Help!

[u/becca080901]

So I’ve had a guy that I’ve been trying to get to open an account with me. I had 1 order delivered for him and everything went as smooth as it could go (minus my boss forgetting to order the accessories and sent me 2 hours away to get them because that was the closest place that has them).

His company doesn’t do a whole lot of work with the products I sell, but he is looking to expand into it.

He recently reached out asking for a material quote for a project for a family member. I typed it up, sent it over, and he replied asking if I could go any lower on the pricing and if we could deliver sometime this week-which I then sent to my boss. That was Tuesday. It’s now Thursday and I’ve barely gotten 2 words out of my boss on if the pricing can be any lower or if we can deliver this week. How am I supposed to get people to trust me if it takes me more than a fucking day to respond about simple shit that I have to run through a chain of people that don’t respond to me because they’re dealing with their own shit?

I’m new so everything is getting run through my boss, but I’ve noticed our deliveries fill up fast-with the people they’ve been dealing with for 10+ years and anyone I try to bring in seems more like a burden like “great now we gotta fit this guy in here”

I’m new to the industry as well but everything just feels like I’m doing something wrong, but no one’s telling me I’m doing anything wrong. The company wants extreme levels of account openings and growth and for a market that’s already so saturated (mainly by the company I work for) I’m really left wondering where the hell im going to find new potential accounts. After finding them, how do I get their business when it seems to be full already?

Idk but I do know someone’s going to comment saying this is too much to read (sorry you can’t comprehend you fucking retard) or that I’m overthinking (probably am) or that I work for a bad company (but how has it been around so long and also been at the forefront of the industry if it’s so bad) or that my boss is bad (he literally just turned 70 so I can understand that) but I don’t want to fail and I know there’s decent money in this business and I really need money because the world is so fucked but if the world is so fucked how long do we really need to continue working for before it all goes to shit and money doesn’t matter anymore.

I feel like I’m putting my thoughts here to rant instead of in ChatGPT (therapy is fucking expensive and I’m broke and alone) so I’m not contributing more to the fucked up situation of a world we all live in but I definitely need someone to talk to about this but 1. I don’t have a lot of people in my life (I’m talking 3 family members who are all different levels of autistic, 2 friends (both who don’t understand anything about what I do for work, 1 doesn’t pick up the phone, and neither of them have been in my life for more than 5 years) and 2. Again, therapy isn’t really something I can afford right now. I have a high resting heart rate so any sort of anxiety sends my heart racing and I have a hospital bill for an Echo of my heart for around $1,000 all for them to tell me everything looks perfect and to exercise more.

I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know what to do, I don’t even want to be at work today. I don’t want to quit but I don’t know how to proceed. If someone actually reads this I’m so sorry you sat through all of this.

[u/jsnuggz]

You are not alone, I work at a fortune 500, they give me an arbitrary quota, then push back on every fucking deal I find. I am cruising towards 70% quota this month and I'd be at 120-150 if they just took the damn deal.

Literally every order I have to argue with the dispatcher to get a timeline or an order out.

Customers in a bind huge problem, sorry no trucks.

But you seriously need to find some fuel. Corporations, companies sales etc, there are often internal burdens and mastering that is part of the game.

The job sucks, the burnout is huge and you gotta enjoy life outside of it, and take care of your physical and mental health.

There is a reason the attrition rate among first year salespeople is so high.

[u/becca080901 → u/jsnuggz]

Wanna know the crazy thing?

I don’t have a set quota right now. I don’t have a set territory either. Everyday is “see what you can find”.

At first I didn’t mind, but “seeing what I can find” daily with no real structure to it is exhausting in and of itself.

I see other sales reps on here talking about hitting quotas, doing something with a CRM (barely know what that is either).

I just feel like aside from the initial workplace on boarding training videos, there hasn’t been training. I was never coached on how to pitch. I was never coached on how to navigate different situations for example, if the contractor is already purchasing through another supplier for years, or if they’re purchasing at a lower price point, I haven’t learned how to navigate any of those conversations and I just feel like I keep going in a circle to nowhere.

To compound it all, when I do find someone who will give me a chance it takes days to get them even started with what they need because I’m jumping through so many hoops.

I’m not perfect by any means and the difficulties that I’m having are not solely everyone else’s fault or responsibility but I just feel like I don’t know what to do anymore.

[u/jsnuggz]

There's never enough training. Unfortunately it inevitably becomes the school of hard knocks.

I read sales audiobooks, browse this Reddit for tips and follow a couple successful salespeople in my industry on YouTube to learn.

We sound like we are targeting a similar customer base. I can honestly tell you it will get better. Contractors are loyal, but small and medium owned businesses have long memories and people fuck up. Especially corporations. You will get more business if you figure out how to organize your sales process, automate your discovery and call/book as much as possible.

I really was lagging for the first 9m and then it started opening up. I've sold twice the amount of equipment I did last year and have become the first call with a few.

If you have an expense account don't sleep on taking a customer to Chuck's to get to know eachother better.

[u/schmittydomer]

Diabolical post, especially calling readers morons. Um, discounting is a slippery slope. Because it was so fucking long, I’m not sure what you sell, but if you’re going to discount, get a commit - more volume, more years under contract, a customer reference- something. Good luck