buckeyenation

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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25 comments

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Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

ERP Sales

Hate us cause they aint us

GDO

Politicker

BDM

They hate that we have control about how much we earn

boredAnti

Tycoon

That One Guy

this is GOLD and spot on. We typically make more money than they do if we are performing properly.

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

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

🦊

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

Account Exec

This x 1000, respected but also expected to do everyone else’s job for them

SaaSsy

Politicker

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

Senior Sales Executive

The don't like us as they do think that we're making way more fortune than them!

buckeyenation

Acclaimed Answer

Well put my brother from another mother

Fenderbaum

Politicker

Retired Choirboy🪕

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

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

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

It is mostly the bad sales people that cause it.

TennisandSales

Politicker

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

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

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

Yeahhhh what he saidddd

TheOverTaker

Politicker

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

Account Exec

We are also demanding because we are the voice of the customer

GingerBarbarian

Opinionated

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

Winner winner

RedLightning

Politicker

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

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

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

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

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....