Re:How Zenefits' Big Bet on Sales Went Wrong
by josh_carterPDX on Wednesday March 02, 2016 @07:32PM
(#11214235)
Well said. It makes me wonder how we're going to set up our Sales Team when we're ready. It's such a tough thing to think about at an early stage of a company, and since Zenefits have only been around 3 years, it was likely really hard for them to establish a solid culture/ecosystem while having their eyes on hyper growth. Definitely a lesson learned here and a lot of us new Founders are paying close attention.
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Re:How Zenefits' Big Bet on Sales Went Wrong
by baudehlo on Wednesday March 02, 2016 @08:46PM
(#11214505)
We blog a lot about that sort of thing if you're interested in it. (See my profile so this doesn't come off as a sales pitch). Building a sales team from scratch is hard and it's one of our aims to help in that goal. Good luck!
Re:How Zenefits' Big Bet on Sales Went Wrong
by mathattack on Thursday March 03, 2016 @08:55AM
(#11216798)
It's tough because the need changes over time too. On day 1 you need someone very technical who knows how to sell to early adopters. (Zenefits did this ok) Later on you need people better at getting to the early majority. (Generally it's by tackling one industry vertical well [0]) The head of Sales for the former may not be right for the latter.
Two thoughts...
1 - The incentives you choose matter a lot in both attracting and maintaining sales people.
2 - Look to people who you have bought from that you think would fit in their culture. Call them and ask, "Do you know anyone similar to you?" Since you're an early adopter too, they are the right target. And they may volunteer themselves.
3 - You have to balance potentially long sales cycles (it takes a year to build up a pipeline) with being able to pull the trigger when you get the hire wrong. There are a lot more mishires in Sales than most other areas.
Good luck!