newCFO

Plain and simply you NEVER raise money . . .

. . .  but you SELL something:

1. you sell shares in your company (e.g.: Angels, VCs);
2. you sell portion of your company’s future cash flow (e,g,: loans, bank);
3. you sell seats on the board (usually an accessory top a.);
4. you sell control: in a VC deal, often the first 49% of a company is free, it’s the additional 2% that’s very expensive.

Therefore raising money is a selling activity, a selling process that encompasses institutional branding, institutional marketing its own collateral (e.g.: business plan), and its own selling experience.

Of course if you believe that things are no longer sold, but they are bought:  what are you doing today to stimulate the purchase of what you are selling, either your goods or services, your shares or both?

Try to approach the raising money process as a selling process, sell, sell, sell, sell in everything you do:  will interested investor call your support line?  Will they place an order with you?

Q.: Where does the selling/branding stop and where does it begin?
A.: NEVER!  It never stops!  From the way you answer the phone, to whether you answer the phone (Amazon.com does not have a phone #, but you can have Amazon.com customer service call you), Zappos uses white boxes highly distinguishable if you see someone walking carrying one, in Rome (Italy) there’s a restaurant called “LA PAROLACCIA” where the wait staff is rude, and calls customers names ON PURPOSE, and customers do the same.  Do not go there alone or on a date!  Calling their customers dorks and a-holes is their brand!

Suggested reading:  SELLING IS DEAD

Consumers have always been an audience, while marketers and sellers have been the undisputed performers.

Has this ever happened to you?

Customer: “What colors do you have?”
Seller: “What color are you looking for?”
Customer: “Metallic Silver”
Seller: “We have it”.

Later in the buying process, the seller does not have a Metallic Silver product, but in one way or another tries to rescue the sale.  If a sale is based on lies and deceit, was there ever a sale?

Some of the techniques used by some sellers:

You didn’t say Metallic Silver
This is metallic Silver (pointing at something Red)
and the best of all: seller waste buyer’s time with excuses and procrastinations till the buyer has no more time to start a new process somewhere else.

So, next time you interact with someone, sellers, clients, prospects, employees, bosses and you walk away happy: did they tell you the facts, or what you wanted to hear?

By the way:  the check is in the mail

There’s a difference, a HUGE difference.

If you hire people with your same worldview, who share your visions, and your ethics, it’s no different than multiple people naturally pushing toward the same direction.  If instead the majority of people do not share the vision, worldview, and ethics, the pushing toward the envision direction can still happen, but requires:

• supervision
• management
• training
• . . . . .
• . . . . .
• . . . . .

All these initiatives are non-core, have a monetary cost associated with them, and require time.  In a business environment extremely transparent, where achieving corporate milestones is to be equated to a race against the competition, can you afford to waste time, money and resources when your more nimble competition does not, or does it to a lesser extent?

The choice of people that you make affects directly your P&L.

Reading: EXECUTION by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charlies Burck (the part about hiring is a MUST DO for everyone)

Q.: What’s the difference between Music School and Business School?
A.: In Business School you don’t get to practice what you learn (are case studies and business plans without execution business practice?)

Q.: What’s the difference between Cooking School and Business School?
A.: In Business school you don’t get to practice what you learn (are case studies and business plans without execution business practice?)

On a related note:  you have resolved to finally learn a new skill, let’s say swimming or to speak Italiano.  Would you take lessons from someone who doesn’t know how to swim, and doesn’t speak Italian?

Something to think about.

DO WHAT YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO DO!
(and if you can’t do it, don’t say you can!)

It works only if you:

1) Etch this in stone
2) Assure that everyone, from the top down DOES IT.