Is Slack refusing to hire a sales team a mistake?

Jessica Alter Entrepreneur & Advisor

March 18th, 2016

Slack CEO came out recently saying they do not have and do not plan to hire a salespeople. Of course, it's worked so far but the same can be said of how dropbox and yammer started and they both realized they then needed to hire in that arena.

Curious to hear from both sides of the aisle whether or not they think this is a smart decision or doomed. Particularly interested if you've been at a company that's done this (successfully or unsuccessfully) or have lots of experience in sales. People piling on to rag on sales or business isn't helpful or productive.

Rodrigo Vaca Product & Marketing

March 20th, 2016

Didier -

"Atlassian is one company that has thrived without having a sales team"

I did a quick LinkedIn search for Atlassian. I found the following people at Attlasian:
- Chris Short, Sales Operation Analyst: https://au.linkedin.com/in/shortchris
- Paul Vu, Deal Desk/Sales Ops: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-vu-35b5075 
- Ghazwan Khair, Sales Engineer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ghazwan-khairi-47400a3
- Tim Granshaw: Director Of Sales Optimization and Experimentation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-granshaw-a1a650

Also, in Atlassian's Contact Us page, it clearly says:

Need to get in touch with someone from our product or sales team?

(emphasis mine)

So I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say Atlassian doesn't have a sales team!

Maybe you outsource sales, maybe you only sell through channel, but at the end of the day, we all want to sell an extra one more widget. Think about some of the defining tech companies - Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Intel... you name it, there is a beefy sales department at each one of them!

Brent Bussell Retired High Tech Sales & Marketing Executive

March 18th, 2016

I've seen many businesses in my 30+ years in high tech attempt to minimize their investment in, and dependence on, a dedicated sales function for revenue production. And I've seen almost all of them come to regret it. But notice I used the term "sales function" because sales can take on different forms and doesn't necessarily mean a bunch of sales reps on the street carrying a bag, which is the vision many have when the role is mentioned. And not all businesses require that type of sales investment to be successful. But I would say that virtually all businesses require some person(s) with the proper experience and background in "sales" and the singular focus on producing revenue for the business to drive the actions of the business that will get customers to buy.

Rodrigo Vaca Product & Marketing

March 19th, 2016

On the original question: "Is Slack refusing to hire a sales team a mistake?"

Well, it WOULD be a mistake, it it were true.

But it is simply just not true. Just some bravado posturing by a CEO to show how confident he is on his product. It is good for PR too. That's also what you'd want/expect them to do, so that's not a knock on them. We use Slack day in and day out and it is indeed a fantastic product.

Sales people profiles at Slack:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/neads
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittjamison
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandertennant

Most importantly, you may not have people with "sales" in their title, and you may not be paying them a commission (BestBuy's non-commissions blue-shirt salespeople come to mind). But as some point, somebody is *selling* the product.

BTW, the BI article you referenced stated as much at the very end - probably an update after the initial publication? Maybe he just got a little carried away during the SXSW presentation.

Didier Moretti VP/GM Cloud Apps - JIRA Projects, Confluence, Service Desk at Atlassian

March 19th, 2016

Atlassian is one company that has thrived without having a sales team. Our business model is based on having great products, low prices, and high volume. We spread via word of mouth, have over 50,000 customers, ranging from startups to the F500. Atlassian went public late last year.

Atlassian is one of the first companies with significant revenues based on such a business model. There will be many others.

The model is not applicable to all markets - in case of Slack, one can debate whether or not they can deliver on high expectations without a sales team. Time will tell.