Tennant Consulting

Need to grow your tech or software company in 2012?

If you're looking for growth in 2012, here's your answer.  Somehow scientists shoehorned a consultant right inside this PDF document, to guide you through the steps to create an action plan that will make 2012 your best year yet.  Click here to download my 20+ page 2012 Annual Planning Guide.

Happy New Year!

Uncovering Entrepreneurial Education Requirements: Innovation Games at the EBIG Startups/VCs SIG

Last night, we got some excellent "customer input" from our members at the East Bay IT Group Startups and Venture Capital Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting. Tom Johanix facilitated a session where we played two  "Innovation Games" developed by Luke Hohmann, product management consulting firm Enthiosys.  Innovation Games are a dozen interactive exercises that help to uncover customer needs, product functionality and priorities.  I have been working with Enthiosys at a joint client, and during that time, Luke has been bending my ear about Innovation Games for the past year or so, but I had not seen the games in action.

Innovation continues to be a hot topic throughout the technology industry, and Innovation Games is one way of accessing customers' unspoken requirements.  In this case, instead of talking about a hypothetical product, we used our monthly entrepreneur SIG meeting as our "product" in order to eat our own dogfood and test the ideas we're teaching--and used two of the Innovation Games to gather customer requirements.  I had seen Luke Hohmann present Innovation Games at M.R. Rangaswami's Software 2007 Conference, and though the session was extremely short, was favorably impressed based on all the customer testimonials during that session.

So I thought we would present an educational topic for our entrepreneurial networking group and at the same time, get some feedback about how we can improve the SIG going forward.

We played two games.  First, we played Product Box, then we did a quick version of 20:20 Vision to prioritize the ideas that had been genertaed from the Product Box conversation.  We identified over 30 topics for future sessions, and the kinds of information that entrepreneurs would most value.

To be honest -- and as I had told Luke -- I was somewhat skeptical that you could put a bunch of markers and boxes on tables and people would engage – but you know, it worked!  And I can't speak for everyone, but it sure looked to me like everyone had a good time.

In Product Box, each person developed a mock-up of an actual "product box" -- an actual white cardboard box with the participant's sketches of product functionality and features -- and then each participant was gracious enough to give us a brief presentation "selling" their box to the group while I furiously took down notes about their desired features, benefits and outcomes.

In 20:20 Vision, we took the ideas recorded on large post-it notes, and prioritized them on the wall.  The group decided to prioritize based on a show of hands for how many people were interested in each topic or suggested idea.  I found seeing the shows of hands as interesting as the first exercise to generate the ideas to begin with.  Some ideas that I thought were great, the group didn't like, and thing I didn't think would be  very popular got nearly unanimous votes.  The #1 item?  Storytelling from other entrepreneurs about their successes and disasters.

Not taking anything away from our session evaluation forms -- which we pretty consistently use to survey attendees at the end of each monthly session -- I can count on two hands the number of suggestions for new topics we’ve received from participants in the last two years.  None generated anywhere near what we were able to gather tonight, and there was a surprising number of ideas that I would not have thought of before. So for those of you keeping score at home, put a checkmark in the “It works!” column for Innovation Games, as it definitely worked for us.  I look forward to working with my co-chair, Holly Nelson from Randick, O'Dea and Tooliatos to incorporate the suggestions in our program over the coming year.

Thanks again to all our members and guests for providing some outstanding feedback.  Thanks to Tom Johanix for his great facilitation, and Luke Hohmann of Enthiosys for inventing the Innovation Games.  If you are interested in learning more about it, I encourage you to check out Luke's book Innovation Games and try the games for yourself!

Salesforce.com: Marketing in the Google Era

Yesterday, I listened to a Salesforce.com seminar, "Marketing in the Google Era", presented by Kraig Swensrud of Salesforce.com's marketing team.  They were good enough to make a recorded version of his presentation available for you to view here (email registration required).

Kraig gave an overview of 7 techniques of effective marketing in the Google era.  I agreed with all of what Kraig presented - companies are still coming to grips with how the world of marketing has changed, and I agree all the suggestions provided are good ideas to consider:

• Invest in Web properties
• Invest in search marketing
• Make your message relevant
• Create landing pages for every program
• Measure everything in real time
• Use the Web for PR
• Engage your community.

