bendandsnack

Account Exec

How to go head-to-head with a VP of Sales while orphaned

Hey guys,

To summarize, the shitshow of a company I work for just reorganized and decided to re-do territories.

I'm moving from a micro region enterprise role to covering mid market for a specific vertical for the whole country. Well, what SHOULD be the whole country. I have three colleagues on my team who now also cover mid market for different verticals for the whole country.

Due to the internal bloodbath and some other shit, my new manager(who I've worked with before and respect very much) is out for a couple of months. So I'm rolling up to an Enterprise regional sales VP temporarily.

One of the fav reps under said Enterprise VP was covering West for my patch. So, the VP is telling me I'm only supposed to cover East and Central. He has vested interest in this as there is a specific product easier to sell in my patch that will help his number. I haven't worked for him before, but I've heard through the grapevine that he tends to route deals to the favorites on his team, so this is not surprising behavior.

A few issues here:

1) A friend in sales leadership told me that it was discussed in sales leadership planning that I should have the whole country, not 2/3 of it

2) With my manager out, it's essentially me against Enterprise VP, he has the power here and has vested interest in telling me no

3) My CRO is a "yes" person and favors both of us, so he likely will stay out of it to avoid conflict.

How would you approach this conversation without being like "hey motherfucker I know what was said in the leadership meeting and it's not what I'm hearing from you"

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☁️ Software Tech

13

10 comments

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HVACexpert

Politicker

4

sales engineer

I mean you can ask him in a professional and courteous manner. Why am I only getting 2/3 ? Wouldn’t it make more sense that I get the whole country? Is my quota and metric changing if I’m only getting 2/3? Was this someone else’s call or your call? Wash this because of past performance? Try to get responses in writing as much as possible . If he balks or is vague, then maybe push him a little in a private conversation make him aware that you’re in the know regarding what others think.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Damn. Tricky. I hope you looked him dead in the eye when he told you that you were only covering Central and East and growled, “that’s not what I heard”.

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

One thing about “2 months later.” It always shows up just about 2 months later. You’re in a no win. Anything you say to the dude is a losing proposition. But if you absolutely can’t help yourself, at least kick him in the nards. You’ll feel better while they toss you. 2 months. You got this.

punishedlad

Tycoon

1

Business Development Team Lead

It sounds like you have enough clout to approach this without the "hey motherf*****" part. I wouldn't be afraid to confront him straight up about this.

detectivegibbles

Politicker

1

Sales Director

First sentence you wrote tells me you're not overly happy to be there in the first place...

What's keeping you from looking elsewhere?

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

That’s tricky because he could ask for your source of information and that’s not a conversation you want to have.

I recommend being patient. You say it’s only for a few months (I assume 3-4 months) and that’s nothing. So work the territory he wants you to. Document everything. And stay out of internal politics.

Sandbagger31

Member

1

VP Sales

Get it in writing, but you need to speak with him. Ask the questions and confirm the information you have. Do not quote the "grapevine" stuff but say "I was told this was for the entire country and only for mid-market across the vertical. Did I misunderstand?" I would recommend sending an email and requesting a response.

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

0

President/CRO

Ok first off; be careful getting sucked into the drama and gossip from co-workers. While some may be true, 90% if typically BS.

Second, it's only a couple of months based on what you said so dont blow up a good thing (assuming you like your company and role) over 60 days of frustrating leadership. Maybe a good time to take some PTO :)

Now how I would handle it. Schedule a time to chat with the VP, let him know what you were told and that it seems like things have changed. Tell him what your goal was for the quarter (personal goal not a quota set by leadership) and that you'd like his help getting there with the smaller territory. Close letting him know you want to help him reach his numbers too and that you're confident you can both work together to crush it. Come in confident and calm, no emotions, forget the crap you've heard about him and have a real conversation. Hope it goes well!

Maximas

Tycoon

0

Senior Sales Executive

As long as it's a temporary duration till your old boss comes back, it's fine to leave the W only for now.
Best to know what to do about it, is a quick text to your old boss to see what would be his inputs about it and whether you need to speak up or just take it as it is, or perhaps if he has a good relationship with the other guys to try to let you have the whole cake or at least pushing for a time frame to retrieve back your territory!

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

0

Account Executive

You either nut up and challenge or you let yourself get fucked.

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