dualaces123

Account Executive

Handling New Company Culture

I recently made a change in companies. I've been in remote sales for the past decade but at both previous jobs, the only thing that mattered was results. You could work 20 minutes or 20 hours a day, you just bring in results or you don't make it.

New company is significantly different. They place a high priority in punctuality, logged hours, etc., even with the pay being about 3/4 commission and it being remote. I've also found that there are some lower performers than I am used to. Maybe these two facts are related; maybe not.

Either way, I accepted the job, so it's on me for making a decision without accounting for every factor that matters to me. What I am wondering is whether you ...

Think that there is a way to transition my job away from the more rigid structure that the company currently has
And, if so, When/How you would go about this. (Obv you can't show up and a couple weeks in be asking for them to just trust you / leave you alone.)

My hope is that basically by coming in and putting up great results is that it will buy me some flexibility and freedom. But, I'm not sure if that is realistic and even if it is, I'm not sure how or when to go about pulling it off.

Open to opinions or advice from anyone!

11

15 comments

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Sunbunny31

Politicker

5

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

So if there is no way to get them to convert to your way of thinking, would you want to stay? Is there something great about the product, or potential, that’s worth a high focus on metrics for the sake of metrics?

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

Money?

dualaces123

Opinionated

2

Account Executive

Money is solid and the sales cycle is way easier than I am used to. I don't mind working long hours. But, I do value things like being able to take my dog on a walk between calls without figuring out if it qualifies as a lunch hour. I think it is just an adjustment for me and I think that I'd be fine getting used to it, but if I got to choose, I'd rather just worry about quota, not hours.

YosemiteJack

Good Citizen

4

Director - Key Business

Expectations are everything.

I read recently about every organization having 4 groups of people:
(1) rockstars
(2) reachers
(3) slackers
(4) snails

Rockstars are self explanatory, but they get frustrated and can leave if slackers and snails aren’t held accountable. Reachers have the want to but need to be given the tools/guidance to perform. Slackers have the ability but need to be given the drive. Snails need to be identified and given the boot.

I only say the above because I believe that perspective is everything.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

3

Sales Rep

Things like hours worked can be a team to team thing not always company culture. Especially since directors and vps care about revenue compared to hours logged on.

I would have that conversation with the manager AFTER you have a couple solid deals going. Because early on and with little history of success they are going to say work 8 hours

MeowMeow

Politicker

3

Senior Enterprise Account Executive

I’m leaving a job where everyone is extremely micromanaged. Salaried yet everything is monitored. If that is who they are fundamentally as a company, they are not going to bend to ways of the new person who has not proven themselves.

I can tell you their logic will probably be… If you can hit quota in 20 minutes a day, imagine how much more you could sell in 8 hours a day? And why wouldn’t they want to squeeze every last drop out of you?

If that isn’t your bag, run.

Filth

Politicker

2

Live Filthy or Die Clean

I hate it when they play up the idea that if you worked more hours you'd have exponential success instead of there being limited factors involved. Just call 102984908723 more people to hit that next bonus level!

Herb

Fire Starter

2

Account Executive

If you’ve been in sales this long you have an understanding of “Mindset” sales in itself is nothing but learning experience in life, those who aren’t as fortunate, as yourself, learn why, and use it to sharpen your skills.
Jump in 100%, be the change, Do the right thing……the rest will follow!

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

i will disagree here. you can "be the change" all you want but if the culture is set up to not support that change, and leadership does not WANT that change there is a very small chance IMO that you will be able to move the needle.

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

yikes....a company that is paying you a salary and still insists on having you track your hours??? this is insane to me.

I think if you are going to take your approach you are REALLY going to have to crush is and you are going to need to put in some time. this is not something you can change after 6 months.

what is the average tenure of the other AEs on the team?

dualaces123

Opinionated

2

Account Executive

Probably about two years but that's a chunk of longer and a chunk of newer. It looks to me like they're trying to move past a number of entry level people who aren't great and are brining in some more experienced/better people.

TennisandSales

Politicker

1

Head Of Sales

yeah thats a hard place to be. My guess is that your approach will be viewed as "well thats great that he does it that way but we cant let all these other people do that, they will totally fail" and then not support you.

BUT

im not in the situation so it may be more optimistic than that.

nomdeguerre

Executive

2

Account executive

Sounds like a bunch of BS to me. If you are not paying me for the hours, then you don’t get to track those hours. Simple as that.

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

If they're that rigid on such requirements I think you face a steeply uphill battle in trying to gain that flexibility.

It'll be a long time, I think, before that's remotely possible. You definitely need to put up some solid numbers beforehand.

Pachacuti

Politicker

0

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

@dualaces123 you’re a lot like me - result are what count, not number of hours or other non-sales metrics.
While punctuality has always been important to me (5min early=on time), logged time doesn’t.

However you have companies like Gong emphasizing the long grind and number of hours = success.

You can either drink the koolaid or find another gig. It’s that simple.

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