evabeindiemil

Sales Lead

Personal Narrative

Follow up to my recent post

Hi, I recently posted about the crap-shoot that is my current position and the resounding advice was to GTFO.

I have been applying to anything and everything and this morning interviewed for something that just felt right but I need advice.

With limited info so as not to disclose anything, the opportunity is for a Sales Business Dev Manager for an extremely new start up of one man. He is a 30+ year employee of the large company that brings us outlook. It is an interesting start up focusing on a holistic work life balance and also sourcing developers from overseas. He has had a lot of interested already and needs to hone in on the exact clientele he would like to have. We are aligned on a lot and my experience dealing closely with the email company was a key selling feature of mine as it allowed him to see the depth I am used to as it is a very involved process.

The issue is he is offering it as commission only on a contract with the promise of a FTE once the business increases. I know there are many red flags but how do you ignore a really good gut feeling of a good fit and the opportunity to shape the direction the company takes? He did say I could do PT while at my other job but I am so miserable there I really want a clean break and something new.

Okay please dig in and feel free to let me know I'm an idiot for considering.

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13 comments

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Sunbunny31

Politicker

5

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Oh for every great idea that floated past my radar when I was starting out. Worked for a company that could have been the first Facebook … except bandwidth was not yet what it is today and uploading anything involved a spinning hourglass - for hours. A VOIP for SMBs when the internet still made them suspicious. You get the idea. None of those companies is around. It’s timing and technology and a market fit. If your guy doesn’t have that, it’s another great idea at the wrong time.

It’s very risky. So if you take it on, do it part time and see if you can make some magic happen.

evabeindiemil

Contributor

3

Sales Lead

Thanks friend. Sitting with it I am seeing more and more it is a blunder on my part to consider.

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

Nahhhhhh- you absolutely must consider everything these happy days. I don’t even think it’s a terrible idea to take the deal part time with the right terms.

As mentioned, there’s a whole lot of building before sale 1 happens. You get to do all of it. I’d float something like 50% on your first deal, 30% after + equity + VP/CSO - whatever title suits you.

You’ll have more in this than he does by the time you’re ready to collect money.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

As oldcloser said, no harm in considering. Just know what you are getting into and figure out if you can afford the time and energy to take a risk. Trying it out part time may not be a bad option - but you know your own capacity, so that’s something you’ll have to determine for yourself.

AnonEMouse

Praised Answer

4

VP of Revenue

Ya, that's a lot of risk.

1. "A lot of interest" ≠ a lot of sales.
2. Commission doesn't even come close to covering the free work it sounds like you'll be doing: honing the ICP, building a contact database, recommending and implementing software & tools to do outreach, crafting the pitch, collateral, marketing campaigns, etc. - and realistically it could be MONTHS before you make a sale.

But, only you know the risk your financial situation can bear and the impact of staying somewhere you're miserable now. If it were me, and I was in a place where I could afford to take on some risk & was so miserable at my current gig that I'd rather live in a box, I would:

-Ask for equity with no cliff to be granted to you before starting to compensate you for designing the entire GTM strategy that is 100% going to be required to make sales
-Pre-negotiate your employment contract - salary, OTE, title, equity - and more importantly, mutually agree on what KPI's over what timeframe will indicate the the business is in a place where you can be hired
-Agree on a much higher commission rate than would be traditional (like 30-50%) for the sales that occur prior to your employment (this is also good leverage to encourage the conversion to FT asap)

Forcing the above 2 conversations will help you learn a lot about how he values your time, how reasonable he is, and whether it's even a place you'd want to work FT.

evabeindiemil

Contributor

4

Sales Lead

That was so valuable thank you so much for your thorough reply. Can you please explain the first point. What is equity with no cliff?

AnonEMouse

Praised Answer

3

VP of Revenue

Of course! What you're asking for is a share of the company with no minimum amount of time (usually a year) before your portions "vest" - or become purchasable by you. So if he does make it big time, and your knowledge, effort & execution were a part of that success, you could benefit as well. While there is no guarantee this would ever be worth anything, it's one of the only things of value he can offer you in lieu of salary right now.

evabeindiemil

Contributor

1

Sales Lead

Okay so would you present that all as a possibility. I did just ask him for a complete scope and if he was able to offer any base. Whatever he says I could counter with above?

AnonEMouse

Praised Answer

1

VP of Revenue

I think you'll be more successful if you schedule a conversation to talk about compensation & how to structure your working relationship on paper so that you're both comfortable & have skin in the game. Use each of the bullet points to spark a conversation: Ok, so if you're saying you're not able to offer any salary, I'd like to talk about what other type of compensation is available. Would you be willing to issue me vested equity in exchange for building your sales & marketing infrastructure? Then move to the next point once you've resolved that one.

Pachacuti

Politicker

3

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I understand the draw of being able to leave your current crappy position and going to something else. But what this guy is telling you is that he has no money and no real plan. He has an idea but ideas don’t put food on the table or pay your mortgage.

If you can accommodate him on a very part-time basis, I see no problems. As long as you don’t quit your day job. And you can keep looking for something else which can meet your financial needs better. And if the side hustle with this guy actually works out, then wonderful! But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

2

President/CRO

ask for equity

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

Hard pass

Maximas

Tycoon

0

Senior Sales Executive

OTE is too risky, unless I need it too much I don't recommend it!

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