I made 15 new cold-calls today.  Of the 15, only one picked up the phone.

It can get pretty discouraging.  ”How am I suppose to sell to someone who won’t pick up my phone calls?”  In a world where our target customers are blasted with advertisements, emails, phone calls, and direct mail, selling can become a real up hill battle.

I wish I could tell you secret techniques that will allow you to increase your sales by 200%!  I wish I could tell you a universal solution for selling to top executives. Unfortunately, these things just don’t exist.

From my personal experience, I have found that consistency, organization, and a positive attitude are the key attributes that a successful businessman has.

What I found after trying the Tim Ferriss method of calling really early in the morning or really late at night

My target customer: Ecommerce Director or Online Marketing Manager of an Ecommerce store

My target customer is just not in the office at those times.  Furthermore, I’ve found that about 15% of the companies that I call send you to a voicemail if you are calling during hours that the office is closed.

Keep in mind that I am still experimenting with this technique.  Because I’m Pacific Time, I’m only able to call companies that are in the Pacific Time Zone during early hours.  I save my after hour calls for the East Coast companies.

What usually happens when I call during business hours

I have found that on average, only 15% of the calls that I make during business hours get answered.  Furthermore, I have found that my target market simply does not return voicemail.

For reference, this is the current voicemail script that I use:

Hi Name,

This is Jun Loayza from Viralogy and we have lead social campaigns for LG, Levi’s, and Victoria Secret.  The reason I’m calling is to set up a call to show you how our platform can increase average order value and conversion rates for Company Name at no upfront cost.

You can reach me at anytime at 714-657-9332.  Thank you very much and I look forward to speaking with you.

I’m constantly evolving the voicemail script and will let you know if I find an optimal script that actually gets returned phone calls.

Though they don’t return my calls, they still listen to my calls

Nearly no one has returned my voicemail; however, when I call someone who I’ve left a voicemail for and they actually pick up the phone, I have nearly a 65% rate in setting up a meeting.  This is HUGELY IMPORTANT!  This means that every voicemail that I leave and is not returned is NOT a failure.  It means that every voicemail I leave is an opportunity for me to follow up with the potential customer and schedule a meeting.

This is why consistency, organization, and a positive attitude are so important.

The method of selling that has worked for me thus far

1. Consistency

Everyday I make 15 new calls.  I need to make these 15 new calls because I constantly need to find new prospects for my business.  Lets break down an example of why you must continuously keep prospecting:

Lets say your sales cycle is 3 months.  If you start calling September 1st, this means you won’t close your first client until November 30th!  If you have a net 30 payment, then this means you won’t see the first paycheck until January 1st!  Yikes!!!

Therefore, if you make calls on September 1st but then stop making calls again until September 15th, then this means your next paycheck won’t come in until January 15th.  The longer you wait to prospect, the more the paycheck will be delayed.  Get the point?

2. Organization

This is the process that I use to sell that has proven successful so far:

1. Every night before I go to sleep, I use Jigsaw to find 15 new prospective clients that I will call the next morning
2. Every morning I call 15 new prospective clients
   • I leave a voicemail if they don’t pick up
3. I update the status of the client on Highrise
   • I mark if I spoke to the client or if I left a voicemail
   • I assign myself to email the Viralogy Deck to the client by the end of the day
   • I assign myself to follow up with a phone call in 3 days
4. I send the info deck before the end of the day
5. I make a follow up call on my assigned day

All this is made possible because I keep myself extremely organized using Highrise and PB Works.

3. Positive Attitude

I made 15 new calls today, and of those 15, only 1 potential customer picked up the phone.  But you know what, I don’t let today phase me because tomorrow is another opportunity to sell my product; furthermore, the voicemail I leave today can turn into sales in the future when I follow up with the potential customer.

You have to learn to love the rejection.  You have to crave it because the more rejections you get, the closer you are to making a sale.

It’s all an attitude.  I know people that get depressed because they made calls for two days straight and they weren’t able to successfully set up a meeting.  If you get depressed after only two days of phone calls, then you need to get out of selling and find a better use for your time.

You know what I do?  I purposely smile and walk around the office while I’m cold-calling prospective clients.  Try it for yourself; I promise it will greatly improve your attitude and your sales will increase  :)

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Like most things in life, there is no secret ingredient to selling.  The only attributes you need are consistency, organization, and a positive attitude.

Thoughts?

1. How many calls do you make a day?
2. What tools do you use to keep yourself organized?
3. How do you maintain a positive attitude?

Here is how we did it:

1. In the past 60 days, Yu-kai and I have met with more than 35 investors
2. In the past 90 days, Yu-kai and I have pitched at more than 20 angel/VC sponsored events
3. Yu-kai and I emailed more than 200 friends and professionals in our network asking for funding or for an introduction to funding
4. Yu-kai has rewritten and revised our Executive Summary and Power Point Deck at least 8 times in the past 60 days
5. Yu-kai and I wrote a blog post on our blog letting our readers know that we’re looking for capatal

The above 5 points illustrate just how much time and hard-work go into raising capital.

This post is dedicated to the bootstrapped entrepreneur in the technology/internet industry looking to raise Angel or VC money.  You will learn how we got our investor meetings, how we pitched at investor-sponsored events, and how we utilized our network and blogs to raise capital.

How to schedule a meetings with more than 35 investors in 60 days

Yu-kai and I constantly go to entrepreneurship events to meet people and network with influential individuals.  Check out the StartupDigest for a good place to find entrepreneurship events in your area.

We force ourselves to go: At times we get lazy; at other times, we may feel like there is no one at the event worth meeting.  During these times, we just suck it up and go to the event with a smile on our faces.  All it takes is that one event where you meet that one investor who believes in your startup and invests money.  Increase your chances of finding that one investor by going to as many events as possible.

