How to think like an Entrepreneur - MKTX
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02 Dec How to think like an Entrepreneur

Posted at 09:33h in MKTX by

I was involved on one of the due diligence teams associated with the Bend, Oregon Venture Conference last month. We analyzed business plans and listened to investor presentations from a group of young companies looking for investment. Ultimately, we awarded investments of $250,000 and $100,000 to two worthy teams of entrepreneurs whom we judged to “have what it takes” to build businesses that will hopefully make us all some money.

The due diligence process forced each of the investment candidates to consider a whole host of issues – not just what their business is about, but what is unique about their offering and what barriers to competition they are they building. One of the most revealing lines of questioning was asking how a company plans to obtain customers, and what is the decision process that customers must go through before they buy. While many technology entrepreneurs may give a lot of thought towards building competitive barriers into their products, they may not fully understand the barriers that prospective customers have in place with regard to researching and accepting new technologies.

Know your audiences

Successful businesses understand this and have a plan for reaching the right customers and working them successfully through the purchase process. That is why an audience analysis is such a critical element of a company’s marketing plan. You’ll notice that I’m referring to ‘audience,’ not just ‘customer,’ because with complex products or services, purchase decisions are often made in consultation with multiple parties, each having different agendas.

When we perform an audience analysis for our clients, we compose a matrix listing all the types of people that can be involved in or influence the sales process. We list what motivates each with regard to the problem that our product or service solves, where they look to obtain information on that solution, and what specific action we want that customer or influencer to take.

This information, coupled with a competitive analysis, contributes to the crafting of positioning and messaging that will serve as the underpinnings of a successful marketing campaign. “Have they thought this through?” is a question that I asked myself as I reviewed the presentations of the Bend venture candidates.

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Bob Patterson
bobp@mktx.com

Leader of MKTX since its founding in 1998, Bob Patterson has over 30 years of experience in high-tech marketing. Bob received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School. He began his career at Intel Corporation where, during his 11 year tenure, he was part of the team of people instrumental in laying the foundations for Intel's success in the microprocessor market. Bob left Intel in 1987 and co-founded RadiSys Corporation, an Intel spin-off dedicated to exploiting the "Wintel" hardware/software standardization phenomenon in markets outside of desktop computing. As RadiSys' first VP of marketing and sales, Bob developed and executed the company's initial marketing plans and set up RadiSys' early sales channels. When Bob needs a break from cranking out strategies and content for our clients, he takes to the skies of the Northwest in his Cessna or his RV-12.