1. By Harlan Tytus Beverly harlan@fastai.com http://tytusblog.blogspot.com Rev. 0.2 7/2/12

2. Quick About: Harlan Beverly Harlan Titus Beverly PhD from OSU (est. 2016) MBA from UT 2004 BSEE from ONU 1999 Programmer (Networking) Chip Designer/Architect Family:Super-Wife, 2xkids, 3xdogs, 5xhorses Currently: President & CEO of Key Ingredient, Inc. (Social Food) Founder/CEO Karmaback, Inc. (social Network Marketing) Acquired Jan 2013. Founder/CEO Bigfoot Networks & Designer Killer NIC* Raised over $20MM in VC funding. Acquired in 2011 15 Issued Patents, across Networking, Security, and Game Tech. Designed World's first 10-Gig Ethernet Adapter at Intel. * CPU Mag Product of the year 2009 3. Co-founders & Employees Investors Suppliers Partners Potential Customers When I was CEO, my main job was selling. I was constantly selling to someone. - Harlan 4. No! If your selling feels slimy, you are either: NOT CONFIDENT ENOUGH ABOUT THE VALUE your product delivers.. Or Your PRODUCT is not as good as you are saying. Avoid Slimy selling at all costs. Be honest. Provide Value. If you cant solve customers problem/provide value dont sell it to them! Find the RIGHT customers! 5. Investors want to know what is YOUR sales model. WE dont want to know its A today, and B tomorrow. (prove B now!) even on a small scale. Get 1 or 2 customers with B and show me how you will scale it. We care about sales ONLY to strangers. (non-friends/family) SOME MODELS: Direct Sales Inside Sales You will have a sales-team that calls people/meet virtually. (e.g. they dont leave their office) Outside Sales Your sales-people are Face-to-Face but outside their place of business, such as Door- to-door, trade shows, etc. SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales#Inside_sales_vs._Outside_sales Indirect Sales You will not have a sales-team but will close deals by: Internet website Mail order Phone in-order, etc. 6. 1. Get some leads. (see Marketing section; part 2) 2. Qualify some leads call them/email them/meet them, find out if they HAVE the problem you solve, and ARE in the market or WOULD be. 3. Each Call/Email/etc. should be about LEARNING about your prospect and his needs ASK QUESTIONS! (book: SPIN selling: summary) Situation ( questions ) Problem ( questions ) Implication ( questions ) Need-payoff ( questions ) 4. Each Call/Email is a level-up and you should always close the call with next step e.g. follow-up call next meeting.. Etc. 5. Let the customer decide to close! do not pressure 1. Good: As always, if you are interested to order feel free to call or email. 2. Bad: Are you ready to place your order now? 7. You must make it REALLY easy to say yes or no. Clean, simple offering with 1 Call-to-action: Buy Now You must give confidence to the buyer that you will deliver.. And you will not fraud them. Paypal, Visa logos, SSL sites, etc. FEWEST CLICKS POSSIBLE BUILD an amazing Landing Page (see: The Conversion Scientist) Use Internet Marketing to pre-qualify web traffic. (see part 2) 8. Sell the VISION! A great opener tells a story about a CORE PROBLEM. If your business idea does not solve a problem for a customer.. Go back to the drawing board. Show the Business Model. (how you make money) Show how it will scale and get big. Show some financials yes even to employees let them know your GOAL is to get X.. Be Honest and Passionate above all else. Always wear your Positivity Goggles. 9. First, start with really understanding the basics of Marketing. (from Harlans blog): tytusblog.blogspot.com 4 Ps. 5 Cs. Product Price Place Promotion Customer Company, Competition Collaboration Context customer_action = customer_need * demand(product(5cs), place(5cs), price(5cs), promotion(5cs)); 10. Positioning is VERY IMPORTANT You cannot be everything for everybody. You must be SOME thing for SOME body. THE STATEMENT DO THIS NOW! _____ is a ______ that does ______ for _________. (product) (category) (core benefit) (target customer) Unlike other _____ products, _____ does _____ . (category) (product) (unique benefit) 11. A lot of marketing that seems important isnt. Your Logo can be basic. Your Website can be simple. Your Design/style can be plain. (as long as it matches your target- customers preferences). A Social page does not have to be fancy/have a lot of followers. So dont waste too much time/resources on this. Focus on conveying the CORE value of your products & getting the core & unique BENEFITS across. Focus on trust-building and GETTING SALES> DO NOT FOCUS ON FEATURES!!!! (Benefits are more important). Good: Our product can reduce your Lag in games by 15%. Bad: We have Ping-Reduction and 1GBPs connectivity. 12. In an early-stage startup.. BRAND is not the goal. Your goal is to enable early sales to happen. FOCUS on helping the sales-team get QUALIFIED leads.. (see next 2 slides). THEN, build your brand on your early successes. 13. Since a human being is involved in direct sales marketing can best help by: Getting qualified leads for the humans. How? Targeted Advertising -> email/phone acquisition -> list. SEO -> email/phone acquisition -> list. (if possible capture some qualifying data for the human sales-team). NEVER LOSE SIGHT: Investors/your company needs to be somewhat scalable so the marketing you do, needs to be scalable too. 14. Lots of Web Traffic is NOT the goal the goal is to get Qualified web traffic: Visitors that have the problem you solve Visitors that are in a buying mood Visitors that are ready to click BUY NOW How? Targeted Advertising (google/facebook) targeting people who are your Target Market who are: Searching for what you solve. Like competing products. Fit a customer profile. Landing Page: Focus on building great landing pages for each product. A/B test them if you can so you will always get the best results. A/B test ads too A/B test everything if you can. Analytics. Did I mention A/B testing you MUST know how your site performs to know what is broken. Enable Google Analytics, and use any tools you can to measure sales conversions See the funnel (next slide) 15. Direct or Indirect sales, you will always have customers at various stages. MEASURE AND TRACK stages of prospects Try to keep in mind that customers have a buying process of their own... Learn it! Ex: who has to approve? 16. Do price based on the VALUE you deliver. Do not price based on your costs for the solution. Do price high if you can. (higher than you think). Do look at competitors price, and figure out your position. Realize, if you dont offer the full solution, you can charge the full price. Do not discount, unless it has a set limit (expiration) Do use coupons/discounts for helping to close, but always with an expiration. Do give volume discounts. Do not drop price. Ever. Do try to differentiate customers & price descriminate (although if you are targeted enough you wont have to).