There is a great article in the Wall Street Journal today on something that I’ve been arguing lately.  That the only way out of the financial crisis is through entrepreneurs.

Missing from this legislation [the stimulus bill] is anything more than token support for the long-proven source of most new jobs and new growth in America: entrepreneurs. These are the people who gave us everything — from Wal-Mart to iPhones, from microprocessors to Twitter — that is still strong in our economy. Without entrepreneurs, we will never get out of our current predicament.

I agree with this article completely.  Its going to take large companies a long time before they will start adding on lots of new jobs, but provided the right breaks, entrepreneurs could start hiring today.  Most are doing more than one job in their company and often need help to accomplish a lot of tasks.  At QuotaCrush, I’d be happy to put at least one person to work, if I wasn’t putting aside so much money to make my quarterly tax payment.  Established businesses, with much more capital in the bank, could deploy even more.

An interesting point in the article is the fact that the last president to have a summit on entrepreneurship was Ronald Regan and the topic discussed was the impact the fax machine was having on business.  Agreed on the authors point that a new summit is LONG overdue.

Perhaps against the author’s tone, is the fact that I don’t think entrepreneurs NEED a stimulus for us to do what we do.  We are going to go and do it anyway.  We are going to create jobs, and we are going to innovate America back to its glory.  That is not a dream – that is a reality that will happen regardless.  You can’t stop the entrepreneurial spirit in America.

Perhaps that’s why the government knows they don’t need to focus on giving those of us crazy enough to start our own companies any incentive – we are going to go and create those jobs anyway.  But, I would love to see goverment step up and help us create them faster for sure.

Jump here for the article.

Whenever someone asks me about a particular negotiation point or tactic, I always tell them to remember the following phrase and to use it in every negotiation:

“If I…. will you ….”

For example,

“If I drop the set-up fee, will you be able to sign this week?”
“If I can get my boss to agree to the price reduction, will you agree to extend your contract from 12 months to 18 months?”
“If I commit to adding this feature in a future release, will you allow us to use your logo on our website.”

It’s a simple idea of negotiation where you each get something, but I find thinking of always phrasing the question in this way, forces you to think about the negotiation process in the right way.  And, it always reminds you to make sure that every time a prospect/customer asks you to give on something, they should know that they are expected to give on something.  That something may be as simple as giving you the order, or another non-cash item, but they are expected to give in order to get.

What you should never do, is give up something for nothing.   When a customer asks for a feature, a reduction in price, a concession of any kind, they are trying to move the process forward (or stalling).  This is your opportunity to also move the deal forward the way you want it to (or determine that this deal isn’t real).   If you really always want to sell a win-win solution, then when your customer/prospect asks for something, you should be getting something for that too.

Negotiations are rarely easy, but I find that remembering the simple “If I… will you”  phrase keeps my brain in the right mode of thinking.

Lauren Gilchrist of Urgent Careers, wrote a guest post on UrgentSpeed, Jeff Stewart’s blog, about a lively discussion that went on at last nite’s Sales 101 event about the Top 10 ways to get past a gate-keeper.

If you cold-call, this is a must read. There are a lot of really great tips in there. My favorite is #2, “Treat the assistant like a human-being.” In my own personal experience, I have gotten the furthest in sales by just doing the right thing, and treating people with respect.

Here are the 10 tips she lists. Click HERE to see the full description.

1. Give the gatekeeper the benefit of the doubt.
2. Treat the assistant like a human being.
3. Use your arsenal.
4. Write down the assistant’s name.
5. Be honest and forthright about your solution.
6. Ask for help.
7. Assume the assistant is a decision maker.
8. Ask who else is involved.
9. Alleviate their burden.
10. Let the gatekeeper advocate.

Thanks Lauren for taking the time to write this post.

Jeff Stewart, the CEO of UrgentCareers, and I gave a seminar last nite in Manhattan on the topic of Sales 101: How to jump-start sales in your start-up. It was a very interactive discussion, and I hope that everyone attending benefitted from the presentation.

I think the most valuable point that was discussed was Jeff’s comment that since now technology has gotten so much cheaper to deploy, by significant orders of magnitude, your biggest expense is your sales team – and making mistakes here is your biggest drain on capital.

Many people asked for the slide deck so I’m attaching it below.

I’m also posting links to other posts that elaborate on topics we discussed:

The Value of a Rolodex

Sales Lessons from a 2 year old

Who to hire for my start-up?  Grey Hair or Blue Jeans

No DEMOS:  EVER!

Win, Lose or Draw

I didn’t go to business school. I decided to start my own company right after college – just jumping in and figuring it out as I went along. I’m not sure that I would recommend this model to most people. I think I was too naive to know the risks that were ahead of me – but I think it was the right move for me. What’s is interesting is that as I started and grew my company I didn’t struggle with the concepts of valuation, or financing, or competition, or management or marketing, or any of these topics. What was the hardest thing to learn to do?

