Note: This blog post has sat in "draft" for the last year...but the message is as clear today as ever...customer discover is inevitable on the road the success and optional on the road to failure. Being programatic about it is always the prefered answer!
If your a sales and marketing professional and still believe the end of beta is followed by launch, I want to wish you the very best of luck! For luck is exactly what you will need if you have not yet done a customer discovery.
As I wrap up my fourth customer discover I can officially declare myself a convert. No, you won't find me at the alter of Mr Blank but my copys of 4 Steps to the Epiphany can be found floating through much of my engagement network.
None of the customer discovers have been text book - in one, the engineering team was simple too far removed to be well integrated into the process. This brought great frustration to many. In another large company, the concept of customer discover was so far outside their culture, that we simple agreed that we needed to learn what worked via customer enagement rather than spend lots of time on a "marketing positioning" exercise. This lead the company to quickly add a sales focused subject matter expert to the team - a huge accelerator to product adoption. Two others were smaller start-up scenarios, one that developed a formal hypothesis and is moving very quickly in a large and dynamic market (watch this space for more on these guys!!!), another that simple grock'ed the concept of "learn before you launch" as a financial discipline - they did, have suffered through a hopeless out-of-date web site for alomost 6 months while focusing 100% in finding their customer and will relaunch shortly with a clear and proven story.
All of these had 3 common elements:
1) Embrace your Ignorance: My key learning from Jack Welsh during my tenure at GE was "Face reality as it is, not as you wish is was" Customer discover requires the simple but very difficult acknowledgement that "we simple don't know". Without this leap from entrepreneurial bravado to confident learning...well, I hope you get lucky!
2) State your hypothesis: some kind of hypothesis, formally stated is a great starting point. My experience across all 4 is the more you state about your hypothsis, the more you will learn. If you don't have a clear pricing hypothesis, you won't learn about pricing very fast. If you don't have a clear go to market hypothesis, you'll be in the dark on G2M at launch time. This isn't all bad - in some businesses, there are strong priorities about what you need to learn in order to get started. However, its has become very clear for me that the more depth you put into your hypothesis, the more you learn.
3) Engage Customers: This remains the critical art. Lean more towards a full blown sales campaign than asking for "positioning feedback". You want to observe the partient, not simple ask them how they are feeling.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Salesforce.com meets Clint Eastwood
I promised a report on my SFdotCOM experience, Clint Eastwood style (the good, the bad and the ugly) so here it goes.
The setting: I recently set out to buy and do an initial setup of SFdotCOM for a soon to be funded start-up. This was an interesting process to say the least and I definitely went at it with an eye for lessons learned and a few surprises along the way. For example, did you know that while Mr. Benioff's NO SOFTWARE badge is true, you can't actually buy SFdotCOM online...you must talk to their sales force to complete a purchase.
So, with appropriate background music playing, here goes:
The Good: SFdotCOM's sales force is excellent - at least the two people I dealt with whom I'll simple refer to as Tammy and Jenn. Professional, responsive, knowledgeable and another dozen adjective that I wont bore you with are all 100% true. They know their craft, got me the right information, closed me successfully and left me feeling great about the process. I was left believing that their people may be their greatest corporate asset. SaaS is service and they clearly get this.
The Bad: SFdotCOM is now a big, enterprise software company. The product is big, the options are big, the license agreement is big (and you do need to read it - your giving these guys your customer data). Ok - its SaaS but its no longer small and simple. Some of this is a function of scale and some a function of breadth but they could do better here.
Inside "the bad" and over the weeks that followed the purchase, Iv'e come to conclude that while complex and comprehensive, SFdotCom is also implementable and customizable for a small implementation like ours by mere morals like me! This experience has turned what was at first a "bad" into a "good" and I'm even more impressed by their product. Non programmer can easilly modify the product, create validations, add new views and generally customize the product.
The Ugly: Once you're done with nearly everything, they send you an electronic quote and for the ultra low end edition I was buying, you go through FORCE.COM checkout. This took fully two hours. The February month end checkout lines was longer than anything I've encountered on Christmas eve at Macy's. This needs to be improved.
