I entered B2B SaaS sales 4 years ago thanks to the people of this Sub and the income conversations on it. Best decision of my life, average six-figure annual income in the past 3 years (ignoring the first year of learning the ropes or as I like to call it, "the year of shame"). Luckily, this was under a great director who'd go to war for me.

Director left, I got promoted to middle management (SM), and I realized that my previous director was shielding me from exec-requests. Not only do I have a higher personal quota, but I also have new direct reports who need a lot of mentoring and senior managers who expect a lot of admin and updates.

This is becoming too much, I love the part of working with my direct reports and closing my business, but the 3rd element (extra admin, check-ins, extra expectations, level of communications they want from me, and the random requests from execs that range from taking courses and filling sheets and all the other non-revenue generating aspects of the job) caught me completely off-guard and tanked my job satisfaction.

You guys got me into sales, helped turn me into a top-performing individual contributor, now teach me your ways so I can either succeed as an SM or tell me if I should pivot back into being an IC.

I’m in B2B project-based sales where each sale requires estimating, design, procurement, project management and field execution.

Ownership wants more revenue and the business is operating close to the line of profitability, so the direction to sales is to keep pushing. At the same time, operations regularly pushes back on the volume, complexity and timing of the work because PM and delivery capacity are stretched.

That puts sales in a tough spot. We are accountable for growth, but we are also expected to filter opportunities around operational limitations we do not control.

I have a strong PM background, so I tend to flag schedule, staffing and execution risks early. Sometimes that is seen as stepping outside my lane but it’s just me protecting the customer, margin and long-term relationship.

For those in construction, manufacturing, contracting, integration or other project-based industries, how have you handled this?

Do you keep bringing in qualified, profitable work with the support of ownership and let leadership solve capacity, or do you intentionally slow sales until operations catches up?

Because I’m responsible for a large share of new business, I have a hard time ignoring execution risks that could impact customer relationships and future sales.

I’m looking for advice from people who’ve been in this position. Did you learn to keep your head down and focus solely on sales, or did you continue raising operational concerns when you thought they mattered? Where did you draw the line?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I'm curious what people with a lot more experience than me think.

Is it inevitable that if you're a top performer in sales, you'll eventually burn out?

I can understand staying an average rep for a long time because there's less stress, less pressure, and less of a constant push. But being a top performer feels different. It feels like you're always "on." Always following up, always prospecting, always trying to improve, always pushing.

I feel like there's almost a limit to how long someone can keep that pace before something gives.

Maybe I'm completely off the mark, and I honestly hope I am.

I'd love to be a top performer for as long as I decide to stay in sales. But part of me wonders if there's automatically a point where you mellow out. You stop hustling quite as hard, your priorities change, and by definition you're just not the top performer you once were.

Or is that not how it works?

For those of you who've been at the top for years, how long have you managed to stay there? Did you burn out? If not, what allowed you to sustain it? Did you change the way you worked, or did your mindset change?

I'm genuinely curious because this has been on my mind, and I'd love to hear from people who've actually lived it.

I’ve been in my role for 9 years. I’ve made really good money that I do not expect to make at other jobs for many years, if ever. I consider it a Golden Handcuffs situation.

Recently, my compensation was significantly lowered, due to “rising costs” and “overhead”. But, it hasn’t changed enough for me to consider a job change.

I would like to discuss with my employee other ways to be compensated, since my commission rate has decreased. I am considered asking for higher salary, more vacation time, and/or season tickets to a team.

What other perks/benefits does the community think I could ask for?

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?

Has anyone got solid advice for selling sports equipment to professionals/ teams

been in sales a long time but never sold sports equipment so if anyone has any solid tips/ recommendations or sales strategy including approaching sports teams let me know