DataWrangler

Sr. Account Executive

Personal Narrative

Rogue Sales Engineer

I sell a high tech AI product to a highly technical audience. I can speak to the what it does (value, ROI, Success Stories, etc.), but when it comes to the 'How' it does it, thats when I phone a friend.

Approximately 2 months ago my favorite Sales Engineer quit the company. We had a great rapport. We could basically finish each-others sentences (cute I know) ... and now I'm stuck with... the other guy...

Don't get me wrong, he is very knowledgable and experienced as a Software Engineer/ Data Scientist, but he lacks a lot in his prospect facing sales skills. The worst part is that he thinks he is better than he is.

Back in the day he was a member of the C-Suite at a failed startup... so he thinks his business skills are greater than they are... During Discovery calls, he interrupts me and stomps all over my pitch.

How would y'all handle this situation?

😎 Sales Skills

😤 Conflict Resolution

9

8 comments

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Pachacuti

Politicker

7

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Have you spoken with your management about him? That’s a conversation you should have with your boss.

jefe

Arsonist

6

🍁

Firm boundaries need to be established. And based on what’s being said here, they likely need to come from up top.

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

5

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Agreed. Particularly if you’ve asked him to stop because it’s disrupting your flow.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

5

ERP Sales

Are there recordings of the interruptions you can share to mgmt

CuriousFox

WR Officer

5

🦊

Yikes. Have you talked to him about it?

Filth

Tycoon

1

**WarRoom's Most Unhinged**

I've been there before but it's real simple - Prison Rules: Establish Dominance Early. No I'm not saying tray to the face during mess or a usb to hdmi dongle sanded down to a shiv, then enthusiastically plugged into your problem person and followed by an unplugging and quickly handed off to the bdr going the other way in the hall. It's more about prepping the team - though I do think we have a real need for more workplace violence that uses creative in office made weapons if for no other reason than a morale boost. Can you imagine how cathartic it would feel to to whip a corded mouse around like a morning star and then make contact with some in legal's noggin? Dreams make life livable friends...

Do you have pre-call huddles? I like to make sure everyone I bring into a meeting on my side knows what my plan is, what my goal is and what I expect from them, or set the boundaries if you're into the word of el @jefe . If you have a rhythm with a SME like you used to sure, you can skip but it sounds like you need to set some time to put you both on the same page and if your leftover SME is still shitting the bed THEN you can bring management into the fray like @Pachacuti smartly brought up and point out a missing resource or worse yet, someone actively sabotaging revenue intake for the org. Just make sure you have receipts b/c it could get muddy depending on org and/or your boss.

SEfromCS

Good Citizen

1

Sales Engineer

Gotta do the pre-call huddles. Its the best way to communicate how you want the flow of the call to go and provide some coaching that when he oversteps and interrupts you that it throws you off your flow and pitch. That way if it continues to happen you've now documented that you've discussed this and then have the call recordings to back you up that it's still happening for leadership.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

0

War Room Community Manager

Talk it out with him? Or talk to the management but I don't think telling your selling style or conversational style to anyone should be a problem.

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