This week Mark delves into the world of sales in the current state of startups and business tech. He welcomes accomplished sales manager Vince Thompson, formerly of AOL and Facebook, to talk about his new venture with MiddleShift. Also welcomed to the studio is This Week In’s own Mo Alo, who has been the sole reason why This Week In still runs to this day. We’d like to thank our sponsors Fenwick & West and Assistly. Go to Assistly.com/VC for an exclusive This Week in Venture Capital special offer. For more, visit thisweekin.com 00:02 Mark introduces our Sales episode with guests Vince Thompson and Mo Ali 04:45 Mark asks why Mo is wearing a Eagles jersey on the show. Mo lost a bet 05:15 Mo works on telesales at ThisWeekIn. For how long? 07:00 What is Thompson’s Middleshift? 10:00 Selling eyeballs & selling audience 12:30 Making the money that you sell 14:18 Your first hire should be someone who’s hungry and willing to work. No VP’s 15:00 Don’t punch above your weight class 16:00 Determining a sales guy from a bad one 19:00 Never wanting to join a club that doesn’t want them as a member 20:15 Mark’s secret sales interview trick 23:00 Make sure to listen more than you talk 24:00 Selling a startup today. 27:30 Identifying your strengths and finding the path to ROI 29:30 What is a CPM buy? 30:00 Assistly Sponsor Ad 36:00 Sales people only care about money 38:00 Cashflow isn’t high…what’s the answer? 41:00 Suster: Paying a little upfront and then withholding until they get …
#1 by vankula on 11/22/2011 - 8:55 AM
Awesome episode Mark. Super interesting as an online media sales person (formerly at Google) and now as an entrepreneur. The best organizations keep the execs tied into the sales process and close to product/company feedback. I know you love integrated marketing (This Week In) and we started an online game (like a video contest) where users compete by creating videos around a brand msg – the value prop is that it is fun for the players and the brand gets help messaging – The Big Playoff
#2 by btrenda1 on 11/22/2011 - 9:33 AM
Think you’ve made some generalizations here about senior revenue leaders… not all of us are living hand to mouth and incapable of building companies from early stage to fruition. in fact, some of us are more than happy to give up our $500k cash comp packages in order to build up an early stage company to a big exit– smart, capable people would rather increase the risk/ reward profile– especially when you can mitigate risk through your own performance.
#3 by kevingaither on 11/22/2011 - 9:42 AM
20:00. Mark uses the technique called “TORC.” Threat of Reference Check. This is a key component during the interview process to get the candidate to tell the truth. Great work Mark.
#4 by kmamassis on 11/22/2011 - 10:24 AM
i think it’s time you changed the table of the show.
#5 by theikmarket on 11/22/2011 - 10:27 AM
this is the reason why I switched from TWIST to Mark’s show. There’s a lot less noise and a lot more actionable info. Wish Jason changes his style up just a little bit
#6 by daimyoyo on 11/22/2011 - 10:50 AM
I always wondered what Moe 3000® looked like.
#7 by outboxsolutions on 11/22/2011 - 11:38 AM
Great discussion,
If you have a product or service that solves an unresolved market problem, you need to “market” the product.
What most start up’s do is hit the road as I discuss in my blog, trying to sell their way to fund the business .
The quickest way to scale, for particularly tech companies, is to hire sales, add sales as a competency . However do not do so until you clearly understand the problem(s) you solve.
Mark Allen Roberts
#8 by StartupMonkeyDotcom on 11/22/2011 - 11:50 AM
Yay Mark! So glad to hear you push back on looking for a VP as your first sales hire. Too many VCs (& boards) get wrapped up in hiring higher up on the food chain than needed or they get all warm and squishy when candidates flaunt their Roll-o-Dex.
I take issue with your guest’s representation on what sales people should do in an early stage company. The first sales guy in needs to have a pretty tight agenda on what the product does and what the company needs to have validated by the market.