How to Sell Anything to Anyone

“Do something you love”. That’s one of the most common entrepreneurship piece of advice. It makes sense, as there’s nothing worse than slaving away on a venture that does bring any sort of joy.

However, what ends up happening is that early-stage entrepreneurs do really fall in love with their business that they lose all objectivity. They claim to have the best product or service, they underestimate the competition and even worse they naively overstate their revenue projections.

With that sheer loss objectivity, they conduct business as usual until the reality hits them and reveals that while their so called product or service may be the best, customers and clients do not think so, that the competition is very fierce and that their target objections will never be met as soon as planned.

It’s human nature to lose all objectivity so no need for entrepreneurs to beat themselves up over it. Simply realizing that it happens to anyone is the first step to avoiding this trap.

This is when a subjective third party is needed. It may be a partner, a mentor, the press, customers or the competition to a certain extent.

The day you start thinking that you’re the best, that you can do no wrong or that the competition is too dumb is the day that you should come to the conclusion that you’re seriously losing your objective judgment.

Entrepreneurs ought to be subjective and deal in real situation in the present world. Just because your product or service is proven to be the best does not mean that automatically the marketplace will flock to it when made available for sale. You still have to compete fiercely especially the other businesses have more money to throw at their marketing campaigns than you do.

To avoid total loss of objectivity, I personally put myself in a situation where the people whose opinions I trust or matter tell me the real score first hand. Yes it does something to the ego but it’s certainly better to be informed than to run amok in one’s own fool paradise!

By the way, entrepreneurs should never state that they have the best product or service. That statement sounds so self-serving and therefore has zero credibility. When reputable third parties rate your product or service the best over competitors’ then the tribe has spoken and the bragging can start.

Anyone can claim to be the best at any sport but unless they have Olympic gold medals to prove it, they will probably be looked at with pity. Don’t be that entrepreneur please!

Exactly, two weeks ago, Cuil the self-proclaimed “World’s Biggest Search Engine’ went live amidst great fanfare that almost matched a papal visit and within 24 hours it was the subject of great attention all over the world wide web.

Cuil had all the ingredients to become an instant hit:

Credible founders:

Tom Costello, the CEO, was a researcher at Stanford and later joined IBM to eventually become a member of IBM’s strategy team for Storage Systems Strategy worldwide.

Anna Patterson, the president, has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and was a Research Scientist at Stanford University. She also held senior positions at Google.

Russell Power, the VP of Engineering, “attended the University of Washington and is on leave there as a PhD candidate in computer science” and also served at Google.

With such founders, it was obvious to everyone that Cuil was a product developed by the best of the best.

A big and lucrative market:

Some entrepreneurs find themselves launching their concept in non-existent markets. They then face the tasks of creating the market and creating their brands. Cuil found itself in a big market that still growing and in which winning companies are racking in millions.

This market is not near its maturity yet meaning that there may be room for many players.

Deep Pockets:

Unlike most entrepreneurs Tom Costello, Anna Patterson, Russell Power did not launch their baby on a shoe-string budget but with a cool $33 million from also credible investors such as Greylock Partners (Madrone Capital Partners and Tugboat Ventures being the others).

When an entrepreneurs starts off a venture with money being the least of her or his short-term concern it increases the odds of success.

When you also have business backers who invested in other famous start-ups such as Facebook and Linkedin, you know that they consider you a surefire winner.

Publicity:

Two Mondays ago, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Business Week, Techcrunch, GigaOm, Mashable and even I (a nobody) wrote about this new start-up.

Let’s not even mention, other newspapers, blogs, TV news reports and social media sites. An entrepreneur’s dream if you asked for my humble opinion! 

In recent years, I have not seen an Internet company launch out of the blue and get so much publicity in one shot. The PR people at Cuil certainly know how to play the game and pulled off an extraordinary coup. Heck, someone even asked publicly: How Did Cuil Get So Much Publicity on Day 1?”

But where did entrepreneurs Tom Costello, Anna Patterson, Russell Power who founded Cuil go wrong?

How come that the keys to new start-up success backfired?

Cuil provides a unique opportunity to address the importance of strategy to eary-stage entrepreneurs and how a company can fail from the start with a flawed game plan.

Cuil’s New Coke Strategy

 At least Cuil’s founders should be commended for having a strategy. Most entrepreneurs launch their concept with no strategy whatsoever. However, having a start-up strategy is one issue, having a strong one is a whole other debate.

