

How To Hire Great Business Development People - eladgil
http://blog.eladgil.com/2013/02/hiring-great-business-people-is-hard.html

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pkaler
I interview Business Development people just like I interview developers. I
want to see them "code".

I have them open up their CRM tool of choice. Then I have them explain their
funnel. They should be able to step me through how they've setup their stages:
Qualifications, Needs Analysis, Decision Makers, Value Proposition, Quote,
Negotiation, etc.

Then I have them deep dive on a particular deal and have them explain each of
these stages for this particular deal.

~~~
rscale
I'd be extremely reluctant to hire somebody who was willing to give me a
guided tour of another company's CRM.

Even ignoring the ethics of the request, if somebody is willing to act against
their current employer's wishes, they're almost certainly going to act against
my wishes as well.

There are plenty of ways to check an applicant's abilities without requesting
access to confidential information. This is as true for biz dev as it is for
coders.

~~~
DenisM
Where did you yet the idea that GP asks for _confidential_ CRM deployment? I
think you are jumping to unwarranted conclusions.

~~~
rscale
I got the idea from his post. The vast majority of BD candidates _can't_ open
a CRM and provide detailed information about it's structure and the deals it
contains without revealing confidential information.

As such, I think it's a poor idea to make that a standard part of the
interview process.

You mounted an unwarranted defense. There are edge conditions where somebody
could do so without a problem, but they're the exception that proves the rule.

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notahacker
I was slightly disappointed a list that was long enough to have two references
to understanding legalese(1) omitted stuff as basic as "incredibly aware of
your market" and "customer-need oriented"

On the other hand I love the fact that you've underlined _Raw charisma is
drastically over rated by technical founders._ Very true, and very important,
especially if you're selling complex b2b products to the sort of audience that
usually will do deals with the socially-awkward stereotypical geek that
understands their needs and won't do it with the beautiful, bubbly person that
wants to take them out for a delightful long lunch to distract from the
detail.

(1)useful, but you hire _lawyers_ to ferret that stuff out and bizdev guys to
come up with propositions compelling enough to discourage the other party from
weasel-wording their contract clauses

~~~
eladgil
Thanks for the feedback. I agree with your point about "incredibly aware of
your market".

"Customer-need oriented" I think is great for a sales person. For a great BD
person maybe a similar axiom should be phrased as "understand the other sides
objectives clearly" and really dig into what the other party wants (versus
what it claims it wants).

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DenisM
This seems like a good advice to me if you're hiring a bd guy. Any extra
advice if you (a hacker) are _partnering_ with a bd guy?

The only thing I can contribute is to look if the would-be partner has any
friends from previous engagements joining the new venture. If so, it
establishes that your prospect is not a pathological liar (no one would stick
around with that sort of person). It's important because a compelling bd story
could be a great business opportunity, or complete bullshit, and a hacker type
is normally unable to tell them apart.

It's not much, admittedly, but maybe this will get the conversation rolling?

~~~
orangethirty
You need to see their track record. Have they published anything? Do they talk
about their failures? How much actual business experience do they have?

As someone who does both sides (software and business) I've come to realize
that the best way to approach is as you would approach hiring a developer. You
want someone who has shipped code and can ship code. Sometimes people
exaggerate things, that's normal due to the competition. It is a red flag, but
not a complete deal buster. Keep an eye for it. If it sounds fishy and does
not have real data to back up then just send them out politely.

By the way, I get way more red flags from hiring developers than from hiring
business people. Dunno why.

~~~
hkon
Care to elaborate on the red flags?

