BasstheBear

Business Development Representative

Opinionated

Praised Answer

Good Citizen

Marketing is taking over | Any Advice?

I'm an SDR at a small start up (45ish people).

Recently my company fired my manager and reorganized so that the SDR team fits under the marketing director.

The new strategy is to really push "marketing like messaging" to encourage "passive" interest to our product.

I'm not against the strategy per se, as the prospects in my space are extremely adverse to sales people. I've gotten more hard no's in my first 4 months on the phones here than 2 years at my previous role.

The messaging is just brutal. I'm suppose to be sending emails with enough jargon to anger a mathematics professor. On top of that our sequences are all spread out.

Anyone have any advice on what to do when your manager is a marketer and you're a sales person?

👑 Sales Strategy

🧢 Sales Management

✌️ Growing Pains

34 comments

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paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

Get. Out. Now.

BasstheBear

Opinionated

Business Development Representative

That's what people have been telling me. I'm nervous though because I feel as though it will look as though I'm running since I haven't been at the role very long...

Would you stick with it just to make it look like you tried or just run now?

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

If money is tight, stick it out to get a paycheque while you're looking and bail at the first good opportunity that comes up. If you can afford to support yourself for a few months with no income I recommend quitting because this shit sounds soul crushing.

It'll be easy to explain to prospective employers why you're leaving. "They turned sales into marketing and I want to do sales." Any decent sales leader will understand.

paddy

WR Officer

Director of Business Development

That's up to you but a Marketing guy isn't going to give you much mentoring/coaching that's going to help your career in sales.

RedLightning

Politicker

Mid-Market AE

great point!

Broncosfan

Politicker

Account Manager

Having been at 3 jobs in 4 years, I understand the concern. But, each one had a very good reason that I could articulate well.

Job 1: They took an account away from me for no reason that resulted in 5 figures loss of commission with no plan on how to make me whole.

Job 2: My director was fired 1 month into my role and he was a big reason I joined the company.

Job 3: I was brought on to sell to CSOs. I enjoyed it and was good at it. A year in, they transferred me to selling to CFOs. I hated it and I reported to 9 different managers over the course of 2 years.

If you can explain why you left, it makes it a lot easier.

CCP

Opinionated

VP, Business Development

You covered all the boxes here. Nothing to add.

SADNES5

Politicker

down voters are marketing spies

I lived this.

New VP, background in Marketing/Hospitality. From an entirely outside Industry, we are not in Hospitality, and don't need marketing as it's a quasi-government mandated product.

Comes in, saying anyone can do sales, we need to focus on our customers customers to win more business... "A shoe salesman can sell what we have if they have product knowledge." (Very technical, specialized field, with LONG - enterprise level 3+4+5 year business cycles)

My first sales meet with him was in Hong Kong. His first overseas trip with the company. I knew things were not going to work out well when he asks why I am not in First class with him, (upgraded to business w freq flier points) [Can only travel premium economy Pan-Pacific/Atlantic the rest is econ only, thank fuk for points amiright]. I said due to our travel rules, I can only book premium econ. He laughed and said, oh right, (He made the decision to cut travel budgets when he joined, from Business International Travel to premium econ)

This meeting took me 2+ years to get, with the decision makers. It was an intro to our new VP, and to workout timelines on if a future was in the cards for us to do business.

Never again.

He arrived with me, saying he will handle the negotiations (we were not in negotiation stage), "Sadnes5, you move to slow with these deals, watch how it's done"

He proceeded to not only culturally embarrass himself, (Asian Business Card etiquette, seating arrangement, tea drinking before any talk, table taps, EVERYTHING HE DIDN'T DO) and I clearly asked if he had done business with HK/Chinese before we left HQ. He said yes.

He proceeded to enter the meeting and do the ol' I think if you guys start with us within 30 days, this offer is more than generous, then slide a piece of paper across the table. *I AM DEAD INSIDE PLEASE LET ME LEAVE I AM HUMAN PUDDING*

I am mortified, the product we need to get from them isn't one of those "we have some surplus in the warehouse, we can make this work". Entire supply chains need to be disrupted to make things like this happen which is why the LONG business cycle.

...the company people were polite. They ended the meeting about 90 minutes early. We were in/out in 30 minutes.

He then told me, that went well, we should expect a call before our flight home... (spoiler: we didn't)

He was fired less than 6 months later, after another one of his trips with our team.

The company in question is dead to us, or more like we are dead to them.

Brightside: I think he knew he was canned when he was booking his flights. Writing on the wall. Not invited to the board meetings.

