#sales

Companies that have punitively restructured their comp plan, rarely walk it back.

A return to a fair comp plan only happens when one of three breaking points hits:

1. Regrettable Attrition Hits Top Performers: Right now, Dell is fine with underperforming and mid-tier reps quitting. They want forced attrition. However, when more of the top 10%–15% of enterprise account executives defect to HPE, Lenovo, Cisco, or Super Micro (taking billion-dollar accounts with them), Dell will care.

2. Legacy Business Collapses Faster Than Expected: While AI servers get the headlines, Dell still relies on high-margin storage, servers, and commercial PCs to fund its bottom line. If gutted sales territories and demoralized reps cause traditional enterprise renewals to plummet, finance will be forced to re-incentivize the sales floor.

3. Competitors Steal Market Share on Customer Relationships: When buyers get frustrated by constant rep turnover and chaotic internal processes, they eventually move their budgets to vendors with stable account teams.

These things ARE happening. But I don’t think Dell executives recognize the path they’re on. In 2-3 years, they will learn the error of their ways and attempt to reclaim market share, and customer and employee confidence.

Get ready for the wave. Most retail DOS’s don’t do anything anyway and offload all of their work to retail ADs. Fits the narrative of top heavy employees that provide no value or change to T.

I’m sure you notice you have targets that you won’t be able to hit as corporate retail stores have been declining for years and years now.

We don’t have a business set up properly to accommodate this model. I don’t understand the benefits to the CE. They can talk all they want about how the customers like it but let’s talk about how the CE’s feel. I quoted one up by 2X but no change to my comp plan, I now oversee five people under my number who are struggling all the same I am. The effective result is lower attainment and lower pay. Just shifting the selling motion doesn’t change the backend problems of pricing, licensing negotiation, and never-ending back-and-forth.

So where are all of the conspiracy theorists on November? Quiet here and business is booming. Happy Selling y'all!

sales is a dumpsters fire, but what is the rest like?
How’s engineering and support teams etc? Same ole same ole or also noticing a decline

Is any body else concerned about the 7.9% YOY decline in Ford vehicle sales and 10.9% YOY decline in Lincoln sales? If vehicles aren’t selling, jobs will be eliminated.

How many times can they fu-k up a sale in one single fiscal year because I think this year is taking the cake. Literally not a single promotion has been executed correctly at the corporate level yet we are the ones suffering. How hard is it to have a SALE YOU PLANNED RING AT THE REGISTER???

What if we just make everything 20-25% off at all times at this point???

The AA call just now seems pretty ominous for the folks in apps sales. Looks like y’all are next. Respect and condolences to everyone impacted.

Fed just got theirs and they are due Dec. 3. How did it go for the commercial side? For AEs, there is a SIGNIFICANT jump in technical accumen expectations. Does anyone on the other side of this from commercial have tips for how you can suddenly gain the knowledge of a CIO with a master's degree in 30 days?

Serious responses only as I am impacted by latest surplus. Is it possible to get a sales position without sales experience? There are so many sales positions listed currently. I have product knowledge and customer buy flow experience that has been acquired over time. Is sales position considered management position I.e. could it be a lateral transfer? Have others tried this route? Any feedback on this? Thanks in advance!

Someone wrote this comment:

“This place is going to get sold. Writing is on the wall, one reason they are letting morale go to shxt. There is no family succesor in place to take over. Various business lines will be sold to various different outside companies, it won’t be just one massive sale. Will start in 2027 is my guess.”

I don’t have much time in Fidelity like most other people here, so I can’t really agree how good of a prediction this is. But if the Fidelity overlord was to sell, what’s gonna get sold first? What kind of customers are gonna be buying? What kind of offer would Fidelity take seriously? And which parts of the company are gonna be considered NOT for sale?

Raemy going on press spree while few hours even pay attention to us and sales are drab.even online they have reduced. He claims they are up compared to right before bankruptcy..They couldn't be worse..

The fantasy gifts were also stale..
I see a bad holiday season ahead.

The 6,047 U.S. EV sales included roughly 5,574 Mustang Mach-Es and 289 F-150 Lightnings for the third quarter.

This goes to show no one wants to buy Ford EV. Ford projected to lose $4 billions in 2026 for Model E division.

Let's see if Ford can sell 30,000 EV for 2026. This division will be out of business in 2027.

