My point of view
I've been doing this for 25 years, and have advised, consulted to or been an employee of 23 startups, and I've learned some things
Adapt
Test
Repeat
Brute Force Never Works for Long
Strategy is Everything
Messaging Expresses Strategy
Integrated Digital Sales & Marketing is the Next Frontier
Being Provocative Is Necessary to Challenge the Status Quo
Being experimental with products and sales/marketing is the way to progress
Customer Experience is More Crucial to Success Than Ever
Experience
23 Startups as Employee, Consultant or Advisor
Accomplishments
Personally Penetrated Many Global 2000 Organizations with New Enterprise Tech
Skills
Demand Gen, Messaging Design, Early Client Acquisition, Digital Content Creation. Social Media Exploitation, Negotiations
Influences
The Complex Sale, Challenger Selling, Social Selling, Power Positioning, LEAN
90 Day Go-to-Market Transformation
Go from Confusion to Clarity
Strategy Review & Refinement
3 2-hour sessions in which we review your competitive positioning, market hypothesis, product and messaging
Objective: Validate or revise strategy
Outcome: Power Positioned Messaging and Strategy
Sales Sequence Development
Create all the artifacts required to support a sales campaign. Including first meeting deck, demonstration(s) script, discovery tools, proposals, exec briefing content etc.
Hypothesis Testing and Evolution
Develop market segment and outbound leadgen campaigns to confirm market/product hypothesis. See this as creating a “heat map” of your market and where your opportunity lies.
Pipeline Review & Development
Ongoing coaching on deals and opportunities, supporting you from prospecting to close.
Sale 101 for Enterprise Tech Entrepreneurs
3 2 hr 1-one-1 briefings on enterprise sales. Delivered Online
Skills: Be able to work your way through a sale from start to end.
Understand: How organizations and individuals buy in enterprise B2B
Outputs: Sales Process Design for Your Business
The Terrain In Which We Find Ourselves
Digital B2B Sales & Marketing for Today's Enterprise Technology Sales
Does Calling it “Churn” Make it Okay?
I’m amazed by the failure rate of today’s sales and marketing efforts in enterprise tech firms (startups and more mature companies too). Surveys show that maybe 20% of “marketing qualified leads” are actually leads. Only 1% of of cold calls turn into opportunities. Cold email response rates are even lower. Check the open rates on[…]
Sales is Not a Process – it’s a Game!
B2B Sales is a game played by companies to win new clients. It’s only a “process” when looking through the seller’s eyes. We focus on process too much in B2B sales, which often has us put prospects in a box that doesn’t fit. So, the first thing you have to get is that the buyer is[…]
5 Pro-Tips for B2B Lists: Don’t “build” – Curate!
The definition of a prospect universe is a gating decision for success. Here are some “pro-tips” from someone who’s built a lot of lists: 1. Accuracy counts in B2B – The best trick I’ve learned in the past couple of years is to use a tool like Kickbox.io to verify email addresses. While it only focuses[…]
Enterprise Sales is Dead – Long Live Enterprise Sales!
Enterprise Sales is Dead – Long Live Enterprise Sales! from Glenn Donovan on Vimeo.
Why Enterprise Tech Entrepreneurs Need a Sales Coach
Why Sales Coaching from Glenn Donovan on Vimeo. My POV on why sales coaching is very helpful for enterprise tech entrepreneurs. Fill out and submit the form below to get a FREE ONE HOUR SALES COACHING SESSION! [contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]
The History of Middleware
The history of “Middleware” I’ve recently decided to take a hard look at cloud iPaaS (integration platform as a service) and in particular, Snaplogic due to a good friend of mine joining them to help build their named account program. It’s an interesting platform which I think has the potential to help IT with the[…]
The Enterprise Inbox – A Tragedy of the Commons
“The tragedy of the commons is a term, originally used by Garrett Hardin, to denote a situation where individuals acting independently and rationally according to each’s self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting some common resource.“ (Wikipedia) While the term was initially used to describe the lamentable conditions of[…]
B2B Demand Gen – A Race to the Bottom?
Selling technology solutions to enterprises has always been a contact sport, yet in today’s digital world I think engagement and interactions are far less rich and meaningful than they were in the pre-internet days. It seems we’ve reduced digital engagement to “demand generation”, which looks to me a lot like the worst of consumer direct[…]
The Startup Abyss
The longer I work with enterprise tech startups and later phase emerging technology companies (23 so far as an adviser, consultant or employee), the less certain I am of any particular formula or pattern for success that works from one to another. Yet all around me I see various people hawking their “formula for success”[…]
It’s All About Pull
At what point should an enterprise tech startup begin scaling up a sales team? At what point should it expand into new verticals or adjacent markets? I happen to quite like the ideas embedded in “Lean Startup” techniques, particularly the concept of “product-market fit”. While not a new idea, the term neatly encapsulates that tipping[…]
HOW I WORK
I'm Available As Needed or for Project Work
90 Day Go-To-Market Transformation
USD3000
- Strategy
- Sales Activity Deign
- Market Hypothesis Validation
- Pipeline Development & Review
- Private Online Course - Sales 101 for Entrepreneurs
- "On the Field" Participation in Client Meetings
Sales Coaching
USD175
- Use Me As Needed To Help Move Your Business Forward
- Deal Strategy
- Selling Advice
- Negotiating Advice
- Forecast Review
- Pipeline Development
Project Work
Project Based SOW
- Develop Power Positioning/Messaging
- Strategy Development
- Early Client Acquisition
- B2B Digital Sales & Marketing