Sell, ‘like’ people and negotiate for fairness not advantage

Eliot Peper was introduced to me by previous guest Lucas Carlson. Eliot has worked alongside both startups and entrepreneurs and has a few stories to tell.

Why do some VC’s confuse startup investing with Wall Street? Why don’t startup founders want to grab a beer with their customers? This interview explores these questions and more, creating a useful set of insights for today’s startup founders trying to get ahead with their business.

Eliot recently had his first book released with well known Venture Capitalist Brad Feld, and his new publishing company. It’s called ‘Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0’ and you can find it here.

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Battle of selling: Face to face vs Phone and email

When Henry Embleton first came on Breaking Biz we discussed his entrepreneurial journey with Xavy. Returning for his second episode, he’s back with the rebranded Catch Talk TV, and we’re talking about the power of face to face selling.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/CatchTalkTVBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

After attending the UK’s leading event for the meetings and events industry, International Confex, one thing became obvious. Phone and email was slowing Henry’s progress. Imagine if you could stop the cold calls, the speculative emails and actually meet the key decision makers in your industry face to face.

How much would a few days of this impact your brand awareness and overall sales?

Ashton Kutcher not interested in your startup? Just create a better one.

When Nathan first met Ashton, he saw an opportunity to gain the interest of a well known tech investor. Unfortunately things didn’t go as planned, but there was a key lesson to learn and Nathan came back (following a stint on the Obama re-election campaign) with Draft – a tool that’s designed to help people improve their writing.

[audio http://traffic.libsyn.com/breakingbiz/NathanKontnyBreakingBiz.mp3 ]

In this episode Nathan chats candidly about his failures, the secret art of selling and the importance of keeping a disciplined blogging routine.

Some key takeaways were:

Sometimes people just don’t CARE about what you’re doing. Move past it, or improve the offering

The best way past your competition is to out teach your competition

Beware of the investors. They may expect a fast return of billions…