ashleycutler

These articles are always written from the same perspective: collectors who invested in a particular item when the market for that item was at its peak and now they are shocked that it didn’t retain its value. It isn’t all that different from buying Dell Stocks in 2000. You don’t realize it is a bubble until it is over.

From running Zistle.com I can say that in sports cards at least, these 'bubbles' in price are often correlated to current events. I can guarantee there is a spike in the prices for Ortiz cards right now and in 6-12 months they will go back to normal.

These articles totally miss the fact that the savvy collectors in the market are always the ones selling the cards during the peak and not buying. During Linsanity, there were Jeremy Lin basketball cards selling for several thousand dollars and now you can pick them up for a couple of bucks. Savvy collectors knew that this was their moment to make money and they took advantage of it. That was the peak of the market. If you want to know who is profiting in the collectibles market, it is the people who pay close enough attention to what is hot right now and not people who wrap items up in their closet for 20 years.

I generally agree with this however, it can often go beyond just product. The old adage of sell on value not on price applies here. Don't underestimate the power of marketing and sales to be able to really position product differentiation, service, value, ROI, etc to beat out a lower priced competitor.

In my opinion, hiring a VP of Sales makes sense if a large sales org is critical to your business success. Think global domination. Some VP of Sales depending on their background are better at 'optimizing' sales processes and personnel rather than experimentation and general hustle.

Once you have some traction and a solid product, a great VP of Sales will help you scale your early success rapidly.

I would not recommend hiring a sales person who you cannot trust to close deals or build long standing relationships with customers. I have been the head of sales at Zencoder for almost two years. While there were certainly deals where interaction with the founders was critical to winning the deal because it had strategic impact on the business, they certainly weren't involved with every deal. While the founding team shouldn't be completely disconnected with sales efforts, if the founding team has to win every deal, you haven't hired a very successful sales person and certainly not a partner who can help you strategically grow your business. You have hired a telemarketer (the difference between 'generating leads' and 'winning deals' is crucial here).

Also, I feel like focusing on domain knowledge too narrowly can lead the hiring process astray. I think you are spot on regarding hiring for intelligence and acumen but I think it is a mistake to think that those attributes can only be found in those with domain knowledge. I can tell you that I knew nothing about video encoding before becoming Zencoder's head of sales and had it been a requirement, I wouldn't have been hired. We were able to grow that company rapidly to acquisition with only myself focused on sales.

My opinion is that a good sales hire should be 1. fully committed to learning your product inside and out and have the technical acumen to be able to execute on that. 2. Should think about sales the same way the engineering team think about product (test, iterate, listen,) 3. Should be able to sell themselves they way you want your product to be sold. Listen to how they talk about themselves in the interview. This is how they will sell your product.