Sandra Holtzman - Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing: A No Bullsh*t Guide for PHDs, Lab Rats, Suits, and Entrepreneurs

Lies Start-Ups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing

A No Bullsh*t Guide for Ph.D.s, Lab Rats, Suits, and Entrepreneurs

Sandra Holtzman and Jean Kondek

Copyright 2012 by Sandra Holtzman and Jean Kondek

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America. No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

This edition published by SelectBooks, Inc.
For information address SelectBooks, Inc., New York, New York.

Cover design by Julie Schwartzman

e-book EPUB edition
ISBN 978-1-59079-952-9

e-book MOBI edition
ISBN 978-1-59079-953-6

Dedicated to Gene Guberman

For his profound, intuitive, and amazing understanding of human behavior and for his generous sharing of that knowledge with me. I have learned from him that all business is based on relationships between peoplewhen the relationships function well, business succeeds. When they dont, business struggles.

Sandra Holtzman

Dedicated to David Leddick

For seeing a spark in me no one else saw, least of all myself, and for introducing me to the outrageous world of advertising. And to all the outstanding men and women Ive met in this crazed business. Youre the ones who have taught me that skillful communications can change the course of business, people and quite possibly the world.

Jean Ross Kondek

Working as a marketer in the biotechnology and IT markets, I have heard it all. One business founder after another always seems to have some reason why they do not need to market their company, product, or service yet. There is always some rationale not to promote their new venture. These people just dont get it.

One night over dinner, after working hard on yet another new marketing campaign, Sandy Holtzman and I began to compare notes about how frustrating it is to work with entrepreneurs who seem to miss one key ingredient needed for their success: marketing. Though they have creative ideas for a new product or service, they are afraid to communicate their exciting new company to others. After dessert, and just for fun, we grabbed a pen and a napkin and began to create a list of all the excuses we had heard. We laughed hard that night, but the next day we realized we had created a useful list that might help these creative people see how they are missing out on something that could make them a success. That is how the idea for this book began.

By chance, within weeks, I had an opportunity to give a presentation to a local business organization in Cincinnati. I called Sandy and said I would like to use our list of excuses, which we changed into lies, for my talk. After wed compared notes and created the presentation together, the idea of turning this concept into a useful book for entrepreneurs became real.

Not long afterward, Sandy was talking to Jean Kondek, whose background was in consumer and business-to-business (B2B) marketing on Madison Avenue and in smaller, regional agencies. Her experiences in working with start-ups paralleled ours. It seems the issues and attitudes that bedevil entrepreneurs are common to all regardless of business category or depth of funding.

About that time, I had the opportunity to work at Hill Top, and the demands on my time prevented me from pursuing the book. Sandy took it on and brought in Jean. The result of their collective wisdom is in your hands.

I have worked with Sandy Holtzman for many years marketing biotech and IT companies. She has had her own marketing and advertising company for nine years and has focused on serving pharma, biotech, and high-tech businesses. Jean Kondek has worked on high-tech start-ups as well as a full range of B2B and consumer businesses.

Through all these experiences, they have honed their skills helping business founders market their companies. Their depth of experience can help all entrepreneurs overcome all excuses not to market their companies right away. If even one entrepreneur who reads this book begins to promote his or her company right away, all the efforts in putting this book together will be worthwhile.

Joel Ivers

CEO, Hill Top Research Corporation

This book is based on our experiences in marketing all kinds of products. Some of our experiences led to great rewards. Some led to long days and nights of pizza, coffee, and antacids as we struggled to create work that would deliver more than our clients had imagined.

Like most experiences, this book is non-linear, and the chapters dont build sequentially. Pick the Lie that resonates with you and start reading there. Each chapter is complete and actionable.

Use this book as your toolbox of ideas and guidelines, as a reference book, as a road map, or as just a good read. Regardless of how you approach the information, it is going to help you focus on taking your wonderful concept, company, product, division, or service to success sooner rather than later with less need for antacids.

We have gone out of our way to make it a common sense collection of what you need to know to launch your baby. We have deliberately left out the usual jargon, gobbledygook, and malarkey (what we call smoke and mirrors in the ad business) that has grown up around marketing. Its not rocket science, but it is hard work. It needs focus, attention to detail, and the use of best practices. We know youre up to it. And were happy to hold your hand all the way.

First, create value. Next identify the highest probability customers. Finally, find the most cost-effective (with the emphasis on effective) way to get your message across.

Marv Goldschmidtt,

Serial entrepreneur who launched 1-2-3 for Lotus

Lets talk about this. Even if your product, concept, or idea is wonderful, how can you be sure they will buy it?

Of course they will, you say. Im a scientist, I know. This is great science. This is going to make everyones life easier. Its a unique solution thats going to save time, money, and resources.

Lets say thats all true. How will your prospective buyers learn about the existence of your product?

We need to be clear here. Lab researchers, CEOs, and other decision makers are not sitting around waiting for your product to show up. Theyre too busy solving problems with the technology they have today. They may be eager to use your product once they know about it, but how will they learn about it? This is the critical problem that marketing solves. Its true for every new product or service, whether its intended for the scientist in the lab or the average working Joe.

Another critical issue is timing. If your ideal customer is a company, how fast will it be able to set aside a budget to purchase your product? And how long is its approval process for purchasing? Your ideal purchaser may be a company whose budgets are approved based on spending plans submitted about a year in advance. Are you prepared to wait? Can you afford to wait?

Do your marketing homework, and you shouldnt need to wait at all. This applies to any product or service.

You arent waiting for someone elses product, so why should they be waiting for yours?