Armageddon

Enterprise Account Executive

Valued Contributor

Dealing with a demanding prospect

Savages, I need some advice. I'm in a PoV right now where we are at the finish line and so close to a technical win, but a low level person with little technical competency recently "entered the chat" and is creating an unnecessary amount of noise. He is all over our support team demanding real time help and calls, DMing high level people at my company on LI asking for real time help and it has resulted in them reaching out to me to get control of the situation. I've raised the issue to my champion who said he would take care of it, but the problem persists after that conversation.

Have any of you been in the similar situation? I need to find a way to reign this guy in and establish some order / expectations on how to request help, but I also don't want to get in my own way so close to a tech win...

How would you all approach this situation? Thanks!

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Pachacuti

Politicker

6

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I'd call the guy and tell him YOU are the PoC. All the requests for help/info/etc are being funneled to you so he needs to work through you.

Coastal_crusher

Politicker

3

Sales Director

I second this

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

Third

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yes to this. And I’d go back to the champion again and reinforce that this person is interfering with the process to such a degree that it’s disrupting the partnership. Your internal resources should also be advised to point him in your direction - I assume as they are not yet a customer, those supports resources aren’t being paid for yet. He needs to be told no, and sent to you.

Armageddon

Opinionated

3

Enterprise Account Executive

Exactly what I did yesterday and it seemed to be well received. Hopefully we see some change next week

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Good on you for taking the initiative. Being direct is the best way here.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yes, completely agree.

butwhy

Politicker

5

Solutions Engineer

Have you actually met with this client one on one? Do you have someone like an SE or a technical resource you can bring in to get him to let it all out? I have had this happen a couple of times and a couple of things have helped:

- validating their neediness by bringing in "senior" resources and making them feel super important
- Smacking them around a bit by bringing in technical resources for a "stump the chump" round robin in front of their boss.

You're gonna have to get in front of this yourself though, imo.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

2

Rolling 20's all day

I'm a big fan of both of these. Problem prospects have to be controlled somehow, and feeding their ego while serving our needs at the same time is literally a win-win.

butwhy

Politicker

0

Solutions Engineer

Back in "the day" in NYC sales, we would just take problem makers to a hole in the wall Italian place where we know the owner and get them shit faced to make them like us. I miss those days sometimes, responsible strategic conversation is so much less fun ;)

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

2

Rolling 20's all day

That sounds like a more fun, 3rd option :0

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

Setting up an expectation is very important and communication is the channel. Curious to know if you have a knowledge base that your can refer this client to?

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

I would 100% call this person and talk with them directly. Don’t make anyone else do it. You do it and set the expectation correctly and try to figure out why they are being so annoying

Armageddon

Opinionated

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Yeah I ended up doing that yesterday and it was definitely the right move. Hopefully we see the change next week

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

2

Senior Account Executive

You need to get on a call asap and ask them hey I’d like our resources to help you as efficiently as possible so I need your help with your priorities here…
Let’s take each request and tell me which ones if you were me would want me to get for you 1st so I can communicate the same with the resources.

Also try to befriend the guy and see whether or not you can rely on them for a referral set the stage for this from now…

SaaSguy

Tycoon

2

Account Executive

Find out where he lives and pee on his door step. Seriously, just send an email with his superiors letting them know to you are the point of contact and what he is doing is going beyond the scope of the proof of concept.

Ashing

Opinionated

1

Senior Account Executive

How are they getting that level of support pre-close? I'd go to the DM with the thread and say "if you think this is good support, then I think we need to get this signed now so we can continue this level of support" leverage your hard work towards the close

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

0

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

I would suggest go on a call with them.!
Get on a call and try to understand what their main concern is - and what is making them spiral like this.

More often than not, they don't have trust on you and that's why they make sure they have backup SPOCs available at their disposal.

So you can get on a call, have a warm candid conversation. Build that rapport with them.

make this person feel important! I know you have your champion, but make this person feel important too. Keep checkin in what's up with them - just so that they feel important and needed.

Justatitle

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

Tell the janitor at the org you are working with to please come to you because him doing what he is doing is causing more problems and not solving any issues. If anything it is only creating more noise.

rainmakerinthemaking

Politicker

0

Enterprise Sales executive

is he an influencer or decision-maker or anywhere close to these 2 profiles? If not, let ur champion know that he has a troublemaker in his org. I had a situation like this b4, I call up the asshole and ask if he is calling the shot for either financial or technical.

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