This week I have the privilege of spending time in Vegas for the BMC Sales Kickoff for 2018. (I work for BMC.) It is a lot of excess and excitement, as are most things in Vegas.

However, there is a profound impact being made as well when it comes to how we go to market and create true value for our customers.

What I have found about being at these events is that energy matters. How you think and act will impact your outcome.

I had the opportunity to hear from leaders in tech that all said one thing.

Your mentality will determine your outcome.

If you don’t believe, you won’t get to your goals. It sounds simple, but it’s profound.

Our belief shapes our desired state.

What is your desired state and how do you get there?

Image credit: Camilo Rueda López

When you encounter a vacuum it seeks out something to fill it. The vacuum doesn’t care what that is as long as the void is filled.

I think that fact is true for us as well. If we have a void we will seek to fill it and if we’re not careful we can damage the work that we have done.

I state all of this because I think it’s important to recognize that we need to constantly fill ourselves with what will benefit us and surround ourselves with people that share the same beliefs.

How do we do that? For me personally, I work in sales, but tend to be by myself most of the day. I have an office and it can be a little bit isolating at times.

To combat that I make it a point to read some good sales blogs like Jeb Blount, Anthony Iannarino  and Jen Gluckow. These folks all have slightly different approaches to things and it’s like you’re talking with a friend and bouncing ideas.

I also make it a point to go to outside events. Startup mixers, AA-ISP and other networking events. Some of these can be a mixed bag, since there are those that are just there to seek out a job.

However you can find gold as well. I have found that AA-ISP makes it a point to have value in their meetings while also having a good time.

I also make it a point to reach out to my boss to make sure I am on the right path. It clears my head to ensure we are on the same page and helps guide my priorities.

Finally I speak to my wife about everything. She is my rock and my support in all things. Whenever I have doubts or successes I share them so we can work it together and celebrate.

What do you do?

Image credit: James St. John

If you’re anywhere close to sales you know last week was a busy one. For some it was end of quarter, others the month, and for a few it was end of year.

As much as we would all like to have our sales done well before the end, it rarely happens. I have found the end of a quarter to be this odd nebulous time. You typically can’t push a sale more than it already is and you’re in a waiting game to get it in.

There are a lot of calls with legal, management and then a lot of waiting. I love the crush of it all, but for non-sales folks I think it’s hard to convey the roller coaster of emotions.

However, the first week of a new quarter is like stepping in a new car right off the lot.

Everything is shiny and new; all is right in the world and you have a brief moment to relax.

I am a firm believer that rest is required to excel. I have taken this week to do that and get in some needed time for myself.

I have been to the beach, spent time with old friends and made time with family. It has had the much needed result of putting things in perspective and allowing me to appreciate why I work.

I don’t think we are meant to be machines, always pushing our metrics. That’s not to say we are not meant to excel, but I don’t think it should be our only focus.

There are a few single minded individuals in the world who seem to not relax, but I know this cannot be true as we have all seen what burnout looks like.

As I write this, I just returned from spending time together with family and catching up. I’m relaxed, in the moment and ready for the week to begin when I return to work.

How do you approach rejuvenation?

Image credit: kansasphoto

FANTASTIC! An absolutely fantastic, no-frills conference that went to the core of what any startup CEO needs to know about starting and scaling sales, how to align with marketing and what types of people to hire and how.

AA-ISP stands for the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals and is an international association dedicated exclusively to advancing the profession of Inside Sales. The association engages in research studies, organizational benchmarking and leadership round tables to better understand and analyze the trends, challenges, and key components of the growth and development of the Inside Sales industry.

When I arrived I was exhausted after pulling an all-nighter and having had only 1.5 hours of sleep. I was sitting in the parking lot before to going into the conference (of course I was an hour late for the start) and kept nodding off as I was collecting my thoughts prior to going into registration. Eventually I did go in, registered and went to my first session, which I mostly dozed through.

However, by my second session called “The Uberization of Sales”, I was perky and awake, and the subject matter held my total attention. It continued this way until I left the conference at about 8:30 pm, elated that I’d had lucked out in this manner.

In fact, I had been dubious about whether I should attend at all, as I had slept so little and my impression was that it would be of only limited interest or relevance to Quarrio and me personally. I was embarrassingly wrong.

This conference is among the best I’ve attended as a startup CEO and addressed a number of issues I’ve struggled with throughout my career in startups.

After creating a product, the most challenging aspect of making the company successful is not continuous rounds of funding, but rather building the sales organization, getting the product out to customers and driving revenue.

The AA-ISP conference was wholly devoted to this. In fact, it’s the first conference I’ve attended with this focus.

In my experience, sales is the most under-emphasized area of knowledge for the startup CEO.

For some strange reason, we are just supposed to understand the process, how to build the team, how to hire reps and managers and how to manage them.