Ok - so the Clint Eastwood format has left us with two negatives and only one positive. My impression of SFdomCOM from this experience is far, far better than this. Its clear these guys have what it takes to lead this market for a long long time - great people, great process and great products is a winning combination. They face big competition down the road but if they stay true to their roots...SaaS is service, simple is better, no software, they should continue to gain ground for many, many years to come.
The setting: I recently set out to buy and do an initial setup of SFdotCOM for a soon to be funded start-up. This was an interesting process to say the least and I definitely went at it with an eye for lessons learned and a few surprises along the way. For example, did you know that while Mr. Benioff's NO SOFTWARE badge is true, you can't actually buy SFdotCOM online...you must talk to their sales force to complete a purchase.
So, with appropriate background music playing, here goes:
The Good: SFdotCOM's sales force is excellent - at least the two people I dealt with whom I'll simple refer to as Tammy and Jenn. Professional, responsive, knowledgeable and another dozen adjective that I wont bore you with are all 100% true. They know their craft, got me the right information, closed me successfully and left me feeling great about the process. I was left believing that their people may be their greatest corporate asset. SaaS is service and they clearly get this.
The Bad: SFdotCOM is now a big, enterprise software company. The product is big, the options are big, the license agreement is big (and you do need to read it - your giving these guys your customer data). Ok - its SaaS but its no longer small and simple. Some of this is a function of scale and some a function of breadth but they could do better here.
Inside "the bad" and over the weeks that followed the purchase, Iv'e come to conclude that while complex and comprehensive, SFdotCom is also implementable and customizable for a small implementation like ours by mere morals like me! This experience has turned what was at first a "bad" into a "good" and I'm even more impressed by their product. Non programmer can easilly modify the product, create validations, add new views and generally customize the product.
The Ugly: Once you're done with nearly everything, they send you an electronic quote and for the ultra low end edition I was buying, you go through FORCE.COM checkout. This took fully two hours. The February month end checkout lines was longer than anything I've encountered on Christmas eve at Macy's. This needs to be improved.
Ok - so the Clint Eastwood format has left us with two negatives and only one positive. My impression of SFdomCOM from this experience is far, far better than this. Its clear these guys have what it takes to lead this market for a long long time - great people, great process and great products is a winning combination. They face big competition down the road but if they stay true to their roots...SaaS is service, simple is better, no software, they should continue to gain ground for many, many years to come.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
B-2-B
Back to Blog'n
After an absence of almost 4 months, I wanted to get back to blogging.
New dog's sometimes need to learn old tricks. I was attended as sales meeting with a company that I serve on the board of and after reviewing eveyone pipeline, it was clear that one rep had more new accounts than the other two combined.
What was he doing differently we ask?
Wait for it,,,wait for it,,, wait for it.
He was calling prospective customers on the phone.
This lead to a lengthy discussion of whether is was rude to interrupt people and whether executives preferred receiving email to which I replied "yes, I definitely prefer getting email because if I don't know who you are, I can delete it without reading it".
Is your goal to make me happy now (ie - don't interupt me) or make me happy later (sell me something of value that solve a problem, meets a need or helps me reach a goal)?
Turns out you can still reach executives on the phone. If you have a simple message, are considerate of their time and don't try to turn a first call into an info harvesting session, old ma bell is a pretty decent way to get in touch with prospective customers. Email also works and is a great way to follow up.
So there you have it...I'm now officially back to blogging.
Next up: My experience with Salesforce.com...the good, the bad and the ugly.
After an absence of almost 4 months, I wanted to get back to blogging.
New dog's sometimes need to learn old tricks. I was attended as sales meeting with a company that I serve on the board of and after reviewing eveyone pipeline, it was clear that one rep had more new accounts than the other two combined.
What was he doing differently we ask?
Wait for it,,,wait for it,,, wait for it.
He was calling prospective customers on the phone.
This lead to a lengthy discussion of whether is was rude to interrupt people and whether executives preferred receiving email to which I replied "yes, I definitely prefer getting email because if I don't know who you are, I can delete it without reading it".
Is your goal to make me happy now (ie - don't interupt me) or make me happy later (sell me something of value that solve a problem, meets a need or helps me reach a goal)?
