A Prayer To The Sales Gods

Today I made the executive decision to hire a pre-sales person. This is a big deal because we are very conservative about spending the money that we don't have - but it has to be done. We have been building Verify-ED for almost 3 years and we have been growing organically. Unfortunately, organically is not going to get us to the goal of Val-ID-ate being a standard part of the hiring process. Organically makes me think of a plant that slowly emerges from the seed and eventually breaks through the soil. The plant may hibernate in the winter, to re-emerge in the spring - during which there is no growth (of course). Organically is NOT the growth cycle that we want - and investing our dollars in someone who can get us in front of prospective clients is a big deal.

I have come to appreciate and I am in awe of successful sales professionals. I am amazed at their ability to "get out there" and "get appointments". As I have mentioned before, Mark LaRosa continues to be my idol. I still take the safe routes by primarily reaching out to known contacts or colleagues of colleagues. How will we really grow that way?

So, Debbie, welcome aboard! I will let everyone know how we are looking in 3 months.

It's V-Day!

Tonight was the second time I performed in the Vagina Monologues at my alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology. As always, the monologues were impactful and I feel great that I get an opportunity to contribute.

The subject matter can make you feel uncomfortable. There is such frank talk about the good, the bad and the ugly and you find yourself holding your breath sometimes - but I am know that it is important to put yourself in uncomfortable positions to gain awareness and knowledge.

I find that I am challenging myself more and more these days to be in "uncomfortable" positions. With the guidance of a master sales professional (Hi Mark!!), I am making better efforts at getting in front of clients. I was relying heavily on email and (rarely) telephone to reach prospective clients because, frankly, I am afraid. I am afraid of rejection. I am afraid to ask for money for our services. I am afraid of "looking stupid".

When I recently told someone about this fear, they asked, "Why are you afraid? You are HELPING companies. You have got to change your mindset" - so that is what I am doing. I have to remind myself that, HEY, we provide an invaluable service. What we do protects many companies from liability and embarrassment. People pay their insurance without hesitation, and that is how I need them to think of us: like insurance. Joelle, the insurance saleswoman :-)

Bang, Your Dead!

In order to be an entrepreneur you ultimately have to be a multi-life cat. Forget about 9 lives; you need at least 100. Basically, you get shot down so many times and need to pick yourself back up that you need some type of Heroes power (I like the Claire Bennet, the cheerleader).

Today I presented the goals for Val-ID-ate to an executive recruiter - and she said the same thing that many recruiters say, "oh, we don't deal with background screening. Our clients have a much more sophisticated background screening process and they handle everything". I still say: what happens when you give the client confidence that the credentials check part of their screening is redundant? Are you seen as a valuable provider? Well, maybe the person whose job it is to manage the background screening process may not like you because you may threaten his or her job (and in this day and age EVERYONE is trying to justify their existence), but to the small- to mid-sized company where the recruiter is also the hiring manager you will be seen as golden! "What? You mean that when I get a candidate from you, he or she has already been vetted? You mean that all I have to do are criminal and drug tests (when applicable)? Wow!"

One of our star interns also started some pre-sales activities today and she has learned of the frustrations associated with sales. The doors are slamming quickly and I am trying to explain the "law of numbers", but as the person who has to listen to people barely hide their annoyance, the "laws" are moot. I am ecstatic that she doesn't give up easily!

It is the really strong person who can talk themselves into trying to "win a sale" everyday. To not get frustrated when hearing "no". My strength has wavered (which is why I always find an excuse not to do cold calls), but I would like to think that I am getting better at explaining why a prospective client should not be too quick to say "no".

I also have this dream of being like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman and going back to these same executive recruiters who didn't see the value in our service and saying, "Oh, you lost over 50% of your client base because they wanted to see more value for the money they spent? Our clients have seen an INCREASE in their client base. BIG mistake not using Val-ID-ate!"

Doctor Heal Thyself

The transition from employee to business owner is really difficult at times. When I was a project manager, I think that my tolerance for product development issues was greater. Although I would get annoyed, I still had the employee outlook of "well, it's not my money" or I would escalate it so that it was "no longer my problem". As a business owner, the only person on whom I can put the problem is my partner - and she already has enough on her plate.

Our developer has basically delivered what was requested. Hip-hip-HOORAY! At times there were communication issues, but in general our developer has been responsive. Well, last week I had the first meeting with the person who is going to spearhead the sales effort. The day before the meeting, our developer assured me that the features which were still "glitchy" would be fixed. Now, I KNOW based on my experience managing developers that you are supposed to add a couple of days to anything a developer promises - but we need Verify-crED launched and in use yesterday so I went ahead with the sales meeting. It was a disaster! Do I have to say that the features which define Verify-crED were not working? I was embarrassed and the sales guy was hesitant - not a good combination. I went back to the developer with my negative feedback, all the while hoping that I didn't dig a deeper hole (how many people have been in situations where someone holds something that is really important to you so you don't want to piss them off, but you also don't want to be the proverbial doormat? That is me at least once a day.)

I am very fortunate that our developer has integrity and stepped up to the plate. Moments like these reinforce my decision to stay with our developer, especially as he delivered a fully functional product the next day. A part of me felt like it was "a little too late", but the bigger part was grateful. I know that many of you are going: "why be grateful?", but when your future is dependent on so many things that you can't control, you are so happy when any of the pieces fall into place.

So, now the present. We are launching this baby! We are in user testing mode, cleaning up poorly translated text and going to present again to the sales guy. We are also now ready to get those partnerships in place. 2 steps forward...