Hey fellow sales savages, things are feeling a bit less savage lately and I'm hoping for some career path advice.
(TL;DR, how much frustration is reasonable to tolerate before finding a new company that appreciates and invests into their mid-level sales leadership?)
After starting as a bottom-rung SDR and working my way up through 6 promotions over 4.5 years, I am now leading my own sales team of 10-15 SDRs. Still very hands-on with coaching reps and interacting with prospects to ensure deals are closed smoothly, responsible for the overall team quota and my active involvement has been crucial considering that we actively recruit, necessitating ongoing (and at times, revolving) training. My team's SDR retention is one of the highest across the company but the impact of "entry-level sales" turnover is still evident. Managing a team has been my role for the last 2.5 years, over which I have generated 133% quota since the date of my promotion.
Our product is fantastic, and I genuinely believe in its value for our clients, but essentially I feel that I have reached a ceiling. The company itself is 11 years old and has grown rapidly, which can be great in many ways but does present obstacles. We have just completed another "company re-org" and the main changes that I have seen only seem to benefit the executive team. I see all the Directors being promoted to VPs, and the existing VPs expanding oversight over additional departments. We are strung along hearing that these changes will effectively trickle down, but they never seem to do so. We hear in All Hands meetings that profits are higher than ever and we continue to break various sales records quarterly/annually. Meanwhile, the acknowledged issues that the Sales org needs to be resolved continue to hinder our ability to reach the ever-increasing targets set by VP of Sales. Support from our service-specific operations departments is severely lacking, and in some cases they are unable to accommodate the influx of new orders we are providing, yet we are still spurred onward to continue pushing these products with new clients. We are told to build the sales teams and grow the office/org with new reps, but they refuse to raise recruiting standards in the first 6mo pay to be competitive with the performance expectations of the role so turnover seems to be increasing and more time is being wasted on interviews with unqualified applicants. My potential for upward mobility in compensation has plateaued for the last year (only within the next 6mo will I again be eligible to receive performance-based increases) and even then it will be dramatically decreased compared to the effort applied, a 3% raise annually assuming we continue to exceed quarterly quotas by no less than 38%, and my quota attainment timeline incentives do not align with what they want us to push for our individual sales reps.
Bottom line, how long do I continue writing off a lack of support and investment into the Sales org as "growing pains"? I have significantly improved the quality of life for myself and my family through my time here, as well as developed vital career skills and industry knowledge, all of which I am extremely grateful for. That said, is it time to move on or am I being too soft? This would be my first time making a major career transition and I don't want to misstep. All perspective is greatly appreciated!
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