Startups Archives -

How To Position Your Startup To Grow In A Crowded Market

If the market for your product or service is taking off, you're likely experiencing an influx of new entrants. Customers, potential employees and investors—who in the early days didn't understand your product or were skeptical it would succeed—now tell you that "everyone's doing that" and want to know "what's different about you?" There are two key ways to differentiate yourself to grow in a crowded market. The first way to stand out is to refine your target market definition, which I wrote about in a post titled Sharpen Your Target Market to Build a Better Demand Generation Machine. The second way [...]

2016-11-18T11:23:36-05:00 By Steve Offsey|Marketing|0 Comments

5 Steps to Tune Up Your Revenue Engine and Increase B2B Sales

Whether you're in a start-up that's recently confirmed your product/market fit or in an established company that's ready to act on a new growth opportunity, to increase B2B sales you should periodically assess and tune your revenue engine. To make sure your sales and marketing processes are ready to help you accelerate your business, here are 5 steps you should take (or re-take) before you push the pedal to the floor. 1. Simplify and Document Your Existing B2B Sales Process If you're running a startup, you likely kept your sales process flexible while you were determining product/market fit. And if you recently [...]

2016-11-18T11:23:36-05:00 By Steve Offsey|Analytics, Marketing, Sales|1 Comment

Start-up CEOs: When Should You Hire Your First CMO / VP Marketing?

I’m surprised by how many B2B start-up CEOs are still building their companies the old fashioned way: First, they assemble a product team and build the product in stealth mode. Then, they hire a hot-shot direct salesperson to go out and sell it. They plan to build their marketing team after their revenue starts ramping and eventually hire a CMO / VP Marketing when they are more established. If you're thinking “What’s wrong with this approach? Many successful companies have used it” then keep on reading... Just Hiring a Rolodex® is Not the Answer By hiring a sales leader first, [...]

2016-11-18T11:23:36-05:00 By Steve Offsey|Marketing, Sales|2 Comments