What it was like selling for WeWork

An inside look at the WeWork sales team

August 29, 2023

Happy National Sports Day! If “jumping on a quick call” was a sport, we’d be the Michael Jordan of the league.

In today’s Follow Up:

  • Working in sales at WeWork 👀 

  • Tip of the day ✍️ 

  • Sales in the news 🗞️

  • Tool of the day 🛠️

  • Jobs for closers 📞 

Sales Fact of The Day

36% of remote or hybrid salespeople say, "Selling remotely has made it easier to sell.”

Source: Hubspot

Working on the Sales Team at WeWork

WeWork is one of the craziest business stories of our generation.

The company raised over $22 billion and was once valued at $47 billion.

But as of today, their current market cap sits at just $260M…

And behind all the madness is one of the most eccentric businesspeople of our generation: Adam Neumann.

There have been multiple documentaries about the rise and fall of WeWork, including the most recent Apple TV series, “WeCrashed”.

But as Salespeople there’s was one question we had:

What was it like to be a Sales Rep at WeWork?

So we reached out to our friend Edward Gorbis, who worked as the Senior Director of Enterprise Account Management & Business Development at WeWork from 2018-2020.

So without further Ado, here’s the interview:

What was the product/ service you were selling at WeWork.

We were selling private office spaces that were customizable to Enterprise businesses. This includes the top 100 technology and financial brands in San Francisco and New York.

What was it like working at WeWork for the years you were there?

Exhilarating and exhausting.

WeWork was valued at $47B at one point, and SoftBank had high expectations. We had extremely aggressive QoQ goals. The energy was always high but sometimes it felt like people were running around like chickens with their heads cut off because nothing was efficient.

How would you say selling at WeWork compares to other sales jobs you’ve had?

It was definitely the most fun I had in a sales role because pre-COVID, everyone wanted to at least talk to WeWork. We were able to get creative with both the physical space and the deal structure itself. We had a robust internal sales team that helped us navigate both office design and financials.

Did you ever get to meet Adam Neumann, or have any interactions with him?

I did meet him a few times. He was ALWAYS high energy and had wild big-thinking answers to any question I or others would ask of him. The Hulu documentary does not do him justice. He's eccentric and careless at the same time.

Any cool/crazy stories from your time there?

Every single WeWork space was stocked with Don Julio 1942 just in case Adam showed up and wanted to drink with the community team.

Thanks again for the insight, Edward.

And like any great story, WeWork doesn’t seem to be the end of the road for Adam Neumann.

It was recently announced that Adam raised $350M for his new company, Flow. 

So this leaves us with one question…

Would you work for Adam Neumann at his new company?

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Sales Tip of The Day

Juice up your personalized cold emails with the details:

❌ Hey Brad - Congrats on your news funding! I saw you’re hiring for new roles.

✅ Hey Brad - Congrats on the new $11M fundraise! I saw you’re hiring 7 new software engineers to work on Bryan’s team.

The first sounds like every other cold email in their inbox.

The second shows that you did your research.

Sales in the News 🗞️ 

  • A sales rep climbed the ranks to get revenge on his former manager who dismissed him early in his career.

  • 5 tips for recharging your sales team after the summer vacation.

  • The character that Ryan Gosling played in “The Big Short” was based on a real salesman who now owns his own company with $8 billion in assets under management.

  • Getting bait-and-switched on OTE after 2 months of interviews.

Sales Weapon of The Day

UpLead: Find emails and phone numbers in bulk. Build prospecting lead lists with 95% data accuracy.

Cool Jobs at Cool Companies

Chart of The Day 📊 

Sales Productivity Metrics

Sales Meme of the Day

And that’s a wrap!

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