Josh Duncan
Keep It Simple, Stupid
Last week, our top sales rep told us his secret sauce for repeatedly exceeding his quota. He summarized it as follow: "Look guys, just keep it simple" … Find how who has the money Find out how much they have Sell to them as fast…
Building The Line
It was turning out to be a great year. The product I had planned and launched was hitting the market to fantastic results and the sales team was close to doubling their forecasts. Additionally, the market research that I had spearheaded had resulted in...
What is this About?
Here's a deceptively difficult question for you to ponder (inspired by Steven Pressfield's excellent latest book, "Do the Work"), What is this about? If you are working on developing a new product, can you answer? Can you do it without a ten page PowerPoint deck?…
What Proven Winners Can Teach You: Marketing Lessons from the Garden
Let me start with a little disclaimer: I am not a gardener and I most likely will never be one. While I do visit Home Depot regularly, I spend as little time as possible in the garden section. Over the last few years, the majority...
10 Ways to Cultivate Your Community with Jeremy Epstein
In case you were wondering if there was a secret to marketing, there is, and Jeremy Epstein has figured it out. Step 1, never stop marketing. Step 2, repeat. It is a little bit harder than that but thankfully, Jeremy is a marketing wizard who…
Stop Thinking as a Marketer. Start Thinking as a Publisher.
Earlier this week, I attended the Forrester Technology Marketing Executive Council in San Francisco. The purpose of this spring meeting was to discuss some innovative approaches to improve the effectiveness of marketing programs. While many ideas were shared, the one theme that came back was...
Start with the Customer – The Podcast
Welcome to the first episode of the Start with the Customer podcast! I am a big fan of podcasts and have been listening to several for a couple of years now. You just can't beat the education and the convience of listening on your way...
Windows Phone – The Problem with Coming Late to the Party
Trying to launch a product into a well defined marketplace is not an easy endeavor. Thanks to Microsoft, we have a perfect case study to watch. First off, let's put aside the fact that Microsoft has had a phone operating system for years. Instead, let's...
27 Insights On Social Business – Dachis Group Social Business Summit 2011
Yesterday was the second annual Dachis Group Social Business Summit held in Austin, Texas. The focus of the event was on the opportunities and challenges around social business and what's actually working today. The conference was a full of case studies and advice from...
Why HubSpot is Winning
Disclaimer: I am a converted HubSpot customer. I use their software to increase the number of inbound warm leads and convert more qualified visitors into sales opportunities. They call it Inbound Marketing. I call it my Life Saver Marketing platform. It's easy to use and…
Hey Startup Marketers, Let’s try not to Suck. OK?
Interesting chain of posts this week. First off, Fred Wilson started it with two provocative articles challenging marketing and its effectivness in startups. Fred is obvioulsy taking this very personal: I believe that marketing is what you do when your product or service sucks or...
The Importance Of Owning Your Community
Building a community around your company isn’t an easy challenge but offers the potential of long lasting benefits. I had a chance to speak with Elizabeth Quintanilla on the power of social business and the danger of putting all your eggs inside of...
7 Steps from Ideation to Market Success
I sat down with C.K. Kumar at ProductCamp Austin to hear about his presentation, 7 Steps from Ideation to Market Success. In this video interview, C.K. talks about what the next steps are after you have a great idea to turn it into...
Sales and Marketing: Till Death Do Us Part
I have recently come across some really good analysis on the alignment gap between sales and marketing. In his article "3 Reasons Your Marketing & Sales Departments Aren't Clicking" Carlos Hidalgo is making a critical observation. Marketing and sales organizations typically don't have a common...
Startup Marketing Interview with Rocket Watcher April Dunford
If you haven't seen it, April Dunford, who writes on the Rocket Watcher Blog, has been working on a marketing framework for startups. She has recently released a second version of the framework early in January of 2011. The general idea behind the framework is...
Know Your Customer – Selling Lessons from the Girl Scouts
In honor of all the cookies I have eaten in the last week, here is a little lesson on how to sell like a Girl Scout: I love this humorous reminder of the importance of knowing your customer. You might think you are hanging out...
Finding the Voice of the Customer with Jose Briones
One of the toughest challenges of going to a conference is picking which sessions to attend. Usually, there are time slots during the day when there is nothing jumping and other times where you wish you could be in three places at once. I recently...
Fab 5 Product Marketing Blogs
I have always enjoyed learning and exploring new ideas. However and for quite a long time, I have found it quite hard to find a lot of good reading materials related to the field of Product Marketing. Then came the world of blogs giving...
Harvard Business Review Gone Wrong: When You No Longer Preach What You Teach
Last weekend, while perusing the magazine rack at Barnes and Noble, I noticed that they were now selling full magazine subscriptions to the Harvard Business Review (HBR). I was surprised to see that the in-store price at B&N was only $69. Last time...
Business Wisdom from Drug Dealers – Presentation Recap
One of my favorite presentations from the January ProductCamp Austin was given by John Moore. The presentation was provocatively titled, "Business Wisdom from Drug Dealers", but this was not a link bait trick. John delivered "the goods" while using the movie American Gangster...