You can build a product but until you manage to sell your product to someone, it's not a company.
'Salesmen' are not the only way to get people to buy your product.
I think it's important to start making a distinction between sales and marketing. At one place I worked, the marketing team resented being lumped in with sales and were actually in direct competition with them: organic signups nibbled away at a salesperson's commission.
People are becoming more comfortable with the idea of purchasing a product without ever having spoken to a human being in the entire sales cycle, and that's a marketing job. For some companies, it obviates the need for 'sales'.
Having made that distinction, I would not go to war, so to speak, without a great marketer by my side. A salesperson, on the other hand...
The problem with traditional sales is the pay structure. For mediocre salesmen, working on a commission means "any warm body will do as long as they don't churn before I get paid". This translates into having problematic customers who will thrash and cause you grief before inevitably cancelling your service or returning your product.
You can build a product but until you manage to sell your product to someone, it's not a company.
'Salesmen' are not the only way to get people to buy your product.
I think it's important to start making a distinction between sales and marketing. At one place I worked, the marketing team resented being lumped in with sales and were actually in direct competition with them: organic signups nibbled away at a salesperson's commission.
People are becoming more comfortable with the idea of purchasing a product without ever having spoken to a human being in the entire sales cycle, and that's a marketing job. For some companies, it obviates the need for 'sales'.
Having made that distinction, I would not go to war, so to speak, without a great marketer by my side. A salesperson, on the other hand...
The problem with traditional sales is the pay structure. For mediocre salesmen, working on a commission means "any warm body will do as long as they don't churn before I get paid". This translates into having problematic customers who will thrash and cause you grief before inevitably cancelling your service or returning your product.