Evening.

I’m the tech guy for a smallish group of salespeople, and work with them to make sure that customers get the right products (solution!) for their needs. Recently I’ve moved from one area of tech to another.

I’m enjoying it but the behaviour of a particular salesperson recently has me puzzled. Backstory: we went out to see a very switched-on customer who knew fairly precisely what he needed. Over a coffee, I took the customer through the various options and an hour later we had the full thing detailed. It was worth about £100k to the business, and that was after the 50% discount the customer gets. Win/win all round. Customer was ready to place the order when the pricing was submitted to him.

I did all my due diligence (recorded the work, detailed the bill of materials, etc) and passed it to the salesperson, who told me that they were taking the required next steps- the pricing offer, about 30 mins of work for them. However- later that week, a new salesperson started and was very quickly allocated the customer.

And now an email has come in from the customer- as he’d heard nothing, he went with a different solution from a different vendor, as he had budget and needed to spend it. Digging around discreetly, I learn that the 1st salesperson didn’t hand it on when they found out they were giving up the account, as it (quote) ‘wasn’t their responsibility’.

It may well not be, but it was a slam-dunk bit of work that the customer was happy with, and as a company, we need to make money- and that £100k would have helped enormously.

Whats the crack here?

Salesperson 1 is a colossal dick?

Salesperson is put out as has to hand over, they have decided that if they don’t win, then no-one does. Acting as an individual rather than the company.

If that had happened to me than I’d be putting up a big fight over the account and if I had done enough work on it then then I would expect my employer to allow me to close it (or at least agree a set period of time to before handover).

Sounds like the deal was something of a bluebird that the original salesperson had not seen coming.

Another thing, it’s strange that a customer would just quickly change their mind on a reasonably big spend item. They clearly did not see the unique value of what your company was offering, or they would have been more persistent in getting a deal over the line with your company rather than pursue another option.

‘razorrazoo

Another thing, it’s strange that a customer would just quickly change their mind on a reasonably big spend item. They clearly did not see the unique value of what your company was offering, or they would have been more persistent in getting a deal over the line with your company rather than pursue another option.’

Indeed- that’s the oddest bit, as they’ve used our tech for years and are advocates of it. I’m going to call the customer directly about it in the morning (I was forwarded an email today so the comms are a bit indirect)
Its possible that we’re maybe not too late and the cust is just giving us a rocket.

the 1st salesperson who did not pass it over, are they still with the company?
If they left, did they go to a competitor of your company?

the 1st salesperson who did not pass it over, are they still with the company?
If they left, did they go to a competitor of your company?

This is how I read it. Why else would you switch to a new salesperson when all that was left to do was to sign the paperwork and send an invoice?

Does your call report, detail of the order, etc.,not go onto some kind of CRM system? Irrespective of whether the sales person was keeping the account I’d say it’s their responsibility to accurately do that. Then when the new person looks at the status of his account list he can see the opportunity.

I’d then also expect a manual handover of key active matters (opps, complaints, projects) to take place. At my old place that would probably be with joint sales calls just so continuity is maintained and customer feels important.

Sounds like original salesperson is being a bit sniffy but also query if his boss is a bit to blame for not ensuring a proper handover.

Interesting….

Having had situations where management have tried to take accounts off me (which I had grown year on year to Tier 1) to “derisk” in case I left (yes I know, how stupid! How about make sure I don’t want to leave), I have always fought hard, made good business case and retained them, then continued the growth. My gut feeling here (on the assumption salesperson 1 hasn’t left) is that a: they are pretty pissed off about a good account being taken off them, b: the sales manager has dropped the ball by not “owning” the transition properly (and from a client perspective I’d have expected that) and c: the new sales contact hasn’t been proactive enough on hunting low hanging fruit.

All round, a pretty shoddy process TBH.

I reckon it’s worth doing some more digging yourself, you might yet rescue it, and if not, you’ll have identified an opportunity to improve processes.

Who paid for your time to do the pre-sales?
Will original sales person lose their job end of Q if they don’t meet targets but new one does?

How long has elapsed between the new person picking up the account and the comms you got from the customer (this isn’t clear)?

I find it hard to believe that an existing customer, with whom you company seems to have a good relationship with, would ‘agree’ a deal, but then buy something completely different within a few days over not being contacted (for example for all they know, their account manager could have been called out of office on a family emergency), and not trying to get back in touch themselves (perhaps even via you as another contact on the deal. I’d say there is more to it than meets the eye.

