Meetings III: The Sell
Jun1
Check out my first post on Meetings, here.
If you’ve read the post above, then you probably have a good read on how I feel about outside meetings. I consider them crucial to your professional success not because they are the way of the future (more and more business is being conducted online. Check out GoToMeeting), but because it’s just so common.
I usually classify my meetings into one of three categories:
1) The Sell (also known as Closing).
2) The Strategy.
3) The Follow-up.
Today , we’re going to go over…
The Sell
This is the most challenging type of meeting. You’re going in after a phone call or an email, and you’ve never met the person. You’ve got a clear goal in mind (Sell High, Buy Cheap, Partner Up, etc) and you’re thinking about your “selling points” and how you’re going to convince the person to buy.
Please, stop right there. It’s painfully obvious and it doesn’t work. Look - YES, you need to know the selling points of your product. In fact, you BETTER know the selling points of your product damn well. But, that’s not how you close a meeting. You have to go into these things with a genuine desire and ability to improve the lives of the person you’re dealing with. That’s why selling Cutco knives to anyone outside of your inner circle of friends and family is near impossible. That is also, to some extent, why print advertising is on its deathbed. If you can’t help your potential customer with your product or service, do NOT sell it to them.
So, I’ve told you what NOT to do. What, then, is recommended? Well, if you’ve been following the earlier advice you: look good, know your material and have established your credentials. The most important thing to do during a first meeting is to build trust. Find commonalities. It doesn’t matter if it’s a common hobby, sport, tv-show or interest. People will naturally trust those who act like them. Research has shown that even subtly mimicking the hand-gestures, posture and speech speed will expedite the “rapport” building process.
So, how the hell do you know what these people like to do? RESARCH. Google, LinkedIN, Jigsaw, Facebook, ZoomInfo, FRIENDS are all super basic staples of your research. It takes 1 hour to prepare using those tools, and you will go in there with a wealth of knowledge. Feel this: If you’re meeting with me, I’ve read all I possibly can about both your business and your interests. Know what that shows? Respect. There’s simply no other way to win.
This is what I recommend you do before your next meeting: Put together a 1 page summary (with picture) of the person you are planning to meet. Study it, and memorize it. Go into your next meeting and broach the subject about one of his or her interests FIRST. Enjoy being welcomed back!
A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
Jun5
A man convinced against his will
is of the same opinion still.
I was re-reading (for the 10th time) Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People when I ran into this un-attributed quote. It struck me as pertinent, though, because of the serious activity going on at CampusLIVE regarding the new release we have planned for July 1st (dubbed “Raptor”).
Raptor is a complete overhaul of the look of the site, with a STRONG focus on usability and search. Our focus groups confirmed our beliefs that users are looking to get to places quickly, with as little clicking and scrolling as possible. This seems obvious, but this was not reflected in our current release (dubbed “Viper”). So, in order to get things right this time around, we hired two developers (Mike, our all-star programmer/product mgr and Sean, our illustrator and designer) to help make it a reality.
As you can probably guess, 9 guys in one 1,400 sqft. office will have PLENTY of disagreements about the product they’ve been building, re-building, marketing and selling for over 2 years. Now, there is no way to stop people from having disagreements. It’s natural, and healthy debate is KEY to building a successful product.
Look at it this way:
Ryan - has been LIVING with our demographic for the last year. Literally, he lived in a dorm room. He knows what the students want, and he did all of our focus studies.
Jared - designed the first 3 versions of CampusLIVE. He knows what he’s doing and has seen the site go from old-school to new-school to web 2.0.
Mike - Mike is an excellent front-end guy. He can build anything, and make it look appealing. He’s also in charge of adding functionality to our designs. Fade-ins? Scrolling? Stylesheets? All on him.
Sean - He’s our artist. We depend on him to make things look professional. He has to “see” the light.
The key is to ensuring all of these players can play together. The title of this blog post seems to me a perfect fit for this situation. Even though all of us are debating the merits of each feature and each stroke on the site, we ALL have to keep in mind that at the end of the day the final product will be a MIX of all of our thoughts.
If you are a founder of a company, and can’t accept the fact that your vision will change, you are making a huge mistake. Remember, a start-up SUCCEEDS because the people are (allegedly) more PASSIONATE about their product. If you stifle creativity, and force your own way, your stifling passion.