Essentially, Cuil pulled off a New Coke Strategy which in simple terms could be explained as fixing something that’s not broken without anyone asking for it.

“Cuil’s goal is to solve the two great problems of search: how to index the whole Internet—not just part of it—and how to analyze and sort out its pages so you get relevant results.“, says the company’s about page.

Put differently, Cuil’s premise was that normal search was broken and needed fixing. And since Google dominates the search market, it became the obvious target. Cuil’s strategy was to do the search job better.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it especially no one asked

The answer to the question “How to sell anything to anyone” is a simple “Make something people want to buy.”

People do not find anything wrong with Google search. The complaints of them not being able to find something they’re searching for are in the absolute minority. Furthermore, if you really want to claim that you can do a better job, do actually deliver on the promise!

Most people typed in their names in Cuil’s search bar and everything but their personal sites popped up. They tried other keywords and the results were not even OK, they were lousy! In three quick search attempts, they discarded Cuil. The problem is that such people were mostly industry luminaries who would have given Cuil, the seal of approval, legitimizing their claim and strategy.

How strength became a major weakness

Remember the perfect launch-recipe that Cuil had? With the flawed New Coke Strategy this launch actually turned into a dud. In other words, all the credibility of the entrepreneurs/founders, all the money and the publicity turned into a major liability.

At the end of the day, Cuil received that much publicity because the founders are big guns and so are its investors. But the press was not impressed with the concept (hence the strategy) and actually did more harm than good by calling it a non-Google killer. In other words, they told the general public “Move along folks! Nothing to see here!”.

Two weeks later and the news on Cuil are still not good. With the perceived poor search results, downtimes, the situation did not certainly help.

Cuil can certainly hang in there and hope that the opinions will change. From experience, they will not as the battle it faces is tough: 1) Actually turning its service into an acceptable service and convincing the public of such 2) Actually turning into a viable search contender.

Some people wondered if Cuil was not a project meant to become popular as fast possible and at its height be sold to a true Google competitor such as Microsoft. That may be true and is not a bad idea. But at the end of the day, buyers are not dumb and will never buy a lemon.

Anyone tempted to buy or invest in Cuil further can save himself or herself great money soliciting due diligence professional services and simply conduct a Cuil search on anything and then a Google search on Cuil. The pages that come up will make up his or her mind.

Early-stage entrepreneurs be warned! No matter amount of founder credentials, start-up capital, publicity and other resources will work against a flawed strategy. Cuil will go down in history as being a cool $33 million experiment.

A future article will look into what Cuil entrepreneurs should do now (if anything!) to save face and their company. Subscribe to the RSS to be the first to read all about it! 

Here’s a quick story. Honest, it will be.

The scene takes place a martial arts school. Practitioners tend to train according to their belt rank, meaning that the beginners train together while the high belt holders train together too. And then, there’s the division between adults, children and really young children. 

Today is competition day for a black belt holder. It’s an important one because it will determine his odds for trying out for the national Olympic team. While he gets ready, a way younger and less experienced boy only sporting a yellow belt approaches him, bows respectfully and asks the black belt if he’d entertain a piece of advice.

Other higher ranked practitioners tell off the kid asking how he dares approach the seniors and ask mockingly what a thirteen year old yellow belt can teach a twenty-five year old national champion who olds a black belt. The judo competitor, in a wise move, decides to hear the youngster out.

The yellow belt, timidly whispers to the black belt that he would be better off if he focuses on getting his opponent to the ground and using grappling techniques to score points as opposed to trying to play the typical judo game that’s all about sweeps, throws and counters.

A whistle interrupts the conversation and the black belt steps on to the mat to compete. In the first three minutes, he gets thrown around like a toy and is amazed at the fact his opponent seems to be getting the best of his moves. At a loss of his options, he remembers the kid’s advice and forces the game to the ground when he easily obtains a submission getting him a chance to participate at the tryouts.

The following Monday, he tracks down the yellow belt and asks him how he knew about the superb strategy. “I knew who you were going to fight” says the 13-year old “so one day I spent an afternoon watching all of his fights on YouTube and quickly noticed that his ground game was poor because his stand up game is always flawless that he’s never needed to work on it.”

 

Dear reader, what makes an expert?

