The most annoying deal I've ever closed.
I'm the Sales Leader in the office, and I casually mentioned to one of my AEs that I was planning on calling this client in the near-future; I have something of an 'in' with them, and while this deal isn't very profitable for us, it is a major win. The client in question is extremely well-recognized in our local area, so we anticipate this is going to lead to a lot of additional business.
Our salespeople are full-cycle so they do their own prospecting. This AE is one of our best; high enthusiasm, high activity but his presentation and closing skills aren't there yet so he relies on me heavily. I'm all about winning new business, but he's not my only salesperson and he consumes an inordinate amount of my time.
He casually calls the client, books the meeting for the same day and as a medium-large deal, there's no way he's going to be able to handle this himself. I drive him to the client-site because his car was low on gas that afternoon and there was no time to fill up. I ran the demo, answered all the questions, presented to 6 stakeholders, generated the proposal, negotiated for weeks, and closed. Naturally, the deal goes under his name and he gets the credit, and the commission.
I'm not selfish like that, and I do this kind of work for all my people, all the time. It's my job and what I get paid to do.. but I REALLY wanted this one for myself. It was a personal pride thing.
Anyway. It is what is is. Big win for the company. Another day, another deal.
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