1. Sales, Marketing, and Company Culture
Nikita Bernstein
NECINA Presentation
April 2012

2. The Plan
Culture and Company Performance
Problems
Approach

3. www.JoVE.com - co-founder
why listen to me
- co-founder
first scientific video journal
2011: 5MM in revenues
~50 full-time, 5 departments
- founder
impact-based compensation
patent-pending
products and consulting services
accepted into the Harvard Innovation Lab

4. Goal: Build an organization to maximize market opportunity.

5. Before Employee < Manager Employee = Serf
Employee is just “happy” to have a job.

6. Now Employee > Manager Employee = Partner
Employees seek job satisfaction

7. Culture 
Alignment  $

8. Organization $$$ Client Front-line Managers Leadership Alignment Sales
Operations
Front-line
Managers
Leadership

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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?”

15. Alignment In Practice Product Marketing Sales Product Quality
Quality of Service
Marketing
Conferences
Messaging / Collateral
Sales
Teamwork
Feedback propagation

16. 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)

17. 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

18. Expectations
Programmer
Front-line
Managers
Leadership

19. FairSetup Solution
YouTube Link

20. 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

21. 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

22. Takeaways Expectation Management Centralized vs. Decentralized

23.
Images by Manto