He was my 3rd employee. Once we didn’t get paid for 4 months and he stayed with me. Together we closed the deal that launched the company. He was my “First VP of Sales.”
He hired and trained the first 5 sales people with a training manual he wrote and now, I have to fire him.
He can’t keep up with me, the team, the market, the technology, or the customers.
He tells me he is as good as he ever was and he is doing the exact same things he always did, but he has had a string of bad luck added to the tough economy, and the competition has gotten a lot tougher.
We now have 3 offices in the US and are trying to move into Canada and Mexico, so I need him to grow what we have and develop the new markets, but lately our success is in spite of him. I am doing his work, our CFO is doing his work, our GM’s in Canada and Mexico are doing his work and, worst of all, our customers are doing his work and asking me why???
I always told him we were in this together and he was my “guy” from day 1 to exit.
Maybe I can hire some talent over him and find a place to put him that he can handle? Maybe he can be my assistant?
Or maybe I have to step up and FIRE him!
This story plays out hundreds of times every day and is always tragic for the founder, and that “First VP of Sales.”
Two people who lived like family for years get to a point where they must part and both feel the pain. The founder is unwinding a promise, walking away from, or more accurately, pushing away a friend trying to solve a business problem by creating a personal and maybe, a legal problem. Whatever the founder does is sending a message to the employees, the market, and the whole community.
The message thing is strange. Some people see the founder as breaking trust and being selfish. Some people (customers, staff, board, etc.) do not understand why this took so long, or why it was so hard, after all, he was a friend; not a real VP of Sales.
This problem should never happen. This outcome is the same at least 90% of the time. Those people who do well in the earliest stages of an entrepreneurial company almost never have the skills for even the next stage, let alone to grow past $10m to $20m or to build teams, partners, or the channels required to get to $50m.
The growth path is about BIG TIME CHANGE and few are willing and/or able to travel the whole path, but their ego won’t let them see the truth and move to a place where they can really add great value.
The growth path has the 5 revenue tracks:
- Proactive Partnering
- Consultative
- Solution
- Distribution
- Commodity
Each track requires very different skills in very different areas. Areas like Evangelistic selling, one-call-close, RFPs, systems integration, message development, storytelling, SOW (scope of work) design and contracting, team building, partner building, channel development, channel management, motivation of internal and external resources, strategic planning, tactical deployment, succession planning, etc.
Very few people can even talk about these areas in a credible way. Almost NO ONE can do, manage, or lead more than a few of these things.
Most people can work effectively in 1 or maybe 2 of the 5 tracks, but once the business starts to move into the 3rd track, they are lost.
All of this means that both the founder and the “First VP of Sales” need full disclosure starting day one. The founder needs someone to “launch” the business to a level where the product is clear, compelling, and is sold to enough buyers so that everyone knows it can be done again.
At this point, the launch process is over, the product is real, the buyers are identified, and a rough process to sell and deliver to customers has been established.
Now, the organization needs a new leader who is less creative and entrepreneurial. The next leader is more about EXECUTION to meet the plan. EXECUTION now requires building a team, process, metrics, training programs, partnerships (internal and external), and continually exceeding the ever-increasing revenue goals.
If a company is going to continually grow more profitable revenue, the sales role will continually change as well. Seldom do you want the same person for a long time. If the same person is doing a great job for a LONG time it normally means one of two things.
First, have you hired a VERY RARE and HIGHLY SKILLED person or second, have you hired a person very skilled at covering up a lot of BIG problems that you are about to meet up close and personal.
Hire people for the job that Revenue Science™ and the market demand. Compensate them very well and regularly talk with them about working themselves out of a job by getting to the next level while finding their replacement.