The Guide to Navigating Layoffs
The GTM Newsletter
Happy Thanksgiving to all our 🇺🇸 subscribers, friends, colleagues, investors and founders.
And to my fellow 🇨🇦’s, Happy “uninterrupted catch-up on work” Day.
I feel incredibly thankful/grateful for the ongoing support of everything we’re building at GTMfund, from the fund, community, podcast to this newsletter.
Thank you.
This is why we do it.
It’s an idea that we can all share our collective knowledge, resources and influence to impact positive change in the world and drive innovation forward.
We work hard to compile strategies and playbooks from GTM operators who have actually scaled and built technology businesses before. People who can speak through experience rather than platitudes/untested ideas.
This is a place where we hope to spark new go-to-market ideas that will help you grow and scale your business and personal impact.
Anyway, let’s get into it.
The Guide to Navigating Layoffs
Due to the current environment we find ourselves, we thought it was important to put together a guide to navigating lay-offs.
To show people that they are not alone and give them step by step guide on how to handle their current situation, both from the perspective of:
Someone who had just been laid off (I wrote some personal thoughts on how to deal with the 5 stages of grief if this happens to you).
A leader who finds themselves in the unfortunate circumstance of having to lay-off team members.
Let’s start with #1.
Justin Strackany, former CCO at SecureLink now Principal at GTM Consulting, has some thoughts from the perspective of being laid off:
Remember to grieve. Take a little bit of time to lean into the shame, anxiety, and disappointment. You'll have plenty of time to "crush it", but I think it's important to recognize that this sucks.
Next, see if you can negotiate. Can you get some extra severance (maybe, maybe not but it’s always worth a try), perhaps a company is willing to pay a few extra months of COBRA, or pay for a few sessions with an employment or resume coach. Right now, your boss might be feeling a little guilty. Use that!
Try to resist the urge to immediately start applying to new roles just like your old role. This is a great time to ask yourself, "What do I really want to do?" and "What sort of company do I really want to work for?" He suggests using Amy Volas’: Dream Job Scorecard for this.
Once you're ready, get aggressive. Tap into your network for LinkedIn recommendations (they really help!), and leverage Sales Navigator to find 2nd level connections for hiring managers. Leverage video and unique ways of grabbing attention. Make yourself irresistible to work with.
Finally, set a regimen with set time blocks to hunt and rest. This might take a while. But, if you stick with it, you have a great job of joining the ranks of people who say getting laid off was the best thing to ever happen to them.
Follow Justin Strackany & Amy Volas for more.
📈 How to take action:
Take the necessary time to grieve.
Consult with peers, legal/hr experts and negotiate your severance.
Don’t immediately apply for the same position, put pen to paper on what your dream job and company actually looks like.
Once you’re back in the zone, go all in! (here’s an article I wrote back in the Sales Hacker days on how we narrowed down hundred of applicants + 4 tips for landing a highly competitive role)
Treat your job hunt like your job and meticulously time-block your calendar.
Bonus: Andy Mowat’s, CEO of Gated, has some insightful thoughts on Navigating Mid-Career Transitions.
Florin Tatulea, Director of Sales at Barley, provided his step by step guide for any salesperson that was just laid off.
He even went as far as providing a template that he would use below (here it is for an easy copy/paste):
"Hi CEO,
Just watched your interview on {X PODCAST} and {INSERT RELEVANCE}
I was recently laid off, but as any great salesperson, I'm not going to let one rejection define me. This is just the beginning for me and I'd love to channel this energy on your team.
I've reached out to {MANAGER} & {VP} regarding the open SDR/AE role, but wanted to put myself on your radar as well.
Best from a very hungry SDR/AE,"
Full LinkedIn post here.
Now from the other side of the fence.
A leader who finds themselves in the unfortunate circumstance of having to lay-off team members.
“I think the most important thing is to OWN it as a leader. And you have to say it out loud. ‘I made a mistake. While excited by the possibilities I became over zealous’. The most important word in all of that is the first one, ‘I’” - Richard Harris, The Harris Consulting Group.
I wanted to share a cohesive strategy from a leader that I have great respect for and then layer in additional thoughts from some other world-class leaders to try to make sure we don’t miss anything important.
First up, Basile Senesi, CRO at Arc Technologies:
Cut once, not twice. Do enough so that you don't have to do it again soon after the first round.
Cut early, don't wait and hope forecasts land. The longer you wait, the less runway, and the deeper you then need to cut what's left to get to the same runway target.
