bendandsnack

Account Exec

Advice on breaking up with clients?

Howdy. I work for a professional services company/consultant that specializes in one major cloud provider. Therefore, the reps at this cloud provider are essentially my clients, as it's my job to kiss their ass so that they bring me deals.

That makes it hard to disqualify shitty opps, as if I piss one of the reps off they can turn around and tell all their coworkers not to work with my company. Reps also tend to test reps at my company by bringing us shitty stuff before they bring us their good deals.

I cover SMB and am juggling 70+ deals right now. Therefore, I don't have the bandwidth to juggle garbage opps right now. My Sales Engineer is starting to get mad at me because our pipeline is bananas and he's overworked.

Moving up to Corp in Q1, god fucking bless, so if I burn bridges with some of the reps I work with it's not a huge deal.

Any advice on going about politely breaking up with some of these reps? I don't have the bandwidth to juggle garbage.

Every AE at my company I've spoken to about this says that they never say no to any deal they're given. However, I'm the only rep covering SMB therefore I feel like I'm the only one who has a good pulse on what's going on in the territory.

👑 Sales Strategy

☁️ Software Tech

✌️ Growing Pains

7

9 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

7

🦊

Let them know your schedule is highly limited. Ask if they've actually talked to the prospect. Some may leave voicemails and still send over a referral/lead.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

6

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I’d be up front - you tell them you’re swamped and you have to prioritize, and you just can’t take their deal (s) right now.

Congratulations on the move to Corp!

TennisandSales

Politicker

1

Head Of Sales

yeah this is the move. i would also have a criteria that you can share on what would help you prioritize. so they know what to look for.

the big thing is to have expectations aligned

SDM

Politicker

0

Sales development manager

This is good advice

jefe

Arsonist

0

🍁

This is what I'd do.

And congrats @bendandsnack!!

braintank

Politicker

4

Enterprise Account Executive

The reps know it's garbage too. Just have a candid conversation with them.

Diablo

Politicker

3

Sr. AE

Managing 70+ opps is not a joke and like others mentioned I would get one a candid and transparent conversation before assuming anything.

youngsmoky

Celebrated Contributor

1

Senior Account Executive

"Hi X, I appreciate you sharing this opportunity/deal with me but my bandwidth is super limited right now."

Then tell them if you want them to circle back, share it with someone else, or whatever action you recommend.

Keep it short. Don't be overly apologetic. It'll come across as professional and reasonable.

WhoDey

Opinionated

1

VP of Sales

Start asking them questions about the lead...how they qualified it, why they think it's qualified, what was discussed with the prospect, etc. Once it's obvious the prospect isn't qualified, tell the rep "It doesn't sound like this prospect is ready for us. I don't want to piss them off and have that blow back on you. Let's holdoff until you have more answers and a better sense that they're ready to move forward."

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