Time for a break up email?
Enterprise HCM sales here. There is a local company that I’ve dropped at a few times. Not huge, but well known long standing company in the territory that would be a good logo to land. A BDR actually had luck engaging with the CTO at the end of April. He responded that he would like to meet wth us, so the meeting was set with him, the HR director, and SOC II Director. I usually have my SE’s join the first call depending on size of the business and complexity.
First meeting went great. All of them were impressed with having him join that first conversation. We found out that they were using a local Payroll company for years ,but they have 22 employees scattered across different states ,and they screwed up their quarterly taxes, and got fined from a lot of those states. They left and went to a competitor which promised them the world about a year and a half ago. Implementation was terrible, rep stopped answering their calls and eventually left the company, so now here they are with multiple issues again, and needing to make a switch as taxes were screwed up for 6 of their employees, as well as multiple other issues due to how that platform is built with disconnected HR and Payroll. So needless to say, they have a lot of PTSD, trust issues, and are understandably apprehensive about their next choice.
When the process started with them, they all agreed that they were looking at making a decision and closing by end of May. We went above and beyond, brought in one of our high ranking tax and compliance directors to explain our process and put them at ease, brought in a high ranking IT consultant to speak with their IT team. Every meeting went great. We got multiple compliments from everyone involved on how great the demo looked, our professionalism, and attention to detail around their needs after every touch point. Coming up to the end of May, we set up a sandbox access for them. Explained to the HR director that she’d need to sign an NDA prior, and we’d get her set up. She was completely fine with everything then silence after the NDA went out. At this point May was out of the question. The Docusign was sent 3 times. Then finally a week and a half later she responds that she never got it, but also was not responding to our voicemails or emails. She went back and found it and signed. We set up call with her to make sure she could get logged in and let the SE walk her around the system. Set up a call for debrief a week after the sandbox access. No show on that.
At this point, it’s been 3 weeks, we’ve sent emails to everyone involved, we even secured her NFL suite tickets to a team we have an agreement with because they are playing her favorite NFL team. The last outreach was week before last. Called her cell, left a VM, and shot her a text following up on her feedback from the sandbox. Gave them some breathing room since.
It’s also worth noting that the previous local company has come back in to the mix now ensuring her that they got the issues fixed from before that caused them to be fined in multiple states, so they’re trying to get back in, and the rep also happens to be a friend of the HR director. When she told us this ,she assured us that she wouldn’t let that make her decision, but we all know how that goes.
My thought is maybe letting the dust settle from the holiday and end of next week send out a break up email. I can understand the apprehensiveness after the past 2 experiences, but I’m not down with wasting my time on a one sided relationship. We’ve bent over backwards to accommodate them ,and the non responses aren’t something I’m going to continue spending my time on.