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How to Hire Software Sales Superstars
He Was Trying to Sell Me a Cell Phone Case, but I Wanted to Hire Him Instead Sales Superstars are rare and you have to look hard to find them. Be open to your opportunities because sometimes they show up in the oddest places. For example, one very cold Saturday in December, I was at the Natick mall and wandering through the kiosks. A young man approached me and asked me: “Do you know that the average cell phone case lasts only about a year and that all the radiation from the phone is actually amplified and aimed at your body?” (He’s right about the “year part,” but
Using SaaS Agent Programs to Build Revenues for Your Company, Part II of II
You also mentioned new marketing programs for your agent program. Do you have an example? Yes, an “ascension” program. This is a very powerful addition to your marketing mix, but your agent channel needs to be up and running before you implement it. An ascension program consists of the following elements: An existing agent pays to become a mentor to other agents. I suggest when you initiate the program, you start with a beta group of your best agents. The mentor takes 10 new agents under their wing and tutors and manages them for a year. During this time, the
Using SaaS Agent Programs to Build Revenues for Your Company, Part I of II
Let’s step through the process. Can you provide a basic framework? Yes. First, don’t start your agent program too soon. As we both know, a new company should focus on learning about how to market and sell to its core customers. I recommend you begin to implement your program when you reach 1K subscribers. Why existing subscribers. Aren’t most of these people working for a company? Don’t they have jobs? There are a couple of reasons. The first is you want to make sure this pilot succeeds and is well reviewed by the participants. You’ll learn the most and receive
An Interview with Daniel Kottke, the Man Who Built Some of Steve Jobs’ First Macintoshes (and Witness to the Last Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field)
Where did you go next? To a company called Think Unlimited, now Echelon. It was founded by Mike Markkula, Apple’s third founder. Mike is a gadget freak and had seven homes, so he wanted to create what’s now called a smarthome, controlled by smart remotes, build smartphones, etc. Think created a networking system for homes and buildings that would integrate lighting, HVAC, AV, etc. I built an emulator rack for testing their “neuron” chip, a controller designed to work with their LonWorks topology and proprietary network protocol. I worked at Think for two years, then Mike brought in Ken Oshman
A Lifetime of Regret: A Post Mortem of Steve Jobs the Movie
Let’s deal with some movie review basics right now. First, the acting. Is it good? Yes, it is. The film’s lead, Michael Fassbender, an Irishman of German background, is currently one of the cinema’s finest thespians. I know this because Michael from time to time shows up in X-Men movies playing a young version of Magneto, King of the Evil Mutants. (Ian McKellen, when’s he’s not palling around with Hobbits as Gandalf, normally plays Magneto, the Post Social Security Years.) When I first experienced the actor emoting during an X-Men film, he was staring at a green screen grimacing powerfully
Operating Income 2016, The Softletter Benchmark 53 (Softletter subscriber-access only)
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”off” custom_width_px=”1080px” custom_width_percent=”80%” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” disabled=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”off” custom_width_px=”1080px” custom_width_percent=”80%” use_custom_gutter=”off” gutter_width=”3″ allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”on” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”on” parallax_3=”off” parallax_method_3=”on” parallax_4=”off” parallax_method_4=”on” disabled=”off”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_post_title admin_label=”Post Title” title=”on” meta=”on” author=”on” date=”on” date_format=”M j, Y” categories=”on” comments=”on” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”below” parallax_effect=”on” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”left” text_color=”dark” text_background=”off” text_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1px” border_style=”solid” disabled=”off”] [/et_pb_post_title][et_pb_text admin_label=”Operating Income 2016, The Softletter Benchmark 53, (Softletter subscriber access)” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_style=”solid” disabled=”off” border_color=”#ffffff”] About the Softletter Benchmark 53 We have completely revamped our Benchmark 50, now the Benchmark 53, to reflect the profound
Zwivel: A Case of SaaS Making You Look Good (no, literally)
A Softletter Mobile Applications Business Case Study Company Zwivel LLC HQ 45 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus, NJ 07652 Market/Industry Health Care/Cosmetic Medicine Company Principals Gary D. Breslow, MD and CEO, Scott Kera, COO Founded/Years in Business Founded 2012; Launched January 2015 Company Development Type Privately held, privately funded % of Revenue Growth Over Last Years 15 Notable Customers Rod Rohrich, MD, prominent plastic surgeon in Dallas, Texas and Editor of Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Grant Stevens, MD, prominent plastic surgeon in California, Paul Nassif, MD, prominent facial plastic surgeon in California and star of TV show Botched, Yan Trokel, MD, –
Beyond SaaS: The Rise of the Device Independent Platform and the Portable Workspace, Part II of II
Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman, Softletter Managing Editor Who Will Build the Portable Workspace? There are three technology giants currently maneuvering for the strategic high ground in the platform war about to break out, Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Secondary players include Samsung, possibly a variant of Linux, or maybe an international contestant such as China’s COS (yet another Linux variant). Oracle in the past has dabbled in the OS market, but we suspect they’ll be focusing on snatching up key layers in the device independent stack, particularly anything to do with data and data interchange and the drive to “normalize the cloud,” as
Beyond SaaS: The Rise of the Device Independent Platform and the Portable Workspace, Part I of II
How Will the Device Independent Platform Be Built? Building the Portable Workspace Several different architectural models are now beginning to jostle for position in the architecture. They include: SaaS interfaces. Google and companies such as InfoStreet are examples of the SaaS approach. This model uses a browser to set up and maintain a cloud-based desktop. This approach has a great deal to recommend it, but browser-based applications can have performance and connectivity issues and often rely on underlying hardware to print, move files, etc. Also, browser-based applications are very different from hardware-specific smartphone apps written to the device. Running emulators
Softletter Case Study: Selling When You’re Dancing SaaS to SaaS
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_post_title admin_label=”Post Title” title=”on” meta=”on” author=”on” date=”on” categories=”on” comments=”on” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”below” parallax_effect=”on” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”left” text_color=”dark” text_background=”off” text_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” /][et_pb_text admin_label=”Softletter Case Study: Selling When You’re Dancing SaaS to SaaS” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] SaaS companies are conspicuous consumers of SaaS services themselves; no great surprise since who better would know the value of the model? And it would seem logical to believe that one SaaS company selling to another would have natural advantages closing sales. That’s sometimes the case, but we’ve also researched many instances where SaaS firms have had their ears pinned back
MEET THE EDITORS AND EXPERTS
Rick Chapman
Find out more about Rick’s latest book, the latest edition of In Search of Stupidity: Over 40 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters.
John Miller
John has been working in the IT industry since the 1980’s firstly as a Sales and Marketing Director including Techex a global distribution company, Olivetti, Norsk Data and Intergraph
He was a founder member of Delta Channel Services back in 1995 and has since visited over 40 countries consulting, speaking at channel conferences and delivering training workshops
John has launched several SaaS based business, a Non Executive Director to several start ups and is based in the UK
