Help! My Boss is an Idiot!

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  mkreppein06/23/08 Report as spam
  1

  Idiot Sales Managers everywhere

  Geoffrey,
  
  Great letters about sales managers killing their teams. I had two readers of my blog send me emails about what their bosses did. Definitely Dilbert pointy-hair boss moments of shame.
  
  One was an email that killed morale....and potentially a sales rep's career.
  
  http://inquisix.com/blog/2008/05/17/morale-killer-or-career-limiting-move/
  
  The other was an email from a prospect blaming the sales rep's manager for losing the deal.
  
  http://inquisix.com/blog/2008/06/19/we-are-not-moving-forward-with-your-company/

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  renovicelli06/23/08 Report as spam
  2

  RE: Help! My Boss is an Idiot!

  Okay -try to top this for boss's ludicrous actions...
  My boss (VP) calls me and questions where a rep was sleeping. Based on his calendar he wanted to know if he was sleeping at home and going out early or grabbing a hotel the night before. I mistakenly told him I believe he is sleeping at home. Good he tells me and then asks me not ride with the rep and meet a product manager at corporate. I thought something was odd but I had no idea- I called the rep and said I am heading into corporate-joking with them, "You???re off the hook". The VP actually sat outside the person's house and waited for them to walk out to their car. At which point he told the rep it was nice to see them and he would be riding with them instead of me. This was his idea of motivating a sales force who was having a tough time keeping reps due to the micro-management style required by the "board". The rep resigned and went on to open own business.

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  tjakubow06/24/08 Report as spam
  3

  RE: Help! My Boss is an Idiot!

  I was one of those sales managers who felt very comfortable discussing my sales reps successes with others in the company. When times got tough and my reps were still doing well, however, I found that the other managers were luring my people away with higher basepay and opportunities to sell into more prestigous accounts.
  
  It really got bad when I asked that the annual performance appraisal process be modified such that ranking among peers was calculated over the entire sales group instead of small groups headed by regional sales managers. When four of your five reps are doing so well that they are in the top 10 of the company, it's insulting and demotivating to be ranked 4th or 5th among 5 peers. My 5th out of 5 sales rep had performance ranking her 9th out of 100 total sales reps. My people became very attractive to other managers.
  
  So for 18 months I had a virtual revolving door of people, until finally I was downsized out of the company for poor performance when Rolf the Butcher took over.
  
  Go figure.
  
  TJ

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  mspdtx06/26/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Help! My Boss is an Idiot!

  All sales managers are idiots...right? They aren't in the trenches and typically follow 'old-school' ways of selling. Sales is an every evolving process and those who adapt will remain successful.
  
  So when you sales managers asks: how many calls? how many follow-ups? how many proposals? how many leads? tell him...if you want that information, invest in a decent CRM. Otherwise...you are wasting 50% of my time.

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  Melpo06/27/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Help! My Boss is an Idiot!

  I started a Blog at the beginning of the year intending to focus on marketing advice. However, what I found myself doing is offering a lot of career advice, especially for how to deal with difficult bosses. It is, as you say, as certain as death or taxes.
  
  For the individual whose firm brought in MBAs that don't know anything, I wouldn't keep my hopes up. I have worked with many people who are proud of their loyalty to the company and crow about how they've been there for 15 years. What they really don't understand is that they have established their identity within the company. Even with an MBA, the executives just don't seen them as leadership material.
  
  They should be getting their things in order - great resume, LinkedIn profiles and connections, as much additional training as they can afford or the company is willing to pay for, and make themselves available to new opportunities.
  
  My blog is http://www.themarketingsurvivalist.blogspot.com. I really love BNET articles and I find myself referencing and linking back to them fairly frequently.
  
  Melissa