Invest in an iPad: We use an iPad to pitch our product to professionals and investors while at events.  Having visuals to accompany your pitch makes it that much more concrete and compelling.

We don’t hang out with each other: At the event, Yu-kai and I make it a point to NOT hang out with each other.  This forces us to meet people rather than just hang back and talk to each other.

Follow up with good leads and stay persistent

When you find someone that is interested in your pitch, follow up with an email to meet later for coffee.  Here is an example of an email I sent last month:

Subject: Jun Loayza: Great to meet you at the SV Newtech Event

Hi David,

This is Jun Loayza from Viralogy and it was so great to meet you at the SV Newtech event yesterday.  I did some research on the question you had and it looks like Aweber is the most popular email newsletter platform for bloggers between the ages of 20 and 30.

I looked over your portfolio companies and feel that Viralogy is a great fit:

1. We are in the social commerce industry
2. We have a completed product
3. We have paying customers
4. We have shown to increase revenue for our clients by up to 11%

I’d like to schedule a time to meet for coffee and show you a demo of our product.  I’m available the following days and times next week:

• Day and time
• Day and time
• Day and time

Thanks so much David and I look forward to meeting with you.

I prefer to be very direct with my emails so that the person knows that I am interested in his money.  I’ve scheduled meetings with professionals before without being clear and specific about what my intention was and it ended up being an ineffective use of time for both of us.

How to contact friends and acquaintances with the purpose of raising money

It’s definitely not enough to limit your funding efforts to the chance investor you meet at events.  To maximize our reach, Yu-kai and I emailed 200 friends and acquaintances in our network with the purpose of raising money.

The thought of raising money from a friend can seem intimidating.  The way I think about it is that I’m giving my friend a chance to make a lot of money by investing into my company.  Got to think positive!

This is the email Yu-kai and I used to reach out to our network:

Subject: How’s it going?

Hey David,

It’s been quite a while hasn’t it. Too long actually.

I’m still with Yu-kai Chou and Stephen Johnson working on the startup. We moved to Mountain View, CA in February to be closer to Silicon Valley and things have just picked up tremendously. How is everything going with you?

I’m writing this email to respectably ask if you or someone you know might be interested in discussing the potential of being an investor for my company. Our company is in a great position right now because of the following reasons:

1. We have a finished product
2. We have paying customers
3. Our product has proven to increase revenue for our clients by over 10%

Viralogy is a social commerce platform that utilizes the Facebook social graph to personalize the shopping experience.  Our team has lead social campaigns for LG, Levi’s, and Victoria Secret.

Viralogy won first place at Jason Calacanis’ This Week in Startup’s pitch competitoin, won first place (out of 16) at a CINACON VC Pitch Competition, and Top 10 (out of 140) in a TheFunded.com Pitch Competition! We are in a perfect position to raise another round of angel funding and scale up our business.

Here’s a video that explains more of what Viralogy is about: http://vimeo.com/12590994

Let me know if you or someone you know may be interested and I can send more info about our company.  I’ll actually be in Los Angeles in a couple of weeks. If you’re available and interested, I would very much like to meet up for coffee to catch up.

Thanks David!!!

How we won multiple startup pitch events and competitions

The simple answer is to apply to as many as possible.  Seriously, if you keep pitching, then you’re bound to win eventually.

But the real truth is that pitching is not enough.  Yu-kai and I have pitched at a ton of events in the past three years, and it’s only been in the last 8 months that we’ve finally started to receive recognition and awards at pitch events. We started to win because of the following reasons:

1. We are in an emerging industry: Investors know that social commerce is a HOT industry.  If you’re in a compelling industry, investor ears will perk up and they’ll be that much more interested in what you have to pitch.

2. We have a completed (technology-centric) product: Investors love a good idea, but they love a good idea with a finished product so much more.  Everyone has great ideas; you will stand out if you are able to show a working product during your pitch.

3. We are making revenue: If you have validated that clients will pay for your product, then investors will love you.  Showing revenue reduces risks and makes investors very interested in what you have to say.

So I got the meeting?  How do I close the deal?

The first step is to get the meeting.  Focus all of your efforts on setting up meetings with investors: go to as many events as possible, finish your product and validate that clients will pay for it, and reach out to your network for connections.

My post later next week will detail how to close a deal once you’ve set up the meeting.

Work hard and good luck!

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p.s. Thank you so much to the investors who believe in our team, our vision, and our company.  We’ll going to have a big success together.

“If your customer doesn’t want to buy the product, then there’s no way you can sell it to them”

We all get brilliant ideas.  Part of our failure to sell our product is that our target market does not want to purchase our brilliant idea.  The absolute worst situation that you can get into is to spend time and money finishing a product, only to find out that no one wants to buy your product.

As CMOs, Marketing Directors, or Product Directors of our startup, it’s our duty to make sure there is a market for the products that we are building.  This post is designed to show you exactly how to survey your target market and make sure that there is a market who will purchase your product.

My current Customer Development project

My team’s most recent idea is to create a “lite” version of our product that is affordable and beneficial to bloggers.

The Idea: One of the features of our current product accomplishes the following for ecommerce stores:

1. Increases email list subscribers
2. Provides valuable social and demographic data about email list subscribers

Since we’re doing this for ecommerce stores, why not create a simple, plug-and-play solution for bloggers?

So now that we have an idea about what bloggers may want, it’s my job to survey the target market (do Customer Development) and find out if this is something that bloggers want, and most importantly, if this is something bloggers would pay for.

How to begin the Customer Development process

First and foremost, you need to find your target.  For our current idea, the market is quite easy for me to approach.  I’ve been blogging for 3 years now and have built great relationships with influential bloggers online.  All I had to do was send out a few emails and I got 5 conversations set up this week to talk/pitch my idea to bloggers.

