Measure Everything

Do you remember when you were a kid measuring yourself against the wall every few days to see how much you have grown?  Why did you do it?  

I think inherently we like the ability to compare…compare against yourself…where was I last month…last year.  

How do you know where you are if you don't look at a map?  At a start-up  dollars and time seem to be the scarcest resource…so it is how you spend your time and your dollars that matters.   

We measured every lead source…figured out what had the highest close percentage to an initial meeting, proof of concept and to revenue and how long it took at each phase.  We measured reps, ramp times, sales stage close percentages, pilot conversions and of course where are we in the quarter vs. same time last month, last quarter, last year. 

By the way if you want good data you have to be serious about it…I was fanatical in the early days and remained that way – I would call or email reps all the time asking them about a data entry in salesforce.com that did not match another data point that I heard.   (By the way - Our CEO did it too -- he would call me or the reps directly -- huge impact).

Monday morning forecast calls could be a source of fear for some of our sales people or an opportunity to shine.   Many of the team members thought I asked random questions… in fact I studied Salesforce.com the night prior to look for things that did not make sense to me…or strategic opportunities that I wanted the entire team to know about. 

I tried not to be mean (some may say I was) but I was always direct…I explained why it was important to the business and that it was the companies expectation that we could report on any component of our business within moments of a request…remember garbage in is garbage out.  If the data was not up to date -- it was not a good thing for the person answering the questions. 

Some sales leaders disliked board meetings…I loved them.  We created standard metrics that we reported on every quarter and we explained why we thought they were important to the business and why the board should care.  We could compare and contrast at every meeting.  A good board slide should allow them to get an accurate understanding of your pipeline and trust the expected outcome based on past results. 

It is funny how predictable our business became…when you are growing so fast many companies don’t see the brick wall that they are going to run into … we noticed walls before they were made of brick and plowed right through the clouds to great heights.

By the way it was not just sales – Beth White our Marketing VP was incredible at understanding the impact of every press release, trade show, email blast.  Engineering lead by Dan McGee watched support metrics, bug counts, escalations.  Numbers and data are a great equalizer and a good source of “truth”.

Measure yourself – you may find out how to grow!  

The Art of War - Silicon Valley Style

Don’t attack head on  -- practice the art of war! 

Sun Tzu in the “Art of War” argues the best route to victory is to use deception, speed and to attack the enemy’s weakness.  

If Data Domain went after a Gorilla (Giant Company) head on the response would have been vigorous. In fact, we deceived the Gorilla that we were not competitive for a while…then we outflanked and attacked with a highly trained group of warriors and truly awesome technology. 

As an example of effective deception – Data Domain was in many of the formalized partner programs of our competitors and attended their user events – these events became our best source of leads!

If going head on against a highly functioning Gorilla my advice is to think of all the ways that you can win…can you survive on less margin?  Can you reach the client in a new way – i.e. Dell to Compaq (if you can remember that far back). 

Remember the big guys have to support years of code and deployed systems – these systems are hard to change.  Let that be your calling – your reason to exist.  They are also not in the business to replace the “cash cow” of the product line.

Your job if you decide to go after the cash cow is to develop a technology angle that makes the existing solutions look obsolete or at best incomplete.  Incremental is ok…but why not start a revolution.  

Our approach – we found a flank.  We attacked in the underbelly of the beast while they thought we were just a cuddly little teddy bear.  By the time they woke up we had created a new orifice.  That is why you are in a start up. 

Create Leverage

Sure we don’t want to sell our soul to the devil with some kind of technology license deal. But how do you get you products to market having a “small” voice.  You need to find leverage.  Leverage can come in a number of ways but lets identify a few:

1.   Early adopter customers – word of mouth and referencing is huge in this business.  If a client becomes a supporter / promoter of your company.  There endorsement is very valuable to you.

2.   Channel – The VAR channel works on margin and on the notion that they can provide a service or a set of ideas that make them a neutral party to the client.  Remember they don’t work for free and that they have an angle.  It is either margin or the ability to leverage your unique product to differentiate themselves from other non cutting edge VARS and or to wrap services around your product.

3.   Your entire company is a sales force.  I asked at my first company meeting (we had 22 people in the company) for the sales team to identify themselves by a show of hands.  Only 1 other hand went up. …I corrected them and asked them all to be part of my sales team.  Everyone was invited to sales meetings – the entire team became aware of the issues keeping prospects from buying.  Engineers delivered me leads (names) of people they met a cocktail parties. (Nothing like getting a stack of Napkins with phone numbers scribbled on them from an engineering QA guy and having them hold you accountable for the sales progress

4.   Investors can be customers + they give you a place to practice.

5.   References for other early stage companies – if they have a habit of buying early stage stuff and like to talk about it they make a good target

6.   When it is time to expand leverage your sales team to help find the people – people will follow friends and former co-workers.

