CTO Operations

Magazine on Entrepreneurship, Project Management, Marketing and Products

April 22, 2013
by Guntram Bechtold
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StartSummit 2013 – Interviews with Speakers, Entrepreneurs and Media

Keynote Speakers:

Andreas Thümmler – Start Summit 2013

Jimdo – Start Summit 2013 HD

Hommels – Start Summit 2013 HD

DeinDealCh – Start Summit 2013

Entrepreneurs:

Interview MapClever – Start Summit 2013

 

MyNewsIs – Start Summit 2013 HD

Nona Box – Start Summit 2013 HD

Weightdoc – Start Summit 2013 HD

CuisineStar – Start Summit 2013 HD

Questli – Start Summit 2013 HD

Parkit – Start Summit 2013 HD

Media Partners:

StartUpTickerCh – Start Summit 2013 HD

April 10, 2013
by Guntram Bechtold
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Learn Sales

Nice Blogpost about Selling by Christoph Engelhardt

Speaker: Mike Taber (@singlefounder) – a.k.a. the Liquor Fairy

  • We are all in sales – all the time
  • Sales is a learned skill
  • Sales is a process
  • Sales can be used for Good … or Evil

Why do people buy things? (emotional triggers)

  • Greed (Mike’s kids are supposedly good at this)
  • Altruism (Tom’s shoes)
  • Pride (it makes me look smart / good – MicroConf ticket)
  • Fear (bad things will happen, if I don’t buy – insurance)
  • Envy (Rolex anyone?)
  • Shame (Flowers for your wife – I guess)

Headline

  • First impression takes .2 seconds on page
  • Impression is virtually set in stone after 2.6 seconds
  • First Impressions last forever
  • First impressions will dominate regardless of how often it is contradicted by new experiences

Stop Selling Software

  • People don’t buy Software – they buy Solutions to Problems
  • Billy:
    • Feature: Bluetooth
    • Benefit: Music/Phone Calls
    • Valued End State: Self-Esteem
  • Mom:
    • Feature: Bluetooth
    • Benefit: Music/Phone Calls
    • Valued End State: Peace of Mind (she’ll be able to call Billy at any time)
  • you need to talk to the following two people:
    • just purchased your product
    • just stopped using your product
  • “Products find a certain market only when they help their customers get done the jobs that they have already been trying to do.” – Clayton Christensen
    Job of the Milkshake: Make the long commute easier

People don’t Buy Software

  1. They buy ways to overcome pain
  2. They are outsourcing processes
  3. They choose to allow other people to build things they need
  4. They don’t prescribe to the “Not invented here” syndrome
  5. [MISSING]

Iterating on Your Sales Pitch

  • Make the pitch all about what is important to them
  • Don’t be afraid to invoke fear or shame (“Would you like to help kids with cancer?”)
  • Be a sexist: Invoke the shame in the women (it works better than with men)
  • Do A/B testing

Enterprise Tactics

  • Ask if they have a Budget and how big it is
  • Ask for Authority (Who makes the decision? Ask to speak to that person!)
  • Ask for Need (Why would you like to do that?)
  • Ask for Timeline (How long will the purchase process take? Is there a deadline?)
  • Use Market Data (Example: After 6 months there are 10 pounds of human hair in your carpet)
  • Lead them to Yes
  • “Magic” Enterprise Pricing (2 Dollars below the assigned budget)

April 3, 2013
by Guntram Bechtold
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Clear Browser Cache in IE8, IE9, IE10 and Firefox

Internet Explorer

URL, Image or CSS Cache in Microsoft Internet Explorer is always a hack. Having the Right Keyboard short-cut helps you significantly.
Not only that you save time, but also the Cache is deleted instantly.

The Golden Keys are:

Ctrl+Shift+Delete

 

Firefox

Doing the same thing in Firefox is also key, from time to time:

You can use the Firefox Extension “Custom Shortcuts”

The Golden Keys are:

Ctrl+Shift+Delete

 

Google Chrome

Clearing your History, Cookies or Cache in Chrome works alike

The Golden Keys are:

Ctrl+Shift+Delete

 

 

February 4, 2013
by Guntram Bechtold
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How to upload many Images or Files in WordPress

Uploading one or many files is pretty straight forward and easy to do:

  1. Create a new Article
  2. Click on the “Add Media” Button
  3. Drag several Files, up to 20 is recommended, into the uploading window
  4. Wait until the Upload is completed
  5. Insert the Files into the WordPress-Post

Is it possible to alter these Images in size later? Yes you can resize them, but it does not re-calculate the image again. This means that the image might look fuzzy and not smooth at all. Therefor, reinserting or even reuploading is suggested.

 

002_Literature_Research_2013-05-03_13-53-52

January 19, 2013
by Guntram Bechtold
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Task App – the nicest Todolist App

Today is the “Task App” by Thomas Castel downloadable for free.

