Holiday Guide: 7 Easy and Amazing Customer Gifts
It’s customer holiday gift season! What gifts should you give your clients? Here’s a list of 7 ideas and vendors with various price points, lead time, customization, and fanciness.
Read More
It’s customer holiday gift season! What gifts should you give your clients? Here’s a list of 7 ideas and vendors with various price points, lead time, customization, and fanciness.
Read MoreIt’s customer holiday gift season!
We urgently, I mean, helpfully reminded you last week with a timeline, how-to suggestions, and brainstorming questions!
This week, we cut right to the chase.
What gifts should you give your clients?
Here’s a list of 7 ideas and vendors with various price points, lead time, customization, and fanciness.
All of these I’ve used, received, or had highly recommended from other founders.
Let’s gift to it!
Why We Love It:
Swag Up handles manufacturing, packing, shipping, and storing inventory. One-stop shop.
But I love storing and sorting through old swag…said no one ever!
Why We Love It:
Atlanta-based, woman-owned, and THEY KNOW WINE. Every wine recommendation I’ve had from Starbright has been perfect.
Why We Love It:
Woman-owned and “they are a DREAM to work with!” from a founder who used the service.
Great value alignment for companies with sustainability or do-good missions. (Um, which is hopefully all of us…)
Why We Love It:
Customer service and experience is incredible. On par with Zappos or Stitch Fix.
Robust product reviews help you decide on items. I’ve been happy with 4.5 stars or higher.
Why We Love It:
Great for teams. Send to the executive sponsor who will share with everyone in the office.
Can be sent quickly with minimal lead time. Good for birthdays, thank yous, and other celebratory items too.
Why We Love It:
Atlanta-based company that can do branded orders. Every day item that’s not your typical pen or tech t-shirt.
I have a 4 pack at home and would use at least 100 more.
Why We Love It:
High touch and custom. It’s a total flex if you know a customer well enough to send them something unique and personal.
Bonus: use in the sales process or for employee recognition too!
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Have you received or given a customer gift that was amazing? Other great customer gift brands or vendors to share?
We try not to be alarmist here on the O’Daily. Startup life has enough fire drills without adding to it. But here’s the reality. If you haven’t started planning holiday gifts for customers, you’re behind.
Read MoreWe try not to be alarmist here on the O’Daily. Startup life has enough fire drills without adding to it.
But here’s the reality.
If you haven’t started planning holiday gifts for customers, you’re behind.
But it’s the first week in November??? How could I be behind???
Yep, it snuck up on me too. It always does.
What I like to do is make an abbreviated plan for this year and then implement the “ideal” plan next year when I’ll have more time and be better prepared.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
I really always think that though.
Luckily, it’s not too late to get a great customer gift plan in place!
Today, we’ll cover timelines, questions to consider, and how-tos of customer gift giving.
Next week, we’ll share suggestions on the type of gifts to give with specific recommendations and unexpected lessons learned from real customer gifts.
Let’s get to it. These gifts aren’t going to plan themselves!
Let’s work backwards.
You want gifts to arrive before everyone is out for holiday break. Out of town, out of the office, out of touch. You don’t want your $50 cookie box getting moldy during the 2 week ghost town between Christmas and New Year’s.
Some items take 5-10 days to arrive. Especially for the standard (read: most affordable), non-rush shipping option.
If you’re delivering to an office, there can also be a lag between mailroom arrival and when it gets into the hands of your customer.
Getting branded swag made takes time. So does putting together gift boxes, signing cards, coordinating a team photo, or whatever other prep items you do.
If you’re mailing a physical item, you’ll also need to confirm addresses which is extra fun in this work-from-anywhere world. 😁
Note: Businesses (including yours!) may be closed for 2-3 days over Thanksgiving.
Things to do next week: gift ideation, research, rough draft customer list, budget, get quotes (total cost + timeline), get final approval, place order.
No big deal though. Just another Tuesday in the fast paced world of startups! 😉
Take a few moments to identify the purpose of your holiday gift. It will help clarify your target audience, budget, and gift item.
Which users or customers should receive a gift? This can get complicated…
#PROTIP
Once you have a “who” plan, circulate a tentative spreadsheet of gift recipients. Other teammates, especially in sales or leadership, may have specific customers to add. Do it upfront to prevent leaving off someone important or not having enough gift supplies!
What’s your budget for this project?
#PROTIP
Order a few extra of everything. Typos, water spills, last minute additions, package malfunctions, internal requests – wiggle room comes in handy.
What kind of gift should it be?
