Disqus - Latest Comments for larosam

Re: The genius behind never logging into the software I was selling

Mark I LaRosa — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 16:14:42 -0000

Ian, Thanks! Its a great question, but I think if you have the right structure in place, it will work well. The overarching concept I'm talking about here is focusing on the problem and the prospect - rather than the demo of the product - and when you force the salespeople to talk about the problem - they gain the insights that will help them close.

I think that should hold up.

I appreciate you reading! This post is 6 years old - but it is still one of my favorites. I have more like this across the site, and in my book.

Re: Long Sales Cycle? That is NOT OK.

Mark I LaRosa — Wed, 30 May 2012 16:07:29 -0000

Cory,

I specifically mention in the article that the one exception is government sales. You can't get around the government budgeting process. Its a beast all in itself.

Re: Experimentation = good. Lying = BAD!

Mark I LaRosa — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 23:10:54 -0000

Franco,

This is a great, great comment - especially as it relates to start-ups. I think I'll write a much bigger post on this topic, but you must be honest with your prospects about where you are at - although never feel like you have to share all the warts of what is going on - and if you honestly think it will be there on time, then you tell them that - say, "that feature is under active development and testing - and we anticipate that it will be fully completed and ready to go in advance of you needing it." The thing is that, especially when its a start-up, they know that everything is fluid and not fully-baked. When you are honest with them about the state of where things are, then they don't have to worry about what you aren't telling them - wondering if they are making a huge mistake taking a chance on you. You need to put that fear at ease.

You should also be very honest and direct about your product and where it is at with yourself and then apply it to your customer. Its very infrequent that a product which is beyond MVP (minimum viable product) provides ZERO value to the customer - so while certain features may be late or not ready - the product very likely serves a portion of their need - and you should make sure that you are selling those points that are fully baked - and the value that those provide. Then, it will only be that much sweeter when they get the rest of it.

Re: Business Development vs Sales

Mark I LaRosa — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:42:04 -0000

Henry,

Thanks for the kind comments. I agree with you wholeheartedly (obviously).

Mark

Re: 14 of the stupidest things ever said in sales meetings

Mark I LaRosa — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:58:06 -0000

I wrote a post on a sales guy who was just being foolish with his on-line postings rather than what he actually "said" in a meeting.

http://www.quotacrush.com/i...

He and his wife were swingers and he posted it - and the prospect (in the bible belt) found the link thru google.

Re: Sales Presentations: No demos….EVER!

Mark I LaRosa — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:13:01 -0000

Brandon,

You are right that at some point you need to show that the product is real. The point of this post; however, is that it is very easy for a salesperson to run to the demo. If you are in a sales meeting, then the meeting should be about sales not demos. If they want to see it, schedule some separate time to provide a demo - preferably with a technical resource or sales engineer.

If you are in a sales meeting, don't go for the easy demo unless you have taken all of the necessary time to understand the problem, the pain, and hear what the customer needs to say.

My post is extreme on purpose to help get my point across. Once you have exhausted all of the talking, and truly understand the problem and how and if your solution applies, then you can prove its real.

Re: Selling to enterprises

Mark I LaRosa — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:46:25 -0000

I certainly have a lot of respect for the people commenting in the article, but having done start-up sales to enterprises for 20 years, I cringe when I hear people equate enterprise sales to $100k and above. Actually, it is the well-held beliefs in this article that I sell around, and why I've managed to get a lot of enterprise sales for small companies. I say this not to toot my own horn, but to crush the beliefs held that stop great products from being sold into the right places. Great salespeople can make anything happen, and I've worked with a lot of great ones.

First, corporations buy significantly more than 1-3 new enterprise products in a year, and there is plenty of room to sell your solution into that. What do you need to do? You need to find the pockets of budget and justification in order to get your solution in. Then, you need to include an upsell path to get that project in a larger way. That may be the user adoption method that is descriped in some of the comments, but there are many, many other ways to do it. I recently wrote a post touching on this: http://www.quotacrush.com/i...

Second, Your product does NOT... I repeat NOT... need to be on their priority list to be considered. In fact, when you go after the RFP, committee decision projects, you will more often face death (as Chris alludes to). Find the off the path solutions that you fix, and there will be budget and there will be an easier decision path.

Third, it is absolute fiction to believe that unless your product is a six figure product, you can't do direct sales/enterprise sales profitably. I've, over and over again, done the successful route with a moderately priced product. The comp plan needs to be designed correctly, the travel considered, and all the other costs brought into play, but when you consider a software product, built for easy customization and integration (or requires no integration), that requires little on-site selling, there is no reason that it can't sell for less than $100,000 and be profitable for the company. And, if you can sell on volume (and combine with some channel/biz dev deals as Chris alludes to), it certainly can be done. I'm not saying this is easy... but give me a "valley of death / push a string" challenge any day because at that price point, its an easier sell into corporations, and, as evidenced by the comments in this post, a lot of people run away from.