Either way as @andyrm puts it, sales management / ops have hugely dropped the ball by both not knowing about the deal and not having a proper handover process in place.

Without knowing more, I’d not rush to finger point at the new rep, as they may have to go through an on-boarding process before touching accounts (they do in my place). I’d suggest the existing rep is going to be in trouble if it comes to light that he/she has know about a deal but chosen to ignore it.

Not wanting to knock my peers, but sales can be a toxic business and bad employers can breed bad sales people.

If your guys are largely commission based, or have tough targets with nasty penalties for not reaching them (aka ‘the sack’) then expect them to act like the complete psychopaths they’re meant to be.

I’ve worked in places just like that, it’s crazy but if you work under the sort of pressure that environment creates then if I left or otherwise had to hand over leads to someone else I wouldn’t give it 1% more effort than I absolutely had to, to do so. It no longer matters to me because it will no longer find itself on the dreaded spreadsheet or on my wage slip and would I really care about the business as a whole if it’s the very business that will fire me without a moments pause if I don’t ‘hit the numbers’?

They call it having an ‘entrepreneurial work ethic’ but do you know many entrepreneurs who give 2 shits about how well their suppliers are doing?

I’m risen above most of that shit now, and I don’t have targets so I’m more aligned with Business needs than my own.

Salespeople

And

Etiquette

Error. Does not compute.

With sales people if it isn’t on paper with their ink signature next to it then you are pissing in the wind.

This happened to me last year.  I was asked to handover a 200k deal i had been working on for 13 months toa new (experienced) regional rep.  I argued the loss in my numbers and the personal penalty to me that would be hard to make up from mid November onwards.

My company agreed to give me an equivalent value deal from a rep leaving the business and all i had to d was process the paperworks and support the new rep in closing my original deal.

The ops Salesperson 1 is a cock and not a team player, but equally i would not surrender my earnings or success opportunity easily.

Also 50% discount is why the customer walked.  They probably overlooked the competition on a financial basis but were keeping them on the back burner in case the deal proved to good to be true – which it did.

@Kryton

That sounds like a very badly run sales department.

The aim should be to maximise revenue for the company. What you are describing is personal enmity damaging the greater whole.

Sorry to say it but someone (probably not you from what you say) needs a bollocking and stronger top management.

While i get i shouldnt have been asked to handover the deal, i got an easier status quo and a new rep got educated by a senior colleague whilst our team got both opps through the door.

Whats the issue?   I took a little pride that i manipulated that situation for the greater good which my manager failed to do- so if ive missed something I’m keen to learn…?

I should point out that the rep who lost out to me was leaving the position before the deal would have been closed and accepted he wouldnt be commissioned on it after the fact.

With sales people if it isn’t on paper with their ink signature next to it then you are pissing in the wind.

Thanks for that hugely insightful sweeping generalisation.

i manipulated that situation for the greater good

If it helped the turnover of the business then I didn’t really glean that from your post. What I perceived was a bit of game playing by some people. I probably didn’t ‘get it’.

Well, I didn’t reply with the whole story to be fair to you.

If salesperson 1 is still with the company he should be sacked immediately for gross misconduct ..not passing on a £100k lead ( order) because it wasnt his account anymore ?
What a dick!

Thanks for that hugely insightful sweeping generalisation.

Any time. You are welcome.

^^^^
And we prefer digital signature these days, it’s quicker.

What does the salesperson actually do? Sounds like you sold it, or am I missing something?

As others have mentioned above. A salesperson is required to be a team player for the good of the company. That is until it gets tough then it’s all the fault of the individual and they take the hit for it (commission / job). It’s similar to Premier League managers, that’s why the staff turnover is so high.

It seems like saleperson 1 is out of order but I would agree that if the customer changed their mind so quickly it wasn’t a “done deal”.

My advice would be learn from it but don’t dwell on it. Move on and chase the next sale.

Usually hed be responsible for understanding the software and professional services content for the customer solution and presenting the correct bundle of “things” for the Salesperson to sel .

The Salesperson is then responsible for the commercial and close of the deal.

Before you argue that the OP did all the work they are two different skills, one very much depends on the other and not everyone is technical not is everyone comfortable in commercial negotiations.

In some case – and this is true for me for example – the salesperson is also the SME but I could never be as expert as the OP as i dont have the time.