

Lessons from a Dell Executive who Joined a YC Startup - jeremymims
http://ownlocal.com/newspaper-support-group/interview-with-lamar-romero-ownlocals-vp-of-sales/

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kerryfalk
Congrats on jumping from sales at a large multi-national to a startup. I've
move into progressively smaller companies (Now running a very small startup)
and the smaller they are the more full of life they have seemed to be. This is
the way it should be.

Although I cringed at reading a couple of the lines here, specifically the
book on sales and clearly defining roles. I have tried something similar in my
past and I consider it to be one of my mistakes. I like creating structure
around chaos but I've found these methodologies to be the bane of a startup or
small company's culture and ability to move forward. They're like poison. Do
they work in larger corporations? _I think so. Maybe._ I've used some of them
successfully (Also consider this to be among my many mistakes). But everyone
you deal with is much more apathetic, they're willing to tolerate more and/or
will just ignore it. In a startup everything is much more sensitive and I find
that excessive structure and process kills, well, _everything_.

I have spent a fair bit of time in sales at different levels (Retail to long
cycle million dollar B2B) and I cringe at these books and training seminars.
Going on the road and selling with someone good in real-time is _far more_
valuable than any book or seminar. The good reps that I've seen already do the
things they teach at some level naturally and few of them have read books or
gone to a ton of seminars (I have witnessed one or two cases where a well
performing rep followed these things religiously but seemed successful in
spite of them not because of them).

Now that I've effectively ragged on your approach (Which I really can't tell
exactly what it is from this simple blog post, I'm hinging it all on two
things I read - I apologize if it's not an accurate representation of your
approach), you may be right and I may be wrong. There doesn't seem to be one
right way...

~~~
jeremymims
I don't think Lamar would disagree that going into the field is more valuable
than any book or seminar. In fact, that's pretty much where all of the sales
strategies we use are battle-tested and refined. As a startup, in many cases
we've opted to hire someone without the immediate skillset (out of college)
but who has potential to succeed. We need a common vocabulary, a common set of
expectations, and a knowledge base to work from.

Books like this one are the net, not the trapeze act.

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dkokelley
I think a lot of the HN crowd will read this and cringe at what they see.
Remember, this is sales. It's about "programming with humans". A developer
does effectively the same thing with the systems they build. A VP of sales is
trying to build a system as well.

The corporate culture is important no matter the department, but you have to
remember that sales guys are very different animals. They'll do whatever it
takes to make the sale. It's the burnout you need to manage.

~~~
redthrowaway
By the same logic, you should be able to "program with programmers", and apply
the same thinking to teams of developers. It's exactly this MBAness that HN
rails against. I'm not saying one paradigm is superior to the other, but I
would caution against the facile sort of thinking that places developers above
other mere mortals. It's tempting to think that _we_ need to be able to spread
our wings and realize our potential, while _they_ are best managed and
regimented in a programatic fashion, but that sort of distinction requires an
argument that seems to be lacking.

If we acknowledge that a sales force can benefit from this kind of
regimentation, then we must either allow for the same to be true of
developers, or offer a convincing argument as to why it can't be.

~~~
jeremymims
Programming is an inherently creative act. Sales isn't always. The goal with
most sales organizations is to replicate a process that works on a regular
basis and at scale. Programmers are composers, most sales teams are like
musicians in the orchestra. Both are really important to making the music
happen. One is creating processes. One is executing on it.

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rheide
Sounds like he's going against all the things that make a startup fun. Reading
a 'sales bible' sure isn't on my list of exciting things to do when I
join/create a startup.

~~~
jeremymims
We have lots of fun. In fact, in many ways, processes like these allow for our
team to focus on innovating and doing cool things instead of just "winging it"
every time.

~~~
ChuckFrank
Clearly Sandler Sales Tech and just winging it are not the only two options.
Understandably, it's important to get your sales team up to speed, and using
various sales systems might help, but the team itself should really be the
focus in which to discover the speed. Mentoring, performance transparency,
strategic incentives, and regular recognition of top performers will have more
benefits that some 'off the shelf' system. What I found most revealing was
that when the sales team was flying blind without a marketing plan, no matter
what system they were using (hello cold calls?) they were spinning their
wheels. Instead, building a comprehensive marketing / sales program resulted
in better client outreach. This reinforces the basic fact that every product
or service should have a marketing plan attached to it to lay the groundwork
for the sales process that follows. And that question is simply answered by
asking 'Who wants it, and how will we best let them know about it?'. To that
answer, I doubt - cold calls 'brrr' - will ever be a top choice. Otherwise,
thanks for sharing your team members stories.

ps. here are the 2 starred reviews from the 'you can't teach a kid to ride a
bike at a seminar' book (what kind of title is that anyways? Surely you CAN
teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar. How better to teach a kid? By having
them read a book? Maybe it should be called 'you can't teach a kid to ride a
bike by reading a book'. Regardless, my point is that some of these concerns
appear rather valid (though I've not read the book myself.)

[http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Teach-Ride-Bike-
Seminar/product-r...](http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Teach-Ride-Bike-
Seminar/product-
reviews/0967179904/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&filterBy=addTwoStar)

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hussong
Minor nitpick: I cannot scroll the text using the page down key without
missing half a line.

