Advice for next interview - Interesting Pip situation

In 2022 I led the team in sales and 130% overall attainment and hit 50% in Q1.


Much to my surprise I was put on a Pip to hit 80% of my Q2 number in April or be shown the door. I hit 60% and had the rest of quota at the finish line and I thought that was going to be enough for them to give me some leeway, but I got let go for performance.


I was pretty shocked when I received the news, and no one in my network had heard of something that drastic. The company has had a history of churn with about a 40% employee churn rate as a metric.


For some extra color, I had a vacation and an abnormal number of life events, weddings etc. and some of my performance slipped a bit, but when my manager mentioned it I rectified some of the attention to detail items.


I was curious as to how you guys would frame this in your next set of interviews?

๐Ÿฐ War Stories
๐Ÿค Interviewing/Offer
10
Sunbunny31
Politicker
4
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Focus on the positives. Companies are shedding reps with or without cause these days. A layoff is quite common.

Highlight your accomplishments: 130% in 2022 is great. Is there a story to be told about how your pipeline was shaping up so you'd be over target again by the end of 2023? Tell it.

Don't bring up your abnormal life events (they don't need to know), and get to applying as soon as you can. If the churn is that high, then any hiring manager who is familiar with the company should not be alarmed you're looking.
HVACexpert
Politicker
2
sales engineer
If there are any other KPIs that you can point to that you met or exceeded, that is a good storyline as well.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Yes, exactly. Anything that you were able to accomplish to build business or exceed targets should be included.
FoodForSales
Politicker
1
AE
First off - that sucks. There loss for letting you go like that.

I would focus on your >100% result in '22. That's all. Then make up some number for the rest. Its not like they'll check. And tell them you were let go like everyone else - the economy. thats all.
detectivegibbles
Politicker
1
Sales Director
Hows Q2 looking?
SoccerandSales
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
Leverage the successes, own up to coming up short if that conversation needs to be had. A lot of hiring managers aren't looking for reps who will make excuses (even if there are plenty)
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
0
Sales Rep
Talk about 2022, dont bring up the pip unless asked directly.
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
They rarely ask about the PIP ,they usually ask about performance in general,and you did great already by leading the team and reached +60%,that would be more than OK for them to get you hired with no problems hopefully!
RelationshipMaker
Opinionated
0
Head of Sales
Your first sentence. It demonstrates your ability and speaks volumes about the crap culture in your last gig.
40% churn is unbelievable. How awful that place must be.
TennisandSales
Politicker
0
Head Of Sales
fucking brutal. its pretty clear they were looking to get rid of SOMEONE and you just happened to be the target. if they were concerned about you specifically, those results should be good enough to hang on to you.
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