#PROTIP
DIY is less expensive but takes (significantly) more time. There’s no right or wrong but be aware and intentional about the tradeoffs.
Where should this project live? Who handles the execution?
It’s 100% dependent on your company size and structure.
Corporate gifting is a $258 billion market for a reason.
(^^I have done all of these before. 🤪)
#PROTIP
We’ll have specific gift suggestions next week including some surprising learnings on what customers love. Spoiler Alert: it’s NOT the most expensive gift we sent.
Holiday gifts are a great way to stay in touch with customers and spread goodwill.
Start planning now so you can be thoughtful, thorough, and creative!
Other advice for customer holiday gifts? Any gifts or strategies that worked well?
Gratitude is important to cultivate in our lives and companies. It fosters happiness, clarity, abundance, and resilience. Like attracts like so when you are appreciative and positive, more good things come your way.
Read MoreGratitude is important to cultivate in our lives and companies. It fosters happiness, clarity, abundance, and resilience.
Like attracts like so when you are appreciative and positive, more good things come your way.
(Or you see the good things already there?!?)
At a startup, each stage is special and hard.
It's easy to focus on what's wrong or look ahead to what's next.
Only to realize afterwards how much fun it was at the previous stage!
(Also true for parenting, sports, learning new things, life in general...)
At startups, a genuine “thank you” can earn more goodwill than all the free snacks or company perks combined.
Gratitude can also be a source of strength through the low lows (that inevitably come with the high highs) of entrepreneurship.
Even on the hardest day, can you be grateful that you control your own destiny, don't work your old corporate job, or are working to make the world better?
You know you should. But how do you ACTUALLY capture more gratitude and appreciation in the moment?
It's a work in progress, but something that's worked well for me is a daily gratitude habit.
I make a list of 10-20 things that I'm grateful for every day.
I started doing it after taking The Science of Happiness, an amazing online course from Laurie Santos, professor at Yale.
Research shows exercise, sleep, gratitude, and social connection are more important for happiness than money, fame, or promotions.
Even though we think — and act like — it's the opposite…
Some items on my daily list are heartfelt and big. Some are silly and small. Some are things only appreciated when they're missing (health, air conditioning, a good night's sleep!!) so I try to recognize them proactively.
But that's the point, isn't it?
Once I get started, I realize I could go on and on. Husband, parents, neighbors, friends, housing, healthy food, bike paths, comfy shoes, hilarious squirrels, libraries, puzzles, modern medicine, eating outside, paying customers, smart engineers, a mentor to learn from, talented interns, a well-designed product, financial stability, a cup of coffee…to infinity.
What are you grateful for this week, this moment, this year, this life?
Personality assessments are amazing tools for early stage companies. Whether you’re a team of 5, 50, or 500, understanding who people are, how they work, and what motivates them is invaluable!
Read MorePersonality assessments are amazing tools for early stage companies.
Whether you’re a team of 5, 50, or 500, understanding who people are, how they work, and what motivates them is invaluable!
But not all personality assessments are created equal.
Below are my top 2 favorite personality assessments, pros and cons of each, plus a list of other assessment options.
Let the culture, clarity, and collaboration begin!
P.S. Clay Kirkland is the facilitator I’ve used for 10+ years and he is EXCELLENT!
What else is out there? Here are some others that I’ve done or heard recommended.
We’ll cover tips and tricks for how to make the process of company-wide assessments work well. Helpful, not (too) cheesy, with strong internal adoption!
Have you used personality assessments with your team? How did it go? Any tips or favorites to share?
I recently did a presentation on “Understanding Venture Capital” for this year’s Main Street Entrepreneurship Seed Fund cohort out of Georgia State University. I shared #protips on fundraising — lesser known tips and strategies for success when you’re going out to meet VCs and raise money. Here are 3 keys to fundraising that every entrepreneur should know!
Read MoreI recently did a presentation on “Understanding Venture Capital” for this year’s Main Street Entrepreneurship Seed Fund cohort out of Georgia State University.
I shared #protips on fundraising — lesser known tips and strategies for success when you’re going out to meet VCs and raise money.
Here are 3 keys to fundraising that every entrepreneur should know!
Investors love intros from other entrepreneurs, especially those in their portfolio.
🤔 Why?
Service providers— lawyers, accountants or consultants—may have a great intro, but they also have a clear economic interest in seeing a company raise money.
An entrepreneur intro-ed from a service provider may have a slightly higher bar to traverse into trust.
Exception: a long history of partnership with that service provider.
