I'm not sure I totally agree with that statement in this video (via Rod Drury) but thought this was just too rich not to share. Know anyone like this?
Lots of great news from nuBridges
Congratulations to the nuBridges team on a series of announcements this week that coincide with the big RSA security conference in San Francisco.
Among the announcements are the release of a new data security product and two awards from Info Security Products Guide (one for compliance and one for innovation).
I was fortunate to be part of the team that started nuBridges back in 2001 and the company has grown successfully since. If you are looking for a solution to secure your data or help share it with your customers or suppliers, give them a call. Also, be sure to check out their blog and follow them on Twitter.
Sunny in Seattle
What a day today. Sunny and warm. I fear this is just a teaser of what is to come but on days like this there is no better place to be. Here's a pic I took with my Blackberry while walking Riley looking West over Lake Washington to downtown Seattle from Kirkland.
Email policy enforcement goes mainstream
Microsoft announced the public beta of Exchange Server 2010 today and it includes something called "MailTips" to add a layer of oversight to end-user actions. No, this is not big brother. This is about self-policing.
I view this as further confirmation that the enterprise needs a greater level of control and monitoring over what happens in their email systems. For many years during my tenure at both Orchestria (now assimilated by CA) and MessageGate, we advocated and demonstrated how varying degrees of control and monitoring could not only reduce risk but save money. Absent specific security or compliance regulations, most companies need to focus solely on the end-user and their daily activities by putting the control and oversight directly in their hands.
Functionality like MailTips is targeting the hardest problem to solve – end user behavior. One of the use cases referenced in John Cook's TechFlash post is one that we always saw and specifically measured for customers at Orchestria and MessageGate. It is way too easy to inadvertently send something outside the company with auto address completion and the like. Where it gets tricky is when the definitions of outside and inside are complex like across business units, joint ventures, or subsidiaries all with multiple domains and constantly changing employees.
I am confident that MailTips will satisfy the baseline use cases for the end-user but there is still a need for technologies that can handle additional complexity or where more robust rules and dispositions are required.
Optimism
This is an important trait if you seek to start a company or embark upon a new adventure. There will be many naysayers and it takes a true optimist to take the negative in stride and see the positive in it. Like Lloyd…
Typing evolution
I overheard a conversation a couple weeks ago between two older gentlemen as they were trying to get their laptops to connect to the available wi-fi. I had just provided a bit of tech support to them so don't feel too bad about sharing part of their conversation.
They were discussing computers and all the other gadgets that dominate our lives these days and one made the point that, when he was in school, learning to type was viewed as a clerical and non-essential skill and that during his career he always had somebody to type for him. He went on to point out that it is a bit ironic that we all seem to sit in front of keyboards and type away these days….and that he was glad he had learned to type along the way.
I took a typing class at some point that taught me basic finger positions and commands but have met lots of folks over the years that have just figured it out on their own. In fact, one of the smartest developers I know types at blinding speed with only his index fingers.
It seemed a bit ironic to me that something that was once viewed as a clerical skill is now the primary gateway to our on-line world and an assumed competency.
The New Selling Reality
How do you sell to someone that doesn't want to be sold to?
If you haven't asked yourself this question and you work in sales, marketing, or business development it is time to embrace the new reality. The leverage in sales has been turned on its head and if you have something to sell you need to know that the person or persons you are contacting are better informed and have more information available at their fingertips (via a search engine) than ever before.
Prospecting still matters but the way to do it is changing. Cold calling can make you feel better in that you are doing "something" but it might not be the something that matters. Give them a reason to learn more about you especially if they are actively seeking an answer to whatever problem your product or service addresses.
How do you do this? This is about more than just cranking up the PR engine. This is about projecting your expertise not your marketing message, building a strong customer reference base, and actively nurturing and enabling it.
Think I'm kidding? Check out this post by Tony Wright. Tony runs a really cool company called RescueTime here in Seattle and is also a small businessman. My favorite part:
"Why would I ever buy from the salesperson who happens to be calling me?
Even if they were introducing me to a class of software/service that I
wasn’t aware of and really wanted, the first thing I’d do is thank them
for the info and start googling."
Even if they were introducing me to a class of software/service that I
wasn’t aware of and really wanted, the first thing I’d do is thank them
for the info and start googling."
Well said Tony. If you sell or enable selling for a living, print this quote out and put it on your wall. It defines your new selling reality.
Two Years
Today marks the two year anniversary of my blog. 574 posts over 730 days…wow.
Rather than share stories of vast financial riches generated (there haven't been any) or my traffic rank (not very high), I just wanted to say thank you to all who routinely read it and those who have stopped by for a bit.
I really enjoy blogging and the motivation is more selfish than anything else. It allows me to satisfy my urge to write, to learn new things as I write, and to connect/reconnect with great people.
I look forward to many more years of it…
“Drafting” as part of your go to market strategy
It's Friday, the sun is actually out in Seattle, and I thought I would do a post that combines marketing strategy and a NASCAR reference. What the heck am I talking about? Drafting.
For those of you that don't know, drafting is used in auto racing to make two cars go faster than one with the second car expending less energy by getting as close as possible to the car in front. Here's a nice tutorial video on it:
How does this apply to a go to market strategy? Identify the lead company in your space or the one that is gaining fast on the leaders and draft off of them. You both will go faster but you expend less energy (ie, money) and can position yourself for the lead with a "slingshot pass" defined by our friends at Wikipedia as:
"The 'slingshot pass' is the most dramatic and widely noted maneuver
associated with drafting. A trailing car (perhaps pushed by a line of
drafting cars) uses the lead car's wake to pull up with maximum
momentum at the end of a straightaway, enters a turn high, and turns
down across the lead car's wake. The combination of running downhill
and running across the zone of lowest aerodynamic drag allows the
trailing car to carry extra speed and pass on the inside of leader."
No, just because I am from the South I am not a racing fan. I did, however, attend a race many years ago and suggest everybody put it on their list as it is a uniquely American experience.
This just seemed to fit with my thinking today.
Caution is not part of the marketing plan
Great post by Eric Norlin entitled "An Open Letter to Technology Startup Marketers"
Eric and I have chatted on the phone a couple times and exchanged emails as he is the guy behind both the Defrag and Glue conferences and Gist is involved with both. He's a great guy and hits the nail on the head with this post. Here's a couple of my favorite parts:
As a marketer your purpose in life is two-fold: 1) find pools of demand and funnel that feedback into product management so that they can respond (ie, respond to market demand); 2) GENERATE demand (innovate and then land new sales). You are, in short, an outbound sales person with a budget for initiatives. And if being in sales makes you uncomfortable, you need try a different career.
And this one (which I have endured in a prior position):
If you have a VP title and you need your CEO’s permission to spend “your budget,” you’re not a VP and you should ask to be demoted to “director” so that you can enjoy life more via being scrutinized by the board less.
I totally agree with the point above about being comfortable in sales. Marketing success is viewed best through the sales pipeline.
Here's Brad Feld's post on it as well.
Great stuff Eric.
Venture Vice 