The extreme pressure to meet or exceed financial expectations at the end of the fourth quarter at publicly traded technology companies make really smart and professional people do the dumbest things. The disgraceful stereotypes people have of salespeople are there for a reason. Public tech companies do their part each quarter by performing their foolish sales tactics in front of their clients.
I wasn’t going to make my numbers for the year but I closed enough business to save my job. The same couldn’t be said about my manager. A sales manager at this software company only lasts as long as the quarterly forecasts are sunny. One missed quarterly forecast and they’re left shopping for their next job.
Do Whatever it Takes
I’d proven my sales meddle, with much humiliation by spending the previous week in the lobby of my client, waiting on my key contact to sign our contract. His assistant treated me like an annoying mosquito during the first two days. She did her best to shew me out of the lobby.
She even told me in the most condescending way possible that I was embarrassing myself.
Well, I’m glad she confirmed what I already knew. College didn’t prepare me for losing my dignity while I loitered in my customer’s lobby. By Wednesday morning when I sheepishly appeared again, ready to blend into the wall paint in my personal seat of shame, she actually started to feel a little sorry for me.
Maybe it was the multiple Starbucks runs I made for the two of us that softened her up a little. Maybe it was all the people passing by who stopped to speak with the assistant, then leaned over and whispered something to her while their eyes darted back toward me. Her response to the whispering was shrugs, eye rolls, and a stare that showed disdain for my existence. No matter how many times she asked me to leave, I found a way to say it’s okay, I don’t mind the indignity of waiting.
Closing the Deal
Even though the money I’d make on this deal wouldn’t pay for more than a few rounds of beers with my friends at the local pub, I was doing my duty for the district and company to close everything possible for the end of the year.
In case you’re wondering, Friday about midmorning, the admin returned from her boss’s office with the signed contract. I was thrilled but on my way out the door, I was left wondering why didn’t he have the decency to invite me into his office to talk a little about the project and then sign the contract. My team and I spent months working very diligently to earn this company’s business. Turns out that the treatment I received to get the contract signed was foreshadowing of where this relationship was going in the future.
Back at the office, some of the senior guys were snickering at my embarrassing approach to close a deal. Little did they know I was living from paycheck to paycheck. I was still lurking around with a severe case of Imposter Syndrome. Always sure someone was going to ask what I was doing there, among the real salespeople. The pressure I felt to succeed came from every angle. Fear of failure could be stimulating somedays and debilitating other days. But that was nothing compared to what would come next.
