Month: February 2009

The new politics of fear?

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Doomed economy = war on terror?

I consider myself pretty widely read but I'm not even sure what it is we are doing to our country with the massive spending and grandiose government plans.  In the past, our elected leaders on both sides have shown us they will take any opportunity to further their agendas. 

I couldn't help but think that all the doom and gloom talk (crisis, catastrophe, etc.) and the hysteria it created to rush through spending legislation felt an awful lot like the fear and discomfort in the days, weeks, and months following the 9/11 attacks and the significant legislation that was passed.  In both cases, the population agreed we needed to do whatever necessary to fix the situation and trusted our elected officials to do so.

I would like to think that both Presidents were/are acting in the best interest of the country and the citizens but I can't help but feeling a bit suspicious of the elements to the far right or far left who saw these as opportunities to push an ideology or pet project.  Politics, after all, is about compromise and sound bites can be used masterfully to drive an agenda in today's 24 hour, real-time 'news' cycle that has to fill the void between actual news with noise.

More on selling software

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

Great friend (and mentor) Jim Clifton has a nice post up about the disappointment he sees in software as a product.  Jim gave me my first software product management job and has a broad perspective on the topic having built software, funded new ventures, and now consumed it as a small business.

I couldn't agree more that the most important thing to understand is the broader process you are either enabling or disrupting.  If you (or your sales team) lack the domain or business process understanding, you will have lots of first meetings and very few next ones.

Adding sales people does not always add sales

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

One of the companies that I am working with is confronting this reality head on.  Every start-up I have been a part of has learned the lesson (the hard way) that staffing up with a large national (and many times mediocre) sales team for an emerging technology company is a recipe for disaster.  Here's my previous post on Being Intellectually Invested that touches on this. 

Why is this?  I suppose it seems like the right thing to do and I have consistently found investors drive this thinking.  After all, "how hard can it be, pick up the phone and sell."

Here's the challenge: if the company does not understand its product/service within the context of the market and market needs, this approach will fail.  Sales reps will be terminated, soon the pressure is on both the VP Sales and VP Marketing to explain the poor performance, and both will go before the CEO gets the pressure from the investors and is shown the door. 

These cycles of usually good people are expensive, an organizational distraction, and build absolutely no comfort with those to whom you are trying to sell. 

While it may seem counter-intuitive to have fewer rather than more dedicated sales people early in a company's lifecycle, the true cost of adding and losing sales professionals before the company has really figured out how to sell is much more significant than any "lost" sales because of fewer feet on the street.

Once the sales path (or model) is understood, then it's time to spend some bucks on a process and metrics driven VP of Sales and quota bearing sales reps (QBSRs).

 

Words of ‘wisdom’

/ Robert Pease / 1 Comment

Last Friday I had the opportunity to speak to a handful of 1st year MBA students from UW's Foster School of Business.  I was one of several people who spent a bit of time with this great group and wanted to share what I shared with them as it relates to my key takeaways from business school:

  • No one is going to hire you to be CEO even though that is what business school teaches you.  Set yourself apart by understanding the CEOs perspective while executing your job responsibilities.
  • Learning how to manage and interact with people is critically important so don't dismiss those organizational dynamics classes.  You can't do it all yourself and knowing how to lead will set you apart.
  • Learn how to sell and be comfortable doing so.  Whether you are selling an idea internally or selling a new product to the market, learning the patience and discipline of this process is essential.  
  • Concentrate on analytical frameworks and quantitative approaches.  No one is going to ask you the R-squared of anything, but having a command and comfort with quantitative analysis is very important.
  • Where you went to business school matters until you achieve something new – this is the beginning, not end of your achievements.  Avoid those that point exclusively to their MBA as proof of their value.
  • You create your own opportunities.  Seek out others to learn from and cultivate leadership qualities in those you manage.
  • Please, don't take yourself too seriously.

I think there were a few others but I seem to have misplaced the post it note where I had jotted down my thoughts during lunch.