The idea that specialization and segmentation yield higher results for all sales teams is an a priori position to take. Not every sales team is the same. Not every product fits Ross’s blueprint. In a classical sense — the argument that there is the way versus a way is a form of Newtonian determinism. For instance, we all feel this way from time to time. “I’ve done this in the past and had these results. I will continue to do this process and expect the same results.” Ya dig?

Success in sales fundamentally requires a wider lens — and the belief in finding a way even if that requires taking the road less travelled.

One of my favorite authors all time of all time, Robert Heinlein, once wrote:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

Several years back — I was lucky enough to have been elected Student Body President of a student body including more than 25,000 of my peers. From my term in office to my transition to the San Francisco / Silicon Valley startup community — I’ve stayed in touch with my school through my work with our KU Tech Trek program — designed to bridge the gap between midwestern Kansas University and the startup opportunities of the Bay Area. Several years into this — I’ve had the opportunity to connect with and mentor dozens of college students seeking full time positions or internships in the Bay Area.

The most common type of question from graduates the last 3 years has been along the lines of: “I don’t have direct experience in sales but I’ve been a 4.0 student and lead dozens of student groups. The only entry level positions I see available are so basic. Do you know anywhere that will allow me to continue to be creative? Where I can continue to be a leader?”

The startup community — and mostly the sales teams within the startup community — for years have fallen into Aaron Ross’s trap. Treating the talent produced by universities in 2017 like cogs in a machine is a sure fire way to create hostile environments, unsustainable results and churn your top performers.

For those who don’t know Aaron Ross’s “Predictable Revenue”, it is the methodology that helped add $100 million in recurring revenue to Salesforce.com, almost doubling their enterprise growth… with zero cold calls. “Cold Calling 2.0” as it was branded is the idea that email automation techniques and role specialization (SDR — BDR — AE — SR AE, etc) was the best way to manage and grow a sales team while hitting MoM targets.

What Ross couldn’t predict was the pace of rapid automation in entry level roles. Entry level roles in 2017 (largely SDRs) are being replaced by machine learning, automation, and technology tools that Account Executives can deploy to replace the function of an SDR. From Outreach.io, to Data Miner, Import.io — (literally there are more than a dozen in my Batman Utility belt that I use on a daily basis)

So you’re about to graduate in 2017. How do you avoid Aaron Ross’s trap?

Join a full-stack sales org like Wonolo.

At Wonolo we build a deep sales culture of full pipeline ownership, from prospecting to closing to account management and beyond. Our entry level BDRs, Account Executives, Senior Account Executives and even our CEO Yong Kim… we all prospect. We all take our own qualifying calls. We all close our own deals. We all maintain relationships with accounts even after the deal is won.

Being a relationship owner with an account is very very different than having one good email and passing off, or one good phone call and passing off, or one good pitch and passing off.

Where is the fun in that?

At the end of the day — if you’re graduating in 2017 — consider a sales org that allows for “full stack” development. Prove yourself early and avoid being segmented into a role where you prospect for 2 years, qualify for an AE for 2 years, and fingers crossed close your own deals.

Deep down if that Robert Heinlein quote resonated with you at all — then you owe it to yourself to avoid the Aaron Ross trap and find a sales team that allows you to flourish as a well-rounded full stack pipeline owner from day 1.

William Allen White (a fellow Jayhawk alumnus) describes Kansas as “a state of the Union, but also a state of mind, a neurotic condition, a psychological phase, a symptom indeed, something undreamed in your philosophy, an inferiority complex against the tricks and manners of plutocracy — social, political, and economic.”

I wonder, thinking back on my blood from 100 years ago, how this state of mind handled the knowledge that this was the last spring day? That this was the last harvest? There is a sound made uniquely by meadowlarks in the fields of Kansas. You hear words from their sound — answers to questions you know but have never spoken. With an end date to civilian life, to sovereignty on the plains, I wonder if my great-grandfather was noticing a change in tone and message from the meadowlarks?

100 years ago at Camp Funston, the training of the All Kansas 353rd not only marked the beginning of Runner James Baird’s journey to the Western Front but it also created the circumstances of the origin of the Spanish Epidemic which killed 50–100 million people (3%-6% of the worlds population) in 1918–1919.