Turns out you can still reach executives on the phone. If you have a simple message, are considerate of their time and don't try to turn a first call into an info harvesting session, old ma bell is a pretty decent way to get in touch with prospective customers. Email also works and is a great way to follow up.
So there you have it...I'm now officially back to blogging.
Next up: My experience with Salesforce.com...the good, the bad and the ugly.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Rotten Apples
Apple (fka Apple Computer) has been present during pretty much my entire exposure to the business of technology and the technology of business. I recall seeing an Apple1 used to track inventory at a used record store while attending UCSB about '78/79. I recieved one of the first Mac's as part of a GE sponsored MBA program in '85. Our house is full of iPod's, we've begun the Mac conversion by getting my daughter a Mac for college and I just replaced my dead iPod with a new iTouch (why no iPhone - you'll need to see earlier posts to understand my crackberry addiction, I've loved Apple products for years and think Steve Jobs is perhaps the greatest entrepreneur of our time.
With this in mind, I bring you the rotten Apple's list straight from Forbes!
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/29/apple-product-flops-tech-personal-cx_ag_1030apple_slide.html?thisSpeed=15000
It's well worth looking at all the things Apple has tried over the last 30+ years THAT DIDN'T WORK!
Aside from many memories: seeing a Lisa at Corporate GE in the early 80's, cringing when hearing our V.P. of engineering tell our customers that Taligent in partnership with IBM was our next target O/S, watching one of my product managers proudly strut into the office with a Newton on this hip - circa 1995 it seems, this list has many products that were simple ideas ahead of their times.
The lessons for entrepreneurs here are many:
Push the envelope - "if your not living on the edge, your taking up too much space!"
Learn from the mistakes of others - many of the rotten apples listed above were certainly the genesis of future successes, for both Apple and others. Remember, the PDA has morphed into the smart phone and Apple is winning once again!
Don't take yourself too seriously - if you do, you will never truely listen to what the market is telling you about "your baby". Many companies have died clinging to a weak product too long when going back to the drawing board before it was too late would have saved the day.
With this in mind, I bring you the rotten Apple's list straight from Forbes!
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/29/apple-product-flops-tech-personal-cx_ag_1030apple_slide.html?thisSpeed=15000
It's well worth looking at all the things Apple has tried over the last 30+ years THAT DIDN'T WORK!
Aside from many memories: seeing a Lisa at Corporate GE in the early 80's, cringing when hearing our V.P. of engineering tell our customers that Taligent in partnership with IBM was our next target O/S, watching one of my product managers proudly strut into the office with a Newton on this hip - circa 1995 it seems, this list has many products that were simple ideas ahead of their times.
The lessons for entrepreneurs here are many:
Push the envelope - "if your not living on the edge, your taking up too much space!"
Learn from the mistakes of others - many of the rotten apples listed above were certainly the genesis of future successes, for both Apple and others. Remember, the PDA has morphed into the smart phone and Apple is winning once again!
Don't take yourself too seriously - if you do, you will never truely listen to what the market is telling you about "your baby". Many companies have died clinging to a weak product too long when going back to the drawing board before it was too late would have saved the day.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Time, Timing and Being Timid
It’s common knowledge that a key factor in the success of any venture investment is timing. Enter a nascent market too early and you learn many lessons but burn though capital without gaining market traction. Enter too late and you end up going toe to toe with large companies who have had time, the key factor in this whole discussion, to react to emerging customer needs.
Right now, we are entering a very uncertain time. Investors are clearly and publicly tightening their wallets (I wont be the 10,000 blog to post a link to the Sequoia pitch) and quite rightly encouraging their portfolio companies to cut back. The natural reaction for any company is to hang on to their existing strategy, take a more hands on approach to execution (CEO as chief sales guy) and try to weather the storm – be it 6 months or 2 years.
The challenge is that recessions slow things down. Customers wait to start buying cycles, existing buying cycles get delayed and phantom buying cycles happen more often. In a recession, its less likely that an existing startup company will actually be able to carve out a viable market position with their current offering. The simple reality is that lengthening the adoption cycle both gives bigger companies time to respond and ups the odds that a new disruptive innovation will appear in the form of next-gen start-ups. The technology adoption curve gets elongated. Simply put, timing changes.
