Then things started getting very corporate. Pay plans were revised over and over, to the detriment of the sales person, to satisfy Wall Street. The CEOs goal is to build up the stock price and sell out of the business like he always does.
My branch leadership was garbage. Great ideas were brought forth and passed up the chain of command as their own ideas. Many promises made that were not kept. Promotions dangled through some sort of trial period, and even after success, never materialized. Certain reps were given all the leeway and help in the world while others were left to make it on their own. Then there were the personal attacks. The manager liked to give everybody a hard time, even to the point of being illegal, for his own amusement - very unprofessional. However, he couldn't take it in return and would get mad about it. When the office eventually turned against him, it was everyone else's fault. Same story as his management positions at other companies.
They figured out they could fire sales people that cultivated good business and give their accounts to the lower paid "Key Account Managers" - paying them about 1/4 the commission. Or, just fire people and distribute their accounts to management's favorite sales people.
Anytime a new acquisition was done (every 3-6 months), there was a good chance you would lose business you earned because XPO is new, some of the acquisitions have been around for decades, and whoever has the deeper relationship keeps the business. It didn't matter how long or hard you worked to earn the business you would be left with nothing to show for it. Then they would act surprised that your business wasn't growing and punish you for it.
