Areas of concern in building out the sales/marketing/bd planet:
1) There is no single line of sight for accountability. Examples include Morgan and Taya. Even when someone like Taya reports to me, Evan will go around what I am implementing and overrule me to Taya. The blog was case in point. I was trying to teach Taya about making decisions (not necessarily with going with her decision), and Evan smoked it. That prevents me from working with her down the road because she knows that I do not have authority. With Morgan, he works under Scott. So, my implementing programs to sell to existing clients doesn’t have accountability. You cannot serve two masters. This even shows up with Brett. Brett goes to Evan and to me. That creates confusion and lack of unity at the management level.
2) There is an element of control and fear. The oppressing spirit is evident. Scott Pugmire mentioned this when I met with him. Empowerment is the key.
3) Existing client sales has no clarity. It needs to fall under Scott or myself but not both.
4) When sales people are charged with selling, they must be compensated for all related items to the sale. Brett is finding this out as he investigates compensation outside EVS. I agree with his findings. The sale includes sw, maint and services. We should set targets/quotas and pay for that sale. This is being put under Scott to avoid paying commissions? Scott can still be held accountable to profitability in his area, but removing sales commissions from it is demotivating to people who sell. Also, we should not have people who do not know how to sell selling. There is no one in professional services who is a sales person. This will have lasting impact on how much EVS sells.
5) Since professional services are removed from the sales top line, it puts a pressure on profitability for the department. We must pay less in order to keep the dept profitable. I have never seen this before in any sales organization.
6) EVS is not a culture of sales.
7) Morgan is not a sales guy. He is the wrong person for inside sales. Brett is a much better fit for that position.
8) Brett has not shown sales aptitude. He learns and wants to learn, but he has little natural instinct for the job. This has shown up in his actual sales over the last two years (2 deals) and the ongoing issues when selling, especially in closing deals.
9) EVS needs to invest more in the long term of marketing.