VP of sales Hires founding SDR That roles up to them 8 months later Fires SDR Who is in the wrong? The CEO who approved it Sorry, said what I said
Why did the SDR get fired?
"I just need meetings, with qualified buyers, at my last company we had SDRs, give me headcount for an SDR and we'll drive revenue" - VP of Sales 🤡 Like saying you're going to go conquer a territory "give me a soldier, I'll teach em' how good I was with the sword, from my high tower of executive leadership" - VP of Sales And that soldier gets mowed down by the competition and flounders around hoping for better tools, better leadership, tactical and practical guidance. Seen once, seen it a hundred times.
Most times the CEO doesn't need to approve because it falls under the responsibilities of the VP to take that decision.
No one is wrong. Everyone got money (except maybe founder) and learned something.
I wouldn't apologize for what you said! In a situation like that, odds are that they didn't have proper SOP's for the SDR to follow OR worse, they wanted the SDR to develop them. There wasn't a clear message of what the value prop of the company/product was There was little to zero investment in tech stack to allow the SDR to function at full capacity. a phone, linkedin account, and a lead list just doesn't cut it anymore. in fact, that hasn't cut it for at least the last 8-9 years.
Its not about who hired who - the real failure starts day 1. No SDR should report direct to VP Sales. Need a dedicated manager/enablement person between them or youre setting both up to fail. Seen this exact scenario 100+ times - good SDR + good VP doesnt matter if the structure is wrong. Always build the support system before the headcount.
I've been that SDR more than once. It doesn't even matter if you crush it. Assholes.
Sometimes it's even just the founder directly hiring the SDR, then even more clear blame
Bob the Builder of Pipeline 🦕 | Sales & Humor | Voted “#2 Best Parent” - by my 3 year old 🤷🏻
1dWhy is everyone so quick to blame leadership and victimize the SDR? This couldnt be more vague. Ill go quick to assume the Founding SDR wasnt able to build anything and was as reliant on the VP to supply them an infrastructure as much as the VP was looking for a SDR thats done this before and didnt need hand holding...