I think we’re doing a good job letting people input their own advice. Let’s see how it turns out in July…
Cheers,
Boris
Meetings II: Change the game
Jun0
I’ve been reading a new book lately called “THE SCIENCE OF INFLUENCE: How to Get Anyone to Say YES in 8 Minutes or Less!” by Kevin Hogan. First off, I really like the book because of the raw concepts that apply to sales. Cool stuff.
One of Kevin’s first points in the book is how the brain reacts to environments. He says, “The environment stimulates behavior, and changing behavior is most easily accomplished in a different environment.” Remember guys, this is NOT a suggestion or a guess based on empirical evidence. Research shows that people moved to an environment they are not used to makes them more suggestible.
So we have set the stage: there is someone you need to do something (for their benefit, your own, or both) and they aren’t budging. You don’t understand why. You’ve lowered the price, done most of the legwork, convinced everyone around them, met with them numerous times… and they still say NO. Well, let’s try a new tactic by changing the game (the environment).
3 Simple Way’s to Change the Game
- Have your next meeting in a restaurant your familiar with. Extra points if you know the owner, waiter or bartender.
- Invite them to your office or your house. Make sure they know why. (I.E: I really think you should meet the rest of the team.)
- Take them somewhere you’re both comfortable at. If you both went to UMass Amherst, meet a the library or a favorite spot.
-
Try it out on the next person who says “NO” to you, whether it be a parent, client, friend or anyone else.
I will too.
My Social Networks
Jun0
I was thinking this morning about all of the social networks and real-time chat streams that I am a part of. I thought it would be interesting to have a central hub for all my online presences (and I can do that, my blog).
So, let’s check it out:
Most Active Social Networks
Facebook
LinkedIN
Twitter
Chat Clients
Skype: boris.revsin
AIM: bobosox3
GChat: boris.revsin@gmail.com
FB Chat: Boris Revsin (gotta be my friend)
BBM: 31E7FE19
Phone: 978.621.6373
Not Active
Friendfeed
That’s a pretty ridiculous amount of ways to get in touch with me. Here is a question: how many of these overlap? Could I get rid of half of my chat clients, and still be within reach of everyone? Are there some that I am missing?
This is the essence of social media, in my opinion. Are all of my online personalities branded correctly?
Let’s ask Dan Schawbel.
Startup IV: Advising
Jun0
I just had my first meeting with an Advisory Board that I am a member of for a company based near Boston, MA. I can’t discuss any details of the project I am advising on, but I do want to go a little bit into detail about advisory boards and the general giving of advice.
First: WHAT is an Advisory Board? Google says:
An advisory board is a body that advises the board of directors and management of a corporation but does not have authority to vote on corporate matters, nor a legal fiduciary responsibility.
That’s not a bad definition for an established company. However - I’m far more used to advising companies between the prototype and beta stage, and that is where I think an advisory board can be most useful. In this particular company, my main task is to be a technical advisor - to advise the founding team on how to actually get the product built. Now, here’s the catch: Advisory Boards DON’T get paid. Sometimes they will get minor stock compensation for helping out, but that is not a necessity and should not be expected.
So WHY do people do it? Well, Keith Ferrazzi put it best in his new book (and I’m just paraphrasing here):
People LOVE to think that their input is valuable.
Seriously. I drove to Framingham, MA (a 1.5 hour commute) and spent an ENTIRE business day helping out another start-up. It wasn’t just me, though. Joining me were two very bright business executives with their own companies, time commitments and MIT Biz School degrees (seriously, Sloan, not bad huh?). These are potentially $1000/day guys who will give you input for free.
The advantages of an Advisory Board:
-A ton of helpful advice on development, business, scale, sales, marketing and strategy from PEOPLE IN BUSINESS (and maybe the industry).
-Names to drop. I’m working with so and so on this project. If you tell me you’ve got some experience on your board - you get the benefit of the doubt. If it’s just you and a couple kids in a basement - people are skeptical.
-Similar to above: a MUCH stronger pitch to VC’s. Advisory Boards provide you with credibility. They provide you with business diversity. You can’t hire me, but you can still use my expertise. Catch my drift?
Too many aspiring entrepreneurs don’t know this.
