Google buys Feedburner

By PureVC
If you haven’t heard already, Google has purchased Feedburner. Fred Wilson gives some color to the deal on his blog. While terms were not disclosed, Fred admits that his firm made about 3 times its money on the deal. That doesn’t sound like a “homerun” but he clearly outlines how rewarding the investment was for him and his firm in terms of personal satisfaction and in learning about the new media feed world.

This transaction confirms what few prescient VCs have known is the next wave of startups that take advantage of new media. Several years ago no one knew what a widget was or what a feed was. We were all using email and looking at portals and webpages. A very small iteration occurred, and that included the “blog”, the “feed”, and the “community”. In the past few years these have taken off and it remains an undercapitalized investment category simply because a lot of VCs don’t understand the power of this space. Continue reading

5 ways to benefit from MyOrbit

If you are in any kind of business, then based on our experience of helping companies so far, following are 5 ways to benefit from MyOrbit
1. Get better response from clients and prospects: With nearly a decade of business development experience, I can confirm that trust is established rapidly when a person is visible, rather than email or phone, but then meetings with decision making executives are very difficult. Now, when you send your pitch as a video, there is a significantly higher chance of it being watched, and you are much more likely to hear back with an okay on next steps.

2. Improve Sales & Marketing while reducing costs:
We all have our favorite ppts and pdfs tucked into various folders on our laptops. These documents are prepared by subject matter experts. For example, a Banking Solution ppt by your product manager, or a SOX compliance deck by a specialist. We usually send out the deck to a client/prospect and seek a time for a follow-up call. With help from MyOrbit, you can prepare packaged videos to do both these in the first shot. With MyOrbit, you also create your own Industry Group. For example, you can create a Banking Industry Solutions group, which you can fully own and control.

3. Break the linear relation between resource and message:
So often, we are trying to get the subject expert to talk about a given product or solution. The problem is, everybody wants to have him in their sales cycle. The solution is to create a set of videos, where this person can describe all his expertise, and then you can use them in discussions, one by one. The organization benefits a lot from this approach. We are helping companies to take such initiative. In addition, there is a specific benefit related to: Foreign Language Presentations: If you are marketing worldwide, and if you want to present your solution in a foreign language, say French of Spanish, then in addition to getting a subject expert, you have to ensure the language too. This is not easy to achieve regularly, and it often results in delays in the sales cycle. It’s best to package such presentations as a set of videos that can be updated once a quarter. Your message will register better, and clients see it favorably.

4. Project Management & Operations Review:
If you have a geographically dispersed team, with clients located in other countries, then for those key status reports and review presentations, which happen once a month/quarter, you should consider using packaged video, where the manager can present, in required also use a white board, and the team members can elaborate on specific points. It needs some preparation and extra time than just getting onto a telecon bridge. But those who are doing this are seeing the success from it in terms of renewed contracts and new opportunities.

5. Resource Training:
If you have to bring on board new resources on a regular basis, then chances are that today, you are repeating the same sessions. With a bit of planning and effort, you can create simple videos and use the on your intranet.


Why MyOrbit?

Well, we are the leading company out there who’s doing the above things, and we have invested in our infrastructure and services keeping you in mind. Now, few companies do the above things today because (a) it’s new and the infrastructure is getting mature and economical, and (b) it takes a team with experience in different industries and business functions to run a channel like this. Our team is our biggest strength. Our focus on business and professional development ensures that we get focused professionals and executives as audience.

What Next?

This presentation describes how different companies are benefiting from this innovative Internet business channel. There will always be some questions at the end of any presentation, so feel free to share your doubts with us. Contact us and we will show you at least two ways to benefit within 48 hours.

Thanks, Shankar

How To Make Sales Coaching Simpler, Yet More Effective!

Sales coaching is a vital part of running a success company smoothly. It is important because the overall standing of the corporation is the employees. The personnel that is hired is who the clients speaks to and deals with. These individuals have a need for sales coaching to sell products and services throughout a day.

It is essential that they understand the policies of the company to skillfully market the merchandise. Sales coaching can be accomplished by professionals or by the managers of each department. Sales’ coaching is vital to any aspect of a company. Employees are hired and let go every single day. New personnel that enter a corporation may have experience in the selling field and others may not. Sales coaching can assist the new comers as well as a brush up for employees that have been with the business for many years.

Managers have a responsibility to teach their employees how to successfully sell the companies products. They may not have much training in sales coaching. An administrator may enlist the services of a professional for sales coaching techniques. However, each company is operated differently. Before the professional takes charge of this situation, they must know the company’s goals and ideas.

It may be best of the supervisor to step into the meeting to educate each worker on what his or her profession consists of. There are various tips that a manager can use to make sales coaching simpler.

§ Motivation in an important step in sales and leadership. The manager must be encouraging and assist in any questions that may arise.

§ Be patient but strong. There will be moments when an employee may not feel they need the tips that are being presented. Offer them a brief reason; however do not let them control the lecture.

§ Basic skills are required for a sales person. Explain these shortly and then move on to major points of the company.

§ Ask questions. Learning involves listening. Ask the employees to demonstrate how they would handle certain situations.

With these brief steps, sales coaching can be a simple to accomplish. A manage can apply these techniques to new personnel or touch bases with employees that have been with the company for years. Sales’ coaching is important for the standing in the business community.

The sales team is responsible for the profit the company achieves. If these individuals do not learn the sales techniques properly, the corporation as a whole will suffer.

Sandra Stammberger owns and operates [http://www.salestrainingonline.net] Sales Training [http://www.salestrainingonline.net]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/598579

Goldman Sachs dominating private equity in 2006-2007

Goldman Sachs has worked on nearly half of all private equity deals globally, according to Financial News Online. It has worked as a deal adviser or financial backer on 50 deals worth a combined $226.5 billion. There has been a total of $500 billion worth of deals announced so far this year. If all these deals were brought to fruition, Goldman Sachs could earn in the $4 billion neighborhood for five months worth of work. The firm overall was boosted by advisory work for its in-house private equity arm, which has racked up nearly $90 billion in deals. JPMorgan and Citigroup rank second and third.

Understanding Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) -part2

This is part 2 of the presentation series on M&A.

Link for part 1: Understanding Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) -part1

In this multi-part video presentation, Nishant Saxena describes the complete M&A process, with learnings from various transactions. We believe this is one of the most comprehensive M&A presentations available on the Internet for free viewing and download: Mergers & Acquisitions Deal Process



About the Presenter: Nishant Saxena is the CEO of Elements Akademia. He has seven years experience in Corporate Finance with Procter & Gamble – including Strategic/ Financial Planning, M&A, Value creation, White-space expansion, GAAP Accounting, and Internal Controls/Audit etc. Worked across various geographies in Asia (Japan, Philippines, India and Singapore) and across various business units. BE, MBA from one of India’s top schools. He founded Elements Akademia in 2007 along with 10 other IIM alumni. The company focusses on the high growth education sector in India and other developing countries.