A better example

Viralogy is targeting Ecommerce companies that range from $1M - $10M in annual revenue.  When we started this iteration of the company back in January, we had very few contacts in the ecommerce world that fit our target.

We therefore had to find these contacts from scratch.

How to find people to interview when you don’t know anyone in your target market?

Step 1: Use Linkedin

The first thing I did was research on LinkedIn to find any ecommerce directors in my network:

1. Click on “Add Connections” on the top right to connect with all of the people I’ve ever emailed
2. Go to the search bar and type “Ecommerce”
3. Create a list of 100 people in my network that I would like to survey
4. Find the LinkedIn Groups that they’re in and join them*
5. Message the ecommerce professionals with my Customer Development template email

*If you’re in the same group as another professional, then you’re able to send them a private message via LinkedIn.

I sent out 100 requests and positively back from 22 professional - just above a 20% return.  This is the message I used on LinkedIn:

Hi David,

I just joined the Ecommerce Club LinkedIn Group and wanted to introduce myself.  I’m Jun from Viralogy and we’re building a new ecommerce platform that takes advantage of the Facebook Social Graph to increase conversion rates and average order value for stores.

I’m messaging you specifically to request a 15-minute chat to tell you about our product and receive your feedback.  I noticed that you have 6 years of experience as the Director of Ecommerce for a company, and I strongly feel that your valuable feedback will allow me to better tailor my product to provide great value to online stores.

I am available the following days and times to chat via phone or Skype:

1. Date and time (I make sure that it’s in their timezone)
2. Date and time (I make sure that it’s in their timezone)
3. Date and time (I make sure that it’s in their timezone)

Thank you very much in advance and I look forward to speaking with you.

All the best,

Jun Loayza

Send this message out to 100 people and you will not go wrong.

Step 2: Use Jigsaw

Jigsaw is a great database that provides the email and phone numbers of professionals you want to target:

1. Collect every single business card that I have and add the contacts to Jigsaw so that I can get points
2. Search for “Ecommerce” or “Ecommerce Director” to find professionals
3. Find a list of 100 professionals to target
4. Use my credits to “purchase” the emails for these 100 people
5. Message the professionals with my Customer Development email

Since you don’t have the intro of being in the same LinkedIn group, this method is significantly less effective.  Out of the 100 messages that I sent out, 11 people replied to my email - an 11% return.

This is the email I sent:

Subject: Jun from Viralogy: The latest social commerce trends for your feedback

Hi David,

My name is Jun and I’m with Viralogy - a social commerce platform that personalizes the shopping experience for online stores.  I’m messaging you today specifically because I’d like to get your feedback on the product that we’re building.

I noticed that you’ve been in the ecommerce industry for more than 6 years, and I strongly believe that your valuable feedback will allow us to better tailor our product to solve the needs of online stores. In return, I’d like to tell you about the social commerce industry and how the new mobile platforms and social sites will affect online retail.

I am available the following days and times to chat via phone or Skype:

1. Date and time (I make sure that it’s in their timezone)
2. Date and time (I make sure that it’s in their timezone)
3. Date and time (I make sure that it’s in their timezone)

Thank you very much in advance and I look forward to speaking with you.

All the best,

Jun Loayza

Notice how I make a strong point to let the professional know that I want to give him something in return for his valuable feedback.  Professionals are busy, and unless they get something in return, they are not going to take their time to help you out.

Should I interview them via email or via phone?

A phone interview is always your number 1 choose.  If there is absolutely no way that this person will give you phone time, then you can settle for an email interview.

A phone interview allows you to ask follow up questions, listen to their pauses and the tone of their voice, and receive information that an email could never tell you.

Questions to ask

Specific questions completely depend on the industry and product that you are building.  Here are the list of questions that every company should always ask the customers that they are interviewing:

1. Before you pitch your product
2. What are your current pains?
3. How are you looking to solve these pains?
4. Pitch your product
5. Do you feel our product solves your current pain?
6. How much would you pay for our solution?
7. Would you use our solution if it was free?

The above questions need to be asked and documented so that you and your team can look them over.

How to document the interview

Have your laptop out in front of you while you conduct the customer development interview. It is imperative that you jot down notes in real time so that you capture everything the client sales.  If possible, record your call with the customer so that you can review it later with your team (please be transparent and ask for permission to record the call).

I use PB Works to document all of my customer development interviews in a folder that my entire team can access.

The review process

Look over your notes with your team and honestly answer the following questions:

1. Does our product solve a pain for our target customer?
2. Does our target customer want our product?
3. Will our target customer pay for our product?

If the answer is “No” for any of these questions, then you may need to iterate the product.  If the people you interviewed did not want your product, it does NOT mean that no one wants your product; it just means that the market you spoke to did not want your product.  There could be another market that wants your product.

Keep conducting customer development until you find the right market or you realize that your product is not a viable business.

Back to my current Customer Development project

I spoke with Monica O’Brien, Financial Samurai, and Adam Baker today who all offered terrific insights about our product idea.  Adam actually brought up a good point that may get us to scrap the idea.

Important point: Create a visual deck that allows the interviewer to understand your concept better and provide you with better feedback

Here is the deck I created for Baker:

Adam mentioned that if Aweber decides to create a Facebook Connect button themselves, then bloggers would not need to pay for our product.  It’s a valid point that was discovered because I spent time to do Customer Development.

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Don’t skip the customer development step.  If it’s your job to sell the product to clients, then you need to know that the clients need your product and will pay for your product.

Customer development will only make sales easier.

“Startups don’t fail because the product sucks; startups fail because of a failure to sell the product.”

If you’re the founder of a B2B startup with a SaaS product, then this post is for you.  As the Chief Marketing Officer of Viralogy, it is my primary objective to sell our product to companies.  In this post, I will describe my current selling techniques, processes, and what I’ve learned from trial and error.

