Great writeup: I recently read Becoming Trader Joe, which has a similar quote to your opening salvo:
"In 1962, Barbara Tuchman published The Guns of August, an account of the first ninety days of World War I. It’s the best book on management—and, especially, mismanagement—I’ve ever read. The most basic conclusion I drew from her book was that, if you adopt a reasonable strategy, as opposed to waiting for an optimum strategy, and stick with it, you’ll probably succeed. Tenacity is as important as brilliance."
Good advice, nicely summarized. I especially like the "max headcount" suggestion,
I generally include sales attrition in my models. In Enterprise Sales reps can take 2-3 quarters to get fully ramped, so attrition can whack your revenue assumptions. One could work around that by reducing the quota and quota attainment targets, but I think it is cleaner to have a separate line. Plus, you can track shortfall related to attrition when you do your quarterly reviews.
Great writeup: I recently read Becoming Trader Joe, which has a similar quote to your opening salvo:
"In 1962, Barbara Tuchman published The Guns of August, an account of the first ninety days of World War I. It’s the best book on management—and, especially, mismanagement—I’ve ever read. The most basic conclusion I drew from her book was that, if you adopt a reasonable strategy, as opposed to waiting for an optimum strategy, and stick with it, you’ll probably succeed. Tenacity is as important as brilliance."
Great write up CJ!
So timely! Forwarded this to our entire team.
Good advice, nicely summarized. I especially like the "max headcount" suggestion,
I generally include sales attrition in my models. In Enterprise Sales reps can take 2-3 quarters to get fully ramped, so attrition can whack your revenue assumptions. One could work around that by reducing the quota and quota attainment targets, but I think it is cleaner to have a separate line. Plus, you can track shortfall related to attrition when you do your quarterly reviews.