Lameo

Account Executive

How do you speak about low quota attainment in interview?

Just like the title says... how do I speak to this?

I am almost on year five of tech sales. Always killed it until my last position which was at a startup that bamboozled all that were hired into thinking it was a well structured company. I was laid off but this is before MANY layoffs, firings, and resignations. For context, When I joined the sales team in summer of 2022, they were scaling and adding 30 reps to their current 3. Fast forward to layoff time, there were only 6 reps left at the time from their hiring frenzy and they had cut 4 of us.

I am looking for work now and interviewing. Got to last round and recently for my #1 and did not get the job. Feedback was that I did not communicate my performance clear AND they went as far as to say where I was on my previous team even though I never shared that information because NO ONE on this team was hitting quota. Not a single one. Those that were even close to 50% were the ones with no tech background, buddy-buddy with management, and fed solid inbound opportunities. They must have reached out to my previous employer without my consent and my previous employer shared the information without full transparency that I was only at the bottom because we had recent lost over 50% of the team. I went from top 20% to bottom within a month.

Now, I feel I have to be more honest in interviews (I have not been lying just sharing different KPIs) because avoiding the question will not work but I know employers do not like when you talk negatively about a previous company. This company is essentially going to ruin my resume. And now that I know that a company will reach out to your recent employer without consent, I don't want this happening again.

Anyone else been here and combatted this? What the heck do I do so this last job doesn't ruin my career?

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11

23 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

8

💀

If your history is good with the exception of this experience, you’re fine. Sellers that have had recent nightmares at startup that never got started are totally normal. You tell your interviewer that the company sputtered and RIF’d. You were part of the chops. Tell them the “in spite of it all, I managed to”story.

Then, tell them that their leadership is like family. Great people. I hope they climb out of it.

High road.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Agreed. One job/result is not reflective of your career and capabilities.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

Absolutely. These people that sit in judgement (looking at you Julia) astound me.

Lameo

Fire Starter

0

Account Executive

With the call out 😂

Lameo

Fire Starter

2

Account Executive

This is great advice. I appreciate it.

0

BDM

hiring manager will understand

Beans

Big Shot

4

Enterprise Account Executive

You’ve got some qualifiers in your explanation here. If you can speak to the company and other rep attainment and where you landed, a well organized company will understand that their market research was shit and the team suffered for it.

Lameo

Fire Starter

1

Account Executive

Thanks! I’m going to try.

2

Retired Sales Professional

Listen, In my opinion you need to explained if asked about quotas and missing them, be truthful. Total transparency, but also explain and show your knowledge of the industry. In my experience in sales if you show that you understand what's going on, it goes a long way. If you don't and they may find out later and it will look as though you are trying to hide something. Not trustworthy material they may say. Use what you know and understand to show the interviewer what type of solutions you will bring if it happens again and it will happen again because sales is like roller coaster. There will be good days and bad days. Just my opinion. Good hunting.

Lameo

Fire Starter

0

Account Executive

Thanks! Appreciate it.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

0

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

You always talk about how you either beat or have you ranked. Always frame in positive. Also, look at pipeline and talk how you kept it above 4X quota (healthy) and it was either a bad quarter/caught in layoff due to something out of your control.

Lameo

Fire Starter

0

Account Executive

This is exactly it. My pipeline was always extremely healthy and 3/4 was outbound. The company was just in shambles. I shared these KPIs but apparently they were not enough.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

0

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Yeah, closed won is all that matters to most. Company in shambles is an easy sell.

Lameo

Fire Starter

0

Account Executive

When I took the job, they shared there’s about a 33% win rate and 2 week deal cycle. None of that was true. I did my part though.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

0

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

The sample size was probably 3,6,or9. That happens a lot.

Pachacuti

Politicker

0

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Tell them you “took a calculated career risk which didn’t work out”. That will help explain (1) poor attainment (not poor performance), and (2) why you are looking.

Lameo

Fire Starter

1

Account Executive

This is a great take. I will certainly try to implement some rendition of this.

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

You have a strong case because you have always been successful before. Bring your overall expertise and achievement not just the last one. I am sure you have many stories to support why you were not successful in your last job including no one could hit quota as mentioned. Don’t worry, you will do awesome. Good luck

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

You have a strong case because you have always been successful before. Bring your overall expertise and achievement not just the last one. I am sure you have many stories to support why you were not successful in your last job including no one could hit quota as mentioned. Don’t worry, you will do awesome. Good luck

DrChaos

Good Citizen

0

Outbound AE

Well, sounds familiar to me. Pumped/VC/PE funded startups/scaleups over hiring. No one knows what they do, everything is a big improvisation. They go to the VC/PE show them 3030493049% head count growth, they sing kumbaya and other songs. Then they f*** up the people's psychology and career achievements in less than few months by either layoffs, total burnout. Av. QA's of 25-30%, top performers rarely arrives to 75%, and each Q is new person :))) I mean that's it almost everywhere.
Honestly, if these guys didn't hire you because they double check on you, you are better of elsewhere. I mean if they don't trust you, just move on to the next op.

Lameo

Fire Starter

0

Account Executive

Sounds super similar. Top rep is probably near 45-50% for the year.
Zero psychological safety the whole time I was there… straight up lied to the team each time people were let go. Scaled to 30 reps and within a year, down to three and demoted a manager.

Not to mention the unethical BS they were doing to seem “stable” to investors.

Truly hoping this opportunity didn’t ruin my resume.

DrChaos

Good Citizen

0

Outbound AE

It will not. Just know your value and keep on selling like a boss ! Actually I am super happy that I joined this community exactly for this. Just to share to each other the BS and reverse metrics that VC's want without any touch with reality. Basically each month we need to fill some new BS vanity metric that someone on the board wants to see. Instead of just focus on your game you need to think how to adjust to some metric that is detached to real life day to day sales operations. I am so tired that last meetings with my manager I asked "tell me which metric do you want me to rig for the reports to shine?" :)))))))

goose

Politicker

0

Sales Executive

Good companies hire people for what they bring to the table, not necessarily what they did in their last role. Focus on the future and be clear about your past.

Companies are also considering new candidates in a greenfield of opportunity with a lot of sellers looking for their next role (especially in Q4). Competition is very high right now.

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