We are supposed to be able to know how to hire people whose profession it is to sell, while being immune to their ability to make us like them and make us oblivious to their weaknesses.

They are professional sales people — this is what they do every day, and most of us just have no defenses or ability to properly identify a good sales person from a bad one.

I know this has certainly been one of my areas of failure in the past.

This conference should be attended by every B2B startup CEO – other than creating the product, this is the best way to learn and network with people who are in the business of selling, building sales teams and getting new products into the market.

This is the place to learn how they think and how to hire and collaborate with them. I’d say that this is a must attend conference for anyone who hasn’t built several B2B companies.

I highly recommend joining the AA-ISP to gain knowledge and save yourself a ton of pain.

I sent an article about the “frat house” (AKA, sexist) culture prevalent in ZocDoc’s sales department to “Kevin”, a good friend who works in sales.

While agreeing about problematic sales cultures, he had a different take on culture in general.

His viewpoint, from someone who has been there/done that, may not be socially acceptable and could probably get him in trouble if posted on social media, but I can share it here — anonymously

Whether you’re a nigger or a bitch, this is the shit you have to deal with. I prefer environments where it’s obvious what the culture is, like this, than politically correct cultures where bigotry is the norm but you never onto why you won’t get the bonus, promotion or accolade with superior performance. Screw political correctness!

I believe it’s important to know where you stand, because then you can make informed choices. Give me this culture anytime – when I enter, I will know what the rules are. If I stay, it’s to accomplish a particular personal goal. When I leave (if not immediately), I will know why I stayed, left, and what I gained. I’m richer, they are poorer.

There is no such thing as “politically correct”. The term itself is an oxymoron that implies consensus building, popular sentiment or sinister machinations. Politics is about popularity — we never let others know where we stand or what we stand for in order to win a popularity contest. It is giving in to the tyranny of the mob, not daring to have unpopular opinions or stances, because one will not be popular.

Being a black man, I prefer a racist that’s honest about who he is and what he is. I prefer working for such a person because I know what to expect. I presume it would be the same for you as a woman regarding sexists. These days no one is a racist, we just have “unconscious biases” that prevent us from taking unpopular positions and that ensure that the powerful can continue to exclude the less powerful. 

Politically correct environments rob me of information, choice, and the ability to navigate astutely to attain my objectives.

I agree with Kevin, even in those instances where bias has its basis in neuroscience, it’s better to know.

Flickr image credit: Zaskoda

Over the years, certain posts I’ve written I seem to require reposting, because the subject keeps coming up; not investing management time in your self-starters is one of them.

Self-starter Does Not Mean Self-managed

When your company is new just how flat can the organization be? How well do “self-starters” manage themselves? These are crucial questions for startups and small businesses since how they are addressed can make or damage your company.

One of the first important outside hires made when a company is ready to grow is in sales. Today, founders are often technical with a biz type who handles sales and marketing. Unfortunately, technical people often have a tendency to think that non-tech jobs are no big deal, especially in sales and marketing.

They believe that hiring salespeople is no big deal—that as long as they have a good track record in their previous sales position and understand the product they can manage themselves.

If this sounds off base to you, you’re right, it’s not that simple. To use a real-life example, I had a client who thought that way.

Previous to hiring me this CEO hired a salesman, we’ll call him ‘Jack’, with a fantastic sales record selling to the same market.

The CEO personally taught Jack the product line and explained what the company was working to accomplish and then pretty much gave him free reign.

In the year Jack was with them he sold only two accounts, spent a good deal of his time on marketing and managed one large client.

In that year Jack’s commissions totaled only $15K.

When he left he went to work in a field completely unrelated to anything he’d sold before and in a market about which he knew nothing. In his first year at the new company he earned over 125K in commissions.

What was the difference? Management.

Based on his track record both the CEO and Jack assumed that he could manage himself. However, Jack didn’t have, and didn’t create for himself, the structure, accountability, etc., necessary to be successful.

When Jack left he admitted that although he had no knowledge or training in marketing, he spent substantially more time than he should have on it — but he had no choice.

After the CEO and I had fully analyzed what happened he concluded that the failure was 80-20, with the 80% his responsibility.

Hind sight is 20/20, and my client believes that if he had taken the time to do what was needed instead of expecting Jack to completely manage himself, that he would still be with the company and doing a spectacular job.

So remember when you hire that “self-starter” does not mean self-managed. Even the best will need direction, structure, and accountability in order to perform brilliantly.

Beyond that, tomorrow I’ll be sharing information Friday on the biggest sales error made by many startups and small companies.

Join me tomorrow to learn about the other major sales error made by many startups and small companies.

Image credit: iamwahid

A LinkedIn post reminded me of something we all too often forget.

I’ve learned that the number one rule in sales is everybody wants what everybody wants and nobody wants what nobody wants. When you tell a buyer they can’t have something, they always want it more, but let that same customer know there’s plenty to go around and they’ll always go home to think about it.

