I started a hybrid SDR/AE role back in June. Things were going amazing! I crossed over into the tech industry, which I have tons of interest in. Big bump in pay with the potential to close "large enterprise deals" and move up! I was on top of the world and ready to crush it
Well, I was just let go...(scroll to the bottom if you want my question without the entertaining horror story)
I posted here earlier about the insanity I experienced since starting...
The TLDR is my former sales manager had the team pumping out tons of BS volume into our CRM. We were expected to add 20 net new companies a day, 2-3 contacts at those companies. Tasking/Follow-ups at 24 hours, 3 day, 1 week, 2 weeks - before moving on
Literally, everyone on my team was underwater in tasking to keep up with the 20 net new parameters. Tons of untouched leads in the CRM we couldn't touch. Mind you I am in tech but there is a limitation to quality opportunities that we can source that would actually be a fit. The rest of the team put up bs stats by adding terrible prospects and not really doing all the actual outreach - my sales manager either knew and didn't care (because it helped performance on paper), or was just really dumb. Everyone pretended like it was not an issue while my manager doubled down on how easy it should be. In very careful convos, I learned that nobody on the team actually agreed, but didn't want to question it. Out of the 5 of us (manager included), there was only 1 real top performer, who only closed specific types of deals reserved for them to work exclusively with the manager.
Upper leadership calling for high-quality deals only, did not mix well with outreach expectations.
My real outreach and work started in late July / early August. Here are some stats and details:
- Approximately 15 net new companies added daily (1700 companies in total)
- Approximately 30 net new contacts added daily (3100 contacts in total)
- Approx $1.20MM pipeline, with only $35,000 actually closing.
- 37 deals, only 13 closing with 1 being a decent size
- 600K TCV deal that was supposed to close this month, but was pushed to Feb
- 500K TCV in negotiation / under feasibility review
At least 5 deals that I could think of that were of good size and fit but fell through because of failing product or support issues killing momentum in testing. I brought this up to my sales manager in a professional way, providing solution-based alternatives I wanted to discuss...never went anywhere with him, literally left me unread while proceeding to call for more CRM stats. Massively siloed departments, making it hard to know who to approach in confidence.
I am a self-starter, with the ability to work autonomously, but was micromanaged when convenient for him. Asking me to open up deals after calls that didn't seem like high probability or even medium for that matter, but then asking me to move them forward, or for status, etc.
For the sake of anonymity, I can't be too detailed, but 7ish people were let go last month (marketing and developer roles), and 2 security hacks since joining, one costing double-digit millions..
I saw the red flags and started interviewing. I am now in the middle of the interview process with 2 potentials and am so worried that it will hurt me. No severance, no warning, just "sorry it was about the bottom line."
This is the first time I was ever let go in my entire life. I can't stomach the idea of not being upfront about my employment status, but I am asking if anyone can provide advice.
Question:
Do I tell the current ops about this, and do I disclose this to future ones if I need to continue applying? How should I present my performance and handle the reason for being unemployed?