What we’re selling and who we’re selling it to

Viralogy is a Social Commerce platform that utilizes the Facebook Social Graph to personalize the shopping experience for ecommerce stores. We are targeting companies that fit the following criteria:

1. Industry: Ecommerce
2. Niche: Beauty Retail
3. Annual Revenue: $1M - $10M

Know exactly who your target market is.  We went as far as to purchase the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide 2010 Edition so that we could better understand our target market.

Twitter won’t bring you the clients - You’ll need to grow some balls and pick up the phone

I am cold-calling potential clients.

I’m not trying to Tweet them or message them via Facebook.  I’m not trying to comment on their blogs in hopes that they’ll respond.  If I had a year to sell the product, then perhaps I would employ these methods; however, a young internet startup needs clients as soon as possible, and the best way to do that is to get my ass on the phone and start selling directly to my target market.

Cold-calling will grow hair on your chest.  It’s definitely not for the faint of heart - just ask my Co-Founder Yu-kai.  So if you don’t have what it takes, then you better find someone who does.

The most effective selling method for a young unknown company with an extremely small budget is to get on the phone and make sales calls.

Your mindset before you begin

Selling is a numbers game.  At the same time, you don’t want to “waste” potential prospects by selling completely unprepared.  Before you begin, do the following:

1. Read Cold Calling Techniques that Really Work
2. Practice with your Co-Founders for a whole day straight
3. Have a solid base of 75 target companies to call each week

The key is to be persistent and patient.  You will not make an appointment with a potential client the first week - I didn’t.  But during my second week, I was able to make 4 appointments.  I stay persistent and patient and make 15 cold-calls to new potential prospects every single weekday.

Rejoice every time that someone rejects you because it means you’re getting that much closer to a sale.  Seek out the rejections!  I’m serious here; you have to completely lose your mind and hunt for the rejections because the more times that you get rejected, the more sales that you’re making.

The tools that I use

I use a particular set of tools that every bootstrapped startup can afford.

1. Skype to make calls

I pay $2.99/month to make unlimited calls to the US and Canada via Skype.  This means I don’t have to worry about my cell phone bill or the horrible reception we have at the apartment.  With this plan, the calls you make show up as 0123456… on caller ID.  This is bad because if a person sees this unknown number, she is unlikely to pick up the phone.

I therefore pay $30/year for a Skype number so that I have a real number when making Skype calls.

2. Alexa to look up target companies

I use the Browse by Category feature on Alexa to find my target ecommerce stores.  I look for top sites in the Beauty category on Alexa and make sure to target the top 100 sites.

3. The CRM

Stephen, our CTO, built a custom CRM for me to use.

If I didn’t have Stephen’s CRM, I would use Sales Force since it only costs $5/month for the basic plan.  One of the most important elements of sales is to stay organized.  Write down everything from the date you first contact the potential client to the details of the last conversation you had with them.

4. Jigsaw + LinkedIn to look up names and numbers

To find the names and numbers of the professionals I need to contact, I use a combination of Linkedin and Jigsaw.

I first use Jigsaw to find the corporate number of the company and the names of people involved with marketing or ecommerce.  I then use LinkedIn to cross reference the names and make sure they still work at the company.  I also use LinkedIn to find out more details about the professional and to find any information that I can use to my advantage.

5. PB Works to host all potential client materials

I use PB Works to manage and share all of the following documents:

1. Detailed notes of calls I’ve had with potential clients
2. The Power Point Presentation for potential clients
3. Agreements that clients have signed

Elements of the cold call

Now that you have your tools, you’re ready to start making calls.

Important: During the first call, you’re selling the appointment - not the product

Your goal is to get the potential client interested in what you have to offer.  Don’t try to sell the potential client your product and all of the great features you have - they don’t want to hear about it.  All you can do is hopefully catch their attention by solving a pain that they have, and moving them to commit to an appointment call with you.

1. The opener

Open with the following sequence:

1. Introduce yourself
2. Introduce your company
3. Establish credibility
4. Tell them specifically why you’re calling
5. Push for the appointment

This is exactly how I open every time:

Hi David, this is Jun Loayza from Viralogy and my team has worked on social campaigns for Levi’s, LG, and Victoria Secret.  I’m calling specifically today to set up a call to tell you about how our social platform can increase your sales revenue and provide detailed social analytics about your shoppers.  Are you available next Tuesday at 10am EST to set up a call?

2. How to react when they respond

The person you are calling will most likely not want to set up a call.  This is how you can bypass the most common responses:

“I’m sorry, I’m just not interested right now.”

Your response: You know what David, that is exactly what some of our customers said before they heard what I had to say.  That’s why I really feel we should get together next week.

“I’m sorry, I’m really busy right now and can’t talk on the phone.  Can you send me something via email.”

Your response: Yes of course I can.  [Get their email address].  I will go ahead and send you a detailed presentation by the end of the day.  I’ll follow through with you next Tuesday at 10am EST to talk to you about the presentation in further detail.  Does this time work for you?

“We’re already using a similar product.”

Your response: David, may I ask you what product you’re currently using?  [He tells you the product].  That’s great because we’ve actually worked alongside this product in the past and have had great success.  That’s why I really feel we should get together next week.

Do everything in your power to get to the appointment!  Don’t let a simple “No” turn you away.  As a sales person, it is your duty… no, it’s your purpose to get the appointment.

3. How to leave a voice mail

I never expect someone to call me after I leave a voicemail.  It very rarely happens. Instead, the purpose of my voicemail is to get them thinking about my company and me.  It must be short, sweet, and to the point.

Hi David, this is Jun Loayza from Viralogy and my team has worked on social campaigns for Levi’s, LG, and Victoria Secret.  I’m calling specifically today to set up a call to tell you about how our social platform can increase your sales revenue and provide detailed social analytics about your shoppers.  You can give me a call at 714-657-9332.  Thanks and I look forward to speaking with you.

