Hard Way Mba

Hard Way MBA Question of the Day Episode #6 by Jason Thomas

Hard Way MBA Question of the Day Episode #7 by Jason Thomas

Who are your mentors... http://wp.me/p6QsdB-6z

Bryan's Background: - Graduated from Univ of Ill. - Arthur Anderson in 1992: 6 yrs and volunteered to do everything he could. Never shyed away from a tough assignment. - Went back to get MBA along with CPA. - LMI Aerospace Corp Controller through IPO: Did a lot of improvements and got into operational director - Astaris: Took through a sale process. - Waylon Securities CFO: Private, family owned business, $40M and grew to $120M while he was there. - Then CFO / COO for Life Uniform: Private Equity owned business. Largest retailer of medical uniforms. 5 years. 10 acquisitions. Sales process through strategic offering in mid-2013. Was CEO when it was sold. Terms: * Help us understand and demystify what M&A is. * What is due diligence? Is performed in an acquisition / sales. Done to ensure what you're buying is what you expect it to be. It's valuation, testing earning. Kicking the tires to ensure you get what you think you'll get. Companies are often sold by investment banker/ business boeker. Company is st

Hard Way MBA Question of the Day Episode #1 by Jason Thomas

Background on Steli * Originally from Greece and grew up in Germany * Dropped out of school at 17 * Launched first few business then. * Bought a 1 way ticket to Silicon Valley * First business was a soul crushing failure. Launching Close.io * Close.io started as an outsourced sales function. They started developing internal software to empower their sales people. * January 2013 they launched the software on its own. Within one year it was larger than the other business. Transition from the services business to the product business. What did you do to 'retool'? * Reality is fairly messy * Never intended to launch software business * Had no vision of the software, simply, what do we need? Took a year to determine that they had a perspective. * Going through difficulties on service business. Tough to manage from cash flow perspective. Staffing, seasonality, * Were not sufficiently capitalized to manage through the down turns of seasonality. * Product took off and grew quickly, with littl

Mark Richman shares his founder story with us on Hard Way MBA.

Scott Pope is a marketing executive with 10+ years of lead generation, graphic design, and business development in a variety of vertical markets including health care, financial services, retail, and manufacturing industries. I have personally seen Scott's commitment and hustle on display in the field. Right now, you are a VP of Marketing. I have seen you work on the supplier side, as one of the hardest hustling sales reps I've ever met and on the client side as a extraordinary operator. Taking all of that experience into account... What kind of it of advice do you have for us who are in sales in the marketing space? Which of the tactics you used as a sales rep to open relationships and generate new business do you still like? How has your perspective on those changed since moving to the client side? Buyers working in the enterprise space are hard to find and don't have time. Know your stuff, have an opinion and hit hard. Likes a lot of the demo stuff in the marketing world. Make it very experiential with t

Let's level set; Art of value - When you say value, what do you mean? I'm sure it's not 'the cheapest in town'. - The value a customer will receive or achieve as a result of doing business with you. Must focus on the end result. What prompted you to take such a large departure from the standard time and materials business model? - Not every customer is open to having a great conversation... - What's most important is outcome. Everything I do should be focused on that outcome and is significant. We should be moving the needle. - Bad customers drive out good customers... Courage to drive them out early... How do you introduce the concept of value pricing to the client? - Guide the conversation with great questions. - Not every customer is open to having great conversations. - What's most important is the outcome you're seeking. I'm really interested in doing work that moves the needle - 10% or more. - Not every customer is a great fit / good customer. If you load yourself up with bad customers, you'll drive o

Noting that you are working at a large corporation while running at least one, sometimes several side projects, like CarlosGilTV, I'm wondering if you see synergies between these engagements? It's all interconnected. We all have a personal brand. He's owning his personal brand. Motivating and inspiring others. He's passionate about helping other people get where they'd like to go. His story can inspire - 17 year old high school drop out as a speaker, as a leader. Gets excited about what's going on in digital media. How do you determine what side projects you'll invest your time in? It's about what taps into his passion. Using tools at your disposal on social media lets you increase your reach. Books: My Unemployed Life - myunemployedlife.com You're not shy about bringing your personal life into a business conversation - especially on social media. Let's talk about your choice to blur those business / personal lines a little. Once it starts, you can't stop it. The web lives forever. You need to embrace the l