Is it the PHD filled professor? Is it the individual who’s spent thirty years in the field? Is the person who’s spent hundreds of hours on research, observations and tests? Is it someone who’s had one lucky shot and now proclaims to be an expert? Is it someone who knows something that 99% of the rest of us do not know? Is it someone who knows something that you don’t know? Is it someone who can offer insight based on his or her failures?

The dictionary says that an expert is: “a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.”

Should that mean that we should discard all advice that comes from a person or source who does not meet the above criteria?

These are questions that are debates at the moment among, would you guess it, experts themselves. For instance doctors mock traditional healers and vice versa. Marketing experts disrespectfully dismiss entrepreneurs turned consultants and so forth.

Experts don’t want people playing on their turf.

My personal take on expert and expertise is that if someone has something to say, I will pay attention no matter how trivial the information seems. I leave the interpretation up to me. Some of the marketing lessons that I ever learned were picked up from people and situations remotely related to business.

For instance, I learned from a guy who was not rich and definitely not handsome, probably the most eye-opening lesson on being different. He told me that since he was not rich or handsome, he played the dating game differently by appealing to women who were fascinated by adventure.

He basically told me that he was known as perpetual traveler and his stories would appeal to people who loved to travel but did not have the time, means or freedom. After many years, he became a local celebrity whose photos would appear in many establishments. In those photos, he would be wearing a t-shirt of the store and be at the Great Wall of China for instance.

From that I realized that in business, there were many ways to be different and with consistency, a strong brand could be developed like that. That’s something that I learned in my teenage days without taking any marketing class yet!

What makes an expert?

It’s up to you. To me, it’s anyone who tells me something I did not know or help me see a situation in a different light.

There are so many theories on business strategy, marketing and sales. Which is the best to follow?

The number one of objective of entrepreneurs should be to be number one in their market or field. Being on top is the best place to be in business as all sorts of benefits (the financials one are the most coveted) await them.

That said, it could be argued that getting on top in business is like racing to be the number one on top of a mountain, say the Mount Everest.

“To climb Mount Everest, you’ll need sharp skills, iron nerves, and some serious smarts”, says the National Geographic. Surprisingly, these same requirements will help entrepreneurs achieve domination in business.

All the 2,436 individuals (by 2007) who’ve ascended Mount Everest used different strategy and tactics. But a quick interview would reveal that from the lessons learned, there are efficient ways to get on top. Those are the ways that maximize the amount of time, money, energy and competition that the climber has to deal with.

The scenario is definitely no different in business. While there are so many theories about strategy, marketing and sales, there are efficient ways to get to the desired objectives.

Such principles that consider resources such as time, effort and capital and external factors such as competition, market trends and timing are the ones that entrepreneurs should adopt and adapt to their ventures.

A lot of consulting clients or individuals who listen to my talks profess their love or disdain for particular business theorists, schools of thought or books. While we live in a world where everyone is free to express their feelings, I feel that entrepreneurs should focus on picking up what works for them from the said pundits, theories or publications and leave the gossiping to the tabloids.

Time is a precious asset and it’s better spent building one’s business than deliberating the merits of one school of thoughts over another.

I have never ever read a business book or listened to a business speaker and never picked up anything new or perceived a concept in a different light. Yes, there’s a lot of garbage out there (but who am I to judge? One’s garbage is another one’s treasure) but there’s always something new that I pick up.

I don’t remember which business guru once said that if he reads a $15 book and picks up a good idea, it’s a good return on investment. It cannot be said any better.

What’s the best theory to follow?

One that leverages your time, money and effort in getting and staying on top of the mountain.

In most human endeavors, the beginning is always the hardest stage. The situation is no different in entrepreneurship. Those statistics about 90+% of new ventures failing within the first year are not unfounded  after all.

The beginning is also the most important stage for entrepreneurs. This is where and when all the crucial decisions that will determine their businesses or projects success or failure. For an entrepreneur to succeed, it is imperative that he or she develops and executes a flawless strategy or “master plan”.

Decisions such as the USP to develop, the name of the products, services, brands and/or company, the location of the business, talent to hire, attracting capital should be undertaken after crafting a clear game plan that will lead to success.

The early-stage entrepreneur has a lot of selling to do. The first sell is selling himself or herself on his or her concept. Other (sometime tough) sells include selling the concept to investors, selling himself or herself to the partners, selling his or her products or services to clients, selling suppliers on the idea of accepting late payment but deliver needed goods on time, sell their story pitches to media personnel and so on.

