Bruklyn

Team Lead

Valued Contributor

Poisonous atmosphere

Hello sales folks, bellow a message from our sales manager (which I find exaggerated), curious to have your thoughts:

"At 6:35 PM today, on a critical week for sales, I was surprised to see only 2 of 7 AE team members still in the office (and zero SDR). I want to understand this. We’re at the last stretch of Q3, yet only 2 AES reached their targets, with over 10 deals hanging in the balance this week…I’ve personally made concessions to help get these deals across the line.

And it’s not just me—our Sales ops, Growth, Marketing, and Partnerships teams are still here, putting in the hours to support you.To put things in perspective, our Product team has been working nights and weekends to make the WMS project possible. They don’t have the luxury of variable compensations, and yet they’re fully committed.This situation puzzles me. I expect everyone to bring their A-game, especially when others are going above and beyond.Let’s turn this around and finish Q3 strong"

☁️ Software Tech

😤 Conflict Resolution

13

21 comment

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fidelcashflow

Catalyst

13

Account Executive

What an absolutely psychotic way of trying to cover ones ass. How are you going to send out such a message at the end of the Q to try and "finish q3 strong". Any legit sales leader can see right through this bullshit. If they did their job before the Q/In the beginning, they wouldn't need to send a message calling out everyone else except themselves. I hope they get fired.

jefe

Arsonist

6

🍁

All of this.
Fuck that guy

GDO

Politicker

2

BDM

yeah it clearly a bitching message to put the blame elsewhere, Fuck that person

Gasty

Notable Contributor

9

War Room Community Manager

So when are you resigning?

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

Lol to the point

CuriousFox

WR Officer

6

🦊

The other reps could've been in the field or working remotely. Regardless, that wasn't the way to communicate his frustration.

Filth

Politicker

1

Live Filthy or Die Clean

when a gif is just perfect.../chefskiss

Phillip_J_Fry

Opinionated

5

Director of Revenue

I hate these for a couple reasons.
1) If overtime is mandatory during EOQ, put it on the calendar and let everyone know. Don't go business-as-usual and then be surprised everyone went home at 5.

2) Am I getting paid for overtime? No? Then there better be something pretty pressing to justify eating into my personal time. I manage my time well, and I shouldn't be punished because other people didn't.

3) What's going to get accomplished at 630pm on a Monday anyways? Your buyer is at home with their kids. You think you're getting sign off on an order before the morning? GTFO

4) This feels like its an appearance thing. Nothing irks me more than the "we're going to stay late tonight and look like we're busy, when in fact we're all just on tiktok waiting for the boss to say we can leave".

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

#4 is the reason for this. Sales manager is concerned he's going to look bad.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

4

☕️

Hot take: your manager is right. If you’re not hitting goals then why aren’t you putting in the extra work to get the deals closed?

Bruklyn

Valued Contributor

1

Team Lead

yes I could agree with your point too. It's more the form of the message that I find deleterious. Working until 9pm doesn't seem to me to be a vector for a better closing rate or better performance. Your answer, like my boss's, implies that: extra work = working late. i think that's too simplistic.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

0

☕️

If you put the extra work in 9-5 then you would be at your goal…yeah?

Bruklyn

Valued Contributor

3

Team Lead

Yeah , I think quality prevail over quantity.
I don’t see how working late at the end of the quarter help you achieve your quota. It’s something that should be tackle way before

butwhy

Politicker

3

Solutions Engineer

So fucking passive aggressive. This gave me shudders because it reminds me of a startup I worked for - actually several of them. I honestly don't think I have ever worked for a VP of Sales who wasn't a passive aggressive dweeb who thought football movies were inspirational when the team was closing 45% of quota.

Bruklyn

Valued Contributor

1

Team Lead

🎯🎯🎯

SportsSalesGuy

Tycoon

2

Enterprise Account Executive

I learned this word when I first started in the corporate world couple years back as a BDR. The word is "Optics".

"Optics" is more important than results at times. Especially, when it comes to management positions. I was young and didn't understand this as I was told me arriving 10 minutes late to work consistently even though I was at 120% attainment was bad optics. Now, I understand that is on me, and this is in 2019 when way more people commuted to work, but does me being in 10 minutes earlier going to change my results? No.
"Optics" is whats important for management roles. Rather you look busy than actually be busy. It is just a way to cover managers ass so they do not look like a poor leader. Which clearly he is.

SonnyVaccaro

Good Citizen

2

Growth Lead

I can already tell your company discounts the heck out of your product, burns pipeline to “pull another deal in this month”, and leadership is afraid of virtual work. I also bet tenure is low.

I had an interview question once: “what do you do to rally a team at the end of the quarter?” And I said: “if I have to rally the team at the end of the month, I did a terrible job the rest of the month.”

Guilting your team doesn’t make them perform better. Making them sit in the office doesn’t create more pipeline. Maybe that’s all the deals you are getting, then I’d focus on prospecting for the next period so you don’t fall short again.

If there is coaching to be done because of low performance, it’s better one-on-one, not some mass-blast message.

This guy is toxic, and typical. You deserve better.

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

This is aggressive. I am not sure how being present in office guarantees success but he is right when it comes to quota attainment.

Beans

Big Shot

1

Enterprise Account Executive

What concessions? Cancelling a tee time?

Sofakingbald

Praised Answer

1

AE

The worst leaders care about optics more than anything else…

Pachacuti

Politicker

0

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I don’t see the problem with his statement, if that is what he wrote. He’s not seeing the same commitment from the sales team that he’s seeing from other groups in the company. And I thought he was stating rather nicely.

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