A shout out to my co-founder and CTO at Inquisix, Dave Dupre, for being nominated for WINNING the 2012 CIO of the Year Award from MHT and Boston Business Journal. No surprise to me, Dave was clearly the best engineer back while we were getting our degrees at Boston University and he accomplished amazing things at Inquisix by building a pretty sophisticated application behind the covers that was so simple to use. He’s got didn’t even need my vote for winning the award next month!
Tag Archives: “other sites”
Shout Out to Dave Dupre for CIO of the Year Award
13 MayYour Prospect Tells You How to Sell to Them
30 NovNot often that your C-level prospect will tell you how to sell to them. They’ll hide behind email spam filters and executive assistants but won’t take the time to tell you what you’re doing wrong. Until this CEO opened up with their automated email reply telling you to do more than just call the vendor hotline at purchasing – a voice mail no one ever picks up.
Top ways to get noticed:
- Let your prospect find you – ie Inbound Marketing
- Get introduced by someone they trust – ie Referrals
Top ways to annoy:
- Constant cold-calls
- Mass emails to entire executive team
- Trying to connect via social media
Thanks to Hubspot for the full article.
Follow-up Follow-UP
5 NovIvan Misner posted on his blog – What Is the Number-One Trait of a Master Networker? this week and I thought, “Absolutely dead-on!”
Nothing frustrates me more than giving a referral to someone and then they DON’T FOLLOW UP. I’ve asked my colleague if they’d accept this referral to and now I have to explain why there was no follow up. This affects my reputation. That’s why Inquisix allows members to rate the referral in both ways – rating how well one party handled the referral and how well the other party gave the referral.
Inquisix – Business Relationships that Last
27 Oct
I just ordered this book because that’s what Inquisix members do – they build business relationships that last.
If you’ve already read the book, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Learning from Previous Mistakes
19 OctFabulous article about Hulu from Fast Company magazine. Great lessons for every entrepreneur, every growing company or company wishing they could grow.
Can Hulu Save Traditional TV? –
Lessons to be learned for all on:
- Improving user experience
- Using analytics to figure out what users want instead of asking them (because they don’t tell you – think Edsel)
- “Dinosaur” TV networks learning from a lesson (missing out on YouTube) and taking the appropriate steps. RIAA needs to do the same
- How to build revenue and market share. Amen!
Yes, I know this blog post is not about referrals. But I’ve been reading Fast Company a lot lately and find so many of them to be well written and insightful. Their articles should be required reading for anyone looking to grow in the new economy. Maybe that’s why it’s called, “Fast Company”
Quick sales tips & reminders
2 OctThere were a bunch of quick and valuable reminders and tips on the web this week on improving your sales process.
- Making You Suprisingly Unforgettable To Your Customers – Loved this post – in these days of too many competitors and too many choices offered to our prospects, here’s some great tips make yourself unforgettable. How many of you think of Nat & Natalie Cole when you hear the word, “Unforgettable” like I do?
- Three Tiny Changes That Drive Success – Nice reminders to help get you out of a sales rut. Don’t forget Dale Carnegie’s, “21 Days to Making it a Habit” as you try these changes. Assuming you don’t do them already!
- Quiz: How To Bypass a Gatekeeper – Real good quiz on bypassing the Gatekeeper when you just can’t get in. Interesting decision by Geoffrey on which department you should call into to ask for the transfer. Other ways:
– try Jigsaw for direct dial # of executive
– try Inquisix for a referral to the executive by someone they know.
Geoffrey’s idea is manipulative but sometimes you just have to try it. But only after you can’t get an Inquisix referral or JigSaw is not coughing up the direct dial numbe
Dig It's Great Quote of the Week
18 Sep“You can’t have a better tomorrow if you’re thinking about yesterday.” — Charles Kettering
Quote of the Week – Great quote that should strike a chord in any sales rep, manager or business owner bemoaning their poor 2009 sales attainment. Sales people are usually very good at moving on whether the last month was a win or a dud but for anyone needing a reminder, read and internalize this quote. Now go get them!
Boston-area VC funding for startups – where is it?
9 SepSince many Inquisix members are also entrepreneurs and business owners (like us), perhaps you’ll find these articles as interesting as we do. The first article caused a big commotion and discussion amongst the Boston startup crowd. Isn’t that what good articles do?
- Why Waltham Doesn’t Matter – Finding early stage funding is always challenging for startups and the chances of getting a, “No thanks” are close to 99%. So when a noted Boston Globe business columnist calls the VCs on the carpet, everyone in our community takes notice. I was at a TechCocktail networking event last week and the VCs I spoke to all had lots of comments and head shaking. One was upset that they weren’t mentioned with the “good guys” in Boston. So if Scott was looking to stir the pot, he accomplished it in spades!
- Hey, Boston-area VCs, angels: Loosen up and connect with startups – To continue the commentary from Scott on Waltham VCs and lack of Series A fundings, one of the Angels that rec’d kudos from Scott is offering his suggestions. It’s one all Inquisix members believe in – the referral. “If you can’t/won’t do the deal then referral them to someone you think will.”
All About Referral Selling 