For those of you that accepted positions in the 09 – 2011 time frame, it may be time for you to start updating that resume so you can begin looking at new opportunities as they present themselves.  That job you took at ACME software company suited your needs at the time (the need to pay the mortgage), but was probably not the A level opportunity you desired. Take a few minutes and consider the following questions:

(1) Did I accept my current position because of unemployment or desperation?

(2) What’s your happiness level? If it’s anything below a 8, it’s time to move on…

(3) Are you currently working for a manager that is not helping you become a better account executive or SE?

(4) Do you have a commission plan, territory, or base salary that you would have laughed at in prior years?

(5) Is the product or service you’re selling a commodity, nice to have, or really cool technology nobody wants or needs?

(6) Do you have to continually defend the company’s reputation?

I’ve seen people ruin their careers because they get stuck in career rut by staying at a position that is well below their skill levels and abilities. If this is you, the time is now dust of that resume and inquire about the openings available on our site or submit your resume directly to Kent (kent@hammerconsulting.net).

Please click here for open positions.

Here are five reasons why van Agtmael thinks the U.S. is the next great emerging market, according to Zweig:

(1) The U.S. is competing with China. Van Agtmael said that when he visited China last year, one executive complained about the competition from America. Part of the reason the U.S. is suddenly competitive is because labor costs in China have risen about 15% annually. And though American lawmakers are talking about raising the minimum wage, the cost of labor has been relatively flat.

 
(2) U.S. is getting cheap energy. The country is seeing a shale oil and natural gas boom, as new technologies have allowed companies to extract previously unavailable oil from deep underground bedrock. “The availability of shale in the United States and around the world has to be one of the biggest game-changers I’ve seen in my career,” said General Electric (GE) CEO Jeff Immelt, according to The Washington Times.

(3) U.S. has decent cellphone infrastructure. OK, we may be getting lapped in this area by Norway, South Korea, Japan and Sweden, but at least our infrastructure is better than China’s.

(4) U.S. has better factory technology. Factories are incorporating three-dimensional printing, which can advance product design and prototyping, according to Gartner. It’s already being used in car manufacturing and the medical and pharmaceutical businesses. And executives are bringing more robots into factories, automating tasks and making production more efficient.

(5) The migration to the U.S. has begun. Some 200 companies have moved their factories to the U.S. from offshore locations, van Agtmael estimates.

I publish this information every year because it continually surprises me when managers, VP’s and CEO’s of enterprise software companies don’t have a better understanding of what states contain the majority of Fortune 500 companies in this country.

It is also surprising because this is typically how a software companies establish sales territories for their sales teams. Since the bulk of enterprise software/technology is sold to Fortune 1000 and 500 accounts it’s extremely important information to use to calculate how many account executives should be placed in a these territories.

Top 20 Fortune 500 by State

(1) California –53 Fortune 500

(2) Texas – 52 Fortune 500

(3) New York – 50 Fortune 500

(4) Illinois – 32 Fortune 500

(5) Ohio – 28 Fortune 500

(6) Virginia – 24 Fortune 500**largest increase in the past 5 years

(7) Pennsylvania – 23 Fortune 500

(8) New Jersey – 21 Fortune 500

(9) Michigan- 20 Fortune 500

(10) Minnesota–19 Fortune 500**also contains America’s largest private company – Cargill with 134 Billion dollars in revenue.

(11) Florida – 16 Fortune 500

(12) Georgia – 15 Fortune 500

(13) Connecticut – 14 Fortune 500

(14) North Carolina – 14 Fortune 500

(15) Massachusetts – 11 Fortune 500

(16) Missouri – 10 Fortune 500

(17) Wisconsin – 9 Fortune 500

(18) Tennessee – 9 Fortune 500

(19) Colorado – 9 Fortune 500

(20) Washington – 8 Fortune 500

**The remaining 30 states have a total of 63 Fortune 500 companies combined.**

Broken down by region,(taking the 5 states with the greatest amount of Fortune 500 companies within that region).

(1) East – NY, NJ, PA, CT, MA– total of 119

(2) Midwest – MN, WI, MI, OH, IL – total 108

(3) South East – GA, FL, NC, VA, TN – total of 84

(4) West – CA, AZ, WA, CO, OR – total of 78

(5) South Central – TX, MO, AR, OK, LA – total of 73 – this region also contains 4 companies; Exxon, Connoco Phillips, Valero Energy and Wal Mart with a total of 1.25 Trillion in revenue.

What is the product of a very loyal sales team? Low turnover, is one of the keystones to a top producing team or region.

As a result, these managers are able to spend their valuable time focused on revenue and driving activities. Their counterparts must spend hours every week trying to replace holes in their low producing teams. So how do these managers build these loyal teams?

(1)   They have high integrity – they’re somebody that the reps respect and want to emulate.

(2)   They are true mentor/coaches – they actually help them close deals, help formulate strategy and give them helpful criticism when a deal goes south.