He booked basically an around the world trip, we were in Australia as a team when we parted ways, (he killed those deals too) we flew home. He continued to Manilla to try and meet with a customer there, then Delhi, then Dubai, then Rome, then London, then back to North America.

He was fired the day he walked back into the office.

I am more than happy with our new VP. He is an accountant. He knows as long as Acquiring Customer $<Revenue $ it's a good deal.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Holy crap. That guy was an International Deal Killer.

SADNES5

Politicker

down voters are marketing spies

Believe me, we are still recovering from the wounds 3+ years later. It's a small industry, and people still are talking about it.

"OH YOU'RE THE TEAM WITH THAT GUY?!"
"THAT WAS YOUR COMPANY?!"

Great for cocktail parties to break the ice though... at least we have that going for us now.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

There's always a silver lining lol...I wonder what dude is up to now.

stanrym

Valued Contributor

CEO

sad

Broncosfan

Politicker

Account Manager

A 5 year sales cycle hurts my heart. So much can change in 5 years.

SADNES5

Politicker

down voters are marketing spies

Believe me, when I moved into this industry... I thought there was no way, and this was just a wall people put up.
I have a deal in the works that will begin in 2026 (signing this week!). One I signed 3 years ago starts next summer.

It's like chess, except the pieces are glued and the table, and it is underwater and all the pieces are rainbow colours, and you don't know who's turn it is. That's a 5 year business cycle in a nutshell.

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

This analogy has me in TEAAAARSSSS 🤣😆🤣

ChiefGreef45

Catalyst

Account Executive

Wow. I feel shocked.

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Find a new job.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

You're at a start-up: fail fast and iterate. Try it their way for a few weeks and if it's not working change tactics.

Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

Yikes. Leave. The good news for you though is that the market is hot right now. Everyone is looking for BDRs. Make sure to ask for a higher salary

KendallRoy

Politicker

From my personal experience, you'll be forced to use useless, buzzwordy, spammy emails that get no results. Then, when you try to give feedback about them underperforming, they'll be passive-aggresive and defensive. I'd start looking elsewhere.

Our marketing department is currently trying to force every AE to use a "sales best practice sequence" with 12 touches in two weeks. Current response rate is an eighth of my custom sequence.

Smithy

Politicker

Director of Sales

How has it been going so far?

if it doesn’t go well, and you can offer feedback which isn’t listened to, it’s time to leave IMO.

BasstheBear

Opinionated

Business Development Representative

The strategy is in its infancy but it's really apparent that the director of marketing is just that; a director of MARKETING.

I think the next two weeks will be telling, especially if they take feedback.

Smithy

Politicker

Director of Sales

Yeah the feedback being listened to is very key. If they are happy to change/adapt then that’s a great sign.

if they know best and don’t listen, then the writing is on the wall, man

JuicyKlay

Celebrated Contributor

Forward all the terrible and uninterested responses you’re getting from the marketing created emails to your boss and someone in another department with influence.

stanrym

Valued Contributor

CEO

Do you have quota? If you're responsible for your number, you do you. But if you have to hit your number and listen to your boss that may possibly care about a different numbers, I'd run.

RedLightning

Politicker

Mid-Market AE

That's a classic case of trying to be interesting vs interested. Marketing messaging is casting a wider net with interesting info that will hopefully be a magnet to people. Sales is the opposite, its a 1-1 communication where the seller has to be interested in the prospect to get them to speak.

I'd keep records of the responses you're getting back and ask the marketing team what cold emails that they actually respond to. You'll probably find the same patterns in their messaging to the ones that don't get responses from them.

If you stay on board, work with this delicately. You don't want to come out swinging. A good marketing team who is willing to listen to sales is huge for allignment and makes things much easier. But, try to get them to understand that they have to write these emails to individuals.

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

Serious question… are SDR’s sales people?

Broncosfan

Politicker

Account Manager

Definitely. It's entry level sales.

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

🤔

goose

Politicker

-3

Sales Executive

Nope. SDR's are marketing. Anything that converts a suspect into a qualified opportunity is part of the marketing function of a business. Even if account executives have to cold prospect, that task is marketing.

SalesSage

Valued Contributor

National Account Manager

Never good, can you go over their helmet and try to explain the difference?

TheHypnotist

Executive

Sales Manager

I sympathise. I have been told marketing don't like the content I publish because it doesn't fit with their messaging.
Solution? - Use the phone, because they can't listen to my calls (as far as I'm aware!)

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

I'd agree with what Paddy said. However, no harm in doing your own thing and then producing results?

salesdongle

Good Citizen

AE - Named Accounts

Damn. That sucks. Good luck!

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BasstheBear

Marketing is taking over | Any Advice?

34 comments

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