Remember, don’t expect someone to return your voicemail.  However, a good voicemail gets them interested in your product and what you have to offer.  I have had 2 potential clients recognize me from my message when I call them again and say that they’re interested and would like to set up a follow up call.

4. Get past the Gatekeeper

Gatekeepers usually aren’t that bad.  Just be confident and pretend like you’re suppose to talk to the potential client.  The following line gets me through about 75% of the time with no questions asked:

Hi Stephanie.  This is Jun Loayza calling for David Scott

That’s it.  It really is that simple.

Should the gatekeeper ask “What is this regarding?“, I respond with:

My company recently completed a successful campaign with XYZ company and David would be very interested to learn about how we can do the same for your company.

Should the gate keep ask “Is he expecting your call?“, I respond with:

No he’s not actually, but my company recently completed a successful campaign with XYZ company and David would be very interested to learn about how we can do the same for your company.

If the gatekeeper just won’t let you through, try to get the potential client’s voicemail.

You got them to want the appointment

You got them to say “Yes, I’d like to set up a call.”  That’s great!  Now it’s time to move fast so that they don’t forget.

1. Use Google Calendar to invite them to a Calendar Invite

After a successful call, I immediately invite the potential client to the agreed upon date and time using Google Calendar.  In this way, I know that he has it on his calendar and am notified when he accepts the invite.

2. Send the Power Point Presentation the night before the call

I send it the night before the call for the following reasons:

1. The potential client is reminded about our call when he sees the email the following morning
2. If I send it more than 2 days before our call, the presentation will get buried in a pile of emails.  By sending it the night before, I make sure that it is the top email in his inbox

3. Do your research the night before

Make sure you’ve looked up the potential client’s information on LinkedIn.  Make sure you have thoroughly looked over the company website and searched for the company on Google.  Come as prepared as you can possibly be.

The day has come.  The day of the call and how to WOW them

This is it.  It’s time to go in for the close - or at least get to the next step.  Your goal on this sales call is to get another meeting with the decision makers, or get another meeting to discuss the terms of the contract.

1. How to start off the call

Introduce yourself and your company.  Drop big names of clients you have worked with before to establish credibility.  And above all else, sound confident and as if you know what you’re doing.

2. Before you walk them through your presentation

Before you jump into the pitch, you need to find out what they want and need.  I always start with the following question:

Before we get started, I’d like to find out more about your online digital goals.  I’ve looked through your store and noticed that you’re using A, B, and C.  What social media goals to you have in the next 6-12 months?

There answer will tell me exactly how to tailor my pitch.

3. The pitch

Practice, practice, and practice some more with your founders.  If you’ve practiced enough, then your pitch should go very smoothly and you’ll sound very confident the entire way.  People make emotional decisions, so the potential client needs to feel that they can trust you with their money.

4. How to close the deal

Allow the potential client to ask you questions and make sure that you have awesome answers.  Once the potential client is done with all of his questions, end with the following:

David, now that I know more about your goals and I’ve explained how the Viralogy platform will help you hit those goals, this social campaign just makes sense to me.  What do you think?

That’s it.  Wait to hear what he has to say and respond accordingly.  Remember, your goal is to get to the next meeting, and not to get them to sign right then and there.

If the potential client wants to talk it over with his team before he makes a decision, ask him when is a great time for you to present to his entire team.

If the potential client wants to think it over for a while, set up a call with him next week with an exact date and time.

Don’t hang up the phone without having the next meeting established.

Always learning and iterating

I’m still in the early stages of sales.  I’m constantly learning from my mistakes and trying to get better with each potential client that I call.  This post summarizes what I’ve learned in the past month of cold-calling.

If you have any questions about cold-calling or tips of your own, please leave them in the comment section.

Lets sell our products together!!!

Name: Brenton Gieser
Company: http://convospark.com/
Blog: http://brentongieser.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/brentongieser

Today I speak with my good friend Brenton Gieser about relationships, startups, and his experience with building a digital marketing agency.

The first video dives into detail about our relationships as entrepreneurs.  I feel Brenton is unique in his relationship in that his girlfriend is deeply involved with his startup and acts as his driver and motivator.  They often work together at coffee shops and support each other in every way.

The second video is about Brenton’s experience with building a digital marketing agency.  A lot of the advice centers around the fact that Brenton was able to leverage his previous agency experience to build Convospark.

Hope you guys enjoy the videos!  Below you will find summarized recaps of our talking points:

Video 1: Startups and Relationships

Does your relationship with Catherine make your relationship easier or harder?

Brenton’s relationship with Catherine helps propel him forward.  She’s the one who gives Brenton the encouragement that he needs and constantly keeps him focused with what he needs to do at that point in time.

My relationship has made startups easier as well because she is the one constant in my every-changing lifestyle.  It feels good to know that there will always be one aspect of my life that I can always depend on.

How do you balance your time between the startup and the relationship?

Brenton doesn’t make it more difficult than it needs to be.  They work together and enjoy their time together because they know they’re making progress in their lives.

Kim and I don’t really talk too much about my startup.  I like to keep things separate as much as possible… not sure why.  I’m going to make it a point to talk to her more about the startup and keep her involved  :)

What is your number 1 priority in your life right now?

For Brenton, friends and family are always number 1.  Although his actions aren’t always aligned, he tries to put his family, friends, and girlfriend first in his life.  The people in his life also need to understand that he is running a company and that they need to give him time and space to focus on his career efforts.

If you had $10 million in the bank right now, what would you be doing?

Straight to Vegas!  :P

Like the majority of entrepreneurs, Brenton would be doing the same thing that he is doing right now: trying to enrich the lives of others.

Video 2: How to build a digital marketing agency

What did you learn about yourself and about building an agency when you made the transition from corporate to startup?

