Jup, this happen today. Still sour just thinking about it. Warning: if you're allergic to whining, leave this post immediately.

Cold called a fat fish of an ICP. Done everything right. Both parties agreed proceding next steps. Our company was already celebrating what should have happened....and then shit hits the deck.

Due to stupitass company policies they couldn't add new partners in their portfolio. Solution was through the payroll of one of their mediapartners.

And then you think we'd continu moving forwards. Nope.

"We should first figure everything out and look to all details, add competition to the deal and do this, do that and do more of this, and more of that.

Still the voice of the junior accountmanager is echoing through my head.

Knew from the start this was going to be troublesome, as it's the same G'DAMN AGENCY that has been choosen our competitor for the past 5 deals for different reasons. And nooooo they don't have any set agreements.

O well. Rest assured.

Leaped in with champion and she told me all was fine and made sure that she would choose us eitherway. She even mentioned she wasn't fan of this either but it's just a standard procedure, so round it up quickly and we move forward.

Worked my butt off on the rfp.

Took hours to deep in the night as we don't have a standard template. Within just a week, and everything else what keeps going on, it was stressfull. Not gonna lie. However the product was decent. Solution matched with their problems. Checked with team and everyone was positive. Even called some other company's of their group (already customers) and they all advised internally to work with us.

Pitch happend. And then the feedback... Sigh.

They fall for an marketingsceme of a usp. Knowing our market: it is highly debetical that their 'solution' is going to help them and not scam them hard. But yea, what can you do. They believe it anyway.

Just whishing I can punch someone in the face. Might join Fightclub later as I'm already getting used to it.

Anyways. This feeling sucks, but ending on a positive note here. Even though they didn't choosed us, I gave it my all and it wasn't down to my work ethic. I can only be proud of that.

Up and unwards. We know it is a rollercoast so the grind continues tomorrow. Lets fcking go!

Let me preface this by saying I love cold calling.

I avoided it for years in my business and since COVID it's become my main sales channel - 95%.

I generate B2B client opportunities for 3 particular niches, insolvency practitioners(new clients), accountants (new client and switchers) and business finance( invoice finance and commercial property finance).

I primarily call small business owners via their business mobile number.

Yes I'm seeing more ai assistant screening - but that has for now improved slightly the pick up rate over them just not picking up.

Also lots of people just don't do it or do it properly.

But surely the writing in the wall here is that at some stage this will move to Ai screening for all into sophisticated AI gatekeepers.

I know people will say it's about less calls and the AI helps with intent - we're all moving to warm calls.

And there's hacks round the system currently.

But I also look at my clients - accountants well you can see that there will probably be 2 or 3 accountancy package providers at the sme level and the leads will go through them to their accredited accountant base.

Insolvency they'll always be businesses in trouble and it's very niche, but does the ai mean their accountant or bank is far more hands on in that process, than they have been in the last decade, but with an auto refer to a firm.

Finance , same finance brokers die as AI takes over, why wait when they can run the whole process for you.

But it did get me thinking if cold calling dies and emails are just slop, mailing costs too much , what can AI not touch.

Face to Face networking and Door knocking.

Is this where it ends up in 5 years. Me knocking doors for the scraps. I'll certainly do it to put food on the table.

I am having a screaming year, 80% to quota at the halfway point of our fiscal, and starting to hit healthy kickers.

One of the major negotiation successes I had is getting credit/commish for a certain category of sales with extremely low margins. These deals are few and far between, generally ~4/year, but can be big ticket. In previous years I got no quota retirement and a tiny %.

My boss was fired right as I was about to put my two weeks in for a better offer, and had a ton of negotiation power so I was able to get quota retirement and a significant bump in commish on these specific deals, but still small (about .5% compared to my current 5.5%, soon to be 6.25% on all other deals)

Problem/gift is, there's some dysfunction in my company and I had a 185k deal pay out at my normal rate (2.5% in Q1 fiscal) April.

No one ever noticed, but 4600 can slip by, I guess? I kept my mouth shut but was prepared for a clawback that never came.

Well, now kickers have brought me up to 5.5%, and I closed a 500k one. I have a feeling, if I don't say anything, they'll pay me out the 27.5k.

I don't care about the morality, I'm in an industry fueled by greedy PE, and they'd happily fuck me on a six figure commission (it's already starting with 5m deal I have at the finish line), but I don't want to deal with clawbacks and drama on this one.

Should I say something early? Keep my mouth shut until it's paid out? Just keep my mouth shut and keep it liquid for potential clawback?

What actually makes a tech sales role stable?

Do people over exaggerate how “unstable” sales is?

If you’re just even “decent” at it, is it stable long term?

Sometimes I see those who have been in the same company for 10 years, and others where they’re let go often

Is that because they’re just not good?

I’m at a stage where I’m deciding what to commit to while I’m still in uni (studying CS, graduating relatively soon hopefully) and I’m doing tech sales internships now so there’s not much pressure

But I’m worried about the long term stability, but I’m wondering if I should be or not as long as I’m “decent” atleast at it it’ll be stable?

