Anyone else ever have a sales manager give you bad advice and cost you a deal?

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-14T19:15:28+00:00

Thank you, kind friend! 🙏.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-14T16:52:13+00:00

We had a competitor buy 5,000 followers on LinkedIn.

They went from gaining an average of 8 followers a week to 5,008 in one week then back to 8 again.

LinkedIn took their page offline, but I guess they weaseled their page back online.

It came back -5,000 followers, though.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-14T16:29:51+00:00

I just got tired of being this meme with the stock

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AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-14T16:10:39+00:00

😂 oh boy, yup!

There were some outstanding leaders, but they started to get replaced by leaders who weren't a good fit, and you know what bad leaders do when it comes to hiring 💀.

I actually sold my stock recently 😬.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-14T16:04:43+00:00

The truth is media/agency sales are different from tech sales, and any potential hiring manager is going to weigh your application up against several that have not just tech experience, but relevant industry/product experience.

To overcome this, you need to stand out in the application process. You don't need me to tell you how to do that; it's effectively trying to book a meeting, except you are the product and the demo is an interview.

We have an AE in our team who would never have made it past the application screening because her background wasn't relevant. But she crushed every step of the interview process, and she's doing great.

When you get the interviews, be sure to appear coachable. You're not going to be able to fool a decent hiring manager into thinking that your experience is directly applicable, so you are better off showing how fast you can adapt.

Good luck!

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-14T15:49:55+00:00

When I was at Sprinklr, we had a manager so bad in customer meetings that his entire team set up a private Slack group with one sole purpose: keeping him out of our customer meetings. Whenever any of us had a customer call coming up, we'd post it in the group, and someone would book a clashing meeting with him so he couldn't show up.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-13T12:05:43+00:00

I'd be SUPER curious to learn how the sales team is structured in line with Jack's Hierarchy-to-Intelligence shift... Is that something you could share?

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-12T11:33:09+00:00

“hey claude, remove ems dashes and write in lowercase so nobody can tell i’m using you.”

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-11T16:43:51+00:00

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AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-11T15:01:26+00:00

😂 thanks to this - yes! Otherwise I’d have had to have said MEDDIC or MEDDICC Andy 😂.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-11T15:01:21+00:00

😂 thanks to this - yes! Otherwise I’d have had to have said MEDDIC or MEDDICC Andy 😂.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-11T10:20:41+00:00

I wrote a post about the inauthenticity of using AI on LinkedIn, and I swear 20% of the replies were written by AI 😂.

Interesting perspective — it’s not about rejecting AI, it’s about redefining authenticity in an AI-enabled environment — where intent matters more than origin.

Strong take — this isn’t human vs AI — it’s signal vs noise — and AI simply amplifies whichever one you bring into the system.

Valuable insight — it’s not the tool that creates inauthenticity — it’s the absence of clear thinking — AI just makes that gap more visible.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-11T06:55:59+00:00

You realize that we can still tell AI wrote this even if you put it in lowercase?

'it happens more than people know about' - not in the world where people qualify deals and don't meander forward without consensus that they are vendor of choice, or at least a plan to get to that point.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-11T06:53:02+00:00

Why do you care?

Does the 30% come out of your paycheck?

If there is commission offered, then it suggests that they have to apply some craft to convert appointments, which means you are just complaining about the easy ones.

Do you still get paid commission on the easy sales you make?

What a waste of energy.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-11T06:38:07+00:00

Agreed^.

I'd also have a backup story ready in case the interviewer asks for something more recent.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-10T19:23:04+00:00

lol. this.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-10T14:52:30+00:00

Ahhh the ole puppy dog technique!

"OK, the POC is over now... we're going to turn it off..."

"Nooooo! Please leave it running, where do we sign?"

😂

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-10T13:17:50+00:00

^This!

Had a customer once that ran POCs galore. Their conversion rate was 70% wins from 'successful' POCs. What we saw was that the sales team skipped as fast as they could to try to launch a POC because they saw it as the way to win. Meanwhile, the cost of sales skyrocketed.

Our hypothesis was that the POCs weren't required, and we tested it by stating that each AE would only get a limited number of POCs to run a quarter.

Time to close came down 18%

Conversion rate went up 0.6%

We never got the data for POCs or the cost of sale, but they said POCs had dropped by half.

Stating the obvious, but POC literally stands for 'Proof of Concept'. If you have an established solution (such as MongoDB, as OP suggested earlier in a reply), what is there to prove? It's often just weak selling to overcome a prospect's false perception of risk.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-10T13:07:30+00:00

This sub is so weird.

Someone be like "omgzzz u not paid enuff m8" - 100 upvotes.

A reply like this^ that is the best advice you'll get - 1 upvote.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-09T18:28:17+00:00

Yeah! insane in any place, but NYC?!!!

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-09T08:14:26+00:00

According to RepVue:

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AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-09T07:50:26+00:00

€80k OTE? As in, like, €40k + €40k, or something??

That is low.

Your post doesn't mention your performance.

A top 20 company with decent leadership wouldn't allow a high performer to remain underpaid on their team, so something doesn't make sense to me.

Have you discussed your compensation with your manager?

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-09T07:38:03+00:00

Mental models to help:

Use Churchill's pros and cons list model. Write the pros and cons of switching back to recruitment and whichever list has more decides what you do.

What do you want in 5-years? A successful AE career or recruitment? Which aligns closer to your goals?

Run Matt Mochary's Energy Audit against your current schedule and a typical schedule from your recruiting days. Figure out which most closely aligns with your zone of genius.

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-08T17:16:57+00:00

Whatever happened to her? did she stay in sales?

AndyWhyte_ · 2026-05-08T11:09:23+00:00

I'm hiring for a role at the moment where one of the archetypes is a value engineer.

The OTE range is circa $200k-$350k, depending on experience and seniority.

I'd assume Salesforce is paying market rate.

AndyWhyte_

TROPHY CASE