It may be in the back of our minds, but we dance too much.

We spend time finding the fanciest or trendiest words to describe it.

Worse, we use ‘in’ words and industry-specific terms.

If the customer isn’t familiar with the language we choose she will spend her time puzzling out the meaning instead of buying.

Or she’ll just leave for a friendlier source.

Don’t get me wrong. Great stories that display the sexiness/romance/usefulness/value of your product or service are good—in their proper place.

But nothing projects authenticity, builds trust and creates urgency as perfectly as true clarity.

Flickr image credit: Alpha

This post is for all the entrepreneurs and small biz owners who constantly tell me that the best (only) way to reach a large audience and move product is via Facebook.

It hasn’t been for many companies, such as Gamestop, J.C. Penney, Nordstrom, 1-800-FLOWERS, Delta Air Lines, Diane Von Furstenberg Studio and Seven for all Mankind.

Even Gap, which, together with its Banana Republic and Old Navy divisions, has 5.6 million Facebook fans, stopped selling on Facebook.

These are companies with abundant talent and dollars to invest in selling online, but they are opting not to do it on Facebook.

For young companies and small biz there is a major lesson here.

“It was basically just another place to shop for all the stuff already available on the retailer websites. I give so-called F-commerce an ‘F.’” –Wade Gerten, chief executive officer of social media developer 8thBridge

If there is one lesson that should have come down from the dot com era it is that visitors don’t necessarily translate to buyers.

This isn’t surprising if you look at people’s actions in the real world.

People of all ages spend time at the mall whether to eat, hang out with friends or for indoor recreation in bad weather, but that doesn’t mean they shop and even if they shop it doesn’t mean they buy.

This isn’t to say that you can’t build a store on Facebook and make it a success, but you need to think about whether that is the best use of your resources.

Before committing a large portion, let alone all, of your resources to build on the Facebook platform you should consider two inescapable facts.

1. People do hang out with friends on Facebook, but it is to socialize, rather than shop; and
2. you have no control on policies, such as privacy and information sharing, that garnering more and more attention from even casual users.

I’m not suggesting that you ignore Facebook and other social media sites, rather that you recognize them as great places to build your brand as opposed to selling your products.

Flickr image credit: The-Nancy-Minor-Team

Richard is still in Houston, but he thought that this case study detailing the unique problem facing a company with no competition and a radically new product would be of interest to you.

A Case Study of Customer Mapping

With the massive shifts in the economy, your customers are moving. Your sales and distribution channels are moving. Do you know where your customers and channels are now; where they are going tomorrow? Do you have a new product that is so that it is not just a matter of competing, but of evangelizing?

Giftventures, Inc. was facing many of these problems. Recently I worked with them to map their customers and channels.

Challenge—Find the Customers

The target market for Giftventure is parents with children in the 4-12 age range. The product is clearly a discretionary consumer product, a significant sales challenge in this environment. In addition, Giftventure is a new concept, which requires some explanation and investigation by the parent before making a purchase. How can an emerging company, with little cash to invest, gain recognition and traction with a discretionary product in a crowded consumer market?

Giftventure needed a compelling, proven go-to-market strategy in order to complete its initial fundraising, so this exploration had to be thorough, fast, and low-cost.

The results had to be conclusive and compelling, so Giftventure could focus its scarce resources in the channel that would produce large results, quickly.

To do that they needed to identify a channel that would produce large results, quickly.

The three keys:

• In starting a new product or service line, and especially in starting a new venture, you do not know where your “sweet spot” lies in the market. Don’t rely on opinions–embrace your ignorance. You must test.

• Be thorough. It can also be fast. Plan a comprehensive market exploration to test many possible channels, even in spite of your internal biases.

• Only actual market results, supported by wide outreach and in-depth contact with potential customers, can direct you to the sweet spot for your product.

The winning combination is always to

Test many market channels.

Test wide and deep.

Let actual results lead you to your sweet spot.

To read a detailed explanation of Giftventure’s customer mapping download the PDF.

Image credit: duchesssa

When the economy slows, Wall Street tends focus on cutting costs (of course, they do that in good times, too), but cutting is rarely enough put a company on a strong financial footing—only sales can do that.

And no matter what you’re selling or to whom, sales are far more cost effective when you focus on relationship, because at some point all customers are new. While acquiring a new customer can cost thousands, selling to those you already know or to whom you’re referred costs far less.

This, of course, assumes that your product did what it was supposed to do and your customer service solved any difficulties that arose.

As your sales people start mining your client lists they need to stay hyper-aware for any dissatisfaction, whether overt or covert and address it. In today’s world an unhappy customer is a far different animal than in the last downturn and can sink your sales efforts with a few clicks of his mouse. By the same token, a customer who appreciates your products and services is a far more powerful advocate than ever before.

The relationships you have with your customers are one of your most powerful shields when it comes to the whims of the market.