In my daily scanning of the various blogs of start-ups, technology, and business strategy, I almost never see the “S” word mentioned: Sales. It’s a dirty word to a good deal of smart people, particularly technical founders. Over the years, I have observed that too many entrepreneurs associate sales with smarmy used car salesmen. Visions of “Glengarry Glen Ross” dance through their heads. When steeped in this stereotype, founders attempt to hire an EVP of Sales quickly and then turn their sites onto “more important” vistas.
Now here’s the rub: Entrepreneurs cannot simply hire sales talent. They need to embody it. Why?

A founder who can sell cannot:

• convince a sales person worth his/her salt to join the team, unless there is gobs of money in the bank or an absolutely killer product (which is generating gobs of money)

• woo VCs, angels, even his rich uncle Freddie into giving him/her gobs of money so they can hire sales talent

• find great sales talent because he/she doesn’t know what he/she is looking for

• keep great sales talent (if they are lucky enough to find it) because they don’t know how to motivate them, compensate them, or, in many cases, even respect their skills

Sadly, entrepreneurs too often discover this recursive problem only after years of trial and error. They have hired sales “talent” that was unable to sell. They pitched angels, family and VC alike without raising a nickel. And perhaps the worst of it, they have racked up terrible amounts of personal debt without ever recognizing that the problem was staring them in the mirror.

To be clear, sales skills transcend than the ability to sell widgets. To sell is to engage in the art of influence. If you are lacking sales acumen as an entrepreneur, it is time to get busy. Like any skill, it can be learned. The good/bad news is that it comes more easily to some than others.

Comic Wonder is right now building a sales team. A sales team for a Web 2.0 play? Yes, a sales team. We have identified a clear market for selling our wares and are assembling an amazing team. Now all we have to do is get busy selling and hope that the market we’ve identified is as receptive as it seems.

In the end, it’s not how amazing the technology may be. It’s how open and receptive the market is. The good news is that a great sales talent can warm up a reluctant market. With that said, it’s only a piece of the puzzle. If the market isn’t ready, even the greatest sales talent will fail you.

So in addition to some serious sales skills, a founder needs to have a good sense of timing and feel for overall market dynamics. If that sounds overwhelming, well it is. Is it any wonder why the vast majority of new companies and products fail?