Is it challenging to meet sales targets as a new Account Executive at Siteimprove?

Question

Accepted Answer

In all fairness, extremely. Only the Pub-Sec team will have an easier path to getting to their number due to the healthy inbound leads and active partners working in your favor.

All other teams are malnourished from an inbound standpoint, and while the BDRs are great people, they are only looking to set up meetings, ensure the oppy is going to stage 2, and ask for favors at the end of the month (if needed). The marketing team is well-intentioned but is held to metrics, so they continue to play where their numbers will be strong (pub-sec). The partner team only wants to be involved when it's "big" money deals and not across all segments (focus on enterprise or strategic). Can't blame them since they are also metrics-tied.

You will need to figure out an outbound motion that can win (hard when you're running playbooks/messaging tactics from 2018-2020 that are controlled by sales enablement who are not former sellers). They only show interest in the quantity of activity and that it aligns with their core message (no room for creativity or own sequence). With a limited number of "named" accounts, expect to play in the gray area quite a bit in order to get to your number (hidden accounts/opportunities and run up the activity numbers since the equate more to being "great"). Furthermore, there have been 3-4 extreme price increases in the last couple of years which most customers coming inbound will expect that older price that they purchased before, once they find out its 20-30x more its becomes challenging to sell the value. Especially when you have a competitor that goes pound for pound (like toyota and honda....except you want to charge the honda at BMW pricing).

All in all, everyone is living in a bit of chaos due in part to the fact that there have been 2 massive layoffs (30-40% of staff) in the last 3 years. And the top just wants results no matter what it takes or who they burn out with a Private-Equity firm breathing down their neck. That's not to say there are not great people working at Siteimprove, because there are. The company is just at a "deliver numbers or else" point in its growth. Which could be signs of an attempt at IPO in the next 4-5 years or being sold to another company (like an Adobe).

Only suggestion would be to document everything, talk BIG about your wins and your territory plan, and do your best not to burn out.

Answer

Government is surely the best seat at Siteimprove. The messaging from marketing, connecting the whole platform offering to business value is cloudy and a tough sale. The company is moving into a more marketing/analytics approach, which has huge upside, albeit a massive amount of competition.

Notifications

Siteimprove

RepVue Score

0

Siteimprove

73.30

Anonymous Q&A

Is it challenging to meet sales targets as a new Account Executive at Siteimprove?