Depending on the investor and the relationship, this could work.
There has to be a clear reason why someone passed on the investment themselves.
If a firm only invests in software, and you’re a medical device, it’s pretty clearly not a fit. If you’re deep tech and they’re consumer products, it makes sense why the investor passed.
But know – in the back of every investor’s head is — “The Exception.”
If an opportunity is amazing enough, investors expect other investors to make an exception.
*EXCEPTION* EXAMPLE
Benchmark and WeWork. Benchmark didn’t do real estate. Until WeWork. Because Adam Neumann and his vision were so compelling, they made an exception.
Despite WeWork’s fall from grace, Benchmark made a 40x return. Exception validated ✅
Best way to get an intro to a VC in order of priority:
It seems counterintuitive.
Pitch the investors or firms you’re least excited about FIRST.
Save the ones that seem awesome or seem like a great fit for last.
🤔 Why?
You’ll be more cohesive, polished, confident, and prepared.
THAT’S what you want to show your preferred investors.
This comes from the Salesloft playbook. They raised $245M from top tier investors using the reverse order strategy.
There’s a reason the championship game is played at the end of the season. Save the best for last.
A well-rehearsed pitch is noticeably better. Practice lots. Like, hundreds of times.
(This is why you save the best investors for last!!! See #2)
To stand out even further, be excellent during question and answer time. This is what separates good from great.
How you answer investor questions can make or break your fundraise.
Check out —> this research to nail your objection handling.
If you do it right, you’ll raise 14x more money than your peers.
This raises the question…
PRACTICE TIP #1
Pitch meetings are like job interviews. You’ll get asked the same 20 questions over and over. (“Common investor questions” feels like a future post…) Different questions, same playbook.
ACTION: Make a list of likely questions. Plan your answers. Practice them aloud. Have a founder friend poke holes. Remember: promotion not prevention.
PRACTICE TIP #2
Go to Pitch Practice! It’s weekly. It’s free. It’s led by the awesome Jacey Cadet, VP of Marketing and Community at Atlanta Ventures. She’s fun, she’s brilliant, she creates a welcoming, safe, and entertaining environment to learn and practice.
Getting in front of someone in the industry for advice without burning an investor meeting is rare and game-changing. She’ll help your pitch and prepare you for typical investor questions.
ACTION: Sign up for Pitch Practice at the Atlanta Tech Village. Fridays at 1pm.
What other fundraising tips do you have? What is “common knowledge” in the VC world that founders may not know?
I sold to and managed relationships with enterprise customers at multiple companies. Every company was unique but certain patterns came up regularly.Here are 6 key strategies if you’re a startup selling to big companies!
Read MoreIt’s a great startup strategy to hunt deer. (See this classic Mark Suster blog about rabbits, deer, and elephants.)
Deer are SMB companies who can buy your software for ~$1,000/mo. They put on a credit card with no legal, no contract negotiation, and no collections.
It’s predictable cash every month with a short sales cycle.
Of course, elephants, I mean, large companies have problems too.
And they have a lot of money to spend on solutions…as long as they don’t trample you in the process!
I sold to and managed relationships with enterprise customers at multiple companies. Every company was unique but certain patterns came up regularly.
Here are 6 key strategies if you’re a startup selling to big companies!
IBM expects to pay $1 million dollars for your software. I don’t even know what your software is but IBM expects to pay that much.
If enterprise companies are your target market, make sure you charge enterprise prices!
All contracts with big companies go through Procurement. Procurement’s job is to save the company money. Procurement’s success is measured by how much they negotiate down a price.
Expect a 20% haircut from Procurement and factor that into your (already high because it’s enterprise - see #1) pricing.
Large companies expect to pay for software implementations.
They know they are high maintenance! #sorrynotsorry
Here’s what it will include:
It will take more time and people than you think. Plan ahead to cover your costs and provide a great experience.
If you do a big contract with a big company, lawyers will be involved.
Lawyers want to add value. They do this by redline-ing the crap out of the boilerplate contract and terms of service you copied from the internet.
You’ll want to make sure there’s no Goliath-vs-David funny business so you’ll get a lawyer too.
ICYMI: Lawyers are not cheap.
Every large company will ask for 24/7 support. This usually gets resolved amicably.
YOU: We offer support from 9a-6p Mon-Fri.
BIG COMPANY: Okay, fine.
Sometimes they really do need more support coverage. They should pay for that. (Theme of the blog . . .)
Once you price it out for them, they may realize that standard support hours are fine. Staffing for 24/7 support is expensive!
