Support - Continue the sales cycle
Venture capital can qualify as a business, and with attention, sales and marketing strategies of a company. The experience of the management team before an investment is considered. The strategy of targeted support is almost never a topic of discussion. Investors apparently are not affected if the support function is outsourced or kept in the house, or if a case or client to be taken.
But excellentThe support is crucial to the survival of start-ups. Customers from start-ups can see that the product or technology is superior to the offer by major market participants. At the same time, there is always the looming fear that the new company will disappear overnight. No one fired for buying IBM, but many people have been groped on the resumption of an innovative technology for the update never worked.
It is for the start-up, continuousassure customers that did not make a mistake of believing in this new kid on the block. The support team has a very important role. slow response times by the organization to support, as well as incomplete responses or lazy to customers quickly get back to the start-up.
Cyota CEO Naftali Bennett understood the importance of customer support. Before running Cyota has served in an elite command of the Israeli army. He applied some of the militaryPracticing the army to sustain its power. He requested the support of Hot-Line for the most unusual hours (04:00 clock for example) and could examine how polite, friendly and professional was the answer.
Usually, the support may be the less glamorous position, one in the field of technology is necessary. The boys are blue technical assistance work in the IT industry. If you only get calls when things do not work. And they should not expect a compliment to fix something - after allThe system is now running as it should.
Bennett has failed to curb, contact the support team a real team-client relationship. He made the budget available to support team members regularly with clients. members of the support team often related sales calls. He also assured the support function served as a fertile source of input for marketing, sales and product management team. Just to show how successful this approach: Cyota never lost a client, implemented many repeatSale and was sold to RSA Security for $ 145M.
The lesson for investors, CEOs and managers alike: support as a valuable source of information should be considered, rather than as a cost center. In today's competitive market, sales cycles do not end with the signing of a contract. The customer must always be sold on the value of a product or technology. The support organization is the epicenter of the ongoing process.
