Comments for Revolution Blog

Comment on When to Make it Rain (in Marketing) by Richard

Richard — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 01:43:41 +0000

Great post.

Comment on You were given opposable thumbs – so use them. by Chris Drake

Chris Drake — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:41:52 +0000

Mel – couldn’t agree more. People that want to have “monkey work” need to be quickly identified and either changed or removed. The biggest value we received from automating mundane tasks is we can focus more time doing valuable things (like talking with customers). Thank you for your comments!

Comment on You were given opposable thumbs – so use them. by Mel Hogan

Mel Hogan — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:21:36 +0000

Great post Chris. Spot-on. I have tried to espouse the wisdom of the sweat-equity of this type of approach at almost every company I’ve worked at. Interestingly enough, the people who push back the most are often those who it would serve to benefit the most. I think this is probably because it is human nature to have “monkey work” on hand when we don’t feel like making the effort of doing the real thing.

Comment on Have a Little Brass by casey.barthels

casey.barthels — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:06:04 +0000

Great post Chris, and I love the examples (especially the Oops… ouch).
Like you said, it takes bold vision to execute a truly unique idea, but without foresight and thorough planning you’ll likely crash and burn. A terrific idea late one night can often lead to a “what the heck was I thinking” if you give it a few days to stew. Knowing you and how devoutly meticulous you are, I’m curious, have you ever been so excited about or so sure of an idea that you just jumped on it?

Comment on When to Make it Rain (in Marketing) by Greg Head

Greg Head — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:23:16 +0000

Chris,

As someone who helped you (and many other entrepreneurs) and most stages of this process, I couldn’t agree more that you need to align your sales and marketing ambitions with reality at each stage of growth. As you mentioned, there are many stages along the way — it’s not just “invention, sales, marketing.”

You also had the discipline to invest in serious marketing when you know it will work – when you had a great product completely up and running and had proven the messages and closing process along the way.

Congrats on your success.

Greg

Comment on Stop Negotiating by Mark Wyatt

Mark Wyatt — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:14:21 +0000

Great article Chris! It is a tough strategy to go by in this market. But I do feel the quality of clients and financial health of the company will be much greater in the long term.

Comment on Stop Negotiating by Chris Drake

Chris Drake — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:53:26 +0000

Yes. Before FireHost we had a high-end web development company. I focused the money talk on terms of Investment not budget. Even in our proposal, I didn’t have language like “Quote” or “Estimate”, I had “Investment” so the client would get in that mindset when seeing a proposal. If you’re not doing that, adjust and you will see a different attitude about it.

Thank you for your comment.

Comment on Stop Negotiating by Aly

Aly — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:43:08 +0000

If you believe in your value then you should never have to settle for less. Wise words here Chris.

Comment on Stop Negotiating by Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:29:28 +0000

This is a very important to businesses of all sizes — especially freelancers. When you’re just getting started, it’s easy to drop prices at the drop of a hat as soon as someone asks, but it cheapens the entire experience and sets you into a bad habit that is hard to climb out of. Great post. Thanks!

Comment on Stop Negotiating by Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 05:23:21 +0000

Couldn’t agree more. A lot of time is spent (especially in IT consulting) trying to make something sound good, rather than trying to build something that *is* good. When you have a solid product, it speaks for itself.