Welcome the 25th issue of this newsletter! Seems fitting to hit such a landmark only halfway into the first month of 2016. By that I mean, progress already feels natural but so do the speed bumps.
I love the positive New Year posts all around the web but what about when, inevitably, the momentum slows, mistakes happens and goals aren't met?
Some honest posts about mistakes & failure popped up this week and I liked it. It wasn't schadenfreude but introspection. Then Shane Parrish wrote about how it’s not the failures that define us so much as how we respond to them: "The key to learning from mistakes is to admit them without excuses or defensiveness, rub your nose in them a little, and make the changes you need to make to grow going forward. If you can’t admit your mistakes, you won’t grow."
In other words, keep track of the steps forward & the steps backward. Learn from each step as you keep going. As always, thanks for reading!
Cycling
1-on-1 with Veloyo’s Sebastian Kellner
A former student and researcher in the field, Sebastian became an entrepreneur himself in 2013 when he started Veloyo, a mobile platform for bike services operating in four European cities. Twotone Consulting worked with Veloyo to get the wheels turning here in Amsterdam. Riding a bike here is easy but getting a new bike repair startup rolling is certainly a challenge!
Shifting Gears #1: Daydreaming base miles
Too busy to ride? So’s Neal Karlinsky. But the married father of two, who’s also a national television news correspondent (you may remember his bombshell 2010 interview in which Floyd Landis admitted to having doped with Lance Armstrong), just got his first USAC race license in 25 years. He is getting back into racing after a 20-year hiatus, despite a demanding job and family, and he'll be writing all about it.
Success story of ISPO. See you in Munich?
- The first international sporting goods exhibition ISPO MUNICH opened its doors on March 8, 1970. Then: 816 exhibitors from 25 countries covered 45,000 square meters of exhibit space.
- In 2015: 2,585 exhibitors welcome over 83,000 visiting industry professionals on 104,940 square meters net exhibit space.
- Back in 1970: 10,777 visiting industry professionals from 34 countries attended the event.
- Last year? 83,000 attended! Bananas! I'll be one of those 83k this week.
- If you'd like to catch up. Pick & click when works best here.
Startups
Nucor's Ken Iverson on Building a Different Kind of Company
What made Nucor different and great under Kenneth Iverson? Second Farnam Street link in one issue. Yes, its that good. Here are some teaser answers:
- Extreme Decentralization – 3.6 billion dollar company with just 22 people working at the corporate headquarters, and just four layers of management from the CEO to the front-line workers. In order to achieve that leanness at the top, power was pushed down pretty far into the organization.
- Simple and Precise Strategy – The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action. "We don’t clutter the picture with lofty vision statements, ask employees to pursue vague, intermediate objectives like 'excellence,'"
- Remove Unnecessary Hierarchy – "Our executives get the same group insurance, same holidays, and same vacations as everybody else. They eat lunch in the same cafeterias" Reading about their egalitarian approach, it's easy to think about what an inversion that is of most organizations.
How we spent our startup’s first $250,000: lessons and mistakes
Jose 'Caya' Cayasso is the CEO of Slidebean. I've used Slidebean for many presentations & talks. This honest account has more than a few similarities to the seemingly corporate in comparison Nucor example above.
Owning your car is almost obsolete— lunch with Salesforce’s head of Product Alex Dayon
"Look at the way car manufacturers work: they spend a ton designing and producing a car. Then they spend even more money on marketing and sales to sell it to you. Then they forget about you." Loic Le Meur, LeWeb co-founder & investor in LinkedIn, eloquently turns a lunch conversation into a Medium post.
Sales
7 Content Marketing Tactics That Boost Sales and Influence Buyer Behaviors
With content, salespeople can add value to each client interaction. Using original research and reports to drive brand awareness and positive public mention is fundamental to what we do at Twotone Consulting. So much to soak in and act on in this one!
How to Handle Online vs. In-Person Leads
The follow-up separates the ordinary salespeople from the pro status.
some teasers:
- 65 percent of all companies don’t nurture leads
- Only 25 percent of all salespeople make two contact attempts
- 80 percent of all transactions require five to 12 follow-ups
B2B Companies With a Formal Sales Process Grow Faster
"Defining a formal process and spending at least 3 hours on pipeline management per rep per month — saw 28% higher revenue growth ratings than their peers"
Radness
My Wild Love
My Wild Love is a little company based here in Amsterdam with a big passion for Italian cycling. A small group of artisans craft their products in the beautiful town of Treviso. I caught up with Paul from My Wild Love about their building process this week. More radness from these guys soon! In the meantime, follow them on insta & like them on fb.