In the first 5 minutes of webcast LP expalins the reality of being an A4 company = there is no hardware sale margin... to pay traditional field account manager commission. Listen to that closely XBS friends. 5 minutes later he gives away the reality of future service. 50% of service calls being "resolved" remotely by AI, with a target for 70%. Talk to any tech or any service call center employee and you'll hear that they are juicing that "remote solve" number by forced directive, not customer feedback or pleasure with the experience. "We can bring service interaction to zero!", sure LP, but then what exactly are customers paying you for to justify the same service/supply costing structure. Its just experience enshittification, while you also try to bring rates and fee structures up with inflation. A3 sales are obviously down not just due to market mix shfit, but because 2nd half 2021 and 2022 were the xerox supply chain crisis. Would again recommend XBS employees look at your renewal opportunities next 18 months and realize the pipeline is dry because no customers were landing equipment this time 5 years ago. Q4 results are gonna be bumpy, but 2026 wil be a bloodbath.

One more day of cleaning up billing issues in large part because of incompetence of offshore team. How is this company surviving? Husband used to be in sales here, was smart enough to leave. Said every old colleague in sales he talks to is looking. I know my team is as well!

Firstly I believe this is run by the serial longtimer James (Don't speak to me) McGourlay.

Renewals work in stealth mode. They are amazing at sending emails late, have zero real client engagement and seem to think sending an email with a $400k renewal quote is actually doing their job.

I've personally had clients come to me asking WTF is happening with their renewals. Draft quotes, late quotes, excessive fees and squeezing in premium support. It's just a complete mess.

Let's be honest team, our business is very well funded by renewals off the back of relationships and hard work from the Sales team. I am literally staggered by the amount of money and goodwill being left on the table.

So ELT, are you actually reading this?

I challenge you to get involved. Put a specialist AE into an account, actually engage the customer, show some value and give them a reason to renew.

It's not rocket science. These are major customer relationships worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, not just another email to send out.

The lack of customer engagement, ownership and basic support is honestly a disgrace. We are damaging relationships that the Sales team has spent years building. Someone needs to take ownership of this. Post your stories below

So 80 medium business and small business ISRs in India came to work yesterday morning and were fired on the spot.

What's going on in Furniture? I've been at Staples for 15 years and have never heard as much noise about furniture as I am now. Disfunction. Losing people. Losing deals and winning deals at the same time. A wash?

Also hearing there might be a new GM. Any rumblings on who it might be?

Anyone in these groups cut? Or sups or management?

I assume that the "bumpy" introduction of ODW CSG has been negatively impacting your target achievement in Q3. Said that, is there any output from management in your countries on how your are compensated for that disaster ?

Are sales reps being laid off? In footprint or the new out of footprint sales teams being eliminated in AZ? Or other places?

As part of a sales realignment, a reduced BAE/EAE headcount by approximately 80%. The previous structure was overstaffed and most of those positions were not generating enough revenue to justify their cost. Going forward, enterprise coverage will move to direct, call-center-based BSR roles. The inbound model gives us more control over performance and a lower cost structure. The Global Sales is also being eliminated, and its responsibilities will be consolidated and managed out of HQ.

sales r u enjoying having to upload all info to online system to replace ur job thx to Scott Katie Kyle etc? Are you rdy to be replaced coz vp plan is joke?

They need to fire Katie and Kyle now! They are the most h0rrible le@ders joke and cook and link all bad

Sooo, is the Client Executive model helping anyone close deals? Client Executives are getting pulled into every deal nowadays. I see them handling questions that sales should covered. maybe this works somewhere. maybe. yet i'm struggling to see the benefit if it adds another step, layers work, slows things down. i doubt that a CE can help win or grow a deal

Saw a post here - they are claiming hittting 300%_ quota, led their team, and still got rated "Successful". They say their director was told not to give anyone Exceptional... obviously I can't verify that. But another poster says their mgmt team had to push back against rating someone "Developing".Are managers being given quotas for each rating? If you beat your goals, what does it actually take to get "Exceptiona"?

Major RVP scaling. Sounds like ESD and ESM conversations are happening now. If you have experienced or heard of any field sales impacts please share role & region. I would imagine frontline sales not hitting quota will follow. Wishing everyone the best.

Billing, sales, repair, accessibility, or other niche remote groups?

