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Fizzlosophy: Advice on building out your sales plan as a startup
Wednesday Aug 18, 2010 by Ray Colwell - VP of National and Direct Sales, Collective
Today's guest contributor on Fizzlosophy is Ray Colwell. Ray is the VP of National & Direct Sales at Collective and has held sales leadership roles for Spring Partners, Transpera, and Third Screen Media (acquired by AOL). The topic for this week is: Advice on building out your sales plan as a startup.
Here is his response:
When building your sales plan at a start up these 3 things will contribute to your success.
1. Plan for the worse
As glass half opened people we tend to think we can do anything. The reality is much of what we do is out of our control. Product releases, market acceptance, economy fluctuations and technology improvements have a significant impact on the success of your sales plan. My advice is make sure you get input from the stakeholders of the groups which will impact your overall success. Get an understanding of timing and capabilities and plan your business around it.
2. It's all about the people
Numerous times I have seen start ups skimp on talent. They either delay the hiring of more experienced people or they keep the size of the staff too small. Successful plans are put into place with a mix of seasoned and junior talent sized for the opportunity and stage. Early the start up may need evangelizers who can speak intelligently about the vision of the company or product. At a later stage junior talent can be incorporated into the mix as the sales plan becomes more repeatable. Keep an open mind and hire appropriately relative to stage of development and need.
3. Don't be scared to fail
It is a cliche but successful sales plans at a start up come with a certain level of risk taking and knowledge that some of your ideas may not work. As your product evolves, markets change and opportunities present themselves be flexible enough in your plan to adjust. One idea is to create time every week to airing new business ideas. If any sound promising assign them to a dedicated new biz dev person or if resources are tight assign them to current staff giving them a certain amount of time every week to work on...anything new recharges the batteries and helps retain great employees.
Keeping these 3 things in mind as you build your sales plan will help make it successful over the long haul.
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