In early '12, my employer ended its channel partnership with the tech I'd been selling for four years, in favor of a less expensive, less robust one. Within weeks, the clients I'd worked so hard to close were having event failures and my heart sank as I felt my reputation being pulled down with it.
So, I quit my job, with nothing else on the horizon. A few critical takeaways:
A. For better or worse, I've always been a client-first, company-second employee. We're nothing without our clients - I struggled to be attached to a product that was failing those that had put their trust in us.
B. The incoming CEO tried to keep me. "If you stay, I'll make you VP of Sales."
I was an AE at the time and barely 30 years old - VP of Sales sounded like I'd won the lottery. As with all decisions, I suspected someone wiser would have an angle I hadn't yet considered, and I paused to be intentional about my next move.
I sought counsel in one of our clients who wisely said,
"Yeah, but you'd still be VP of Sh*t..." (re: the product).
As much as I wanted the title, I knew she was right, and stuck to my guns.
C. Build your relationships at the executive level.
Despite being a small company, time with our C-Suite + VPs was in short supply, but I sought it out, learned, executed, reported back. I did all I could to demonstrate that I was someone smart and worth investing in.
When I quit, the exiting CEO called our former channel partner's VP of Sales, and said, "Sam quit, if you want her, now is the time to go get her."
I ended up accepting a senior AE role, brought two peers with me for the new adventure, and built a career for six years that eventually led me to the VP title, the right way.
We're often at inflection points in our lives - professionally and personally - where some (often?) times choosing the path that doesn't look like what you thought life would look like ends up being the right one.
#samsales
