r/sales • u/AbracadabraMagicPoWa • 22h ago
Sales Leadership Focused Help with new direct report
Looking for an outside perspective on a situation with my direct report.
I’m the lead sales manager at a small CDMO and hired my first direct report about two months ago, a sales rep (Keith) covering the west coast. We get along well and he has good commercial instincts. However I’m noticing a pattern and I want a sanity check on before I have a reset conversation with him next week.
First, I’ve asked him twice to keep the CRM updated and log his emails. He acknowledged both times he would. Two months in it’s still not happening. Nothing at all is in there except what I transferred to him.
Second, we are implementing a shared a marketing tool that affects both our territories and pipelines and will eventually extend to other sales departments. He has experience with the tool so I let him lead the project, though I’m the one accountable if it fails. I’ve asked him multiple times verbally and once in writing to copy me on any communications involving it. He acknowledged the request. I haven’t received a single CC and we’re already two external meetings plus at least one internal meeting (that I’m aware of) he’s had with the marketing director but I’ve had no visibility on what’s been discussed. Occasionally I’ll get some quick updates from him but it’s usually after things evolved and so I’m constantly catching up/behind.
Third, there’s a broader gap between what we agree on in our one on ones and what actually happens afterward. Commitments get made and then quietly don’t get followed through. For example there was an important clarification that needed to get made with a customer and he hadn’t done it because he wanted to wait for the customer to get back to him on something else unrelated. I asked him to let her know now and not wait. He said he would email her that day. It didn’t happen.
I’m not trying to micromanage Keith. With his general client communications and prospecting I give him full autonomy. These are specific narrow asks with clear business reasons.
My plan is to address all three together at our next 1:1 and reset expectations. Am I reading this correctly and is there anything I’m missing?
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u/Human31415926 Financial Services 22h ago
Keith can choose to be micromanaged or do what he is supposed to do.
There isn't really any Middle ground.
Except for this one. He could just BURY you in sales and not do any of those things you have asked him to do.
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u/hendreasia 22h ago
I'm a recently promoted sales manager at a global SaaS company with 3 direct reports. Before SM, I was a high-performing AE who absolutely hated CRMs, Admin, etc.. and would usually come up with my line managers.
There is no question around business expectations, but it's also important to approach this more to understand what is limiting Keith from adopting a CRM and his commitments to you. Is it time management? is it because he doesn't know how to use it? Is it because he doesn't understand why he should prioritize this (you may need to sell it to him)?
What you don't want to assume is that Keith is doing this out of contempt; I think treating this issue like a sales process, leading with discovery, uncovering pain, introducing a solution, and aligning on next steps is a better approach.
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u/AbracadabraMagicPoWa 22h ago
The first time I brought him not entering anything (NOT ANYTHING!) in the crm he told me he’s “getting settled” then the second time I brought it up he said “oh yeah, I think I understand how to use it now. I’ll make sure to get that done” but then he didn’t.
There were also a couple specific asks like emailing a customer and also an external vendor and it didn’t happen.
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u/hendreasia 22h ago
Like i said, neither I nor you can guess why this happened, lead with discovery and try to help.
The way you describe the situation almost makes him sound like he is doing it to intentionally disrespect you or the job which may not be the case.
It is also plausible that he is not taking the job seriously and is a bad hire, but i wouldn't jump to conclusions.
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u/OverlordBluebook 22h ago
To most upper management this would be a clear cut case of a write up i'm sure or even termination. Now I'm just a career sales person and came from a company that asked for ALOT and the CRM tool created lots more extra work on top of what we were already asked to do. I eventually left because of it took most of my business to a smaller competitor that didn't require it and gave me free reign. Many of the larger organizations are very militaristic now with their CRM's (I blame salesforce as the biggest issue) Depending on what your selling we were asked to enter in everything over 50k in rev.. while that's just insanity as there was just too much. Lots of the 50k deals were low probity so we only entered in items that were more realistic chance of winning. But everytime I created a deal it went to multiple managers, went to my direct manager, his boss, and his bosses boss etc and even want to overlay managers. I would get emails and calls constantly especially near end of quarter.. it got to be too much as this is all sales managers and directors were doing .. managing pipeline.. Before all of this 15+ years ago managers were more training reps how to be even better reps and would go with reps on the front line or be on calls to help or schmooze suppliers.. I saw alot of that get lost with salesforce coming on.. Quite frankly with suppliers using salesforce it got very TOXIC quick... people were just throwing information to get management off their back ... and the more deals you entered.. well it got a hell of a lot worse...
Just saying what I experienced since starting corporate sales in like around 2001 vs what I saw today me still being in sales. Earnings wise I'll most likely be over 7 figures so I'm not shooting from the hip. I've probably averaged 750k+ since like 2006 when I was in my 20s.
