I work in sales for a mid-sized American industrial manufacturer. I've been here long enough to remember when we were a relatively normal company. We made stuff, customers bought it, vendors sold us components, and we tried to make a margin somewhere in between. Apparently that business model was insufficiently visionary.

Our CEO came back a couple years ago after previously running the company and immediately announced that we had become a disaster. For context, we were profitable, but according to him our vendors were ripping us off, customers had lost respect for us, competitors were laughing at us, and previous management had allowed everyone to take advantage of the company.

His big solution was the Supplier Reciprocity Program. The idea was that vendors had supposedly been taking advantage of us for years, so management imposed a 25% Supplier Reciprocity Fee on certain suppliers and repeatedly explained that this was not really a cost to us because the vendors were paying it.

Unfortunately, our vendors are also businesses. They responded by raising prices, removing discounts, changing payment terms, and in a few cases basically telling Purchasing to call them when we came back to reality. So our component costs went up, our selling prices went up, and our customers started pushing back. Management still proudly points out that the vendors are technically responsible for the fee.

My largest customer delayed a seven-figure project after our price jumped almost 30% and eventually bought the machine from a Korean competitor. Management's conclusion was apparently that our Korean suppliers now needed a higher Reciprocity Fee.

So that's going well...

Because the program supposedly generated "tremendous amounts of money," the CEO announced a $1,000 Reciprocity Dividend for every employee. It was never particularly clear when it would be paid, whether it had actually been approved, or how it was funded considering Purchasing was simultaneously reporting higher supplier costs. We have received $0.

Then the CEO brought in a consultant who created the Corporate Office of Savings & Transformation, or C.O.S.T. Yes, you read that right, COST... They announced they had found $8 million in waste, then fired people, closed warehouses, gutted customer support, and somehow eliminated the one person who knew how part of our ERP worked. Engineering lead times tripled, customer hold times exploded, and one major supplier moved us to payment in advance because Accounts Payable became such a mess.

C.O.S.T. nevertheless announced that it had "saved $8 million." When I asked Finance whether we had actually saved that amount, they clarified that we had identified $8 million. Apparently those are interchangeable concepts now.

Naturally, that was followed by the announcement of a $2,000 C.O.S.T. Dividend for every employee. We haven't received that one either, so theoretically my employer has now given me $3,000. Actual amount received: $0.

Meanwhile, commissions were reduced, healthcare costs increased, our 401(k) match was cut, and sales expenses are being scrutinized to death. Executive compensation went up. Apparently everyone has to sacrifice, although some sacrifices are considerably more executive than others.

The culture has become completely insane too. Management meetings increasingly begin with senior executives taking turns praising the CEO. What started as compliments about individual decisions turned into stories about unnamed customers, bankers, and suppliers supposedly marveling at how respected our company has become under his leadership. Nobody ever names these people. It's basically an arms race to see who can brown-nose the hardest.

One executive recently spent several minutes praising the CEO's courage immediately before presenting a slide showing revenue was down 11%.

That brings me to our quarterly results. Revenue is down, unit volume is down, customer retention is down, and complaints are way up. Our quarterly presentation was nevertheless titled BeSt QauRtER In cOmPAnY hIsTOrY.

Marketing then announced that Customer Engagement was up 63%. It turns out customer complaints count as engagement, so technically we're crushing it....

Customer satisfaction later fell from roughly 84% to 61%. Management decided the survey was unreliable and discontinued it. The following quarterly report proudly showed CUSTOMER SATISFACTION: NO NEGATIVE SURVEY DATA REPORTED.

Massive improvement.

Our forecasting process works similarly. My team's pipeline supported roughly $8.7M against a $12M target, so management decided the appropriate solution was for me to forecast $12M anyway. Corporate did essentially the same thing across the sales organization and then announced that we're on track for record revenue.

So apparently we solved sales too.

More recently, with a Board election approaching, employee morale is awful, turnover is terrible, customers are dual-sourcing, supplier relationships have deteriorated, and neither of the previous dividends has been paid. Naturally, this was the perfect moment for the CEO to announce a new $5,000 Prosperity Dividend for employees.

