Chief Marketing and Sales Officer

The Counsel Connect Network (“CCN”) publishes legal Web sites, sites that discuss particular legal topics. We also partner with other legal Web sites that place our calls to action on their site. Our sites and these affiliated sites produce leads from prospective clients, which we then screen to determine if they have a viable case. If they do, we refer the prospective client to a suitable attorney in their area, in exchange for an introduction fee from that attorney.

We call these other legal websites “affiliate websites.” Clients contact us in four different ways:

Web forms
(800) telephone numbers
Web chats
Click to call (the prospect enters their telephone number and asks us to call them)

B. An Unusual Opportunity

CCN is a very unusual opportunity, offering extremely high upside with essentially no risk.

C. What We Are Looking For

We are looking for a Chief Marketing and Sales Officer (“CMSO”). Your primary responsibility would be to create sales channels for CCN, manage affiliate relationships, and provide overall management and direction of the sales and marketing function for CCN. You will be a senior executive in the company, and should have sufficient experience and skill to function in that role. As noted below, the emphasis is on sales rather than marketing. It is quite possible that the CMSO will have another title such as Executive Vice President.

We are looking for someone who can manage the entire process. You would be in charge of sales and marketing. You would tell our CEO and CTO, “This is what I want you to do.” We seek someone who has the will to manage.

D. Ideal Background and Characteristics

Ideal background and characteristics include the following:

Prior professional experience in some aspect of the Internet and the Web is in almost all cases essential. (If you do not have that background but think you can handle the position, write to us and maybe you can convince us. Expect a lot of skeptical questions.)
Extensive Rolodex. Ideally, you already have high-level contacts at major websites. If not, you will need to convince us you can get in the door with these people. We have been surprised at the number of senior executives we meet who do not seem to know very many high-level people.
High energy. We work harder and produce more.
Exceptional intelligence and ability to learn from mistakes. Whoever coined the phrase, “He does not suffer fools gladly” was probably thinking of us when he did so.
High level of intellectual curiosity, particularly when it comes to law, computers, the Internet and the Web.
Intellectual depth. Thoughtful, reflective, analytical, a thinker.
Prior successful experience in sales is highly desirable. If you lack such experience but you are exceptionally talented in other areas, we will give you an opportunity to convince us that you can make the transition. If you can convince us, you can probably sell our customers on our service, too.
Self managing
Exceptionally high level of personal responsibility and follow-through
Proactive, a doer
Hunter-killer, closer
Excellent computer skills
Excellent oral and written communication skills
Low total cost of interaction
Easy to reach on the telephone — A lot of people never took the “how to answer your telephone” class in high school. The last thing we need are people who are difficult to reach.
Team player — You will be working with our marketing representatives, and covering them when they are not available.
Loves to sell
Understands how complicated Web and Internet business and this industry are. We are leery of those seeking to change from a long non-tech career (see this essay.)
Excellent negotiator

E. Conferences

Most likely a suitable candidate attends at least a few national conferences on a regular basis (e.g., ad tech, AffCon, Affiliate Summit, Conversion Conference, LeadsCon, PubCon, Web 2.0 Expo, Web 2.0 Summit). If you have not attended any of these conferences, we would want to understand why. Attending and speaking at such conferences will be an important part of this job.

F. Affiliate Marketing

Our marketing strategy is to set up a large affiliate network that will serve as the advertising vehicle for our services. We would prefer someone who already understands affiliate marketing, but we might be flexible on this issue. Some ideal characteristics for an affiliate marketing expert include:

You should be familiar with the affiliate world. You should know the players and you should understand the technologies and strategies that successful affiliate marketers are using.
You should have relationships with senior executives at Tier 1 networks.
You should be comfortable negotiating CPA and cost-per-sale deals.
Ideally you should have some understanding of conversion (e.g., familiarity with the books of the Eisenberg brothers, Landing Page Optimization by Tim Ash, whichtestwon.com)

G. Traditional Media

Traditional media, such as print, can also be appropriate for affiliate relationships. We have been told, for example, that many newspapers will consider CPA deals. Whether to pursue traditional media, and if so when, would be the CMSO’s decisions.

H. Channels

There are several dozen channels CCN can pursue. Your first task will be to determine which of these CCN should initially focus on. Time and energy are scarce and you would decide where the lowest hanging fruit is. Ideally you are already up to speed on these channels.

I. Our Team

Our company consists of extremely talented entrepreneurs, technical talent and Internet professionals. You would work closely with our CEO, James Mitchell, and our CTO, Keith MacKay.

