Data-Driven Creative

I get really excited when I have the opportunity to meet with innovative people making ideas come to life, but I think an equal part of me dies when the “office” location is uncomfortable (e.g., too noisy, crowded) or awkward (e.g., too much sun to see a computer screen).

One of the movements I have fully embraced (and couldn’t support more) is shared work space as the solution to a poor experience that a coffee shop, however frugal, may provide.

Some things to consider for making the right impression with meetings and choosing your home base:

Location, Location, Location

• Is the location convenient to the person offering value (less than a 15-minute commute)?
• Does the venue feel like a place that represents your company vision (fun, innovative, fast, easy, convenient)?
• Will the person you are meeting be excited about where they are going (do they even drink coffee)?
• Is it away from likely chaos (e.g., avoiding tourist areas)?

Don’t meet someone at a place you are going to for the first time unless you have to.

Some suggestions for “cheap” shared spaces (not coffee shops) in London:

Is the venue flexible?

• Is the venue open when you want to meet? (Don’t laugh – I have actually showed up to places that aren’t open before 12 p.m. and everyone was surprised.)
• Do they have (stable) wifi and power outlets!?
• Is there room to expand if more possible investors appear than you originally expected?
• Do you have privacy?
• Does the sun blind computer screens or demonstrations?
• Can you avoid street noise?
• Does it feel like you are burning up (if you’re wearing a suit) or freezing to death?
• Do you have cash to cover in case they don’t/can’t take plastic?

Other suggestions/places to meet and work in London:

• http://thecubelondon.com/ (London)
• http://ideas.org/ (London)
• http://kingscross.the-hub.net/public/ (London)
• http://www.theenterprisenebulae.com/ (London)
• http://www.rentadesk.co.uk/desk-space-london-soho (London)
• http://www.onealfredplace.co.uk/ (London)
• http://thetrampery.com/ (London)
• http://www.lebu.co.uk/ (London)
• http://www.thehospitalclub.com/ (London)
• http://thewerks.org.uk/ (Brighton)

In summary, don’t let the location make the wrong first impression.

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It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me, but I am a very commercially focused person. It is for this reason that a company’s homepage tends to frustrate me when it is presented as a communications channel ahead of being a sales channel (of course, it is both of these things and more, but I believe strongly that order matters for start-ups).

A handful of quick reminders:

1. Nobody reads everything you put up on your website, so prioritise!
2. Just like deciding if a book or movie rental is what you want, your audience scans the content you publish; they don’t read it.
3. The masses will likely click on links and the Back button far more often than making use of the navigation system you designed, let alone any form of advanced search.
4. Not everything can be MTV, so don’t overcomplicate your product just because you think people need more flashy presentation of your value claims.
5. Don’t forget to tell me what you do in five seconds. If you’re lucky, this can be in the domain (e.g. www.diapers.com), but often it will be in the tagline or a very short description (e.g. The source for computing and technology – CNET) and don’t include any company slang, technical language or acronyms unless they’re so widely accepted that you can’t imagine your customers getting confused (e.g. USA).

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I was thinking this morning about how advertisers may use Social Media and how to better illustrate where it fits within existing brand efforts.  I decided I should probably translate some recent whiteboard ramblings to PowerPoint and get some feedback. 

After some trial and error I created the below image.  The hope is to show how brand identity, image, experience and reputation are all related and where social media begins to support a brand’s existing investment in keeping each of these concepts (identity, image, experience and reputation) healthy.

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The Middle East and North Africa are regions that I currently work with and enjoy very much. Like many of the markets I engage with, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), there are needs for products and services, but the success of my effort is tied as much to an ability to navigate the local business culture as to my ability to talk about a product or service.

Step one for me when I am starting to work with any new market is to learn a few basic words and phrases. I suggest the phrases below as a starting point for the UAE.

To greet someone – “As-salam alaikum,” which means “peace be upon you”.
In reply – “Wa alaikum as-salam,” which means “and upon you be peace”.
Please – “Min fudlek”.
Thanks – “Shukran”.
Goodbye – “Ma salamaa”.

I always think about what to wear – it matters. For the UAE it is critical to be respectful i.e. conservative. In Dubai, you have a lot of freedom but, if you want to blend in, I would suggest dark colours for men and, for women, nothing that would let your grandmother give you a “you represent the family” speech. I always wear a suit and tie, which is what I would recommend to anyone else in a similar position (a Westerner). I think it’s important to realize that, while I was encouraged to wear more conservative colours, it didn’t impact the actual style of clothes I wore (i.e. I didn’t feel any pressure to localize my wardrobe). One thing to note is that it is often hotter than any other place you have been (I believe my trip in July was at almost fifty degrees Celsius, so be conscious of the fabrics and how they will handle perspiration).