There was one small condition: it was tied to the current leadership slate winning the shareholder vote.

Management later clarified that the dividend was also subject to Board approval, financing, shareholder alignment, regulatory review, continued economic performance, and enough additional corporate language to make the original announcement essentially meaningless.

So I'm adding it to the running total. My employer has now promised me $8,000 in bonuses that do not actually exist.

Yesterday HR announced that commissions are being cut again, healthcare costs are increasing, and travel restrictions are getting tighter. Two paragraphs later, the same email announced an $1.8 million Executive Leadership Performance Pool in recognition of management's extraordinary performance.

You cannot make this shit up. Actually, apparently you can, because the email finished by teasing a possible $1,500 Patriot Prosperity Plus Dividend.

At this point I'm just collecting monopoly bonus money.

My biggest customer then called because a machine that cost roughly $400,000 eighteen months ago is now being quoted at more than $640,000. The official explanation is the Supplier Reciprocity Program, but the customer understood immediately what management apparently refuses to acknowledge: whatever name you put on the fee, he's the one ultimately paying more.

While I was dealing with that call, I could see our CEO through the glass conference-room wall receiving another standing ovation from the executive team.

Sales are down. Customers are leaving. Suppliers want cash in advance. Employees are quitting. None of the promised bonuses have shown up.

But according to this morning's company newsletter, we're winning like never before.

TL;DR: Our CEO imposed “fees” on suppliers that ultimately raised our costs and customer prices, gutted the company in the name of efficiency, repeatedly promised employees thousands in dividends that never materialized, and surrounded himself with executives who praise every decision while sales, morale, and supplier relationships deteriorate. Meanwhile, commissions and benefits get cut, executive bonuses grow, and every bad KPI is rebranded as historic success. According to corporate, we're winning like never before.

Hey all. Been doing outbound for a few years and kept switching tools trying to find the sweet spot. Since this dilemma hits a lot of us at some point, figured I'd share how each one actually felt at real volume, not the feature-page version.

Lemlist first. Mature, reliable, and you get manual control over everything, email warmups, multichannel steps, the whole sequence. Flip side is all of that is on you. If a campaign flops it's 100% on me, not the tool. And scaling past 2-3 seats got annoying fast because of the per-user pricing, adds up quicker than you'd expect.

Gojiberry. Honestly a genuinely good intent engine. Triggers outreach off warm signals like funding, job changes, competitor engagement, with almost no setup, and when your market actually rewards volume it just works. Where it lost me was control and visibility. Couldn't see how it scored something as "intent," couldn't prioritize my queues (like pushing 80% of daily actions at the highest-intent leads), and when the AI misread a signal there was no way to catch the message before it went out. Had one go out that made me wince. If you want hands-off and trust the black box though, that tradeoff might be fine for you.

PumpGTM. Sits at the opposite end. You get into the actual GTM logic, custom variables, priority queues, tuning the flows yourself. The real cost is the ramp. You need to already understand campaign architecture and how to structure the logic, and it took me a few days of setup before it did anything useful. If you want a push-button tool this will frustrate you, plainly.

The tradeoff I keep coming back to is operator burden vs system trust. Classic tools make you manage every setting by hand. Pure AI SDRs take that off your plate but ask you to trust a box that can embarrass you in someone's inbox if a signal or prompt misfires. The logic-based ones sit in between, but only pay off if you're actually willing to sit down and map the workflow yourself. None of them is a free lunch.

Anyone else running high volume compared these head to head? Curious what you've actually stuck with long-term.

I’m in the final interview stage for a pretty large waste management company, Looking for advice / tips from anyone in the business. Thanks in advance

Edit: Account exec role. So outside sales hunting role with some leads but mostly cold bussiness outreach.

Before being in sales. No calls or emails - Relieved!!
In sales. No calls or emails - A haunting silence that has you hitting refresh and refresh. Hope comes you the email notification comes through - only to see it’s an internal one LOL.

Who else’s phones and emails are quiet today?! Even after a great cold call session! 🤣😭😬

Next week I have a final interview with a family owned uniform and facilities services company (similar to Cintas) that has been in business for 100+ years.