A lot of you guys and girls are thinking about dropping everything and rifling off invitations to your advisory boards. DON’T DO THIS. Not yet. It is critically important that you meet EVERY single potential member of your board in person ABOUT YOUR PROJECT before you invite them onto the board. Furthermore, not everyone will just jump on the bandwagon. Develop them like you would a client. You need to make sure that when you ask them to join the board, there is no way they will say no. Get them invested (time-wise) in your project before you ask them to do anything official.
Speaking of official. Any entrepreneur who spends money for a lawyer to put together an Advisory Board is a fool. The MOST you need to do is have them sign an NDA (1000’s of versions available online). If you’re giving them stock, you will want to talk to a lawyer. My advice: don’t give them anything until their advice works.
So, cheers to all of your new advisors!
-Boris Revsin
Startup III: Getting Started… from the VERY beginning
Jun1
This is a follow-up to my previous post about asking for help. Check it out first.
My last post got quite a few people emailing/FB messaging me to ask just WHEN is a good time to ask someone more experienced for help. Many of these people had legitimately good (I.E: they have a chance) ideas, but had NOTHING at all to show yet. Just a simple thought they wanted to share.
This post will serve two purposes:
1) I want to clarify my previous post. In it, I asked people to have some serious prototype or information before they asked for help. What I didn’t mention was that if all you want to do is see if I like the idea (in a vacuum - without knowledge of the industry, competitors or logistics), than please by all means: SHARE! It’s only when you request my HELP or serious advice that I ask you come to me with something more solid.
This takes me to point…
2) You have a good idea and you don’t know what to do with it. You’ve never started a business before and you just have no idea how to even take Step 1. Cool - I’m going to try to help you below.
Boris Revsin’s “First 3-Step program to stop talking and start DOING”
1) Do a FRIEND TEST. The idea of a friend test has been all over business advice books for a while now. All you have to do is put together a list of 20 of your friends. Track them down and give them the pitch. Ask them to rate the idea from 0-5. Get an average you’re happy with, and you’ve got a solid idea. Get a 0, 1 or 2 and go back to the drawing board. Pretty simple. If 20 of your friends don’t like your idea, chances are neither will anyone else. Disclaimer: If your idea is some sort of funky invention only you would understand (and be able to build), better to ask those with experience. This should be obvious.
2) Put something down on paper (and by that I mean a word document or an excel sheet - don’t be the dumbass who loses his “journal” because mom cleaned out your desk drawer).
Documents to construct:
-An excel sheet of everyone who can help you with this idea. With contact information.
-A 1-page document explaining the product and why it will win. Attach visuals if necessary. This document MUST include evidence as to why YOU are the right person for the job.
-An excel sheet detailing start-up costs. If you don’t know exactly - guess. If you don’t know at all - pick a new idea.
-A timeline. NO: this is NOT financial projections. I don’t care that VC’s want to see a 5-year plan for sales goals. Seriously, if you are a student in college and you’re showing me a 5-year financial plan: I will slap you for wasting time. Nobody, not even VC’s, actually buy these things. Save your typing hand for when you’re in the (un)lucky position of actually NEEDING to bullshit an investor. The timeline I am looking for is a SIMPLE document that shows your 1 month goals for the idea. When will you have the documents above finished? When do you want to build a prototype? When will you be reaching out to people for help? When do you want to talk to a lawyer about incorporating your business (HIGHLY recommended you DON’T do this yourself)? Anything and everything should be simply defined.
Remember: only you hold yourself accountable for this timeline. Don’t make shit up.
3) Start contacting the people on the list you made. You now have a good amount of documentation to show that you are serious. If you do all the work I just asked for and then ask me for help, there is NO way I will say no.
Good luck!
Guest Post: Make the users happy (@miklavic)
Jun1
Make the users happy
Listen to your users, talk to them, and hear what they have to say. Get a feel for what they are saying about you, put in the work, spend the time. Here is the catch, don’t wait for them to tell you, understand where they are coming from and give them what they want BEFORE they know they want it. Steve Jobs in famous for this, innovation happens when people think ahead of the curve, think about what is to come.
The most successful marketing of our generation? Google. Did they spend a dollar advertising their search engine? No. How did you hear about them? I bet it was a friend who came up running to you because they were satisfied. Google focused on their users first and foremost. They had their hearts set from day one at solving a very necessary problem in people’s lives. They accomplished this in part because they never lost sight of why people were using their product.
