The time when an SE emailed my boss' boss' boss' boss' boss

I run a BD team inside a megacap (>$300bn+). Thanks to general corporate dysfunction I am also responsible for procurement for the team. A few years ago I was in the process of buying a solution ($40k) and we were dragging our feet because life corporate inertia. Then the guy sent an email to a board member of the company (well known public figure and a multi-billionaire) asking him to help move the process along.


The board member had no idea who I was or what the product was but engaged with the email for whatever reason (?!) so the inquiry got forwarded to the CEO and then the SVP then the EVP then the VP then the Senior Director and then eventually me with a chain of "wtf is this".


Probably the closest I've gotten to yelling at a vendor - terminated the process and went with a competitor instead.


TL;DR: yes work all your channels but if you are not selling a transformational product leave the big bosses out of it

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5
Savagedoge
Tycoon
1
Account Executive
Woah, that escalated quickly.
Soiboi
Politicker
0
Account Executive, EIAS/Compliance
๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚
TheLoneGun
Opinionated
1
Extremely Rad Product Offloading Specialist
It's weird that the vendor got so impatient when you agreed to buy, terrible move. Sounds like the vendor got what they deserved.ย  It's also sad how often these type of things happen.
Tres_Comas
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Wow! ๐Ÿ˜ฎ
fuzzy
Notable Contributor
1
CMO (Chief Meme Officer)
lmao. would have loved to see the fallout on that guy.
Soiboi
Politicker
0
Account Executive, EIAS/Compliance
hahahaha...... good on you I guess.ย 
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
๐ŸฆŠ
Did you ghost the vendor completely? Was an established timeline set?ย 

Communication failure perhaps?
wHaTyAgOtCoOkInG
Catalyst
0
Solution Consultant
hmmm, in skip millers atl/btl they talk about going high and wide early on. I'm sure if they did that pre or immediately post IM, it wouldnt have been so dramatic, but once you've already committed to buy, thats a dick move
18

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