Brad, I'm not currently a startup sales VP, but have been on several occasions. I blog about high-tech startup sales issues at www.andyblackstone.com.

Seth's right about the commitment of top level management - but it's at least as important to structure the process so that it is obvious how it benefits the individual salesperson. If it doesn't benefit the salesperson, all the management commitment in the world won't get salespeople to follow the process. This means that the process must make the salesperson more productive, enabling them to make more money and be more satisfied with their job. The checklist can't be just busywork - it has to accurately reflect a successful sales cycle.

I think maybe sales is more an operational skill set than a science, but that’s just semantic quibbling – I agree completely with your conclusions, Seth.

A question that springs from all this discussion is “Where does the sales checklist come from, and how does a company integrate the whole idea of checklists into the operational culture?” As I said in my previous email, I think it can be very difficult for a company to develop this internally. The checklist needs to be developed considering what’s working and not working now for a specific company, and then adding sales best practices to that understanding. It isn’t easy to objectively look at what’s going on in your sales effort and figure out what is essential to success and what isn’t (a great example is that every early stage high-tech company is convinced that a demo is the essential element of a successful sales strategy – when it actually most often is not), and the knowledge of sales best practices is often not part of the

management skill set.

So it seems to me that as you look at companies and think about sales process, the essential question is not about how sales are going in the short term, but about whether the company has implemented sales checklists and is using them effectively. And you’re right that the forecast review is the place that will give you the answer to this question.

I read the article, and like you saw the business relevance, particularly as it relates to sales process (my area of expertise). I'd like to make three points:

1. An important concept in the article is that the checklists are not aimed at a specific condition but at an overall process in the ICU. One of the objections I often encounter in my consulting practice is "my business is different" - I'd contend that at the process level that's most often not true.

2. The resistance to adopting these checklists often comes from doctors that think the "art of medicine" is being threatened by the regimen of the checklist. In my practice, I see sales managers and salespeople with the same objection. In fact, as the article states, it is the reduction of the routine aspects of the process to the rigors of the checklists that enables the art to emerge.

3. Finally, I was struck by the feeling of the doctors in the ICU that there was just no time available in the midst of their chaotic day to deal with checklists - a reaction I've seen in lots of business managers as well. This is a major barrier to implementing any new business process. The success of checklists in the ICU in not only reducing accidents, deaths, and costs, but in making the doctors time efficient, can be seen as new business processes are implemented as well.