Excuses don't bring revenue
We fired our sales director today. She took it pretty hard. She said we would never survive without her; we would never figure out her system (part of the reason she was fired); and there is no way we will close any business in the next two quarters. Great.
She complained about not getting advance warning. Our CEO said he has been telling her for months to make calls. She said the marketing materials and collateral need more work before calls can be made. Here we go again, making more bloody excuses and blaming someone or something else. If you can't take responsibility and admit your failures you can't possibly succeed in a startup. When other sales people have been successfully selling a product for over 8 years it CAN be sold. We've had more people with more excuses in this company over the years. Sometimes the excuses are good too. However, excuses DON'T bring revenue; find a way to succeed.
She also went on to say that she hoped we changed our minds and she would be willing to lower her compensation or work as a commission-only contractor. That's one way to finally force her to make the calls. Give her a contractors role and don't pay her on any sales from existing customers; not going to happen.
The new guy starts in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we'll try to juggle our existing opportunities to help make payroll.
She complained about not getting advance warning. Our CEO said he has been telling her for months to make calls. She said the marketing materials and collateral need more work before calls can be made. Here we go again, making more bloody excuses and blaming someone or something else. If you can't take responsibility and admit your failures you can't possibly succeed in a startup. When other sales people have been successfully selling a product for over 8 years it CAN be sold. We've had more people with more excuses in this company over the years. Sometimes the excuses are good too. However, excuses DON'T bring revenue; find a way to succeed.
She also went on to say that she hoped we changed our minds and she would be willing to lower her compensation or work as a commission-only contractor. That's one way to finally force her to make the calls. Give her a contractors role and don't pay her on any sales from existing customers; not going to happen.
The new guy starts in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we'll try to juggle our existing opportunities to help make payroll.
posted by SJM at 5:14 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home