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buckeyenation

AE

Acclaimed Answer
Valued Contributor
Catalyst
+4

Maybe a self-indulgent shit post: why do people hate sales people?

In 10 years of sales I've never seen a company or worked for one that respected sales people in the slightest. And they all expected us to be alchemists. leaders resented our expense, and training and lead-gen requirements, CS people resented the slightest over promise to get the deal, dev, when they would venture out from underneath their rocks, spazzed out with any new feature request...marketing, fucking nowhere to be found when it came time to discuss missed quota...


Maybe I need to get out more? Or maybe I'm not wrong?

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Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
9
Sales Rep
Hate us cause they aint us
GDO
Politicker
2
BDM
They hate that we have control about how much we earn
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
2
Bravado's Resident Asshole
this is GOLD and spot on. We typically make more money than they do if we are performing properly.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
9
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
In my company, the AEs are the ones who have it together, so it seems as though we're called upon to fix the woes of the other departments. Problem with marketing? We have to up our game and have better messaging that we create! Problem with lead gen? We get to babysit the process and do everything except monitor the inbounds! Problem with sales cycle time? We get to learn to do mini-demos because a 15 minute show & tell (when there's already a video on our website) is more impactful than a meaningful strategic discussion!


I don't feel hated, but I definitely feel like we're called upon to do the jobs of others when there's process failure. Yes, yes, it's my territory and my "business" but in that case....why do those other people and roles exist?
CuriousFox
WR Officer
6
🦊
I'm currently doing the job of 5 departments. Needed help from Marketing on a deal and they didn't help. So I went around them and got my deal closed.

Don't trust Marketing kids.
bendandsnack
Politicker
2
Account Exec
This x 1000, respected but also expected to do everyone else’s job for them
SaaSsy
Politicker
2
AE
Exactly! AEs get blamed for everything. I’ve seen more than half a sales team fired in a year but ZERO marketing people.
Maximas
Tycoon
3
Senior Sales Executive
The don't like us as they do think that we're making way more fortune than them!
buckeyenation
Acclaimed Answer
1
AE
Well put my brother from another mother
Fenderbaum
Politicker
2
Retired Choirboy🪕
.
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
3
Rolling 20's all day
I've had a bit of a different experience, but I know what you mean. People who don't sell, think anyone can do it. They don't realize what skills are needed when it comes to complex sales and not just purchasing something transactional
FinanceEngineer
Politicker
2
Sr Director, sales and partnerships
It is mostly the bad sales people that cause it.
TennisandSales
Politicker
1
Head Of Sales
sounds like you worked for some shit companies.

ive never worked for a company where the leaders didnt respect the sales team.

All those other issues you mentioned ive experienced though. Especially the CS team.
Gyro25
Notorious Answer
1
Account Executive
Guess they think the shit is easy, especially in a space dominated by sales "influencers" that claim they can boost your ROI by 69% while looking posting videos of themselves doing pushups on LI(Not even kidding on that last part)while having the least amount of humility within an organization.

To play devil's advocate, I think a large part of the massive egos of a lot people in Sales. Not to say I don't have one, but you have to be a bit of a masochist imo. You get all the glory, all the rejection, and all the brunt of when things go well and when they go to shit.

Tldr: They hate us cuz they anus.
Justatitle
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
really simple: We usually make more money than they do and they can't understand why. Then when they F*ck around with the sales org and their numbers look bad they regret pissing the department off. F*ck around Find out. Love me or hate me I don't care just make sure to pay me.
buckeyenation
Acclaimed Answer
1
AE
Yeahhhh what he saidddd
TheOverTaker
Politicker
1
Senior Account Executive
People hate sales because we make more money and can be demanding of other departments sometimes.
We are demanding because we are held to a number. We can get fired for being good at our job if everyone else is great. So if I ask nicely for something to help close a deal or make a client happy. I expect it to be done with some semblance of haste....or maybe I'm rude idk
bendandsnack
Politicker
0
Account Exec
We are also demanding because we are the voice of the customer
GingerBarbarian
Opinionated
1
Lead Sales
This is a long story, but it is best to look at the history of sales.

Most sales training was sold to companies. Companies, like most of our customers, want cheap and simple solutions. This meant rather than teaching sales people complex concepts like emotional intelligence, psychology, or sociology, we got taught manipulative closing questions that were meant to be a magic bullet at the end of every sale.

Do you want delivery Tuesday or Wednesday?

My pen or yours?

If you buy in the next ten minutes...

You get the picture. We were the shitty manipulative boyfriend of the business world.

Because of this, virtually all of our sales training for decades was toxic and manipulative. This poisoned the perception of us as a profession, and it is up to us to win it back by taking the time to really learn about our customers and solve problems for them
buckeyenation
Acclaimed Answer
1
AE
Winner winner
RedLightning
Politicker
0
Mid-Market AE
It's because we don't have "hard skills," but are in careers with high earnings potential and career mobility. Additionally, we see the big picture rather than individual silo's, so when we make feature requests devs don't understand why it's important and are mad that our suggestions carry weight....
DalJigsaw
Contributor
0
Business Development and Account Manager
Not enough education in schools, from friends, society, companies. Not many organizations willing to invest long term in a salesperson because it’s “easier” to burn through them. But soon when sales becomes even more complicated and you begin to sell as a team then maybe… things will turn around.
TheHypnotist
Executive
0
Sales Manager
The overwhelming majority of sales people who have ever tried to sell to me have been shit.
People think they hate sales people because they have mostly been encountering the shit ones.Bad sales people tend to be either:
* Insufferable pests that follow up incessently whilst offering very little value.
Or
* Too nice to follow up incessently, so they don't pester the prospect.

Therefore, prospects will inevitably complain more about the former.
boop
0
CS Director
Perhaps it’s the fact they all love to yell about how much they earn - maybe it lies with not know or caring about the product - while I get all the views the most successful and respected IMO are humble and knowledgeable about the products they sell.
kneehigh
Politicker
0
Senior Enterprise AE
I feel like sales are always the first to blame when things go wrong with the company - we currently have our CFO shifting blame onto sales teams because his targets haven't been met even though we told them they were ridiculous when he set them. Purely just working backwards from deals closed down to SQLs. Half our products are still going through product/market fit any the CFO just assumed we should be mass selling them by now....

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