Feed Your Vitality makes healthy food taste naughty. The story behind your business is inspiring. Share with us what drove you to start business? – Sent home with hospice at one point in her life. – 97 lbs overweight. – Daughter was 2 at the time, now 18 years old – Was passionate about food, tastes, etc. – Was a personal shift to begin with. At the same time, she was cheffing for people in their homes. After 30 days on the paleo diet she felt amazing. Shifted everyone they were cheffing for over to this diet. one year later 96% of the clients were still doing it. – Demand grew from there. – Moved into St. Patrick’s center commissary The Food – Shop the perimeter of grocery store – Avoid processed food – Inflammation is the cornerstone of all disease so you avoid anything that causes it. – Started eating this way – Foods to remove: – Grains: Cause a chronic low level allergic state from gluten, soy, corn, etc. – Inflammation: Do you have the ‘-itis’ swelling of or inflammation of. The business – This f

What can we do from a marketing perspective to improve profitability? Continually looking for ways to: Increase unit volume (sell more) Increase selling price for given piece / service Enrich the mix of products / services you sell Marketing strategy: Re-imagining Reality Sweet spot triad: who you serve what are the ‘value bundles’ you provide deliver and monetize the value bundle Special Note: dig into this topic of ‘value bundles’. It’s a great way to think about your organization’s offerings. Tactical Who you serve: differing preference for price v. quality. Over time, you need to invest time with the people your company serves best and are likely not viewing price as a top component Figure out something special to bring to the marketplace. Examples: Warrior Dash, Red Frog Events Identifying the gap: ‘all markets are under served’ Market research – professional and amateur Controlled experiments How important is segmentation, or identifying your target clients? Can you walk us through a thumbnail sketch of

You wrote New Sales. Simplified. and it is on my shelf (or often in my bag) as one of the best sales books ever written and you followed it up with Sales Management. Simplified. Having talked to you before about the writing process and all of the effort that goes into a book, I was a little surprised you followed it up with another book. Why write and promote another book? * Didn't want to write it. * Mike admits he was wrong when he got into consulting. Bottoms up doesn't really work to change the sales world. * Leadership and managment needs a mirror held up to their own issues. Which of the other Blunt Truths from the front lines do you see as most damaging / pervasive? * Spending your time in silly ways... * Avoid high value leadership activities * Companies are sometimes cluelss. Too many expectations for non-sales related activity. In Sales Management. Simplified. You outline 16 significant problems you often see in sales management today. I think my favorite is Ch. 11, An Anti-sales Cultu

You transitioned from corporate career path to academia and coaching. I'm sure you've seen many other clients make dramatic (or what seems so) transitions. What are some of the keys to a transition of this nature? Seek that which you love and you'll never work a day in your life Enjoyed mentoring downward in corporate world Showed up - discipline - walk into opportunities because you're there Knew what he liked to do. Marketing: Look at it primarily from the customer's POV You and I met in early 2009 while I was between jobs. You were then and are now a prolific networker. Share with us how you use this tool and how you hope others will use it. Thinks of 'Engagement' instead of networking Give more than you take: Engagement Giving: can be simple, doesn't take much time / money. 'Send me a pithy one liner' Do not keep score. A goal for engagement is to identify positive givers Great advise to actually engage with people not just network Make the conversation rich and relevant for the speaker Listen for an

Troy and I were brought together, in a round about way, by Mike Weinberg and his phenomenal book, New Sales. Simplified.: The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development (affiliate link) We both highly recommend it and start the podcast talking about it. How do coach new business development reps to get in the game? What kind of expectations should they have? Understand sales story: Why do customers do business with you. Sales / call reluctance is based on fear of their knowledge (or lack of). They must get in front of the customer. Continuously refine the sales story. In a new position you must improve your mastery and delivery of the story. As a sales leader, it's important to make sales calls with them so you know where they need the help. You don't need to focus on activity in general. However, when you're new it's hard to look at just results. He looks at 'meaningful conversations' and 'new opportunities open'. Understand their sales process. Set realistic expectations about pace. S

