During my brief WR hiatus, my company closed out our FY and started our new one on 2/1. Lots of changes around here, as one would expect from a growing company. As a rep at this growing company, my peers and I are on the receiving end of a lot of stress and NOT a lot of information as to what changes we can expect and when to expect them. For example, territories, customer sizes we can sell to, what products we'll be getting paid on, even leadership changes. This causes a lot of rumbling amongst the reps, and creates a bit of negative sentiment toward leadership when communication isn't free flowing to the people it most directly effects.
My message to sales leaders out there is to keep your people as informed as possible. My manager changed this year, but I still consider my old one a mentor and friend, so I went to him directly with these concerns. I don't want our culture to suffer as a result of growth. And Lord knows reps are going to gossip and speculate when given the opportunity. If you want to preserve your sales and company culture, keep the people who drive revenue informed to the fullest extent. When I talked to my old boss he provided a lot of useful context as to what's going on and the thought process that went into these changes, so my message back to him was "just tell us that!" We're adults, we can take in information and interpret it appropriately. Keep us informed and up to speed with things that are ultimately distractions so that we don't have to waste bandwidth on them, and free our minds back up to keep selling!
Otherwise, expect some rep turnover and allocate a larger sales recruiting budget.
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