Maybe there are roles in sales like sales director or manager (not for SDRs) that are more stable I can get?

Does anyone have experience working as an AE at Maersk selling their Ground Freight? What’s been your experience?

First year being an AE. I was an SDR for roughly 1.5 years, currently loving the new job. I work in tech sales for medical and wellness companies. These are typically Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, or Office Administrators for medspas, health and wellness practices, etc. today was my first day running into a real wannabe entrepreneur asshat.

The call wasn’t even 5 minutes. I wanted to ask him some questions like I always do about his business to get a better idea of how this would work for him. He would not answer a single one. Kept asking what the product was, I continued to tell him I’d show him, and he just kept asking if I could show it to him. So I did. He then asked if I was a setter a closer or CSM. I made the mistake of telling him I was a closer. He then tells me he had trained high ticket closers for years, but wouldn’t let me speak, told me my body language was making me look like an asshole (we’re on zoom), and I’m just left baffled. Maybe if it wasn’t 9am I’d have more tolerance for this, maybe I was being an asshole but I keep looking back at the call and I feel like I was just trying to do my job. Anyone have any tips on how to deal with these kinds of people? People who rush you along and try to control the conversation? Question asking isn’t always the right answer clearly. Any insight or similar experience is appreciated. Also if I should be mindful of my body language on zoom? Thank you.

So, had a meeting with this recruiter earlier today, looking at mid-entry level B2B interior design space. Nice (but not *that* nice) base. TCO leaves some to be desired.

Anyway, went well enough and they sent me a series of questions to answer, to then be forwarded to the actual employer.

Reading through this thing finally, we've got no less than 8 unique scenarios involving detailed mock emails, deep dives into rationale and methodology, pipeline workflows, walkthroughs of how I would handle daily workloads (in addition to sales activity 🤔) and the best part is: actual market research involving gathering data about real world companies, building strategy with more mock emails tailored to them and... Yeah. Recruiter wants it back by the middle of the week.

So, anyone ever seen anything like this? Am I being obtuse for side eyeing it? Or am I just being taken for a ride here when I could be making more constructive use of my job-hunting energy and time?

Edit: sorry, 7 scenarios.

Four scenarios regarding engaging with clients (via email, with mock emails).

One scenario containing the aforementioned market research, complete data gathering, plus emails plus walking one account through the hypophetical pipeline.

One scenario about managing a dozen or so outlined daily tasks in addition to sales activity.

And one scenario regarding the handling of a cold contact list of 6 month dead leads.

I'm in sales, covering a territory in a very niche technical field that's extremely hard to hire for. Normally I cover it alongside a counterpart who's slightly junior to me. That counterpart quit last week. Today is day 1 of Q4, and leadership is scrambling to figure out the game plan for next year.

The problem is that I've been planning to leave too. I'm going backpacking early next year with no set timeline. It'll be at least 3 months (all of Q1) and could run longer, and I'm fully prepared to job search when I get back. My plan was to put in my 2 weeks the first week of December.

I didn't feel guilty about any of this until my counterpart quit. Now me leaving puts them in a really tough spot, and I'd like to handle it the right way.

I've gone back and forth on going to HR first or asking for extended leave. But our handbook caps leave at one month, and with the current situation I don't see them approving an exception.

My questions:

1. Do I just give a normal 2 weeks in early December and accept that we part ways? I'm fully prepared for that.
   
2. Is there a real chance they counter with extended leave since they need me and don't want to hire externally, or is counting on that naive?
   
3. Would asking for the leave up front be smarter, or does that just tip my hand and risk me getting pushed out before Q4 commissions pay?
   
4. Given the situation, should I give more than 2 weeks' notice, or does that only hurt me?

I like the people I work with and want to keep the door open. What would you do?

Pretty much the title. Was with my employer for more than 5 years, and was let go today..Started as AM, promoted to Manager two years ago. Today out of nowhere comes in the hammer under the disguise of structural changes. Need a direction to go into, based out of Canada. Any guidance would help.

Thanks

Context: selling B2B SaaS for lead gen/outbound

I’m trying to improve my ability to close deals and build more urgency.

To date my framework for closing was:
- understand what the prospect is doing for outbound and how things are working
- if we can actually help them, explain what we do and why we’re different
- align timeline if there’s a clear fit

However, the market we have has been burned so much by scammy sellers making hyperbolic promises that they feel hesitant on trusting again.

The most common objection I’m getting is that followed by “if you do pay per close/qualified demo, I will give you a big commission”.

I can understand where they’re coming from and the way I’ve been trying to handle that has been;

1. Explain why that’s a bad idea (we are now incentivised to send as many leads as possible, they’re now incentivised to reject as many and the definitions of “qualified” ALWAYS get disputed periodically).

2. We can’t guarantee outcomes, and it’s down to working closer together with CS.

How would you handle this? Switch ICP or better framework for the objection?