Sales targets are always high and keep increasing every year. Quotas go up even when many team members haven’t met their goals. This puts a lot of pressure on everyone and doesn’t always match the market, the maturity of a territory, or what kind of growth is realistic for certain accounts. Territories change every year, so clients often get new Account Executives several times during their term, which can cause a loss of traction and momentum.
Because of this, your results can feel like they depend more on how your territory is set up than on your own work. If you get a good patch with strong, growing accounts, it’s much easier to succeed. But if you get a tougher patch with less momentum or an uncertain pipeline, you still have to hit the same targets as those with better territories.
This leads to an uneven playing field. People in tough territories face the same pressure and risk performance reviews if they miss targets, even when their territory makes success unlikely. This can make the job feel risky instead of stable.
Leaders often get involved in deals without fully agreeing on the strategy first. When executives step in, they can override the usual sales process, disrupt relationships, and sometimes even cause late-stage deals to fall apart. When things go wrong, the blame usually falls on the salesperson instead of the decisions that led to the problem.
The division between workforce and customer identity parts of the business has caused some internal friction. Account Executives sometimes end up competing with each other. This competition for revenue within the same company creates tension and makes it harder to work together. Instead of a unified approach, things can feel split up, which hurts morale and trust.
Expectations around flexibility have changed over time. Some employees start with office-based contracts that seem to support remote work, but over time, they are asked to come in more often. This can be tough for people who live farther away. Also, much of the time spent in the office goes to administrative tasks that the business requires, but these tasks are not always reviewed or linked to results. This takes away from time spent selling and can make it harder to maintain a good work-life balance, especially for those with sales targets.
