1: You are stuck.
“If only your prospects knew as much about your company and its solutions as you do, they would buy from you, right?” Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer write in their powerful book Conversations That Win the Complex Sale.
Not so fast, the authors suggest.
Erik and Tim emphasize the importance of finding your unique story and point of view as a salesperson. This is essential … continue reading
1: “Every Saturday, a siren goes off in Tim’s quiet suburban community, signaling that it is noontime. No one gives it much attention around town,” Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer write in their terrific book Conversations That Win the Complex Sale.
It’s just the “noon whistle,” people say.
But the same siren is also used to signal a severe weather emergency.
“As a result,” the authors note, “the same … continue reading
1: “What are we not doing?”
That was the question Opsware CEO Ben Horowitz added to the agenda of his weekly staff meeting.
After several near-death experiences during the dot-com bust of the early 2000s, the company began to show signs of life.
“Now that we’d improved our competitive position, we went on the offensive,” Ben writes in his wonderful book The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business … continue reading
1: The two Opsware leaders sat in a sterile conference room at the EDS headquarters in Plano, Texas.
EDS was their largest customer.
“Largest customer really understates it,” Opsware CEO Ben Horowitz writes in his book The Hard Thing About Hard Things.  “EDS accounted for 90 percent of our revenue.”
On the other side of the table sat Frank Johnson (not his real name)—“a big guy who grew up … continue reading
1: Things were looking bleak. Very bleak.
The year was 2001, and the dot-com crash was happening.
One by one, technology startups that only a year earlier boasted sky-high valuations and lavish offices were collapsing, leaving behind empty cubicles, burned-out servers, and a sobering lesson in the perils of unchecked optimism.
Loudcloud CEO Ben Horowitz decided to sell the company’s cloud business and pivot to software.
“The situation was complex, … continue reading
