way to break up the day-to-day routine of the work schedule.
Encourage learning new skills. Times are changing. Ensuring that every willing employee has the opportunity to learn a new skill or brush up on an old skill will benefit everyone involved.
Foster creativity. A creative environment is a thriving one. Encourage creativity and watch your business flourish as thinking outside of the box becomes the norm.
Give credit where credit is due. Although employees come to work to complete their appointed tasks, it’s still an accomplishment if they do it well. Recognize their hard work by shouting them out to the entire company.
Create a career path. Having an idea of what lies ahead is the ultimate motivation. Employees who have a path set before them that may lead to promotion can work towards a goal. This will lead to increased commitment to their current employer.
Start a tradition. Our annual Thanksgiving potluck is so greatly anticipated that some employees hold off on vacation to participate and attend the event with their work family. Every holiday season, we host a toy drive for a school in the Bronx. Employees from across the U.S. fly in to partake. Start a tradition and keep it going.
Get personal. This one is tricky because there is a fine line that cannot be crossed. However, showing concern and interest in the lives of each employee goes a long way.
Keep an open mind. I’m always open to new ideas and new methods. Anything new is worth exploration and consideration.
Encourage laughter. Laughter is contagious, so help spread the joy.
Embrace change. Fighting change is harder than embracing change. I have practiced this more recently in regards to social media and living in the digital age. I also encourage my employees to do the same.
Stir the pot. It’s not easy to keep things interesting every single day. Every now and then, stirring the pot can help to liven things up. We recently switched from every-other summer Fridays to weekly summer Fridays after a company-wide challenge set earlier in the year. Employees were so elated at the opportunity to start their summer weekends a day early that productivity has risen ever since.
Recognize strengths. Bringing out the best in people is a talent every entrepreneur should strive to master.
Be available. It’s easy to get sucked into a CEO schedule, but it’s just as easy to take a few minutes out of each day to talk to an employee who may not be on your calendar.
Manage everyone individually. Everyone is different, but some are so different that they may require a personalized management style. Knowing your employees on an individual basis is the only way to know how to manage them effectively.
Encourage ownership. The success of a business lies in ownership. When employees feel invested in a company, productivity increases.
Promote unity. As much as each employee needs to be able to stand on his own two feet, he must also be able to work in a team. Promoting unity will help achieve individual and team goals.
Have patience. Entrepreneurs tend only to be interested in results. Patience will prevent you from expecting too much too soon and will allow employees to complete tasks properly.
Be flexible. Things don’t always happen as planned; when employees see that you are open to going with the flow every once in a while, tensions ease up and productivity remains constant.
Offer incentives. Knowing ahead of time that there’s a $500 prize on the line or extra vacation days to be given away will make achieving goals that much more worthwhile.
Provide balance. A lively work environment promises a good time, but balance is just as important to maintain levels of productivity — and the sanity of coworkers.
Welcome new methods. The digital age is changing life as we know it. Embracing, rather than avoiding, new methods will ensure your business and employees stay ahead of the competition.
Cultivate a positive work environment. There is no place for negativity if success is to be achieved. A positive work environment is the result of positive leaders.
Give them a reason to come to work – every day. Showing up to work five days a week, ready to exceed expectations, requires a level of loyalty that can only be achieved if morale is high.

An employee who enjoys coming to work is a worthy investment.

Bryan J. Zaslow is a 38 year-old philanthropist, athlete, lawyer and serial entrepreneur residing in New York City. Bryan is the founder of a family of companies within JBCHoldings NY LLC inclusive of JBCStyle, JBCPlatform, JBCconnect, Project Soulmate, and recently acquired Janou Pakter.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Don’t Want to Fail? Get Naked

In my experience in studying and advising early-stage startups, it has become obvious that startups primarily fail because of inadvertent mistakes made by the founder(s). External forces are seldom the reason for the death of the startup. The success of the startup therefore primarily depends on the success of the founder.

How can you, as the founder, prevent slowly killing your startup? Get naked! Figuratively, of course…

Strip Assumptions

Do not assume anything. Anything you accept as truth must be backed by proof. Analytics should back all major decisions.

Strip Biases

Do not be biased. Biases are built into our psyche, so they are especially difficult to strip. Have an inner circle of friends, peers, advisors and mentors who can help you identify and remove biases.

Strip Failures

Forget your failures. Learning from failure is overrated. It is often better not to analyze major failures, move on, and let the lessons incubate naturally.

Stripping assumptions, biases and failures may seem obvious, but it is counter to most founders’ nature. Founders are superheroes; they are out to save the world. How can you be a superhero without the costume? The founder must consciously strip layers off of the costume. Otherwise, the startup will suffer a slow death.

But do not fret, you do not always have to be naked. After some experience, both success and failure, you can start putting layers of your costume back on (a developed assumption that is based on experience may prove true in most cases). With time, you will become the superhero you were always meant to be.

A version of this post originally appeared on Medium.

Naveed Lalani is a product and business strategist advising early to mid-stage startups. Previously, Naveed was Chief Strategy Officer at DonorNation.org, and Co-Founder at Rally.org. Naveed gives back by advising the Thiel Fellowship and leading entrepreneurship initiatives at the Ismaili Professionals Network.

3 Ways to “Hack” Your Product-Based Startup

How do you hack offline as rapidly and as effectively as you hack online?

Web startups can iterate a product and get it back on the market in a matter of seconds. But as product companies, we’re faced with manufacturing lead times that create a much longer development cycle. Luckily, Ministry of Supply’s co-founders also went to MIT, where we learned the importance of hacking — i.e., moving fast, iterating quickly and using customer insights to educate design.

