Eat Your Own Dog Food by Ryan D Miller

In my years of being in a customer focused business I have learned a very important phrase and philosophy: eat your own dog food.

Most of what I have to say this week is stepping back to the basics.  But that’s where successful business processes have to begin so these points can never be over emphasized.

I was fortunate enough to teach a high school economics class this week through Junior Achievement, that’s where I found the inspiration for this blog (thank you to Ms. Campbell’s first period class at Olentangy Orange High School.)  The class is selling t-shirts for a project that gives them the experience of running a business.  One obstacle the class has seen so far, was selling a t-shirt they couldn’t show off.  The shirts have not yet been shipped so they don’t yet have the product in hand.  Out of a muffle of conversation identifying reasons sales were low, I heard one student say “If I could actually wear the shirt, I could sell it easier.”  Ah ha!  Eat your own dog food.

The ability to communicate your product or solution to your client is the key to making a deal.  A part of that communication is knowing your product and being able to spread the importance of what you have to offer.  By using your product or solution internally you not only better understand your offering, but you can better understand the needs of the client.

In my situation, we build customized browsers, so I personally use one of our customized browser on all of my computers (currently using our Christmas theme for those of you wondering).  The client has to trust that what you have to offer is the best there is, and if it’s not good enough for you, than how is it good enough for them?  One of the strongest tools you can bring to the sales table is being a client yourself.  We have all see the commercial “not only am I president, but I’m also a client.”

It’s easier to communicate the quality of dog food if you feed it to your beloved pup at home.  It’s easier to express the wow of a t-shirt if you can wear it yourself.  It’s easier to show off our customized browsers if I surf the web with them daily.  Practice what you preach, eat your own dog food.

Happy Holidays Everyone

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Building a Game Plan by Ryan D Miller

For starters, I love basketball.  It is hard to swallow the end of the college football season, but its good to know that college basketball is always right there to catch my fall.  Although that sounds like random gab, you’ll get the picture when you’ve finished reading this blog.  Business development and basketball, how could you not read on?

When a company has a great product or service to offer the first step to sales is getting deals as easy as possible.  The typical approach is tapping into the contacts that you have and taking the shot gun approach to get in front of anyone and everyone.  No doubt this will provide some immediate success and help build some case studies that will be the foundation of your company.  This will also get your name out there and start developing chatter in the industry giving you a presence within the market.

Leveraging existing contacts and going after easy wins can jump start any company, creating a base of clients and generating necessary revenue to move forward.  Thanks to the immediate tactics you have seen the early success you were anticipating and it’s evident that there is a demand for your offering, so what’s next?

This is where my addiction to analogies comes in.  I think it is safe to say that the overall objective in basketball is to score, and score as much as you possibly can.  As a start-up company our objective is pretty similar, land quality deals, and land as many as we possibly can.  Knowing the objective is to score, basketball coaches spend days, weeks, and sometimes even months coming up with a game plan that will maximize the teams potential.  At a competitive level you won’t see any team take the court without a game plan.  Shooting at will from all over the court won’t lead to success.  Although some shots may fall, ultimately maximum scoring potential won’t be reached.

At Brand Thunder we have a talented team and great scoring ability, but what will make us successful is our strategic approach to expand our presence in the market.  We continue to put together a strong game plan internally and expect it to pay off in the end.  The next step is execution, which is fairly self-explanatory.  A coach can put together a book with the greatest plays, but if you don’t execute correctly, you won’t see the desired results.  And not unlike basketball, you have to be flexible and willing to change the selling game plan when necessary.  Go into half time and make adjustments where necessary and take what the market gives you.

Not having a thought out strategy can be detrimental to the success of business development.  The sales approach and strategic direction at Brand Thunder is ever evolving but a game plan is in place.  We believe we have the team, the scoring power, and now the game plan to come out on top at the end of the fourth quarter.  Fortunately for me, all I have to worry about is offense.   ☺

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