InfiniteGranite

Senior Enterprise AE

War... What is is good for? (clue: not my pipeline)

Fellow Savages,

Firstly - war is terrible and I don't mean to downplay the very real impact on people in the affected areas - this should go without saying.

I sell a complex ERP to energy and shipping (i.e. maritime) companies. Our SaaS platform provides the tools to run their commercial operations, manage contracts, track cargoes/vessels, etc.

Due to the global nature of commodity shipping and trading, the war in Ukraine is starting to erode my pipeline, deal by deal. When COVID first hit I had a couple of deals slip (one that was about 80% of my annual quota) whilst companies worked out how to respond, but they still closed about 5-6 months later than forecast.

With the war, it could literally go on for years and I've had 2 deals that have been 10+ months in the making already say to me this week that Mgmt. is halting all CAPEX spending now until the situation becomes clearer as they have production sites and businesses in Russia and Ukraine that are affected. The 2 deals in question are combined about 25% of my annual quota and, the really troubling thing is, I can potentially see it happening with other opps...

Last year wasn't a great year for me performance-wise and I'm wondering if it might be better to jump ship for another industry that is less-effected by this kind of stuff than hang around and have another underachieving year (even if mgmt. on my side does end up being understanding of the situation, as they were with COVID in 2020). As we all know, the SaaS sales jobs market is very hot right now so I'm wondering if this is the thing that pushes me away from the industry I've worked in for the last 8 years.

Any advice on how to get through it? Anyone else having issues with this too? I am based in the UK and selling into Europe.

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19 comments

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RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

5

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

CyberSecurity is POPPIN rn 👀

InfiniteGranite

Executive

0

Senior Enterprise AE

Thanks for the tip!

Hoopnip

Politicker

0

Commercial AE

What companies would you jump to in the space? McAfee is a nightmare of a company.

Stratifyz

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

Fortinet is boomin and on the top at RepVue

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

1

Rolling 20's all day

Dang that's rough. This is just another objection that you can't control but it's a pretty solid one when coming from such a large global event.
Honestly, are there any sectors that you might want to move into? It could be a long time until things resolve, and even then who's to say if your deals will still close.

We all know time kills deals; risk can push them one way or the other, so without knowing more of your deal details I don't have a recommendation on what to do besides taking some time to reassess what you want to achieve and how.

InfiniteGranite

Executive

0

Senior Enterprise AE

Thanks for the comments, appreciate the advice. I'm thinking climate-tech might be a good move for me - some pretty cool companies and it aligns somewhat with what I'm slinging these days as sustainability is the hot topic of my current industry.

TennisandSales

Politicker

1

Head Of Sales

So i was ready to write off this post as someone complaining about the war and not being sensitive to the real situation.

So thank you for NOT being that haha!

You have a very real situation to figure out. and I would be asking my self the same questions.

I am in the Pharma/life sciences space and I do feel very lucky that the major issues we have faced in the world have not negatively impacted my job.

So maybe you should jump ship and look at the life sciences arena?

InfiniteGranite

Executive

0

Senior Enterprise AE

Haha - happy to help! I'm not sure about life sciences. I'm being drawn to climate-tech right now. The space has some pretty cool players and I genuinely vibe with the message/mission. Thanks for the advice tho!

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

1

Officer of ♥️

my attention span is too short to read the whole thing.

But I'd say, either a: double/triple/quadruple your activity,
or
b: jump ship into a new industry/role
or
c: talk to ur manager about the situation and ur difficult position and see if you can lower quota

Sorry. best of luck

https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/how-to-go-from-jobless-to-offer-in-4-days-update-on-job-hunt-1-offer-2-next-stage-3-in-1st-stage-lfg

https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/how-to-quit-like-a-savage-bad-advice-only-share-your-favorite-quitting-story-below-sadness-lieutenant

InfiniteGranite

Executive

3

Senior Enterprise AE

Thanks for the links - really useful. I think moving is starting to make sense. I've not been firing on all cylinders for a while so maybe this is actually an opportunity.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

1

Officer of ♥️

you have 8 years closing experience, no reason you cant land an enterprise AE role making low-mid 6 figures

InfiniteGranite

Executive

1

Senior Enterprise AE

Thanks - this is exactly what I'm thinking. Annual quota at my current place is $1.2m and my avg. deal size is about $120k so I'm confident in my experience but I'm just a bit cautious about moving into a whole new industry... low-mid 6 figure salary in GBP would be great ;-)

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

That sucks. Covid was actually good in the first year for me, but year 2 started a downward trend (company-wide as well).
My clientele aren't affected by Ukraine, at least not professionally.
If you don't think things are going to improve in the next year or so, probably time for a lateral move.

InfiniteGranite

Executive

1

Senior Enterprise AE

The difficulty is the not knowing - it could be cleared up in the next 3 months or it could rumble on for years. I'm not sure there are these kinds of considerations in other industries so maybe I should find out.

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Yah, that’s a tough position to be in. Never hurts to start getting your resume out there IMO.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

0

🦊

Thanks for getting this damn song stuck in my head

InfiniteGranite

Executive

1

Senior Enterprise AE

Yeah I really f'd myself on that one too haha

Justatitle

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

Hoping for everyone’s sake a peace agreement happens as fast as possible

Stratifyz

Big Shot

0

Account Executive

At the end of the day, YOU are the priority. If you're not hitting the milestones you need to be successful, then you know your time there is coming to an end.

I know someone in a very similar situation and they took the leap (which has paid dividends). Is it scary? Absolutely. Does it suck? Tremendously.

But don't sacrifice your happiness at the expense of things you can't control.

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