up-product vs. up-market

open role: enterprise account executive (4)

• series a, $30m in funding, $15m in revenue

• series b, $70m in funding, $10m in revenue

• series b, $50m in funding, $30m in revenue

• series a, $22m in fudning, $10m in revenue

interested? apply here

active candidate: founding account exective

• 8 years of sales exp, 6 years in enterprise sales

• never once missed quota, averaging 138%

• technical but sells to non-technical buyer

• looking to sell a more technical product

• insane high eq and iq

want to chat with them? email me

my 2 cents: up-product vs. up-market

heads up… i’m sick and threw my back/neck out so i’m not going to proof/edit this.

i’ve been having a lot more conversations lately with candidates surrounding job title, segmentation/market, customer size etc.

in these conversations i’ve noticed a tread, especially with folks in the earlier in their career, where people are indexing heavily on title, customer size, market label… and putting product, team and sheer opportunity on the back-burner.

as if being a mid market rep at brex is a 2nd rate opportunity to being an enterprise rep for some bum company with a broken product no one wants.

great your ote is $300k but you’ll make ½ that, never hit any noteworthy milestones and when you start your next search you’ll have little to nothing to show for it.

now the reality is, not all roles are created equal and there are endless things to consider in your search. so, here are just a few things to consider as evaluate roles.

icp: hows their icp compare to your own ideal icp? their icp isn’t technical but you’re wanting to up-level your product and buyer.

product: is this a nice to have or need to have? are they top dog or middle of the pack?

segment: enterprise means what? big? impressive? large? to who? look at actual acv, actual customers and evaluate from there. how’s the enterprise team performing compared to mid market? is the product actually enterprise ready? is the enterprise ready for the product?

team success: average attainment across the team is important to know. i’ve worked with plenty of orgs where enterprise reps aren’t making nearly as much as mid market due to all of the above not being properly aligned.

market sentiment: i mentioned this a bit already but is the market ready for what you have? how is your icp thinking about your product? are you something they’ve been looking for or do you have to spend a majority of your time as a product psychologist helping them understand why they need you. no thanks.

actual opportunity: set aside your bias and desire for a sexy title and be honest with yourself. if your friend was interviewing here, and you weren’t allowed to work in this role, would you think it’s great? if you were supposed to be their sounding board, what questions would you ask and how would you evaluate if this is a great opp or not?

so much of a great job search and finding the right opportunity comes down to asking great questions, being genuinely curious and leaving your ego at the door. focusing on title instead of opportunity is prime ego behavior. ditch it and your future will thank you for it.

as always, so much more I could say on the topic, so if you have any questions just hmu.

a side note for hiring managers:

a great mid market candidate with a technical product is like the seahawks getting kam chancellor and richard sherman in THE 5TH ROUND OF THE DRAFT lol. insane talent at an insane discount. take some risks and go get yourself a ring.

music for your friday