I believe many of the challenges I experienced were specific to my region but were significant enough for me to make a change. The BI/Analytics market is extremely competitive, with many solid vendors and solutions. Marketing at this company was not that effective for generating new account prospects. In addition to this, the process for evaluating the product was not in line with expectations of the market and did not come close to comparing to evaluation offerings of competition. A simple trial was a huge pain, and this created many missed opportunities...
Most people hitting their numbers were selling to existing customers. Selling to new accounts is always difficult in IT but my management's expectations was not consistent with the realities of rebuilding a territory. Reps who needed to generate new accounts to achieve quota were held to the same pipeline building metrics as reps with existing accounts (number of new opps/week, meetings/week, etc.). A steady flow of critical emails and messaging emphasizing our failures in hitting activity metrics, lecturing on "accountability," subtle threats, and a heavy dose of micromanagement was one of management's answers to the region's challenges. Constant inspection and reviews was the norm. Building a territory is very taxing and realistically takes 18-24 months in this business. The journey along the way can, and should be fun and fulfilling. For me, the micromanagement and constant criticism was not in the least helpful and by no means enriching the experience.