Sell.

In talking with a lot of people I know that DID go to business school, not one person told me that there was a class in sales. Maybe some sort of sales management – and from what I was told it was a short fluffy class – but no-body had a class in pure sales. Perhaps this is why sales book and sales training are such a big industry.

I’m not knocking business school. There are many days that I wonder if I shouldn’t go and get an EMBA. I think that there is a lot to learn there – but I find it startling that these big time MBA programs do not include a class on how to sell.

The last time I checked there is only ONE function that is present in EVERY company in the world. That function is sales. Sure it takes different forms: inside sales, outside sales, farmers, hunters, marketing, up-selling, cross-selling, business development, and more – but the one common thread in every business is that it needs people to bring in the revenue so it can survive.

Yet the best business schools in the world don’t think this is important for every MBA executive to understand?

The CEO and every other executive should understand the core mechanics of getting sales in the door. While they may or may not be able to effectively do the raw selling themselves, they need to understand what it takes. The best CEO’s that I have met are ones that “carried a bag” at one point and therefore understand what the tools are that the sales team needs to succeed. When I see managers who just expect sales to happen but don’t create a culture in the company that promotes those sales, I see a company that could be doing SO much more in sales.

I think that every MBA program out there should have a hard-core program in sales. It should include role-playing, cold-calling, negotiation, and more. All of the core concepts of how to get a deal done should be something known by EVERY executive in EVERY company.

Is anyone aware of an MBA program that does include a hard-core sales class?

I find it amusing that the word “rolodex” is still in the lexicon.  I don’t know of any professional salesperson that I work with that still uses one of these devices.  Yet, they still sell these things!  Who is buying them?  Are there salespeople who store their most valuable information source on handwritten cards on their desk?

With Outlook, salesforce.com, pipelinedeals, highrise, or any of the other fantastic digital products that exist in managing and keeping on top of contacts, would anybody really still use a physical rolodex?  Rolodex has never released, to my knowledge, a successful digital product.

Yet… it’s still the word we use to talk about your contacts, your connections.  And somehow everyone knows what we mean when we talk about your “rolodex” even though most people under 30 (and most under 40)  have never even seen one.

Which brings me to my real question.  If you are hiring a salesperson, what is the value of their rolodex?  How much emphasis should you place on who they know in particular companies.

It’s probably blasphemous to say this, but I believe that in most cases, the idea that the contacts locked up inside of Outlook are of major value in finding a salesperson is mostly false.  Why?  Because, given the fluid nature of business these days, I can tell you that the contact information they have in their rolodex is probably mostly outdated anyway.  I’m not challenging the idea of finding someone with a broad network – only relying on the rolodex of a person to immediately affect sales in particular companies

When people stayed at their jobs for 50 years, having connections inside a particular company had value.  Today, people move around so much, its unlikely that that exec I know at company A will be there long – or his power may quickly shift.  Add to that, Hoovers and Jigsaw and other tools have made the organization transparent.  And tools like LinkedIn, and Plaxo, and Naymz have all broken down the walls of knowing who the decision makers are – and have WAY better and more current information than is trapped inside a person’s “rolodex.”  The value of knowing people in companies, and building that long term trust within that company is certainly less valuable.  Budgets and initiatives are squeezed and you may know the CEO of company A, but that will less often lead to a sale than it may have in the past.

I am certainly not suggesting that there is NO value to a person’s network.  But here is where the shift is now.  It is less important to me that you have contacts at companies A, B, and C that I think is going to get me a sale.  What I want to see if a person that understands the value of networking and has done a good job of it.  What is the reach of your network?  How have you used it – and how will you continue to use it.

When evaluating a salesperson, I want someone that knows the sales process.  How to get the sale done.  This, to me, is of far greater importance than the people they know at a particular company.  In my career, I’ve sold into several industries: aerospace, high tech, insurance, trucking, fashion, venture capital, entertainment, utilities, banking, direct marketing, and more.  In almost EVERY situation, I’ve had to start without a pre-filled set of contacts to call – yet I was successful in beating into every industry.  Why? Because the focus was always on the sales process:  finding the right solution for the customer and communicating it.  Understanding the way to determine and traverse an org chart (using the digital tools mentioned above).

And… using my “rolodex” of people to get into those organizations when needed.  Yes, my contacts were almost always part of the equation.

But, if sales is building a big fire, then your network is simply the kindling these days.  Its up to you to stoke the fire and make it burn.  And… when no kindling is available – you still have to make the fire – and its THOSE people – the ones that can make a fire WITHOUT kindling that I want on my team – because with the fast moving executives, you will probably find more situations without kindling than with.

So – as you evaluate the salesperson you are about to hire, indeed check her network, ask about sales she has made, how she has done it.  What networking groups and meetups she attends, and indeed ask about how her network will help you get sales faster.  But don’t think that finding someone with a plastic contraption with names and numbers on it is going to solve your sales challenges.