Honestly, too many to share, here are a few...
1. Disrespectful and Out of Touch Senior Leadership.
- When the CEO calls out an employee on an All Hands for asking a "stupid question... does this person even work here?" it erodes the trust employees have for their leaders. This creates an extremely closed door environment and is not fostering openness or employee engagement.
- Imagine being called on to answer a question in front of all of your sales peers at an SKO... when you answer, the MC ridicules you from stage for your answer. Apparently this is considered acceptable treatment of an employee.
- ERG groups came up with a solution to the above issues allowing for anonymous questions being relayed to senior leadership... unfortunately after agreeing to this solution, senior leadership never responded and removed this avenue as a solution.
2. No One is Hitting Quota.
- 4, that is the number of total sales reps who hit quota during the time I was employed and is an accurate representation of quota attainment prior to my arrival. Quotas are increasing, territories are shrinking, and several key positions are being outsourced.
- Quotas can change with the snap of a finger and are not consistent across teams or individuals. Good luck getting a ramp quota approved... be ready to hit the ground running.
3. HR is a joke.
- They do not have the employees interest at heart and the same HR individual will represent both you and your manager. Know anything you bring up to HR (evidence backed concerns, violations, issues) they will immediately inform your leader.
- PIPs are used to remove individuals from an org that the leader doesn't like. Even if you are a top performer who is hitting quota regularly you are not immune to a PIP if your leader isn't your biggest fan.
- Retaliation is prevalent. Even with documented proof, it won't be addressed.
4. Customer Success & Renewals are Abysmal
- Makes sense when you lay off the entire renewals team, and just have auto-renew baked into contracts.
- If you're a customer looking for support, it's on you to track down your sales rep, because you won't hear from them otherwise.
- As a sales rep, odds of a renewal are low (honestly so far below the industry average its laughable)... customers are switching platforms in droves.
5. They Don't Use their own Product Effectively.
- When your top sales reps don't understand how to use the platform, there is a problem.
- How can the number 1 Enterprise rep get away with verbalizing "they'd never demoed the full platform" fly? No wonder we aren't closing deals.
- When you don't follow your own best practices, you end up with thousands of sequences, horrible data, and a mess of an environment.
6. Bottle Necks & Micro-Management.
- You'll find these at every turn. Good luck accomplishing anything or making the change you were hired to make.
- Be ready to do your job, recap that in an email, send screenshots and links, and account for all of your time.
7. Little Front Line Leadership Experience.
- Promote an SDR after 9 months to a closing role for 3 months and then directly into a leadership position... makes sense to me ;) Why not have someone with zero leadership or closing experience run a team.
- Favoritism is what gets you into front line leadership... get in good with Senior Leadership and you'll be golden, whether or not you have the proper experience.