To that end, I want to share some creative ways that MoS brought some of the best online practices offline, and applied them to our product company:

A/B testing isn’t only for web companies.

When A/B testing, companies randomly test two variants and determine which one better achieves the company’s goals (e.g., click-through rate or conversion). Web startups are notorious for doing this often and well — and then optimizing based on the results.

When we started Ministry of Supply, we wondered if we could take this same principle and apply it to the offline world. Here’s how we did it: When we created our first batch of shirts, we used a different proprietary fabric for our white, blue and black Apollo shirts. This way, we could test three variants at the same time, gather customer feedback, and understand which fabric we should move forward with.

Any product business can design a simple, offline A/B test to determine what customers really want (or want more of) and make better business decisions as a result.

Small batches and world-class partners allow for rapid iteration.

When we first started out, we were forced to manufacturer in small batches, because we had cash constraints and uncertain demand. In short order, we learned what an advantage this supposed constraint actually was. Namely, it enabled us to iterate extremely quickly, and get a new product on the market in about three weeks.

As we’ve grown, we’ve made a decision to continue to work with partners who allow us to do smaller batches so that this mindset can become a part of our manufacturing DNA. So far, it’s paid off handsomely. When we shipped 8,000 shirts as part of our Kickstarter campaign, we started to get feedback that customers thought they were running too small. So we adjusted the pattern, trained our manufacturers, and had new shirts on the market — in just three short weeks; a timeframe completely unheard of in most product companies.

When customer relationships come offline, real relationships can develop.

Most web companies are obsessive about understanding their customers’ online behavior (what they’ve bought before, other websites they’ve visited, etc.). At MoS, we’re obsessive about understanding customers’ offline behavior. This includes who they are, what makes them tick, what they love and what they hate.

By getting to know our customers’ values and personalities (not just their online behavior) we’re able to form deep and meaningful relationships with them. We communicate with our customers in every way that we would communicate with friends: we’ve gone running with our customers, we Snapchat with them, we go out drinking with them, and we invite them into our office and homes. In short, we get to know who they are, not just what they do.

And, because our customers are some of the most badass people in the country, these relationships are, simply, what makes us tick.

Kit Hickey is the co-founder of Ministry of Supply, a brand which is inventing the future of men’s professional wear. The company has been featured in NYT, TechCrunch, Inc., Forbes and Elle Magazine. In addition, Kit is a lover of mountain sports and has half an MBA from MIT. Follow her: @kit_hickey

14 Tips for Recruiting the Best Employees for Your Startup

Question: What’s your best tip for attracting top talent to a new startup?

Cultivate Future Leaders

“Highlight the experience your company can offer. Don’t focus on recruiting top talent by offering all the perks in the world; instead, make cultivating talent, who will eventually become leaders, a priority. It should be about the prospect’s passion for what your company is doing, not the daily catered meals (though I’m sure that’s nice, too).”

DAVID POLITIS BetterCloud

Understand What Makes Them Tick

“Everyone wants to be heard, and certainly understood. We’re a very strengths-based organization and we start from the day we begin recruiting or courting new talent. If you take the time to get to know what someone is looking for and what drives them, you not only can qualify if they’re the right fit for your team, but customize their role and your offer to what’s most important to them. Win-win!” Follow @laurenperkins

LAUREN PERKINS Perks Consulting

Sell the Vision

“We pay less. We work harder. We work longer hours. The only reason to join our team is because you want to be a part of what we are building. The best people want to be a part of big visions, so sell the vision. “

ADAM LIEB Duxter

Be Aggressive and Relentless

“Anybody that’s any good, especially in a city like San Francisco or NYC, is going to be looking at a dozen or more offers. In order to close him, besides being generous with compensation, you have to be aggressive, getting your investors to call him on your behalf. Relentlessly follow up. Even more important, be organized with your interview process and move quickly without delay. Follow @sitepointmatt

MATT MICKIEWICZ Flippa and 99designs

Get Great Press

“Aside from selling the mission and vision of your startup, a great tip for reeling in awesome talent for your firm is to attract great media attention. Press is a wonderful conduit for getting more exposure to your business. Being able to share your mission with a broader audience means that your startup will get more eyeballs, and that extra reader may be your next best team member.”

DOREEN BLOCH Poshly Inc.

Empower Them With Ownership

“Empower them with ownership and the opportunity to make decisions. People drawn to startups are disillusioned by big corporate structures and weary of working in an environment where they have no voice. If you tie the talent to the success of the company, everybody wins. Moreover, allow them to exercise the skills they enjoy employing. Retention skyrockets when talent is empowered and impassioned.”

SHARAM FOULADGAR-MERCER AirPR

Discover a Shared Passion

“Share your vision for your startup and what you hope to accomplish. Trying to lure top talent with perks, pay or other options may get their attention, but the people you should really be seeking are the ones interested in finding a role where they can have a meaningful contribution to something exciting. Plus, someone who isn’t passionate about what you are doing won’t be a great fit.”

BRANT BUKOWSKY Veterans United Home Loans

Network at Conferences

“We have found it helpful to attend industry-related conferences and casually chat with people who are attending or speaking to spread the word regarding available opportunities. If the person likes us, they will like working with or for us and/or recommend us to others who they think would be a good culture fit. Finding the right culture fit is more important to us than the depth of their skills.”

