Super Salesman CEOs

I received a call this week from the Managing Director of one of Silicon Valley’s leading Executive Search firms. He needed help finding the perfect person for a CEO search. The position description called for someone who had spent their whole career in Sales, and preferably selling to the exact same set of customers as the client company.

I have heard this request before. It seams to be a trend. While I think every good CEO is a salesman, not every sales VP can be a good CEO. If fact for most startups after the salesperson “makes the sale” the CEO will have to close the deal by convincing the customer that the company has a sound business strategy that will succeed.

I suspect the startup company looking for the Super Salesman CEO, has burned through most of their money,and does not have much hope of raising more without significant sales, and therefore is hoping a Super Salesman CEO can save the day.

There is more to being a CEO than just sales, the ability to develop business strategies, to identify new markets, Leadership, financial, operational,technical know how, and maybe most of all the ability to hire a great team (including good salespersons) just to name a few.

If you are the Super Salesman who takes one of these startup CEO position, make sure you have a good contract, because if you are successful you maybe replaced very quickly with the “right CEO to grow the company”.

Ralph Muse
Muse Consulting