Author Archives: Dave Berkus

What you can’t ask in an employee interview

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Dave’s note: This week, let’s welcome an expert in employment background checks, Chris Dyer, CEO of PeopleG2, to help us explore one dicey subject that gets lots of entrepreneurs and managers into trouble by being completely unaware of what they … Continue reading →

How can I trust that my virtual employees are working?

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Dave’s note: For the second week, we welcome my co-author of “Get Scrappy,” Kim Shepherd, to give us her answer to the oft-repeated question: “How can I trust that my virtual employees are working?” You’ll recall that Kim is an … Continue reading →

Posted in Depending upon others, Protecting the business | Leave a comment

Leaping off the cliff: Making your business virtual

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Dave’s note: I am so pleased this week to introduce my co-author of “Get Scrappy,” Kim Shepherd, CEO of Decision Toolbox. Her firm is a model of a virtual company, with over 100 employees and absolutely no office other than … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Protecting the business, Surrounding yourself with talent | Leave a comment

Above all, consider the corporate gate keeper.

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Looking for an entrance into a VC, an angel group, a bank, a CxO for a sales opportunity, or any other entity? There are always gate keepers whose job it is to filter out the inconsequential or inappropriate, and allow … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Positioning | 2 Comments

The one question to stop them in the trade show aisle.

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Wouldn’t it be magic if we could find one (unique to us) question to ask people passing the booth or table as they pass in the aisle of the trade show? I asked a number of exhibitors that question recently, … Continue reading →

Posted in Positioning | 1 Comment

Marketing and big data: Finding that needle in the haystack

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Dave Berkus

We once measured our audience using demographic buckets, especially with the use of age groups, gender, and financial ability as keys. Classic marketing teaches us that this is the best way to define our audience, and to make appropriate pitches … Continue reading →

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Big data: Information is NOT knowledge

Posted on February 4, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Say that you have a log file of every contact to your website. Or that you are a cell phone company with a multi–billion record log file of every call made from every location to every number dialed using your … Continue reading →

Posted in Growth!, Positioning | 1 Comment

Email open rates: Your best marketing test

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Dave Berkus

No–one needs to tell you that mobile readers now outnumber desktop readers for your message. A recent Experian marketing survey revealed that 52% of all email opens are from mobile devices, and that 38% of all clicks are from mobile … Continue reading →

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Mailing lists, email marketing, errors, oh my!

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Dave Berkus

Using old email lists for the first time is like eating really stale doughnuts. The taste is pretty bad, and the side effects could be disastrous. Email companies like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and many others all have strict rules … Continue reading →

Posted in Positioning | 1 Comment

Harvest your social media contacts

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Dave Berkus

You may not know that you have access to many “free” sources of social media contacts to help you in your marketing effort. The first semi–secret source is your LinkedIn contact list. You probably thought it was proprietary to LinkedIn, … Continue reading →