Recently, Rich Rosen – a premiere Sales Recruiter posted a LinkedIN job for a company where the company was on a great trajectory and he noted – the Founders of the company actually carried a bag.
Carrying a Bag is a phrase that refers to someone who has done sales before, had a quota, and knows what it is like to sell. Most founders, especially in technology, come up through the engineering and development ranks. Usually they will partner with someone who has Sales or Sales/Marketing experience.
Recently, I had the unfortunate experience to work with a startup where the founders not only did not carry a bag, but they did not hire or have any experienced sales/marketing professionals. And, much like some of my other engagements – did not end well.
When I first engaged with them, it was OK. They gave me a baseline of what was needed and it started out pretty well. I started in one industry segment where critical feedback was received that their tech was not up to competitive standards. This was validated by the CTO who was working on developing further. I was switched to another industry segment and….right off the bat one major meeting secured and handful of other meetings were set. The CEO ran the meetings and was supposed to follow up…found out later, he was no salesguy and did nothing much after the meetings.
After I attended a weekly team meeting, one of the last ones. I shared feedback from my experience as a senior marketing executive. The marketing team, all based in India, were sending emails to the CRM contacts on a weekly basis, loading thousands of irrelevant contacts into the CRM, and were not positioning the company on a business/tech basis. The CTO was walking around claiming they had no competition. The targets they set were based on projected vapor….as there was no history or measurement of what was actually attainable, they were forecasting based on what they THOUGHT should happen.
They hired an AE who they indicated was competitive to me, when in fact, she (who turned out to be a total shit) was a senior sales executive whom I should have been supporting. After a 3 month lag, we were introduced and began working together. I provided her with appropriate market intelligence and set up a few meetings – feedback I received was that their market was in a downcycle and investment was not happening at the time. I was provided one list, no refined messaging, was not invited to any demostrations/discussions, and no further weekly meetings. The AE proceeded to tell me that the CEO thought I was difficult, would not take feedback, and would not listen to them. They did not like me from the start, I so learned. Ironically, this is what I felt about them.
Things progressed. I received zero indication that there was anything wrong with my performance. The AE declared “she loved me” and I was helping her immensely – which apparently was not communicated to the management. I ran a discovery call with a major account that she could not do resulting from a conflict, had a number of discussions and disqualified accounts, and diligently followed up on leads. One of whom wanted to meet the COO at a trade show. I spoke to the COO who was supposed to text the prospect….and, of course, never did.
At the end, the AE told me they were hiring full time and I was likely to be let go. The company hired a full time biz dev guy with zero experience in their industry who I was told made a 100 calls a day and was hung up on regularly – no surprise there. He sent an email blast ahead of a trade show with a link that did not work, blasted prospects that I had developed a relationship with, and claimed he created key messaging, accounts, and god knows what for the company – all within a month or two. I received a call from the COO who in less than one minute, without a thank you or anything – told me my engagement was over – “We hired full time and would have kept you, but you did not set up enough meetings. Any conflict you have with (Shitbizdevguy) you need to deal with him”. Exact words. From a COO who did not set up any meetings himself, nor close enough to pay for himself, and never talked directly with me to assess my performance. There is more, but I am saving that for the book I will write down the road.
The COO then posted a delightful customer testimonial from a customer that I BROUGHT IN, which I reposted to my network saying – I brought in this customer and if you want a real ABM focused, non phone banging rep – hire me, they just terminated me. OH…the team was PISSED OFF by that. I really don’t know why, because it was 100% true. The post was taken down, the team blocked me on LI. The AE who was going to give me a reference never did – so much for her “love and my great support”. I blocked her.
In a year and a bit (fractionally that equates to 4 months) what did I actually do?
Set up one major meeting in a key market where the management flew out to meet their management. Due to economic conditions, the deal did not go forward at that time. Not sure if anyone ever followed up. Called the Line of Business Head for an Enterprise Account who took customized information back to his team – the inept Marketing Manager made a connection on the IT side where it was going to go to RFP, because of the connection I had made – it bypassed RFP went straight to the stakeholders and resulted in a meeting, trial, and closed deal – one of the first organic deals for the company. I ran a discovery call with a major company in a target segment. I identified a key market opportunity for the solution – a real area of need that the solution can solve for. And, I set up – not only a few key meetings (no it wasn’t a lot) – which progressed to demo, but also found a way in for the AE in a few key accounts. So, to the COO’s point, I did not set up ENOUGH meetings, but found a way in to key target accounts, expanded market opportunity, got great market intelligence, and helped secure an opportunity that paid for myself 10X over. But, I did not set up enough meetings.
She told me that not long before my termination, the CEO spent a good amount of time screaming at her cause she did not make their unrealistic targets. A few months later, I saw a post for an AE for the company – and feel her days are numbered. The market in the US is kind of limited, two full time expensive AE’s are really not necessary at this point…..but, hey – what do I know??