What I liked about the presentation was Kraig gave a good overview of all these concepts - some of which are pretty complex.  He also did a good job of describing blogging and RSS - and some of the best graphics I've seen illustrating those concepts.  The presentation was also rich in examples and other online services you could use - in a very short period of time.

8 out of 10 times, Kraig's online concepts will come into play in some form, but the relative level of investment people put into these online initiatives versus other investments will vary widely depending on your business.

While there's little room for improvement, I felt like the presentation was a bit marketing-centric, and online-centric.  Kraig was implying companies should invest in search, blogging, online communities.  I agree these activities make sense for Salesforce.com - but they may or may not make sense for other depending on your industry, business, budget and resources, and prospective or existing customer interactions.  It also didn't help the marketer understand how important it is to link these programs to how your customers actually buy, your competition, and if you have a human salesforce, how to support them more effectively.

For example, someone buying, say, rice has a very different set of needs than someone buying a CRM system, or someone hiring a lawyer.  I would recommend starting with the customer - and what they need to be successful throughout their purchase and use of the company's products or services, and what the sales force needs to be successful.  The consumer rice buyer may not be going to look for "rice" online - but they might want healthy recipes, or ideas on how to make rice more interesting. 

A lawyer needs to show they are knowledgable, experienced, and able to add value in excess of their fees - so speaking or writing a book on their area of specialty may be a more appropriate marketing investment. 

A CRM company - especially if they have an online offering - should absolutely do the things Kraig describes.  And Salesforce is probably at the forefront of those - albeit with messaging that's too company-centric for my tastes, and at a very high sales and marketing spend relative to R&D.

All things considered, though, my feedback is minor relative to the presentation's strengths.  I recommend highly that you check it out!

Business Concept Questionnaire

Do you have a new business idea?  Wondering where to start?  Many high-tech entrepreneurs tend to focus on their technology, without examining other factors surrounding their core business concept that will have greater impact on the success or failure of the business.

This month, Technology Venture Corporation's entrepreneurial training seminar focuses on the entrepreneur's assessment of a business opportunity.  This is session #1 of a 6-seminar series.  You can jump off and jump on the series whenever you like.

To download your electronic copy of the Business Concept Questionnaire, click here.

Some from the session wanted a copy of the slides from the session, which are available here  (8MB PowerPoint file - attempt only with a high-speed connection).

Strategic Marketing Consultant San Francisco Bay Area Seeks More Hours in Day

I guess in 10 years, we'll have replaced our job titles with the search terms we'd most like to be found by.  Given how much driving I've been doing in the car lately, I wish mine was, Strategic Marketing Consultant - Orinda, CA -- or even Strategic Marketing Consultant - East Bay.   There are some great software companies in Orinda - like Intraware, and Maxis, makers of Sim City started in Orinda.  Down the road in Walnut Creek, CA, Dave Duffield founded PeopleSoft in 1987 and in 2005 Dave and Aneel Bhusri founded their newest startup, Workday.

I've not been posting a lot to the blog lately, thanks to some exciting new client projects.  What few writing cycles I've had have gone to my online newsletter, Tennant Consulting Times.

This month's issue of Tennant Consulting Times talks about sales models -- and the many mistakes entrepreneurs make in putting together the go-to-market section of their business plan.  I also took to the road to interview Joe Blank and Paul Gariboldi from Virsalent, a company offering a sales force-for-hire that may be relevant for many high-tech startups as an alternative to bringing on a VP Sales and entire team.  Joe and Paul offer 10 common mistakes entreprenuers make - and I highly recommend you tap into their experience if you're starting your own company, launching a product in an existing company, or are in a sales or marketing role.

To subscribe, just enter your name and email on my home page, www.tennantconsulting.com.  I only use the information for the newsletter, which currently comes once a month.  You'll get  a confirmation email back, click a link and - presto! - you'll  immediately receive this month's issue.

I've used the most conservative email list building approach - double-opt-in - which results in a smaller email list, but a more enthusiastic audience because they're all people who explicity choose to hear from me.  That means better delivery rates long term.  I believe one can be successful marketing to people without SPAMMING them, and I plan to use my newsletter as a one small business data point to prove it. 

In the Tennant Consulting Times newsletter, I'm committed to printing free articles from me and interviews of smart people I know to add value to my clients.  Don't worry, it won't be hogwash about me which you could care less about, or pitching you my services.

