ventox35

Sales Leader

Valued Contributor

Bad Sales Manager

"You're making fewer cold calls than xx! make more cold calls. i'm not comparing, but seems like xx is busier than you. I know you send more emails, but why aren't you making more cold calls?"

"Boss I'm making targeted calls, and with my approach was able to create high quality leads last week. I've got email sequences out that help me be more targeted and find higher quality leads. not to mention i've got 10 proposal meetings this week."

"Yea..but xx is making more cold calls. So, make more cold calls"

"Ok.''

I'm an AE. My metric is revenue. Not cold calls. My pipeline is the most robust of all the AE's. How do i deal with this? am I crazy? Am i missing something?

grade your Sales Manager

Attached poll

A! helpful, good coach, motivates well, cares B.. just average, gets by C...gets the job done, i guess Crappy/Failure/Loser/Jerk/Comment below

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

🔎 Prospecting

🧢 Sales Management

15

24 comments

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Sunbunny31

Politicker

8

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Metrics for metrics sake .... yuck.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Also, I based my grade on YOUR sales manager, not mine. Mine is an A.

Lioness

Good Citizen

1

Sr Field Enterprise Account Executive

I thought good managers were fiction. How did you find one of those??

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

TBH, and don't hate me, I've had more than one! I had a fantastic one at my previous job, but she was moved to another group which had no room for me, so I didn't get to follow her at the time. It was really sad - it was a huge reshuffle at the company and was enormously disruptive for a number of AEs. I did end up with another manager who was good, but the go to market strategy for that group was horrible, so it was time for me to move on, and I started looking.

I was given a recommendation for the role I'm now in, and when I found myself on the phone with the person who was to become my manager here, we ended up spending 2X the time we'd planned for the interview, and we both laughed a lot in addition to discussing the job. She's wicked smart, generous with her time, and gives me enough room to do my job in the way I operate best. I liked her immediately.

So in my career, I have had many decent and good managers, but have been fortunate enough to have two excellent ones.

Lioness

Good Citizen

1

Sr Field Enterprise Account Executive

No hate. At least someone is getting good managers.

I've had a couple of managers who want to be very hands on in some area of my sales but they lack the situational awareness to make good calls and some just don't know how to sell period.

The good ole days were when my managers were mostly hands off, but were there when I needed something.

Gyro25

Notorious Answer

7

Account Executive

Your sales manager the type of dude that moans when he wipes.

BmajoR

Arsonist

3

Account Executive

Is that abnormal...? Asking for a friend.

SaaSam

Politicker

2

Account Executive

hahaha I'll be using this from now on

SaaSam

Politicker

5

Account Executive

I had a CEO that was like that. It actually got me fired. I had the fattest pipe of all of the AEs and I was the only one closing deals consistently every month. The next closest to me hadn't closed anything in 3 months when they fired me

Our Director told us minimum call volume was 20 daily. So, I did 20 to satisfy the minimum. Got a heads up phone call one day from a buddy of mine that was privy to HR conversations telling me that I would be fired the next day.

I arrived, sat with my feet up, and waited.

Long story short they only ever could point to call volume as the reason for my termination saying it was much lower than the rest of the AEs. The truth was I had ruffled a lot of feathers at the head shed over a public disagreement with the CFO/Part owner. He thought it was okay to cut my commissions in half and I disagreed.

But alas. Here I am, all the better for it.

Fuck the guys that put something arbitrary like "call volume" over revenue generated.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

If they want to see cold call numbers give em cold call numbers. Play the game.

ventox35

Politicker

1

Sales Leader

lol they have a report on a dashboard. the only report they look at. God forbid they actually look at the pipe!!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

Trust me I feel your pain.

E_Money

Big Shot

4

💰

Micromanager who couldn't sell McDs to a fat kid.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

I love a nugget with sweet and sour sauce.

E_Money

Big Shot

2

💰

mmmm oh yeah hit me with a McChicken with Mac sauce on it and I'll be your best friend.

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

I'm all about that honey

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

4

Account Executive

Who the hell has 47% great management? You know they don't know what you post right? Or do they.....?

BmajoR

Arsonist

2

Account Executive

That's whack, yo

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

My SM also has his own accounts so it’s always a competition for his time. Player/Coach situations work out less than long distance relationships.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

2

Sales

How hard is your manager pushing on this? To play devils advocate, you might suffer from your success here. Their manager sees your pipeline and revenue and is riding the manager saying if @ventox35 made 20% more outbound efforts they’d crush even more, not realizing that what you’re doing differently is the key, not the volume.

ventox35

Politicker

1

Sales Leader

The problem is, it's the only thing he's looking at. if he looked closer, he'd see higher # of leads generated. He just looks at one graph, and sees my output bar is lower. such a simplistic and narrow minded way of managing.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

2

Sales

That’s frustrating. Sounds like it’s pure micro management.

SunTzu

Opinionated

2

Legendary Historical Figure

Metrics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

666ABC

Good Citizen

0

RM (Relationship Manager) Director of Sales

Sales is a numbers game, but here is only one number that should really matter to any manager worth a damn: Revene. If you are bringing it in, and not a total piece of trash otherwise, who gives AF how many cold calls you make?

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