7.   Speed is everything – the transfer of information from 1 to many can be immediate today.  Why not create a culture that encourages feedback and rapid help networks.  An email asking a question from a single rep would get 10 answers within 15 minutes from a sales team of 10.   That is a “neural network” – that is culture. 

It is about the Client

How many times do companies say that they are client focused but in reality all they really care is getting the PO and then finding the next customer.  When you are a young company your reputation is everything…you need fans – you need fanatical fans – clients that volunteer to speak to other prospects, analysts, future employee’s or investors…you need clients that come back and buy more.

How do you build a client centric approach into your culture…you live it…you breath it and you interview for it.

Sample interview question:  

“It is the last day of the quarter and you get two phone calls back to back right after getting off a drill down call with me on your quarterly forecast.  First call is a prospect ready to spend 1 million with you if you can come over an answer a few more questions…the second is from a client who spent 150k with you 6 months ago…the client is down and needs help to get his systems back up and running.  You only have time to do 1 of the two…what decision would you make.  (Remember, I am the VP of WW Sales who is driving a growth number of 20% quarter over quarter when I ask you this question – Do you know the right answer??? 

The answer I wanted to hear, or would give to every candidate or new hire was… “Tell the prospect that you have to work with them tomorrow – I have an existing client that needs my help and as we are a “client first” culture I owe them my time and attention.  (Prospect name)  I hope you understand, and that you should have the same expectation of me after you become my client.  

The other correct answer would be –  enlist others… for example call me with a request -- “David, I need some help – I have a client in need and a prospect who wants some additional information, can you help me to cover one of these so that we don’t disappoint anyone” – in our culture you bet your butt I would be there – tell me how to make a client happy and how I can assist every sales person to get to their numbers – I  am there!  The entire team would rally around you (the rep) and the client! 

Don't Sell Your Soul -- OEM or not?

Ok – Investors want certainty of their investment and what better way than to get another large company to validate your company by signing up to become an OEM or Reseller.  Sure you can trace this kind of relationship from reseller to acquisition but for what kind of multiple.    We all have heard the stories of little company “x” getting into a relationship with big company “y” and having company “y” re-engineer your ideas and then kick the crap out of company “X” –yep, they don’t play nice and they don’t care if they bury your dreams. 

The key – you must out-dance the Gorilla.  Remember you have something that they do not.  It is your intellectual property that they want to license on the cheap…sure you can have access to their salesforce...a salesforce that has no real interest in selling your product.  A salesforce that you will not be able to hold accountable at the end of a quarter.

Hey – if you want to go big, you have to be willing to “go big or go home”.  Take your bet – get your product to market and determine if there is a way for you to build an independent channel.  If there is a way or a glimmer of a way – go for it.  Put on your iron underwear and go find a battle that you can win. 

Every time we said no to an OEM deal our senior management team would come together and ask the question…do you want to go to war with company “x”…the answer was we are already at war with them…they just did not know it.  The entire reason they want to OEM our stuff is that we were starting to win…clients were asking the established vendors for a product like ours…Some of the scariest moments in the company history were saying no to OEM deals…and when the OEM introduced competitive product from another company – it took courage, but it also took the knowledge that to do the deal was to admit defeat before we had a chance to fight. 

Data Domain - Zero to a Billion

The Blog -- Background

So you want to build a company from zero to a billion in Revenue – I hope you have your dancing shoes on !  This is the story of Data Domain and my experiences and memories as the Vice President of Sales as we went from zero dollars to a billion dollars -- what a ride! 

A bit about me…I am the most paranoid sales leader you can ever find.  So I handle my paranoia by seeking information from the source…the clients, resellers and team.  What am I paranoid of…just about everything…but most importantly that I will make a mistake that will decrease the well-being of my employee’s and their families… I love my job…but I love my people more.  I try to get fired everyday by doing what is right for the company…not sales…not me…what is right for the company, our people, and our clients. 

Some people define me as smart…I define myself as practical. 

I also define myself as a man of character…I don’t have much grey area in my life..I am black or white. I also was told that I was not the first choice for the VP role…I told the board let me get you to 10 million in revenue and then replace me.  I had never had more than 50 people on a sales team that I managed and I was not from the data storage market – the market that Data Domain was in. 

In truth, I got hired because our CEO – Frank Slootman believed in finding people that had their best days in front of them professionally…he liked smart, committed people.  I got lucky and convinced them to hire me to run the America’s and keep their search going for the perfect candidate…I wanted it bad! 

It should be noted that I am not a competitive athlete…while I love athletics and worked hard I just did not have the ability…but I love to win.  God do I like to win.  In my game however – winning is only important if you have humility and a high ethical standard.   Never compromise what is right…or you and your company are just a bunch of “losers”.  

One final thing about me…I recognize the power of the individual.  I want to surround myself with people who want to be empowered, challenged and rewarded.  I hate kiss butt’s or political games.  We have a job to do…how to make the company grow.  It is not about me or them it is always about the company.

This story however is not about me…it is about Data Domain and some of the lesson's learned that I thought should be shared.  


(Be the Bull!)