SHRADHA AGARWAL ContextMedia

Take Your Time

“If you’ve set your company culture the way you want it, take your time during the hiring process. The culture will attract better people instantly. I’ve been known to conduct as many as five one-on-one interviews before hiring new personnel. That’s on top of several phone interviews with the prospect and other staff. I need to be absolutely sure the talent is where I want it. “

BRIAN MORAN Get 10,000 Fans

Be Transparent

“I’m always transparent with potential new hires. I show them our progress, but I also want them to see the warts. This is important for two reasons: 1) They’ll know exactly where the company stands. 2) It builds trust. Sharing the bad with the good shows employees that they can trust you to tell it like it is. Transparency sets an important standard for any company.”

MITCH GORDON Go Overseas

Don’t Sell

“Conventional wisdom is to sell potential recruits on the company, vision, perks, etc. Don’t. Just tell them what you are and, more importantly, what you aren’t. You may lose some “rock stars” along the way, but you’ll build a loyal group of employees who know exactly what they signed up for.”

BHAVIN PARIKH Magoosh Inc

Show Off Company Talent

“A-players want to work with other A-players. So, it’s critical to showcase just how talented your current team is to a prospective employee. Besides making the recruit feel special, it also makes your team feel special to know that you value and respect their talents and abilities.” Follow @4collegeparents

SARAH SCHUPP UniversityParent

Hire Non-Local Talent

“Recruit people to your company and to your city. Santa Monica sells itself. When people relocate for a job, their commitment level is high, and their external social distractions are low. It’s an ideal circumstance for a startup where hours are often unreasonable.”

WADE EYERLY Surf Air

Emphasize Culture Fit

“Our company doesn’t necessarily look for “top talent” so much as it looks for high-character people with a good work ethic and technical aptitude. We look for people who are a fit for our culture, which is more important on a long-term basis for the good of the team.”

JOE BARTON Barton Publishing

5 Tips for Negotiating Like Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is renowned for his first-class Apple products. But did you also know that he was a great negotiator? Five of his best negotiating secrets were recently revealed in these court-filed emails between Jobs and James R. Murdoch over an e-book distribution deal between HarperCollins and Apple.

In short, HarperCollins wanted Apple to offer payment terms similar to what Amazon was offering, or about $12-$13 on new e-book releases. Apple wanted to offer $9 (about 75 percent of that). HarperCollins didn’t want to accept the terms.

Here are five tactics Jobs used to negotiate throughout the exchange — without once being pushy or rude:

Be Willing to Walk Away

First, Jobs makes it clear that HarperCollins needs Apple more than Apple needs HarperCollins. They already have other publishers on board. While he makes it clear that they would like to work with HarperCollins, they will let the deal fall through before giving in to their demands. Let the other person know you’re ready to move on if terms aren’t met.

Sell Others on the Big Picture

Jobs says that he believes an e-book revolution is coming and that Apple will be at the center of it. And he uses numbers to back up his claims: Apple sells more iPads than any other company, Apple has 120 million customers with credit cards already in their system, and Apple led this same revolution in the music industry with its iTunes store. Back up your demands with evidence.

Make the Other Person Try to Compromise First

Silence is a common tactic used in face-to-face negotiation because it makes the other person uncomfortable. When someone feels uncomfortable, they start to fill dead air by revealing their bottom line or willingness to compromise. The next time you are in a negotiation, practice silence. You’ll notice that the other person immediately begins to negotiate against him or herself (unless he or she knows this negotiation secret, of course).

Jobs did not engage in any negotiation; he essentially re-explained Apple’s terms and let Murdoch negotiate with himself. In his next email, Murdoch pushes for compromise, hoping that Jobs would give a little as well. That’s when Jobs went in for the kill with his final email.

Lay Out the Other Person’s Options as You See Them

This is a common tactic used in negotiation; you lay out the other person’s options as you see them to make sure that what you want looks like the most attractive option. Jobs did this by declaring to Murdoch that he only had three options:

Accept Apple’s terms
Distribute only through Amazon and see his product devalued, which meant decreased margins in the medium-term
Pull e-books completely from both stores (and face rampant piracy)

In reality, Murdoch probably had plenty of other options, but this simple list instills fear. In contrast with the second and third options, Apple’s terms don’t seem so bad.

Use Social Proof

In his emails, Jobs shares social proof such as:

“All the major publishers tell us that Amazon’s $9.99 price for new releases is eroding the value perception of their products in customer’s minds.”

Of course, not “all” major publishers believe this; HarperCollins, the publisher he’s trying to get on board, obviously does not agree!

Also:

“Apple is the only other company [besides Amazon] currently capable of making a serious impact [with e-books], and we have 4 of the 6 big publishers signed up already.”

It’s hard to argue with the fact that four out of the Big 6 publishers had already agreed to Apple’s terms. People prefer to do the less risky thing, so if you can convince a few, you can use their initial endorsement to convince the rest.

Can you apply these negotiation tactics while still being likable?

Yes, if you follow Jobs’ lead. Jobs was never rude or pushy; all he did was share his dead-on insights, back up his ideas with logic and reasoning, and put himself in the other person’s shoes to seal the deal.

At the core of his negotiation style was the confidence that he was right about where the e-book industry was going. He had a strong track record of predicting and creating the future he envisioned, which bolstered his claims as well.

And who could say no to that?

Jay Wu leads Innovation at A Forever Recovery. In his startup experience, he has built a digital marketing agency, a content network, and an e-commerce store. Jay speaks in the Bay area about social media marketing, SEO, and current trends in the internet-startup industry.

4 Tips to Improve Your App’s SEO

At my company, we are often asked for ways to improve an app’s ranking in the app store in order increase downloads. The truth is that there are two ways to gain a user base: a strong marketing strategy, and optimizing your app for search (i.e., App Store SEO). The first includes paying for PR, using third-party marketing platforms, and showcasing at local events, launch parties, etc. Unfortunately, this all comes at a cost. If you are one of the lucky ones who have the cash, then keep at it!