Start-ups build value by disrupting existing markets and creating new ones. New market dynamics should be met with new business strategies. Products, go to market strategies and economic models need to be re-thought. This is the reality of markets. Unfortunately, recession forces us to face this reality at the most inopportune time – when money is tight and often when we are scaling back on our plans, reducing spending and cutting staff. Exploring new strategies at this point is not easy. However, each downturn has spawned a new generation of startup who combined business and technology innovation to disrupt the status quo.
Simply put, now is not the time to be timid!
Right now, we are entering a very uncertain time. Investors are clearly and publicly tightening their wallets (I wont be the 10,000 blog to post a link to the Sequoia pitch) and quite rightly encouraging their portfolio companies to cut back. The natural reaction for any company is to hang on to their existing strategy, take a more hands on approach to execution (CEO as chief sales guy) and try to weather the storm – be it 6 months or 2 years.
The challenge is that recessions slow things down. Customers wait to start buying cycles, existing buying cycles get delayed and phantom buying cycles happen more often. In a recession, its less likely that an existing startup company will actually be able to carve out a viable market position with their current offering. The simple reality is that lengthening the adoption cycle both gives bigger companies time to respond and ups the odds that a new disruptive innovation will appear in the form of next-gen start-ups. The technology adoption curve gets elongated. Simply put, timing changes.
Start-ups build value by disrupting existing markets and creating new ones. New market dynamics should be met with new business strategies. Products, go to market strategies and economic models need to be re-thought. This is the reality of markets. Unfortunately, recession forces us to face this reality at the most inopportune time – when money is tight and often when we are scaling back on our plans, reducing spending and cutting staff. Exploring new strategies at this point is not easy. However, each downturn has spawned a new generation of startup who combined business and technology innovation to disrupt the status quo.
Simply put, now is not the time to be timid!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
I'll be keeping my Blackberry
Wow, how things have changed when it comes time to phone home.
In 1977, I bummed a quarter, walked to the pay phone, called the operator with the borrowed quarter, reversed the charges and phoned home.
Today is a bit different.
I hear word across the family room that my recently off-to-college daughter is online on Facebook. This tells me she is in her dorm room and near communications gear. Important because I'm not part of her facebook network (see http://devriestechblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/facebook-effect.html for why).
So, I send her a short text message which gets a near immediate reply. The mouse has taken the cheese. I have a Blackberry which means I tend to send text messages longer than most emails. I reply with a good beefy message...and shortly the phone rings.
"hi peanut. Great to hear from you. Whats up?" said dad.
"Your text messages are too long. I had to call." replied daughter.
Game, set, match to dad!
In spite of the the great features on the iPhone, I'll be keeping my Backberry thank you very much.
In 1977, I bummed a quarter, walked to the pay phone, called the operator with the borrowed quarter, reversed the charges and phoned home.
Today is a bit different.
I hear word across the family room that my recently off-to-college daughter is online on Facebook. This tells me she is in her dorm room and near communications gear. Important because I'm not part of her facebook network (see http://devriestechblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/facebook-effect.html for why).
So, I send her a short text message which gets a near immediate reply. The mouse has taken the cheese. I have a Blackberry which means I tend to send text messages longer than most emails. I reply with a good beefy message...and shortly the phone rings.
"hi peanut. Great to hear from you. Whats up?" said dad.
"Your text messages are too long. I had to call." replied daughter.
Game, set, match to dad!
In spite of the the great features on the iPhone, I'll be keeping my Backberry thank you very much.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Microsoft Irrelevent?
The headline of the attached article "GE Drops Google, Selects Zoho" , while quite interesting missed (or perhaps captures) the bigger story. Ok - this is a big deal. One of America's greatest corporations has selected upstart Zoho over tech. titan Google for an enterprise wide, 400,000 desktop rollout of a solution.
We are talking about a major desktop (you might say office) software decision and Microsoft doesn't even get mentioned.
Ouch.
We are talking about a major desktop (you might say office) software decision and Microsoft doesn't even get mentioned.
Ouch.
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