[ian]

That's a good point. I'd be curious to learn what the variance across the average corporate sales team is.

I think there are basically 2 forms of distribution at start-ups that multiply together. The distinguishing factor seems to be whether relationships can make a real difference ie talking to people (partnerhips, PR etc) or are not needed (growth hacking). There is a ton of interplay e.g. you could do all sorts of smart stuff to hack a big social platform, but propriety early access to new platform features via a great relationship with one of the platform team will give you a differentiated toolbox.

For the first type of distribution a great salesperson who is also highly intuitive about product, growth hacking, scalable systems etc, can have even more impact than if they are just selling as part of a traditional sales team.