Startup Sales
Building an inside sales team with Mark Smith
January 29, 2019
Final Five What is your favorite sales or leadership book? Team of Rivals By Doris Kearns Goodwin Do you have someone that you follow/read for sales/leadership ideas? Rob Jeppsen, Noah Goldman Are you available 24/7? Do you have strict personal time boundaries? Has personal boundaries. What is your favorite tool used for sales? The phone! What one piece of advice do you have for all the founders/CEOs/VP Sales out there? 15 minutes with a customer is worth 15 weeks on the whiteboard. You need to go speak to actual people.   Show notes To determine if an inside sales team is right for you, you need to look at a few things; Total addressable market, what you can sell the product for, what kind of LTV you can expect for 24-36 months. Things you must have to in order to have an inside sales department; A viable way to contact your addressable market and the margin to do so. The second thing you need is a way to keep your customers warm and nourished between the “yes” and receiving the product. Thirdly, you need the capital for the infrastructure (office, computers, phones, salaries, ets). As a sales leader, if you are joining a new company, something you should want to see before signing is proof of budget and a commitment into what the company is willing to invest in getting the sales team up and running. First thing you should do as a founder is not to hire sales, it would be to make some sells yourself. For investors, it is important to understand where the sales of a startup came from. If they were made only from the founders network and they have not shown that they can create a new lead and close that lead, it becomes a completely different investment. This is because your network is more likely to try you out. Not having SDR creating appointments for the salesperson allows the salesperson to develop much stronger sales skills. SDR teams are not as efficient as a full cycle salesperson, it weakens the account executive, and it bothers the customer. If the SDR has put in the time and was able to get the prospect booked for a meeting, that SDR has the relationship, they should close the deal. If they don't have the skills to do so, train them. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markasmithjr/