From local stalwarts like American Underground and Raleigh Founded to national brands like WeWork, co-working spaces have spread across the Triangle in the last decade as places for collaboration and productivity. But Vince Beese, founder of Raleigh-based Sales HQ, doesn’t label his new space as a hub for co-working.
He’s coined a new term to describe the hub—“co-selling”.
Sales HQ—with its first location about to open in RTP’s Perimeter Park—is a community for sellers and sales teams seeking a high-energy space to encourage and support their typically extroverted work style. Initially conceptualized in 2018 but kick-started in October, the startup hopes to facilitate career development, education and mentoring for motivated sellers.
“What I’m trying to do is replicate what it was like to be on the sales floor,” Beese said.
But he isn’t trying to recreate the obscenely hectic, Hollywood-exaggerated environment that Jordan Belfort cultivates in The Wolf of Wall Street. No, Beese just wants to invigorate a spark that many sales folk have lost since the pandemic, which disrupted traditional in-person office culture.
“There’s a floor,” he described. “There are salespeople. There’s a buzz, like right when you walked in the room, you could feel the energy.”
Beese thinks working alongside other sellers and being in a physically motivating environment is one of the best ways for sellers to increase productivity and benefit their sales—thus, the term “co-selling.”
“You and I might be sitting next to each other at Sales HQ,” he said. “You work for a company, I work for a different company, but we can still learn something from each other.”
Having a physical space for sellers to, well, sell—even from different companies and industries—can invite collaboration and discussion.
Beese said he got into sales by “happenstance”. After graduating from the University of Maryland, he spent a few years within the broadcasting industry and eventually “walked into” a sales job at Billboard.
After doing time for a couple large companies, Beese joined a 10-person startup in Manhattan and within 14 months helped the team go from a zero-revenue project to a publicly traded company.
“I saw the difference of working at a large corporation to then working at this small, nimble, ‘everybody’s in it together’ startup,” he said. “And I was like, from then on, for the rest of my career, I only want to work at startups.”
Since getting the startup bug, Beese has been part of four exits and has worked in revenue-side roles from direct sales to client success and growth. He currently runs a B2B sales consultancy, Sales@Scale, which focuses on revenue growth for venture capital-backed startups.
From his experience in sales, he said great sellers need an atmosphere that can supply extroverted human interaction and a space to decompress in a high-stress environment.
Beese also said the best sellers are constantly being challenged.
“So what better way to get better than being around other people that are as skilled as you are—maybe even more skilled,” he added.
Besides creating a co-selling community, Beese said the location allows for training, education and networking, which is why he calls it a “hub” for improving performance.
Currently, Beese is looking for “founding members” to help build the space, set the tone and start the culture. Over time, he hopes word will spread and more people will flock to the space.
“I’m not guaranteeing anything, but I will say, if we get the right people to come into the place, that dynamic is going to happen naturally,” he said.
To encourage community and collaborations, Beese plans to hold morning “stand ups” to celebrate goals and wins, and show-and-tells where members can talk about what they’re selling and how they’re selling it.
“The networking events are meant to be fun, the activities are meant to be fun as well,” he said. “You can’t get that from working in your home office. And you can’t get that from working remote.”
Beese said he’s already received great feedback about the concept from other extroverted sellers who miss being in an energized environment. “If they get it, they understand that they need it,” he added.
First location about to open
In order to find the right space, Beese surveyed other sellers and used the data to eventually choose a building with free parking within RTP for its access to coffee shops and restaurants.
While the space has an open floor, just like a stereotypical sales floor, it also has conference rooms, phone booths and training rooms along with amenities like a kitchen and a gym.
Sellers can become a member through a “hot seat” deal, which starts at $250 a month, or sign up for their own personalized workstation within the space. Beese added there is a day pass option, too.
“I want it to be a hub,” Beese said.
He hopes that over time more and more people use the space for sales kickoffs, training sessions and quarterly meetings which then lead to users becoming permanent members.
Beese is currently self-funding and developing the whole project.
“I don’t want to raise money—I want to get this thing to profitability as fast as possible,” he said.
If the idea finds success in RTP, Beese hopes to employ the same concept elsewhere in the Triangle and in other cities.
And while the space and vibe has been designed with salespeople in mind, he said Sales HQ is a great environment for anyone in a client-facing or entrepreneurial role. As long as they don’t prefer a workplace that’s as silent as a library.
“I think what we’re probably not a great environment for is people that like peace and quiet,” Beese said.
Sales HQ will hold its first open house on March 13 and its grand opening on March 15. The deadline to become a founding member and receive special privileges is also March 15. Those who are interested in the space can also book a tour here.