Sales, Marketing, and Company Culture Nikita Bernstein www.FairSetup.com NECINA Presentation April 2012
The Plan Culture and Company Performance Problems Approach
www.JoVE.com - co-founder why listen to me www.JoVE.com - co-founder first scientific video journal 2011: 5MM in revenues ~50 full-time, 5 departments www.FairSetup.com - founder impact-based compensation patent-pending products and consulting services accepted into the Harvard Innovation Lab
Goal: Build an organization to maximize market opportunity.
Before Employee < Manager Employee = Serf Employee is just “happy” to have a job. http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/w/work_places.asp
Now Employee > Manager Employee = Partner Employees seek job satisfaction
Culture Alignment $
Organization $$$ Client Front-line Managers Leadership Alignment Sales Operations Front-line Managers Leadership
Problem: Sales vs. Ops Sales: “Why is ops just screwing around?” Ops: “We do all the work, they get all the money?” Sales Operations Front-line Managers Leadership
Problem: This Is My Sandbox! Sales Operations Front-line Managers I am a cog. What are they all doing? Why are decisions being made? This is not my job Leadership
Apathy Front-line Managers Leadership Sales Operations Mid-level management incentives. Why are bosses clueless? If they don’t work, I don’t work. I am not being paid for this. Leadership
Problems/Symptoms Waste of Resources No transparency Alienation Apathy Paranoia Corner office wars Career-based decisions High turnover Doing just enough to keep the job Working exact hours Passing the buck Overspend on hotels Out-of-control lunch breaks Fudging numbers Backstabbing
Solution Front-line Managers Leadership Alignment Sales Operations We’ve outlined a number of problems. What’s the solution? The ultimate solution is to align individual goals with company goals. Leadership
Alignment in Principle of employee and company goals Increase transparency Financial Operational Improve feedback mechanisms Encourage autonomy Fairness: It’s not about “How Much?”, it is about “How?”
Alignment In Practice Product Marketing Sales Product Quality Quality of Service Marketing Conferences Messaging / Collateral Sales Teamwork Feedback propagation
Company-wide Solutions Regular Financial Reporting to Employees Improved Feedback Mechanisms Tools Transparency (Rypple, Wrike, Yammer) Recognition (KangoGift) Company Performance (Saleforce Dashboards, Google Analytics) Fair Compensation (FairSetup)
Sales & Marketing Solutions Business Units Integrated with Operations Shared Compensation Pools Get everyone to understand the customer pain (Bloomberg) Tie company mission to concrete impact (Novazyme) Involve employees in decision-making (SEMCO) Make it their problem Manage Expectations Across the Company
Expectations Programmer Front-line Managers Leadership
FairSetup Solution YouTube Link
General Advice: Perception Make compensation feel fair Provide a clear career path Give people a sense of ownership Let people put skin in the game Give up power to gain influence
General Advice: Operations Communicate goals Manage expectations Understand motivations Strive for transparency Let people take risks and fail Seek decentralization Involve people in decision-making
Takeaways Expectation Management Centralized vs. Decentralized
www.FairSetup.com Nikita Bernstein Nikita@FairSetup.com @fairsetup @nikitabe Images by Manto