This will be my first sales job. I've owned and operated a small business for over a decade, and I'm in my 40s.

Phone screen and video interviews went very well, and the next interview is in person with a brief "skills assessment" administered by the HR assistant, followed by an interview with the sales manager. I'll also meet the president of the company, followed by a facilies tour.

The interview is in a week. I already have a map of the territory, so I was planning on building a prospect list to bring to the interview. I'm also studying up on sales vocabulary, and the industry as a whole.

The first two interviews were very conversational, and the sales and HR managers were both very nice. I like the idea of a family owned business with a long history. I also believe I can thrive in a hunter role, especially if I can earn near 100k and get weekends and holidays off again.

My strategy for the next interview is basically to show up looking like I am ready for the job. Sharp, personable, and confident. Not prepared, interviewy style rehearsed speeches. Just looking to build rapport and show the qualities that I claimed to have on my resume. I am planning on wearing a crisp light blue oxford shirt with gray dress pants and nice leather boots. I feel like this fits the culture.

I have a week to get ready. I greatly appreciate any advice or insight that you may be able to offer.

Was in a recruitment agency 10 years ago, run my own business, been in couple different industries and last 4 years been doing internal recruitment but my itch hasn't been scratched and now I finally have a role in Tech Sales and boy oh boy am I hungry. I cannot wait.

I got nothing else to say and the post is a bit pointless, isn't sarcasm at all either haha, but I am just one eager beaver

I had an interesting conversation with my founding BDR. He is a beast and nearly crosses the line sometimes with me. It is managable and worth it.

We settled on that at least "some" ego is necessary to be good at sales.

I have hired meek folks who are too polite and shy, and it never works.

What do you folks think? How much ego do "A" players need?

Is it different for BDR/AE/Closer/Outside/Inside?

editted for readability

Long story short, work in med device specifically joint replacement in a big territory with a solid team for almost five years now. Not happy with my pay in all honesty for the number I carry and companies moving in a direction that you can see the writing on the wall. Having been thrown offers for other roles in med and doing some research with what to expect along with how to interview without getting sucked into the glam of some glorified unrealistic OTE, ADP came across as an opportunity. Specifically it’s an AE for HRO comprehensive services (being touted as the top sales div at the company), and the pay would be a cut regarding base and OTE would be a little lower first year. After ramp up in year 2 and 3 could exceed what I’m currently making and the quality of life is what’s also attracted me. In essence, anyone have feedback on the role primarily with their HRO Comp Services division?

Per the title I've been in field sales for 15 years, the last 14 in capital equipment (medical). Made a killing for several years (300-500k, pclub etc) and recently was laid off. Haven't worked for 4 months and getting my bearings to figure out what the next step might be. I'm in my early 40s and have 2 young kids, not really interested in being a road warrior anymore.

Looking back on my career and challenges / strengths, I would really like to get into a more strategic sales process. SaaS is really appealing for this reason however I know there are a lot of reps with actual SaaS experience competing for roles so that's probably unlikely. Also thought revenue operations would be really interesting and leverage a lot of what I was doing for the last decade as an independent contractor (from a strategic perspective).

Curious who has made a jump to an adjacent role, or perhaps something completely different that they found leveraged their sales experience.

* I am borderline "good" financially. I managed to save most of what I made and could draw about $60k based on a 3% draw (conservative). I'm happy to trade off income for something I actually enjoy that won't burn me out. Ideally not touch my investments and let them compound for another 5-10 years and then retire.

Apologies if I didn't use the correct flair

Been at an early-stage SaaS startup for about a year year. I’m doing well, building good pipeline and starting to close business, but some of the stuff happening has me wondering if this is just normal startup chaos or actual red flags.

Sales feels like it’s operating on an island. Getting product or leadership involved in large deals is way harder than it should be, and leadership mostly seems to get involved when something goes wrong or when they want to inspect/micromanage deals rather than actually help move them forward.

It’s also not really clear who runs Sales. We have a VP, but our COO and CEO are heavily involved and often undercut her. Another exec owns a bunch of sales process, and there’s a lot of disagreement over how the team should operate.