You started with Warehouse of Fixtures right out of college. Did you buy into the business right out of college? Started out of college. Continuation of what his grandfather did. Re-manufactured manikins, got into office furniture. Started selling furniture out of the old warehouse in the summer between graduating from college and headed to law school. How'd you know you wanted to make that kind of commitment so young? Customers were asking him. There were some good players in the new/ used market but he saw that he was doing it better than most. What's it been like 'growing up' in business as the President/Owner? Made a ton of mistakes, still does. Budgets for mistakes. Read one biz book per month This podcast is all about learning from the hustlers of the world. What piece of business advise would you give to the up and comers, the driven professionals? Something they can put to work today. Learn. Read books. Seek out entrepreneurs Find a mentor who will hold you accountable, outside the business. A

We talk to a man who has worn a name tag for 4993 days. (He's over 5000 days now, by the time I publish this). Aside from that, he's an inspiration. Scott is a prolific writer and actually has outlined what he calls The Prolific Framework Is reverse engineering creativity in his life. Combines left and right brain thinking Volume & consistency Giving away his work everyday is based on generosity That's his nature and discovered it pays off. Delayed gratification. Hustle while you wait. Hard to be passionate about somebody else's business. Book you should read: BrainStorm by Eric Maziel is about having productive obsessions Moments of Conception: Topher Grace cut all Star Wars Prequils into one movie. Business advise: Quality is not as important as you think. What is more important? Speed, context, etc. Create parallel life. Have an identity that does not include your work, another container of meaning to support your person-hood, especially when the business sucks. Do as much as you possible can be

Changing Industries - Self reflection is required. Be sure you're not jumping ship but moving towards a better opportunity. - Know why you were successful in the first place. - Be true to the process you have that creates value for your clients. Keys to Ramp Up Quickly 30 days - Learn the business, your new company, the people, the process etc. - Your competitors, the market, etc. - Shadow a peer on customer calls. - Understand the marketing collateral you have at your disposal. 60 day - get on the phone. - Create new contacts. 90 Days - Understand the sales process of the company. - What are the right metrics for me to watch. - What is our sales cycle? Intersection of Tech and Business - Tech is often seen as only a cost center but that's a huge oversight. - Risk is often overlooked by less mature businesses. What happens to your business if the tech doesn't work correctly? - Opportunity costs are another area many business leaders overlook. What are you not able to do because you're spending too mu

Brandon Dempsey carries titles like Founder, Partner & Chief Marketing Strategist at goBRANDgo! but mostly he's an entrepreneur. He joins the Hard Way MBA for a great discussion about... Being the most energetic dude I know. How does Brandon keep a super high energy level that allows him to run a company, an Iron Man and travel the world? Transparent business practices that would scare most business owners are the norm for Brandon. He shares with us how being extremely open and candid are fundamental to his business success. The power of defining your company around the results you produce rather than what you do to produce it. Please let Brandon know what you've taken away from this conversation that you'll put in to action today. Email: bdempsey@gobrandgo.com Twitter: @brandondempsey Brandon, thanks again for sharing so much with me personally and now all the listeners at Hard Way MBA!

The recruiting business has been disrupted several times in the last decade. The job market changed significantly with the crash of Lehman Brothers and the Great Recession. Around the same time, new technology, social media, especially LinkedIn, entered the picture. Tell me about how that's impacted your approach to recruiting. - Do you find that your clients are up to date and prepared to deal with the new and emerging landscape? - If not, how do you advise your clients to deal with these changes today? - What about the candidates you're looking for, are they prepared to deal with the new landscape? - What advise to you give candidates today to effectively leverage social media and LinkedIn, while still working effectively with recruiters? You worked with GE, through the legendary Jack Welch era, for 24 Years. - What are some of the lessons you learned there that you still practice or see as relevant today? - What is your take on top-grading or stack-ranking as it was known at Microsoft and Yahoo? You'