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I don't think AI salespeople can replace human salespeople, but are deals really being closed while taking people for motorcycle rides? Who goes on motorcycle

I don't think AI salespeople can replace human salespeople, but are deals really being closed while taking people for motorcycle rides? Who goes on motorcycle rides with vendors?

bryanrasmussen 1y ago
Harley Davidson? on edit: Or Hell's Angels...
swiftcoder 1y ago
My office used to be across the street from a strip club, and I've watched several senior executives stumble out of there at 11am, accompanied by a vendor sales team... More often that one would like, enterprise SaaS sales isn't about having the best product - it's about convincing the CTO he's going to feel like a king whenever your sales reps are in town
- mistrial9 1y ago
  Gold Club in San Francisco has a closed VIP room in the basement.. at least one troublesome associate has been taken down there to generate some compromising photos.. true story
- alabastervlog 1y ago
  > More often that one would like, enterprise SaaS sales isn't about having the best product - it's about convincing the CTO he's going to feel like a king whenever your sales reps are in town As far as I can tell, selling B2B security products is mostly about making C-suiters feel like they're in a political thriller. They even build (and, at least when needed for these purposes, staff!) fake and useless "war room" sets to walk the guys through, inefficient dashboards that nobody doing the actual work uses because they suck but they look cool, stuff like that.
ativzzz 1y ago
Why not? have your AI salesperson interact directly with my AI purchaser and human just signs off on budget
rurp 1y ago
The notion that the private sector largely runs on merit really falls apart the more one learns about how high level decision making is done.
sumtechguy 1y ago
> but are deals really being closed while taking people for motorcycle rides? Oh I see you have not hung out with 'the sales guys'. That they did it on a motorcycle ride does not surprise me. There are some seriously shady dudes out there that will do anything to close the deal, "always be closing". If closing out a million dollar contract means the CEO's daughter wants to goto a water park? Magically there are the tickets aplenty. Bars, race tracks, sports games, horseback riding, Caribbean cruises, on and on. Is it ethical? Not really. In fact many places have training specifically on vendor relations. How much, how little, etc etc. In a small startup environment? There are going to be basically no guidelines from the business to do anything either way. Larger companies tend to have guardrails. But many of the sales guys know how to work that system. In technical roles we usually do not see this mess. Because we have a sense of follow the rules and logic. The sales guys are 'always closing no matter what it takes'.

I don't think AI salespeople can replace human salespeople, but are deals really being closed while taking people for motorcycle rides? Who goes on motorcycle rides with vendors?

bryanrasmussen 1y ago

Harley Davidson? on edit: Or Hell's Angels...

swiftcoder 1y ago

My office used to be across the street from a strip club, and I've watched several senior executives stumble out of there at 11am, accompanied by a vendor sales team... More often that one would like, enterprise SaaS sales isn't about having the best product - it's about convincing the CTO he's going to feel like a king whenever your sales reps are in town

mistrial9 1y ago
Gold Club in San Francisco has a closed VIP room in the basement.. at least one troublesome associate has been taken down there to generate some compromising photos.. true story
alabastervlog 1y ago
> More often that one would like, enterprise SaaS sales isn't about having the best product - it's about convincing the CTO he's going to feel like a king whenever your sales reps are in town As far as I can tell, selling B2B security products is mostly about making C-suiters feel like they're in a political thriller. They even build (and, at least when needed for these purposes, staff!) fake and useless "war room" sets to walk the guys through, inefficient dashboards that nobody doing the actual work uses because they suck but they look cool, stuff like that.

ativzzz 1y ago

Why not? have your AI salesperson interact directly with my AI purchaser and human just signs off on budget

rurp 1y ago

The notion that the private sector largely runs on merit really falls apart the more one learns about how high level decision making is done.

sumtechguy 1y ago

> but are deals really being closed while taking people for motorcycle rides? Oh I see you have not hung out with 'the sales guys'. That they did it on a motorcycle ride does not surprise me. There are some seriously shady dudes out there that will do anything to close the deal, "always be closing". If closing out a million dollar contract means the CEO's daughter wants to goto a water park? Magically there are the tickets aplenty. Bars, race tracks, sports games, horseback riding, Caribbean cruises, on and on. Is it ethical? Not really. In fact many places have training specifically on vendor relations. How much, how little, etc etc. In a small startup environment? There are going to be basically no guidelines from the business to do anything either way. Larger companies tend to have guardrails. But many of the sales guys know how to work that system. In technical roles we usually do not see this mess. Because we have a sense of follow the rules and logic. The sales guys are 'always closing no matter what it takes'.