The second, for those who aren’t as fortunate, consists of guerrilla marketing efforts — one of which is improving the SEO of your app so it’s easier for customers to find in the Apple App Store. This article will cover ways to improve your app store SEO. Before we begin, let’s look briefly at the advantages of this method.

Why Consider App Store SEO?

The most logical answer is “Why not?” App Store SEO can play an important part in your guerrilla marketing strategy and costs you next to nothing. A basic overhaul only takes a few minutes of your time, and leads to immediate results. Before we share four key things to know, let’s summarize the advantages:

Great for those who don’t have a marketing budget
Easy to do and takes only a few minutes
Increases your app’s exposure within the store

4 Quick and Simple Things to Do to Improve Your App’s Ranking

1. Identify your keywords.

Do keyword research. Spend some time thinking about keywords that best categorize and describe your app.
Try using the singular version of a keyword, e.g. school not schools.
Use all the available characters if possible. Last we checked, you were given up to 100 characters. Use them all.
Localize your keywords for each given language.
Do not repeat the app name in your keywords.

2. Take advantage of ratings.

Make sure to include randomized prompts asking your customers to rate your app within the App Store. It takes little coding time to add but it is a great way for your happy users to show some love for all the hard work you’ve put in (and that’s the least they can do, especially if you have no pricing model).

3. Improve your ranking by converting more downloads.

The more downloads you are able to convert, the higher up the rankings you will appear for your chosen keywords.

4. Keep the description short and sweet.

There’s a misconception that a long descriptive app summary helps with rankings. We have yet to find any metrics to support this, but we do recommend the following:

Keep it simple and short.
Include quotes from popular press or reviews that talked about your mobile app.
Use bullet points that best describe the key features of the app and its overall purpose.
Convince your potential new users that your app is worth the download.

I hope this was informative and that it can be applied to your app. And I look forward to seeing you at the top of the charts!

For those of you with successful apps, what else would you add to this list?

A version of this post originally appeared here.

Andrew Sosa is co-founder of SquareBall Studios (SBS), a leading development company of mobile applications and software systems. Andrew has helped develop solutions for Fortune 500 companies but his real passion is working with startups on their initial ideas and seeing them succeed.

5 Easy Steps to a Perfect Product Launch

If someone asked you to cram a year’s worth of work into one week, could you do it? Would you?

Any sane person would refuse the request, but hundreds of companies take on the challenge each year when launching new products. That means issues that would normally be mere annoyances — down servers, hour-long interruptions on a payment processor — become catastrophic money losses that might never be recovered. But they can be avoided. Here’s how:

Schedule Success

Every successful launch starts with a launch calendar. Start with the projected launch date and work backward to capture every step needed to meet your deadline. Your timeline should include: releasing promotional information, recruiting and updating affiliates and partners, initiating the pre-launch start (the day the main promotion begins), promoting launch day (the day the product goes on sale), closing carts (the day the product or promotion ends), and fulfilling orders and customer service requests.

Companies must also build in time for new ideas. Leaders are often shocked by the amount of money left on the table because they failed to account for non-essential strategic activities during the launch.

The most vital part — fulfilling orders and customer service requests — is what makes a launch successful. It allows a business to create a fan base whose loyalty will last for years.

Make Customers Love You

In our space, a minimum 30-day refund perio

d is a must, and there’s a high return rate in the online training market. Our first online training course launch a few years ago had a 50 percent return rate — not what we had hoped for. Sometime it came from scammers wanting free information request returns, while others requests come in from clients disappointed by the delivery.

After implementing a better launch strategy, we got refunds down to a highly respectable 15 percent. How? By providing exceptional customer service and delivering on our promises. We worked long hours in advance to ensure customers got results from our training.

Avoid Pitfalls

Even long-time launchers make mistakes — but you don’t need to. Here are five effective ways to prepare for a product launch:

Expect bad things to happen. No matter how unsexy they are, every business needs contingency plans. Don’t think that what happened to others won’t happen to you. For example, will you be cycling millions through a payment processor over a seven-day period? Put multiple processors in place and rotate them to avoid slowdowns.
Bring on extra staff. A big product launch is no time to run lean and mean. Let full-time andtemp staff know they’ll be working around the clock, and compensate them well. The large influx of business will create customer service and technical issues you don’t normally experience, and you’ll need people to handle them. A new customer’s first impression is usually a permanent one.
Improve your reputation.When buzz is generated, people will research your product and business. Make sure what they see is very good. Have existing customers or staff write blog posts and create videos to enhance your search results. Promote these on your website to generate more revenue during your launch.
Set expectations. Launches are hectic; let the people in your life know you’ll be largely unavailable. Eliminate other major obligations during this time.
Schedule weekly check-in meetings. About three months pre-launch, my team meets every single week for up to two hours to stay on schedule. This discipline reduces procrastination and the need to urgently handle miscommunicated responsibilities.

When you’re stressed, you tend to make poor decisions, whether that means declining an opportunity because you don’t have time or failing to provide good service because you’re stretched too thin.

A launch is a great time to attract loyal customers who can change your life — and the future of your company. Make sure your launch is a rewarding experience for everyone involved. It will make the hectic work absolutely worth it.

Matt Clark is a serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, and health and fitness enthusiast. He is an entrepreneurial thought leader, and he founded a multimillion-dollar product distribution business enterprise. He welcomes anyone to reach out to him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+.

