uSalesman? if so, use iSalesman

March 26, 2010

In a recent blog post, my coworker Tien Anh Nguyen mentioned a new social networking site for sales people called iSalesman. I hadn’t heard of this site before, but I was very curious after reading his post because my role at OpenView Labs (the strategic consulting arm of the VC) is to provide sales and marketing support to our portfolio companies. I’m always on the hunt for new resources that the sales teams that I work with could utilize.

So what are the key features of the site? Blogging, Forums, “Rate my Company” and, what is probably their most viewed portion of the site, job opportunities. Perhaps I should run this site by my colleague, Diana Winings who handles recruitment support for both OpenView and the expansion stage companies that we have provided venture capital funding for….Most of the companies in our portfolio are looking to hire new sales people at the moment.

In theory, iSalesman seems like a great idea… As a former Lead Qualification Specialist, I recognize that networking is the key to success in a sales role. However, when I tried signing up to become a member of the site to be able to “rate my company” (something you can’t check out unless you enroll and I was curious to see if any of our prospects were in the system), I found myself getting really frustrated with the registration form. After multiple attempts, I finally thought I had created my profile. When I was prompted to enter in my new username and password, it declined me. I then clicked on the “I forgot my password” button… I entered in my email address so that the site could send me my temporary password, and I got a message saying that my email was not in the database!

Hmm… Perhaps iSalesman could use some additional product and development support. They surely would benefit from Agile Development Methods. I wonder if they are looking for Investors? Seeing how it is free to sign up for the site, I am curious to know how they are generating revenue.

If you had growth capital, would you invest in a company like iSalesman?