FlyingHellfish

Director of Business Development

Good Citizen

Fire Starter

Contributor

SalesForce folk, just read this and we are here for you!

Also, would love to hear more about this insanity! Seems as if only a couple of folks feeding the story.

https://www.thequota.co/articles/salesforce-insiders-say-a-new-quota-system-sets-top-salespeople-up-for-failure Salesforce insiders say a new quota system sets top salespeople up for failure Salesforce's new quota system, which burdened its top salespeople with unrealistic expectations, set employees up for failure.

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33 comments

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RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

I decided to rewrite this for those who don't speak Corporate Bullshit:
"Our sales performance process drives accountability. Unfortunately, that can lead to some leaving the business, and we support them through their transition."

"Our sales performance metrics and process reduces internal management responsibility and completely shifts accountability to the rep in a way that we can fire people without outside speculation. We will stunt their future career prospects as much as we possibly can."

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Sadly accurate.

Scarily well done.

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

Im fluent in many languages

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

This is not one used by the alliance.

finboi

Notorious Answer

Fi-nance

Well put

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Nailed it

ChumpChange

Politicker

Channel Manager

#movethegoalposts

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

WOW if this is true im not sure i understand this.

if you exceed quota, that becomes the quota for next year.

that seems like a great way to DISCOURAGE ppl from over achieving.

UserNotFound

Politicker

Account Executive

This is exactly how my first two sales-roles quotas were set. Whatever you sold the prior year + a small % growth expectation. A great way to drive the high performers out.

FlyingHellfish

Good Citizen

Director of Business Development

Feels like an interesting way of not having to make layoffs to stay out of the media cross hairs.

Blue_Turtle

Opinionated

sdr

In this way they can guarantee even their best performers only bother to have one breakout year and then immediately go somewhere else. Sounds like a nightmare place to work for.

alonzoharris

Politicker

Partner Manager

Can't wait until I read an article about SFDC employees "quiet quitting"

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

wow.. looks like a way to punish people for doing a good job.. damned if you do, damned if you don't

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Are they trying to get people to quit so they don't have to pay severance or unemployment?

FlyingHellfish

Good Citizen

Director of Business Development

Could be. Helluva tactic.

butwhy

Politicker

Solutions Engineer

Yes. They have been doing this for basically a decade, this is really their MO.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I'm not surprised. These big companies really don't treat sales teams well overall, as they don't understand how to structure them for success.

SaaSsy

Politicker

Same, I’ve seen a lot of big orgs do shit like this. I worked in higher Ed years ago and the company lost like 90% of their tenured reps in a year bc the comp plan change penalized top reps. They hired a bunch of 22 year olds and paid them a quarter of what we made - terrible for their customer base and yep, still haven’t seen them IPO 🤭

bja009

Politicker

Enterprise AE

In my experience working with Salesforce teams, it depends HEAVILY on how good the front-line managers are (RVPs in SF org chart).
If your RVP is just an up-jumped AE with no political skill and still wants to focus on closing, you're fcuked.
But if your RVP knows how to play the game, understand the quota and commit system, and actually takes the job seriously - supporting their team, not the other way around - you get protected from the worst excesses of a bad system, and you make bank because it's goddamn Salesforce.
I imagine most large orgs are the same way. Biggest variance between firms is probably the average talent level, not the structure/shitty incentives.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

A quota which sets people up for failure? Never!

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

OOF

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

First of all, my heart goes out to anyone impacted by this.

But, also, “[c]onsequently, the company reported adding nearly 17,000 employees in 2021.” That is a shit ton of people. I wonder what the makeup of those roles is?

And “this led salespeople to do unnatural things to close sales.” Um, what? I paraphrased cause I’m on mobile but wtf is an “unnatural” thing in sales?

FlyingHellfish

Good Citizen

Director of Business Development

I agree with you! Would love to see the breakdown of the 17K added. I am sure it’s blended w/acquisitions, “growing” markets, and a shload (shit + load) of people they just hired on a whim.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Ugh! This just makes my blood boil and hate 'em even more than I did when I got this from them once upon a time -

FlyingHellfish

Good Citizen

Director of Business Development

Ouch.

HappyGilmore

Politicker

Account Executive

Sounds like like a horrible way to keep reps engaged and consistently hitting quota year over year

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

"They'll 'reward' that good sales rep with a bigger quota and a smaller number of more difficult accounts,"

Wow, just, wow

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

Wow, you have to keep breaking your own records

IndianaShep

Politicker

Director of Sales and Marketing

No shit I grew our company 18% YoY for the last five years and I have finally hit my wall. I’m curious how it will be when I submit my budget and say “we gonna be flat next year.”

AssistantToTheRegional

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

This is normal @ my company. Quota is usually 20% of your actuals from the previous years.

JMSwiggidy

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Switching accounts yearly happened to most reps, that isn’t new. Quota used to be based on your territory’s potential, not “how well you did last year”

It’s also interesting that SF will effectively punish you by “giving you less accounts with less potential” if you had a good year, expecting you to do more with them than another rep.

Happy I left 6 months ago before this shitstorm lol.

PhlipOut

Politicker

Account Executive

why the hell do you want to penalise top performers. Not to pay out accelerators?

so if you miss quota then the number goes down?

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Hence why I hate large corporations and will only work for one if they pay me a ridiculous amount of money

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FlyingHellfish

SalesForce folk, just read this and we are here for you!

33 comments

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