Great article with summary points about developing your first sales flow in a startup.
Monthly Archives: January 2014
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In the US alone there are 30 billion inbound sales calls every year. Just. Sales. Calls. Inbound. That number is projected to GROW to 70 billion by 2016.
“Why Most of Your Assumptions About Phone Calls are Wrong” – BIA Kelsey via Mark Suster at Both Sides of the Table
As an individual, I rarely use my phone for actual calls and try to actively push people not to call me. I check my personal voicemail once a week and rely on my outgoing message, “Text or email me if it’s urgent”, to help get folks to my favorite channels.
That’s me personally. This article is a really stark reminder of the fact that although lots of individuals feel the same way, for businesses it is absolutely crucial to be readily reachable (and to have a great presence) on the phone.
Another favorite quote from the article:
“Simply, customers trust businesses that are available by phone. Even if they don’t want to always call you.”
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The partnership will include promotional signage for Porch in Lowe’s stores. Porch, a Seattle-based startup attempting to upend the home-improvement industry.
Absolutely keep an eye on these guys; they’re raising $28mil and are attempting to improve a very needed part of the home improvement experience for individual consumers & contractors.
Porch lands big Lowe’s partnership, laying foundation for growth – GeekWire
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However, it’s a sign of just how powerful a combination Google’s software and Nest’s hardware represents when even casual observers can imagine such scenarios that, in reality, would not be that difficult to execute on Google’s part.
“Why Google Bought Nest and What It Could Mean for Your Home” via Mashable
I love the tweet from @marksuman about Waze + Nest being able to turn up the heat in your house as it notices you getting closer to home.
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App competition means there’s almost always a free app option consumers can choose instead of shelling out for a paid app. So the bar for what a paid app should be is pushed ever higher. By 2017, Gartner predicts that 94.5% of downloads will be for free apps.
“Gartner Says Less Than One Percent of Consumer Mobile Apps Will Be Considered a Financial Success by Their Developers Through 2018” via Gartner Reports
Key points:
- By 2017, Gartner predicts that 94.5% of downloads will be for free apps.
- Freemium app business models which rely on monetizing a free download after the fact via in-app purchases (IAP) will continue to grow in importance for developers. (As will app advertising.)
- By 2016, 20 percent of enterprise bring your own device (BYOD) programs will fail due to enterprise deployment of mobile device management (MDM) measures that are too restrictive.
- By 2017, the browser on mobile endpoint devices will be used as a sophisticated application delivery platform, with 50 percent of new Web apps involving complex client-side JavaScript.
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See what Netflix’s new pricing strategy can teach us about growing with the customer and pricing along proper value metrics.
A great article that discusses the importance of price testing with your customers, especially when you have a SaaS offering and are trying to attract different personas to the same product line. Another great point in the article is about having a clear value metric for your customers; one that can be explained to your users and makes sense when striated across price ranges.
Netflix Experiment Stirs Up 3 Steps to Develop Your Pricing Plans
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A Forrester analysis suggests what some might find surprising: Microsoft gained the only ‘trailblazer’ status by being trusted across generations.
Nice to hear that in the wake of all the recent data leaks and hacks that have occurred across different industries that MSFT’s “One Microsoft” bet is paying off.
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2014 will be remembered as the best time in a generation to have bought a venture-backed company in Latin America as an efficient way to gain entry to the quickly growing Latin America market (known as the “Acqui-entry”). The opportunity in Latin America is extraordinary and valuations generally remain very low compared to similarly situated U.S. based startups.
Juan Pablo Cappello via TheNextWeb, “Why 2014 will be the year of the “Acqui-entry” in Latin America”
#neato 