It wasn’t as big of a change for Brenton as he thought it would be.  The main change was that Brenton was now responsible for feeding himself.  The mindset of an entrepreneur never changes though, and Brenton has always had the mindset of self-reliance and the hunger to do something great.

Are you currently living off of savings, earning a salary, or are you funded?

The team is salary based right now.  The majority of the members on the team are 25 years old, and understand that at this stage of their lives, they don’t need extravagant, expensive things in their lives.  They know they need to focus on their careers and establish something great while they’re young, care-free, and have no major responsibilities.

What can someone expect to do as the President of an agency?

1: Keep the vision consistent in the organization

2. Recognize key future opportunities and make sure to keep the company goals in line while making progress towards those opportunies

3. Organize the team for meetings, decisions, and collaboration

4. Do whatever it takes to get the business off the ground

What advice would you give to an entrepreneur who wants to leave their current agency to start their own?

You need a strong network of customers that will hopefully go with you during your transition.  You want to make sure you are strong from a revenue and client perspective from the get-go.

Secondly, you need to know how you’re adding value to your clients.  Social media marketing is very saturated, and you need to be unique and standout with the services that you are providing.

3 years ago, I left my corporate job to pursue Future Delivery full time with Yu-kai, Stephen, and Joseph.  Back then, we had no understanding of how to run a company, how to finish a product that people would pay for, or how to sell our product.  The result: two failed startups.

A year ago I was given the opportunity to build a digital marketing agency.  In one year, my agency team and I grew it to a $1.2 million company and I was making as much money as my investment banker friends.

A sophomore in college once told me:

“Jun, if you had made it as an Investment Banker, you would never have become an entrepreneur.  The money is all that matters.”

I used to doubt myself.  What if I had become an investment banker?  Would I still blog or be an entrepreneur?  Or would I settle down with my nice salary and live a long, comfortable life?

You can’t possibly know who you are until you’re put into the situation.  3 years out of college, I was given the choice:

Follow the money: Stay with the agency and make a high 6-figure salary by the end of this year
or
Follow my heart: Leave the agency and work side-by-side with my startup team on Viralogy

I now know who I am.  And I’m so very happy to be the person that I’ve always wanted to be.

I left my agency last week - all the money in the world can’t hold me back from following my heart.

There is only one goal on my mind right now: To have a successful exit with my startup and to do it with my team

And you know what, we’re closer to reaching this goal than ever before.  We’re so close that we can taste it, and it tastes so good:

1. We have successfully launched our product
2. We have validated that our product works and increased revenue for our clients by up to 15%
3. We have paying customers
4. We currently building more and better features for our product

For those of you who are curious about what my company does, this video will tell you in detail:

The team is ready to receive an angel round of funding that will allow us to increase inbound leads, scale our infrastructure, and increase our product features. If you or someone you know has money to invest, the following sections detail the pain we solve, the market opportunity, the business model, the milestones we’ve hit, and what we plan to do with your invested dollars:

Pain and Solution

Ecommerce stores lose a significant percentage of their invested marketing dollars because they drive paid traffic through adwords, SEO, and social media, but fail to convert the traffic into paying customers.  Ecommerce stores have vital purchase data about shoppers, but lack the tools to utilize purchase data that will increase sales conversions and decrease shopping cart abandonment.

Viralogy solves this pain by using purchase data to create tools that automatically generate higher profits.  Our tools predict what a shopper will most likely buy, and displays these products through product, shopping cart, and email recommendations.

An example:

Market Opportunity

The ecommerce market is predicted to grow to $340 Billion by 2013 (Forrester).  Of that $340 Billion, $100 Billion comes from the tens of thousands of medium-sized ecommerce stores that are our main target.

Our target client: Ecommerce store that generates $500,000 - $10,000,000 in annual revenue.

Viralogy is in the perfect position to service these clients because our product is cost-effective, has proven to increase revenue for clients, and is a plug-and-play solution that easily integrates with any ecommerce platform.

Business Model

Our current pricing model:

Traction and Progress

Viralogy has gained the following traction:

1. Full product launch with 3 features
2. Validation that the product works (increase client sales revenue by 11%) and validation that the target market needs our product
3. Website Page Rank of 5
4. Launch of Grade Your Store - inbound marketing strategy
5. Won 1st place in the CINACON 2009 VC Pitch Competition
6. Won 1st place in Jason Calacanis’ This Week in Startups LA pitch competition,
7. Top 10 (out of 140 start-ups) in the Juice Pitcher Competition hosted by TheFunded.com

Investment Plan

Viralogy raised $50,000 in funding from the President of CINA, FVP of American Premier Bank, and UC Irvine Lecturer. We are seeking $350,000 in investments to scale our sales, expand product offerings, and improve our infrastructure over the next 2 years.

Below is the bottom-up five year financial projections. Projections assume success in fund-raising goal:

Viralogy will work towards a $60M acquisition within five years by a larger competitor, a data analytics company, or a large online marketing firm that wants to expand its services.

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Thank you so very much for supporting my team!!!

This is an Entrepreneur Spotlight guest post from Maren Donovan from Escaping the 9 to 5

I’ve been on an entrepreneurial path since the age of 19, and its felt like I’ve been fighting an uphill battle for the majority of the time.  People around me don’t understand why I’d rather work for 10 hours straight than go hang out with everyone at the river and enjoy a beautiful day outside.  I tell them it’s because I’m battle born, which usually brings odd looks, but being battle born isn’t a bad thing and if you understand it it’ll change the way you do business forever.

Nevada, the place I currently reside, is nicknamed the “Battle Born State” after their induction into the Union during the Civil War. Similarly, the battle born entrepreneur is launched into struggles and challenges before they’re necessarily ready.  It’s because of these hardships that the entrepreneur learns the value of patience, diligence, and persistence, attributes that you’d never find if your path in life was laid out for you nicely with a little map.

