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Business bootcamp: the art of building sales, channels & customers I

Sales executive or sales representative, what a dilemma?

Anand Akela, Senior Manager, Enterprise Servers Marketing at HP, conducted a panel about sales, channels and customers. Justin Barney, VP of Worldwide Sales & Business Development at 3Leaf Systems and B.V. Jagadeesh CEO of the same company share their knowledge about building a sales strategy, establish a channel program, attract the first customers, and the rol of the CEO in all these topics.

Learn how and why to hire a sales executive or a sales representative and how they bring that all-important first customer. Also know how to find the stars to seed the sales organization.

One of the biggest differences between a sales executive against a sales representative is in the overall salary. “There are many variances depending on commission, but a sales job usually has a higher percentage of commission due to the fact that there is little or no salary included. However, sales representative always have a starting salary to build your financial stability off of”, Barney told.

Jagadeesh pointed: “In the other hand, some considerations of a sales executive against a sales representative are:
 

  • -Cash + equity costs consideration
     

  • -Importance of thinking like an executive

  • -Adapt to change and longevity with the company

PROFILE OF SALES STAR

Key points on looking for a sales person:

  • -Based out of high quality with very few exceptions (think first in people living in the West Coast then East Coast).

  • -The people you’re looking for must prove start-up experience because they can endure change

  • -They must feel passion for technology and how help their customers to do less job and go home early. They must know tech and how to pitch it.

  • -Do not be afraid to pay-up for senior leadership
     

“The recruit should act as an individual to bring the first customer and should understand the lifecycle of the product or service and how to build products”, Barney emphasized.

And to round the idea, Jagadeesh concluded: “It is important that the recruit respects engineers and also that they respected him. Be careful on hiring a sales star win big ego and of course it is important to do reference checks, for example, try to find at LinkedIn a blind reference”.

 

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