Building Killer Sales Strategies and Teams

Come and listen to a group of eminent panelists who have been there and done it before – building credible sales funnels through various traditional methods and teams that deliver consistently. The discussion will include how sales strategies have evolved and what works in today’s world for entrepreneurs with limited resources especially before getting funded.

Some of the topics that will be covered on the panel include:

1. How do the founders wear a “sales” hat & promote their product/service by themselves. Here we address those engineering folks (founders) who feel that they have a unique technology that is patented and almost impossible to reproduce! They feel that people will come in droves to acquire it. But they forget that customers look for technologies/products that resolve their pain points in their respective businesses. We will talk about strategies of how to make this connection as part of their sales pitch,

2. Building a credible sales team with limited resources,

3. Discovering the techniques that work in today’s world – Outside sales, Inside sales, Internet-based (SEO, SEM, lead generation, nurturing, etc.)

4. Reviewing other sales and promotional techniques to build a brand and also to attract and recruit funding (investors), co-founders & senior management.

5. Any other aspects of sales and marketing efforts including those from audience questions.

Speaker: Jeff Whatcott, Startup Growth Driver & Advisor

Jeff Whatcott is a senior technology executive currently on hiatus. Jeff most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer at Brightcove, a publicly-traded cloud video platform with over 6000 customers in more than 70 countries. Jeff has led product strategy and go-to-market strategy for software businesses ranging from pre-revenue startups to category winners generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue at leading companies including Acquia, Adobe, Macromedia, and Allaire.

Jeff is a proven thought leader in digital media technology product strategy and marketing. He is a frequent public speaker and panelist on topics including video content monetization, marketing strategy, content marketing and mobile technology, open source software, and web development technology.

Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Brigham Young University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University.  Fluent in English and Japanese, Jeff has traveled extensively to help grow strong businesses worldwide.

Speaker: Our second speaker will be from a VC firm to cover what investors would like to see in business plans in terms of sales plans.

Speaker: Our third speaker will be from an Internet-based tools company like Hubspot that are emerging in the marketplace for startups to conduct branding campaigns & lead generation with limited sales/marketing budgets.

Moderator: Satish Mantripragada, MBA,  Co-founder, VP Business Development, HealthOMC, Partner, Happiest Minds Technologies

Satish is an accomplished business manager with 20 years engineering and management experience in the IT and Computer Communications fields. The experience includes both national and international arenas in the areas of product marketing, business development and technology based products development.

He was the co-founder of Secure Konnect in 2003, an enterprise security tools company for the SME marketplace. The company developed two products from idea to product in record time that he helped launch in the market here in the US and in APAC with a partner. He also created the brand and early marketing strategy for this company and led the company through its most rapid growth phase; achieving major milestones prior to acquisition by a California based strategic investor in 2005.He has earlier held mid-level management positions in pre-sales and product management at Ascend Communications, Nexabit Networks and Lucent technologies.

Satish is currently a partner in an engineering services company Happiest Minds Technologies headquartered in India, with several offices here in the United States. He is also a co-founder of HealthOMC, a company providing tele-health & other related services through the medical community here in New England & India. He holds an MBA from Rivier University, Nashua, NH and also attended the executive program at the Harvard Business School (HBS), Cambridge, MA.

Co-producer: Maureen Mansfield, Co-founder, iTourNow

Where: Microsoft Technology Center, One Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA. 02142 Phone: (781) 487-6400 The One Cambridge Center GENERAL ENTRANCE is on Main Street, Cambridge, across from the Kendall Square Post Office. Exit Kendall Square T Station to Main Street. Once you exit the station, head down the Marriott side of Main Street going in the direction of Boston/the Longfellow Bridge. You will pass a Chipotle on your left and Boston Properties, which has a blue awning. The One Cambridge Center entrance is located next to the Boston Properties entrance.  Enter through the glass revolving door and proceed to the Microsoft facilities on the second floor. Note: There is also a direct Microsoft entrance across from the rotary at the confluence of Main Street and Broadway.  See also:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mtc/locations/boston_directions.aspx

Cost: Admission is free. Free Pizza and soft drinks will be served. Advanced registration is requested