(3)   When their rep closes a deal, gets their foot in the door of a new logo account, etc. They are commended in some way.

(4)   They’re able to create an environment within the sales group in which they really feel and act like a true team. They do things together, develop friendships, strive to help their fellow team member on other deals, and are interested in their families.

If you’re an executive in charge of hiring and managing the sales leadership at your company and you have sales teams that are underperforming or have turnover issues, it may be an issue with your sales management, not a lack of talent with your account executives.

(1)    Attitude – carrying a negative attitude into a new year is a sure fire way to underperform. Try avoiding mainstream media and you’ll be shocked at how much better your attitude becomes. It’s nearly impossible to set the foundation for a quota exceeding year if you believe it can’t be achieved from the onset.

(2)    Take care of yourself. Run, walk your dog, walk in circles –whatever gets you moving Sales is a very stressful occupation at times, and I know personally that I am much more effective when I do something active on a regular basis. It clears your head and those endorphins do wonders for your stress level.

(3)   I’ve written this in previous newsletters, but it is worth repeating. If your sales manager does not have strong coaching and mentoring abilities and is not helping your become a better account executives, call us and find a different job. As stated above, the market is very good. In the past you may have had to put up with a bad manager, a poorly run company or products that did not work. Your odds of blowing your number out if you don’t have the “big 3” (solid manager, well run company and products that have a need) are greatly diminished.

(4)    What’s one of the most common traits that exist in consistent top performing account executives that we work with? It’s not appearance, age, race, gender, or aggressiveness. 2 words – solution selling. If you’re not highly trained is solution selling, find a qualified solutions trainer and take some courses. Even if you have to pay out of your own pocket it will pay dividends many times over – learn more to earn more.

(5)   Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions to kill a dead deal. I know it’s redundant, but none of the top reps we work with are reluctant to as the customer uncomfortable questions at all points in the process that will either qualify the deal to the next level, or kill it.  It’s better to kill a non-deal quickly than have it drag on, wasting your valuable time, and more importantly preventing you from filling your pipeline with new prospects.

(6)   Move on. Had a deal go sour, did not make your quota last quarter? A quote by Richard Branson “The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project always amazes me.. A setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve.”

(1)   Enterprise Software Account Executive. 10+ years of sales experience- typically a “geo” or regional type position. Some existing customers and run rate, but a large amount of new logo type selling.

Base 105-115 with an OTE of 210-230k

(2)   Named Account Enterprise Account Executive. 15 +yrs sales experience – at least 10 years in software sales. Typically calling on 10-15 large Fort 500 accounts, selling very large deals.

Base 120-135k with an OTE of 240-280k

(3)   Senior Level Sales Engineer.  Also known as Pre-sales engineers, client facing technical individuals that help account executives facilitate the sale.  Their compensation packages have increased dramatically in the last 2 years because of market demand and a low supply of talented SE’s

Base 125-150 with OTE of 170-210K

(4)   Regional Vice President. Typically managing a team of 4-8 reps.

Base 140-160k with OTE of 280-300k

(5)   Experienced Inside Sales Reps. These are not telemarketers, but people that are actually finding leads and most often closing them. Typically 3-5 year sales experience.

Base 45-55, with OTE of 75-85k

(6)   Mid-Level Technology/Software Account Executive: These are reps that are typically calling on SMB type accounts, with quotas under 500k. On average 5-8 years sales experience.

Base 70-80 with an OTE of 125k 

If you, personally, are at a company that is paying well below industry average or are seeing compensation changes for 2013 for the worst, check out or career section. It may be time for a change? 

Thank You.

~KH

Article below:

Venture capitalist Jim Goetz says he’s floored that so few entrepreneurs are focusing on building products for businesses, given how successful those startups have been.

“It’s shocking we don’t see more engineers and entrepreneurs interested in enterprise,” the Sequoia Capital partner said earlier this week at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

Twice as many enterprise startups have become billion-dollar companies compared to consumer startups, he says.

“At Sequoia, upwards of a hundred entrepreneurs a week present and if we’re lucky, maybe a dozen of them are focusing on the enterprise,” he told Disrupt attendees. “In the last 10 years, there have been 56 IPOs in the enterprise space that have gotten north of a billion [dollars in market capitalization] and just 23 in consumer.”

Recent IPO hits include ServiceNow, Palo Alto Networks, Jive, and Splunk.

Goetz said the enterprise IPO market will stay hot for at least a couple more years.

Enterprise remains an “enormous opportunity” because companies are spending about $500 billion a year with legacy enterprise companies and those budgets are ripe for the plucking.

“In football, the area from 20 yards out to the goal line is referred to as “the red zone.” Play in the red zone is different from play in other parts of the field; entire strategies and play sequences are developed for both offense and defense to handle red-zone play.” 

Why is so much attention paid to red-zone play?

