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Cloudflare was the company that went viral for the firing of an account rep not hitting her goals. I wonder if it’s overall indicative of not a great culture in

Cloudflare was the company that went viral for the firing of an account rep not hitting her goals. I wonder if it’s overall indicative of not a great culture in terms of relationships with enterprise customers. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7LuwPdp-_4c https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7LuwPdp-_4c

CydeWeys 2y ago
> Cloudflare was the company that went viral for the firing of an account rep not hitting her goals. How is that something worth going viral over? Salespeople get fired all the time for not meeting their sales goals. Engineers similarly get fired all the time for not meeting their productivity goals. If you don't do your job well, don't expect to keep it. And if I recall correctly, in this particular case, she was a green employee who hadn't even made a single sale yet! What more obvious of a layoff target is there than that? Would you keep a green unproven salesperson over a proven veteran salesperson who's landed 9 figures in sales?
- busterarm 2y ago
  While I agree with you, I think the call is for companies to be less psychopathic and stop onboarding people within 90 days of mass layoffs. Especially in a world where people pick up their whole lives and relocate for jobs. Recent joiners aren't getting any sustainable kind of severance either. The idea is if you're hiring them you have a minimum commitment to support their success. Yes she was an obvious fire, but it's also the organization's fault. Enterprise deals also take way longer to close than that... All that said, salespeople can and do move jobs a lot. I'm sure she'll be fine.
  - gruez 2y ago
    >I think the call is for companies to be less psychopathic and stop onboarding people within 90 days of mass layoffs. Was there any indication that the "mass layoffs" were planned 90 days in advance?
    - busterarm 2y ago
      It takes around that long to plan and for public companies they don't just suddenly come to that decision within a single quarter, but also that's missing the point. If you're a public company and you go from healthy to mass layoffs within a single quarter then your investors (and employees) should be a lot more concerned.
      - gruez 2y ago
        >If you're a public company and you go from healthy to mass layoffs within a single quarter then your investors (and employees) should be a lot more concerned. 1. According to the CEO the layoffs in question were for "~40 sales people out of over 1,500 in our go to market org"[1]. Is that really a "mass layoff"? 2. Did you not remember that the layoffs coincided with reversal in macroeconomic conditions? Specifically, the reversal from "inflation is transitory" to "inflation is persistent and the central bank will hike interest interest rates". [1] https://x.com/eastdakota/status/1745697840180191501 https://x.com/eastdakota/status/1745697840180191501
        busterarm 2y ago
        90 days isn't enough time to close enterprise deals. The whole point is that the firings demonstrate that she was never set up to succeed by the organization. That's why the org took heat online for it.
        gruez 2y ago
        >90 days isn't enough time to close enterprise deals I'm not sure why you think she was fired/assessed on the basis that she wasn't able to close enterprise deals within 90 days. The same tweet seems to refute this by saying "we can often tell within 3 months or less of a sales hire [...] whether they’re going to be successful or not". Presumably they're looking at various indicators (eg. size/composition of the sales pipeline, reviewing her sales calls and/or emails) and using that to predict performance.
    - mtndew4brkfst 2y ago
NicoJuicy 2y ago
She did say that she didn't bring in any customers...
- nolongerthere 2y ago
  She did say she was around for only 6 months and enterprise sales cycles can last 12+. Though I guess if you’re engaging in scammy behavior it can be much less… maybe she wasn’t willing to do that.
  - selfmodruntime 2y ago
    Sorry, but if you‘re onboarded in a Sales Team you‘re at first getting small fry customers to get used to your Job. Cloudflare is massive and a complete no-brainer for 95% of companies. Not only that, she couldn‘t even land a single enterprise upcharge. Cold calls are hard, but upsells are much easier because companies are pretty much vendor locked with CF. If you can‘t land a single customer in 6 months under these circumstances, you‘re likely just not a good fit.
    - juped 2y ago
      source: you made it up based on never having been on either side of big or even medium organization vendor relationships
      - selfmodruntime 2y ago
        Source: I worked at a Fortune 500 company in b2b sales and solution/ integration engineering. I worked with anywhere between 10 mil up to a billion YoY customers. You can even google my name to confirm this info. This is pretty much exactly like it went when I started.
      - rrr_oh_man 2y ago
        Every even mildly successful B2B sales org works like this, in my experience.
  - 2y ago

