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It is my distinct pleasure to welcome the first guest author to this web site, Peter de Bruyn Kops. Peter and I met as regular attendees of the MIT Enterprise Forum. Like many of us at customary events, he and I tended to sit in the same seats. After a few months, I introduced myself to this quiet young man who routinely sat in front of me. After a few more evenings, I asked Peter, "Why do you come to the MIT Enterprise Forum?" He answered, "Ralph, I went to Harvard to learn mathematics. But I come to the MIT Enterprise Forum to learn business. I will soon have learned enough about entrepreneurship to be able to start my own enterprise." Well, Peter started his own company subsequent to that conversation. He went through the product development cycle, and a false start with his own direct (human) sales force. Then Peter practiced the lessons he learned from the MIT Enterprise Forum, brought in contacts he made at the MIT Enterprise Forum, and applied an engineering rigor to the selling motion. "The Importance of the Selling Process" is Peter's story of the result; a unique, automated selling motion. "Automated Sequences Of Touches™" propelled his company from a one-man operation to world market dominance and a multi-million dollar revenue stream in eighteen months - with no capital and no sales force! His competitor, with a 50-person field force, was forced to withdraw. Now, Peter has taught for the MIT Enterprise Forum. At my request, Peter has delivered this material as a lecture during MIT's annual entrepreneurship course, 15.976, "Starting And Running A High Tech Company." The engineers love him at MIT. The course has been sponsored by the MIT Enterprise Forum and MIT's Entrepreneurship Center, and is three credits towards an MBA at MIT's Sloan School of Management. Peter has been my Guest Professor during the "High Tech Marketing And Sales" section of that program. I have also had the pleasure of having Peter teach for me as a Guest Professor in the Executive MBA program at Suffolk University. It is always fun to see Peter lecture at MIT, in the company of entrepreneurs who have raised large amounts from the Venture Capital community. Somehow, it comes out that Peter has raised nothing from the VC's. When the inevitable student asks him about this, seeming to imply that Peter is less of an entrepreneur, he replies, "Yes, I have raised no VC money. However, I own 100% of my company!" Suddenly, the students adapt a more respectful tone, as they comprehend that there is more than one model that works. While Peter lectures, and writes here about selling, don't be diverted from the import of market research. Like other very talented people, Peter is talented in several ways, especially in marketing. His super success, in my opinion, stems from his heavy investment in the upstream market research process. Peter maintains a 1:1 Marketing/Engineering Investment Ratio™. His company is listed as a super success in the investment evidence. Ralph Grabowski
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