DPRM

Ms Sales :)

Valued Contributor

Marketing Problems

Hi!

I would like to comment on this habit that my company has and see if all companies are the same (I hope not)

Normally my company presents cycles in the year where our products fall in sales and at the beginning of the year they increase again (the company sells supplements for offices of all kinds) My bosses believe that after the sales commission, the vendors "lose their spirits". However, based on my experience, I believe that it is simply that at the beginning of the year they buy what they need for the whole year, so we must expand the customer portfolio or the product portfolio for ones with higher turnover.

Response from my boss "if that is so, I think it is best to cut the sales commissions so they have to sell more and the budget of the marketing area since we do "nothing" after March".

And it is already the second company that when sales drop the area to which they cut is marketing and sales when you should inject more. Opinions?

💪 Motivation

🏋️‍♀️ Leadership

12

29 comments

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antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

7

Bravado's Resident Asshole

Sounds like your boss is new at running a business OR they don't have actual ownership of the business, meaning they don't truly care for much more than their likelihood.

TennisandSales

Politicker

4

Head Of Sales

totally agree with this haha. if the response to sales going down, is to cut commissions, that person fucking blows.

i hate it when sales ppl get 100% blame when things go down.

Yes maybe the team takes the foot off the gas. thats possible.

but seasonality in sales is 100% a thing, and like @dprm is mentioning, that has nothing to do with the sales team.

Maximas

Tycoon

2

Senior Sales Executive

Agree!

DPRM

Politicker

2

Ms Sales :)

He is not new, but I think that he doesn't have ownership too.

BourbonKing

Valued Contributor

7

VP of Sales

Is this your boss?

DPRM

Politicker

3

Ms Sales :)

Exact! But he asks you later, why don't we sell more?

TennisandSales

Politicker

6

Head Of Sales

hahah WOW that boss sounds like an ass. and someone that does NOT care.

has this person cared to dive into why sales dip during the year? Talked to any of the leaders?

DPRM

Politicker

3

Ms Sales :)

Well, is not my favorite person.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

6

Sales Rep

Its like the manager has never heard of seasonality

DPRM

Politicker

2

Ms Sales :)

I agree

Diablo

Politicker

4

Sr. AE

Most businesses are having seasonality. I feel your boss is immature at understanding the business as a whole. It’s not always about selling but also about after-sales - how you nurture your clients, get back to buy more etc.

Instead of assuming the reason why sales dropped, did the team connect with the clients to understand why they have this pattern and what can be done to earn more business. This would be first step before for me.

DPRM

Politicker

2

Ms Sales :)

Yes, and is
so frustrating for me I feel like my hands are tied in this case

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

It's unfortunate. I cannot survive for long in such environment. if someone doesn't change, why don't I (have a new job) :)

DPRM

Politicker

2

Ms Sales :)

I also thought about abandoning the ship, we'll see what happens...

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

4

Officer of ♥️

wait who let marketing in here?

Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Easy there, he comes in peace.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

1

Officer of ♥️

HOLD ME BACK

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Better get you another job STAT with all that energy!

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

0

Officer of ♥️

New job: bash marketing

CuriousFox

WR Officer

0

🦊

👀🍿

Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Managers who don't understand how the business operates are big challenges. If your manager doesn't understand why the business drops off after the initial sale, but has an immediate remedy (lower commissions) that doesn't tie to a desired business outcome (more sales), then sorry, your manager may just be an idiot.

DPRM

Politicker

3

Ms Sales :)

Agree, but is an idiot with power in the company

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

The very worst kind of idiot.

DPRM

Politicker

2

Ms Sales :)

And dangerous... thanks to him many good people no longer have a job, it's very sad

Sunbunny31

Politicker

0

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I've left companies due to bad managers. Sometimes it's the best thing to do.

Arz

Politicker

3

Business Administration

awful boss

DPRM

Politicker

2

Ms Sales :)

agree 100%

Mendizo

Opinionated

1

Sr. Director

As others have said, that is an interesting response from your boss :)

Taking a step back, the seasonality you talk about is pretty common, and in many industries is one of the primary reasons for the move to SaaS and a subscription model.

If your vendors are buying all the supplements for offices at the beginning of the year, why not offer them a subscription plan where they pay monthly? This is a whole lengthy topic in itself, I've helped a number of companies go from ad-hoc to subscription, and you'll need to bake in reasons for why customers win, but that is ultimately what your customer will need to do. This will let you flatten out your revenue (a good thing), put more emphasis on customer success, give you higher margins with which to bring more products to the table (and sell more things to the customers), etc.

If management is not thinking about this, then this sounds like a company in a very commodity business that has very little moat around it, and may not be around for very long. These are the companies that upstarts can target fairly easily and change the game.

DPRM

Politicker

1

Ms Sales :)

I don't think he's thinking about that, but I can put it on the table to see what he thinks, thank you very much!

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