We all got the email regarding the budget and frozen travel requests. How is it fair for the product teams to dial into meetings while a bunch of clueless salespeople in RCS go to meetings in person just to take notes?
I have been in five meetings recently where the salesperson was at the client site but didn't say more than “hi” and “bye”.
It’s probably better to cut RCS budget & HC than product and engineering. There are simply many of them in sales.
Abusing should be punished heavily but what’s wrong with RCS uses T&E? I really don’t understand the rational behind the statement. Non client facing obviously doesn’t need client entertainment budget
@kb The problem as it is at FactSet is that the 2M a “salesperson” brings doesn’t come at the expense of their 25k in travel alone. Everyone from the consultant to the sales managers, the different product teams and specialists need to/ expect the travel to bring/sustain the business. All of it adds up quickly, especially in the client acquisition phase where revenue isn’t yet being recognised.
Many people in sales don’t /cannot see this because they’re too self obsessed to see beyond “I bring in 2M” - the contributions of many other people tie into the revenue “they” bring and need to be managed too from a corporate perspective.
It is not a simple math formula like 25k travel to bring 2M in revenue either. Revenue also needs to cover the cost of development and support of the said products being sold which FactSet does a poor job of looking at. This will come into play eventually when layoffs no longer bring in margin expansion with ease.
Additionally while this argument is being touted by sales to justify their travel - sometimes 5-6 FactSet members meeting 1 client for a lunch - the question becomes what’s the ROI from that meeting in specific? Is it client T&E being used for staff entertainment?
Some generalists are jokes. Can’t even be bothered to follow up on opps.
But others are incredible: Actively prospect, actually able to speak about products, know how to move opps forward.
This company needs to incentivize sales properly. And remove the poor performers and especially those that don’t even try.
Who gives a f if I’m spending T&E as long as I’m generating revenue. If I bring in $2m and spend $25k in a year traveling, that’s totally fine.
Salespeople have to be in the actual room to get the full "11 channels" of buying signs. On video they are missing 60% of the "signs" and can't do their job. Also the airport lounges are pretty dope.
We need 5 people in any random 25% opp sales deal because every sales only want the big accounts, 5x30mins of meeting ≈ 150mins.
Or in office to walk around and show visibility. “Ah so busy with calls with clients”
Aggressive targets? Jokes, especially datafeed sales. Just munching on existing renewals, add ons, where even consultants do better MCP demos than them.
EROs LOL - one moved to pricing and packaging, one to strategic initiatives, and rest hidden in GEA
What a double standard here. Email said no offsites or internal meetings but all I am hearing RCS is doing kickoffs and internal manager meetings. Shame spending budget this way
@c5 must be that cool GEA team with all those EROs and GAMs - layers over layers
@ay part of the issue is some of those sales managers. Please investigate how many in sales have ever used workstations over the last 6 months. Last login date for many is over months.
@OP if you have the names of those individuals - bring it up with their manager and put your manager on Cc
be productive, stop airing this dirty laundry in public. There are good sales managers who care, and they will stamp on it - at least I know I will.