219 Courses delivered On Demand

Customers as well as investors want to know that you’re going to be offering new and different products, services, and enhancements going forward. That’s what your product roadmap communicates. This walk-through details the 1-to-2 year plan that documents short term and long term product goals, taking you from product launch to the future incarnation of your product or service. Learn why your product roadmap is both a business planning tool and your rollout blueprint and why it’s so important to focus on benefits to the customer (not features!)

Pricing influencers have a dramatic impact on your ability to set pricing.  The more flexibility you have the higher price you can charge and the more margin you can get.  In this course, Ken will walk you through each of the eight pricing influencers and give you strategies to help improve your position giving you more flexibility in your overall pricing strategy.  Ken will also explore tactics that you can apply to your business, supporting you in setting the most appropriate price for your product or service—without leaving money on the table. 

Your market’s growth rate is out of your hands — but how you position your business to capitalize on it is entirely within your control. By selecting the most relevant growth rate for your market segment and aligning your company’s objectives accordingly, your projections will hold up under scrutiny and set you on the path toward profits. This course solves the challenge of projecting future growth with a framework for researching statistics, methods for calculating growth rates, and a list of pitfalls to avoid.

The competitive matrix is a graphic that highlights your unique strengths vis a vis other players in the space. The visual snapshot is easy for investors to parse — but it’s more than a pretty picture. As you identify your most relevant strengths and how you stack up against competitors, the process of developing a competitive matrix gives you a greater understanding of your market and your business, and a valuable marketing tool. This learning stream will cover how to identify the most relevant strengths to plot on your graph, how to identify and evaluate competitors on the matrix, and how to position your business as a market leader.

Time to put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard. Take a look inside the Prep Worksheet that prepares you to write the pricing strategy section of your business plan. The key to success is taking the time necessary to deeply understand your business and be prepared to run it—use this workshop and Prep Worksheet to do just that.

It may seem counterintuitive, but perfection is your enemy when it comes to shaping your product or service strategy. You may want everything to be perfect before you launch, but if you ever hope to start ringing up sales, you need to ruthlessly focus instead on just those elements of your offering that address the core customer need, and build a vision and a plan for development that tests your concept in the marketplace sooner rather than later. This learning stream offers guidance on how to shape a product or service vision, strategies for developing a minimum viable product, ways to create a roadmap you’ll stick to, and responses to questions about market defensibility. With examples of real companies cited throughout and workshop sessions for tailoring your own product or service strategy, this learning stream equips you with everything you need to build a product or service strategy that puts launch within reach.

Contrary to popular belief, having plenty of competitors is a good sign – that's what makes a thriving market. This course delves deep into the competition, with strategies for identifying and evaluating competitors and classifying them to discover where opportunities lie to fill gaps in the marketplace.

Thought leadership can bring your message to customers and afford them a chance to understand and connect with your brand on a deeper level. This course presents examples of thought leadership and an in-depth look at how to leverage this form of free content marketing, which includes blogs, reports, speaking gigs, PR, and more, to your advantage. A workshop developed to support you work with the thought leadership prep worksheet completes this course.

How and why customers perceive the unique value of your product or service is something integrated into all aspects of your customer communication—from your website to marketing and social media to packaging. This lesson explains how that works by looking at a few top brands and how they communicate their unique value propositions.

The Company Overview section of your business plan must excite investors. From the founders’ bios and company history to your business location and business model, it must be clear that you’re poised to succeed. This learning stream helps you navigate the five essential sections to include in your plan: company profile, team, staffing, business model, and current status—all with examples, as well as solid business mindset tips and how to talk to investors. The workshop provides a walk-through of the tactical aspects of the learning stream will be walked-through in the workshop step-by-step.