Considering WW1 claimed 30–40 million casualties, there is an argument to be made that Camp Funston, home of the the All Kansas 353rd, was the most significant training camp of any division in The Great War. The boys at Funston wouldn’t have known that their common colds would morph into something with global consequences — but what would those midwestern boys have known or suspected of the Great War? How was this knowledge changing their Kansas state of mind?

It is difficult in 2017 to grasp a soldier’s experience at Camp Funston. It was not simply the All Kansas 353rd’s training facility as I’ve always imagined. Instead the nearly 4,000 temporary buildings were home to 40,000 future soldiers on constant rotation. As divisions such as the 353rd’s were deployed, their bunks were to be replaced by new recruits sourced from all 48 states. The camp was never not at maximum capacity. It was an assembly line.

You have to assume that these boys would have been absolutely terrified, espiecially during the summer days leading up to their deployment. Just six months prior to Runner James Baird’s arrival at Camp Funston was the first day of The Somme and the worst military day in British history. Most of us have heard all hear about Waterloo and the all-time historic effort exerted to defeat Napoleon. At Waterloo the British lost 8,000 soldiers. Fast forward 50 years and find yourself at Gettysburg, a 3 day battle claiming 50,000 Americans and the worst day in American military history. The first day of the Battle of the Somme just six months before Runner James Baird packed his bags? 60,000 British deaths in an afternoon.

One difference about WW1 up until the summer before Runner Baird headed over to Camp Funston, different than any war in history before it, was that the battles along the Western Front were continuous affairs of daily and nightly charges “going over the top.” The Somme offensive by the British was only a 4 hour horse ride from the German offensive at Verdun. The Somme was very very bad, but Verdun was perhaps worse. The significance of Verdun to history is that is marks an important strategy shift everyone at Camp Funston and about to be at Camp Funston would have known.

Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of Germany’s General Staff notably lead the design of the Verdun playbook. He was not man of subtly in stating, “The string in France has reached breaking point. A mass breakthrough — which in any case is beyond our means — is unnecessary. Within our reach there are objectives for the retention of which the French General Staff would be compelled to throw in every man they have. If they do so the forces of France will bleed to death.”

Re-read that quote. Breaking through the line was unnecessary. The Western Front was one continuous line of trenches and machine guns and a war of attrition where the side with the most bodies was likely going to win unless their moral broke first. It was a supply chain equation and the French and British needed reinforcements as their offensive power was being consumed by Falkenhayn and the Germans.

Could weapons be assembled and supplied to the front faster than the other side can resupply their fallen soldiers? If so how long could you keep that up? Going back to the beginning, in August of 1914 the assumption was that the war would be over by Christmas (that was the year of the Christmas truce we’ve all heard about at Christmas Eve services). Well, by 1917 with fresh troops getting together at the centrally located Camp Funston, millions of soldiers would have already been claimed by the Western Front.

Put yourself in Runner James Baird’s shoes in the early months of 1917 as he prepares to head on down to Junction City to see about the Camp Funston business. Every single one of the 40,000 fresh recruits who arrived with him would have know what they were up against. There’s no hiding this in 1917. You don’t walk into training camp and not talk about the upcoming season. The All Kansas 353rd would have known the Falkenhayn quote and intentional terror of that military strategy. They would have known the British had just experienced their worst defeat of the war — worse than their grandfather’s Gettysburg. They would have known that the staying power of this global war was unprecedented with no end in sight.

Where will we be sent? Verdun with the French? Or the Somme with the British? How will we be prepared? How long will this last? What is it like over there?

Kansan’s have a philosophy within our spirt, as William Allen White notes “against all manners of plutocracy — social, political, and economic.” I can’t help but to wonder about this philosophical clash in the months leading up to Camp Funston — to be joining in the assembly in a war of plutocracies in a land they’ve never seen.

Tune in next time! Throughout 2017 I will write as the tale of the All Kansas 353rd unfolds 100 years ago on the dates of the very moments as they happen. Next edition will include a deeper dive into Runner James Baird as the All Kansas 353rd trains at Funston, departs and arrives in Europe just in time to be the tip of the spear of the St. Mihiel Offensive.

homecoming.