You will be likely to do business with many people from diverse backgrounds (it goes without saying that the size of the expatriate community in Dubai trumps the local one). A handshake is a typical business greeting but if you are meeting a female UAE national you should wait for her to extend her hand to you before extending yours. Don’t be offended if someone doesn’t raise their hand to you but simply smiles. Also, it wouldn’t be uncommon for men to kiss each other on the cheek as a sign of respect so don’t be surprised if this occurs during a greeting.

After the traditional greeting you will most likely want to think about building rapport. There will be lots to talk about in Dubai as it is a very impressive city – I remember sharing how I walked in the world’s biggest mall past the world’s biggest indoor acquarium to eat in front of the world’s biggest outdoor fountain show underneath the world’s biggest building. With all this to talk about you should have no difficulty keeping clear of sensitive subjects like female members of anyone’s family even in casual conversation i.e. wives and daughters.

You will then start the meeting – don’t be surprised if you are asked what you would like to drink as you start with emphasis. The Middle East is very hospitable and these rituals for getting to know each other in the form of tea and coffee are critical. Note: you would be wise not to refuse (at least the first offer) – it would be considered rude.

Accept that you will need to HAVE a relationship in order to do real business.

After drinks are served and you have started, you need to be prepared for disruptions and distractions. During the meeting don’t be surprised to see someone use their data or voice plan and definitely don’t take it personally, it is part of the culture. Also, don’t expect your meetings to be just you and the decision maker. There will most likely be unannounced colleagues so don’t be surprised and don’t be startled if the most senior person who you wanted to meet with is not the most vocal.

Finally, don’t forget to read as much as you can about your destination before you go. If you have some context for the cutlure and the history of where you are going, such as the UAE, it will go a long way.

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I try and have 2–4 meetings per week at happy hours or on the weekend with early-stage companies in central London (it keeps me alive). I don’t have a lot of time to spare, so I try and prepare myself and the company in order to make the most out of the session. I am responsible to at least look at the website, and in a formal session make sure that the company has identified 3–5 specific items they want to discuss. I always suggest they bring a limited number of printouts of anything we can jointly sketch on if the session is product focused, Excel if operationally focused, or other visual elements that help us avoid starting from the very beginning. 

The sketched-on elements help assemble the summary action points from our discussion after it has taken place. This is critical because most entrepreneurs, no matter their intentions, tend to get “high” on advice and talking about their idea, but then they often forget to write it down in a way that makes sense to them afterwards. They also take far too many notes, but that is for another post.

Here are some tips and tricks I use (and recommend) to startups for note-taking:

Colour code – Facts (black ink), Illustrations (red ink) and Opinions (blue ink).

Facts – Sourced truths that you can reference. If someone uses a percentage or number, make sure to ask where you might reference it formally in order to broadcast it. If they are not sure, it becomes an opinion (or a Google quest). 

Opinions – Inferences that are based on personal or professional experiences. Sometimes (especially when you haven’t figured out that not everyone is an expert), opinions will sound like facts, but try to establish whether the person has demonstrated enough context for you to decide this is qualified advice (you don’t have to do this on the spot).

Illustrations – Examples of how a point (opinion or fact) comes to life. These are the most valuable to me because the examples offered are often the proven way the expert you are speaking with has won, when illustrating what you are trying to convey.

In addition to colour, I also make sure to use different font sizes. The larger the font, the more important but also punctuated the point is for me, whereas smaller font notes are considered background details – and quickly become so, relative to larger font items.

The final challenge is to go back and potentially rewrite some of your notes in a more organised fashion. Ask yourself if the information you have written down is timely, relevant and (most importantly) credible. Don’t be afraid to disregard some pieces until you hear them more than once (you typically will for good advice), and good luck!

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According to the all knowing Wikipedia “thinking outside the box” is “to think differently, unconventionally or from a new perspective”. That sounds positive for start-ups, right?  