Be generous in saying goodbye. Be Stripe, not OwnBackup. It's more than severance:
Yes, generous severance (1 mo+)
ask your recruiters to stay one for one more month and put them to work
pick your top 10% and connect them to your investors
create a voluntary opt in list of people impacted, and circulate it in your network
Let employees keep equipment where it makes sense (sell them laptops/monitors at depreciated prices, or even let them keep them for free)
Create a clear comms plan on why you are doing what you are doing, with one version for those impacted, and one (consistent) version for those who remain.
Impacted: Why, why you, what this means for you, what we are doing to help this land as easily as possible
Remain: Why, what this means for the biz, what this means for your continued role, how we took care of our own
Create a very clear comms timeline
Who gets to know, in what order; who delivers what message at what times and to who
Keep the circle really tight.
Leaks will kill your plan and put you on the back foot
Deliver the message 1x1, not in bulk
Train managers before hand, and give them time to wrap their heads around the ask
Hire a coach/dedicate an HR person to coach them through it
Some more thoughts on the subject from Dave Kennett, former VP Sales at buddybuild now CEO/Founder at Replayz:
Cover medical/dental for an extended period of time
Extend deadline to pay for vested options (easy to do and goes a long way)
If you are a month of two away from a RIF, put a stop to unnecessary expenses (there are horror stories of companies throwing holiday parties weeks before a big lay-off - this is rubbing salt in the wound)
Don’t do it after the first week of December, or in December at all if you can avoid it. Very tough to hunt for a job from Dec 15- Jan 1. Or if you do, factor that into the severance. There is certainly a case to be made that it could be more humane to do this before the holidays instead of first week of Jan….provided you factor that into the severance
DO NOT DO IT via email
Have the paperwork already in place (don’t make them wait for the terms)
Ben Smith, COO at Knotch, has another good highlight/underscore to add:
“All leaders across the business, not just sales leaders, need to communicate the same message across the company - who was impacted, why it happened, how decisions were made, etc. Often times it's assumed that leaders “know what to say”, but that assumption is a dangerous miscalculation. Share the key messages across the leadership team so they can focus on supporting their teams during the difficult change.”
One last perspective to really hammer it home from, CEO/Founder of Penny AI, David Abbey:
“You need to reinstall focus for the company. If you're laying off, that means build leaner, and slow things down. Another key is pulling in A players early, let them in because they will be included in conversations after the fact that leadership won't be (the ones that happen between colleagues). you need them echo-ing your talk track, strengthening leaderships hard decision to do it when they did and not wait any longer - because that would result in deeper cuts.”
📈 How to take action:
Lead with empathy, vulnerability and follow all of the advice above.
👀 More for your eyeballs:
Great article (and video) on How to Navigate Stormy Markets and Other Tips for Cloud Founders from Battery Ventures:
Full article here.
Strong tweet thread from @callmehouck
👂More for your eardrums:
May Habib, CEO/Founder of Writer and I chopped it up this week on the GTM pod. We covered the gambit including: her experience at Lehman brothers in the last financial crisis and the differences/similarities of this down market, her thoughts on the evolution of AI and real world stories of how they are scaling their PLG motion and turning single sign-ups into 6 figure ACV deals.
And because a lot of you were feeling the tunes I tossed in last week, here’s a couple more:
Kyle (i found you) - Fred again (to be played as you’re celebrating the Thanksgiving weekend)
75 and Sunny - Ryan Montbleau (to be played as you’re nursing your “turkey” hangover)
🎵
🚀 Start-ups to watch:
“In the same way that Salesforce created a system of record for all account data, Primer can become the system of record for all marketing data.”
If you’re a marketing leader and haven’t checked out Primer yet, you’re likely falling behind.
🔥Hottest GTM job of the week:
Head of Content and Community at Writer, more details here.
See more top GTM jobs here.
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I actually hope that you don’t read this until Monday after a weekend of relaxing/reconnecting with the ones you love.
But whenever you are taking the time to dive into this, thank you.
We’ll work hard to make this the most valuable thing in your inbox.
I’ll leave you with a shower thought:
Money (our mutually agreed upon scorecard) comes from creating value, creating value requires time, trust accelerates time to value.
So If wealth is your goal, the focus should be on 1. personal mastery of your value-add to the world 2. building trust with people who share the same mindset. 3. sharing your value with those people freely/abundantly.
Trust is the real currency.
See you next week.
Barker.
✌️