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Former Acopia CEO Christopher Lynch takes over this week at database management software firm Vertica, with plans to build a global sales organization for the Billerica company. He talked on Wednesday with Mass High Tech reporter Galen Moore.
Mass High Tech: Top lessons learned building a global sales organization at Arrowpoint?
Lynch: Plan globally and execute locally. You should have one plan – and you should be able to execute that plan with your personnel locally. There are definitely cultural and market differences, but the essence of the message and the value proposition that you deliver to customers is essentially the same.
At the local level, you have to trust your organization to be able to engage the way the customer wants to engage in a particular theater. Europe, for example, is much more channel-focused than the U.S.
I think the systems and organization you put in place should be done from a corporate perspective and a global perspective. One issue small companies have is they don’t leverage their organizations because they don’t set up compensation structures that encourage collaboration.
When it comes to major accounts, you need to have plans that account for the corporation you’re selling to versus the territories of salespeople. It comes down to the compensation system. Measuring compensation drives behavior. Then I think people sell the way the customers want to buy.
MHT: What about running a sales organization in general?
Lynch: From my perspective, sales and selling is much more of a science than an art. If you apply science and process to it, particularly when you have some historical data to work on, it makes it a lot easier to make the right investments.
MHT: What are your priorities at Vertica?
Lynch: Like in growth in most organizations, getting the right leadership organization in place is critical. Number one, they have to have "the want it factor" – a will to win. They need to be committed, capable, creative, and they have to have that competitive fire that they want to go out and build something against all odds. In the startup world, the odds are stacked against you. Some people are daunted by that. We want people who are inspired by it.
MHT: What are the special challenges of startup growth?
Lynch: People invest in front of revenue instead of behind it. Sometimes that’s a challenge when a company is really small. In a company with the trajectory of Vertica, it’s an easier job to be able to look at the growth prospects, invest behind solid revenue opportunities, given the existing customer base. Having well over 100 customers makes it easier to be able to model where the business is and what the sales cycle looks like and the acquisition of a customer.
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