The New (Old) Hot Careers
When we first started in the online business, the world of internet advertising had just started to gain traction. It hadn’t really made any money, and the notion of careers such as paid search manager or social media analyst where still years away. It was the perfect sector to join, because no one had any real idea what they were doing. They had ideas that might become businesses and worked as fast as possible to throw things against a wall to see what stuck. It was a wild ride, because almost every company was laying down the tracks, trying to keep ahead of the locomotive they built and were shoveling coal into. In other words, they knew they needed to build fast, but it didn’t mean they knew what they were building or exactly where they were going.
Online ad companies came about because companies and individuals had started to build sites. These sites started to attract enough eyeballs to sell ad space against. The sites and especially the ad companies were unlike any that came before it. Silicon Valley had a history of technology innovation, but most of the prior inventions focused on physical computing or engineering systems. Programming, too wasn’t new, but tying hardware and software together to create a web experience was. Making it all work required many things, but for any in this burgeoning world of online media monetization it meant stockpiling two types of operators – the programmer and the sales guy.
It’s hard to think of two more different roles in a company. They are so different that they are often segregated in the work environment. Want inter-office tension? Just put the two groups together. One likes quiet, the other makes noise. In so many ways, they are kindred spirits. Both thrive in chaos. Both tend to have desks in complete disarray and work to the beat of their own drummer. The physical and cultural similarities end there. They are fundamentally different jobs, and the personality types that enter each are more often than not the same two that didn’t ever have a reason to associate earlier in life. In the office, it’s not as though there is any natural enmity, it’s more apprehension. Sales people are notorious for their impatience and screwing with product people’s roadmaps. The sales guy needs to eat, so any tweaks that can help him sell, he’s going to try and get implemented the only way he knows how – direct action.
In many ways the tables have turned. Sales people can still make among the best livings, but in the digital world especially, the prized asset comes in the form of the tech talent. A decade ago, tech talent was needed, but they played a supporting role to the business leadership. They were functionaries. Not so today. Product and tech tend to go hand in hand. Perhaps it isn’t surprising that some of the most valuable companies of the internet age began at the hands (literally) of technologists not from the mind of a business operator. It’s a pattern that we have seen play out time and time again, even more so today where investors and, the ever increasing, in-profile incubators seek out smart product tech guys who have an idea and know enough to get it built themselves or with their partner.
Arguably the most fundamental paradigm shift that has occurred as a result of the internet age has come from the unintended disruption of education and as a result roles. The world of technology is unlike any other. Doctors, lawyers, almost all professional services require years of formal training before they can strike out on their own. They generally don’t hit their prime until many in the tech world are looking to retire. In the tech world, some of the best minds didn’t finish school while others never went to school. It’s a field full of self-taught people which in almost any other profession wouldn’t be possible. The new media world makes it possible, because it becomes the mental acuity of a classic profession with the craftsmanship of artisan efforts where a physical product says more than the education of the person who made it. Like fashion, a pedigree helps, but it counts for less than ever before. Building a viral app is better than any degree.
So where does that leave the oft neglected sales guy? In more demand than ever. The system has become so efficient at providing young, hungry technologists the chance to try their hand at building a product / business that there is a shortage of people who can turn their product into a money making reality. Now more than ever we see posts for companies – from games to platforms – looking for their business cofounder / near-founder where the biggest requirement is strong business development skills. It’s *almost* cool to be great in sales. If you can build relationships, you now have the chance to take that ability and turn it into not just salary but equity.
The best validation of this comes from the fact that one of Google’s wealthiest employees happens to be their earliest and most senior sales executive. The trick, though, is offering more than just the ability to pick up the phone or even have a great rolodex. Both are essential but the sales 2.0 person has to be the voice of the business and founder. They need to not just make deals but do them in a way that is what the founders might do if they were an outward facing personality. It’s not easy, not initially lucrative, and not 9 – 5, but now especially some of the most rewarding opportunities exist for people that usually don’t get a lot of recognition in digital companies.
