Hot answers tagged sales
11
The only thing that really makes a difference in organic SEO matters these days is quality content and links to your site (from other good sites i.e. not mass-ad sites).
I don't know what your business is going to be about but you should think about how to get generating useful content for your users, in a broader sense than only the services that you ...
10
Entrepreneurship is about solving TWO problems: value creation and value distribution.
If you've initially "marketed" to your close friends, then you've never gotten real customers and so you never really distributed your product. That's ok. But let's go straight to the meat: do you have a viable product for which there's a demand?? The best way to tell is ...
6
I'd suggest another approach - talk to prospective customers, share your research with them, and validate your product offering. This customer development model demystifies the "sales process" and breaks "the build it and they (customers) will come" mentality that fails a lot of startups.
Reading a book, reaching out to your customers and integrating their ...
6
Basically, you either need to learn the skills yourself or bring someone in who already has them. This not only applies for marketing but also for finance, capital raising (if necessary), customer service and all the other components that go into making a business work.
If you think you can get the product to market, do that and then plan to hire the skills ...
5
Search for websites that have a supporters page for those who donate: donate.
Submit your site to webpage galleries, app galleries and startup lists.
Submit screenshots of your site to Deviant, Flickr, etc--they also have web site gallery sections...and while the links may be no-follow, people do repost links they like. (There are submission services that ...
5
Software is licensed, and the terms of the license are usually written by the software creator (you), and as long as the recipient has done something positive to accept those terms, courts generally uphold them.
Realistically, you're pretty safe. You're not planning to be insanely negligent, are you? I didn't think so. So stop worrying about this and write ...
4
The kind of software you're talking about generally falls under the heading of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). There are lots of folk out there supplying stuff in this arena. Three names that popup quite a bit:
HighRise http://highrisehq.com/ (small and simple)
SalesForce https://www.salesforce.com (less small and less simple :-)
SugarCRM ...
4
You need to take a look at how you are targeting these facebook adverts. From personal experience of running a car detailed focused e-commerce site we found that Facebook didn't really work very well for us. Conversion rates were always significantly lower than the rates we got from good Google search adverts.
Look at who on Facebook these adverts are being ...
3
From my feeling I would say this customer is a waste of time. Nonetheless I can really understand you don't want to miss an opportunity. I can imagine to do something like that:
create some kind of standard estimation for US users. Create a very general basic setup of your service. So general, everyone could use it. But also so general, everyone would add ...
3
I can only share what I've learned (the hard way), as I'm in the process of working on a product that is applicable to both large and small as well.
The first thing I would ask is, have you validated your assumptions of its applicability to both by asking potential customers from each?
If so, are there fundamental features/functionality that you can ...
3
If you don't know business, you have a lot of work ahead of you. There are a lot of million dollar ideas that never see the light of day for the simple reason that the people who have the idea have no idea how to get them to market. I agree with the above, you need a mentor and advisors. Find someone with grey hair or no hair who has been doing what you ...
3
Software that is only downloaded is an intangible item. Numrous studies have shown that you can increase sales of intangible items by making them tangible- for example adding a picture of a product package increases the sales of software, even though you only deliver it via download.
You can also make your software tangible by displaying screen shots of the ...
3
I would not recommend to call them. First it is very intrusive, second if i had a call from every product's company I had a trial for (consider me now as a SMB guy that tried a lot of tools), I would stop the call very soon because I'm yet on the phone all day..
Here are a few ways to increase your conversion rate:
1) Marketing Intelligence (=automated ...
3
We use the freemium model with success in the enterprise IT software space.
Even though we target companies there are still people making the decision to try our software. All people like free stuff. The freemium model allows them to try the software easily and risk free.
Giving something away for free makes it easier to generate word of mouth and buzz ...
3
Not wanting to join before the product is completed is bit of a red flag.
If you read all the lean startup approaches, customer development is needed to better shape what the MVP would be - as well as the price one would pay. This video quickly describes the pros behind customer development. Identifying problems worth solving and creating a working ...
