Sales leaders tend to have a strong opinion on the value and use of incentives. Their views are based on firsthand experiences and beliefs, and are often unconscious. As a result, their approach to sales compensation design can be biased toward past experiences, dismissing a broad range of options and philosophies available to drive the desired behaviour.
For example, most organizations believe salespeople possess a binary motivation to maximise their earning potential. However, other companies are purpose-driven and reward their sales teams based on group performance. We frequently hear how the millennial is “purpose-driven”, but the key to any incentive plan is to define the word “purpose”.
I recently asked a millennial sales leader if h...
In the early years of your startup, you may feel like a one-person show. You have infinite faith in your product or service, but how do you translate that commitment to investors and stakeholders? How can you raise brand awareness before you have the funding necessary for marketing and PR?
Despite these obstacles, you must find a way to gain traction in building a community or generating sales. Otherwise, you risk stalling or, worse, folding. Fortunately, this is where “strength in numbers” comes into play. Find out how you can get your show on the road with a strategic startup partnership.
Validation by large enterprises generates the credibility and exposure you ne...
Ah, rejection. The early-stage Founder’s bread and butter.
When you’re building a company from the ground up, you kind of get used to hearing the word “No.”
But Saasmetrics Founder Leo Faria: he didn’t just get used to it. He broadcast it for everyone to see.
A few weeks ago, Leo published a post on Medium that he called “Lessons learned from a startup rejected by 500 Startups, Techstars and Y Combinator.” In the post, Leo digs into his experience applying for the US’s three most prestigious accelerators — and (spoiler alert) getting rejected by each and every one. He even goes as far as to include the actual text of the actual emails he received from each accelerator, and you can just imagine what it must have felt like to se...
Stealth mode startups. They’re the cool kid’s club of the startup world. Who doesn’t want to know the secret, awesome, disruptive company that the latest 22-year old tech hot shot is working on?
Stealth mode is an excellent psychological trick that founders employ with the hope that the even cooler kids — i.e. the venture capitalists — will be intrigued and want to come join their club.
Problem is, it’s kind of BS.
Look, I’m not saying that no founder should ever have a stealth mode startup. There are legitimate reasons to choose to keep things quiet until you feel like your baby is ready for the world.
However, for most startups, the benefits of being out in the open — from finding the right product/market fit to locating your first 100 c...
If idea validation is about taking your business idea for a test-drive, then pricing your product is where the rubber really hits the road.
This is it. You’re done piloting. You’re done validating. You’re really done living on Ramen in an apartment you share with five roommates. You’re ready to come out and tell the world: “I have a product or service that provides value – and this is how much my product is worth.”
Needless to say, product pricing strategy is an essential piece of the startup puzzle – and it’s a notoriously tricky piece to get right. There are about a dozen moving pieces you have to take into account. Getting them all aligned just right is like unlocking the most complicated combination lock ever.
Britt Crawford knows a thi...
The only thing harder than making a ton of money is giving it away to family.
On paper, it sounds easy. We've finally got some dough and now we can hand it out like Robinhood to all the people in need. What could feel better than helping our family with a little extra cash?
That's until we find out what a giant tangled mess of problems it tends to create. What we are thinking about is how helpful we can be, but what we're not thinking about — and where most Founders live in regret — is what a can of worms we open from here on out.
The problem with giving away money once is that once we open those floodgates, they are nearly impossible to close. All it takes is a single act of kindness to send those gates crashing open.
Here...
If there’s one thing that’s more available than ever for founders in 2018, it’s advice. Not a day goes by without someone recommending a book, blog, podcast or conference that I can’t miss, or someone I ‘have to meet’.
On the other hand, we all know that the secret to success is not as simple as following instructions from [insert your favorite unicorn]’s playbook and just doing what those before you have done successfully.
Perhaps this explains why it is so easy to forget the obvious source of insight, advice and perspective that you have right in front of your nose, the people that you have spent the most time courting and that have cost you the most – your team.
This article shares some of the reasons why our own team has become one of t...
At the top of the organizational food chain sits cynicism, consuming your carefully nurtured culture with an insatiable appetite.
Following my previous company’s acquisition, I saw the seeds of cynicism take root within hours.
I overheard top employees say things like, “The last great company I worked at was acquired. I know how this movie plays out.”
Team members began making assumptions (and voicing them) immediately. About decisions that hadn’t been made yet. Consequences that had yet to develop. And, what they plan on doing if and when their worst fears came true.
I even heard cynical perspectives on the growing level of cynicism.
“Jason, don’t work so hard at this. There’s nothing you can do. I have never seen an organization not becom...
Many leaders start their careers with hopes of reaching the top as quickly as possible, skipping past lower-level positions as they scale the corporate ladder. This is particularly true in the startup scene, where founders essentially choose their own titles and begin their careers in management positions.
My career did not have such a direct trajectory. I meandered through the insurance industry for decades before I finally secured a leadership role. I started out working for my parents’ company, doing the grunt work of the office. I generated invoices, processed mail, and even handled janitorial duties. I was the youngest person in the office and the lowest on the totem pole, so I didn’t have a problem earning my stripes. Some people mig...
Entrepreneurship demands more grit than glamour. As any professional on the other side of the uphill challenge knows, success often means making mistakes, bravely picking up the pieces, and trying again. The process is equal parts grueling and exhilarating.
As a strategic communications professional and business leader for more than 20 years, I’ve made plenty of my own mistakes. In the end, some of the biggest snafus provided invaluable training and helped carved my path to success. They’ve truly shaped my journey and helped us become one of the fastest growing PR firm globally.
Below is some advice for first-time entrepreneurs that I wished I’d had when starting out.
Yes, mistakes are a part of any entrepr...