By Francis Moran
I just this minute got off the phone with a CEO who has twice been a client. Along with a technical founder, he’s been working on a new startup for about a year now, and he wanted to pick my brain a bit on messaging and positioning. He said he was struggling with the consistency of his messaging, especially when it came to pitching investors. The company is looking for $500,000 in an angel round.
“Investors are telling us we sound like a completely different company the second time they hear our pitch,” my friend said.
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By Leo Valiquette
There’s a fitness club in my neck of the woods that broke away from its corporate mothership and rebranded itself with a new name a couple of years ago. I shake my head every time I visit the place and still see the mothership’s name on the company vehicles and on the guest wi-fi account.
It’s all the more painful because it’s a former client I worked with to develop new brand messaging and promotional copy.
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By Jeff Campbell
A recent CSO Insights survey found that B2B sales people spend an average of 57 per cent of their time on things other than selling.
In my 33 years in the technology business doing sales, managing sales teams and building software businesses it has always felt like something was missing in the way we automated sales and this egregious productivity measurement supports this feeling. Now I can finally articulate what it is that’s missing. It’s the “last mile” of sales automation.
Let me explain.
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By Leo Valiquette
We were back at full steam last month after a welcome holiday break in December. In addition to our usual counsel about effective and strategic marketing practices, we featured guest posts on topics ranging from the ongoing patent battle between Apple and Samsung to regional economic development, how music affects the brain and the future of venture capital in Canada. There was even something about bootleggers, smugglers and a certain big football game.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
Jan. 8: Five new year’s resolutions all marketers must adopt, by Francis Moran
Jan. 15: The revitalization of the Canadian venture capital sector, by Chris Arsenault
Jan. 16: Let me wave my magical content wand, by Tara Hunt
Jan. 29: It takes more than bricks and mortar to build a regional economy, by Denzil Doyle
Jan. 22: A primer on strategic thinking, by Caroline Kealey
Jan. 09: When the cat’s already out of the bag …, by Leo Valiquette
Jan. 30: Bananatag discovers the marketing power of good press, by Fiona Campbell
Jan. 21: Music and the brain, by Bob Bailly
Jan. 14: Making the business case, face to face, by Leo Valiquette and John Hill
Jan. 04: First-time entrepreneurs: There are big ideas, and then there are doable ideas, by Alexandra Reid
Jan. 28: Do you know what your customer actually wants?, by Maurice Smith
Jan. 24: Customer service must be a deliberate strategy, by Francis Moran
Jan. 23: Brand marketing that is inspired, but not imitative, by Leo Valiquette
Jan. 10: It takes a village … to succeed in social media, by Megan Totka
Jan. 31: Super Bowl weekend: That time of year when a marketer’s fancy turns to thoughts of…advertising?, by Francis Moran
Jan. 17: A year in the life of bringing technology to market, by Francis Moran
Jan. 02: Apple vs. Samsung: U.S. Patent Office – Challenges to patent validity, by David French
Jan. 03: Holiday lessons for anyone trying to get their tech to market, by Leo Valiquette
Image: The Printable Calendar
By Daylin Mantyka
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are ventureburn, Marketo, 451 Marketing, Silicon Valley Business Journal, and Startup Professional Musings.
Series A crunch blah blah… Get over it. Learn from Africa’s example
Michelle Atagana talks about the Series A Crunch and whether or not it applies to the African Venture Capital scene. She goes on to say that the so-called crunch might even be good for Silicon Valley.
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