Speaker: LOWELL RICKLEFS One of the most common reasons great teams who build great products fail is their inability to drive market adoption and revenue. Most startups identify a problem and come up with a solution that they believe can change the world  They picture themselves building this world class solution and the world beating down their door to buy it. The problem is that they underestimate how hard it is to get people's attention - even when they have created the coolest thing in the world. Lowell has lived in the trenches and built 3 B2B companies through effective use of the right strategy and sales & marketing to drive revenue growth that ensures the survival of the company as a minimum and a large outcome for investors on the high side. He will share his experience in scaling companies and share advice and lessons learned for other entrepreneurs to learn from 

1. S
Startup Growth
Lessons Learned

2. My Journey
S Developer at age 15
S Rockwell Automation – 18 years - VP Global Sales
S GMI $1M-$50M in 5 years - $100M exit
S Toluna $10M-$120M in 5 years - $260M exit
S FlexMinder Idea to Industry Leader in 5 years (sold 3 weeks ago)
S Worked with hundreds of startups around the world

3. The progression

4. Strategy
S Who is your customer?
S Employer - Insurance Company – Law Firm – Hospital – SMB – Enterprise –
Media Company – Research Firm - Specialized third party (TPA, CPO)
S Why would they switch from what they do today?
S What does your product do for them? Why does that matter?
S Pricing – How much will they pay? How much do you need to be a viable
business? Target $1M ARR

5. Obsession with listening
S Solicit brutally honest feedback
S Survey existing/potential customers
S Speak with them (Skype/phone/f2f)
S See what they see

6. Messaging
S Capture interest quickly – earn more of their time
S Every word matters – Ad/Landing Page/WebSite
S Earn the right to get more of their time
S A/B test to get it right

7. Focus on their Pain
S Not you and your product (email, marketing, phone)
S “My name is Lowell and I work for FlexMinder and we
have software that automates the claim submission process
for your participants”
“We reduce debit card substantiations by 75% for TPA’s”

8. Don’t use weak language
Be direct
S “I am sorry to bother you”
“If you have time”
S “Your competitors have reduced
substantiation costs by 75% with
automated claims - would you
like to see how?”

9. Expansion
S ID the profile of your customer (title, vertical, size etc.)
S Where can you find more just like them?
S Referral program
S Channels & Partnerships

10. Marketing/Advertising
S Paid
S Facebook (Desktop/Mobile)
S Search (Adwords)
S SEO
S Conferences
S Content Marketing

11. Attack mode
S LinkedIn
S What conferences do your customers attend?
S Speaking slots (not the paid ones)
S Booth (email list)
S Guerilla marketing
S Coffee
S Breakfast/lunch/dinner

12. Thanks to

13. S
Startup Growth
Lessons Learned