Mike Blumenthal found a couple of job listings at Google for a sales manager and local sales reps in the Seattle area. Here’s part of the job description for the sales rep position:
As a Field Sales Representative, you will be responsible for selling Google’s Commerce solutions into the small and medium size business segment. In this role, you will become an expert on the suite of Commerce products Google is rolling out, and a critical player in the acquisitions programs targeting SMBs for Google Offers. This role is ideal for self-motivated candidates with excellent sales skills and strong interpersonal skills, who can coordinate closely with cross-functional counterparts in Inside Sales and account management.
The question in my mind is: how far is Google willing to go with developing its own sales force? Half of Groupon’s employees are in sales (4K approx). AT&T has 5,000 sales reps by comparison.
I don’t know the exact number but Google has at least a couple hundred people selling to SMBs right now. The more humans that are involved to sell and service the SMB market the more Google will be able to penetrate local. The money Google’s getting out of Offers right now is pretty modest; and the SMB business offers puny margins compared to Google conventional search and display ad businesses. But it’s still very early.
I’m still skeptical that Google wants to go “all in” with its local sales effort. But it’s possible that a year or two from now Google could have 1,000 or more reps on phones and in markets locally selling to SMBs.
How committed do YOU think Google is to building a direct local channel — “with teeth”?
June 14th, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Greg, i think that they will be committed to Local stuff as they are committed to Adwords platform. As long as they will see more money- the bigger their commitment will be.
And with Local there will be a lot of money (/commitment).
BTW, aren’t those job listings are coming with a perfect timing with their new city sites?
June 14th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
So it would appear. The money’s there in local (in the aggregate) but the margins are not as good.
June 14th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Unless you’re talking about Offers but 50% margins probably won’t last.
June 14th, 2011 at 2:45 pm
I see what say.
Don’t you think that as they will drill more deeply in Local they’ll ba able to build on certain platform more & more income resources (offers, SMBs ads on the new city sites, former tags, pay for a picture in your Places listing, integration with LBS, Local PPC, etc..).
What i mean is that once you build a platform you can “dress” it with many layers of clothes or to change the way it ‘dressed’.
Anyways, i think they will find a way to milk the cow. All in all, if Yelp, IYPs, City Grid 7 the other big guys are surviving by doing some money, I’m sure that Big G will find the path.
June 14th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Yes . . . opportunity is large; question is commitment.
June 14th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Greg,
This seems very unlike Google. Reading In The Plex, Steven Levy showed that Page and Brin did everything they could to eliminate the need for the early sales force. I’m not sure that this initiative isn’t doomed to the same fate.
I’m imaging a scene at Google right now where engineers are toiling to figure out how to do the whole thing with a direct user interface. Your post yesterday with city places hubs seems more Google like.
I may be missing something, but it doesn’t seem right.
June 14th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
Mike:
This is why I’m skeptical as well. It’s a big culture shift to build a sales force. Google has made the shift part way but I’m also uncertain they want to “go the distance” here.
June 14th, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Local search competitors of Google have pitched their sales forces to sell local for Google- Google hasn’t even nibbled. From experience their T sales are very aggressive at getting merchants to sign up however the customer service and follow through is not there. Sure they can sell it but can they keep the clients?
June 14th, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Agree retention is a big issue.
June 14th, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Google is currently conducting a lot of interviews and they are serious. I know people that are interviewing for sales and sales mgmnt. It is interesting though that the sales reps they’re interviewing are of the typical Google mold… that is from top universities + excellent grades. Sales reps don’t always fit cleanly into this culture but they are heavily recruiting (that’s why you don’t see too many ‘job postings’). Bottom line? They are building out a local feet on the street sales force starting with larger markets.
June 14th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
I hate that aspect of Google culture; it’s incredibly arrogant and wrong-headed in many cases (e.g., sales)
June 14th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Completely agree – I think having a more ‘open’ culture would absolutely benefit Google. At least be open to ‘regular’ university grads like Cal State schools
:) …it is wrong.
June 14th, 2011 at 7:08 pm
I think that culture issue will be a big problem that they need to address. In order to be successful selling to SMBs, you need to speak their language. How is a harvard grad going to gel with a streetwise pawnbroker or scrap dealer – both of which are lucrative local verticals. Its not just fancy restaurants and boutiques that want local advertising…
June 15th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
In a sense its about time for Google. There are a lot of resellers out there, to a large degree reselling google adwords, and cutting margins, let alone redistributing the spend into resources that don’t work as well as google.
The daily deal phenomena as marketed through web resources, whether its email or other sources, is an astounding phenomena that has worked remarkably well for its innovators. Its nothing new, in a sense; there have been efforts and massive amounts of marketing to highlight deals forever. Distributing them through the web is far more effective than old technology methods.
The only thing that strikes me as wierd is the hearsay that Google is trying to build a salesforce “of the best and brightest”. That doesn’t sound great. Terrific salespeople are hugely motivated, very competitive, well organized, etc. There is no requirement that their brain power is “Harvard-like” They could be, but its never been a requirement for great sales.
June 15th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
That “best and brightest” is a flaw in the Google culture in this case.
June 15th, 2011 at 5:47 pm
If they can invest $300MM in solar and build driver-less cars, seems like a drop in the bucket to field a sales force of a few thousand to test the waters in local sales. Some key factors:
1. Remember when everyone thought Marissa Mayer was “demoted” to Local? More like they “promoted” Local as a priority and brought in Mr. Wolf (Ms?) to get the job done.
2. Most of the other players rely heavily on GOOG for traffic/leads. GOOG should have better margins than competitors because they have no SEM expense.
3. Just by being out in the market with feet on the street GOOG can do a lot of damage to the other players. The conversation will go something like this – “why are you paying Company X 30% of your budget to buy leads from us when you could buy those same leads from us and save 30%?”
Of course customer service issues will be a brutal learning experience for GOOG, but it’s not like many others are knocking it out of the park in that category either.
It’s by no means a slam dunk that GOOG succeeds at this, but they are going to knock out a lot of other players just by trying.
June 15th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Andrew:
Agree that Google can potentially “win” if they commit and do it right. It’s a cultural shift though, which is to some degree in progress — obviously
June 15th, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Once again I have to agree with Andrew, especially on points 2 and 3. I’ve agreed w/ him so much recently. Might as well go out for bialy’s and have Mike B tag along and pay for them since he’s the one that “really loves them”.
June 16th, 2011 at 1:21 am
I will match Mike for bialy love any day of the week. I was practically born in Kosars.