Have you been watching any of the NBA playoffs? Although the games have been great and competitive, what is even more interesting is the fallout from the first round exits in the West. Avery Johnson and Mike D’Antoni were both fired when their 50+ win teams exited the playoffs stage left. These firings showed a great correlation to what life in sales management at start-up is like.

The parallels:

• You get paid pretty well (i.e. NBA coaches are all 7 figure men, and sales people usually make the most money at a company)
• When things are going well (i.e. playoff wins or lots of closed deals), you are a hero. You are almost like a god. Everyone thinks you are a genius, and you probably have the ego to prove it.
• Even when things go well, if you don’t reach expectations (i.e. not winning big games or making an inflated sales projection), you are probably in trouble.
• Expect to get fired or minimized sooner or later

Currently, I am filling the role of VP of sales at a start-up. The start-up has shown great strides the last 6 months of my involvement. Although April was the second best month ever, it really didn’t hit the expectations that I made public. Needless to say, I feel like an NBA coach today!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 6:08 am and is filed under General Business, Sales, Start-up Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.