ThatNewAE

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Major difference of opinion between the AE and Manager

I have been having some major difference of opinions in how I'd drive a deal VS how he wants me / any other member of the team to drive the deals.

he does not come from sales background. he comes from a product background.

It's just been 1 year of me being an AE, but I have some serious hunches while driving deals and I calculate based on that. It becomes difficult for me to not pay attention to that hunch and go by what the manager is asking me to do - which is usually truly aggressive sales. I can't do aggressive sales. Now it has come to some serious arguments about how we see a particular deal running.

How do you handle these situations of major clashes? I don't want to have such frictions often.

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antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

There can be some middle ground found. I would suggest having a crucial conversation with another person (their boss) present. As a manager, they need to understand that different personalities sell differently.

If you are open for a book recommendation, I would grab Wired That Wayby Florence Littauer and Marita Littauer. This helped me better understand the bosses I have had over the years. It may help you.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Thanks a lot, this helps!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

That's a great book recommendation.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Document everything. Have a candid one on one to see if you can find a common ground or compromise.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Try to find a happy medium. You are only a year in at the AE role, not trying to call you out but are you at quota? Unless you are killing it, I would try it out as long as its not too aggressive

More just saying you are still early in career and your hunches might not always be right. Your career is still so early, there is so many things you don't know yet

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Agreed. I think another background here that could help is - My sales manager does not come from sales background, so his suggestions are tooooooo idealistic to be true.

And yes, I have been killing quota so far. But that’s not why I think we have differences. I think, not sure. 🥲

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I suspect you're going to have to work on compromise here. Can you strategize with him in a way that makes him happy you're listening and taking feedback?

DevSomeBiz

Valued Contributor

Senior B2B Sales Guy.

You have a bad manager. A good manager would understand that you will sell the best when you are operating naturally. Of course, there's always the possibility that you're a lousy salesperson, and your manager is trying to get some quality out of you.

KendallRoy

Politicker

In a similar situation with my manager. My advice is trust your gut. I didn’t and lost a key deal by letting them get involved at their insistence, where they then told the client the price would rise 30% if they didn’t sign that week. Completely destroyed the trust.

LMHandle7

Personal Narrative

Sales Director

In situations like these its best to get a third party involved (their manager) if you cannot work it out between yourselves.

You can also ask your other teammates if they have had past/current disagreements or conflicts and see how they handled it.

whatsquota

Enterprise AE

Have you considered getting them involved in your account planning sessions? I would pick 2-3 key accounts that are early days in the sale cycles and work with your manager to plan a strategy. Get other folks involved like your execs, etc. Inevitably you are going to get a ton of different opinions some good some bad but atleast your manager won’t be the only one across your deals and someone higher up may trump them with a good suggestion. You can also say that tactic(s) is likely not to work and seriously damage the deal I get why you’d position it but we have to be ready to lose if we go down that path, are you ok to own that? Getting people involved shares risk and ensures if tactics don’t work it’s not necessarily on you. Good luck hope this helps

Skol_salesguy

Executive

Account Director

Do you guys use close plans (MEDDPICC, MAP, etc.)? Build one out and present it to him. Let him give you some feedback so he feels in control. I'd imagine you can find a middle ground on some of the steps but in the end it leads to the same result, a won deal.

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ThatNewAE

Major difference of opinion between the AE and Manager

12 comments

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