Several months ago I started volunteering my time at a start-up. A friend’s husband had an idea for an new type of Internet Television Network and wanted some help with sales and marketing. This evolved to me becoming the acting VP of Sales and Marketing and now the COO- should we secure enough funding.
The management team consists of three artists and me. Two have a film and television background and the other has a music background. They kindly refer to me as “the suit”.
The sales process, sales technology and project management skills that I’ve honed at several large corporations have been extremely beneficial in this start-up environment. I balance the “creatives”.
In a start-up environment the amount of work that needs get done “ASAP” is endless. Without some structure and process- you end up with chaos. We’ve been able to leverage technology to automate and pre-schedule our work, while also improving communication.
In a traditional sales operations organization, the Ops Leader works with the Sales Leader to develop then implement the sales strategies. Sales Ops enables the sales strategy. The same holds true in a start-up environment.
If you’ve dealt with start-ups, you know that they often begin with a great idea, from a passionate entrepreneur. They tend to be the dreamers and visionaries, not the process and operations folks. They need leaders with sales operations backgrounds to help ground them, balance them and enable their company visions.
So.. Sales Operations gurus who are in a career transition- you may want to look for the right start-up. Your skills and abilities are needed!
For more information on the start-up I’m involved with, please follow us on Twitter. @greenlight360.com
I agree with your statement about entrepreneurs being the dreamers and visionaries. I have observed that many bring an existing network of prospects to their new business from which they capture some low hanging fruit. They get the impression that sales is easy and that they could easily grow their company if they just had more time. Their next move is to hire someone to do sales. Because it is “easy,” they expect that new person to be able to develop lots of new business and they skip creating the sales infrastructure such as a system for lead generation and nurturing or CRM. The result is that they go through a lot of sales people. It was very smart of your company to start with someone of your background.
Jeff Garrison[Click to quote this in your comment]
Love it Marci!
Sounds like we all need to be a bit flexible if we want to realize fantastic opportunities like the one you have embraced!
I’ll make it a point to follow this company and spread the word!
Respectfully,
Paul Castain
VP Sales Development
Consolidated Graphics
Paul Castain[Click to quote this in your comment]
Hey Marci,
It will be interesting to hear how your best practices honed in the corporate world will evolve to meet the needs of this fast-paced start-up.
It should produce some innovative results that I look forward to hearing of.
Best success to you and Greenlight360!
Robert Lesser[Click to quote this in your comment]