The App is fast, intuitive and designed very nicely. Christian Ruepp suggested me to use this app, and i could not resist but doing that.
Even better is that Thomas Castel is giving it away for free today.

Get it here for Free today:  Task App on Itunes for iPhone, iPad and iPod
Task for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation),_2013-01-19_11-09-48

Task for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation),_2013-01-19_11-11-59

December 17, 2012
by Guntram Bechtold
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21 Facts about Fab.com: Design & Business

  1. On good Days they make 500k USD per Day in Revenue. Quite a lot for a Business thats just over two years.
  2. Fab works with 8.000 Designers world Wide. The Network is their Success. They buy directly most of their goods.
  3. When Copycats appeared on the market, they briefed their Designers immediatly that they should be aware
  4. Since their Network, specifically their suppliers good, they responded to that call
  5. Design is King. Especially if you are in Design-Space. Designing great experience is a necessity for a startup
  6. Users got only 6-7 Apps they use daily. You got to be awsome to be one of them. Fab managed to have about 10 Mio. of these Users.
  7. Good Examples for a good Product is Kayak – http://www.kayak.com/ and also best rated at Behance – http://www.behance.net/
  8. Mobile requires better Design. Focus on the experience.
  9. A success Factor of Fab.com is how they source: Personal Relationships with their Suppliers and Designers.
  10. Bringing rare Designs to a big audience is the winning combination: 80 Scouts search 10 Deals each, every day
  11. Mixture is key: 5 USD Entree Level Product mixed with 4k Premium Furniture
  12. Be nice: Don’t wholesale, Be Premium, Be Pickey. so that top Brands Like Vitra and Kartell work with you
  13. Fab.com is in US, CA, EU. The European Business is doing 30%
  14. Users are dayparting: Starting Usage with the iPhone, Using Webbrowser during the day, finishing with the Tablet.
  15. The shop got a 6-8% Conversion on an average visit
  16. E-Mail was the initial Force. Now at 20-30%. Hot Leads are from Social Sharing. Up to 50% of Sales are sparked from Social.
  17. Motivating Designers by buying Inventory. 70% of Fab.com Goods are from their Warehouse
  18. Fab Business is first Emotions and then Data
  19. Fab Buyers are 2 out of 3 repeat Buyers
  20. Get Design out of the Way of the user. Explain what to do. Get away with icons.
  21. Work only gets released if carefully tested.

 

something intersting I found on Fab.com Blog, and pasted here:

Fab’s first pivot happened fast. And publicly.

  • On February 24, 2011 Bradford and I decided to shutter our fledging gay social networking website, fabulis, and relaunch it as a Fab, the place for everyday design.
  • 7 days later, on March 1, 2011 we got approval from our board of directors.
  • 8 days later, on March 9, 2011 we shut down the old business and got to work building the new technology, designer relationships, and membership base needed to re-launch.
  • 3 months to-the-day, on June 9, 2011, we re-launched as Fab. We sold $65,000 on our first day.
  • We had successfully pivoted from gay social network to online design flash sales phenom in just 90 days.
  • We hit 1 million members 4 months later.
  • We sold $10M in November and December 2011.
  • We had started to build a brand.
  • We were off to a good start.

So, we did next what came naturally to us.

 

Some Facts about Fabs 2nd pivot:

  • In December 2011 we had 1.5 million members.
  • Today we have 10 million members.
  • In December 2011 we had <2,000 products on Fab at any one time.
  • Today, we have more than 15,000 products on Fab.
  • In 2011 we had <5% of our products in inventory.
  • Today, more than 75% of the products we sell are in inventory.
  • In 2011 we relied entirely on 3rd party fulfillment services.
  • Today, we manage our own warehouse and supply chain, built entirely on our own technology.
  • In 2011 we averaged more than 16 days from time of order to shipment. It was painful.
  • Today items ship from our warehouse the same day they are ordered. Our average time to ship is just a couple of days across all types of orders.
  • On December 13, 2011 about 100 products on Fab were eligible for expedited overnight shipping.
  • On December 13, 2012 more than 8,000 products on Fab are now eligible for expedited overnight shipping.
  • In 2011 our highest sales day was around $300k.
  • In 2012 we’ve had several million dollar sales days.
  • In 2011 we sold 3 products per minute on average.
  • Yesterday we sold 23 products per minute.
  • In 2011 we ended the year with 85 fulltime employees.
  • Today we have 600 fulltime Fab team members across 3 major cities: New York, Berlin, and Pune.
  • In 2011 100% of our sales were from customers in the U.S.
  • Today 30% of our sales come from Europe.
  • In December 2011 15% of our sales were via our mobile apps.
  • Today, 1/3rd of our sales are via mobile and during some day-parts more than 50%.
  • In December 2011 5% of logins to Fab resulted in a purchase.
  • In December 2012 13% of logins to Fab result in a purchase.
  • Today, our average order size is 10% higher than it was last year.
  • Today our gross margins are 25% higher than they were last year.

