15.387 Technology Sales and Sales Management
Fall 2012
Instructors: Howard Anderson, Provisional User
TAs: Puneet Jain, Lori McMenemy
Lecture: TTh 4:00-5:30 (E62-276)
Information:
Announcements
Welcome to 15.387!
Dear
15.387 Student:
You are going to love this class! Let us tell you how we will be working together. Each class is 90 minutes - and if the class gives boredom a whole new meaning - its our fault.
We will start each class with you prepared to sell. In the first class you will be selling a high tech diving suit to a senior buyer of a chain of scuba shops. (Hint: what is important to this buyer?)
We will talk about the methods to do this well. There are a few key readings... pretty basic stuff. We will then break sales into its components - Approach, Demonstration, Presentation, Close, and Overcoming Objections. The front half of the course is How to Sell - and the back half is How to Manage.
We find the How to Manage the most intriguing part of the course. Because, its hard! When you sell, there are some tricks, some methods that are tried and try. Management is often deciding between a number of not very good options.
Our goal is to "demystify" sales and sales management - you may decide that you love or do not love sales and sales management - but you will have learned how to do it. You will learn how to deal with "Freemium", how to set sales projections, set up compensation systems, live through a merger and handle an international sales force. We love the quote that we used in the syllabus ...."There are damn few hunters but everyone likes to eat meat" whilch comes from Jim Brown, NFL Hall of Famer. Sales people are the hunters.
A quick note on us. Howard started a company called The Yankee Group at age 24 and sold it 30 years later to Reuters. Its key to success was sales and for three years it was on the Inc500 list of fastest growing companies. He also cofounded Battery Ventures, which has invested over $4 Billion in over 150 tech startups. Lou is CEO of VMTurbo, his fifth startup. Both of us are graduates of HBS.
Many of our students have used their sales and entrepreneurial classes to help them in their startups and careers. If they are successful, we will brag about them forever. If they screw up, it must be because they cut a few critical classes. So don't cut.
In any case, we look forward to seeing you on September 6th at 4:00 PM in E62 - 276.
Howard Anderson
Lou Shipley
You are going to love this class! Let us tell you how we will be working together. Each class is 90 minutes - and if the class gives boredom a whole new meaning - its our fault.
We will start each class with you prepared to sell. In the first class you will be selling a high tech diving suit to a senior buyer of a chain of scuba shops. (Hint: what is important to this buyer?)
We will talk about the methods to do this well. There are a few key readings... pretty basic stuff. We will then break sales into its components - Approach, Demonstration, Presentation, Close, and Overcoming Objections. The front half of the course is How to Sell - and the back half is How to Manage.
We find the How to Manage the most intriguing part of the course. Because, its hard! When you sell, there are some tricks, some methods that are tried and try. Management is often deciding between a number of not very good options.
Our goal is to "demystify" sales and sales management - you may decide that you love or do not love sales and sales management - but you will have learned how to do it. You will learn how to deal with "Freemium", how to set sales projections, set up compensation systems, live through a merger and handle an international sales force. We love the quote that we used in the syllabus ...."There are damn few hunters but everyone likes to eat meat" whilch comes from Jim Brown, NFL Hall of Famer. Sales people are the hunters.
A quick note on us. Howard started a company called The Yankee Group at age 24 and sold it 30 years later to Reuters. Its key to success was sales and for three years it was on the Inc500 list of fastest growing companies. He also cofounded Battery Ventures, which has invested over $4 Billion in over 150 tech startups. Lou is CEO of VMTurbo, his fifth startup. Both of us are graduates of HBS.
Many of our students have used their sales and entrepreneurial classes to help them in their startups and careers. If they are successful, we will brag about them forever. If they screw up, it must be because they cut a few critical classes. So don't cut.
In any case, we look forward to seeing you on September 6th at 4:00 PM in E62 - 276.
Howard Anderson
Lou Shipley
Announced on 13 August 2012 11:42 p.m. by Lori McMenemy