How I became battle born

My battle born story starts in college. I worked at bars after school to earn extra income and it was while cleaning grime from under beer mats that I realized “this is ridiculous” and something changed inside of me. I saw that I was trading my precious time on this earth for $7.00 an hour with the hopes that tips would be really good and my hourly wage would come up to something like $20 or $30 an hour. Now at the time $30 an hour sounded amazing, but after a year or two in the business I knew alll I was doing was wasting my time making someone else rich.

So shortly before graduating I decided taking the “traditional” path was the worst possible scenario and instead with no experience and only a burning desire to guide me I was going to build a business empire.

Now empire building is not as easy as it sounds. I spent a good 6 months hemorrhaging almost all of my savings trying to learn the ropes of starting a business. When it finally clicked (which coincided quite closely with me running totally out of funds) I realized the reason most people stay in a go nowhere job is because it’s far easier than fighting your way to financial success.

There is a dip in starting your own business (as illustrated in the book by Seth Godin) that most people never come out of, you have to claw your way up and out, but when you do you’ll realize that things will be easier from here on out mostly because you’ve built confidence in your own abilities and proven to your subconcious that yes, you can do it.

Being battle born doesn’t leave you after your first win

I’ve passed through fires again since then, over and over in fact. Times where I have laid on my bedroom floor staring at the ceiling and wondering if not becoming a lawyer or mid level manager after college was the worst choice of my life. During those lows you’ve got to let the negative feelings wear themselves out by taking each “disaster” scenario to it’s logical end.

Usually after I panic for a good hour or two before I realize “worst case I sell all my stuff and couch surf for a few months until I get back on my feet… maybe I’ll have to bartend to make enough money to start another business”. But heck, that isn’t so bad. Once you visualize the worst and see that in fact it isn’t life or death you know you’ve reached it - you are a battle born entrepreneur and you’ll always be okay.

Being battle born keeps you from going soft

It’s good to pass through lots of fire early on because it refines you and keeps you from growing soft - a killer in both the animal kingdom and when you’re starting a business. Being a battle born entrepreneur means is that you know what the bad times look like, so in the good
times you can celebrate… you’ve known want so when there is plenty you’re all the happier. But it also means that you never completely loose the war time tension within, regardless if your profits are $10,000 or $10 million, you’ll always be sleeping with an eye open.

Try never to loose that fire, if you weren’t battle born (i.e. you fell into a cushy position or have family money) I’d suggest you try to fake it for a while. This means don’t allow yourself all the slack of a big nest egg or investor fund to fall back on, try to put yourself mentally in the position of a struggling entrepreneur. If you do this you’ll find many areas in your current venture that you could ‘tighten the belt on’ so to speak and minimalism in business is always a good thing.

So check yourself, are you in the midst of a battle right now? Are you weary, does it feel like there is no relenting from the forces you are up against? It’s alright, this is totally normal. Success is just past the “I can’t go on any longer” mark, if you can make it there you’ll reap the sweet fruits of true entrepreneurship and you’ll be able to boldly brag generations later that you indeed were battle born.

Maren Kate is an entrepreneur striving to live an extraordinary life, she blogs about her experiences at Escapingthe9to5.com

Does a startup succeed for the same reasons that a relationship succeeds?

Does your ability to build a successful startup translate over to an ability to maintain a healthy relationship (or vice versa)?

I asked the community a question:

“What is more difficult to achieve: A successful relationship or a successful startup?”

I was surprised with the feedback that I received…

Relationships and Startups are equally difficult

Shane Mac:
I think they are so different but effect each other due to sharing of time/effort… they effect each other but running them is completely different.

Federico Imparatta:
A successful startup is like a healthy relationship, especially if you want it to last.

Ryan Paugh:
If you’re in a good start up and a good relationship, they’re equally difficult.  Oftentimes for me it’s the conflict between the two that brings the most stress.

Brenton Gieser:

Where I see parallels

• Emotions battles: You vs. your girlfriend; You vs. your team
• Loyalty and dedication; don’t spread yourself too thin and maintain focus on one thing to gain maximum results
• Pressure to marriage; pressure to work towards an exit

Anne Good:
Both take work but in different ways. Spouse/family should come 1st at the end of the day

Skot Carruth:
They are equally hard, and equally harder if you are trying to do both at the same time

Relationships are more difficult

Carlos Miceli
Your guess would be wrong!  My first company is doing pretty good. Relationships on the other hand… Healthy is subjective

Jonathan Mead
Relationship, hands down — it’s not even a close to being comparable.

Christopher Click
Ha, definitely has to be a healthy relationship, but maybe compare failed marriage rate vs. failed business rate???

Grant Stanley
A healthy relationship. I can write a business plan for a start-up. My girlfriends just hate it when I try to write a business plan for our relationships.

Brian Linton
Tough question - healthy relationship is harder.  My girlfriend and I work together on the startup right now, which makes the relationship even harder sometimes.

Andy Drish
Most startups are built in hopes of selling it at some point.  AKA - there is an end goal.  But relationships don’t have any sort of end goal.

Startups are more difficult

Monica O’Brien
Successful startup - but I have a great husband, so I’m not so partial

Financial Samurai: Once you’ve found someone to spend your life with it gets easy and everything comes unforced.  A startup is infinitely harder!
.
.

Can you succeed without trying?

In a startup, there will come times when you have to do things that you hate doing: sales, coding, or networking at an event.  There will come times that you have to survive off of Ramen noodles or fire an employee to conserve cash flow.

You have to put in hard work, time, and a lot of effort to make a startup successful.

On the other hand, my relationship with Kim is effortless - we don’t have to try to make each other happy or try to make the relationship work.  We just are and we just do, and who we are and what we do makes us very happy.

Monica, Samurai, and I have found that special person that makes love easy.

