StartUpArabia

Don’t sell me features!

Nagi Salloum — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:16:51 +0000

I want to emphasize the importance of selling benefits, not features. Every business owner, marketing professional, or sales person needs to realize that their customers buy benefits, not features (although features can influence their purchasing decision and would act as the Reason To Believe or commonly known as RTB in the advertising lexicon).

To understand what I mean, go to an electronics store, to the computer section specifically, and observe the laundry list of specifications they put next to each laptop displayed. It’s strange that although the laptop is a device for the masses, store owners still show a whole list of features and technical specs that only an experienced person or a computer engineer can understand. It is only when you translate these list of features into benefits that you are able to understand what they mean and consequently more likely to purchase the products.

Think of your advertising campaigns. Are you selling features or the benefits?
“42″ LCD screen” vs. “cinema viewing experience in your living room”.
“Lithium battery” or 5 “hours of non stop usage time”.
“8Mbps speed” or “song download in 10 sec”.
…
To quickly test your communication, put yourself in the shoes of someone who has no clue about your business and ask yourself “so what?” (so what if it is a Lithium battery, or if my shampoo has Zinc… ). Rework on your communication until people understand the benefit or the value you are trying to sell them.

So what are you selling?

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Positiveness of uncertainty

Nagi Salloum — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:04:37 +0000

It’s common to worry when we think of the future. It is like our brains, for self-protection purposes, are naturally preconditioned to consider all the negative things surrounding uncertainty. This does not only create doubt, stress and negative energy but it can also prohibit us from moving forward and taking actions.

However, it is possible to turn this around. How about starting to think of the positive things that could happen to you eventually, the infinite possible positive scenarios that the future will bring, how about associating uncertainty with positiveness. I am not recommending you jump foolishly in the unknown without doing a pros/cons analysis, all I recommend is to flip your mindset about uncertainty and anticipate pleasant and successful outcomes. It’s a thought process that you can control and influence.

This mindset shift about uncertainty has been personally very beneficial. It keeps me positively curious about what will happen next in my business, wondering what new thing will each day bring me. It is pretty much the same excitement of receiving a surprise gift. It keeps me moving forward.

This mindset shift does not happen overnight though. You need to train yourself for it to become a habit. Start observing and articulating your thoughts as you think of your future project and replace negative words with positive ones (for example: can you call it opportunity finding instead of risk taking?). Each one has different ways to overcome negativity, some by listening to music, some by going out with friends, I won’t list all the ways now, but I just wanted to stress is that there is also absolute positiveness in uncertainty and that embracing positiveness can be life changing for both your business and your personal life.

How positive are you?

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Euro-Mediterranean School 2010 Open For Entrepreneurs’ Applications

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:37:00 +0000

The Euro-Mediterranean School (EMS), which is an initiative that aims to offer young entrepreneurs from the Euromed countries an opportunity to follow a learning program in the field of business management and entrepreneurship, has opened up applications for the fifth “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” course taking place this year.

EMS was founded by the Milan Chamber of Commerce, the Lombardy Region, and the Fondazione per la Sussidiarietà (‘Foundation for Subsidiarity’). These sponsoring bodies offer full scholarships to all participants covering travel costs, room and board, tuition fee and teaching materials for the entire duration of the course.

In 2010 EMS will host the fifth edition of the course “Introduction to Entrepreneurship”, in which the Chambers of Commerce of Naples and Reggio Calabria will also participate.The sponsoring bodies offer full scholarships to all participants, covering travel costs, room and board and teaching materials for the duration of the course.

EMS 2010 aims to offer young managers from the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea an opportunity to obtain the entrepreneurial and managerial skills necessary to start and/or develop a business capable of operating in multiple markets within the Mediterranean Basin.

EMS 2010 is divided into two phases:

A. Distance Learning (from October 19th to November 26th, 2010), compatible with one’s work responsibilities, in which each student participates via web. This phase consists of an on-line course intitled “Business Strategy, International Growth and the Business Plan”.The course will be made up of video lessons, business testimonials, exercises, case presentations and group discussion forums. A tutor will follow the progress of the course and guide the group discussions.