It’s also helpful to discuss who has access to support. Does every user have access or do they need to go through designated power users on their side before it gets escalated to your team?
Clarify upfront to prevent confusion, frustration, or excessive support tickets later.
Do Tips #1-5 make enterprise sound like a major headache? Are you throughly discouraged?? Fear not, my friends. There’s a less painful option at your finger tips.
Offer a month-to-month option that can be billed via credit card.
Most department heads can put a certain amount of spending on a credit card, no questions asked. At the very least, no lawyers or procurement asked. 😉
This strategy worked great at Rigor. A department within a Fortune500 company would sign on, paying monthly via credit card. Once we had internal traction and proven ROI, we’d start discussing a larger annual contract. Navigating the corporate approvals and negotiations went much faster. We also got fewer questions and concerns about our startup status.
Large companies can be amazing partners, fantastic marquee customers, and a huge revenue boost.
When startups move upmarket and start selling to larger customers, you’ll often hear:
It’s the same product with a different sales process.
Be prepared. Understand typical big company process and dynamics so you can align accordingly.
What tips do you have for selling to enterprise companies? What do you wish you would have known? Any strategies that have worked well for you?
Getting your first sales hire right is incredibly important. A mistake can set you back months and be costly. What should you look for? What are red flags? What makes sense in the early stages? How do you know if they’ll be successful? Here are 6 qualities to look for in your first sales hire.
Read MoreGetting your first sales hire right is incredibly important. A mistake can set you back months and be costly.
What should you look for? What are red flags? What makes sense in the early stages? How do you know if they’ll be successful?
Here are 6 qualities to look for in your first sales hire.
Did they sell Cutco knives in high school? Advertising for the school newspaper? Look for a pattern of sales skills and find out the details of how much they sold, what they learned, and what they liked about it.
#PROTIP
Software or tech sales not required. The best sales reps I know sold copiers and Cutco knives before they started at software companies. It’s easier to train software skills than sales instincts.
Did they receive promotions within previous roles? Did they move up quickly? You don't get promoted from Sales Development Rep to Account Executive because you suck at sales 😉
Same is true from moving from restaurant host to server to manager. It shows leadership skills and good work ethic.
#PROTIP
This works for other roles too! Look for a fast career trajectory especially within one company. Job hopping (1 year or less at several companies) is a red flag, especially in sales!
As an early stage company, there’s no playbook. The first sales rep will be figuring out who to call, what talking points are most compelling, and how to find target companies. Look for someone who likes to blaze their own trail and is comfortable with ambiguity. Avoid someone who wants training or lots of guidance.
#PROTIP
Ask about the most challenging thing they’ve taught themselves or the most creative way they’ve gotten past a “gatekeeper.”
Hunters find new companies. Farmers find new business within existing customers. It’s a totally different mindset and skill set. Look for a hunter.
#PROTIP
Hunters like to handoff the customer relationship after closing the deal. They will usually be transparent that they like to win and make money. Farmers tend to emphasize their love of customer relationships.
A great salesperson is not afraid to make the ask. They will be securing a meeting with the CEO of a F500, asking for next steps, and negotiating the job offer.
#PROTIP
Employees who make asks and push boundaries can be a challenge to manage. But it’s what makes them great at selling! Two sides of the same coin.
Hunger beats experience in early stage startups. Someone smart, scrappy, and eager to work their ass off will be more affordable, more flexible, and, in my experience, more successful overall. The experienced sales person will want a high base salary and expect lots of resources (marketing materials, warm leads, sales engineers, demo accounts). Eventually, you’ll be big enough to hire the experienced sales pro but early on, it will be expensive and high risk.
#PROTIP
Your first sales comp packages should be low base salaries with high commissions and market rate on-target earnings (OTE). It rewards performance, aligns employee and company incentives (aka signing up paying customers), and keeps burn low. The market rate OTE attracts good candidates.
It may take a while to find a great first sales hire. It’s worth the wait!
If you can afford it, hiring a few sales people at a time can also be a great way to expedite learnings, create friendly competition, and see who rises to the top so you can recreate that.
What qualities do you look for in early sales hires? What skills or backgrounds lead to great first sales people?
Overwhelmed by startup life? See problems everywhere but aren’t sure where to start? Have 100 ideas but no bandwidth to implement them? There’s an easy way to bring clarity, focus, and calm to your brain and to-do list.
Read MoreOverwhelmed by startup life?
See problems everywhere but aren’t sure where to start?
Have 100 ideas but no bandwidth to implement them?