The entry goes on to say “To think outside the box is to look further and try not to think of the obvious things, but try and think beyond that”. I think this is a dangerous direction for early- stage companies to take and I also think that the obvious things are those that help you really develop your core. Let me give you an example with what I think about when starting a new revenue stream leveraging CRM tools. I am a religious user of Salesforce.com which has many (cheaper or free) competitors; the important part is that you don’t try and manage your efforts in a way that are not scalable (e.g. your inbox) from the beginning. You would be surprised at how many people slow down the entirety of their business because of the lack of early sales organization and the amount of pain (cost) that comes from trying to organize it much later. So, beyond keeping contact details, what should I use this system to do? Associate certain detail with accounts and opportunities that help organize you now to scale later. Here are a few key attributes I assign to both Accounts (Prospects) and Opportunities (Potential sales):

Account/Prospect Level

Status (Active, Prospect, Inactive) I want to know (and you should too) who I am working with, who I should be working with and who I have worked with, but don’t any more. How might you apply this field? Great sales estimations (# of prospects multiplied by average purchase point = sales potential which can help you know if you are staffed correctly or even have enough bandwidth to support the aftermath), client service estimations (# of active clients divided by number of client service people available will give you a number to see if you can still delight your key clients with the right level of service), etc.

Vertical/Industry/Category (respectively – e.g. Advertiser/Automotive/Large Publisher) I want to know into which channels I should be dumping monies in order to build awareness, capture leads and generate more business. How might you apply this field? Show a potential investor how you have shaped your resources against the most profitable industries. Start to think about, not just who gives you the highest order value, but also how costs associate with different types of clients!

Opportunity Level

There is a lot we could cover here but for today I want to focus on two data points: business type (new vs renewal) and stage (where they have reached in the sales process).

I know that many people will add detail into the type of business (“up-sell” or “cross-sell”) and I think in some businesses it makes sense, but I would hesitate to think about it right away. Some key metrics I use to evaluate business are whether their new-client pricing is on the rise or fall (are they priced correctly) and if it falls or rises with renewal (are clients seeing more value or are we delivering to encourage repeat business).

Sales process is something I would try to keep simple but if you don’t know at least how long it takes someone to get through each stage then you may be unrealistic about how fast you’ll get cash. Here is one that I implement often:

1. New Prospect
2. Solutions Presented/Demo
3. Proposal
4. Trial (not in every deal)
5. Negotiating Conditions
6. Verbal/Email Accept
7. In Legal/Procurement
8. Won Deal (also Lost Deal as an option)

I look for how long it takes to get from one phase to the next (number of days for each sales person and average against product), where deals drop off, and then assign weighted probabilities (% likely to close) that help me estimate where I’ll be at the end of the quarter. Note: this is the order I look at for new business and I assume a separate weight/stage for deals/clients that are up for renewal.

I hope this helps add perspective and, as always, I’m looking forward to questions or comments.

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I think this question was on the tip of many tongues at the recent seedcamp London event but few even realized they should be asking it. The answer is straight forward but normally gets lost in describing technical details or the “disruptive” nature of a product in order to justify someone investing (which is not well suited to force the action of purchase).

Any guesses? It is when your prospect/client thinks they can’t get a better deal.

Instead of trying to arm you with techniques to sell (for now) I wanted to point out what methods intelligent buyers might use to see how far you’ll go to give them a rock bottom price*. You should be conscious of these efforts and avoid dropping prices even though you think it will make someone be more engaged with you, your product or your company. The short unspoken truth is that deals are rarely lost purely on price and if someone is buying purely on price then it may not be the right client for you.

If you become aware of the methods below being applied, and you don’t feel an impulse to adjust your proposition except for price, you should think about having someone else respond to the sales interest for your product.

*The best buyers will intuitively know when to not let unpractised sellers go so low they can’t support the deal.

Methods to expect:

Now you see it, now you don’t – This is when the buyer will lavish you with positive feedback, use all sorts of buying language and then say they will probably go with someone else (or some annoying equivalent). The important thing here is to not take it personally and especially not to react emotionally. Anyone who has bought anything with their own money has done this at least once to the seller (you included – think cars, houses, flats, etc.) and so you know that it’s just a test to see if you are really sharing the best possible offer.

Bottom Up Negotiations – Be prepared to have buyers leverage the weakest contender they are evaluating against you. This means that you should be prepared to stare down not just the competition’s proposition (cheap price) but probably also the proposition of the competitor you see as the worst fit for the buyer’s needs. This means you should have already thought about what major value differences (not aesthetic) the buyer would understand between your two propositions, and stick to them.

Sunshine smiles – This is the hardest thing to spot in a buyer because they are projecting enthusiasm at you even though they know they don’t want to buy from you. They need you to stay engaged to leverage your proposition against the person they really want to buy from. A quick test for this is checking how much, throughout your calls and meetings, the buying timeframe presented back to you stays consistent. A quick defence to this is coming right out and calling the buyer; asking them if there is still any reason to continue the discussion is a delicate tactic to use but an effective one.