Why would we have Friends and Family start immediately after the last LPOS FALL SALE. That sale was much better than F&F. The sales plan for our first day was ridiculously impossible for a Monday. Who the he-l is not thinking these things through

Any word on sales? Frontline? Call center? Enterprise? Indirect? Field reps? Wholesale? Outbound? SDR?

Mostly management? We’ve heard nothing but rumors.

Here are some firsthand reports of cuts

• Strategic Data Analyst — @OP+1m51ns4dx: “Strategic Data Analyst here 14 years with the company gone.”
• Senior Marketing Strategist — @OP+1m5gprvkp: “Sr. Marketing Strategist here. Was notified yesterday. Team was impacted greatly.”
• Talent, HR, and Learning & Development staff — @a7+1m5fka2k1: “Talent/Learning/HR was the first to get hit yesterday. I say this as one of the impacted.” Another poster says they were on a layoff call with colleagues: @ab+1m5gc7gvp: “I was one of Comcast employees impacted. I sat on a call with dozens of my colleagues.”
• HQ Finance employee involved in budget planning; exact title unstated — @OP+1m5j2n5bc: “even though I have been working on this - I am also impacted and will be exiting on 12/31.”

Other (read with caution!!!):
Some interesting nuggets here, they identify roles, but the posters talk about peers or LinkedIn posts or things they heard.

• Learning & Development executive director — @OP+1m5e84f19: “I saw an Exec Dir from Learning and Development team.”
• Senior HR manager and data analyst — @a2+1m5e84f19: “I saw a Sr Manager from HR and a data analyst both post a layoff post on LinkedIn today.”
• Senior analysts and project managers — @OP+1m5gdj09d: “Sr Analysts and Project Managers being let go yesterday.” The author says this came from LinkedIn posts.
• Comcast Business HR directors — @OP+1m5cr3pgk: “Hearing that there were multiple Directors let go on the CB HR team.”
• HR VPs — @a4+1m5dh8fg6: “HR VPs let go too.”
• Talent/HR individual contributors, as well as managers and directors — @bk+1m5dh8fg6: “not mostly managers and directors. Lots of ICs impacted as well.”
• Regional VPs — @ce+1m5gc7gvp: “Region VPs impacted this past Monday.” This is an uncorroborated assertion in the mirror.
• Talent Acquisition and Sales, with no specific titles — @OP+1m5jp9tvq: “L&D, HR, TA, Sales, Data Analyst, and Project Management … were all hit.” This is a roundup of what the author says they have “seen and heard,” so it is weaker evidence for Sales than the named firsthand accounts above.

are reductions expected to focus primarily on sales leadership + mgmt layers. or will frontline sales reps and supervisors also be heavily impacted? thank you.

Anyone hearing anything about the current Comcast layoffs and whether Sales is being impacted?

Curious specifically about inside sales, sellers, and sales leadership. I’ve been hearing mixed things and am trying to separate fact from rumor. A lot of Sales was impacted by last year’s reorg, so I’m wondering what things are looking like this time around.

Has anyone heard anything credible about which teams or roles might be affected? Would appreciate any insight from those in the know!

— The Cable Whisperer

Any word on sales for the buHas anyone heard whether the current Comcast layoffs are affecting Sales? Specifically, inside sales, sellers, or sales leadership?

I’ve been hearing mixed information and am trying to get a clearer picture of what’s happening this time around. I know a lot of Sales was impacted by last year’s reorg, so I’m wondering if anyone has heard anything about which teams or roles may be affected now.

If anyone has firsthand information or has heard anything credible, I’d appreciate any insight. Thanks!

How can we see quota (SCORE is down!!!???)

I really think 50 Everyday Wins points should be good enough for sales people the “push the boundaries”.

....KFC changing to Coke. Way to go commisary/foodservice. Give them another raise!

Ford will be lucky if they can sell 30,000 units. Who in he-l would buy it, only those who are working at Ford.

The cookie company has closed 57 stores this year due to a significant drop in sales. August sales were down 70% compared to two years prior. The company also conducted layoffs at its headquarters. Leadership changes occurred earlier this year with the co-founders departing their roles. Approximately 1,000 Crumbl locations are still in operation.

Lindon, Utah

https://qz.com/crumbl-cookie-closures-sales-decline-layoffs-101226