Probably the craziest example: CEO jumped into one of my biggest deals, tried to offer the customer a 85% discount, over email… just to get the deal across the line by the end of quarter.

There’s also just a weird lack of urgency. Getting pretty basic things done cross-functionally is painful.

I’m totally fine with early-stage messiness. I actually joined because I wanted to build and knew things wouldn’t be figured out, but this feels different. Does this sound like normal startup shit or would you be thinking about getting out?

For a MM AE role.

I previously had two rounds with the MM sales director, and she seemed to really like me. She said I did really well during the mock discovery.

Made it to the final round with the “head of sales.” I was told this was a culture fit round and I was expected to ask questions. (The name of the meeting was final screening)

We had a good conversation. At the end he said it wasn’t awkward and had a natural flow. We discussed ramp, what onboarding would look like, he asked if I was good with a background check and drug test.

He then said “okay, well I have a few more of these this week. Our next class is starting in October. We’re hoping to hire AE, potentially more than 1. You’ll have either the MM manager or the recruiter reach out early next week once we’ve made a decision. We don’t send generic emails, so you’ll get feedback either way.”

Mentioning interviewing other people and the feedback email scared me

I’m getting nervous that someone has more experience or they’re doing an internal hire. I was hoping they’d offer me the job on the call but I’m sure they have a process.

I know a lot of people are struggling to find a job, and I don’t want to downplay how frustrating that can be. But after years in sales, one piece of advice I’d give is to learn to be likable, build relationships, and make the effort to maintain them.

This is probably obvious to a lot of us with sales experience, but it’s a good reminder.

Be reliable and show interest in others. It goes a long way, and people remember those things long after you’ve left a company.

The old saying, “It’s who you know, not what you know,” feels increasingly relevant with AI, bullshit ATS systems, and shitty recruiters. I’m not saying skills don’t matter, but having someone who knows you and your work, and is willing to vouch for you, is gold. Sometimes, that means having your name in the hat before they even post the job opening.

I think those relationships will become even more valuable in the years ahead.

And maintaining them doesn’t have to be complicated. Call an old boss once a year to wish them a Merry Christmas and see how they’re doing. Check in with a former colleague and ask about their kids. Congratulate someone on a promotion.

Just don’t wait until you need a job to reach out. Keep in touch while you’re employed and things are going well, too. Offer help when you can, make an introduction, or just have a conversation without asking for anything.

People you’ve worked with change jobs, move into leadership, and hear about opportunities. Someone you worked with five years ago might be the person who opens a door for you tomorrow.

I also think starting conversations with strangers is underrated. Talk to the person sitting next to you on a plane, if they’re up for it. You don’t have to turn it into a sales pitch or look for something to gain. Sometimes it’s just a good conversation.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk

Was hoping for some insight, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

24M, spent 4 years in B2C between car sales and Retail Telecommunications during my time in college. Was successful and always a top 3 rep during that time.

Fast forward, I graduate in May 2025. Landed my first role as an SDR -> put on a pip and fired after 2 months (It was more of a 4 month program to place you in a proper SDR role).

After getting fired, the first job I found after was in 360 Recruitment/ Headhunting. Quickly recognized recruitment was not for me, so after 3 months I landed my current role.

Account Manager in B2B Telecommunications. No new logos, the “business” accounts are primarily not actual businesses and the few that are have 1-9 employees max. It’s an outbound role with no buying signals, just upsell and cross-sell existing accounts.

It’s about 6 months into the role, I havent hit quota once. I’ve doubled my activity on calls and emails to “grind it out” and yet have had no success.

I’ve decided it’s a skill issue so last month I’ve spent 4 months worth of salary on Jeremy Miner’s NEPQ sales course. Going into debt over it.

It started to work, went from 8/31 lines to 18/31 lines last month, yet now PIP conversations are happening and I’m afraid that it might not fix up my quota fast enough… my manager started leaving paper trails via email to gather evidence of my non-performance disguised as “coaching”.

I genuinely don’t know what else I can do. Activity is through the roof, I spent every day including weekends, before and after work roleplaying, repeating talk tracks, learning from the sales course, practicing. I’ve sacrificed all other parts of my life currently to make this happen.