B. Business Education and Networking, (from February 14th to March 11th, 2010), in which the top students from the distance learning program will be invited to spend 4 weeks in Italy.
This part of the program will involve an extention of the course of study already undertaken online, and will add an intensive business networking experience.

The program is designed for young people with strong leadership and business potential who desire to open new business ventures, assume a leadership role in their company’s or country’s international strategy, or create opportunities for foreign businesses to establish commercial relationships within their country of origin.

From among the Arab countries, participants are invited from the following countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia.

Among the entry requirements: At minimum a bachelor’s degree in business, economics, law, or related subjects; An excellent command of both spoken and written English; A maximum age of 35 years; and a disposition toward international and multicultural teamwork.

For more details about the program, you can check out this pdf file: EMS 2010

What do Bruce Lee, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble have in common?

Nagi Salloum — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:42:44 +0000

The topic of today is about brand/product distribution, an often neglected but nevertheless crucial element for the success of your business.

Bruce Lee, the cultural icon, acted in 20 films by the time he was 18. However his acting career really took off 13 years later, in 1971, in his first real leading role in the Big Boss, which catapulted him to stardom. His iconic figure was essentially created in just 2 years, between 1971 and 1973 when he teamed up with Golden Harvest, a dominating production and distribution company based in Hong Kong.

Microsoft’s dominance in the software industry is essentially attributed to the deal with IBM in 1980 which awarded Microsoft a contract to provide the DOS operating system in the IBM PC computers. Due to that partnership, Microsoft benefited from a massively distributed product to market (and sell) its software.

Procter & Gamble’s success is largely due to securing partnerships with the biggest distributors in each market they operate in (and having big advertising budgets that encourage consumers to buy the products). That allows P&G to have a massive distribution channel for all their products and ensure they reach millions of potential consumers.

As you can tell, the common factor between a superstar actor, the leading software giant, and the leading consumer good company is having a huge distribution channel that allows them to distribute their brand/products to millions of people (media distribution, product distribution or channel distribution). The prerequisite to this is obviously having a great product. But, in almost all the cases, having a great product alone does not guarantee success.

You can apply the same strategy to your own business. While it is important to focus on creating outstanding products, it is also equally important to think of your distribution strategy.

Can you think of a potential company with whom you can partner to distribute your product?

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What I learned from a taxi driver

Nagi Salloum — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 07:44:50 +0000

The original title of this post was “are you suffering from paralysis-by-analysis” because that’s the topic I am going to talk about.

Paralysis-by-analysis (also known as analysis paralysis) is when you can’t take any action because you’re over thinking the details, over analyzing or over planning.

Yesterday morning, I called up a taxi at 5 AM to go to the airport. I was greeted with a big smile by this young energetic Pakistani taxi driver. I asked him about the reason for his cheerful mood. Filled with enthusiasm, he started telling me about his life story and how he struggled to get where he is. He took pride telling me how he pulled himself out of total poverty by taking many small jobs. He emphasized that as a poor young man, he could not afford to have a lot of time to think or over analyze his next move. While he would try to do a benefits/risks analysis, he mostly followed his gut feel to proceed to the next best job. His secret, he said, was this:

“Something is better than nothing, because nothing is nothing. It’s important to do something.”

He kept busy all the time, and continuously searching for his next move. As a taxi driver, he is now saving money to go back to Pakistan and venture into his new business: buy a mini van that he plans to lease or rent.

As a small startup, you are very much like that taxi driver: young, poor, fragile, constantly in survival mode. While planning is definitely important when starting a new project or a business, it should not overwhelm us and prevent us from making a decision or taking action. My advice to overcome paralysis-by-analysis is to define your goal, state your choices, eliminate some options, and take action (“any action, because some action is better than no action” would say my taxi driver).

Instead of letting too much information paralyze you into inaction, get out there and make things happen. trust your gut feel and learn as you go.

So, are you taking action? or are you held back by paralysis-by-analysis?

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Is social media marketing overrated?

Nagi Salloum — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 05:51:14 +0000

There has been a lot of buzz lately about social media marketing (SMM), its impact on business, and the feeling of necessity for companies to have a social-media-marketing-strategy. So I wanted to share my opinion and raise some important questions. First, social media is not Facebook or Twitter. It’s way more than this. But considering we want to limit to most popular tools Twitter, Facebook and Blogging, I still fail to see the impact of SMM on real business measures. Here is my rationale. I will give the case for UAE, representing Arabia.

