DataWrangler

Sr. Account Executive

Personal Narrative

My VP of Sales is a child - Scared away my Sales Engineer

I work at a Series B tech start-up. I'm one of 2 Account Executives on the Sales Team. I have more than 3 years tenure at my company directly reporting into my VP of Sales.

This man is totally toxic. He is constantly pointing the finger at everyone but himself for any failures to deliver on the monumental promises that he makes to the company & Board of Directors.

Due to his temperamental nature he continues to drive essential talent out of the company. Most recently, he has been torching the reputation of my only Sales Engineer.

However, for some reason, the VP team & CEO continue to keep him around. The dude reminds me of Robert California from the Office. Somehow the guy has been able to cast some spell to convince the leadership team that he is essential despite the fact that he offers almost no value and is a net negative to the company culture.

Anyone ever worked with a Sales Leader like this? Any advice for how to navigate his bipolar personality?

🧢 Sales Management

🏙 Corporate Experiences

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7 comments

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Pachacuti

Politicker

7

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

He's obviously friends with someone you don't know and would probably fire you WAY before they'd fire him, even if he set fire to the building and pissed on it afterward. My suggestion - if its really that bad find a new place to work ASAP.

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

5

Bad MFer

Last company was at had multiple people like this. VP of Partners believed that partners were supposed to feed company leads without expecting anything from us in return. At one point we onboarded a new “partner” and 10 months later they asked me if the guy still worked with us because they hadn’t heard from him since the first meeting.

At the same company the CRO would routinely show up late to meetings (20 minutes late to 30 min call). He would insert him left into project and fail to deliver anything other than the ability so throw of the schedule by constantly missing deadlines. Oh and never had a rep hit their annual quota even once under his watch.

Somehow both of these clowns maintained their roles even after a small RIF.

FeelItInMyPlums

Politicker

1

Sales Account Executive

Did we work together haha?

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

0

Bad MFer

Probably

jefe

Arsonist

5

🍁

Children don't belong in the corner office, they belong in the mines! I thought we covered this already

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

You have two real choices: stay, and try to outlast him, or find something new.
Then be very clear why you left in the exit interview. Not personal comments (such as the word "toxic"), but that the VP was too difficult to work with, and cost you, and the company, to lose deals and lose money.

charlescarmichael

Good Citizen

0

Senior Sales Engineer

I would ask yourself how vital your SE was to your success.

If you and that SE worked as a team and won together, the question would be whether or not you see someone getting hired in the near future.

And if so, how long will that SE take to ramp up.

If you’re not going to close without an SE, you’re not going to hit your quota, and you’re either going on a PIP or you’re finding a new job.

I’d start looking elsewhere

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