FeelItInMyPlums

Sales Account Executive

Valued Contributor

Opinionated

Catalyst

What are some of the worst lies told to you during an interview process?

Some of my favorites:

Our entire sales team was above quota last year (the few we didn't let go)

Our top rep made almost half a million dollars (like 1 time, 3 years ago)

We don't hire leadership externally (before they hire your new boss externally and dont promote you or your team members)

We have 80% inbound leads, 20% will be "hunting" (if you're lucky, its 20% inbound)

This was a new one:

You'll be reporting directly to me (after he had already taken a promotion). Ended up starting a job in a new industry with 0 leadership support :D!

😂 Sales Humor

👥 Hiring

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Ras_Rebuttles

Contributor

Sales Consultant

Oof the inbound vs outbound lie is REAL.

Mine is probably "Yeah OTE for an AE is $130k"
Gets offer*
OTE = $97k

Just me?

FeelItInMyPlums

Valued Contributor

Sales Account Executive

Was that a recruiter or actual company?

Selichimorpha

Celebrated Contributor

Growth Executive

the OTE lie is the biggest one. "If you hit all of your metrics, you'll make $150k!" I now know that I need to ask what percentage of reps actually hit "all their metrics."

FeelItInMyPlums

Valued Contributor

Sales Account Executive

No way! If you asked they'd tell you 80%. Its always 80%.

Do.it.for.the.checks

Politicker

Account Executive

Ask for verification. They have a dashboard tracking this, show me. If I'm willing to show you my W2 and provide references. You better be willing to return suit.

If not, they are lying and walk

Marketingpet

Politicker

Partner Manager

“You’re our number 1 pick. We got our number 2 pick hired now we just need you.” The number 2 pick had 5 years of sales experience from a national company in the same industry. I had zero years, it was a complete lie (I rejected the offer)

FeelItInMyPlums

Valued Contributor

Sales Account Executive

Lol. Thats gold. Im gonna use that if I ever become a people manager

Soiboi

Politicker

Account Executive, EIAS/Compliance

Just happened, we have Ramp, I had pipeline coming into the role, and lastly limited metrics to get bound down by. All lies, whatever though muscle through.

FeelItInMyPlums

Valued Contributor

Sales Account Executive

Haha seriously. After cleaning up the BS pipeline from the guy before you, there's usually nothing left. Anything real goes to the tenured reps on the team to finish off.

TheLoneGun

Opinionated

Extremely Rad Product Offloading Specialist

It was a sales director job for a marketing company, they wanted me to build out a team. My pay was heavily tied to overall growth. We discussed numbers and when I asked what's the goal for YOY growth? She replied "30%"( every fucking month)

Jgre12

Fire Starter

Senior Account Executive

We have a great culture and truly care about our employees wellbeing

allsaasnobrakes

Member

Growth Account Executive

+1 to the "we don't hire leadership/promote externally" point. Can guarantee this is untrue in basically any business lol

champchamp

Arsonist

Certified Savage

"All the reps that follow my process hit quota." No one was hitting quota, literally no one. There were 8 people on the team.

Gottapumpthosenumbers

Opinionated

Biz Dev

Funding. I was told by a company one time that their financial situation was "rock solid". The company had massive layoffs and a total financial restructure 45 days later. Smh.

ManifestSuccess

Good Citizen

Account Executive

Oh man, this is a great question. Sadly most of what you hear will be untrue. Apologies in advance for the cynicism :-)

"Our OTE is 250k. 125k salary, and 125k in commissions." Truth: Many companies have a full staff of AEs that have 1 or 2 scheduled meetings with leads. Most are not hitting quota. You will at least get your salary.

"I would say 85 - 90% of the team is hitting quota" Truth: Very few people are hitting quota. We kind of made the number up because we told the board we would make that much money. And I wouldn't count on any of the current AEs to be super truthful about this with you if you ask to speak with one. I mean that's a pretty tough spot to be in as an existing employee. I agree with the suggestion above that they should be willing to show you the salesforce reports they use in the pipeline meetings. I might even ask to sit in on one of those meetings before I accept my next job.

"Marketing will provide you with 50% of the leads. Your SDR will provide you with 35% of them. And you will maybe have to do some prospecting for the remaining 15%" Truth: Marketing will provide exactly 0% and not be accountable to this number. Your SDR will maybe provide one now and then, if you get a good one. That job is very difficult though especially today so don't count on it. If the AEs aren't hitting quota, the SDRs aren't either.

"Culture is the most important thing to us at our company" Truth: Everyone says this but it is extremely rare. And it usually doesn't extend to the sales team anyways. Sales is expected to hit the number, whether you are mentally unstable from constantly hearing the SVP of Sales ask you how many 4Q deals you can close in 3Q in your twice weekly pipeline meetings or if Marketing has left you completely on your own to provide your entire pipeline as well as closing $275k in business each quarter. I was once at a company that had mental health days, but sales management was pretty clear that we were supposed to work those days unless we were at our number which we never were. The upside to this is that as sales people, if we are at our number we can basically do whatever we want, so there is that.

"We have a great market fit and people love our product" Truth: We're on our 3rd CMO in 3 years and have no idea what to say anymore to get people into meetings. Your manager will tell you that you are doing a fantastic job, and will usually not have much to suggest at your weekly meetings when you continuously ask what you can do better and why the playbook you have been using is not working. I have found that many, many tech companies have a nice to have at best product, but are valued at $10B somehow. This works great in good times, but the moment times get tough, most don't last one quarter before huge layoffs.

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FeelItInMyPlums

What are some of the worst lies told to you during an interview process?

15 comments

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