3 Myths About Successful Startup Cultures

We’ve all read the stories about the hot new startups making waves in their industry – and how they’re doing it from colorful beanbag chairs in a once-destitute warehouse on the south side of town. We’re prone to conclude that these startups are sustaining high-level performance because they’ve broken down the (cubicle) walls binding our ability to collaborate, innovate, and achieve full potential.

Unfortunately, myths about high performing culture develop from these stories. Now, to dispel a few “must-have” myths:

A ‘Cool’ Vibe

While it may seem that a waterslide snaking through your office will promote innovation, it usually just leaves you all wet. Many high performing companies do have “cool” vibe cultures, but their sustained performance is attributed to much more than the free mocha coolatas. These cultures tend to be manifestations of their founders and leaders – entrepreneurial, risk-taking, intentionally provocative. These outward characteristics predicate high performance when they are founded in certain values: determination to succeed against all odds, an underdog mentality, and a youthful exuberance that imitators just can’t match.

Don’t try to be something you’re not. Seek to understand what is truly valued in your organization. Then, ask yourself how those values manifest themselves daily. Are these manifestations going to help you or derail you from achieving your goals? “Cool” doesn’t necessarily mean high performing. And trying to be “cool” when you’re not certainly isn’t going to end well.

A Charismatic Leader

The second common myth is that organizations need a charismatic leader at the helm in order to inspire greatness in others. In fact, recent thinking is quite the opposite. Highly successful CEOs tend to be those who shy away from the spotlight – those who are maniacally focused on the success of the business and who are never satisfied. If your charismatic CEO spends more time on the speaking circuit than in the office contributing to your organization’s success, you may be in trouble.

A Startup Mentality

While all organizations must be adaptive in order to meet the changing needs of the market (an attribute often associated with quick and nimble startups), this is not a prerequisite for success. Although it may be more challenging to turn the rudder on an ocean liner than a dingy, mature organizations are absolutely able to foster innovative thinking that keeps them competitive. It’s less about a startup mentality and more about understanding your objectives and how your organization’s culture is going to help get you there.

Myth-buster bottom line: A culture of performance is not necessarily a culture that seems catchy. The key is to clarify what you stand for and who you need to be and to execute on that vision authentically.

A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Chris Cancialosi, Ph.D., is Managing Partner and Founder of gothamCulture, is a recognized expert in the field of leader and organizational development with particular focus on the leader’s role in shaping high-performing culture.

5 Tips for Startup Life Survival

The startup lifestyle can be grueling. If you’re not careful, it can take a serious toll on your physical and mental health. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a CTO, a programmer, or work in a nontechnical capacity; everyone needs a startup survival strategy to help them maintain their work-life balance as they learn to juggle an ever-growing workload, excessively long days and a personal life. It can be a pretty daunting task. Those who aren’t careful may find themselves suffering from burnout.

Anyone working at the forefront of technology and innovation is no stranger to the demands of startup life. In an industry where leaving the office before 8 p.m. is often frowned upon, it’s no surprise that industry leaders like Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer brag about working 130-hour weeks from time to time. Then there’s the famous Apple slogan, which has also helped set an industry precedent: “90 hours a week and loving it.” These increasing demands, coupled with the do-more-with-less mentality of such work environments, are having a detrimental effect on employees.

There’s a good chance that everyone who works at a startup has or will experience bouts of stress and burnout from time to time. What’s important is that one knows how to deal with the demands of the startup workplace.

Below are five tips for surviving the startup lifestyle.

Get a life. Your work, while demanding, shouldn’t be performed at the expense of your life. It’s important to spend time with loved ones and make time to do the things you enjoy. Don’t neglect your relationships. But more importantly, don’t neglect yourself. While this may feel like a waste of time, it will leave you feeling refreshed, energized and ready to tackle your to-do list head on.
Accept your limitations. Working at a startup doesn’t have to mean overtime and impending burnout. If you’re an efficient multitasker, you’ll be able to cram a decent amount of tasks into a full day of work. It’s essential that you understand your own needs. For some, perhaps an extended lunch break increases concentration and productivity overall, whereas some may benefit from short, frequent breaks throughout the day. Determine your needs and limitations to ensure you’re as efficient as you can be.
Get moving. Exercise and maintaining a healthy lifestyle often fall by the wayside as workload increases. Being active will not only help you keep in shape but will increase your productivity in addition to making you happier and more energetic. So get moving and while you’re at it, pay attention to the food you are consuming. Certain foods are linked to increased brain stimulation, while others cause steep energy declines. These are simple lifestyle changes that may greatly improve your quality of life and will make you a more productive member of your startup team.
Disconnect after hours. Just because you have a smartphone doesn’t mean you shouldn’t disengage from the office. Unless it’s something pressing, there’s no need to respond to emails outside office hours. And if you’re someone who has a tendency to obsessively check email, removing work email from your phone may be a good option. It’s important to take a break and make some time for yourself at the end of a long day.
Write your manifesto. It’s important to be aware of what you stand for and what you want out of life. Do you know what your main life goals are? Is your current job getting you any closer to reaching them? Constantly evaluating your goals will help you see your job in a different light. For example, it may help you realize it’s time to find something that more closely matches your manifesto. Whatever it is that you discover, having a personal manifesto written out will help you see the big picture.

A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Zach Cutler is a dynamic entrepreneur and marketing professional who formed Cutler Group, a Tech PR agency, in 2009. He specializes in crafting innovative communication campaigns to help emerging and established tech companies thrive.

How to Easily Make the Best Startup Connections

Over the years of my deep study and fascination with people and social dynamics, I’ve noticed that the world’s best connectors do things in a pretty similar way.

We all know the people who meet people with ease, seem to always have the influencers in their corner and are constantly surrounded by passionate and inspiring people.

