Author: Behzad

by Behzad on Sales

Pricing

There are four ways to support a price on something of value:

  1. replacement cost: “How much would it cost to replace?”
  2. market comparison: “How much are other things like this selling for?”
  3. discounted cash flow/net present value: “How much is it worth if it can bring in money over time?”
  4. value comparison: “Who is this particularly valuable to?”

Value Comparison is typically the optimal way to price your offer, since the value of an offer to a specific group can be quite high, resulting in a much better price.

Reference: http://sivers.org/book/PersonalMBA

 
by Behzad on Communication, Uncategorized

Meetings That Don’t Suck!

Here are some useful tips on how to organize good, productive meetings:

  • Kill the status meeting: check-in meetings are not efficient or relevant to everyone
  • Hold one-on-one meetings sacred: more important than group meetings
  • Every meeting must have a single owner
  • Your calendar doesn’t make you important: you don’t have to sit at every meeting
  • Calendars shouldn’t postpone decisions: you should be available for decision making meetings
  • Keep meetings small: under 5 people
  • Consider the opportunity cost of every meeting
  • Treat other people’s calendars as a scarce resource
  • Escalate, don’t undermine: just move to the decision makers
  • If the meeting is over, end the meeting: if you finish early, end the meeting
  • Declare calendar bankruptcy: if need be, start over with your bookings

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/17/meetings-that-dont-suck/

 
by Behzad on Communication, Sales, Uncategorized

Hidden Psychology Of Why Customers Come Back

Apply these 3 simple technique to get more customers:

  1. Labor = Love (Ikea Effect): the more time or work we put into something, the more valuable it becomes for us
  2. Consistency counts (turn the small sign to the big sign): it is much easier to use the past behaviour and previous experiences into something bigger rather than having a big ask upfront
  3. We avoid cognitive dissonance (Aesop’s Fable – Fox and grape hanging from the vine): if it is too hard to reach, it must be bad and we don’t like it

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/19/the-hidden-psychology-of-why-customers-come-back/

 
by Behzad on Positioning

The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups

Have these in mind when you are starting out:

  1. Single Founder
  2. Bad Location
  3. Marginal Niche
  4. Derivative Idea
  5. Obstinacy
  6. Hiring Bad Programmers
  7. Choosing the Wrong Platform
  8. Slowness in Launching
  9. Launching Too Early
  10. Having No Specific User in Mind
  11. Raising Too Little Money
  12. Spending Too Much
  13. Raising Too Much Money
  14. Poor Investor Management
  15. Sacrificing Users to (Supposed) Profit
  16. Not Wanting to Get Your Hands Dirty
  17. Fights Between Founders
  18. A Half-Hearted Effort

Source: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html