The ghost competitor – Even if you know you are the right fit and you feel like there is great value you are delivering there will always be talk of this elusive “other offer”. The logic is simple: if a buyer can convince a seller there is someone else they will never pay the asking price. Be looking for signs in the buyer’s language of your competitors’ pitch, and keep looking – you can often spot at what point a competitor has been eliminated before the buyer will admit it by just knowing the level of technical understanding a company has of a competitor’s product.

I hope this helps to start preparing you for your sales journey and would welcome any suggestions and feedback.

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I was recently discussing with a global product manager a formula for slide elements that helps make PowerPoint (PPT) slides more effective to a buying audience.  The elements won’t apply to all products and services but I do believe it helps avoid some of the big traps such as demonstrations captured on-screen and dubbed sales- or pitch-decks. 

The four elements that I use to structure each PPT slide:

1. The Message
2. The Visual
3. The Proof Point
4. The Story

If these four elements cannot be clearly identified it may be worth skipping the slide (I rarely, if ever, have more than 15 slides in any presentation – you should be able to be selective).

The Message – This is the punch line (hopefully resembling your title) that you are trying to convey.  A test to see if you have a clear message is to write down only one phrase inspired by the slide and see if it is what you are “proving” with the other visual or text components.  If you ask a friend and they don’t give you the phrase back the way you wrote it then you may have a miss; if you feel you are getting defensive or frustrated because “they don’t get it” then you need to reset and try until your critical 10 testers do understand (see earlier post).  Most of the time it is your mistake not theirs so don’t let being a disruptor cause you to make fundamental communication mistakes – there is a big difference between your product’s position in the market in relation to competitors (good to disrupt) and how you communicate it.  I try to always make sure that the message connects to one of three things with a company: making money, saving money or making business life easier.  For example, “We, Company X, can improve conversion rate with this Service/Product”.  Try and not complicate the message by trying to force in a proof point.

The Visual – The visual is the illustration of the value of the message (not how you quantify it so don’t try and squeeze in overly detailed graphs).  I believe a visual should capture action and drive momentum for the presentation, not try to force people to have to slow down and have a debate about your product.  Also, for a PPT presentation try and move left to right and not get erratic with your flow.  If you can’t easily fit an illustration on the slide don’t use it, instead bring a small number of print-outs (I use a print and electronic presentation combination all the time and it is effective to emphasize key processes – it also helps people stay engaged by changing mediums; I use A4 or 8.5×11 paper).

BIG NOTE: You should rarely use a full screen capture on a PPT slide – it’s messy and unfocused while being hard to read and it doesn’t leave room for other elements.  Save the true full screen visuals for an actual demo.     

The Proof Point – This is the quantifiable way a client should measure the value of your offering.  This will be the way you see clients making more money, saving more money or having easier lives.  Proof points will come in the form of hard metrics such as increased time spent, lower cost of acquisition, etc.  You should point to micro-testimonials if you are lucky enough to have them – “Average client sees X% increase in conversion rate” or, as a minimum, show the formula to justify it to a contract-signer – “if my product X increases conversion rate by Y% then you make Z more”.  This is why having a “case study” is so critical because real data even in alpha/beta mode sounds better than hypothetical.  Proof points also act as a trigger to see what metrics really help someone buy at an organization so make sure you are not always forcing yours on someone but rather listening to see if they mirror your thinking for decision nodes.

The Story – The sound byte(s) that could be carried away by the buyer combining the three previous elements that connect your solution to RECENT events or news.  A great story will elevate the pitch to a senior company-wide (not department-wide) audience.  Stories may be just a rephrasing of your direct message but with a bit of emotion or enthusiasm and even have a loose relationship to what is on the forefront of executive thinking.  I recently read at http://badpitch.blogspot.com/ a valuable mantra “you have to know the news to make the news”, which is why you need to understand what’s happening with the whole company (outside of what you want to apply your product to) in order to make it sing to everyone else (and get embedded).  If you can’t find anything about the company then including how this improves their position against industry news or metrics will be almost as effective.

I didn’t include any sample slides because I don’t want to bias or overstate these suggested guidelines. Good luck and I would welcome any suggested improvements or comments.

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”My” definition of  a complex sale (process) is a sale that takes more than one person to say ”Yes”.  To avoid this trap focus on simplifying your initial offering (try to avoid bringing in technical buyers), adjust price points* (below a signer’s threshold), provide more of a partner than a client scenario (meaning you give them some value that would be less typical for a ”normal” client relationship),  etc.

* This does not mean just discount stuff it should mean less product for less money.

