Don't build a sales force before you're ready

Good post here from Andy Blackstone about how to build a professional sales force in a founder-led business.  It's a good cheat-sheet for entrepreneurs to make sure they've covered the bases before going out and hiring a lot of sales people. 

As growth equity investors focused on bootstrapped entrepreneurs, we have learned this lesson the hard way over the years.  Too often we invested in ramping up sales too quickly, before we had distilled the founders' sales magic into a manual that could be taught to a new sales force.  This is probably the second-fastest way to burn cash (the first being buying traffic for a new dot-com).

Founders who sell are the best evangelists for a new product, and when they do it well it can create entirely new markets.  But translating that ability into a scalable sales model is hard, and you can't really cut corners.  So take the time to understand why customers buy and how to standardise your 'sales craft' before you determine the profile of sales people you need to recruit.   This is especially true for entrepreneurs who take in outside capital to take the next step in building a sales force.

Comments

[David Richmond]

Surely the question today is why is one trying to use a direct sales model. Way too expensive!

[David Richmond]

A direct sales model is too expensive and too slow for most startups today, so VC's should be trying to help early stage companies with how to setup an indirect sales model.

Now many VC's are not comfortable with this approach, but which large corporation is going to buy software from a start-up versus their preferred "gorilla" supplier?

[Doug Kessler]

As a marketing agency specialising in tech markets, we do see a fair amount of companies that assume they'll be able to replicate the sales magic of the founder as they ramp up.
It's a dangerous assumption. Your post feels right: better to make sure you've really captured that sales magic before trebling the sales force.

[Dalmo Accorsini]

I'm a bootstrapper and didn't know it! My business came to be with no money at all! Just sheer determination. Two years later I have a contract with a major distributor to go on TV with my Product (Stomacin-U). I'm also talking with CVS to start a market test in California 300 stores. But now I need to bring capital into the equation to increase inventory. Any help will be welcome.

[Andrew]

You have to interview potential sales leaders properly and ask the tough questions to test them. Make you have the best team you can assemble and offer fast start bonuses and sales incentives to battle attrition.

[Alistair Fox]

What's needed is exactly what you describe, which is why we provide a turn-key service, the Strategic Sales Program, http://www.expertek.co.uk/sales.htm to distill "the founders' sales magic into a manual that could be taught to a new sales force", working through our partner Solutions for Sales.
Companies have the knowledge but simply don't have the time or independent viewpoint to capture it themselves in a format that works for salespeople.