Justin Shimoon of Sitebrand. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

Justin Shimoon said he might do things differently if he could start anew.

It's not the research and development that he wishes he knew more about. Techies from his Gatineau-based company, Sitebrand, wrote effective codes long ago to analyze visitor statistics on retailer websites.

Rather – in an ironic twist, since his company is built upon helping other companies drive up sales – Mr. Shimoon said marketing would be his focus if he were starting up Sitebrand today.

"Otherwise, you end up building a (technology) solution that's not developed properly. That's typical of companies. They miss out on that whole sales process," he explained.

But many agree that's fairly typical of companies in the Ottawa area. In response to what's been called the 'sales issue in Ottawa,' a local organization called the Sales Leadership Initiative has formed.

Local techies often forget about the sales side of things, especially in the heady days of starting up a company, said Brent Thompson. He's one of the initiative's steering committee members and co-managing partner of Peak Sales Recruiting.

Nearly a dozen sales professionals from local companies have banded together under the SLI, he said, to solve the problem. "It shouldn't be that way. That's the message we're trying to drill home," he said. "Sales has to be priority one."

Say you're an up-and-coming CEO with a degree and background in software development, explained Mr. Thompson. You create a next-generation e-mail program.

Problem is, hundreds of other e-mail programs are out there including brand names such as Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird and Yahoo! You know your code is much better – you worked on it, after all.

But how to get your product sold?

Mentorship is one solution, said Mr. Thompson. Local companies can join the SLI and work hand-in-hand with folks on the organization's steering committee.

"It will be individuals within companies. A CEO who will have the desire to learn, perhaps. Maybe they have an R&D background," he said.

Sales often require a different skill set than the laboratory-dominated world of R&D, said Michael Mulvey, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management. His research centres on consumer behaviour and advertising issues.

"You spend a lot of time presenting products and communicating values to a diverse set of people," he said.

He gave the example of selling an X-ray machine to a hospital; making a sales call like this at one location requires knowing many different personalities, he said. "It's a purchase by committee – biotechnicians, nurses, people in charge of philanthropy."

Even without specialized training in selling to different markets, local company Epiphan said it's done well without any mentorship.

Its 241-per-cent revenue growth pegs it as the company with the second-largest growth in Ottawa, said Gleb Esman, the company's Internet marketing specialist. Epiphan sells devices that record signals off of medical devices and other types of screens.

Mr. Esman pegs part of his company's financial success on smart use of Google keywords and advertisements, an act that doesn't necessarily require sales experience. Still, he said there are areas where R&D specialists can improve.

"Sometimes the smart people who generate ideas are not good at sales and marketing," he said, adding, "I'm not a sales guy at all. I hate it when somebody gives me cold calls (to do)."

He said he spends a lot of time in a "bunker," figuring out ways to drive activity to the website, and is unable to sometimes network with customers as much as he'd like.

The company has no dedicated commissioner and no sales team, he said, though some of its resellers may have sales staff.

And this is where support from an organization such as SLI could be useful, Mr. Esman said. "They might be more oriented to personal communication between businesses and customers. That might help because we do work with customers a lot."

The networking offered by SLI might be a valuable tool for burgeoning sales moguls, said Telfer's Mr. Mulvey, but he also advocated formal education.

He cited education and retraining as an important part of IBM's sales culture, for example. In tech, where products change far more quickly than in other industries, keeping up on sales techniques is essential.

"It's one thing to come up with products. But if nobody will buy them, the business can't be run in a marketable way," he said.

But whether the sales expertise exists to help Ottawa companies is another matter. Mr. Shimoon has been the chief executive of Sitebrand since its founding, and has worked with several companies in town and in Toronto to build up its reputation.

For him, Ottawa is heavy on technical expertise but light on sales know-how. "Generally speaking, Ottawa is not the best place to be recruiting sales people. The geographical centre is more for the federal government . . . but you can (sometimes) find sales people here."

Increasing the pool of talented sales reps is what SLI is all about, said Mr. Thompson.

"We want to do something to contribute and provide answers," he said. "Hopefully it will resonate here."

By Elizabeth Howell

Special to the OBJ

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STEERING WHEEL

Sales Leadership Initiative - steering committee

Autoskill

Corel

Engage Selling

Lumenera

Peak Sales Recruiting

Procom

QNX

Strattisoft Technologies

TrialStat

Source: Sales Leadership Initiative