Often at times, we encounter the familiar reasons..."No Budget" or "No ROI" when selling our products to potential clients. Often at times, our sales people must do much more to demonstrate the value of our products far outweights the cost or their budget that in their minds, they must have it. This is best known as "value proposition". The individuals and companies that do the best job of building and justifying the value proposition will be the winners.
So, what do you need to do?
1. Regardless of your product or service, regardless whether it cost RM1 or RM10,000, for you to succeed, you must do a superior job in demonstrating that the value of the product or service, exceeds the value of your client's money.
Your job is to build value in excess of the price of your product. This means that you will have to do more to justify your value proposition. This might mean assuring your prospects that the product or service is easily available to use, user friendly, and probably help your clients to generate more money.
2. Don't believe that people aren't spending money in this economy. If you look at the shopping malls during the weekends, you'll find them pack with people and they are spending.
3. Eliminate lower price as a means to build value. Do not go on price competition. Give your product some respect. Lower price is only a temporary solution and you will eventually lose grounds with your competitors when they are able to produce lower cost than you. Go for value competition.
4. Predict the price objection and treat it as a complaint, not a rejection. As a complaint, you are able to do something about it and workaround the complaint to suit the complainant.
Remember, when the value of your product exceeds the price they pay, you will have your sale.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The Art of Innovation - by Guy Kawasaki
- Jump to the next curve. Too many companies duke it out on the same curve. If they were daisy wheel printer companies, they think innovation means adding Helvetica in 24 points. Instead, they should invent laser printing. True innovation happens when a company jumps to the next curve – or better still, invents the next curve, so set your goals high.
- Don't worry, be crappy. An innovator doesn't worry about shipping an innovative product with elements of crappiness if it's truly innovative. The first permutation of a innovation is seldom perfect – Macintosh, for example, didn't have software (thanks to me), a hard disk (it wouldn't matter with no software anyway), slots, and color. If a company waits – for example, the engineers convince management to add more features – until everything is perfect, it will never ship, and the market will pass it by.
- Churn, baby, churn. I'm saying it's okay to ship crap – I'm not saying that it's okay to stay crappy. A company must improve version 1.0 and create version 1.1, 1.2, ... 2.0. This is a difficult lesson to learn because it's so hard to ship an innovation; therefore, the last thing employees want to deal with is complaints about their perfect baby. Innovation is not an event. It's a process.
- Don't be afraid to polarize people. Most companies want to create the holy grail of products that appeals to every demographic, social-economic background, and geographic location. To attempt to do so guarantees mediocrity. Instead, create great DICEE (Deep, Intelligent, Complete, Elegant, Emotive) products that make segments of people very happy. And fear not if these products make other segments unhappy. The worst case is to incite no passionate reactions at all, and that happens when companies try to make everyone happy.
- Break down the barriers. The way life should work is that innovative products are easy to sell. Dream on. Life isn't fair. Indeed, the more innovative, the more barriers the status quo will erect in your way. Entrepreneurs should understand this upfront and not get flustered when market acceptance comes slowly. I've found that the best way to break barriers is enable people to test drive your innovation: download your software, take home your hardware, whatever it takes.
- “Let a hundred flowers blossom.” I stole this from Chairman Mao. Innovators need to be flexible about how people use their products. Avon created Skin So Soft to soften skin, but when parents used it as an insect repellant, Avon went with the flow. Apple thought it created a spreadsheet/database/wordprocessing computer; but, come to find out, customers used it as a desktop publishing machine. The lesson is: Don't be proud. Let a hundred flowers blossom.
- Think digital, act analog. Thinking digital means that companies should use all the digital tools at its disposal – computers, web sites, instruments, whatever – to create great products. But companies should act analog – that is, they must remember that the purpose of innovation is not cool products and cool technologies but happy people. Happy people is a decidedly analog goal.
- Never ask people to do what you wouldn't do. This is a great test for any company. Suppose a company invents the world's greatest mousetrap. It murders mice better than anything in the history of mankind – in fact, it's nuclear powered. The problem is that the customer needs a PhD to set it, it costs $500,000, and has to drop off the dead, radioactive mouse 500 miles away in the middle of the desert. No one at the company would jump through those hoops – it shouldn't expect customers to either.
