TennisandSales

Head Of Sales

Politicker

Acclaimed Answer

Executive

I buy from you.....you buy from me. a real strategy?

at one of the toxic companies I worked for there was this weird trend that I saw a handful of times.

My company would be in a sales process with another company that was also a B2B org.

We would tell them we would buy THEIR product if they agreed to buy OUR product.

This happened at least 4 times in the 6 months I was there haha.

Then it got into this super awkward like Saas bro stand off at signature time.

"ok you sign first then we will sign"

"No you sign first!"

"No you!"

it was crazy.

Anyone else see this at their org????

😂 Sales Humor

👑 Sales Strategy

📈 Closing

24 comments

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Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

I understand a quid pro quo can happen, but clearly stating....that is crazy to me. Must be fun when they have to do their annual anti-bribe training

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

😂😂😂😂😂 your right! that must be an awkward time of year.

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

Recipe for disaster IMO.

The last thing I'd want to be apart of. What happens when one party implements something that isn't beneficial to your company and you're locked in?

Story: I sold med device for a 3rd party company (not an OEM like GE or Philips). Contacted a group of 30 urgent cares. They told me they had an indefinite contract with ONE med device provider who they could only purchase from.

How insane is that? Would you sign a lifetime contract with ATT or Spectrum or Comcast for cable or internet?

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

totally agree. it was the WORST strategy ever. i bet the retention on those deals were TERRIBLE.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

No and if I did I'd have to refer them to someone else. I don't make the decisions for my company.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

thats the crazy part is the AEs of course didnt make that call. Leadership would get involved and go "you know what, i bet we could close this deal if we buy their product!"

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Never seen this, and it’s wild. Can’t imagine it’s sustainable…

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

This is just a disaster waiting to happen.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

No, I've never seen it. And four times? That's crazy!

commishcapo

Opinionated

Commercial Account Exec

Did 1 deal swap last year and it was a nightmare. They almost churned last month but luckily just renewed flat

Fenderbaum

Politicker

Retired Choirboy🪕

Yeah, that's not gonna work out in the long run. 🦨

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

couldnt agree more!

BourbonKing

Valued Contributor

VP of Sales

Whatever happened to selling on value? This sounds like a desperate tactic that isn't sustainable. Essentially, your company can only have one customer in each category (unless your company really wants to buy a dozen different CRM systems...or whatever it is that your prospect sells...in order to make a dozen sales).

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

so this was not the ONLY strategy that company used. like it wasnt the default approach. but it was used multiple times.

i totally agree it was a terrible idea and for sure not sustainable haha

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

WTF?

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Quid pro quo is alive and real. Usually it’s more subtle though.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

yeah this company was not big on being subtle.

Arzola

Valued Contributor

Business administration

I never sae something like this haha crazy

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

And I’ve never seen anything like it since haha

sketchysales

Politicker

Sales Manager

Sounds like a train crash

Mendizo

Opinionated

Sr. Director

As others have said... lol. Unsustainable, and borderline unethical.

Balance of trade is very real, but this seems to be a straight up desperation move.

I worked at a Fortune 15, and there was a ton of balance of trade. For example, our 401k and employee stock program in the US (and Canada I believe) were all handled through Fidelity. Ergo, huge profit base of 200k employees for them. In return, they spent a lot of time with our sales teams, and ended up buying a lot. But, there was no direct linkage blatantly about "you must buy this", and indeed their big multi-million dollar deals came years after the fact.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

haha oh yeah 100% desperation move!

Epictetus

Valued Contributor

SaaSy

I've had this happen. This only matters at EOY and when logos matter to a company's investors. It's fine to do, but accept the churn rate next year.

Epictetus

Valued Contributor

SaaSy

Also! wtf attorney are you using that doesn't say to include both agreements in the same doc? It is so simple. Get you an attorney.

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TennisandSales

I buy from you.....you buy from me. a real strategy?

24 comments

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