• The distance to the goal is compressed, making the sense of scoring more urgent for the offense and more threatening for the defense.
• There is less room to navigate for the defense, but also less space to defend.
• There is less time for the offense because they can no longer earn first downs–they must either score now or turn the ball over.

As you move towards closing a sale, there is a point in the process that can be considered the red zone. This point is when the customer has received your final proposal and is considering it.

This is it–score or lose. What do you do?

1. Know their defense.

In football, the defense wants you to burn up downs with low yardage gains, forcing you to either kick a field goal or make a turnover. In sales, there is always someone resistant to the idea of your solution (or to change in general). Their defense will be to delay the proposal approval, block it or cause you to fumble–challenging you on timing, cost justification, priority or risk.

These usually come in the form of questions, concerns and silence – not in full frontal attacks. Be ready.

2. Develop your strategy in advance.

There is a reason that teams practice red-zone strategies constantly: They know they will be in red-zone situations! That’s true for you, too–at least I hope it is. What are the typical red-zone defense patterns you are going to see?

Here are just a few examples:

• “We need to wait until …”
• “I need to understand how you came to your cost justification figures better …”
• “Our IT team is buried right now.”
• “Procurement will need to take a look at this.”
• “We have to look at our other initiatives to see how this fits in.”

These are relatively predictable red-zone scenarios. Do you have a plan to address each one?

3. Keep your poise.

In the past few years there has been a greater amount of attention paid to the success rate of quarterbacks in red-zone situations. One of the common characteristics of these high performers is poise. Personal confidence and experience are big contributors, but also the fact that they have a clear playbook in mind helps.

As Peyton Manning said when asked how he deals with pressure, “I don’t feel very much pressure. Pressure is what you feel when you don’t know what you are going to do next.”

4. Manage the clock.

In the red zone, the clock is rarely your friend. The old saying is still true: “Time kills all deals.”

You have to keep urgency and energy in the deal to move things forward. Even if all you can get is a little bit of traction–additional information, another meeting, a webinar, a demonstration or contract review–it makes a difference. In each case, you are working for forward progress.

Companies and football teams develop different strategies for different parts of their game. Have you developed your red-zone strategy?

Author, speaker and consultant Tom Searcy is the foremost expert in large account sales. With Hunt Big Sales, he’s helped clients land more than $5 billion in new sales. Click to get Tom’s weekly tips, or to learn more about Hunt Big Sales. @tomsearcy

- Being Proactive Versus Reactive: On average, it takes twenty (20) business days to find four (4) “A” level candidates in a search. So, begin filling your pipeline now. This way, when your hire is approved you have the candidate selected and you can pull the trigger.

- Pursue the Passive Candidates: For every job seeker, there is a “push” and a “pull.” For active candidates (those responding to ads, posted on job boards, in company HR databases), they have already determined their “pull” (i.e. why they are leaving their company) and now need to find the best available “pull.” With a passive candidate, the “push” is the “pull.” Many of you reading have experienced this: You were not looking, but a great opportunity presented itself and you moved on it. Which sounds like the better candidate to pursue? In our searches, we focus on the passive candidates. These are individual we have developed relationship with and trust us to bring them only the best of the best of software sales opportunities. You want A level candidates – these people want A level opportunities.

- Art Versus Science: We often refer to the interviewing process in “dating” terms. Beyond the courtship aspect, the process is just as much about chemistry and intangibles as it is specific requirements. We have found over the years that while art can overcome science, rarely will a hire work long-term if the bulk of the decision is made on the science piece (i.e. specific experience requirements).

- What is Your Hiring Profile: Here we are talking beyond solid tenure and meeting/exceeding quota. Those are givens for us. This question digs more into the soft skills, culture and a sales leader’s management style. Your hire needs to meet your style. Many sales leaders respond with something akin to “I know it when I see it,” when asked about their hiring profile.  As part of our process, we regularly help clients better understand themselves and their hiring process as well as what they really need (beyond a quota busting sales stud!).

Well, let’s take a step back to the glory days of technology. It’s pretty good now, but we don’t have a Y2K event driving fear based buying. Back in the late 90’s many software companies would hire a really sharp 27 year old with a few years of business products or telecomm sales background. Selling software was much simpler in those days and not many candidates had 10 years software sales background.

Fast forward to 2012 – very, very few software companies hire candidates without software sales background. If they do, they’re inside sales reps selling to a SMB markets. Why?

Selling enterprise software has gotten incredibly complex and with very long selling cycles. What used to take one signature now takes 6. Add to the fact that companies simply don’t have one to two years to train a candidate without software sales background. Your 27 year old software sales person in 1999 is now a 40 year old rep at Acme software. The experienced 34 year old software sales rep in 1999 is now a seasoned veteran at 47 years old.  So if you’re the VP or RVP looking for that 35 year old candidate with 10 years software sales background – good luck. They’re incredibly hard to find and you may want to think about hiring a good search firm to assist.