Building your advisory board, better product selling - podcast summary

Listen to the complete Andrew Warner's (Mixergy) interview with Christine Comaford. Archived downloadable podcast episode is here. My notes are the following ...

If company is struggling, it's because of one of the following reasons:

1. PEOPLE

   You don't have enough people or the right people. Internal or external. External = advisory board. It gives you credibility by association, additional skill set that you don't have.
   
   [23:00] Ask potential advisors for 15 min every month either over phone or over email. Show them that you value their mind. Ask for two year term and offer them .25 percent of your common stock, vesting in equal monthly installments over two years.
   
   Don't ask them to invest in your company, ask them who they know who might want to invest.
   
   Do not ask for favors, ask for advice - people love giving advice. It engages their ego and their emotions.
   
   Building Your Advisory Board worksheet.
   
   [28:00] Establishing new mentorship relations by palm-up networking: find out what people care about and help them get it.
   

2. MONEY

   [34:00] Quota busting process:
   
   
   1. There are only three reasons people buy. They buy to make money, to save money, or to reduce pain and frustration. Find out which of those three reasons. 
   2. Present your product or service focusing on that reason.
   3. Present your offer.
   4. Shut up. Otherwise customer might thing that we are not at the decision point yet.
      
   
   Figure out not only who is your client, but who is not your client as well. Disqualify them by asking them to make a commitment at every single point through the process.
   

3. MODEL

   Have a product path to guide the customer through the increasing value.