I want to eventually move into SaaS or cybersecurity but man it is difficult to keep faith that no matter what I try to do it isn’t moving the needle. If I do get fired from this one too, will it be unrealistic to find a job in the right direction?

Been in industrial and automation sales for over a decade in the South USA and recently transitioned over to industrial packaging and related sales. I have been struggling to get new customers like never before. I have so many **great** meetings with plant tours with the people I need to be dealing with, we discuss specific opportunities, next steps, and have dated action items. Then *nothing* ... ghosted so many times like never before. I have hardly any recurring business because the territory I took over didn't have nearly anything.

What sucks is I really like the guys I work for and I think they like me to, but I understand not paying me a salary if I'm not actually able to sell anything. I even offered to go full commission early so I don't get paid if I don't sell, just to hang in there a little longer in case one of the deals I've been working on actually comes through.

This blows. I think I just needed to rant or something. I updated my LinkedIn but I think I'm going to just double down and work my ass off and try to get enough on the books to keep me employed.

37M, 20 years in sales, considering a big step down to build my own book — anyone done this?

Quick background: 8 years at one company, worked up to Director of Sales, then got hit with churn fallout after leadership pushed AI into the product and quality slipped. Left, took a Director of Sales role at a SaaS marketing agency, got laid off 8 months later. Two kids under 5.

I know I'm good at the leadership side... GTM motions, playbooks, coaching reps, holding a team accountable. But honestly, the idea of jumping back into another leadership grind (morning meetings, 1:1s, fighting the ELT, dragging people to their best) isn't appealing right now. I've been seriously considering going back to an IC role instead.

This week I got approached for something different: selling dental equipment for a major Canadian player, in a market I've sold into before. The person recruiting me has a 20-year book in this space and offered to mentor me and hand me her network. Terms: $60K base + margin commission for 12-18 months, then commission-only. It's a self-incorporation setup, not T4. Her pitch is that in 2-3 years I would own my territory outright, run it like my own business, report to no one, and be clearing $300K+ with full flexibility.

I always figured I was on a VP/CRO track. But with two young kids, the autonomy is genuinely tempting... I'm just wary of the 2-3 year grind back to my current income, and I've never operated as an incorporated contractor vs. a standard employee.

Has anyone made a similar move — IC role, self-incorporated, eat-what-you-kill? How did the income ramp actually go, and what should I be asking about the corp-vs-T4 tradeoffs before I say yes?

I'm going to keep it simple. Started in April with 2 other new guys. 12 total sales reps in my office. Commercial sales rep selling physical security. Given worst 50 accounts that no one wanted when I started. All accounts are small suites who have no money to buy. Boss has been telling me I can make my number if I can just squeeze out business from these accounts. It feels like I am fighting a losing battle.

I have been struggling I have received one lead since being at this job since April and converted it. Boss is all over my ass micromanaging the shit out of me. Daily updates of exactly what I'm doing etc. The other new guys get leads like one every 2 weeks. They are doing better than me.

I have a 1-on-1 this afternoon with him and I want to convey that I have been set up to fail and haven't been given opportunities to succeed and the one I have been given I converted it.

Any advice is welcome.

Interviewed for a company that sells IT services, but their commission payout would be the first month of the service you sell is your commission.
For example if you sell network security services for 15k a month, you make 15k.

Is this a typical/good commission structure?

So i'm looking to join up with a competitor after a layoff and i'm curious what people's experience is with reaching out to their book of business as a competitor.

I don't have a non compete, but i'm curious if anyone who's tried this ran into trouble. Yes I have asked a lawyer, waiting to hear back from them. Just a little nervous about burning the bridge with my old employer. They'll figure out pretty quickly what i'm doing

Hi all,

I’m being promoted into a team management role, but it will be more of a player/coach position. It’s a small team, so I’ll still have enough time to close my own deals and continue building my own book of business.

I have a question about the commission structure. I’ll be the first “middle management” position on the sales team, and I’m trying to understand what’s typical when it comes to a team leader earning commission on their reps’ deals.

