"Sales specialists".....
As Snoreacle is only employing 2000 "sales specialists", that implies there will have to be generic account manager salesbods probably managing a number of accounts each, and then an overlay of sales specilaists called in by the account managers (or pushed in by management) whenever they suspect an opportunity is there and waiting. Now, ignoring how Oracle is also going to have to find and train all the basic account managers to replace the old frontline of resellers, here's how an average salesperson's brain works; "commission........." - and that's about it!
What he (or she) wants is a technical bod along to do presales work to help them as usually presales aren't paid in commission, so they don't threaten the salesbod's chance of making a decent wage, but presales can talk to other techies that usually won't open up to a salesbod, and can sniff out many opportunities the average salesbod might miss. They also build relationships (as a techie, I'd rather talk to another techie so I know what's being sold to me is actually being accurately described by someone not just out to make a target). Sales specialists are almost mongrels - supposedly skilled technically and in also experienced in sales techniques. Many I have met have been weak on the technical side because they were recruited by salespeople and more for their sales skills. The real problem is sales specialists are usually paid on commission, not a basic, and that commission is taken out of the account manager's chunk when the sale goes through. Presales are valuable but expensive for a vendor as they still have to be paid a good basic even when they're not being used, but the account manager doesn't mind as it usually doesn't impact his commission.
So how does Mr Average Salesbod react when he gets a "sales specialist" parachuted into his account? Badly! Because he sees the sales specialist as someone that is going to take a chunk of his commission, or worse show management that there were sales in the account but Mr Average Salesbod wasn't good enough to find them by himself. They never seem to realise that the sales specialist might actually increase commission overall by selling more product. I have seen this behaviour from reps from just about every major vendor, they all guard their account contacts jealously and resist any attempt to open up and let another salebod in there. I have even had a sales rep tell blatent lies about our company and who were the "influencers" in a deliberate attempt to minimise the success of a sales specialist!
This behaviour is not unique to Sun or Oracle, it just seems to be the way things are. I've seen both IBM and hp go through cycles of trying sales specialists and then dropping the idea, only to ressurect it again a few years down the line. I suspect that unless Larry is very careful with the commission setup, they may see a lot of underutilised sales specialists and many missed opportunities.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
