I am completely shocked with this deal. I feel that only thing that can save you is SALES. Take the ownership of the company from the former CEO and reshape it. I was happy to hear that you hired and fired sales representatives which shows you can increase the sales if the company comes under you but then CEO seemed to be dragging the things too far. I believe if you do have documents to prove your claim, go to the court of law.
You do not want your reps wasting any of their valuable time if it is clearly avoidable. Additionally, a rep might bring an engineer or executive to the meeting with them to demonstrate the level of service the customer will receive when doing business with your company. Your sales team should be prepared to handle all objections. Listening to your prospect's objections and questions can help your reps better tailor your product to fit their needs. Through their research and presentation preparation, reps should identify and anticipate possible objections, whether pertaining to cost, onboarding, or other parts of the proposed contract. This step of the sales process refers to any late-stage activities that happen as a deal approaches closing. Once a deal closes, the salesperson receives a commission on the price they negotiated with the customer, and the account usually passes to an account manager or customer success representative. Although closing deals is the goal in sales, it is not where sales reps stop working with customers.
You can read more here: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-process-
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath