John is under pressure; he is well behind target – despite the fact that his target has already been revised downward in light of market conditions. The Sales Director is also under pressure from the Board and….well we all know that shit runs downhill. John needs to make a dent in his target to keep the Sales Director off his back. Redundancy is something he worries about. There’s been no indication of this so far but he knows many people in the industry that have been made redundant.

However, he believes that he has a great opportunity in the pipeline, he gets after it… and get’s shot down – by three different contacts in the client – because they have a freeze on capex spend in the face of the current downturn. What John does next is more a reflexion of John, his core attributes and his sales experience than whether there really is another viable strategy. Continue Reading

Working for a PLC during my early thirties I landed my first role in managing a sales team. I’d been with a company they acquired, had a good track record of hitting my numbers and delivering new name accounts. That seemed to qualify me as the logical candidate to take on the leadership role. Ah… that common fallacy that a good salesperson will make a good sales manager!

No interview, no assessment just a new title, a pay rise and a much, much bigger number to deliver…. oh and a team of around 20 sales people to lead. Bring it on I thought, I’m sure I’ll do a great job. Continue Reading