CydeWeys 2y ago

> Cloudflare was the company that went viral for the firing of an account rep not hitting her goals. How is that something worth going viral over? Salespeople get fired all the time for not meeting their sales goals. Engineers similarly get fired all the time for not meeting their productivity goals. If you don't do your job well, don't expect to keep it. And if I recall correctly, in this particular case, she was a green employee who hadn't even made a single sale yet! What more obvious of a layoff target is there than that? Would you keep a green unproven salesperson over a proven veteran salesperson who's landed 9 figures in sales?

busterarm 2y ago
While I agree with you, I think the call is for companies to be less psychopathic and stop onboarding people within 90 days of mass layoffs. Especially in a world where people pick up their whole lives and relocate for jobs. Recent joiners aren't getting any sustainable kind of severance either. The idea is if you're hiring them you have a minimum commitment to support their success. Yes she was an obvious fire, but it's also the organization's fault. Enterprise deals also take way longer to close than that... All that said, salespeople can and do move jobs a lot. I'm sure she'll be fine.
- gruez 2y ago
  >I think the call is for companies to be less psychopathic and stop onboarding people within 90 days of mass layoffs. Was there any indication that the "mass layoffs" were planned 90 days in advance?
  - busterarm 2y ago
    It takes around that long to plan and for public companies they don't just suddenly come to that decision within a single quarter, but also that's missing the point. If you're a public company and you go from healthy to mass layoffs within a single quarter then your investors (and employees) should be a lot more concerned.
    - gruez 2y ago
      >If you're a public company and you go from healthy to mass layoffs within a single quarter then your investors (and employees) should be a lot more concerned. 1. According to the CEO the layoffs in question were for "~40 sales people out of over 1,500 in our go to market org"[1]. Is that really a "mass layoff"? 2. Did you not remember that the layoffs coincided with reversal in macroeconomic conditions? Specifically, the reversal from "inflation is transitory" to "inflation is persistent and the central bank will hike interest interest rates". [1] https://x.com/eastdakota/status/1745697840180191501 https://x.com/eastdakota/status/1745697840180191501
      - busterarm 2y ago
        90 days isn't enough time to close enterprise deals. The whole point is that the firings demonstrate that she was never set up to succeed by the organization. That's why the org took heat online for it.
        gruez 2y ago
        >90 days isn't enough time to close enterprise deals I'm not sure why you think she was fired/assessed on the basis that she wasn't able to close enterprise deals within 90 days. The same tweet seems to refute this by saying "we can often tell within 3 months or less of a sales hire [...] whether they’re going to be successful or not". Presumably they're looking at various indicators (eg. size/composition of the sales pipeline, reviewing her sales calls and/or emails) and using that to predict performance.
  - mtndew4brkfst 2y ago

NicoJuicy 2y ago

She did say that she didn't bring in any customers...

nolongerthere 2y ago
She did say she was around for only 6 months and enterprise sales cycles can last 12+. Though I guess if you’re engaging in scammy behavior it can be much less… maybe she wasn’t willing to do that.
- selfmodruntime 2y ago
  Sorry, but if you‘re onboarded in a Sales Team you‘re at first getting small fry customers to get used to your Job. Cloudflare is massive and a complete no-brainer for 95% of companies. Not only that, she couldn‘t even land a single enterprise upcharge. Cold calls are hard, but upsells are much easier because companies are pretty much vendor locked with CF. If you can‘t land a single customer in 6 months under these circumstances, you‘re likely just not a good fit.
  - juped 2y ago
    source: you made it up based on never having been on either side of big or even medium organization vendor relationships
    - selfmodruntime 2y ago
      Source: I worked at a Fortune 500 company in b2b sales and solution/ integration engineering. I worked with anywhere between 10 mil up to a billion YoY customers. You can even google my name to confirm this info. This is pretty much exactly like it went when I started.
    - rrr_oh_man 2y ago
      Every even mildly successful B2B sales org works like this, in my experience.
- 2y ago