How are we feeling right now y'all? My company is down bad and I'm discouraged

Kinda feel like I'm beating my head against a wall right now. My whole sales org is struggling to prospect, but that doesn't make me feel any better. Not sure if it's the economy, the time of year, or my company's products.


How are y'all feeling? How are your companies doing?

๐Ÿ‘‘ Sales Strategy
๐Ÿ™ Mental Wellness
๐Ÿš€ Career Goals
22
Justatitle
Big Shot
9
Account Executive
Ok, the biggest thing I have ever learned and it will lead to the path of enlightenment if you will. you MUST separate work from personal life. Your employer could lose you tomorrow and have your role replaced in ~2 weeks. It's easy to get in the rabbit hole of work sucking the life out of you, I would highly encourage you to do things like this to have an outlet but also find physical outlets like a hobby in order to get your mind off of your job.
ChumpChange
Politicker
3
Channel Manager
This times a million. Your employment is not a reflection of who you are as a person. It's literally an agreement between yourself and an entity where they compensate you for your time/skillset. That's it.. full stop. The odds are that you probably won't be working for them 3 + years from now. And if you are by any chance, it's because they invested in you and promoted you to do bigger and better things.
ExtremeVibeChecker44
Arsonist
1
Inside Sales
Good perspective from both of y'all. I'm happy outside of work. Just discouraged during the day.
Justatitle
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
Yeah and that is understandable, I'd be lying if I said work didn't get to me from time to time. I hear you and you aren't alone.
BlackVNeck
Good Citizen
1
Mid Market Account Executive
I need to try this. I am skeptical because I don't know if playing video games or rock climbing from 6-7 PM is enough to give me amnesia over how shit 9-5 is every day, but I guess I'll try! ๐Ÿฅฒ
Pachacuti
Politicker
7
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
You must work for Gong.
lol...j/k
Two questions: (1) are YOU struggling & (2) why is the company/sales org struggling? And how long has it been struggling? Is it just a start of the year thing or several quarters in a row?
Is there a real need for your product? Can you identify a niche market which has a real pain which your solution satisfies? You really need to id the reason why y'all are struggling and what it takes to get out of it.
ExtremeVibeChecker44
Arsonist
2
Inside Sales
These are all good questions.
I think my company (won't name) got by fine in the sales department when times were good. They've always preached "Hit XYZ activity metrics and you'll generate 4x pipeline." Reps are hitting the activity metrics, but not hitting pipeline, and leadership doesn't have much advice,
We're in the cybersecurity / web performance space. Maybe I need to be ultra-technical and ultra-targeted in outreach.
TennisandSales
Politicker
7
Head Of Sales
Itโ€™s times like these where Iโ€™m kinda happy to be WFH. The negative energy in the office is always soooo hard to escape. But you really have to try and avoid it, block it out and do you absolute best to just focus on the things you can control
DataSlangah
Politicker
5
SAE
Control the two things you canโ€”your attitude and effort. Yeah, you are struggling, embrace it, and find a way to stay on the positive side of things. Look for the things that are going right. Celebrate small wins and build on them.
TheQueenofDiamonds
Politicker
2
Account Executive
Same,try to find areas you can control and focus your time / energy there . Speak with a few happy clients (always makes me sell more enthusiastically)Hang in there ๐Ÿค 

JustGonnaSendIt
Politicker
1
Burn Towns, Get Money
+1 for getting on customer calls with happy customers. It really lifts me up when I'm in a slump.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
Excellent points about separating work and life and trying to focus on what you can control.
I'll make the observation that sales is cyclical and there are down times to offset the very busy times. Keep putting the effort in - ultimately, it will pay off.

ExtremeVibeChecker44
Arsonist
0
Inside Sales
True. You can always control your effort.
FinanceEngineer
Politicker
2
Sr Director, sales and partnerships
Is it a product/market mismatch? I am getting more inbound than I can handle right now.
ExtremeVibeChecker44
Arsonist
0
Inside Sales
Shit....You hiring? Seriously haha.
FinanceEngineer
Politicker
0
Sr Director, sales and partnerships
For AE and SE. I need one of each, and hoping to get someone onboard by the end of Q1
countingmyinterest
Politicker
2
Account Executive
Yah, that's the same here.
Hard to prospect, but scared to get out there cause layoffs
RandyLahey
Politicker
2
Account Manager
Keep at it - itโ€™s bad market out there, credit is tight. When things turn around, itโ€™ll will improve, just as your skills have.
ExtremeVibeChecker44
Arsonist
1
Inside Sales
I guess if we can sell now, we can sell anytime.
Diablo
Politicker
1
Sr. AE
Only one thing I can say is donโ€™t absorb anything from your surrounding. How long have your been in the org? If itโ€™s a time of the year you should know from the past trends
ExtremeVibeChecker44
Arsonist
0
Inside Sales
About 9 months ish.
punishedlad
Tycoon
1
๐Ÿง™โ€โ™‚๏ธ
Feeling very good. Had a /perfect/ demo this morning that should lead to a quick conversion before the end of the month. Have a lot of other things in the pipeline that should close before March.
ExtremeVibeChecker44
Arsonist
0
Inside Sales
Nice! How'd you get the opp?
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
1
Rolling 20's all day
Feels like everyone is struggling to prospect
RedLightning
Politicker
1
Mid-Market AE
I've been having the same thoughts recently.... So, you're not alone!

Try to focus on what you can control and look for little tweaks along the way.
BrianTracysLoveChild
Fire Starter
0
Account Manager
Not sure "struggling to prospect" - is it activity or connection/conversion rate?

During the 2008 financial crisis, something my sales manager said comes to mind. "What made you successful, is not sufficient to keep you there."
Sales is a bit like mariokart on the same track - yes, rainbow road is scary until you get comfortable, and better with the controls.
Economy tanks? Well, it's like you suddenly shifted to mirrored version of rainbow road or perhaps now race it backwards - bottom line - new strategy required

If your connection / conversion rate has dropped - could be your message is on point and you just need to up your activity. If your activity is maxxed while maintaining quality, then it's a good indication your messaging needs to be re-worked.

Hard to help further without some details on industry/solution.

quotascammedeverytime
Opinionated
0
account executive
Down bad as well. Everyone is quitting and job market is trash
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
๐ŸฆŠ
How's it going?
16

How much more $$$ would another company have to offer to leave right now?

Question
17
How much more $ to leave for a new role?
91 people voted
21
Members only

Why does taking vacation feel like you're being huge inconvenience to the company?

Discussion
27
18

I just have to tell someoneโ€ฆ For some perspective, our overall avg order size is about 12k and yesterday I closed a 130k deal and another 50k at my next appointment. I am excited as the year has been pretty tough in my market and big sales like this help remind me I am good at this! ๐Ÿ‘

Question
19