Whether they know it or not, they all follow a set of habits. Let these habits serve as guidance for how to approach the people around you. For me, they are a way of life.

Without them, you’re nowhere. With them, anything’s possible.

10 Habits of People Who Connect With Anyone

Smile. This is by far the fastest way in the world to create a connection. It’s also a powerful show of confidence, which people respect and are drawn to. Smiles are contagious and the simple act makes people feel better. Whether it’s you’re approaching a close friend, a bus driver, someone you’re dying to meet or just walking into a room of strangers, there is no stronger opener.
See friends, not strangers. When you walk into a room, see the new faces not as strangers but as friends you have yet to meet. You see the world in a more similar way to others than you probably realize — especially if you’re at the same event or a part of the same communities. Approach accordingly.
Make friends. This is the foundation. Making genuine connections is nothing more than making friends. When you’re about to approach someone, ask, “How would I treat this person if they were my close friend or someone I’d want to be a close friend?” You put friends first. You listen to them. You hear their problems so you can help in any way you can. Act accordingly.
Be genuine. If you’re connecting just because you want to get yourself further up the ladder, then you’ve already lost. There is only one type of connection — one you genuinely care about. Find someone you actually do care to meet and get to know. Anything else is a waste of time.
Contribute. Meeting people is about making their lives better. Whether that’s by giving them a smile, a new job or anything in between — there is a way to help everyone. Give like crazy, embrace generosity and make others more successful.
Pay attention. The easiest way to be interesting is to be interested. Find excitement in what you can learn from others. Hear what they say. Listen and learn about what matters to them — not so you can say something back as soon as possible, but so you can get a window into their world. People want to tell their story. Be the person excited to hear it.
Make people a priority. There is no more important task for anyone than surrounding yourself with the right people. It’s part of every day, not something we do for an hour every week or two. It’s a way of being and a way of life.
Be open to conversation. Embrace conversation with those around you. Everyone has something to offer — your server or the guy next to you on a park bench or plane flight. Even if you came to read a book, realize the best part of your day might be learning about the world of the person next to you.
Know who you are and who you want in your life. Know your passions, goals, talents, interests and the impact you want to have on the world. These will serve as your guiding light for how you can help and who you actually want to write into your story. Act with intention.
Be uniquely YOU. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Don’t try to look and sound like someone else, and don’t hold back! Be vulnerable and open. Share your real story and goals. Tell others about your wife, kids and parenting struggles. Talking about the weather does not build connection. Being real does.

Remember that every maverick has a home team offering advice and encouragement. Every game-changer has an inner circle of support.

Yours is waiting.

A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Scott Dinsmore is an entrepreneur, career change strategist, travel photographer, ultra-runner and founder of Live Your Legend, a business and international community dedicated to helping you build a career around work that genuinely excites you – and surround yourself with the people who make it possible. The Live Your Legend Community’s LOCAL event sites are non-commercial gatherings happening on January 7 in 140 cities in 44 countries around the U.S. and the world. Locations are available here.

6 Great Personal Tips for Your Startup Success

As entrepreneurs, our personal happiness, the way we listen to and react to our staff, and the way we shape our own role at work all have profound effects on our companies, and ultimately, on how they grow. But lasting change is difficult. I should know – I recently achieved three major advances that I didn’t think were possible:

I pushed my wife to create more work-life balance with me.
I expressed compassion for a staff member facing personal challenges that were getting in the way of her job.
I redefined my number one priority with my team at Round Table Companies (RTC) to focus on deepening relationships with potential clients.

It wasn’t easy, but I had a solid guide. Not long ago, I was playing around on Twitter, searching for people with influential business and leadership profiles who could review and possibly share my last Forbes piece. Author Robin Sharma read and enjoyed the article, and consequently challenged me to read his new book. After looking at his site, I knew we were in alignment, so I dove into The Leader Who Had No Title.

Below are six key lessons I learned from Robin that you can apply to your own business success.

It’s Never too Early to Work on Your Dream

While he continued to practice law, Robin would get to his local 24-hour coffee shop at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning and write until he had to go to work at 8:00. Though the first editor told him he couldn’t write, Robin printed 2,000 copies of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari at Kinko’s. He kept them in his kitchen as he sold copies. Sixteen years later, Robin’s books have sold more than six million copies. Early morning hustle pays off!

Question: Do you pop out of bed excited for the day, or are you snoozing your way out of opportunity?

Live From a Place of Gratitude

Robin’s books inspired me to wake up at 5:30 a.m. every weekday morning (for the last 65 days now!) and spend 20 minutes journaling about what I’m grateful for and what I’m dreaming of becoming. That writing sets up my day from a place of appreciation verses the fear or anxiety that can often drive entrepreneurs. Coming from a place of appreciation all the time is a dynamic shift for me. I highly recommend you try it and see how quickly it can impact your brain chemistry and your behavior.

Question: Do you engage in any kind of ritual to help set up your day?

Splash Ice Water on Your Face (Figuratively)

As the owner of a million-dollar-a-year storytelling company, when times are good, I am a blast to work with and for. But as an entrepreneur, my moods change as often as Chicago’s weather. If revenue dips, or a deadline is missed, I take my anxiety out on our executive team, who repeat the process with our support staff.

I grabbed another lesson from Robin to deal with those negative thoughts: whenever I catch myself thinking negatively, I imagine getting splashed in the face with ice water. Amazingly, that practice helps me shake off the thoughts and recognize that they are not reality.

Question: How much of your day is ruled by worry vs. reality?