- Don't let the bozos grind you down. The bozos will tell a company that what it's doing can't be done, shouldn't be done, and isn't necessary. Some bozos are clearly losers – they're the ones who are easy to ignore. The dangerous ones are rich, famous, and powerful – because they are so successful, innovators may think they are right. They're not right; they're just successful on the previous curve so they cannot comprehend, much less embrace, the next curve.
Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, the former chief evangelist of Apple, the author of many books, and Co-founder at Truemors. Truemors is a web site that enables people to "tell the world." It is an eclectic collection of news, trivia, and rumors that is submitted by and rated by people. The big picture is that it represents another chapter in the "democratization of information.
Becoming an Entrepreneur
Running a business is a challenging, creative and flexible way to chart one’s future and become one’s own boss. Apart from earning a living, it is about creating a new way of life.
Becoming an entrepreneur takes foresight, determination and courage. You will be stepping out of the relatively safe environs of the salaried world, where you get regular paychecks, and venturing into the uncharted territory of the business world.
But, how can you know whether it would be better for you to be a salaried employee, or if you have it in you to be a successful entrepreneur? While there is no guaranteed formula for entrepreneurial success, but there are studies on what makes successful entrepreneurs and their profiles. Check out these profiles and see if you have them...
Self-Confidence: To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have tremendous self-belief. Do you really think that you have the willingness to overcome all obstacles and achieve your goals? Entrepreneurship is not easy. It takes a lot of iteration (ie failures) before you find the right formula to your business. Do you have what it takes to accept failures as part and parcel of entrepreneurship? If you lack that crucial element of confidence in your mental makeup, then entrepreneurship is not for you.
If you have the self-belief that you can do it, that will give you all the confidence you need. Can you inculcate self-confidence in yourself? Yes, you can, by trying to push yourself to achieve a little more than what you are comfortable doing each day. And before long, you will find yourself accomplishing things you would have never thought were possible.
Entrepreneurship is about venturing into the unknown, away from your comfort zone, battling all challenges (on your own) before achieving successes. Many of us do not know how powerful our human spirits are. Therefore, if you don't try, you will not know.
Bear in mind, that many successful entrepreneurs that you see, started out with nothing, or very little, apart from self-confidence and self-belief.
Do You Have the Belief In Your Business Venture?: Put the question to yourself whether you really believe in the business you are venturing into. If you find that you are not completely convinced about it, you need to continue looking until you can pinpoint one that you feel you will be ready to be committed to.
To be successful in any business venture, you will have to be focused on it all the time. You will have to continuously be building it, fine-tuning it, and re-inventing it. This requires an enormous amount of self-commitment.
Bear in mind that there is no such thing as the perfect business plan in your 1st try. It evolves along the way and if you do not adapt to these changes, chances are, you will fail. Therefore, keep focus, adapt to the enviroment and change if need to.
Focusing On Your Strengths: Each person has his/her own strengths as well as weaknesses. In order to be an effective entrepreneur, you will need to pinpoint your strengths and focus on them. You will achieve more success by being able to channel all your efforts into the areas you are best at.
For instance, if marketing skills are your forte, then you need to harness the capability, making full use of it in the business. And get assistance in those areas that you may be weak in, like bookkeeping or accounting.
You can even turn your weaknesses into strengths by getting trained or learning about those areas.
Having The Ability To Recognize Opportunity: In case your business were to be destroyed tomorrow, how would you look at it? Would it seem like an irreconcilable loss, or would you look at it as an opportunity to make a new beginning – to improve, to grow, to rebuild?
Successful entrepreneurs eye everything as a source of opportunity. They have an inquisitive and questioning attitude about everything. No matter what they come across, they always wonder if there is a better way of doing things. And if they do think that indeed there could be a better way, they set about finding the solutions themselves or get help from an expert. Indeed, opportunity can be found in a vast plethora of ways and places, and with the help of the Internet available these days, there is no dearth of opportunities knocking at our computer screens. If you are a true-blue entrepreneur, you will see opportunity everywhere.
Being A Decision Maker: If you had to make a decision, would you be able to get the information you need fast enough and then make the decision? Or would you keep procrastinating, until the very fact of your not having made a decision becomes the decision?
