On today’s episode, Kyle Leavitt will be joining us. We discuss building a startup and what it takes to build one from the ground up. Kyle shares his advice on improving customer retention, increasing customer loyalty and the importance of core values in a business. Kyle Leavitt is the recent co-founder of LoyalStream. He had also co-founded CustomerHub, which he sold to Infusionsoft, where he became a key leader who helped grow the company from $1M to $100M+ in annual recurring revenue. Kyle joined Infusionsoft in 2005 then started talking to entrepreneurs every day on the phone and selling Infusionsoft to them. He left Infusionsoft in 2008 and started a software business with his brother and business partner called CustomerHub, which he then sold back to Infusionsoft and joined the product team where he served as Director of Product Management and later VP of Product. He was there for five years before leaving to start another business and get back to his original love, which is building software products that help small businesses succeed.In this episode, learn more about what it takes to have a successful membership site, how you can become proactive instead of reactive and how you can streamline your decisions and process to align with your overall vision. You’ll hear more about setting SMART goals, tips on building a loyal customer base and advice you can use to improve the retention of your members. LoyalStream connects to your customer data and teaches people the secret to loyalty which lies in your customer data. Customers start demonstrating behaviors indicating they aren’t happy or healthy long before asking for a cancellation. LoyalStream identifies customers that are at risk of canceling. If you would like to learn more from Kyle about LoyalStream, visit https://.loyalstream.com. You can also schedule a consultation directly from their website. Key Takeaways Being a good salesperson is about understanding the needs of the prospect that you are talking to. It’s about understanding their business and the problem they are looking to solve. Building a successful product is understanding a need that exists in the market for more than one person. A product persons’ primary job is to understand the needs of the market and create a solution that will solve the problem their target market has. Consider finding ways to be more scientific in your approach to building product. Determine ways to effectively measure everything that you are doing. Learn how to create a vision and how to execute against a vision. Setting SMART goals is crucial to achieving your desired outcomes. You have so many things that cross your plate that are opportunities. They are often time good opportunities but where people get off track in growing their business is in saying yes to too many things. Have a vision and have priorities clearly defined early on when starting a new business. The internet has put a heavy emphasis on customer loyalty. It’s more important than ever to build a loyal customer base. Its about getting the business owner from a state of reactivity to a state of proactivity. It’s not about saving customers; it’s about helping them be more successful. Links