J. Self Managing

Because this position involves a high level of autonomy, it’s essential that you be self-managing. If the CEO has to spend much time at all managing you, we have hired the wrong person. We envision a troika where the CEO worries about law firms/intake/types of legal cases to pursue, the CTO worries about IT systems/processes/issues, and the CMO worries about marketing/sales/affiliates.

K. Sales Management

We are talking to affiliate management agencies who would approach prospective affiliate websites. In addition to managing them, you would be responsible for many of the high end sales. Over time we expect to build a sales staff, composed of both outside OPMs (Outsourced Program Managers) and in-house sales representatives, which you would manage. Reasonably soon, we expect to hire a Sales Manager who would manage the sales representatives, and you would manage the Sales Manager.

L. Startup Culture

We are a startup and it’s essential that you understand startup culture.

Ready, Fire, Aim mindset
Roll up your sleeves and get it done.
Work long hours as needed while remaining productive
Low tolerance of bureaucracy and wasting time
Get things done. Now. JFDI.
Ideally you have worked at a startup. If not, at least you know people who do. If you do not know such people, we would wonder, “Why not?”
Motivated by accomplishment
Decisive
Happiness is positive cash flow.

M. Silicon Valley

A significant part of this job is to network with top executives at websites with substantial traffic (both legal and non-legal) and to negotiate deals. Since more of these websites are in Silicon Valley than any other part of the country, there is a strong rationale for you to live in Silicon Valley. People say, “I can always fly there for meetings” but that is not the same as going out every night and making contacts. You really cannot do that if you do not live there.

Manhattan is probably the second most desirable city for such networking. We expect that reasonably soon we will have a senior person in Manhattan, but for the first M&S position, Silicon Valley is preferable to Manhattan.

N. Location

The CEO currently resides in Boston. He will be moving to Los Angeles reasonably soon. He firmly believes that virtual teams are not a good idea for a startup. So in terms of personal preference, he prefers that the CMSO be willing to move to LA. On the other hand, he recognizes that Silicon Valley is much more important than LA in terms of marketing and sales. We also realize that the right person will be extremely difficult to find, so we are willing to talk with superstars who are unwilling to move to Los Angeles or Silicon Valley.

O. Availability

It is essential that you be easy to reach on the telephone, and incredibly responsive to voice mails and emails. One reason we have been so successful so quickly is that our professionals are easy to reach, and thus we eliminate the time- and energy- draining practice of telephone tag. If you are not easy to reach, this is the wrong position for you.

P. What We Are Not Looking For

What we are not looking for includes:

Those who only understand marketing and who do not know how to sell.
Those who write 100 page marketing plans.
Those who spend all of their time thinking about branding.
Those with a staff (as opposed to a line) mentality. You will be on the front lines. If you can’t stand the heat …
Navel contemplation that doesn’t lead to action. Omphaloskepsis may be a wonderful thing for self-knowledge, but it will not help us build our startup into the dominant industry player.
Those who are uncertain about their sales skills (or who are certain that they have none).
People with a low level of intellectual curiosity. This is an industry that is constantly changing and growing. You must be willing to change and grow with it.
People who do not carefully read the materials we send to them. Efficient knowledge transfer is an important part of our business.
People who are not really good with computers. People who are not looking to continuously improve their computer skills.
Those who do not follow through.
People with a high cost of interaction.

Q. A Great Opportunity for the Right Person

This is a great opportunity for the right person. This position is suitable for an unusual person who has the entire package — intelligence, computer skills, ability to learn rapidly, knowledge of how to sell (or ability to learn it quickly), someone who can build relationships, someone who is self-managing and who knows how to get things done. If you are the person we seek, we want to hear from you today!

R. One Shot Deals

There will be many people who read this page who say to themselves, “I am not the right guy but I know a few websites (or other channels) with substantial traffic who would be a good fit.” If that is the case, we want to hear from you! For the right introduction, we are quite willing to be generous.

S. If You Are Interested

If you are interested, please send your resume and a writing sample (if you have one) to our CEO, James Mitchell, at jmitchell@counselconnectnetwork.com. In the subject line please state “Chief Marketing and Sales Officer.”

T. Executive Search Firms

We are willing to work with executive search firms. We prefer firms that understand startup culture. If they do not, it is inconceivable that they will be able to learn enough about startups during the life of this search engagement.

One problem most startups have with search firms is that so many of them submit individuals who would be great for a Fortune 500 company. A person who would be great for a Senior Vice President job at Exxon is in almost all cases a terrible fit for a startup, and vice versa. Since these search firms deal almost exclusively with very large companies, that is their frame of reference. The person we hire almost certainly is not looking to work for a major company, with the inevitable politics, organization battles, and slow-moving culture. The right candidate wants to run his own show. Again, if a search firm does not understand all of this, they should focus on more traditional search assignments. A great article to read is