by David Gittin, CTO
Startup Weekend, where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups, is coming to Richmond September 7-9 and NimblePitch is proud to be a sponsor. NimblePitch is a prize sponsor offering a 1-Year license of NimblePitch to one of the finalist teams. Visit rva.startupweekend.org to learn more about the event and sign-up today! NimblePitch & Startup Weekend The NimblePitch team has really enjoyed being part of the RVA Startup Weekend planning committee for the past few months. It has been exciting to have the opportunity to partner with so many great organizations and fellow Richmonders to bring this unique event to our city. In addition to planning the event, our team will also be mentoring participants throughout the weekend as they work on their ideas. RVA StartupWeekend isn’t the first time with the intense Startup Weekend experience for the NimblePitch team. The team took part in the Charlottesville Startup Weekend back in March and one of our project teams took first place! Got an idea? Bring it on! Space is still available for anyone with an idea they want to test and develop. Just want to be part of the experience and be in at the start of the next big thing? Come on! Click her for more information and to register. Startup Weekends are weekend-long, 54 hours of hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds. Beginning with open mic pitches on Friday, attendees are encouraged...
by David Gittin, CTO
Everybody’s talking at me, I don’t hear a word they’re saying… Harry Nielson’s song from the 60’s is truer than ever. Everybody IS talking at you, loudly and from every direction. They’re talking at your clients and prospects, too. When noise (information) is coming in through a fire hose, in self-defense they quit listening. What’s a poor sales rep to do? Shhhhh! Listen. Stop talking. STOP TALKING! You’ll have a chance to talk. Ask a few questions to kickstart the conversation, then listen to what the other person has to say. Ask a few more questions. Listen a bit more. Don’t be so anxious to jump in with your spiel. When the other person starts asking you questions, then you’ll have a chance to talk. And be heard....
by David Gittin, CTO
Over the past month, NimblePitch has been working on a presentation demo for a local financial services company. The goal is to replace their existing introductory meeting playbook with an interactive NP tablet presentation. They also want to provide their prospects with a secure and personalized URL that lets their prospects revisit saved topics, products, and services as well as the complete presentation. We recently had the chance to unveil the demo and see the presentation tool in action. After about 15 minutes of instruction, one of the tenured members of their team volunteered to role play a typical introductory meeting using NimblePitch. This rep was a first time iPad user and was interacting with the NimblePitch presentation tool for the first time. To our delight, he picked up the iPad with the presentation loaded and began seamlessly syncing the new digital visuals with his usual verbal presentation. He was pleasantly surprised that he was able to easily tangent from his typical presentation to an overview about IRAs as a question came up, and save the topic for the prospect (us) to review later. He went through about 10 minutes of his presentation and had no trouble adjusting to the user interface of each of the topics. Success! This was a milestone for us — to witness how easily someone could take up the NimblePitch presentation tool and leave paper behind. Interested in NimblePitch for your Financial Services company? Learn...
by David Gittin, CTO
When I was in fourth grade, Miss Sawyer, an otherwise stern teacher of multiplication tables, history and geography, would start each day with a story, a chapter from the book she was currently reading to us. We worked our way through the school year with Nancy Drew, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and the now un-PC Song of the South with it’s stories of Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox. It exposed us to some great stories. But looking back it was probably how Miss Sawyer engaged our attention, calmed us down and got us ready to focus on lessons for the rest of the morning. Stories still work to engage the attention of adults. I love stories. When I hear that The X Company had a problem, similar to mine, and that they successfully solved that problem by using your widget, you better believe I’m paying attention. I’ll be asking lots of questions. I’m engaged in what you are saying. I’m thinking how your widget or your service could perhaps solve my problem. Solving my problem means you just made my life easier, made my company a little more profitable, and prevented me from making an expensive mistake. Stories also humanize business by creating connections. They turn you from “that rep with that widget company” to “Jo, who really had some interesting ideas and a great product”. Stories make your product accessible by increasing the understanding of what you do and how you – and, oh yes, your product – can benefit me and solve my problem. Illustrate your story. Charts and graphs with circles and arrows can, as Arlo...
by David Gittin, CTO
“There has to be a better way”, Greg Hofbauer, CEO of GroundWork Design, thought while watching a new sales rep for a large office supply company become more and more flustered during an in-person sales call. “She was desperately flipping through binders, sales sheets, and printed brochures in an effort to find answers to my questions. Because she was so new and the product lines she represented were vast, complicated, and constantly changing, she couldn’t find the right answers on the spot — and she didn’t make the sale”, noted Greg. Around the same time Bart Levy, President of Strategy by Design, was working with a financial services firm to design an iPad sales presentation for their face-to-face consultations. She quickly determined that none of the existing presentation tools provided the flexibility, ease of access, or depth of information her client’s sales reps needed. “PowerPoint, SlideRocket, Brainshark, and even Prezi are all based on a linear presentation model…Point A to Point B. That doesn’t work in sales as reps need to be able to direct conversation where their prospects want it to go and have the information they need waiting for them when the get there.” After a chance meeting at a local networking event, Greg and Bart met for coffee and 6 months later NimblePitch™ was officially launched. What NimblePitch™ can do for a sales team Shorten Sales Cycles – With everything prospects need to know at the reps’ fingertips, they are equipped to make the sale the first time. No more “I’ll have to get back to you on that” delays caused when they don’t have all...
