by Hank Barnes | June 11, 2013 | 1 Comment
I turn 50 today and am further dating myself with the subject of this post. On the show Dragnet, Jack Webb played a character called Sgt. Friday, whose catchphrase was “Just the facts, Ma’am” (although, according the Wikipedia, that phrase was never used exactly in the show. While I never actually watched the show, I [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: authenticity, customer experience, emotional selling
by Hank Barnes | June 5, 2013 | 1 Comment
Every tech provider (despite the protests I hear regularly from clients that “we don’t have any competitors”), competes with somebody or some thing. If you have no competition, then you likely have no real market. The most basic form of competition is status quo–the way people do things without your product. While you can’t choose [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: competition, differentiation, positioning
by Hank Barnes | May 28, 2013 | Submit a Comment
Today, I attended the funeral for Rashid Khan, my former boss at Ultimus. Rashid passed away over the weekend after a long battle with cancer. He was an interesting man who bootstrapped multiple companies to success over the course of his career. I owe a ton to Rashid. Without him, I may never have made [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: funding, startup, venture capital
by Hank Barnes | May 22, 2013 | Submit a Comment
I love music and I am an unabashed fan of Sonos. I think they could be considered a technology company since their entertainment solution is all about software and the Internet. But they really know that they are an entertainment company that happens to rely heavily on technology. I started my Sonos “deployment” about a [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: customer experience, Sonos
by Hank Barnes | May 15, 2013 | 1 Comment
This past weekend my daughter (who I have referenced in several posts) graduated from NC State University–Summa Cum Laude and Phi Betta Kappa and heading on to UNC Chapel Hill for Medical School(proud parent addition of information irrelevant to this story). During the weekend, she took several out of town visitors on a tour of [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: acoustic mirrors, communications, context, marketing
by Hank Barnes | May 2, 2013 | Comments Off
I recently came across a blog post by Mark Goulston and John Ullmen on Harvard Business Review titled, “How to Really Understand Someone Else’s Point of View.” The story connected so well with me that I went out and bought the book that it promoted, Real Influence: Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In. [...]
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Category: Go to Market Tags: customer experience, influence, trust
by Hank Barnes | April 18, 2013 | 1 Comment
I am as big an advocate for customer experience as anyone, so the first part of the title of this post may have caused you to do a double-take. But I am starting to get a little frustrated with the hyperbole around interactions. I can’t count the number of times I hear people say things [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: customer experience, interaction
by Hank Barnes | April 11, 2013 | 1 Comment
I have been a fan of Outside-In Thinking for a long time. In the late ’90s, we used the principles of Outside-In thinking to position the approach of our content management solution in the market. Our message was that the furor over the growing amount of content was meaningless. What mattered is managing the content [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: customer centric, customer experience, marketing, outside-in, sales
by Hank Barnes | April 4, 2013 | 1 Comment
My daughter is very talented (I have to admit). After graduating from NC State this year with a 4.0 average, she is heading to UNC Med School. Additionally, she was an all-star cheerleader for many years and also did gymnastics. A few years ago, she wanted to learn to play volleyball (my sport). While she [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: adaptability, marketing, sales
by Hank Barnes | March 28, 2013 | 2 Comments
A few years ago, I was interviewing for a VP of Marketing job with a local software provider. During the interview, the CEO posed this question: “I want to be known as the best company to work for in the Triangle. How will you make that happen?” This was an interesting question, and a big [...]
Category: Go to Market Tags: authenticity, marketing, trust