Re: If I… Will you?

Mark I LaRosa — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:34:25 -0000

Vivek,

You are offering up a subtle variation on it, and I get your point. Overall, the idea is the same - get something for everything you give up. Depending on how the conversation or the negotiation comes up would depict how you phrase this.

In my example, the person has asked you for something. So... they say to you, "Can you waive the set-up fee?" Your response is, "If I waive the set-up fee, will you commit to paying for a year up front." I don't think it changes much if you change the phrasing to, "If you pay up front, then I will waive the set-up fee."

Your point is valid if they don't specifically ASK for a particular concession. I was coming from the vantage point of a concession that is asked for - and responding to that.

Either way - the key is to ALWAYS make sure that any and every concession is a give on both sides.

Re: Top 5 things missing from most entrepreneur pitches

Mark I LaRosa — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:18:51 -0000

I think whats missing from most pitches is the detailed SALES STRATEGY. Who is going to buy it, for how much, how do you reach them (direct sales? marketing?). What does sales cost you? How will you comp your sales staff? Will you do all the sales yourself? Can you realistically do all of this yourself without a sales staff? Why would anybody actually PAY for this thing you've built. Is it cool enough to actually spend money on - or is it just nice to have as long as its free. (and that's OK if your model includes someone else paying for it).

I know its cool these days to invest in start-ups that don't have a defined business model, but that's only going to work for a few. The vast majority should be thinking about sales from day one. This then ties directly into #4. Knowing your sales strategy will help you in knowing when you need your next round of funding (and also how big this round should be)

Re: Startup Lessons - Having industry momentum at your back

Mark I LaRosa — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:07:38 -0000

Charlie,

I think this is a great post-mortem as to why some VC's weren't so hot on your idea; however, you did raise money, so not all VC's thought the way you describe above. I think it would be great to contrast what your investors saw in your business and why they decided to invest. Did they see something in the business that others didn't see? Did they invest because they believed in Charlie? etc..

Re: Sales Lessons from a 6 year old: It’s all about the cash

Mark I LaRosa — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:47:23 -0000

John,

There are a rare breed of salespeople that value things like equity in exchange for sales, but its not typical - and it would be more focused on the high-end VP of sales type. The big issue is that a salesperson might only make $40,000 / year - but he/she actually expects to make $150,000 or more based on performance. What you can't do, it expect that person to make $40,000 and then equity because they just won't be able to live on it easily and the competing offers out there that will make them actual cash will be too tempting.

The problem with the criticism of this post is the fact that they are pointing out a major difference in the compensation structures and motivation of the general workforce and salespeople. Dan's video talked about how financial incentives narrowed the thinking of the creative people. This is the whole point of sales compensation plans. You want to channel the efforts and activities of the salespeople to drive the business results of the company - and you are willing to pay for it.

I think you can get somewhat creative with a compensation plan that provides non cash incentives (i.e. equity, trips, etc) but I don't think that these will work in the long term - unless you are prepared to pay a much larger base salary than normal.

I actually think that the confusion over this post is enlightening as to why many non-sales management can't provide the correct incentives to a sales team. They think we are like the rest of the work force, and we aren't.

Re: Sales Lessons from a 6 year old: It’s all about the cash

Mark I LaRosa — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:02:39 -0000

I I don't necessarily disagree, but the point was about salespeople - who ARE motivated by financial incentives and SHOULD be motivated by financial incentives.

You can criticize my parenting for sure - but I claim to be an expert sales guy - not an expert parent!

In this talk, Dan says that when you put certain incentives on - you narrow the focus of thinking. EXACTLY!! You WANT to focus the salespersons thinking and have them focused on MONEY. Both for themselves and the company.

Salespeople are not like the rest of you. If you want to motivate a salesteam, you need to re-do all of these tests with only salespeople.

If I was presented with the candle problem, I'd sell the candle and use the money to buy a dripless candle!

Sales people are NOT NORMAL!! We operate on a different frequency. Sometimes 100% of what we do is based on financial rewards. True - may not work for most people - and maybe I'm screwing up my son (although I think he is a future salesguy), but I stand by my position that the right financial rewards drive sales.

Re: Misha Ava Vaynerchuk

Mark I LaRosa — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:39:38 -0000

Gary,

As amazing as these days are - this isn't even the best part. Wait until she runs to you screaming, "DADDY!" and wraps her arms around you.

Its just gets better every day. Enjoy

Re: Sales, the super secret to startup success

Mark I LaRosa — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:11:19 -0000

Evan,

Great post! I'm humbled by your kind comments about me, but all these points are spot on.

Sales is critical and REALLY hard for a start-up.