Question Your Role

Through my gratitude work, I started dreaming about what was possible for my company again. That shifted me from the role of managing back into my entrepreneurial power zone. It also helped me admit that my strength is not managing. Getting out of that role was great for me, but also for the spirit of the company. And it just so happened that our COO, David Cohen, was ready to make his own shift into a stronger leadership role. People management comes easily to him, and our staff thrives under his steadfast leadership style. Win-win-win.

Question: Is your current role one of choice, or one of habit?

Take Care of Yourself

Exercise is important for entrepreneurs because we’re desperately in need of ways to manage our stress. After two years of working out twice a week, I was ready to up my game. I started a difficult conversation with my trainer about changing up my schedule so I could work out four days a week at the same budget by taking more classes and doing less personal training. I had been avoiding that conversation out of a sense of guilt. And then, bam! I came from a place of kindness, had the conversation, and got what I needed. As the owner of her gym, she was looking to train less and have more time to run her own business anyway. Another win-win.

Question: What do you schedule into your life to ensure you’re taking care of your health? Do you respect yourself by protecting that time?

Challenge Others With Vulnerable Conversations

The conversations I had with my COO, my trainer, and my wife were all uncomfortable for me because I risked the fear of rejection. As entrepreneurs, we experience plenty of rejection. But we also become masterful at setting up our worlds so rejection is limited.

To keep ourselves pushing our limits, we have to press up against our comfort zones. Coming from a place of appreciation helped me to approach these difficult conversations with kindness. None of them went perfectly, but I walked away from each of them with great results and also a feeling of pride in how I handled myself.

Question: What difficult conversations are you avoiding in your life?

Small Shifts Add Up to Big Change

The most powerful takeaway here is that people like Robin are not superhuman, and they’re not just lucky. He put one foot in front of the other, took the risk of leaving a successful law practice, and then set up his life to serve others. And he did it all from a place of gratitude — something all entrepreneurs can achieve.

Working in Los Angeles for a decade, Corey Michael Blake was the face and voice behind a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 brands as a commercial and voiceover actor (his work won Belding, Addy, Cannes, and London International Advertising awards), before working as a film producer and director, as an author and publisher, and now as the founder and President of storytelling company Round Table Companies (RTC).

3 Tips to Building Strong Startup Culture

The desire to be engaged in purposeful, fulfilling activity is universal. Maslow classified it as a basic need in his “self actualization” rung of the pyramid. Aristotle called it eudemonia, or human flourishing: “the soul acting in accordance with virtue.” Csikszentmihalyi proffers two concepts: good work — in which one “enjoys doing [one’s] best while at the same time contributing to something beyond [one]self”— and growth toward complexity — in which people flourish as their achievements grow. When we boil all these concepts down, we see that they are all derivations of the same basic principle. I call this principle Live.Learn.Grow™. These three words tap into a universal truth that people ultimately want to be and do their best.

So what does it take for this to happen?

What You Do Doesn’t Matter

A company has to realize that what they do doesn’t really matter. Sound completely nuts? It shouldn’t.

Think about companies that completely changed course or shifted strategy and direction. When a company that specialized in producing computers saw an opportunity in mobile phones, they introduced the world to the iPhone. When a video dating site called TuneInHookUp flailed, its founders decided to change direction and then created YouTube. An unsuccessful podcasting startup worked on a side project for months before making it their full-time gig and renaming themselves Twitter.

More and more companies are seeing that making drastic shifts to what they do doesn’t have to impact who they are, as long as they are true to how they do it.

Many companies who modify strategy and approach are unsuccessful because their compass is pointed solely towards profits, not towards the people who create them. So what goes into how a company does business and, more importantly, how it does business well? I believe it’s about creating an environment that allows people to thrive.

Why “Core Values” Fall Short

Companies most often define their culture through a series of core or company values. If you take a sampling of some of the core values out there, you will see many of the same themes repeated. Really, don’t most people want similar things? We want to work in a place where we feel respected. We want our clients taken care of, we want to do good work, and we want our company to prosper.

So why do so many of these attempt to create a strong culture through values fail?

Values are often static and generic. In the effort to boil them down to universal truths, values are often universally useless. Many leaders and businesses try to create a list of values to impose upon the company, as opposed to creating a company with these values woven into the fibers of the business. They take the same approach with people; they try to hire folks who have the skills they need and then try to instill the values in them once they are onboard. Rather than that, hire people who, themselves, embody the values.

How to Define Dynamic Values for Your Organization

Values must remain a dynamic element in an organization. Each value of the snowball builds upon the other both at the individual and organizational levels, gaining a momentum that snowballs and propels the growth and development of both.

To work, your values must be:

Action-oriented
Relevant regardless of tenure or stage in the organization
Dynamic – they grow, change and develop with individuals
Holistic – they apply personally and professionally.

A critical assumption behind our approach is that businesses leveraging our methodology would have to outperform their peers in the market. Profit is only the means to the end, but it is a powerful validator for those who would initially be dismissed as “unsustainable nice-to-haves.”

In his book Conscious Capitalism, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey argues that profit maximization need not be the sole purpose of business and calls for “a way of thinking about business that is more conscious of its higher purpose, its impacts on the world, and the relationships it has with its various constituencies and stakeholders.” It is not that profits aren’t the responsibility of a business; without strong performance, people lose their jobs, investors lose their money, and customers lose access to a product or service. Instead, it is the blind pursuit of profits as purpose that leads companies astray.

Sound too good to be true? Mackey and his co-founder tracked businesses who adhered to these practices over 15 years and compared their performance to the S&P 500. The result? Businesses built on a higher purpose and values outperformed the market 10 to one.

