Annual reports can tell you
if a company has an early adopter mindset. What can you learn from a financial ? 6
Your story - or the
story of your founding team - can help get you through the doors of enterprises. Britelynx founder, Pete Lalancette, was a military helicopter pilot for 21 years before starting up. Wouldn’t you be curious to meet him? 7
The early adopters that get
the new iPhones are not the same people that go and try the new coffee shop. - Brant Cooper, Lean Author Being an early adopter is not a personality type. 9 “
Meeting people in their work
environment can sometimes lead to great insights. Interviewing IT professionals, Jason Cohen noticed certain magazines on the desk of his prospects. When his product was ready, he advertised in that magazine to great success. 10
Finding where your prospects gather
for pleasure or for work can significantly increase your odds of success. Where do IT executives go to network? 11
Proximity to customers is key.
Moving in with them can be a great idea. Having development teams at client offices, helps you discover customer pains, context of use, stakeholders, underlying needs and enterprise reality. 12
In the long run, the
people that seek problems out-perform the people that seek solutions. Drs. Jacob Getzels and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi proved this theory by following the career of professional artists for over 2 decades. 13
To win, your solution must
be at least 2 times faster, 2 times better and 2 times cheaper than the known alternatives. 14 – Value (Actual or Perception of) = Risk (Perception of) Implementation Score
... though rarely perceived as
a competitor, Excel is almost always an actual competitor for software startups. “ - Joshua Porter, HubSpot Director of UX If you can't beat the Excel solution, your product will never be a success. 15
Frequency is about the worst
way to pick a problem to address. Cables have been getting tangled up all over the world for decades – it’s a very common problem — but very few people would pay to have that pain removed. 16
To keep your focus, sometimes
it’s best to turn down paying customers. You won’t convince large enterprises to sign with you if all your customers are tech startups. 17
You can generate revenue and
still fail. If revenue is the first form of validation in B2B, (user) engagement is the ultimate form. 18
93% of products that ultimately
became successful started off in the wrong direction. “ - Clayton Christensen, Innovation Author Company pivots are a lot more common than people would think. 19
The average number of attempts
needed to make a sale is eight to ten. If you’re trying to reach C-level executives it's 12 to 14. 21 Persistence is key.
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