Doug Landis's Linkedin Analytics

I am .. A Sales Professional. Everyone is in sales, and selling is hard. But if you remember, selling is just a series of conversations between two people. In every conversation, there is an exchange of information and ideas, and the outcome of that conversation is to determine if it makes sense to have another conversation. I’ve sold everything from newspapers, ice cream, oracle databases, cloud applications, software companies, and even people (legally speaking). I am ... A Marketer. Marketing is also hard. It’s a discipline that requires expertise in more areas than any other role in an organization. Marketing, like Sales, is all about closing/ expanding revenue. Brand, programs, and leads all matter, but we do these to help close revenue and keep / expand customers. To do this, marketing needs to align around the brand to raise awareness, programs to drive engagement, and content to help sellers and buyers navigate a decision. Marketing also involves crafting three narratives: the company narrative (why you exist), the marketing narrative (who you are and what you do), and the sales narrative (what problems you solve and what value you deliver). A Storyteller. Storytelling is one of the most human forms of communication. If you’re a good storyteller, you’re a good communicator. You can build deep and rich connections if you're a good communicator. Most people suck at telling stories because they don’t understand 1) the point of what they are trying to communicate and 2) the core mechanics necessary for a story to be considered a story and not just a sequence of events. I honed my storytelling skills at 5 years old when I started acting. It’s a skill that takes time, attention, and practice, but it will pay dividends for the rest of your life. A Connector. If selling, marketing, and storytelling are all about building connections, then I’m a connector! I believe that people make THE difference in any organization. In fact, in the last 7+ years as a partner at Emergence Capital, one of the first steps we took after we invested in a company was to determine if they had the right butts in the seats. If not, we’d help them identify who was the best fit for the company at the size and stage. Great leaders hire and build great teams, and great teams build amazing companies with lasting cultures. As the former Growth Partner at Emergence Capital, Chief Storyteller at Box, VP of Sales Productivity at Salesforce, and AE (and one of the first-ever SDRs) at Oracle, I’ve been fortunate to learn from and help scale some of the best companies in SaaS.