Being an entrepreneur involves making a lot of decisions, which involves getting information swiftly and making equally swift, albeit informed, decisions. Keep in mind that each decision that is made by you, regardless of how unimportant it may appear at the time, will have an impact on the future of your business in some way. Most successful entrepreneurs have accurate gut instincts, which they use whenever in doubt.
Being A Leader: You will not be able to do everything all by yourself. A time will come when it will be necessary to hire employees, speak to investors, apply for loans – thus, having to assume the role of a leader. If you don’t have the ability to lead, you will not be able to get any followers.
As the head of your company, the people you hire will look to you for support and guidance. The ability to give the correct support and guidance will be the basis of your success as an entrepreneur to a large extent.
Thinking success… Being passionate… Planning well… Working hard… Being willing to learn… Persevering and having faith… Leading by example… These are some of the mantras of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
If you feel you have all these qualities, then go and conquer the unknown frontiers. Go boldly where no man has gone before! Good luck!
Becoming an entrepreneur takes foresight, determination and courage. You will be stepping out of the relatively safe environs of the salaried world, where you get regular paychecks, and venturing into the uncharted territory of the business world.
But, how can you know whether it would be better for you to be a salaried employee, or if you have it in you to be a successful entrepreneur? While there is no guaranteed formula for entrepreneurial success, but there are studies on what makes successful entrepreneurs and their profiles. Check out these profiles and see if you have them...
Self-Confidence: To be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have tremendous self-belief. Do you really think that you have the willingness to overcome all obstacles and achieve your goals? Entrepreneurship is not easy. It takes a lot of iteration (ie failures) before you find the right formula to your business. Do you have what it takes to accept failures as part and parcel of entrepreneurship? If you lack that crucial element of confidence in your mental makeup, then entrepreneurship is not for you.
If you have the self-belief that you can do it, that will give you all the confidence you need. Can you inculcate self-confidence in yourself? Yes, you can, by trying to push yourself to achieve a little more than what you are comfortable doing each day. And before long, you will find yourself accomplishing things you would have never thought were possible.
Entrepreneurship is about venturing into the unknown, away from your comfort zone, battling all challenges (on your own) before achieving successes. Many of us do not know how powerful our human spirits are. Therefore, if you don't try, you will not know.
Bear in mind, that many successful entrepreneurs that you see, started out with nothing, or very little, apart from self-confidence and self-belief.
Do You Have the Belief In Your Business Venture?: Put the question to yourself whether you really believe in the business you are venturing into. If you find that you are not completely convinced about it, you need to continue looking until you can pinpoint one that you feel you will be ready to be committed to.
To be successful in any business venture, you will have to be focused on it all the time. You will have to continuously be building it, fine-tuning it, and re-inventing it. This requires an enormous amount of self-commitment.
Bear in mind that there is no such thing as the perfect business plan in your 1st try. It evolves along the way and if you do not adapt to these changes, chances are, you will fail. Therefore, keep focus, adapt to the enviroment and change if need to.
Focusing On Your Strengths: Each person has his/her own strengths as well as weaknesses. In order to be an effective entrepreneur, you will need to pinpoint your strengths and focus on them. You will achieve more success by being able to channel all your efforts into the areas you are best at.
For instance, if marketing skills are your forte, then you need to harness the capability, making full use of it in the business. And get assistance in those areas that you may be weak in, like bookkeeping or accounting.
You can even turn your weaknesses into strengths by getting trained or learning about those areas.
Having The Ability To Recognize Opportunity: In case your business were to be destroyed tomorrow, how would you look at it? Would it seem like an irreconcilable loss, or would you look at it as an opportunity to make a new beginning – to improve, to grow, to rebuild?
Successful entrepreneurs eye everything as a source of opportunity. They have an inquisitive and questioning attitude about everything. No matter what they come across, they always wonder if there is a better way of doing things. And if they do think that indeed there could be a better way, they set about finding the solutions themselves or get help from an expert. Indeed, opportunity can be found in a vast plethora of ways and places, and with the help of the Internet available these days, there is no dearth of opportunities knocking at our computer screens. If you are a true-blue entrepreneur, you will see opportunity everywhere.
Being A Decision Maker: If you had to make a decision, would you be able to get the information you need fast enough and then make the decision? Or would you keep procrastinating, until the very fact of your not having made a decision becomes the decision?
