As a young entrepreneur, I was in a VC’s office asking for money. He took a call from one of his portfolio companies and chewed out the CEO. In front of me. I should have walked out of the room. I didn’t have the experience at the time to appreciate that he was an ass [...]
Tag Archives: Sernovitz
Zombies on my doorstep: End the phone book spam
I came home to find the walking dead waiting on my doorstep: phone books. Nobody asked for them. They just print them up and hand them out. 615 million phone books are printed every year. This is a filthy waste of resources: printing, delivery, landfill. Let’s end this already. At the very least, phone books [...]
Did he quietly leave in the night, never to return?
I clicked “Terminate Account” and the account was deleted. We’d been hosting with them for 11 years. $300 per month. And in 5 seconds it was over. They never called, they never asked why, they probably didn’t notice. Until one day, they stand all alone. No friends, no money, no hope. And they’ll wonder how [...]
How to lose a sale by reading a script instead of helping a prospect
Sender Message Tom says: Hi, I’m the live website attendant. Welcome to [car dealership]! How may I assist you today? Andy Sernovitz says: Do you sell [make of car]? When is the least crowded time to come by? Tom says: I’d be more than happy to help you out with that. May I have your [...]
It’s good to have friends in high places — a big thanks to Spike Jones and Fleishman-Hillard
When you’re new in town, it helps to have a friend show you around. It’s especially helpful if that friend happens to be Spike Jones — a brilliant, talented, and all around friendly guy who knows a thing or two about word of mouth marketing. We begged him to let us hang out with him [...]
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