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Not every founder has a background in sales, yet the ability to sell to generate revenue and/or investment is critical to a company’s success.  This event will break down, step by step, how a professional salesperson performs his or her craft. Many non-sales folks are intimidated by sales because it’s foreign to them and because of the stigmas attached to bad sales techniques that we’ve all seen.  

Key Takeaways: 

1. Demystify the sales process of successful sellers, step-by-step
2. Set up a systematic sales pipeline
3. Show how even the least salesy person can land customers and become an effective seller

Agenda

• 5:00pm – 5:15pm || Opening Remarks
• 5:15pm – 6:00pm || Sales, From Scary to Systematic, w/ Dough Slotkin w/ Q&A
• 6:00pm – 7: 00pm || Peer Advisory Roundtable(s)*

*Our members-only Peer Advisory Roundtables are designed to go deep on your real-life challenges. Let our diverse community of founders be your resource and support system.

 Speaker

Doug Slotkin is Zillow’s former decade-long VP of Sales who took Zillow over the edge into IPO.  If you had asked him in undergraduate and graduate school whether sales would be the direction his career would take, he would have categorically said NO.  But here he is, a sales professional since 1991 and proud of it. 

He started his sales career at O’Brien Waterskis as International Sales Manager. He learned how to sell in another language (French) and learned how to sell to people from countries around the world whose English was often very rudimentary.  Because of that, he learned how to keep it simple.

After 8 years at O’Brien, he took a role with Headhunter.net, one of the first online job boards.  Later, he made the leap into 21st century technology (The internet) and quickly took a role selling advertising to real estate agents over the phone for HouseValues.  He became the top rep among 100 reps within a year of starting and within 2 years, led a team of 15 reps.  It was at that point he learned that he loved to teach people how to sell and sell the RIGHT way. 

After 7 years at HouseValues (Market Leader), he was recruited by Zillow to start their Inside Sales org.  He built that team from ground level to a team of nearly 500 sales reps and $800M in annual revenue.

He left Zillow in 2018 and is currently working with a startup called 321 Ignition in the automotive technology space and consulting.

fnSeattle Regional Leadership Team

– Regional Director: Matias Troccoli 

– Membership Chair: Melissa Strawn

– Ecosystem Advisors:  Lee Reeves

Confidentiality Policy

All information shared within Founders Network is strictly confidential. We are built on a foundation of trust, and the community takes confidentiality seriously. Investors, members, and staff all share experiences and opinions off the record.  In this roundtable forum, we continue to model our fnValues of Reciprocity, Humility, Authenticity and Inclusivity.