Being an entrepreneur involves making a lot of decisions, which involves getting information swiftly and making equally swift, albeit informed, decisions. Keep in mind that each decision that is made by you, regardless of how unimportant it may appear at the time, will have an impact on the future of your business in some way. Most successful entrepreneurs have accurate gut instincts, which they use whenever in doubt.
Being A Leader: You will not be able to do everything all by yourself. A time will come when it will be necessary to hire employees, speak to investors, apply for loans – thus, having to assume the role of a leader. If you don’t have the ability to lead, you will not be able to get any followers.
As the head of your company, the people you hire will look to you for support and guidance. The ability to give the correct support and guidance will be the basis of your success as an entrepreneur to a large extent.
Thinking success… Being passionate… Planning well… Working hard… Being willing to learn… Persevering and having faith… Leading by example… These are some of the mantras of becoming a successful entrepreneur.
If you feel you have all these qualities, then go and conquer the unknown frontiers. Go boldly where no man has gone before! Good luck!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
State of the Mobile Industry -- Innotech Portland
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Microsoft BizSpark – software for startups
Microsoft BizSpark is designed to accelerate your success by providing fast, affordable access to current, full-featured Microsoft tools and technologies, plus production licensing for hosted solutions. For support, BizSpark unites a global community of technology and entrepreneurial experts who can guide you through the hurdles of growing a new business.
By joining BizSpark, Startups get:
By joining BizSpark, Startups get:
- Software: fast and easy access to Microsoft’s current full-featured development tools, platform technologies, and unlimited production licenses of server products for immediate use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions with no upfront costs and minimal requirements. Startups will also get access to the community technology preview (CTP) of the Microsoft Azure Services Platform.
- Support: professional technical support from Microsoft (MSDN) and community support from BizSpark Network Partners around the world who provide a wide range of support resources for software startups. Network Partners are incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters who are vested in software-fueled innovation and entrepreneurship.
- Visibility: a dedicated online startup directory, BizSparkDB, on the Microsoft Startup Zone website (www.microsoftstartupzone.com)where we will highlight promising companies from around the world, including the “BizSpark Startup of the Day”. Through their relationship with Microsoft and BizSpark Network Partners, startups will achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners.
Startups get access to BizSpark through Network Partners like MIRC, NINA, TeAMs, SCOPE, MDEC and Cradle.
Startups can find both at Microsoft.com/bizspark.
Some new details about Windows Mobile Marketplace
Here are some new details about the Windows Mobile Marketplace, info taken from Pocketnow.com as at March 11, 2009.
Here is the info:
Here is the info:
- Developers pay $99 annual fee, this includes the submission of 5 apps.
- Each additional app submission will cost $99
- Developers keep 70% of revenue and can set the price (this is the same arrangement that iPhone app developers get)
- Windows Mobile Marketplace will be available in 29 countries
- Marketplace to be install on "every single WinMo 6.5 device"
Saturday, July 4, 2009
New Incubator To Focus on Mobile Technologies
In my five years at the MCA ICT Resource Centre, I have met, learned and got connected with many enlightened entrepreneurs. Amongst those, I have initiated a special interest group called the Mobile Industry Group or in short MOBIG. The Mobile Industry Group (MOBIG) is an initiative very close to my heart. I believe there is potential in the mobile industry and my next step is to develop and nurture more mobile entrepreneurs in this industry space.
We have seen the proliferation of iPhones in the world, its popularity has prompted many entrepreneurs to develop iPhone applications which is now a popular focus among technopreneurs these days.
In recent months, MIRC has collaborated on various initiatives such as Mobile Applications Developers (MAD) Workshops and hosted talks on mobile technologies. MOBIG has also completed its first year and ready to go in its second year. As I see it, we need an Incubator to help mobile entrepreneurs to "make it" in this opportunity.
Therefore, with a few friends and MOBIG, we have decided to set up a Mobile Incubator Lab called MAD Incubator with a specific focus on developing mobile entrepreneurs in Malaysia. This incubator will be opened in Technology Park Malaysia and will have an entire new incubation process and activities to promote our mobile entrepreneurs as well as create awareness on mobile applications developed by Malaysians for the World!
This entire new process will focus on Outreach, Lab, Market Access and Funding.
