Most sales reps aren't hitting quota

Published: Wed, 08/09/23

August 9, 2023

TOGETHER WITH

Welcome back. If you’re anything like us, then you’ve probably spent the summer saying “things will pick back up in September” over and over again while gently dabbing your tear-stained cheeks. Let’s ignore the emotional turmoil for a few minutes with this week’s newsletter, where we’ll look at which sales positions are seeing an increase in quota attainment, share a Sales Fail about a boss getting involved in a deal, and give some advice to a manager who hired a sales influencer. Enjoy.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

In a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7 people are involved in most buying decisions.

Source: Gartner Group

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

A new HBO documentary will take aim at the “shady” world of charity telemarketing. The new three-part docu-series is being made by the brothers behind the hit movie, Uncut Gems, and will follow two telemarketing colleagues as they “transform into whistleblowers” and uncover the truth about the billion-dollar charity telemarketing scam, with claims that only a small percentage of the funds raised actually ends up benefiting charities. You can read more about it here.
Salesforce has laid off even more employees, on top of their previously-announced 10% staff reduction. According to Bloomberg, sales and customer success employees were let go in Ireland Wednesday, “as part of an ongoing effort to ensure we always have the right resources in place,” a spokesperson said. The layoffs come as the sales tech giant prioritizes profit after years of focus on growth and hiring. You can read the full report here.

FEATURE

Quota attainment is down in all sales roles except two. Here’s who’s hitting quota and who’s not.

It’s no secret that the past year of selling has been…. unique. Although the economy has rebounded, the sales world seems to be lagging behind, with reporting showing that most reps and sales teams are not hitting their quota. We wanted to find out exactly how this year was shaping up, so we reached out to RepVue to get the full scoop.

According to RepVue’s data, only two of seven sales positions have seen an increase in their quota attainment over the past year. The other five have seen a notable decrease. The following is the exact percentage change for each position listed in the graph above, plus overall quota attainment (data current as of 08/04/2023).

You can see all salary info here

Role: Account Manager

Percentage change of quota attainment in the last year: -14%
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 48.6%

Role: Customer Success Manager

Percentage change of quota attainment in the last year: +15%
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 64.1%

Role: Enterprise Account Executive

Percentage change of quota attainment in the last year: -6%
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 38.3%

Role: Mid-Market Account Executive

Percentage change of quota attainment in the last year: -11%
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 39.1%

Role: Sales Development Manager

Percentage change of quota attainment in the last year: +5%
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 64.7%

Role: Sales Manager

Percentage change of quota attainment in the last year: -5%
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 50.2%

Role: Sales Development Representative

Percentage change of quota attainment in the last year: -3%
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 51.8

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MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

Which insurance company employs the most salespeople in the U.S.?

A. AFLAC
B. Progressive
C. The Hartford Financial Services Group
D. Allstate

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

At a previous company, I had been assigned to work on an account with a large public company to partner on construction projects. When it came to my 'trade' and 'division,' I ran point for 3 years and got us deep into the account where we were negotiating and partnering with them for exclusive deals. They really had no idea what they were doing, and being a veteran in the industry, I walked them through every painful step so they could become a well oiled player in the market as a prime contractor and financier.

So... we bid numerous projects with a school district and won. My sales counterpart with our partner company actually went in after we won some of the sites, and negotiated to get 30% more of the sites than we were going to be awarded. All was good, they were happy with us and I was partnered with a great sales counterpart. It was a great match. Despite my company realizing they mis-bid the project and giving price increases, I was able to maintain trust and rapport and keep things going cordially.

Then my boss in all his wisdom decided to go meet with my sales counterpart in the partner company without me to 'schmooze' at a 'higher level.' During this schmooze session, he proceeded to tell my counterpart that I said that no one on their team knew what they were doing. Unbeknownst to me, I now had none of their team responding to calls or emails until I got a call from my counterpart who then proceeded to tell me that he told his whole team I was talking shit about them. My boss completely killed this account that took me 2-3 years to build trust and rapport with, and took more than 6-figures of commission out of my pocket for projects we were working on together.

It was a really messed up situation — my boss basically shrugged and said 'oops.' Our group lost millions of dollars in revenue. My boss ended up being promoted in the organization and I eventually left when I raised other ethical issues. Anyhow, never let your boss talk to the customer if you can avoid it, unless they are seasoned salespeople and know what NOT to say.

Anonymous San Diego, CA

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- August 2023

WORTH A PEEK

Do you leave voicemails for your prospects? Some reps do, and some reps don’t, but you probably should be doing it, and there’s a good article from Nutshell on how to leave better sales voicemails, including the controversial two-message approach. Check it out here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team,

I'm a VP of Sales and recently hired a new AE for our team. He has a sizable audience on LinkedIn in our particular niche and I had been following him for a long time and really liked his posts and unique perspective. I thought that his audience would make him a great evangelist and would be a new way to get our brand in front of more prospective customers. I convinced him to join by offering him more autonomy than other AEs with a focus on social selling.

It's been six months and it hasn't really been working out. The audience doesn't seem to be converting and he doesn't do much actual sales work. He just posts on LinkedIn (using personal anecdotes) and every now and then, he'll close someone from social selling. He’s nowhere near hitting his quota.

I'm not sure what to do. It doesn't seem like the evangelism is working and I can't effectively measure if it's doing anything for our brand (I'm a sales guy, not a marketing guy). Part of me wants to tell him to dial it back and put most of his focus on selling according to our playbook. Another part of me wonders if the social visibility will pay off in the long run if we just stick with it and be patient. But I've also been thinking about just letting him go and chalking it up as a learning experience. What should I do?

Disappointed in the Pacific Northwest

Dear Disappointed,

While we don't know much about this particular person, in our experience, there are those who talk the talk and those who walk the walk, but the talkers tend to be a whole lot louder. It sounds like he's someone who's good at promoting themselves, but not actually getting the job done.

It's great that you tried out this new sales strategy, but if it's not working, you need to do something. You're a sales leader, and your priority is helping your sales team hit quota, not giving what is essentially a no-show job to someone who wants to be famous. It's time to have a talk and get him refocused on selling, not marketing.

You should give him the opportunity to prove himself by using the playbook that is already working for your other reps. If he's up for it, and it works out, you'll have the best of both worlds with a seller who is bringing value to the bottom line while still being a brand evangelist.

If you don't think it’ll work out, you could always check to see if the marketing department would be a better fit for him. It could solve your problem and be a win-win for everyone. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: C — The Hartford Financial Services Group (read the source article here)

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How did you like today's story?

Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

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