Sales, Marketing, and Strategy
Why You Need To Know What Your TAM & SAM Are
“Tell me about the whole market first,” Jack Gifford, Maxim’s CEO, said to me. We were meeting at the Peppermill in Cupertino like we always did for our Tuesday morning breakfast meetings. For this meeting it was me, Ziya who was my boss, Dave Fullagar who was the VP Engineering, and I believe Len Sherman…
Read MoreWhen Do You Consider Your Business Ready To Launch?
I used to meet with my cofounders a few times a week. We were each working on parts of our business plan. “John” was working on the engineering model, “Jim” was working on the marketing model, and I was working on the overall financial plan. After about two months of staring at each other across…
Read MoreHow Strong Technically Does Your VP Marketing Have To Be?
Years ago, I had someone who worked for me that was really bright, really intuitive. I thought he had a lot of potential, but the problem was he didn’t have a technical degree. So, I gave Matt the least technically challenging product line in the company to run. Matt did a great job. The businesses…
Read MoreHow Do You Ensure You Won’t Violate Your Competitors Patents?
We were the poster child for a company that was crying out to be sued. My goodness, our first products were exact replicas (called “second sources” in the industry) of Maxim’s. To make matters worse, Maxim was litigious. Very, very litigious. You can develop an alternative way to do things. I was having lunch with…
Read MoreWhat Are The Five Things You Need To Do When Your Business Is Failing?
When your business is failing, it feels like time is actually going faster. And that’s when you can make bad decisions that cause you to fail faster. I’ll give you five things you should do right now if your business is failing in this short video. Do You Want To Grow Your Business? Maybe…
Read MoreWhy You Should Validate All Your Product Ideas
Years ago, I was running the communications division of Maxim Integrated Products. We were the dominant player in what were known as single supply RS-232 transceivers with over 80% market share. We had built the business up to over $100M/year in revenue, and our success was attracting a lot of attention. We had 14 direct…
Read MoreHow Can You Differentiate Yourself Even In A Commodity Market
It’s easy to differentiate yourself from your competition when there are a small number of competitors. But what do you do if you have a lot competitors making similar products to yours? I’ll give you some ideas in this short video. Do You Want To Grow Your Business? Maybe I Can Help. Click Here.
Read MoreHow You Know Your Product Is Going To Fail
I’ve announced over one thousand new products in my career. Many have been big sellers, and some have been flops. I’ll give you a simple way to tell whether you have a hit or flop in this short video. Do You Want To Grow Your Business? Maybe I Can Help. Click Here.
Read MoreHow Do You Compete Against $1B Companies?
I celebrated my birthday two months after I started working at Maxim. My boss, Ziya Boyacigiller, took me out to lunch. I can’t remember where we went to lunch, but it was probably sushi since Ziya and I liked sushi. However, I do remember the book Ziya gave me for my birthday. The book was…
Read MoreHow To Get Your Message Across Before You Lose Your Audience
It doesn’t matter whether you are raising money, recruiting a new employee, or talking to customers, getting your message across fast is critical. I’ll explain exactly how you can master this important skill in this short video. Read the video transcript below: Okay you know since I started coaching entrepreneurs, one of the…
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