SalesFounders - Startup Sales Strategy, Venture Capital, Entrepreneur, and Sales Development - 036: Direct to Consumer Sales Strategy with Ace Marks Founder Paul Farago

036: Direct to Consumer Sales Strategy with Ace Marks Founder Paul Farago

11/07/17 • 47 min

SalesFounders - Startup Sales Strategy, Venture Capital, Entrepreneur, and Sales Development

Ace Marks is a brand of handcrafted Italian dress shoes that has leveraged a direct to consumer sales strategy to disrupt one of the most established industries. In the past year alone, Ace Marks have sold in more than 80 countries, and has become the worlds most funded footwear project through Kickstarter. Founders Paul Farago and Julian Gonzalez join SalesFounders to talk about their relentless focus on customer experience, the domain expertise behind this disruptive brand of luxury shoes.

On this Episode we Discuss:

Leveraging domain experience around the needs of the customer
The pro’s and con’s of the direct to consumer strategy
Why Ace Marks chose crowdfunding as their initial source of growth
Kickstarter success and their unorthodox approach to building a campaign
Life after Crowdfunding - how to find sustainable growth channels
Breaking paradigms - educating customers and the cost=value fallacy
Influencer Marketing - the algorithm Ace Marks developed to identify the best influencers
How to manage cash flow in high inventory startups
Competition and the challenge to disrupt highly established industries

On this Episode we Discuss:

Leveraging domain experience around the needs of the customer
The pro’s and con’s of the direct to consumer strategy
Why Ace Marks chose crowdfunding as their initial source of growth
Kickstarter success and their unorthodox approach to building a campaign
Life after Crowdfunding - how to find sustainable growth channels
Breaking paradigms - educating customers and the cost=value fallacy
Influencer Marketing - the algorithm Ace Marks developed to identify the best influencers
How to manage cash flow in high inventory startups
Competition and the challenge to disrupt highly established industries

Previous Episode

035: Product Validation and Crowdfunding with Enventys Partners President Roy Morejon

Roy Morejon is the President of Enventys Partners, a full-service product launch agency that has created more than 450 brands, 65 companies, and made over $1 billion for entrepreneurs and corporations. Roy's passion is helping entrepreneurs launch great ideas and Eventys Partners has a comprehensive solution that supports entrepreneurs with everything from product design and development, to crowdfunding and marketing. Roy joins us this week to talk about product validation and the system that has helped 21 brands break the million dollar crowdfunding mark.

On this Episode we Discuss:

The 3 pre-requisites to a winning crowdfunding campaign
Eventys Partners receive 150 pitches per day - here’s how they validate the best products
5 things founders can do to prepare for a successful product launch
Why simple products perform better than feature-rich solutions
The nature of selling and why entrepreneurs should prepare for change
How to differentiate your product in highly competitive markets
How to initiate a product validation campaign with your target audience
Strategies to clarify your ideal customer profile

Next Episode

037: Social Selling for Startups with Steve Nudelberg

"Nobody want’s to be sold anymore.” With so many products and solutions competing for our attention, buyers want simple solutions from people they know like and trust.

Meet Steve Nudelberg, author, speaker, and “serial salesman” who has built a successful career by being valuable, authentic, and connected. Steve will argue that, for more startups, cold calling is a waste of time, and that entrepreneurs should spend less time hiding behind their brand and more time engaging with their customers.

On this episode, we explore the evolving sales landscape, the biggest sales challenges entrepreneurs face and some secrets to help startups connect with their customers and keep their sales pipelines full.