It goes without saying that the greatest entrepreneurship skill is selling. Anyone who can sell anything to anyone will succeed in winning it all. All!

Most people think of selling as salesmanship. They think that it’s all about as being loud and pushy like telemarketers, car and insurance salespeople have the nasty reputation for. 

They think that it’s all about being smooth with words, being charismatic, extrovert, be born for it, or having the ability to charm or even hypnotize. They wrongly think that selling is all about cold calling, interrupting people and being sleazy.

Such a negative perception of selling and such misconceptions limit early- stage entrepreneurs in moving forward and developing their idea from an abstract notion to a fledging business or project.

The truth about selling is that it can be done the easy way or the hard way. The effective way versus the ineffective way. The efficient way versus the inefficient way. The pushy way or the soft way. The smart way or the useless way. It’s up to the early-stage entrepreneurs to choose their direction by choosing a viable strategy first and foremost.

Let’s consider a common early-stage entrepreneurship situation: attracting the first retail customers to a new fashion boutique.

The hard way would be to go on a street corner and distribute flyers hoping that some people would eventually trickle into the store. No matter how well the flyer handout method is executed (proper targeting, a well crafted flyer message and so on), it’s a time consuming activity that won’t even yield satisfactory results.

A smarter way would be to plan a launch party that would be organized to also attract the local media who would write or talk about the party and the store and generate a wider awareness. Even if the party runs into problem and the execution is not flawless (the DJ’s music kept on skipping, the snacks tasted terrible or people get into a fist fight) but the media covers it, it’s a far better start.

How to Sell Anything to Anyone is a blog on strategy in early-stage entrepreneurship. It’s geared at entrepreneurs who are not marketing, branding or sales pros but more at individuals who have a good idea or new business that they want to market and take to the top. Issues covered include idea generation, idea smithing (turning the abstract idea into a tangible concept), strategy, marketing, branding and other general entrepreneurship issues such as raising capital, growth and staying focused.

How to Sell Anything to Anyone may seem too basic to seasoned marketing pros and to some experienced entrepreneurs. While the content is presented in a simple formate, the concepts presented are solid and can be applied by early-stage entrepreneurs in New York City starting an airline companies for instance or early-stage entrepreneurs in India starting prepaid card selling businesses.

How to Sell Anything to Anyone is not Business Week, Advertising Age, INC or Entrepreneur, four great business publications that are must weekly reads by every entrepreneur. How to Sell Anything to Anyone is about breaking down strategy, marketing, branding and sales in the early-stages into simple, actionable plans.

How to Sell Anything to Anyone is about strategy in early-stage entrepreneurship: what works to what does not work in winning the entrepreneurial game. The aspiring or new entrepreneur will find here a helping information resource that she or he can use on her or his way to taking over the world or whatever her or his objective.

How to Sell Anything to Anyone is mainly written by Jean Biri, an entrepreneur turned business strategy consultant to (you guessed right!) early-stage entrepreneurs. Since 1998, Jean has advised hundreds of business owners, professionals and individuals involved in short-term ventures on issues of strategy (finding the perfect competitive direction), marketing and branding. He’s the founder and principal of Groupe Biri, a Montréal headquartered strategy consulting firm.

He started his business career by creating content site that he promoted via Search Engine Marketing. His success led other entrepreneurs to solicit his talents and soon enough, he realized that the biggest hurdle that they faced was standing out in sea filled by competitors. This led to a more strategic and marketing work that he provided to entrepreneurs. To date, he has consulted with clients selling different types of products and services and located in various parts of the world, which works out fine for him, a self-proclaimed global nomad.

How to Sell Anything to Anyone came up as away to reach out to more early-stage entrepreneurs whose principal problem seem to be strategic in nature whether they’re interior design firm owners or successful professional athletes with business ideas.

How to Sell Anything to Anyone is your blog. You’re not alone. You’re in great company. Feel free to ask all the questions and they will form the basis of the articles that will be written and posted. No question is too small or ridiculous. If Jean can’t provide you with an answer, fear not, someone out there will and shall be tracked down for you!

Please note that in business, especially entrepreneurship and strategy, there’s never one way to achieve any given objective (such as reaching the number one spot). How to Sell Anything to Anyone welcomes differing viewpoints as long as they’re presented in rational and non abrasive ways. “You’re full of ***” type comments from anonymous posters will be deleted. After all, we do not hold the keys to the secrets of the universe and we have much more to learn so that we can share it all.

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