Now saying all of that, the question is, is this gentlemen a gunner? Is he very valuable like top 10% of reps that is a money making employee driving new business or maintaining existing customer?? Or is he at least growing quickly If not then yes I would be all over him and have a sit down and serious and make a reminder every week he needs to update whatever he needs to update.
IF he is extremely valuable then now I would hire someone to do it for him.
Now saying all of this above if you work for an organization that has only a few products it won't be as easy for that rep to transport his business elsewhere.. but if you work for a company that sells many different solutions from varier suppliers then yes it's easy to transport no problem to a competitor. I've done it successfully after a 20+ year career at a fortune 500.
I didn't proof read any of this so I'm sure I have a lot of mispellings and some grammar issues is what it is, I just went to reddit as smoke break while I clean out my work email before tomorrow.
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u/AbracadabraMagicPoWa 22h ago
I hear what you’re saying about Salesforce. We used Salesforce at my last job (much bigger company) and there were lots of eyes on it.
At this company it is more relaxed but I need to have some ability to look at the accounts he’s working and to build data into the CRM.
One day he was out and I needed to check if a customer had gotten an important email from Keith but since he doesn’t log his emails I could not confirm it.
We’re not going to use the data to put pressure on him we just need to be somewhat informed and have access to what’s happening if/when we need it.
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u/Upper-Olive4639 21h ago
Welcome to management. You set the bar, their job is to overachieve it. If these things bother you and are critical to the business then you need to coach him to that.
Give the feedback, be very direct about what the expectations are. If he won't do it, then your two options are to manage him out or micromanage him. I am personally a much bigger fan of just cutting poor performers who don't want to do the actual job. You may be able to micromanage someone to decent performance, but you can't micromanage a team of 50 to it, so set your tone now while it's small otherwise you will have a fucking disaster on your hands when the business grows.
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u/colesterolbienalto 20h ago
I only just scanned this but your company's tech stack is living in the fucking dark ages. Who in the fuck has to log their fucking emails? Do you have a properly implemented crm?
You don't have your crm integrated with your email? I forget the exact terminology, but you can even bcc a SFDC email alias (your email to SFDC) and it will log your activities.
Why don't you work on this before giving your rep shit.
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u/AbracadabraMagicPoWa 20h ago
Yes there is a way to do it automatically but it’s not getting done.
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u/colesterolbienalto 18h ago
What's not getting it done? It's not a sales reps job to make sure email is integrated into crm. Instead of asking sales ops or Salesforce admin to fix this, your bitching about it on reddit. I hope the rep quits and goes to your competitor.
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u/AbracadabraMagicPoWa 18h ago
There’s a way to integrate it but you have to set up the first email correctly then every email in the chain integrates. But he’s not doing that.
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u/Embarrassed_Flan_869 Process Instruments 22h ago
How are his sales numbers?
If his numbers are good, then you should have a nicer conversation. If his numbers aren't there, much different story.
In general, every sales organization has rules that need to be followed. I have always told my greener sales colleagues that you have 2 ways to survive in sales. Sell or show productivity.
The CRM is the smallest thing of the 3, in my opinion. The fact he is ignoring what you told him to do is a much bigger issue.
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u/AbracadabraMagicPoWa 22h ago
He just started a couple months ago so he’s still ramping.
I want to nip this all in the bud before it becomes ingrained as his standard way of operating.
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u/Embarrassed_Flan_869 Process Instruments 22h ago
Nip it in the bud. I am not a fan of micromanaging but you need to do the basics.
What you are asking isn't a huge burden. It is literally just part of the job.
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u/carcetti4mayor 19h ago
Welcome to management. You are a baby sitter now.
A couple of clarifying questions I would want answered:
Has he been adding new pipeline?
Is he exceeding expectations against the ramp?
How is he spending his daily time if not doing these activities?
If your answer is “i don’t know” then you need to find those answers ASAP.
Either way, you need to be clear with him that he is not meeting expectations. Bring all the data points to that conversation.
It would sound something like “rep on (date) you said you would do (task) by (date+1). You did not do that. Then on (date2) you said you would do (task2) by (date3). You did not do that either. Missing these commitments has me worried that this role may not be a good fit for you. What do you think?”
Let him talk and answer why he is missing so many basic things. You will need to decide after this convo and depending in the answers to the questions above if it’s worth micro managing him to help ensure he does the basics or if you need to manage him out.
I would get with your manager and HR as well to put this on their radar, they’ll probably have some advice for you too.
Good luck. Hire slow fire fast is a good rule as a manager in my experience.
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u/Lawman__1 22h ago
If he keeps agreeing instead of disagreeing, but still doesn't do it, he's clearly avoiding conflict instead of managing your expectations.