As for your website, you have too many features, cut the crap and focus on what really matters. Do one thing really well instead of a million things half ass. 37 Signals (the company behind Basecamp) writes about this issue in their book, Getting Real. I’d suggest you read this book. Build sites that are “smarter, faster, and easier” than everything else out there.
It’s easy to sell out; people do it everyday to make a buck or two. The greatest sites, the sites where people remember it long after they visited, the sites where you find yourself going back to endlessly, focus on what their users truly need.
Don’t ever forget about the guy using your product. Everyday at CampusLIVE I’m presented with tons of seemingly minor situations where I have to put myself in the shoes of the user. What drives them? What are they trying to accomplish? What do they need to accomplish this?
Make the lives of your customer, user, tenant, etc easier. Strive to do that everyday and if done successfully, success in business will soon follow on an epic level.
-Mike Miklavic
@miklavic
http://www.campuslive.com/info/about#mike
Startup II: Incubators
Jun2
A common theme in the start-up world is the inability to get “seed capital” to get your prototype off the ground. This is especially common in higher-ed, where many students haven’t held “real” jobs because they are still in school. This means that they are, generally speaking, broke. But these students aren’t broke in ideas, time or advice - they just don’t have the cash on hand to start their business venture.
There are a TONS of ways to get financing for your business. You can take funding from Friends, Family, Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, Loans, etc etc. Those all have their benefits and drawbacks and I’ll make sure to go over my experience with them at some point in the future.
In this post, I want to go over an often-overlooked option for “seed capital”: Incubators.
First off, what is an incubator?
Incubators…
are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts. (Wikipedia)
Basically, an incubator is a group of people and connections that will help you grow you’re business from the ground up. Sometimes they will take a piece of your company, and sometimes they won’t. Simple as that.
If you’re interested in learning more, check out some of these articles on Incubators.
BizWeek Article
Entrepreneur Magazine Article
Still interested? Check out some of the more recent (and my personal favorite) student-friendly incubators:
Short-List of Incubators:
My personal favorite, and a great track record: Y Combinator
Founder’s Institute
TechStars
Facebook Apps Incubator: fbFund
Twitter Apps Incubator: 140 Labs
Has anyone had any experience with incubators? Let me know!
Quick Decisions
Jun0
In his book, The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki writes about the importance of iterating quickly through the product cycle. He explains why, unless you are in the sphere of medicine, you should probably release your product as soon as possible. Then test it. Fix it. Re-release. And keep going forever (because nothing is perfect).
Many investors will also tell you that they have “gut feelings” about certain companies. Now, they’ll do the “due diligence” to make sure the gut feelings are correct, but the fact remains that many investors can tell you whether or not they would ever invest in you or your company within 5 minutes (some have told me 10 seconds).
There are positives and negatives to both of the approaches I’ve written about above. In #1, you risk launching a product too early. In #2, investors may be missing out on some awesome companies (if only they would listen!).
What I want to talk about is the main positive of making quick decisions:
Getting shit done.
Has everyone heard of the 80/20 rule? “…roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” Well, I’m a big fan of that principle. I find that it applies in almost all aspects of business. How does it apply here?
In my experience, about 80% of the initiatives undertaken by my clients, partners or employees only get 20% completed. And that, folks, is a serious problem of efficiency. The problem, though, is almost always not with the initiative. Once a big decision is made, people FLOCK to it. They love it. It’s theirs. Cool, I love passion and hard work. But when you’ve laid out all the ground work, done all the research and are ready to present… you stall. You wait for his opinion, or hers. You’re “not happy with the mockup”, you’ve got “too many other things going on.” You need approval. You need this, that, or the other thing.
You’re stagnant. And, sorry, but you’re taking too long to make a decision.
The message is simple: EMPOWER YOURSELF to make decisions. Once a decision is made, go forward with it. If it doesn’t work - jump back - and make another decision. You’ve just learned something, believe it or not. Knowing what NOT to do is just as important as know what TO do.
So, a lot of you are telling me that you’ve got superiors to answer to. You can’t just “forge ahead” without getting the green light. You know the right answer, but are afraid of getting shot down. My advice? Go and do it! Stop waiting for the green light. When it’s time to present, you’re going to have a whole lot more to show and it’s going to make it a heck of a lot easier to get your way.
I challenge you to make a decision today on whatever it is you’re working on. Stuck on something? Pick a direction and move on it. It’s fun, and it’ll open you up to that last 80% that’s really going to make a difference.