Do you have a revenue prevention department? How one beer can drives massive revenue.

Thanks for reading. Welcome to Different.?

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Do you have a revenue prevention department?

rob burgess is, was, and always will be a rabble rouser. When he was CEO of Marcomedia (purchased by Adobe for $3.4B... back when that was a lot of money) he noticed that revenue from inside sales was stalled. So Rob, being Rob went to the bullpen to hang out with salespeople.

He immediately noticed that salespeople were not selling.

But instead, when they had a customer on the phone (who wanted to buy) rather than take the order, the reps emailed the potential customer a long credit application form. Which a meaningful percentage of customers didn't fill out.

Rob quickly discovered that Macromedia had hired some new folks in finance. Well meaning people who were trying to solve a (relatively minor) accounts receivable problem, by instituting a new credit policy.

This policy change was helping reduce the AR problem, by (inadvertently) reducing revenue.

Rob changed the policy on the spot.

No credit check for anyone with an email address from anything that sounded like a real company.

If you start looking, you’ll (likely) find that your revenue prevention department is well organized, well-funded and well… a problem.

Consider asking people in sales, revops, finance and marketing this simple question:

“Were does our revenue get blocked?”

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4 Reasons This Beer Can Drives Massive Revenue????

1) Category in BIG FONT "Hazy IPA"

2) Product brand in little font: "Little things"

3) Company brand in smaller font: "Sierra Nevada"

4) Legendary tag line (funny way to tell us they are not a big beer co) "Family Owned. Operated & Argued Over"

Ken Grossman founded Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in 1978.

(He and is family still run and own the business)

Ken is one of the Category Designers of "Craft Beer" on the US West Coast ??

Ken's a billionaire.

Party because he knows category first, brand second.

Consumers have to think IPA (niche beer category) and specifically Hazy IPA (a niche beer category, inside the IPA niche beer category) sounds yummy, BEFORE they care who brews the beer (brand).

That's one of the key reasons Ken is respected craft beer category innovator and a self made billionaire who's created a legacy for his family.

Most S&P 500 CEOs and most VC-Backed startup founders will never get Category Design.

(it requires to much unlearning)

The vast majority of people in business compete for demand in a market category designed by someone else Vs. create one they can own.

(I recently saw yet another entertaining video on LI of two donkey executives talking about what a bad idea Category Design is... as if competing in a race to the bottom is a great idea )

This is a radical advantage for the few with the courage to category design new markets ??

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Hawaii... the images and stories coming out of Maui are heartbreaking. The loss of life devastating. I love that place. And IMO Lahaina is an American treasure.

If you're in a position to make a difference, please join me in donating to:

https://lnkd.in/g8Kq_jXK

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Pirate on my friend,

Christopher Lochhead

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Copyright?Category Pirates, LLC

Public notice.

The creator of this (experimental) LI newsletter was likely consuming libations, is lucky enough to enough to have multiple learning differences,?was thrown out of school at 18, does not possess a GED and can’t find his keys.

As a result, there are ideas and insights in here that can't be found elsewhere. And, there are also (random) strategically placed spelling, grammar and formatting mistakes in this newsletter.

They are a secret code.

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AND….Are you over 40? Do you wanna stay cool forever?

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George Carlin was right.

Are you still reading?....

... this is the part of Different, that is like the very end of a movie... where some directors throw in crap-o-lla (are there one or two L's in crap-olla? If you know, pls drop it in the comments ??) for their own entertainment purposes, because they assume by this point, people have left the theater...

...but for some reason you're still reading... and I'm still writing...

• Chinese Farmer Goes Viral For His Flock of 70,000 Chickens

Hey, thanks for hanging out for the extra (silly) scooby snacks at the end... let's hang out again soon ????????

And... (in case you missed this).... pick up your copy of this summer's #1 new bestseller in (both) marketing and startup... 22 Laws of Category Design

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