Oracle to lay off 2,000, mostly from Oracle

We've certainly seen an uptick in activity at the PeopleSoft Alumni Network, due to the Siebel acquisition and Oracle laying off 2,000...

Tivo Series 3 Prototype Video

I've had one of the original Tivo's for four years now and swear by it.  I need to upgrade to get the HD-compatible version...but maybe will to hold out for Series 3, expected in late 2006.  Check out the Tivo Series 3 video here.

I guess we have 98 more to go...

My former co-worker at PeopleSoft, and nice guy exec Dean Alms is quoted in this article about innovation and business models for new software startups.  Dean recently closed funding for his new startup, Agistics....

This really is a great time to be starting a software company - there's never been more disruptive forces in the market at play than I can remember in 20+ years in IT...

A year ago today, Oracle announced layoffs at PeopleSoft.  I said around that time in a newspaper article this will be painful, but my vision is it results in 100 little PeopleSofts being created.  A lot of execs have gone to existing companies - but I'm talking here about companies whose DNA starts with former PeopleSoft employees.

So there's Workday, Agistics.... maybe some others?  Let me know.  I the meantime, I guess we have 98 to go.

Practicing Your Pitch Session Notes

Tonight's EBIG VC/Startup event was our first educational investor pitch practice session - and judging from the comments and feedback, it was a hit (if I may so myself as the totally unbiased organizer).  Several folks indicated they'd like to see us do more sessions like it - and want to come and present at future events. 

On a 5-point scale, the sessions scored 4.7 for overall effectiveness of the session, 4.6 for presentations being educational and 4.6 for panelists being effective.  So hat's off to our presenters and panelists!

We had a full house as about 40 folks went to school - mostly entrepreneurs and investors - as three companies each had 10-minutes to pitch their business idea to our three investor panelists.  Our esteemed panel included: Steve Elefant from Claremont Creek Ventures, Greg Beattie from Reed Smith who works with many angel groups and investors and as an angel himself, and Tim Taylor, a pitch coach and consultant working the Band of Angels and other VC and investor groups.

All three had excellent input and feedback for the presenting companies - Raj Baronia from PureMail, an innovative email service provider; Zach Gentry from Adura Technologies, which has a very interesting energy efficient light control solution; and Bill Nye from Espilon Active, which makes a multiplayer computer-projected game that you have to see to believe.  Each company is at a slightly different stage in development, but I believe were better than average presentations for companies at their respective stages in development.

I must say I felt very supported by the local entreprenerial community in putting on tonight's event, which is a real testament to the East Bay.  Thanks go to our panelists and presenters for all the time and energy they put into preparing and spending the evening with us.  I want to thank Scott Gilbert and Dave Weinerth at Technology Ventures Corporation (who, by the way, got unsolicited rave reviews for their work from our panelists) for helping to help us identify presenters among their client base and panelists.   Thanks also to Sonja Markova and Rick Choy at the Keiretsu Forum who were also very supportive in helping us find panelists and presenters.

As always, thanks and get well soon wishes to my co-chair, Holly Nelson, at McNichols Randick and her colleage John Neilsen for his help filling in for Holly in orchestrating the event and sponsoring dinner for the group.  Finally, thanks to Joy Montgomery for graciously stepping in at the last minute as a volunteer to help coordinate the event, and thanks to Kristen Kuhns at EBIG for her never-ending support for the EBIG organization and this SIG.

Can't wait for next month's session on February 13th!  If you haven't already done so, be sure to get notified when our agenda and registration email blast comes out at www.ebig.org - click on "sign up" in the left navigation bar.

Planning on 2006 being your best year ever?

Seems like everyone I'm working with is finalizing their 2006 plans for the year - and it's remarkable how often the same topics come up.  And during the holidays, I dove deep into my own business and developed goals for next year.

One of my goals this year is to write the process I went through down for myself -- so I did.  Thought it would be a couple pages, but it turned out to be a 16-page workbook.  "What the heck, I wonder if other people go through a process like this?" I thought.  I put an action plan template at the end, and it's ready and waiting for you as a bonus for signing up for my newsletter.  If you want to look at your 2006 planning process through my glasses, send a blank email here:

tc-newsletter@aweber.com

Do you use a different process to set your goals?  What works for you?  I'm curious to know how you approach this topic.