Sales Teams

Michael is the CEO and President of SmarterHQ, a customer-centric behavioral marketing platform. He is the Co-Founder and former CRO of myDocket (Handshakez). Michael was formerly the Chief Revenue Officer at Bazaarvoice (NASDAQ: BV) and led the company from under $1 million in revenue to its IPO in February of 2012. During his time at Bazaarvoice, Michael held a number of other positions including Senior VP of Worldwide Sales and Chief Customer Advocate. Prior to Bazaarvoice, Michael was the Director of Client Services at Coremetrics, a provider of web analytics and marketing optimization solutions. He is currently on the Board of Advisors at ShopSocially and Nomi.

Summary Notes on Sales Teams

What to look for in talent?

• Start by looking for passion, intelligence and communication ability
• Relevant experience in the given industry is crucial
• Youth vs. experience does not matter as much as characteristics about how individuals will engage with customers

What traits to look for by position?

• Market development
• Look for candidates straight out of college or with one to two years of experience
• Salesforce outside rep
• Look for someone with five to ten years of experience in the market
• How to structure a sales teams
• For the first six years, use a one to one market development to sales rep ratio
• Later on employ a pooled model

When did Bazaarvoice transition to a pooled model?

• When they had about 50 reps globally

What is a typical sales rep compensation plan?

• Use a simple plan that reps can calculate mentally
• Ideally have a 50/50 base/commission split
• In his experience, the best reps would ask for more upside over base, but he tried to stick to 50/50

What were typical quotas?

• Outside Rep: $1.35M per year
• Market Development Reps: target of 40 net new meetings per quarter

How do you know when it is time for reps to go?

• Two quarters missed in a row and out