Browsing Archive: October, 2011

I’ll Sell for commission only, if you Code for commission only

Posted by David Hecht on Thursday, October 27, 2011, In : sales

As a startup advisor and marketing consultant, I’ve often been asked if I am willing to work on commission, or to be paid based on the performance of my work.

Most of us in sales and marketing have worked with significant “at risk” compensation -- be it performance bonuses or commission -- and pride or confidence in our ability to deliver typically prevents us from saying no to the request outright.

But I have found that commission-only or heavy “at risk” compensation often does not ...

The only right answer to “How are you different from Competitor X?”

Posted by David Hecht on Tuesday, October 18, 2011, In : competition

Whether you have an early stage startup or an established company, people need to understand your business. So as a founder you will frequently be asked “How are you different from Competitor X?” or “Why are you better than Competitor Y?”

There is only one correct answer to this question:

“Competitor X is a great company, but...”

And then explain how your company is better, ideally using a differentiator or area of specialization that Competitor X doesn’t have (or doesn’t focus o...

It is 2011, learn to BCC

Posted by David Hecht on Tuesday, October 18, 2011, In : marketing

<rant>

Yesterday I received a “thanks for applying to our competition, but you didn’t win” email from a (presumably junior) marketing person at a technology company that shall remain nameless to protect the guilty.

I didn’t notice when reading it on my iPhone, but the message was sent To: 31 different people, me being one of them. Not even CC’d, the usual rookie mistake.

The good news when you get an email like this is that you can see all the other companies who received the email. L...

Netflix’s Qwikster: New Coke or Alternate-Universe Kodak?

Posted by David Hecht on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, In : branding

A lot has been written about Netflix’s recent announcements, related 60% stock price plummet, and then yesterday’s sooner-than-expected reversal. Most commentators panned Netflix’s tin ear, their inability to communicate, their sheer hubris at making things more inconvenient and more expensive for their customers. What were they thinking?

I couldn’t disagree more.

Breaking Netflix into two separate companies ahead of massive, unavoidable changes in their industry was a bold, visionary m...

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Hectic.com

Making Startups Less Hectic Since 1996

Hectic.com is blog and site of David Hecht, a cloud computing entrepreneur, startup advisor and Internet marketing guy based in San Francisco. Most recently I ran sales and marketing at Cloudkick (acquired by Rackspace), and prior to that I was the co-founder and CMO of GoGrid.

Check out my linkedin profile or download a PDF of my resume.