I had a meeting today with a client that is just about to come out of "stealth-mode" with their beta launch.

We were talking through their go-to-market plans and the work that I am doing. The CEO was giving me the run-down of his new team, who he had in each position and what role they were to play in the overall strategy.

This is the bit I love when working with start-ups.

It always reminds me of one of my favourite films, Reservoir Dogs.

Or come to think of it, any "heist" film where the team comes together to pull "the big job". Films like Heat, Ronin, etc... just love 'em.

The bit I like is when they're putting the team together, everyone's got their bit to play. They're specialists.

You know, there's a "grease-man", a "hacker", a "driver"...

I guess, I just like working in teams where everyone had their bit to play, we're all there for our particular slice of expertise; we all know the stakes are high and we have to deliver.

And we're working together for our own slice of the action ;-)

Labels: entrepreneurs, new business development, sales, start-ups

Thanks to YouTube, I now have access to Alec Baldwin's cameo scene from Glengarry Glen Ross

Baldwin's character, the crisply-dressed and pitiless Blake, parachutes into a sleepy real estate office to threaten, berate, and otherwise motivate its hapless salesmen.

Levene: The leads are weak.

Blake: "The leads are weak." F*****ng leads are weak? You're weak. I've been in this business fifteen years -

Moss: What's your name?

Blake: F**k you, that's my name. You know why, mister? 'Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove a eighty thousand dollar BMW. That's my name.

Gives me goose-bumps everytime I watch it.

Labels: sales, sales lead generation, telemarketing

The two main business-focused social networking sites, LinkedIn & Xing, have both received additional investment and the signs are that 2007 could be the year these sites really take off.

LinkedIn they've recently closed another $13m Venture round, and Xing completed an over-subscribed IPO last month, valuing them at EUR157m.

But, aside from this investment, the world is finally starting to get that these sites really deliver value. Scott Allen, co-author of The Virtual Handshake, charts many of these stories here.

When I last blogged about LinkedIn back in March 2006, the site had 5 million users. It now has 8.5 million.

Now, LinkedIn had predicted that they would grow to 10 million by 2007, and there has been some talk about the fact that they have missed their target, but they say that they put more focus into improving the site, rather than localising languages for Europe and Asia (which is the route that Xing have taken).

Personally, when you look at how LinkedIn has changed in the last 12 months, then it makes sense, and 8.5 million is still keeping up with the "1 million users every 3 months" Konstantin Guericke talked about in this interview back in March 2007.

So, given that both these sites are still growing, have strong valuations with real revenue streams, and people are starting to understand how to use these new tools... I'm certain that 2007 will see even further growth and uptake of Business Social Networking sites.

And, BTW, I just checked LinkedIn this morning and another 5,679 people have joined my networking in the last two days :-)

Labels: social networking sites