Is there a special formula that makes a startup effortless, similar to how my relationship with Kim is effortless?  I believe the answer is NO, and is the reason why I feel startups are more difficult than relationships.

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What do you think?  Have you been more successful in your relationships or in your startups?

Is it possible to build an effortless startup?

We have made more progress in the past 3 weeks than in any other point in time in our startup lives.  We’re closing deals, setting up investor pitches, and finishing the product.

I should be ecstatic right now;  I should be on a total high because we’re so close to hitting a milestone that we’ve never hit before: a finished product that is bringing in revenue for the company.

And yet, I’m not fully enjoying myself.

I’ve talked about this before, as for a time I felt like I couldn’t pursue what I loved to do.  But I can tell you honestly and whole-heartedly right now that I am loving my career choice.

So what is it?  What’s causing the empty feeling…

The answer: I’m missing my other half - Life just isn’t complete without Kim beside me.

The special things I miss about Kim Ear:

I miss going to the super market and buying groceries to cook at home together.  I would broil the Salmon while Kim tosses the salad.  We’re an awesome cooking sensation!

I miss renting a movie from Redbox.  Kim is indecisive when choosing a movie, so I’d get frustrated because we’re holding up the line with 5 people waiting  behind us.

I miss our Disneyland annual pass even though I hate Disneyland.  Kim would get so excited about going, and by the end of the day, she’d be sad because all I’d do is complain that Disneyland is a big waste of time.  I promise to work harder on enjoying the moment.

I miss watching bands live.  The best live show I saw with Kim was Lykke Li.  Kim promised me about a year ago that she’d take me to go watch Dengue Fever; she has yet to fulfill it 

I miss spooning.  Kim is a cuddle monster who would win a Gold medal if snuggling was an Olympic sport.

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I know that at our age we’re suppose to put our careers first before anything else.  That I should wait and I have a successful startup before Kim and I decide to move in together.

But how I want to ask her to leave her career behind in Southern California and move in with me in Northern California.

But this empty feeling is necessary.  It’s necessary for my startup to succeed.

The benefits of a long distance relationship for entrepreneurs

1. Save money because you just don’t go out

I don’t date up here in Northern California, so I save A LOT of money because I don’t take girls out to dinner and buy them gifts.

Secondly, when I go out with my friends, I save a lot of money because I don’t buy girls drinks and I don’t buy a lot of drinks myself because I’m usually the designated driver.

Furthermore, I just don’t go out to clubs or lounges that much anymore because I’m a single guy with a startup to take care of.  I can’t pick up girls when I’m out and I have a lot of work to do on my startup, so I prefer to stay at home and hang out with Stephen (the CTO).

2. No more distractions

Since the girlfriend is at home, I can get by with eating peanut butter and jelly and not cooking a REAL, nutritious meal.  I don’t need to take anyone to the movies, spend time renting a movie and watching it at home, or spend quality relationship time at the mall, at the park, or at a museum.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the quality time, but since Kim is not up here, I’m not “required” to do it.

3. The time you do spend together is appreciated so much more

I see Kim about once a month.  The time that we do spend together is appreciated so much more because we don’t get to see each other every day.  Everything from shopping together to sex is experienced that much more passionately because we’re apart most of the time.

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Relationships are rarely talked about in the startup world.  It’s all about building the strong team, getting funding, or keeping it simple stupid.  But I feel that the ability to maintain a healthy, passionate relationship with the person you love while building a startup is crucial to the success of the startup.

To all the girlfriends (and boyfriends) who lovingly support the entrepreneur who you’re with, I salute you!  Thank you for being understanding and allowing us to take risks.  Thank you for understanding why the startup has to be the number 1 priority.

Thank you Kim.

I’ve never had a mentor.  Sure there are influential people that give me good and bad advice, but there has never been a go to person that I can turn to in my time of need.

I personally view a mentor as someone older and more experienced who takes the time to personally give guidance, advice, and takes an emotional investment in your success.  A mentor is someone who follows up with you with an email or phone call to ask how your venture went, or who is able to meet up with you once a month to offer advice via coffee.

I’ve never had that.

Maybe its my fault.  Maybe I just come off as an arrogant 20-something that thinks he knows everything and doesn’t need the advice of someone older.

Perhaps I’m not ready for a mentor

Enter Buddhist proverb:

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”

Perhaps I just haven’t found the right person yet, or perhaps my personality type doesn’t mesh well with the older crowd.  I’ve personally asked two people in my life to become my mentors.  They didn’t necessarily say “no,” but they didn’t say “yes” either.  It kind of sucks to admit you want to learn directly from someone and have them just brush you off.

Why I don’t need a mentor

I can understand the benefits of a mentor.  The mentor has been there and done that, allowing you to learn from her mistakes and apply those principles to your life so that you don’t have to repeat those mistakes. If life were a video game, the mentor could tell you the secret shortcut to get directly from level 3 to level 6.

At the end of the day, I don’t need a mentor.

If I need wordpress advice, I can turn to Andrew Norcross.  If I need a fun, inspirational Skype chat, I can turn to Shane Mac.  If I need personal finance advice, I can turn to Adam Baker or the Financial Samurai.

I don’t need a mentor because I have awesome friends who care about me and who know I care about them.

I want to do this by myself

If I’ve met you in person or online and we’ve chatted (be it through Skype, Twitter, or on the phone), then I consider you my friend.  Actually, I consider you more than that because I would go out of my way to assist you in any way that I can.

With that said, I don’t view you as a “mentor.”  I view you as a teammate, a partner who is currently in the trenches like me.

I want to be able to accomplish success on my own.  I want to be able to reach a point in my life where I am completely happy and satisfied, and know for certain that I paved the road to success by myself.

Do you have a mentor, or are you like me who has “trial and error” as his mentor?

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This post is part of the Roundtable on Mentors created by Holly Hoffman.