Ctralt

AE (Account Executive)

Advice for navigating internal political situation

Hello!

I am dealing with a situation that I would greatly appreciate some advice or perspective. As a quick background I work as an enterprise sales rep for a large tech company and I've been working on what will be our biggest account/sale to be closed in company history.

I'm quite new to our org, only 3 months now in the seat. The initial conversations were started by the previous rep that I've taken over and have been progressing. Since the deal has legs and such a high acv, there a ton of eyes on it. Investors, the CEO, our upper management, my direct boss are all eagerly watching it, who each seem to have their own agenda...

The problem that I am facing is that my direct boss our director of sales has formulated a strategy to pursue , that our CEO and other executive leadership disapprove of and will not move forward with. This was quietly shared with me tonight by our vice President. This puts me in an extremely difficult position, I do not want to throw my boss under the bus or piss off our leadership as I am brand new to the company and in both cases would be detrimental to my career.

I'm caught in a bit of an internal political situation which is really not my favorite place to be.

Super appreciative to any thoughts or advice from anyone here to navigate a situation like this.

Thanks

😤 Conflict Resolution

🎈 Mentorship

7

16 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

7

💀

Those things you’re walking on right now, the eggshells… BREAK THEM. Break every single one of them with hiking boots. Call them into a room, virtual or otherwise. Offload all of it. You’re in the perfect position to do it, also.

Group email, Slack, Teams , whatever- “Yo! I’m new hear and I’m not gonna go off half-cocked and half- baked. I’m sensing we’re not aligned and I would like consensus before I make any move. Can I ask for some clarity please?”

You have to diversify the responsibility and be the best soldier of execution ever created. You can’t own the strategy, not at that level.

Ctralt

Fire Starter

2

AE (Account Executive)

This was great advice, I took some inspiration from this, I agree with you at the end of the day everyone needs to be in a room together and I need to take control of the conversation or the dynamic won’t work.

I appreciate your input

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Agreed. This is not something you want to be in the middle of. And bottom line, you want to close this deal, and will need all the executive support you can get.

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I don’t think that is what @oldcloser said. He’s saying for this guy to get more involved and declare his newness and need for help.

The problem is the help he’s getting is coming privately and he needs it to be more public. Everyone needs to align on the strategy from the top down, which is not what’s happening.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

3

Account Executive

Damn dude. That sounds like a fucking nightmare, haha.

How the fuck did it come to be that they told you the director’s plan was no bueno before they told him?

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

👀🍿

Ctralt

Fire Starter

0

AE (Account Executive)

We were at a customer dinner together when the VP pulled me aside and shared it with me, glad he did as it would’ve been worse if I hadn’t known

Pachacuti

Politicker

3

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Tough situation.

What I would do is form a Capture Team. Get everyone in the room who might be involved and craft the strategy, as a group, to win. Sales, SE, delivery, etc and include mngt like your VP and 1-2 counterparts. That way the marching orders come from higher up that your director.

This is when Miller Heiman style training is very helpful because it’s perfect for large account strategy.

You need to be the QB here and map out who to throw the ball to for what aspect of the win strategy. Get buy in from the VP and others. That way you are covered if it goes south and you can claim the win if it goes well.

If you don’t have the background, google “large account sales win strategy “ or similar and you’ll get a lot of good ways to map out win strategy, or at least lead the discussion.

Good luck!

Ctralt

Fire Starter

1

AE (Account Executive)

Love that idea, I’m not familiar with Miller Heiman I will have to check that out

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

The Capture Team concept is big with the companies which sell big Gov't deals. Very common to see a Capture Team when they are going after multi-million/billion dollar deals.

Ctralt

Fire Starter

0

AE (Account Executive)

It’s such a great concept, I mean it makes perfect sense. We actually do pursue large govt contracts in our business unit so I’m surprised our org hasn’t tried tried that strategy before. It will definitely be something I try for our team

pirate

Big Shot

2

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Wow sounds really tough!

Who has been most involved with the deal so far? Who knows the most about the deal?

If direct boss and director have been involved try to understand and then explain that to C Level. C Level is very helpful but can get clueless

Can everyone win? Can you be the orchestrator? Can you be the taskmaster and tell manager, VP, CEO, investors what each of them can do to help you win?

Map out all the decision makers? With whom do you have the relationship with customer? How good is it? Where are the blind spots? Can you get other people involved in those?

Are there any different geos involved, can you tackle those?

Have you done a close plan? What does that look like? What do you need to close the deal? Whom do you need? Price ok? Product ok? Any terms and conditions? Legal?

Ctralt

Fire Starter

2

AE (Account Executive)

I know the most about it and have been most involved so far, the previous rep left things kind of in shambles so I’ve been the one picking up the pieces and moving the conversation forward.

I’m sure this is partly due to how long we’ve been negotiating with the prospects team that upper management is starting to get scared about the deal and it’s just the unfortunate timing of being new and walking into that situation.

I like the term orchestrator, that’s a good course of action to pull everyone together and lay out a close plan

Super appreciative of the input

pirate

Big Shot

0

🦜☠️ Account Executive

So a BIG positive is that the prospects are talking and engaging. Hope you get this closed and keep us posted of the progress. I want to know I'm emotionally invested!

Maximas

Tycoon

1

Senior Sales Executive

Oops, that's crazy..perhaps you can act like a middle man here to resolve the conflict :)
But could you verify some context about the nature of these two POVs towards this deal for better insights!!

AnonEMouse

Praised Answer

0

VP of Revenue

I'd go back to the VP and ask when they plan to address the strategy misalignment with your director + ask if you can be there to ensure everyone hears the same thing. After the alignment convo occurs, own recapping comms/strategy, etc. back to the whole group to make sure everything remains visible. This is a ticking time bomb too close to your big deal - protect it fiercely!

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