For Outreach, MOBIG will run ideas generation competitions amongst universities to identify and select good mobile ideas which together, MOBIG hopes to bring them up as entrepreneurs. These ideas will be incubated in MAD Incubator and every efforts will be made to promote, fund and market these ideas. Another aspect of Outreach is to create awareness amongst our Malaysian industries as well as overseas market. Therefore, we will work with our local counterparts to promote open innovation amongst industries in Malaysia and with our foreign counterparts, we will be promote technology transfer and market access in overseas markets.
As for the Lab, we intend to set up MADLab, a lab dedicated to the development of prototypes for iPhone, Blackberry, Java and Windows applications. For those who do not have ready facilities, they can come into the Lab and develop their applications with the help of our technology mentors.
Then comes market access and funding, two critically important components to entrepreneurship. MAD Incubator will be setting up an advisory panel consisting of various industry personalities to help our incubatees in the area of market access and funding. In the panel, we will have representatives from MDeC, Cradle, Mavcap, some prominent businessmen, TPM, MOBIG, iTrain etc. With a slew of high capable advisors, I strongly believe that MAD Incubatees will greatly benefit from this whole new initiative.
Another strong point to note is the setting up of a 3 month entrepreneurship program called the Mobile Developers Factory program where in this program, an entrepreneur will be helped to conceptualise, fine tune the idea, develop the product and eventually market, all in 3-months. This is a fast-track program where the focus is to ensure faster go-to-market potential instead of just waiting 6 months to a year to roll out a product.
Well...this is a glimpse on a whole new initiative from the people who brought you the MCA ICT Resource Centre. Let me know if you are keen. There will be many activities to start in the coming two months.
Cheers...
We have seen the proliferation of iPhones in the world, its popularity has prompted many entrepreneurs to develop iPhone applications which is now a popular focus among technopreneurs these days.
In recent months, MIRC has collaborated on various initiatives such as Mobile Applications Developers (MAD) Workshops and hosted talks on mobile technologies. MOBIG has also completed its first year and ready to go in its second year. As I see it, we need an Incubator to help mobile entrepreneurs to "make it" in this opportunity.
Therefore, with a few friends and MOBIG, we have decided to set up a Mobile Incubator Lab called MAD Incubator with a specific focus on developing mobile entrepreneurs in Malaysia. This incubator will be opened in Technology Park Malaysia and will have an entire new incubation process and activities to promote our mobile entrepreneurs as well as create awareness on mobile applications developed by Malaysians for the World!
This entire new process will focus on Outreach, Lab, Market Access and Funding.
For Outreach, MOBIG will run ideas generation competitions amongst universities to identify and select good mobile ideas which together, MOBIG hopes to bring them up as entrepreneurs. These ideas will be incubated in MAD Incubator and every efforts will be made to promote, fund and market these ideas. Another aspect of Outreach is to create awareness amongst our Malaysian industries as well as overseas market. Therefore, we will work with our local counterparts to promote open innovation amongst industries in Malaysia and with our foreign counterparts, we will be promote technology transfer and market access in overseas markets.
As for the Lab, we intend to set up MADLab, a lab dedicated to the development of prototypes for iPhone, Blackberry, Java and Windows applications. For those who do not have ready facilities, they can come into the Lab and develop their applications with the help of our technology mentors.
Then comes market access and funding, two critically important components to entrepreneurship. MAD Incubator will be setting up an advisory panel consisting of various industry personalities to help our incubatees in the area of market access and funding. In the panel, we will have representatives from MDeC, Cradle, Mavcap, some prominent businessmen, TPM, MOBIG, iTrain etc. With a slew of high capable advisors, I strongly believe that MAD Incubatees will greatly benefit from this whole new initiative.
Another strong point to note is the setting up of a 3 month entrepreneurship program called the Mobile Developers Factory program where in this program, an entrepreneur will be helped to conceptualise, fine tune the idea, develop the product and eventually market, all in 3-months. This is a fast-track program where the focus is to ensure faster go-to-market potential instead of just waiting 6 months to a year to roll out a product.
Well...this is a glimpse on a whole new initiative from the people who brought you the MCA ICT Resource Centre. Let me know if you are keen. There will be many activities to start in the coming two months.
Cheers...
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