 

http://www.kayak.com/

December 12, 2012
by Guntram Bechtold
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Getting 5000 Real Twitterfollowers within 1 Day

@Dronestream managed to get more than 5000 Followers in 1 Day. Thats how he did it:

  1. A real, new News Niche: Dronestrikes of the US
  2. Going trough all sources for that Topic, becoming the Autority
  3. Do facts and differentiate with comments
  4. Write about something that matters and moves people

1. Link your self to Media Autorities by doing real good work:

  •  Josh Begley graduated at NYU
  •  He worked for and at News Autorities: Wired, TIME, Colorlines, The Atlantic, NPR, and The New York Times
  •  He already broke uncomfortable, great stories like

 

  2. Prepare Stuff well

  • Josh created an iOs App sends you a pushnotification:
  • Background Info: Look at the Comments on this Video

3. Break the story on a real Newsoutlet: e.g. the Daily Beast.

 

4. Make a Bold Start

https://twitter.com/joshbegley, 4:33 AM – 11 Dec 12
I’m going to tweet the entire history of US drone strikes tomorrow. 10 years in 10 minutes, starting at 12pm. Follow @dronestream for more.

 

5. Get Mediasharing for your good, hot story

 

 

Great Interview by Aljazeera Stream

6. Get social Sharing

Starting with: http://inagist.com/all/278706366925922304/

Dronestream (dronestream) on Twitter - Mozilla Firefox_2012-12-12_23-00-00

December 10, 2012
by Guntram Bechtold
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How to capture Ramit Sethi’s attention (or anyone’s)

A great excerpt from ramit sethi’s ebook,

When I was heading up Marketing at RunKeeper, I took my first stab at PR by playing the volume game. I hammered out one canned pitch email after another. The result? A pathetic 7% response rate on a good week. So I tested a new game. First, I actually read reporters’ articles before I reached out. I went for real connections and quality over quantity. Then I worked hard to make my press releases easy for them to read. I cut out the jargon. (Sometimes longer is better, but always be efficient with your words. Trust me, no one likes the sound of your voice as much as you do. Nix.) I also polished the style. I used section headers, bullets and selective underlining or italics to tell the story.

The results?

My newly crafted notes sung with a genuine interest in the reporters’ work, immediately driving the response rate up to 37%. Which reminds me of a story: I was on Quora when it was cool to be on Quora, back when it was still just a bunch of self-important bleeding-edge hipsters. And you know what? Ramit Sethi liked my answers so much, he picked up the phone to see if I wanted to geek out over marketing analytics together. It’s pretty simple—choose your words wisely, and people will like you (or at least, listen to you).

The Takeaway: Keep it real. Get to the point. Highlight the good stuff.

Sarah Hodges is the Co-Founder of Intelligent.ly, a learning campus that connects experts with professionals who want to hone their skills. While previously at RunKeeper, she drove coverage in The New York Times, Tech Crunch, Gigaom and Mashable.

December 9, 2012
by Guntram Bechtold
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8 Things learned from Grant Cardone

In this Hangout Grant Cardone points out key skills required for running a succesful entrepreneurial career.

  1. Learn to sell – it is THE skill
    1. Establish big goals. Write them down 2x a day. Focus on these goals.
    2. Be motivated:
      1. Get your relationships right. They are a very important source of power
      2. Surround yourself with a power team. Youre team has to propell itself to success.
      3. By having big goals, you can pale-out the problems
  2. When marketing, you got to do it massivly. Break trough the noise
    1. Use all Channels: Social, Mail, direct mailing, personal
    2. Use them heavily and with signifcant drive. You have to break trough the noise.
    3. You can easily do 700 phonecalls a day. Or just 6 and close them all.
  3. You can not win with the lowest price
    1. Add a value to your products, so that people are willing to pay more.
    2. Grant Cardone gives the example of his appartments: He rented to dog-owners. Since that market was willing to pay more, he earned more for the same product
  4. Hardest People to reach are easiest to close
    1. People without authority are easy to get to.
    2. Get infront of the tough guys, when you are there, the deal is almost done
  5. Close when you got to close
    1. Your Client knew about that product, the price and the risks before he contacted you. Don’t get irritated by his questions.
    2. Rephrase his points and then again lead to the signing the contract.
    3. And again. Until the contract is signed
    4. Be sure to sit, have your paperwork done.
  6. Strenghten your clients certainty by removing points of uncertainty.
    1. People are trained to be uncertain. Do not get irritated by that. Prepare for points that you can be uncertain about and give appropriate response.
  7. Target the world. This is a competitive planet. Do not reduce your chances of success by limiting yourself with unnecessary restrictions
  8. Have many products, so that you can stay in business. Sell small and Big products. Like a retailstore.

Read more:

Entrepreneur.com – Google Hangout

Debunking the Price – Great article about Pricing Strategies

Grant Cardone on Twitter