As for #2 and #5, in choosing the right leader, its important to think about who you hire. Do you have enough to interest a super VP of sales, or are you going to waste money on that. In a shameless plug for QuotaCrush, that's what I'm doing... helping those companies that need leadership but don't yet have enough traction (or cash) for a full-time VP of sales. I wrote a post on this topic in detail: http://www.quotacrush.com/i...

Re: Tech people can't sell

Mark I LaRosa — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:58:39 -0000

OK - so here is the secret behind me... I started as a programmer. I was a "technie who could talk" and I put down the compiler to figure out how to sell because I started a company and needed to sell my product.

So - lets have this discussion tomorrow nite but I believe I have an interesting perspective on tech guys and sales guys.

Re: Common Email

Mark I LaRosa — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:27:53 -0000

I'll try to make a comment other than spellchecking - but "Bootstapping" is "BootStrapping"

Of course, you knew that my comment would be sales-based, but I think your most important point is "gaining adoption or customers." Today... its about the ability to show that you can get to cash-flow break-even. Having a "cool" product isn't enough. You need to show that people will PAY for it - or there is some other model (data, advertising, etc) that can cover your costs.

Re: The value of a rolodex

Mark I LaRosa — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:47:37 -0000

Actually, the "Teach to Fish" model is the entire idea behind QuotaCrush right now, so I agree wholeheartedly.

Your post is great too BTW - but you forgot to include a link to it, so here it is:
http://keepingperspective.w...

Re: Sales Presentations: No demos….EVER!

Mark I LaRosa — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:49:37 -0000

OH so exactly true! When you have sales management that doesn't get the sales process, you can see them using metrics like this to judge activity.

But... its not about activity - its about results.

If I have a salesperson that comes to the office early, does 22 demos a day, meets with 1,000 companies in a year - and hits 10% of quota, he will probably not have a job the next year.
If I have a salesperson who takes an extra 4 weeks of vacation, but has happy customers and hits 200% of quota, he will be retained.

Proper sales management is key.

Re: Start with the right sales relationship

Mark I LaRosa — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:42:08 -0000

Yes 1.0 indeed. BTW - Wamu is Chase now!

Re: Angel Investing in 2009

Mark I LaRosa — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:34:55 -0000

Knox,

Great post! I hadn't seen that (although I should have - it was marked as unread in my RSS reader).

I suggest all entrepreneurs reading our post hop over to Knox's blog and read his point.

Mark

Re: NY Tech Meetup

Mark I LaRosa — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:15:05 -0000

Nate is the logical choice for NYTM Organizer. His ability to bring great people together has been proven over and over again. He's got my vote!

Mark LaRosa
QuotaCrush

Re: Power Alley

Mark I LaRosa — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:23:44 -0000

Nate,

You are spot on. As with everything right now - we need to figure out how to do more with less. This is a time of coordinating and making the most of what we have already - to provide the biggest bang.

And we're entrepreneurs, right? So producing something amazing with no additional investment is something that many of your readers understand!

Re: Business Development vs Sales

Mark I LaRosa — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:26:38 -0000

Exactly. You should always be building trust, and unless you are actually there to build a partnership, you should not be claiming that you are. Its dishonest, and you will actually see sales decrease because of it.

Re: The Enterprise Sale for Start-ups

Mark I LaRosa — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:41:28 -0000

Ryan,

What a great comment. I neglected to elaborate on the fact that you can't let the enterprise bully you around. "Flexibility" as I talk about, does not mean, let them walk all over you. You need to understand your limits, but when you have identified a win-win, thats when you can allow for some flexibility.

I wrote a post on No Free Trials (http://www.quotacrush.com/i... where I talk about one of the strategies that I used to get enterprises to commit.

Its a fine line... you want their money... but I agree, not at any cost.

Re: Business Development vs Sales

Mark I LaRosa — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:36:35 -0000

Laura,

Its true, that often its for the "comfort" of the sales person, but thats part of the problem. Unless you recognize what your role is, and are comfortable with it, you will have problems in sales. If you see yourself as a business development person, and your prospects see you as a business development person, then there is less of a definition around what you are trying to do. If you are charged with a quota, you need to sell. The joke is always, "A business development guy is a sales guy that can't close a deal." I don't necessarily agree with that - but the origin of the joke is that when you classify yourself as a business development person, when you are really a sales person, you actually put yourself in a position where it becomes harder to ask for the sale - because you have positioned yourself as establishing a long term partnership for the greater good of the companies. "Business Development" tagged people, that are actually sales people, are in my experience those that are afraid to ask for the close - afraid to ask for the signature on the dotted line.

My exact point is that there is nothing wrong with being a salesperson, and if you are not comfortable with that moniker, then you might actually be too timid to actually ask for the sale - and therefore, perhaps shouldn't be in sales. Maybe you would be better positioned in a business development role finding new channels and partners for the company.