signandrecline

Enterprise Sales

What’s the worst case of work life balance in Sales in your experience? What horror stories have you heard/seen/experienced?

Been putting in 12-14 hour days for the last 2.5 years at this stage, and it is now catching up to me.

I'm struggling to find a balance, and part of me feels like I can still push on for the next couple years as I'm young. I know it's stupid.

What have you guys experienced/seen? How did you find that balance?

🧠 Advice

🙏 Mental Wellness

18 comments

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HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

It’s not worth it. Find some place that values you as a person.

Also it’s up to you in the end to set boundaries and expectations. I always try to set a few hours in the evening for family time and dinner together. Once people are in bed I can get another hour or two of work done. But you have to schedule and set aside that time for yourself, wife, and/or kids. If you don’t take care of yourself who will? Because your company would gladly choose you working than not.

Always. Put. You. First.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Bingo. They will take advantage as long as you allow. Set your boundaries now, and start abiding by em. Otherwise you'll be on your way to burn out town.

js2458

Politicker

Enterprise SDR

That sucks but it could be worse.

Can speak a little on this myself - my former job was a startup and my boss was a psycho. Pretty sure he was bipolar and narcissistic.

He would call us at god knows what hour on Friday/Saturday/Sunday night and either rant that we were the worst salesmen ever or tell us long-winded stories about his childhood. These rants/stories often lasted over an hour long, and sometimes ended past midnight. He was a big talker and it was hard to get a word in edgewise.

However, one particular moment I remembered that seemed like an egregious infringement in work/life balance - this past fall, my team was scheduled to fly out to Sweden for a business trip that involved the product we were selling. Had to come into work at about 2 AM to grind until our flight at 8 AM. It was supposed to be a mix of business and pleasure; 3 days in Sweden where we worked during the day and went out during the night. I kid you not - my boss did not let us out of the hotel once during the first two and a half days to explore. Instead, we were forced to work through jet lag while he relaxed in his room.

The worst part was the last day of the trip, when we were forced on the last day to work 24 hours without break. I could go on and on about the crazy shit that happened this day - it was like something out of a screwball comedy - but the highlight was spending the end of the night at a ballroom in the Royal Military Academy of Sweden chaperoning my boss to meet with a Swedish military general who had no interest in buying our product. Mind you this was not us exploring; this was the first time we left our room and it was to make sure that my boss had company when he was meeting an old friend of his. Ended up making no sales the entire trip.

Best advice I can give you is to leave. If you don't like working 14 hours, there are plenty of jobs where you don't have to. That being said, important to put things into perspective; many people grind for decades before they have any time off. Not saying 2 years grinding is not a lot, but you can at least be happy in that you're given a platform to succeed.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Sounds awful, hopefully you got that $$

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Damn, that was terrible, glad you left that sh** working environment!

iamtheone

Executive

Enterprise SDR

This doesn’t even sound real holy shit

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

@signandrecline what’s the goal? Is there a BIG payday at some point? Or this just your company’s expectation?

signandrecline

Catalyst

Enterprise Sales

I get paid commish, but it’s a lot of work. Poor org structure which leads me to doing the job of 2-3 people and targets keep going up and up.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Hope you're making bank

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

Balance does not exist. Every decision has consequences.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

If you are finding yourself burning out, now is a good time to scale back and take care of yourself. Some weeks, I will work long hours because I have something big due. Next week for me is going to be one of those. I’m having an extremely busy work month. That said, it balances. Some weeks are much slower, and if I find myself with a slow afternoon - I might just be dipping early.

signandrecline

Catalyst

Enterprise Sales

Yeah that’s what I’m hoping I can do. Balance it somehow. The worst part is that our org structure is very poor. You’re doing the execution job of 2-3 people + incharge of overall strategy and big picture. I’m fairly certain I will quit in the coming future.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Fair. And a good strategy.

pirate

Big Shot

🦜☠️ Account Executive

NOT WORTH IT. No matter how much you close, you will never get the time back. I work usually 8-10 hours... sometimes longer to get a deal in or conferences or qends but not every day! And some days on summer Fridays I am done at 3pm

During the pandemic I did 12-14 hours and it was a lot on my health. My back suffers and I need to go to gym regularly so it doesn't collapse. Same with just seeing places, going on walks...friends and family, loved ones. Just focus on you and the sales will come

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Any executive assistant I have ever talked to.

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

President/CRO

Reminder that YOU are in control. Your life matters more than any companies revenue. Don't waste it being miserable!

jessb

Valued Contributor

Vice President Smart City Programs

I have been in your shoes before and like others have stated it comes down to the question "Is it worth it?". Let's all be honest the main driver to be in sales is the money, if the reward doesn't equal the sacrifice of time then it is time to reevaluate.

WhollyMan

Valued Contributor

Renewal Sales Specialist

I sold copiers for about 2 years and that was the worst work life balance I have ever experienced. Required to work 7-5 every day, whether you were being productive of not. Having to bring business cards in to my managers office and go through each business I visited that day to discuss opportunities. Get berated by my micro-manager when someone decided to not go through with the sale. To sum it up it was the worst.

How I dealt with it:

Just put the axe down and grinded it out. I had a new family starting at the time so couldn't have the luxury of quitting. I became the best salesperson in my region a year in and this gave me enough breathing room to search/interview for jobs. It took me about a year to find "the one" and I am so glad it is over.

Sorry if this isn't great advice or makes it seem bleak for you. But if you are this miserable you gotta get out and go get what you want, just have to be patient.

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signandrecline

What’s the worst case of work life balance in Sales in your experience? What horror stories have you heard/seen/experienced?

18 comments

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