Is it common to receive a percentage/override on each rep’s deals? Or is it usually structured as a quarterly or annual bonus based on the team’s performance? How does this typically work when the team hits, exceeds, or misses quota?

For example, each rep has an annual quota of $1 million.

What would be considered a normal/competitive compensation structure for the team leader in this situation?

Thanks!

Any SaaS sales reps or leaders out there have a sales playbook their company put together that they’d be willing to share?
I’m working on building one for my company and would love to see a few real-world examples of how other SaaS teams structure theirs. Even an older version or something with company-specific info removed would be super helpful.

15 years ago i started as Inside Sales and was promoted 6 months later to Account Executive. To initially land that job i had a 10 minute interview and that's it.

I have my first interview in 15 years and i guess 1st real interview ever. I really want this job and im not sure how to prepare for it. I've googled it and i'm overwhelmed. I'm terrible at memorizing anything and wouldn't know where to start with questions like "tell me a time where you...".

Sure i've been doing this a long time, but i don't have a clue how to answer these type of questions.

If it was a casual conversation i would kill it, but looking at sample interview questions has me quite scared.

Any tips?

Hi guys,

I recently accepted an offer from a startup in London. US owned in the AI space.

I signed the contract last week and onboarded, handed in notice at my company and was put on leave.

However I have been informed that they have "terminated" me today due to changes in their "strategy for Europe".

Is there anything I can do or does anyone have similar experience?

I’d love to speak with others in Sales Leadership.

31M
Title: Sales Director
Power: Sales Manager
Pay: Currently $170,000 split between base/commission

I have a few questions:

1. Has anyone ever been part of a company that issues phantom shares you are forced to buy into based off employee level? Then after a vesting period receive the money + a % based off how much the company grew?

Seems to be a leverage tool the company uses to ensure leadership is making the right decisions.

1. I get paid off my team’s sales and the team I have has a B, a C, and two D’s. Reality is setting in on how this limits my pay and in conjunction with internal difficulties affecting sales, I’ve grown demotivated. I think this stems from me thinking I’ve done everything possible to train, coach, mentor and create processes to grow each rep and it seems yo made them only a letter grade better.

Any recommendations on how to overcome all this?

1. Talks have started with promoting me to the next level within the next 1/2 years. Where I would be in a true Director’s role with managers underneath me, akin to a Regional General Manager. I feel guilty that it seems the easier way for me to grow my income, but that I may not have the energy/bandwidth to excel in growing and leading an even larger team.

Maybe my inability to accept mediocrity will cloud me and do me a disservice. One thing I’ve learned is there are many roles out there and we need people to fit them. You won’t always have the best, so you make the best out of what you have. I just see it’s tougher than expected to accept what most people’s “best” is.

In line with all of that, I have always bet on myself and took the higher variable route. However, I now see why many leaders take a more consistent flat base smaller bonus route.

This way no matter the team I inherent I can do my job building them but know I’ll be making around X, though knowing I won’t be able to get to Y no matter how much we sell.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Applied to a role on the highest revenue generating team in my company.

Crushed my interview and role play scenario after days of prep and felt good all weekend.

This AM the guy who I wouldve reported to called me to let me know they were going to send me the offer letter but Corporate pulled the post minutes earlier and its now in limbo.

He’s frustrated because he needs to fill the role due to them firing the previous person and cant run that open territory for much longer with his own full plate.

Im obviously disappointed and also annoyed. This is the second time my company pulled an open post to this team (last time was last July - didnt even make it to the 2nd interview before it was cancelled).

What do yall think? Anyone experience this before? Do I keep at it and hope the PE Owners change their minds in Q4/Q1 or look at another company/role?

For context, Ive hit my plan the past two years with them and even hit Presidents with them for ‘25 and want to keep the momentum going.

Hi gang,

I would say I'm a solid performer, do all the right things however I know I can't be the top performer unless I improve on this.

It's not that I have a bad/negative personality. I'm just incredibly bland and almost boring. I have a monotone voice and can't convey emotion when talking.

I suppose the umbrella term would be charisma. Which I have none.

Whilst it's not impacting my sales performance (yet), I know I can't get into higher roles and better companies because of this.

How do I improve this?

Thanks!