Twitter: How many Twitter users are there in UAE (the most connected country in Arabia with 76% internet penetration)? 40,000? How many of those are active? 20,000? (If you know specific figures, please let me know). UAE has 3,777,900 internet users. So, with a super successful Twitter campaign, the maximum number of users any business can attract is only 0.5% of internet users. Pretty small number, no?

Facebook: I will not refer to Facebook ads reach, because advertising is not marketing. How many fans did the biggest Facebook campaign attract in UAE? How many of those fans were active? The numbers I have seen were close to 30,000 of active fans (I cannot disclose the campaign for confidentiality purposes). Again, it’s a pretty small number, no?

Blogs: I have not seen any active corporate blog in Arabia yet. So blogs are out.

While SMM has definitely its own advantages and clearly addresses some very specific business needs, considering all the time, money and resource investment, I just believe companies should be more realistic about the expected return from SMM whether it’s from reach, sales or revenue. I know the counter argument of the above is that businesses use social media to engage with their customers, but 1) are they really customers or just random users who follow and ‘like’ with a simple click, and 2) the small numbers I mentioned above still do not justify the big SMM investments from my point of view.

Another thing I am still failing to understand is what is a social media marketing expert? The whole social media marketing industry is less than 3 years old, and is evolving every day. Literally, every day. With such a new and nascent industry I am still trying to understand what makes someone ‘expert’ or ‘guru’ in social media marketing.

So are companies adopting social media for the ‘cool’ effect? Should companies adjust their investments and expectation in light of the above? Are they possibly overestimating the impact of SMM?

What do you think?

You can read all my posts on: nagi.loomni.com

What I learnt from Sylvester Stallone

Nagi Salloum — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:30:46 +0000

There’s more depth to Sylvester Stallone’s story than what the movies that he starred in would let you think.

Sly knew what he wanted to do in his life since he was very young: he wanted to be in the movie business. But having little acting experience, a partially paralyzed face, and a slurry speech, he was turned down by hundreds of agent offices. To get one of his first acting jobs, he literally stayed overnight in one of the agents offices. After that nothing more came out for a while. He kept moving forward, rejection after rejection. Meanwhile he was starving, married, broke, jobless and desperate. He refused to get a regular job, to avoid being caught up in the rat race, to avoid being seduced with the comfort of a salary. He wanted to remain hungry for achieving his dreams.

He finally realized it wasn’t working, he changed his approach, he decided to start writing. He wrote a bunch of screenplays, but still, rejection after rejection, he kept trying until he sold 1 screenplay for 100$ (Paradise Alley that was shot a few years later). He kept going. At that time, he barely had 50$ on him. He was so broke he couldn’t even feed his dog anymore. He went to a liquor store and sold his dog for 25$. He was so attached to his dog that he went out of the liquor store and wept like a kid. It was the lowest point of his life.

Few weeks later, as he was watching a fight for Mohammad Ali, Rocky’s idea hit him. As soon as the fight was over, he started writing the story for several straight hours. He knew he would make something out of it. He went back to agents and tried to sell it. Again, agents rejected the story claiming it is predictable and stupid. Except for 1 agency which believed in it. They offered him 125,000$ for his script. He told them he would accept the deal at the condition of starring in it as Rocky. They refused to give him the role because of his looks and his lack of experience, so he walked away. They called him few weeks later offering him 250,000$ not to act in the movie. He turned it down. They came back with 325,000$ with the same condition (remember this guy was broke, and jobless). He refused, he wanted the role, he wanted to be a movie star. They finally compromised and gave him 35,000$ claiming that without any real acting experience on the big screen, he would be big risk on the movie. (The first thing he does is go back to that liquor store, waiting for 3 days until his dog owner would show up to buy back his dog. The guy ended up negotiating for 15,000$ for the dog and a role in Rocky).

Rocky ended up grossing $200 Million, receiving 10 Academy Awards nomination, winning 3. Sylvester Stallone career took off. It is said his net worth is around $500M.

