It's easy to find information on what makes for great sales leadership in large companies. The classic examples, from IBM, Xerox, Cisco and others, illustrate the basics of sales leadership: establishing a good process for selecting and training the right sales team, developing and managing the pipeline, motivating the team, ensuring a strong lead generation program, etc.
That’s all fine, and many of the same basics apply in “Startup Land
How can a sales executive build a successful team in this environment? It takes a special kind of person, with a unique set of characteristics, work habits and personality traits. We have put together a checklist that identifies these, and gives a little background on why they are important, and how they can lead a startup to early and repeated success.
Checklist – Important Traits for a Startup Sales Executive
1. Is in the trenches in the beginning but knows when to climb out
2. Knows why the “usual suspects” are the wrong sales reps for startups
3. Dynamically defines the sales process, and religiously manages the metrics
4. Establishes the rules of the game so the team can withstand the pressures of product immaturity and lack of brand recognition
5. Actively creates a true collaborative environment among sales, marketing, development and executives.
Let’s go through each of these topics individually, and provide examples and anecdotes to fully illustrate what each trait means, and how each is manifested in the real world.
ONE: A great startup sales executive is in the trenches in the beginning but knows when to climb out.
A startup sales leader needs to be both a leader and an individual practitioner, but the roles change over time. The startup sales leader is the person who will go out and make the first 5-10 sales. That way, s/he understands the difference between someone who buys (who understands the value and actively seeks out your solution) and someone to who is sold (who doesn’t initially see the value, but through active listening and consultative selling on the part of the sales executive, grows to understand the value). The sales leader-as-individual-contributor sees objections first-hand, tests the value propositions first-hand, and begins to define the sales process first-hand.
This is truly a “roll up your sleeves” role. In the early days, sales calls probably also involve the founder(s). But the great startup sales leader will be able to separate the sales that occur because of the founder’s charisma and network, from those that result from good hard sales efforts: understanding pain, teasing out the value proposition, identifying objections and coming up with methods for moving the sale along to a successful conclusion.
However, it is important for the sales exec to recognize when to move away from the role of individual contributor and into that of the true leader. While a certain amount of hand-holding is necessary in the early days, the exec should know when to let the sales reps go out on their own, and mentor them rather than taking the lead in each sale. The latter method, clearly, will not scale!
TWO: The great startup sales executive knows why the “usual suspects” are the wrong sales reps for startups
Many people believe that the best sales person for a startup is someone who has excelled at one of the big companies. The thinking goes like this: the rep has a proven track record, has a big Rolodex and a Rolex, is comfortable selling to the highest levels in a company, etc. This is often the wrong person. Often that person’s success could not have been achieved without the infrastructure, processes and pre-sales support found in large technology companies. The test, and it’s a risky one, is if the rep can adapt to a startup environment where none of these elements exists. The great sales exec doesn’t fall for the story that “My old company was big, but we ran our group like a startup.” That’s almost never the case: the lack of sales collateral, customer case studies, lead generation and other expected support mechanisms were certainly present in the old company, and probably will take a while to appear in the new company.
The best people are very likely the self-starters - the type of people who are willing to cold-call, build their own pipelines, set their own appointments, and manage their own lead process. This type of person will break rules, innovate, and come up with solutions. But the sales VP needs to know how to keep them in check so they don’t subvert your corporate goals. This takes real talent!
THREE: The great startup sales leader dynamically defines the sales process, and religiously manages the metrics.
The sales leader needs to establish a process early on, and follow it closely with direct involvement on the part of others in the company. When we ask sales managers “What does your sales cycle look like? How long is it? What are the steps?” we are often told “It depends.” Wrong answer. A good sales leader needs to put a stake in the ground early on, and set a straw man sales process in place. They need to know precisely where the prospect is at each step of the sales process. Pre-qualifying, identifying the decision-maker and influencers, determining whether there is budget and/or a project, etc. Knowing how to move the sale forward, and when to disengage (since sales and pre-sales resources are precious, and need to be focused on the high-probability deals.
The great startup sales exec tracks sales every day, and holds a weekly tracking session with the sales team, as well as with whomever is in charge of product development, whomever is in charge of marketing, and corporate executives. Then makes mid-course corrections so that it’s always obvious where the real opportunities are in the sales process, so the company can spend scarce time and resources on those that really matter.
One of the pitfalls we often see with startups is a lot of activity in the early days, without much forward movement. It’s seductive to have good meetings with people who appreciate your product’s innovation - because no one else is listening to you! But it’s easy for sales reps to get lulled into a false sense of moving forward when they’re really losing ground. Tracking becomes key to ensuring that progress is being made. This is especially true if the sales team is widely distributed. The sales VP needs to have the discipline to insist on regular meetings that provide transparency across the organization.
FOUR: Establishes the rules of the game so the team can withstand the pressures of product immaturity and lack of brand recognition
The sales executive needs to understand and buy into the philosophy that “We won’t make a product change for a deal – we will only make it for an industry.” This is a difficult position to take in a startup, where you are desperate for early sales and market validation. Nevertheless, the executive has to view him/herself – and make the sales reps also view themselves – as part owners of the company. Not as a separate group with its own agenda, but as a team that is tightly integrated with the company and its long-term success. The sales exec will not sacrifice long-term success for the short-term view (I need to make this sale at all costs!)
FIVE: Actively creates a true collaborative environment among sales, marketing, development and executives.
When you are small and unknown, and are fighting against competitors that are well-known, firmly entrenched and have lots of features and products, it’s tempting to view yourself and your team as the lone wolf. It’s you against the world. That kind of thinking can lead to a lack of transparency, and even feelings of isolation within the company. That’s precisely why it is important for sales to have the ability to not only handle objections but bring feedback to the company. A good startup sales exec will hold weekly sales meetings, and ensure the attendance by marketing, product development, and corporate management. If those functions are present at each of those meetings, there will be much more understanding of the sales process (and how difficult it is), more appreciation of the need for features and enhancements, and a clearer understanding across the board of what prospects are really saying. All of this creates an atmosphere of mutual respect and, most importantly, learning.
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