Behind the scenes of Amazon's Sales Team

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In today’s Follow Up:

• Behind the scenes: Amazon’s sales team

• Expansion sales questions 🗣️ 

• Mistakes that undermine your sales credibility 🤔 

• Sales jobs, job market & a meme 😂

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Behind The Scenes of Amazon’s AI Sales Team

Ever wonder how tech behemoths like Amazon operate their sales org?

If so, today’s your lucky day.

A recent BI article gave us a peak behind the scenes of what Amazon is doing to motivate its sales team to sell more AI products and beat the competition in the AI race.

By now, it’s pretty clear that AI is going to be a part of almost all technology we use. But it’s still unclear which company will own the market. OpenAI and tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon are all racing for market share.

Here’s how Amazon’s doing it. 👇️ 

"Find One, Launch One, Ramp One"

To get momentum going, Amazon named its newest sales initiative “find one, launch one, ramp one”.

Every month, sales reps at AWS are expected to:

• Find at least one sales opportunity for Q or Bedrock (Amazon’s AI tools).

• Launch at least one customer workload on the AI tools.

• Generate real revenue from the workloads.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a real sales initiative without a leaderboard. The leaderboard displays top performers for the entire team to see, and reminds everyone of the December 1st deadline.

Oh, and if you finish at the top of the leaderboard by the deadline, you can win prizes like pizza and wine night at an executive’s house.

All Hands on Deck

This initiative isn't just for the traditional sales team; it's roping in sales architects, customer success managers, and even software consultants. The message is clear: everyone works in sales.

Show Me the (AI) Money

Amazon isn’t playing any games when it comes to aligning their sales initiatives with new incentives.

• Sales reps will get a $1,000 bonus for the first 25 Amazon Q licenses sold (up to $20,000 per customer).

• Sales reps will also earn $5,000 for SMBs and $10,000 for large companies that "achieve 3 consecutive months of specified Bedrock incremental usage in 2024,". 

As Charlie Munger famously said, “Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome”. These incentives make it pretty clear what is expected of sales reps. 

Too much pressure?

According to employees in the article, there has been a significant shift in AWS's sales culture recently.

Traditionally the org has focused on helping customers save on IT costs, but some reps feel that the company is now pushing its sales teams to actively promote AI products, even if they aren’t the best fit for a customer.

This pivot hasn't been without controversy. Some salespeople feel uncomfortable with what they perceive as "force-feeding" AI products to customers who might not need them. But a spokesperson for AWS said the idea that Amazon has changed its goal of saving customers money is ‘false.’ “The company always starts with ‘the outcomes our customers are trying to achieve and works backward from there.’ “

Speed Speed Speed.

The urgency behind this initiative is clear. AWS finds itself in an unfamiliar position playing catch-up in the AI race. With OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google breathing down their necks, the cloud pioneer risks losing its chance of becoming the go-to platform for AI development.

AWS CEO Matt Garman's message is simple: "Speed really matters." But it's not just about working more hours. It's about making decisions faster. In the AI gold rush, speed matters.

The TLDR:

• Cross-functional selling is the new norm. Everyone works in sales.

• Aggressive incentives drive results.

• Teams need to balance new offerings with customer needs.

• Speed may be the most important factor in winning the AI race.

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Sales Around The Web 🗞️

👀 11 Mistakes That Undermine Your Credibility With Buyers, according to experts.

📈 McKinsey breaks down how AI could change the rules of B2B sales, and the most likely use cases we’ll start to see on sales teams.

🏢 Amazon is instructing corporate employees to return to the office 5 days a week. This comes a year after they announced they’d require employees to return for 3 days a week.

✍️ A sales rep gives their guide on how to spot a toxic workplace so you don't make the mistake of joining one.

Checking In On The Job Market

Daily Reminder: Don’t include candidates in your internal emails.

Sales Meme of the Day