COsalesguy profile picture
COsalesguy profile picture

COsalesguy

AE

Fire Starter
Contributor
Good Citizen

Changing roles in these times

Sup Savages,

I am at a seed funding startup as the US AE. I am working enterprise deals with a commercial AE's OTE. I will be the first to close a deal in company history. However, the product has failed on several occasions and lost at least 5 deals during evaluation. I am concerned about the direction of this company.

I was recently approached to join a team for commercial sales at Snowflake and am going back on forth on whether I should stick it out at my current role as the potential upside is very high, or move on to a more established market leader. appreciate thoughts and opinions about changing jobs in these difficult times.
🧠 Advice
13

13 comments

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TennisandSales
Politicker
12
Head Of Sales
ok so the product failing is a HUGE red flag to me.

ive worked at a series A before and in those days the product wasnt perfect, it was missing alot. but what we DID have worked.

if the product doesnt even WORK than thats a nightmare!

also snowflake is a great company from what I hear. I would take that seriously.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
7
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Agree with this entirely.

No working product will equate to no sales. Have the problems been fixed, or are you confident they will be fixed? Is the potential market so good that you can afford to wait for things to improve? Personally, I'd be very wary and pessimistic if this were me.
punishedlad
Tycoon
6
Business Development Team Lead
As someone who has sold broken products in the past, it rarely gets better fast. If you're not kept abreast of the roadmap, and the uptime is abysmal, I'd seriously consider your options.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
5
🦊
Personally I'd leave for the new role. Do what's best for you and your family.
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
2
Sales Rep
Where is comp when comparing the two?
COsalesguy
Fire Starter
2
AE
Only a 10k difference in OTE… snowflake is higher
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
3
Sales Rep
With the product not working, it never hurts take Snowflake seriously. Highly recommend back-channeling on hearing how things are going.
Diablo
Politicker
2
Sr. AE
I wouldn’t have a second thought. If product is failing and getting rejected during the evaluation phase, it’s a big problem unless your team is able to fix it ASAP.

I would go for a separate role but think what’s best for you
Justatitle
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
product failure that many times = time to leave... sorry not sorry
Gasty
Notable Contributor
1
War Room Community Manager
On a scale of 1 to 10, what’s your near-term confidence level on the product like ? @cosalesg
GDO
Politicker
0
BDM
I'm not moving right now. However, seems you should.
RandyLahey
Politicker
0
Account Manager
Make the switch! If the product is still failing, bounce
elefanz
Valued Contributor
0
manager, bd
One of my pal faced the same issue as you, the product wasn't working for a good period of time.
But once he closed the first few deals, he stepped up and closed a few more significant ones (those that attract free marketing, partnerships, media press, etc) he stayed throughout nonetheless and eventually became CEO of the startup.
Question:
How involved are you with the rest of the team? How confident are you in their ability to deliver a working product? What is your vision? What is the ceiling of your own capabilities? Are you only suited to be an AE now and an AE too in the future?
What commitments do you have? What risk appetite do you have?

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