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We’ve had lots of sales people come through our doors and I highly suggest you interview several more here. A few reasons: + MBA degrees prep you for corporate

by cl42 9y ago

We’ve had lots of sales people come through our doors and I highly suggest you interview several more here. A few reasons: + MBA degrees prep you for corporate success, and rarely teach you how to sell or create sales collateral + Hesitation re: sales means he will never be a sales person, at least with that attitude. Many (most?) sales people fail because they are afraid to cold call, prospect, do the grunt work, etc. This candidate sounds just like that. + Given this is your project and you are the expert, you’ll likely have to teach him how to sell it or spend a lot of time working with him to get him up to speed. I don’t think that’s possible on a part time schedule Saastr is a good resource on this. Happy to share more thoughts if you’d like.

Blackstone4 9y ago
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I agree with you on MBAs. I think when it comes to sales, he is not very confident so he talks himself down. I suggested a sales book for him to read and we shall see where he comes out on that. I feel like he is personable and gets on well with people. He's also a hard worker. So I think it could work but I acknowledge it's a risk. Also I don't want him just for sales. I have a lot to do between tech, finance, legal, sales etc. If he could come in and lighten the burden that would be great. He doesn't have domain knowledge so I would have to get him up the curve on the industry and the product. Good point.
- notahacker 9y ago
  If he doesn't see himself as a salesperson because he's not very confident (as opposed to because he thinks he can do other stuff as well) he's unlikely to an answer to your sales problem. Even if he's competent at the business analysis side of stuff, selling in the $15-100k range is going to take a certain amount of persistence and judgement. If he can do the other mostly less critical stuff then the fact he wants to keep his current job is actually a good thing for you: pay him for his time and expertise when you need it and offer him a salaried job with options if/when you have revenue, funding and a proper position for him several months down the line.
- Kagerjay 9y ago
  I've done inside and outside sales, and have hired employees to do inside sales. I have a number of outside sales / manufacturer reps who I periodically talk too. - Hiring is not that much different from sales in my opinion. If you are doing recruiting, you have to really sell yourself and your company on why a prospective company should work for you, over other companies. You need to vet many prospective candidates through cold calling, interviews, etc if you don't have enough prospective candidates in mind. In a startup with a lot volatility, a prospective employees first concern should always be bringing food on the table. In addition, you have to sell your company + ideals + yourself even more if you are hiring someone who you've never worked with (e.g. someone on indeed.com posting), and expect to have a probationary period (1-3 months) where you might have to fire them. Ideally, you should know from selling B2C or B2B experience how well that sales person should be performing (how many sales they should be getting per week, etc) - MBA =/= Sales. MBA is for upper level management on corporate structures, and is not a necessary skill for selling at all. You stated you had advisors for this already - Looking at your other comments, this sales person is going to be doing hard-sells by phone call, soft sell through website leads. Sales is a hard earned skill. Its really not something you learn in a textbook. The most difficult part of sales in general is dealing with the laborious grunt work task of cold calling people, coping with potentially high amounts of rejection, following up with CRM, etc. - Your going to have to spend some time educating this employee on the software. Not to profound technical efficiency, but enough to answer all the questions a prospective business might need to know about it (e.g. how much is it [fixed amount, quote by quote basis, how does it help them save money/time/resources in the long run, do you have well known companies / competitors running your product, etc) - A salesman with potential networks is worth more than someone who does not have a network. A good example of this a bank account manager. When a bank account manager moves banks, they generally take a large % of all their clients with them to the new bank. The same is true for lawyers who move law firms as well. Having someone with an "in" saves a lot of time since you don't have to deal with a decision maker's secretary at a potential business, etc. This "in" is pretty analogous to applying for job at a specific company and not knowing anyone at that company for referral, its a harder road to climb but still doable. Those are just general things to consider. Have expectations clear in writing moving forward. What responsibilities he will be handling and what compensation he will be getting as a result.

by cl42 9y ago

Blackstone4 9y ago

Thank you for your thoughtful response. I agree with you on MBAs. I think when it comes to sales, he is not very confident so he talks himself down. I suggested a sales book for him to read and we shall see where he comes out on that. I feel like he is personable and gets on well with people. He's also a hard worker. So I think it could work but I acknowledge it's a risk. Also I don't want him just for sales. I have a lot to do between tech, finance, legal, sales etc. If he could come in and lighten the burden that would be great. He doesn't have domain knowledge so I would have to get him up the curve on the industry and the product. Good point.

notahacker 9y ago
If he doesn't see himself as a salesperson because he's not very confident (as opposed to because he thinks he can do other stuff as well) he's unlikely to an answer to your sales problem. Even if he's competent at the business analysis side of stuff, selling in the $15-100k range is going to take a certain amount of persistence and judgement. If he can do the other mostly less critical stuff then the fact he wants to keep his current job is actually a good thing for you: pay him for his time and expertise when you need it and offer him a salaried job with options if/when you have revenue, funding and a proper position for him several months down the line.
Kagerjay 9y ago
I've done inside and outside sales, and have hired employees to do inside sales. I have a number of outside sales / manufacturer reps who I periodically talk too. - Hiring is not that much different from sales in my opinion. If you are doing recruiting, you have to really sell yourself and your company on why a prospective company should work for you, over other companies. You need to vet many prospective candidates through cold calling, interviews, etc if you don't have enough prospective candidates in mind. In a startup with a lot volatility, a prospective employees first concern should always be bringing food on the table. In addition, you have to sell your company + ideals + yourself even more if you are hiring someone who you've never worked with (e.g. someone on indeed.com posting), and expect to have a probationary period (1-3 months) where you might have to fire them. Ideally, you should know from selling B2C or B2B experience how well that sales person should be performing (how many sales they should be getting per week, etc) - MBA =/= Sales. MBA is for upper level management on corporate structures, and is not a necessary skill for selling at all. You stated you had advisors for this already - Looking at your other comments, this sales person is going to be doing hard-sells by phone call, soft sell through website leads. Sales is a hard earned skill. Its really not something you learn in a textbook. The most difficult part of sales in general is dealing with the laborious grunt work task of cold calling people, coping with potentially high amounts of rejection, following up with CRM, etc. - Your going to have to spend some time educating this employee on the software. Not to profound technical efficiency, but enough to answer all the questions a prospective business might need to know about it (e.g. how much is it [fixed amount, quote by quote basis, how does it help them save money/time/resources in the long run, do you have well known companies / competitors running your product, etc) - A salesman with potential networks is worth more than someone who does not have a network. A good example of this a bank account manager. When a bank account manager moves banks, they generally take a large % of all their clients with them to the new bank. The same is true for lawyers who move law firms as well. Having someone with an "in" saves a lot of time since you don't have to deal with a decision maker's secretary at a potential business, etc. This "in" is pretty analogous to applying for job at a specific company and not knowing anyone at that company for referral, its a harder road to climb but still doable. Those are just general things to consider. Have expectations clear in writing moving forward. What responsibilities he will be handling and what compensation he will be getting as a result.