SalesFounders - Startup Sales Strategy, Venture Capital, Entrepreneur, and Sales Development

Efficient and scalable sales growth is the common goal of every startup. My guest, Trish Bertuzzi, is the best-selling author of the Sales Development Playbook and President of The Bridge Group. Trish joins us this week to discuss account-based marketing, outbound strategy, and how to survive the early stages of sales development. 

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There is more to a viral marketing strategy than a great product or a clever tag line. With so much noise in market, it has become increasingly difficult to connect your message with your target audience. My guest, Jace Vernon has the solution to this problem. Jace is the founder of both YDraw and MarketingHy.  YDraw is a white board video and animation company helps companies find a better way to tell the story behind their product or service. MarketingHy is a full-service digital marketing agency which helps companies deliver that story to their target audience.

On this episode, we explore the challenges that most startups face when it comes to telling their story and engaging their customers. We’ll talk about the 5 steps of a viral marketing strategy, effective content and email copy, a system for finding your customers, and a simpler way for startups to approach the daunting task of marketing. Your story is the bridge across the sales gap so buckle up as we take a dive into the the world of story-telling with Jace Vernon. Jace, welcome to SalesFounders. 

LinkedIn has become a powerful platform for entrepreneurship. Whether your objective is exposure or lead generation, LinkedIn should be a key ingredient of your sales growth strategy. My guest this week is nationally recognized linked in expert Yakov Savitskiy. Yakov is the founder of Linked Lead enteprises and joins me to explore 10 ways you can leverage linkedin to develop or accelerate sales growth. We talk about things like the 3 P’s of a great profile, 8 Publisher best practices, how to be more visible to your target audience, and how to use Linkedin in your sales funnel.

A deep dive into the apparel industry to talk about the massive disruption that is changing the way we interact with brands and apparel. My guest Matt Falcinelli, is the founder of TheDrop.com. Matt has leveraged more than 20 years of industry experience to prepare for what will be the iTunes of the apparel industry. On this episode we talk about the 5 ingredients of his go to market strategy. Social Influencers, Conversion funnel story telling, leveraging data, drawing on past domain experience, and learning from the customer.  There is a reason TheDrop has oversubscribed their first round and how they plan to revolutionize the apparel industry is worth a listen. 

These 4 traits are consistent among top performing sales executives and entrepreneurs. A segment taken from a keynote at Armor Pest Defense.

Luis Congdon went from sleeping on couches to making a six figure income through podcasting. This week on SalesFounders, we talk about why podcasting is such a powerful medium to establish authority and trust. We talk about how to leverage podcasting to find and qualify customers and how guest appearances can help you sell product and establish market presence. Luis is a podcast and social-selling guru and I am honored that he took time to let us in to his secrets to driving sales growth through podcasting. 

For more information, visit www.salesfounders.com/blog

1. Confidence:  Believe in yourself, your product, and your customer. Selling can be intimidating. Focus on the outcome and where you already have confidence. 
2. Assumptive:  You’re always closing –  success starts with the belief that you have already won. 
3. Preparation:  Know your value, rebuttals to customer objections, and integrate several closes into your sales flow. 
4. Initiative:  Be proactive, work hard, and ask for your customers’ business. Selling is a numbers game. 
5. Persistence:  You’ve got to fight for success. Don’t give up after the first or second rejection.
6. Control: It’s your job to build rapport and lead the customer to the goal. Controlling the conversation is key to closing sales. 

The most expensive capital a founder will ever raise is the first round of equity. An early equity round can be a harsh reality check for a founder considering whether to bootstrap or face dilution. The good news is there are other options to consider. In fact, there are ways for early stage startups to obtain funding without having to sacrafice equity. One approach is called Revenue Based Financing (RBF), and happens to be the  specialty of my guest, Chris Russell. 

Chris has extensive experience as both an operator and investor; having been involved with dozens of startups. Chris founded GSD Capital in 2010 to invest in early-stage Mountain West startups. He was also the founder of WestHost where he grew the company to 80,000 clients in over 130 countries by the time it was sold to the UK2Group in 2008. 

On this episode we explore the concept Revenue Based Financing. How does it work? Who is it for? And why is it such an appealing alternative to early-stage debt financing or venture capital? We also explore the dynamics of the best founding teams, the metrics investors look for in a winning startup, and the surprisingly truth about what matters most when pitching to an VC.

As a follow-up to the 4 Pillars of Online Marketing, this week's Mastery episode focuses on how to pick the right marketing and SEO firm for you business, as well as what you should expect for results and costs. Without a background in web development and SEO, it is extremely difficult for entrepreneurs to create a competitive online presence. At some point, you will need to enlist some professional help to build a powerful lead-generating engine. As you consider your options, here are a few expectations and warnings signs to guide you in your decision.  

For more information, visit www.salesfounders.com

Online marketing is one of the most cost effective strategies to attract leads and drive revenue. The challenge is that most entrepreneurs get it wrong as they attempt to develop it themselves. This week, Voxxy Marketing founders, Michael Clark and Justin Taylor join me to explore the 4 key components to your online presence: your website, content, SEO, and paid strategies. We walk through the steps to leverage each component into a cohesive strategy that will have a magnetic impact on your target audience.