Speaking

My new book, If You Build It Will They Come? is available starting April 12, 2010 at all major booksellers, and I am very interested in speaking events around it and its topic, Market Validation. For these presentations there are no speaking fees, but a minimum book order of 100 units and reimbursement for travel expenses. If you are interested please contact me and we can discuss the details. The current speaking schedule is here.

I speak at events around the world on the topics of revenue growth, new product strategy, understanding customer needs, sales and marketing strategy and financing new products. The material is relevant for companies ranging in size from the Global 1000 to small start-ups and for venues from large event keynotes to specialized executive education seminars. A short video with vignettes of several presentations is at the bottom of this page.

These speaking events range from keynoting events like the Inc. 500 conference, to talks to executive teams at retreats on how to expand markets. These presentations can be custom developed based on a company’s specific needs, or based on two books I have written, A Good Hard Kick in the Ass (Crown, 2002) and If You Build It Will They Come? (Wiley, 2010).

The types of talks I have given are outlined below, covering both the subjects and the venues. Based on my experience speaking, and as an experienced operating executive, all presentations involve well developed content with relevant and current examples delivered with a presentation style that is engaging. I have many references from these events that are available on request. Please contact me if you would like to discuss my speaking at one of your events.

Market Validation: This is a very popular topic and relevant to any size business, be it start-up, mid-sized, or Global 1000. The technique of Market Validation applies to any company entering a new market or trying to grow their market share. Many keynotes have been given on this, from Inc. 500 events to opening events at international innovation conferences.

Business Models: One of the key issues for market expansion, developing new products, or growing market share is understanding your Business Model. If you enter this market, can you make money, how long will it take you before you make money, and how much do you need to invest to get to profitability are the key issues that need to be understood and answered.

Strategy: Developing a strategy can be a challenge for a company. Frequently developing it ends up being less challenging than implementing it. This topic covers a variety of strategic frameworks and how successful businesses apply them in the context of the industry they compete in. It also focuses on techniques for tracking and measuring an organization’s execution against its strategy goals.

Making It Work – Getting a Start-up Off the Ground: This talk covers the key issues new organizations need to cover to successfully launch a new company. How to find a viable market, develop a money making product, obtain financing and then consistently repeat this to grow the company and expand market share are what’s covered.

Financing: In today’s difficult financial markets, how you will access capital to start or expand your business is a critical issue. Knowing what type of financing makes the most sense, what the sources are, how to approach those investors and what type of expectations they have is critical to success, and need to be well understood before fund raising.

Sales and Marketing and the Closed Loop Approach: In most organizations, sales and marketing is the least understood and tracked function. This is despite it frequently being the largest investment a company makes in a new product or service. This talk focuses on how to develop and track sales and marketing efforts using a closed loop strategy.

How Venture Capital Works: This provides an in-depth discussion of how the venture industry works. This includes how it is structured, how the investment partnerships make decisions and manage their investments, what kinds of businesses they finance, how they work with companies, and how companies can screen and evaluate venture capitalists.

Legal Aspects of Start-Ups: Getting a business off the ground requires addressing a myriad of legal issues around starting, growing, financing and harvesting your business. This presentation is a business person’s guide to these issues and how to work with the right legal sources to address them.

Keynote Presentations: These talks are designed for large, diverse audiences and focus on business topics that apply to a wide range of business demographics. Typical talks are for conventions, trade shows and corporate functions. Topics typically focus on techniques to grow revenues, finding and meeting customer needs, innovation, and commercialization of technology.

Corporate Topics: These presentations are specific to a company’s meeting theme, have the feel of a Keynote Presentation covered above, but are to an audience with similar backgrounds. Typically these presentations are developed after interviewing the company’s management team and developing a presentation to meet the corporation’s or meeting’s goals.

Start-up Topics: Presentations here are for economic development, new product development and entrepreneurial events. Presentations focus on new products, revenue generation and fund raising. The material covers best practices for these subject areas and case study examples of companies that have successfully performed them.

Executive Education: These sessions are custom developed for a company based on skill sets it wants to educate its management team on. Materials are developed with the company, and the presentations and workbooks are licensed to them. The course can then be delivered to the target audience, or to trainers within the organization.

Round Tables: A popular adjunct to presentations is to hold a round table of outside business people or company insiders that have experience implementing the topic that is covered. This case-study approach does a great job of reinforcing the presentation material in a practical way.