15 years experience and thought I had found a dream job after leaving a nightmare late last year. I was the first sales hire at a SaaS startup that felt really energetic and positive. They were growing quickly and had considerable inbound SMB/MM volume -- but I was hired to go hunt enterprise deals.
Spent the first month building a sales motion, developing hubspot flows, implementing the handoff from sales to customer success, as well as helping onboard an SDR and an SMB rep. There was no sales deck, no sales process, no parameters for pricing, offers or discounts. Hubspot was a mess. Management made a few comments about how slow the outbound process was and that they were feeling impatient -- but seemed satisfied with the progress and understanding that outbound (especially enterprise) would take time and building a predictable pipeline would lead to more long-term success. Wrote several targeted sequences and started enrolling contacts only to be told I was "spamming" and it would ruin the domain reputation and I needed to stop. I was sending out <100 personalized emails per day. We set up a new domain for outbound email and I was in the process of warming it up before resuming more volume.
During this time I closed 20+ mid-market and SMB deals (some self sourced but majority through partner or inbound.) Small deals but considerable relative to what most companies would consider a ramp. CEO did make a comment a few weeks in asking why I was talking to small brands and expressed that he didn't want me spending my hours there -- I explained I was trying to contribute revenue while building enterprise pipe.
Boss popped up on my screen Friday afternoon and said it wasn't working and they would be dismissing me. No PIP, no action plan, no questions on how to accelerate things just.... you'll hear from HR with our severance offer before the end of the day. I was logged off my slack before I could hang up the call.
I'm devastated. Browsing LinkedIn jobs this AM and all I can see is Red Flags and stress. Not sure I can go back into the meat grinder like this again. Struggling.
How do I get off the donkeys and on to a real horse?
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