I want to help create a world where everyone has the opportunity to live, learn and grow. Ultimately, that is what my company aspires to do daily for anyone we touch. While there are many ways to do this, I’m personally compelled to drive this change through the workplace. Since so much of the world spends so much time and energy at work, my assumption is that, by changing the way the world does business we can fundamentally change the world.

A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Tynesia Boyea Robinson is the CEO of Reliance Methods, which puts Americans to work by providing human capital strategy and placement solutions for clients like Walmart, Trammell Crow, and the federal government. Tynesia serves on numerous boards and has published several articles, which have been featured in the Washington Post and in Leap of Reason. Education: Harvard MBA, Duke University EE & Comp Sci.

Build a Successful Sales Process in 7 Steps

At ElasticSales, we’ve had the privilege of working with dozens of early-stage startups, helping them establish their sales processes. Some ask us to build their process from the ground up. Many come to us solely looking for guidance as they develop their own sales processes and teams. In both cases, the best campaigns are those in which the founders are actively involved with developing the process, or have conducted their startup’s early sales themselves.

For tech entrepreneurs without sales experience, here’s how you build a sales process for your startup from the ground up.

Begin Customer Outreach as Early as Possible

The best thing you can do to develop your sales process is to get out there as early as possible. That Lean Startup mentality works just as well in sales as it is for development. Spend a week, even a few days, picking up the phone and cold-calling your customers. During these early calls you’ll get a sense of their challenges, objections you might face, and direct customer feedback about your product. You might even realize a key aspect of your product that needs to be tweaked before you push hard into the market.

As a founder, YOU absolutely need to do this before handing it off to someone else. Conducting preliminary outreach to your customers will help you better understand them, their needs and your market place. You can then refine your product as you develop your sales process.

Do a Full Walk-Through

Walk through simulated conversations. Begin by finding the lead and travel through the complete sales process. End by handing the customer off to your support team. Do this with colleagues who understand your space, then try your pitch out on someone who doesn’t. (Outsiders quickly notice problems and inefficiencies.) These scenarios not only give you great practice before implementing your process, they’ll help you identify gaps in it. Say on your first call you get a customer’s credit card — then what? How do you process the payment? Who do they speak to next? Mock calls are a great way to practice your pitch and refine the logistics of a sale.

Establish Qualifying Criteria

Qualifying criteria are a list of traits that make someone a good fit (qualified) to buy your product. It sounds easy enough, but lots of young companies have no idea what they need to know about a customer to make a sale.

So how do you develop qualifying criteria and track them?

Common criteria for leads are:

Does your product solve their pain point?
Does your product save them money/cost?
Does your product save them time?
Is your product in their budget?
Are they using a competitor’s product and paying for it?
How fast can they make a buying decision?

It’s best to develop just five criteria based on what you THINK you need to know about a buyer, and then reach out to a subset of customers. Identify those five criteria in the customers, and then see if the criteria need to be expanded, or even cut down, to identify whether they would be a good fit.

DO NOT get into the habit of marking every lead qualified because “you had a nice conversation.” Remember, a qualified deal is very different than an active opportunity. An active opportunity is a qualified lead with a value attached to it. This means that you have communicated the cost of the product/service to the prospect, they understand it, and have expressed that it is in within their budget.

Establish a Sales Script

A good call script is a method for you to guide a customer through your sales process from start to finish, while showing them the value of your product/service.

A call script typically has the following sections:

• Introduction
• Qualifying Questions
• Q&A About Features, Pricing and Next Steps
• Asking for the Close
• Managing Customer Objections
• Establishing Next Steps

Developing a script is an iterative process, but it begins with research. Know your product and how it fits into the market, and convey that as simply as possible to the customer. Your script needs to incorporate your qualifying questions (so you know they’re a good fit), common pain points, and benefits around which to position your solution.

Establish a Conversion Funnel

A conversion funnel should be built with a “reverse” approach. Establish a range of deals you’d like closed over the course of a week or even a month. Then ask yourself how many active opportunities/deals you need to qualify in order to achieve that goal. This is called a conversion rate.

But how many scheduled calls or demos do you need to perform each week to in order achieve the desired amount of qualified opportunities? Using the conversion rates you’ve estimated (be conservative), determine how many calls/emails, or leads generated, you need each week in order to schedule that target amount of calls.

The amount of calls or emails you need to send each week is pretty large – this is the top of the funnel. In turn, this might mean that your “closed deals” goal might be too large. Start with a number you believe to be attainable but aggressive. Work through the entire process and reach the goals you set out at the beginning of the week.

Once you’ve done that, start increasing your goal by 10 percent each month. You need to have 10 percent month-over-month growth to really have a healthy funnel as a startup.

Optimize Implementation

Sales doesn’t end with the close. As a sales person, you need to make sure that the customer is successfully integrated. This means a clean handoff to your support team. As a founder, you’ll quickly find out ways to improve your process and ensure that your customers stick around. This is also crucial in order to secure customer references — integral in bringing in new business down the road!

Iterate, Iterate, Iterate

Just because something works, doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it. Make sure you are constantly stress testing your process to figure out what’s broken. Maybe your script is still a bit clunky, emails don’t generate the response rates you’d like, or your conversion rates too low. Don’t get stuck doing something because it works well enough. Lack of iteration is what prevents companies from making a good sales process great!

It’s crucial that you, as the founder, conduct some of this early outreach and help develop your company’s sales process. Early customer engagement can provide some of the best insights as you look to improve your product or service. Only once you’ve developed this repeatable process, and know it works, can you confidently hand off sales to a director that can refine the process even more.

Steli Efti is the Co-Founder / CEO of Close.io and ElasticSales and an advisor to several startups and entrepreneurs.