Non-Linear Selling

Selling in pairs or other combinations and for more than one year at a time, thereby decreasing the absolute number of deals required to sell out your inventory as well as increasing your efficiency and productivity.

If there are 200 signs in an arena and you sell them to sponsors in pairs for a term of two years each then you only need to make 50 deals per year to sell out your inventory instead of 200 per year--thus, you have reduced your workload by 75%. If you can further increase the number of multi-year deals for pairs of signs you can do per annum then your sales will increase at an ever increasing rate-- that is non-linear selling.

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Bootstrap Capital

Also known as self-capitalization, this is how most start-ups actually capitalize themselves. Sources of bootstrap capital include: soft capital (Mom/Dad/Rich Uncle Buck), home equity loans, supplier credit, consulting, credit cards, retainers, deposits, progress payments, receivables factoring, partners, sponsorships, guarantors, pre-sales, launch clients and more. Bootstrap capital allows the ownership to keep control of their own enterprises and not lose them to VCs and other debt or equity holders.

“Two former students decide to start a home building business. They have no capital so they: 1. find a friendly landowner who allows them to set up shop in a field and pre-sell homes with no money up front to the landowner (who gets paid when the homes sell); 2. they pre-sell 10 homes and take deposits of $20,000 per home so now they have $200,000 in their bank account; 3. they get 90 and 120 day terms from their suppliers so that the suppliers also get paid when the homes sell; 4. they take their 10 Agreements of Purchase and Sale and pledge those to the Bank for a LOC (effectively borrowing their clients' credit scores). After two years, they have $800,000 in the Bank and own 100% of the business. This example demonstrates five sources of bootstrap capital: supplier credit, pre-sales, launch clients, deposits and guarantors.”

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Smart Truth

There is truth and smart truth. In a media-saturated world where each word is parsed by many looking for scandal, it is more important than ever to tell the smart truth. Lawyers, especially criminal law lawyers, understand the difference.

“Coca-cola proudly announced some years ago that it was introducing vending machines that would raise the price of their sodas when the weather got hot. The announcement was widely panned in the media—just when a consumer needed a break most, the company would be raising its price. The smarter play and the smart truth would have been an announcement that the company was introducing vending machines that lowered the price of their drinks when the weather got cold. It is the same thing yet it isn’t—the smart truth would have had radically different (and much more positive) PR repercussions. The end result—the vending machines never left Coke labs…”

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always be closing

The three most important things in entrepreneurship are: sell, sell, sell. Good salespeople are always closing deals. They never forget to bring the contracts with them, never forget to ask for the deal and never forget to get their client's signature. They also understand that the true purpose of marketing is not really to sell anything but to build a brand and the true purpose of a brand is to build trust and the true purpose of building trust is to give the salesperson a greater opportunity to close the deal. After all, people like to buy from people they like and trust.

Here is an exchange between actor Nicky Katt in character as Greg Weinstein in the 2000 film, Boiler Room, with Giovanni Ribisi playing Seth Davis:

Greg: Now, now, listen to me. Even though you're not actually selling stock yet, I want you to remember the code we have here, okay? Did you see Glengarry Glen Ross?

Seth: Yeah.

Greg: Okay, do you remember 'ABC'?

Seth: Yeah. 'Always be closing.'

Greg: That's right. 'Always be closing.' 'Telling's not selling.' That's the attitude you wanna have, okay.

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DIRT-FT

This is an acronym for 'Do It Right The First Time'. It is a new movement focused on getting people to increase their productivity by doing tasks right the first time. If we could get the proportion of tasks performed right the first time someone turns their attention to it, we would see a significant improvement in national productivity.

When your Bookkeeper forgets to make a bank deposit on the first of the month and one of your mortgages goes NSF, you send him or her a note. All it has to say is 'DIRT-FT'.

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Reverse Marketing

Reverse marketing happens when an organization’s planned marketing campaign results in negative consequences for their brand. The reason a brand is important is, in part, that it creates trust in that organization, which, in a for-profit business, results in higher sales. Reverse marketing works in the opposite direction.

“Coca-cola decided some years ago to introduce New Coke and stop producing Coke Classic based on blind taste tests that indicated younger consumers preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi. What they didn’t take into account was the loyalty of Coke buyers to the classic formula. The result was a rapid climb down by the Company and massive reverse marketing.”

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entrepreneur ethics

The moral underpinnings of being or becoming an entrepreneur include: 1. take care of your business, 2. so your business can take care of your family, 3. so your family can take care of you, 4. so you do not become a burden on your fellow human being or the state, 5. so you are in a position to help your fellow human being and 6. so they can help your business.

When you give a person a fishing rod instead of a fish, you have started him or her on the road to self reliance which is the sine qua non of entrepreneur ethics.

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