Warning signs of approaching a complex sale (or a reality check that your sales efforts are not as simple as they should be):

• The buying process is not 100% clear
• You are not the only person pitching
• You are not sure exactly what to pitch (to whom)
• Junior users, senior signers OR junior signers and senior visibility

The buying process is not 100% clear – Call me old fashioned but in every non-commodity sale that I make, I take two minutes and write down a visual of no more than two key steps: proof of concept pitch (what helps me know exactly what to say) and closing pitch (who it needs to be said to).  Here is an example:

You are not the only person pitching – I am a big believer that having competition is a good thing, but not knowing how you are different and trying to compete with a legacy relationship becomes political. Politics often means an expensive sales process, so differentiate or die. If you can’t figure out how to sound different enough to show incremental value you need to step back and think about product fit, or at least your pitch to this client.

You are not sure exactly what to pitch (to whom) – This should be a game stopper.  Use your network, colleagues, friends and family to understand the value you bring (not valuable commercial meetings).  You NEED to be able to map benefits against three (my suggestion) concepts – how a company makes money, saves money or how you can make their life easier.  Perhaps this visual might help:

If you can’t do this I would suggest finding a resource that can help you.

Junior users, senior signers OR junior signers and senior visibility – You can’t always avoid this but know which type of scenario you are in if it happens.  I won’t spend a ton of time here but know that it’s all about being transparent and making sure that both parties can understand your point, which is a tough balance of high level business objective value (see last diagram) with making life easier for the end user value (see last diagram).

Hope this helps – Looking forward to comments, builds or links in the comments to other articles people think are useful.

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I enjoyed my second time mentoring at Seedcamp this week. Although this should be my last time for a while, I’ll be looking to stay involved in other ways and am always available to meet in London so please do look me up. Before I forget, I wanted to capture a few thoughts for future teams:

• 98% of everything is confidence, so long as the remaining 2% is not arrogance. Most teams balanced this well, but those that didn’t came across as either not hungry for resources or not coachable if given resources – neither one of these things is really a good impression to make.
• Avoid all-inclusive statements like ‘we are the only ones to …’ or ‘we are the first to…’ The world is a big place and smart people are creating things all the time, everywhere. Focus on showing that your idea is dynamic, your team is accountable and you are conscious of competition.
• Try and know who your first big clients could/should be.
• If you can’t think of who your first clients should be, then know who your competitors’ clients are and why.
• Many people asked how to scale/automate the sales process to thousands, but weren’t really sure what could be the single relationship that resulted in strategic/bulk sales. Think about this. For example, if I am selling optimized landing pages (wink wink) then I probably don’t want to try and sell to the million small businesses that would use them but rather find one network (perhaps a directory company) and get them to sell the service, take a cut, and be done with it.
• Know that someone will probably ask how much money you ‘need’ – try and think really hard about this before you dismiss it. There were 40+ VCs in the room with cheque books and if you don’t know, it’s just one fewer thing they can qualify you with. A way to think about ‘how much do you need’ is to try and answer the question ‘If you got X dollars/euros/GBP, what would you do with it?’ See how your answer changes from 100K to 250K to 1,000,000. My suggestion is that you start coming down from the number when your plans include you signing leases for offices or employing your friend in the business at a market-rate salary for what they do (especially non-technical/non-coding friends). I think a range will at least get you started and should keep you focused on activities that build value for customers.
• If you can’t answer exactly how you would spend rocket fuel (VC money), I might say ‘build this idea into a pilot format and get us in front of three to five critical first clients’ (which I would say by name). Then, hopefully, they would ask why they are critical and then weave your business story in, with the hope that whoever asks then starts taking the role of co-author (and you learn something valuable about what they might value in your business). Making your idea someone else’s idea is a profitable skill if you want to get funded and can keep your ego in check.
• You need introductions to powerful buyers, but you would like money to build something first. There’s no question that the conversation is easier with a product, but it’s not impossible without one.
• Know who you are talking to during the follow-up…. The first week after the meeting will often be when you exchange the most emails. I use a program called Xobni, which looks at an email address and pulls from LinkedIn/FBook etc. a person’s picture (and exposes their extended network). If you are lucky enough to receive an email from someone willing to help, make sure you start really internalizing who they are (and hopefully be able to connect them with what they say they offered to do). Here is an example of what I see when someone sends me an email:

• Final thought: don’t ride the roller coaster. Seedcamp is a great venue with lots of people that want to help: some will follow through and others won’t. Don’t believe that your success is dictated by anyone but you. If something doesn’t work out but you remain focused, other things will.

Good luck and I’ll be eager to hear other thoughts, comments and builds.

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