Being stuck

Mindset
1

I am currently stuck.

My biggest deal for the quarter has been pushed to the end of the year, and my biggest customers, who I have invested a lot of time in and was hoping to upsell this quarter, have other priorities right now.

If I give it my all this quarter, I might be able to hit 80% quota, but then I need everything to go right and I need a massive hockey stick at the end.

On top of that, my success is extremely dependent on external circumstances and I feel externally determined.
I’m currently in a hybrid role where I have to do account management and net new business. But the reality is that I primarily do account management since the majority of the sales in my team comes from existing customers.
The second big bucket are inbound leads, which make up 50% of our closed won opportunities. In addition, our inbound process is rigged. I know there are AEs who have a special arrangement with SDRs to get leads routed to them. To ensure that I don’t get ripped off, I have taken initial steps and will be monitoring this.
If you work for a large company, in almost all cases, being well positioned internally is just as important as your sales skills.

Okay, enough whining.

What’s my plan?

  1. Focus on the most important deals: full focus on the big opportunities and fast execution of transactional deals to keep the focus.

  2. Fanatical outbounding: it will be hard to turn this quarter around, but the fiscal year has just started, now the seeds are being planted for the fruits I will reap throughout the year. Next week I have 9 customer meetings, the goal is to make it 10 and keep the traction going.

  3. Inbound control: I will not get ripped off and will take total responsibility for my territory.

  4. Leverage the channel. I plan to involve partners more and divide my book of business into Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 and Tier 4 accounts. I will hand off Tier 4 and some Tier 3 accounts to the partner.

  5. Positive mindset: I will influence the things I can influence. This is often more than we think. If nothing is really moving forward, just skip two or three levels and shoot people a DM. It’s a job. If I get punished for it, then it’s a company I don’t want to work for.

What do you think? Have you been in a similar situation and what did you do?

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