There’s an easy way to bring clarity, focus, and calm to your brain and to-do list.
I’ve used it with CEOs, teams, individuals, and on myself!
It works for startups, corporations, and personal lives.
Behold the magic of a Priority Spreadsheet…
Block off 20 minutes, use THIS TEMPLATE, and follow the 6 steps below.
Clarity is yours, my friend.
#PROTIP
Bucket items into categories like Sales, Marketing, Product for more structure.
#PROTIP: Use dollars, numbers, or percentages. Getting specific and quantitative will clarify your hypothesis. Evaluate results later from this baseline.
#PROTIP
Double your times and dollars. As we talked about with calendar blocks, we are way too optimistic. 🤪
#PROTIP
Conserving cash? Propose a barter of your expertise for someone else’s.
#PROTIP
Eisenhower Matrix is a great prioritization framework. Read more here.
#PROTIP
Turn this into a project management tool. Add a “Status” column and set up a weekly meeting or Slack check-in to review progress.
Being a creative, problem-solving entrepreneur is a great thing!
Being overwhelmed or distracted by too many ideas or projects can hinder your greatness.
Finding a simple way to channel your mega brain into prioritized actions will serve you now and for years to come.
Clarity and focus is just a spreadsheet away. 🚀
What strategies work for you to manage lots of ideas? How do you prioritize when you have too much to do?
Last week I had a blast talking to founders and customer success leaders at an Atlanta Tech Village workshop. The topic? Customer success at startups, of course!
Read MoreLast week I had a blast talking to founders and customer success leaders at an Atlanta Tech Village workshop.
The topic?
Customer success at startups, of course!
Want to get in on the fun? Here is the FULL SLIDE DECK with a bulleted summary below.
Not included: cheesy jokes and outstanding audience questions!
What tools, strategies, or systems work well for early customers? Any early stage customer challenges The O’Daily should cover?
Apparently when you get an MBA in pricing strategy and then do pricing strategy all day every day for multiple products, you know a thing or two. The final product was great, of course. But seeing their process was eye-opening too. Here’s how the pricing gurus at the world’s largest SaaS company conduct pricing research. (And how you can apply these techniques at your startup today!)
Read MoreWhen Pardot was acquired by Salesforce, we worked with Salesforce’s pricing strategy department to update our packages.
These folks knew their shit!
We were doing pretty well considering pricing wasn’t our day job. We had a strong foundation and we evolved our packages based on learnings and market shifts.
But nothing beats learning from experts.
Apparently when you get an MBA in pricing strategy and then do pricing strategy all day every day for multiple products, you know a thing or two.
The final product was great, of course. But seeing their process was eye-opening too.
Here’s how the pricing gurus at the world’s largest SaaS company conduct pricing research. (And how you can apply these techniques at your startup today!)
We gave the pricing strategy team a huge download of data:
They did fancy spreadsheet things to learn:
Sounds obvious in hindsight but with a small team of generalists (early stage startups don’t hire pricing strategists 😂), we were usually putting out fires or working off of good instincts.
Startup Tip: Thinking about a pricing revamp? Take a look at current customer usage data to spot trends and insights. Keep it lightweight or partner with a local MBA class that looks for “real” business projects to work on.
Bonus: Analyzing customer usage data can also provide roadmap guidance. What should you invest in? What should you end-of-life because no one uses? What could be a good path to upsells?
In addition to the data, the pricing strategy team gathered anecdotal info on:
This was particularly important because at this point, we didn’t have much feature differentiation between packages. We had 3 pricing tiers (mostly) based on usage amounts.
We needed info on what features could incentivize an upgrade.
Startup Tip: Gather info from the front lines especially if there are gaps in data. Pricing models include qualitative and quantitative input. Listen for what functionality is most valuable, not just “how much” something is being used.
Stalking, I mean, researching competitors is an area where we aligned with the top pricing strategists 😁
The pricing gurus collected this info, looked at it holistically, and used it to determine a competitive updated offering.
Startup Tip: Add two “Lost Deal” fields to your CRM - “Reason for Loss” and “Vendor Selected.” Same for customer attrition. It’s a light lift but invaluable data.
Skip the MBA and F500 acquisition. The O’Daily is here to cherry pick the low hanging pricing strategy fruit for you. 😉
These are relatively simple tactics that can provide big value today and long term.
Curious about the output of this research? Here’s the learnings from the final product.
What other research has honed your pricing strategy? Have you borrowed any big company strategies and applied them to your startup pricing?
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