Although the details of Sly’s story might have been embellished a bit over the years by the actor’s PR people, but still, I found Sly’s perseverance inspirational and very similar to the perseverance needed by young startup founders. Something I also realized over the years is that true persistence pays at the end no matter how impossible your obstacles might seem, that focusing on the outcome and overcoming fear of the uncertain is probably one the most important ingredient in reaching massive success.

Keep hungry, keep pushing, keep hopeful.

Sly knew he would be a superstar one day. Do you know what you want to be?

You can read all my posts on: nagi.loomni.com

Video: Online Shopping Portal Nahel.com At Dubai Tech Nights

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:09:30 +0000

Nahel.com is an online shopping portal based out of Dubai, United Arab Emirates; that aims to become the biggest B2C online retailer in the region.

Nahel.com was founded by Saeid Hejazi, and was officially launched in July 2009. It currently only covers the UAE, although there are plans to expand to the GCC region, with hopes to reach the whole Middle East in the future.

They’ve worked on building an inventory of thousands of new brand-name products covering several categories, from electronics, to games to perfumes, watches and clothing. They source products from wholesalers and distributors in order to be competitive in terms of selection, quality and prices.

Saeid Hejazi was at one of the recent Dubai Tech Nights events where he talked about Nahel.com and some of the plans for the future. The following is a video of his talk:

Get off your chair and start selling!

Nagi Salloum — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:04:16 +0000

Whether you started your business because you have a particular skill, a certain passion or out of frustration from your 8-5 job, you need to be constantly wearing the salesman hat; Why? simply because the lack of cash will kill your business. Cash is the oxygen to your business, once you run out of it, you run out of business. And constant selling is one of the best way to secure the cash.

As a founder, a business owner or a business partner, your job is to constantly secure enough cash for your business. Business won’t show up to your door. Users will not turn into $$ with a magic wand. People do not care about you. So get off you chair, go out and sell.

Put a target to meet 10 prospects, 20, even 50 per month. It’s a numbers game, out of 10 prospects, maybe 1 will become a customer (so 10% acquisition rate), maybe 2, or 5. You will only know by trying. And the good news is, your acquisition rate will eventually get higher with proper focus, constant learning, and practice.

So overcome your fear, your comfort zone, and sell, sell, sell, this is what you need to constantly be doing. Keep asking yourself: How many prospects do you have on your list? How many did you meet this week? How many did you follow up with? How many prospects CLOSED the deal? What’s does your pipeline of prospects look like? Do you have a list or a target of prospects for the next month?

Don’t know how to do it or need help in this? Contact me, I know a great company that can help you.

Are you still on your chair?

N2V Announces Investment In Emirati Startup Yebab

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:27:07 +0000

National Net Ventures N2V, one of the top internet groups in the Middle East just announced its investment in Yebab.com, the Arab portal specialized in organizing wedding celebrations in the United Arab Emirates.

Rashid Al Ballaa, CEO of N2V, stated that the project comes in line with the group’s current and future plans to expand its presence at the regional and the international levels. The plan is obviously to enhance the portal’s growth and presence, expanding it into other Arab Gulf countries, and the rest of the Middle East region, establishing it as the most trusted wedding directory in the Arab world.

Yebab.com, which was launched from the UAE in 2009, has proven really successful in the UAE, becoming a leading portal providing a directory of wedding services in the country; including listings for the various suppliers and services from caterers to dressmakers, artists, photographers and traditional musicians. The site shows strong potential to perform just as well and more in other markets around the region.

Yebab co-founder, Murshed Mohamed said that this investment will enable the team to improve the service and upgrade its quality for users

N2V who also hold HawaaWorld.com in their portfolio, see a big possibility of establishing a seamless integration between the two services, in order to offer bigger value to Arab women online.

This investment in Yebab comes as part of N2V’s new investment program that targets early and growth stage web ventures around the region, mainly Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan and Egypt.

National Net Ventures (N2V) is an internet holding company, whose core business is to develop online and interactive web-based ventures. N2V invests capital in a variety of ventures from startups to more established companies; also offering infrastructure, resources, experience and know-how to these companies to accelerate their growth.

The amount of the investment hasn’t been disclosed publicly.