3
I am not a lawyer, but I do sell software and have been doing so for 35+ years.
If you are in the United states and the people buying your software are in the United States, you can not disclaim all warranties in your license. Many states follow the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and if your state follows that law or you sell to someone in that state that ...
2
I don't think you necessarily need to explain the details of their working relationship with you. Worst case they work 20 - 30 hours a week night and weekends on your projects after they get home from their normal jobs. There are lots of people who sub-contract / moonlight. As long as those resources are actually available to you and work on your clients ...
2
Perhaps you should consider hiring a business student with exlusively variable salary. It doesn't cost you alot and I guess sometimes can bring in even higher motivation level as fixed salary. Offering constant source of revenue in the future (as long companies don't cancel subscription) should be enough to get someone willing to put in their efforts with ...
2
Have you considered facebook advertising? It sounds like it would suit you well. With facebook advertising you can target people based on their profession even if they aren't actually looking for what you have. It's really the key difference in my mind to search engine advertising.
I would also suggest finding any forums that your target audience might be ...
2
Hiring a good sales rep is extremely important when you're developing your business. It is first to find your focus - what you want your sales rep to do for you, whether it's product category or specific distribution channels. A good way to start is to make some research online, and look for qualified, experienced sales reps with the right expertise. Contact ...
2
One option would be to go through an online freelancing agency, like https://odesk.com or https://elance.com. I personally have had poor luck outsourcing labor, but I also tried to do it as cheap as possible. There are many other companies that have had huge success using these sites. Don't be afraid to spend a little more money to get a great worker, and ...
2
Dealer deals with such goods which requires large area to be covered and distribution of goods to different areas,places of the country on a fixed price marked on the products by the manufacturer where goods passes through different stages and sales process i.e. from first stage of manufacturer and finally reaches to the end consumer for example all ...
2
Honestly, forget about using adwords. There is obviously not the volume you need.
You need to ask yourself "Where do engineers go to find information about software?" (I'll give you a clue - it's not Facebook or Twitter.) Talk to a few. They will soon tell you.
Places you could try looking at are:
Sponsoring Industry association events
Trade shows (when ...
2
You say "HR policies prevent us from marketing ourselves while still employed" then end with a question "Any ideas on marketing?"
These two parts are in conflict. Anything you do to market yourself while still employed will be considered as a breach of contract by your HR.
So the real question for you is - are you willing to take the risk and do it ...
2
I think it's a legit question, it's a very targeted problem you have, marketing isn't off topic on the site and its a good situation, try changing the title of the post to make it sound more specific.
As with all marketing there is no formula, just principals to apply and try.
To answer you..
Your situation in that you can promote yourselves, can you ...
2
Option 1:
Calculate a simple average of account revenues. When a prospect asks for a "general" estimate, send them that number and the services that come with. If the number sounds too large, check standard deviations and reduce it accordingly to sound more realistic.
Option 2:
Crunch the numbers on your services to find out which ones are used by the ...
2
I don't know details of your situation but it seams to me we have a cart before horses case here.
To use an example, you might be also asking:
What should be the minimum force to open a car door (because people are lazy) so they would buy the car
I perfectly agree with you that forms longer than absolute minimum can have a negative impact on ...
2
Read your employment agreement! You can get yourself not only fired, but also sued.
It is very likely there are provisions in there that preclude you from doing what exactly you are trying to do. I don't have long lost count number of times my friends and acquaintances have gotten into hot waters with that.
Bottom line: find a lawyer and spend couple ...
2
I would be very careful you are not in breach of contract with your employer first - check your work contract and rules you have agreed to abide by - you may well find that setting up a rival company or working for a competitor, even for a period after your employment ends, may be contractially barred.
You may also have issues with a second job or working ...
2
When starting out with SEO for a new web site you need to understand the basic strategy, goals, metrics and finally tasks that will deliver you the desired results. Understanding the basics will help you decide if you should do it yourself or hire a consultant/firm to do it for you.
There are 2 main activity tracks within SEO:
SITE OPTIMIZATION. This is ...
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