Magnus Marketing Blog

I can't understand the managerial decisions of some companies. A former employer of mine who shall remain un-named fired its Sales Director in November 2006. An affable guy who failed to make the numbers (which was not his fault entirely). His buddy, a Sales Rep, was stationed in India, barely spoke clearly enough for anyone to understand, plus I can't tell you the number of prospects who were so put off by his pushy, illknowledgeable, manner! The company tends to use a very technical positioning geared toward the direct end-user (who has limited budget and needs approval from at least 2 or 3 people to buy). Their software, while great for what it does, evolved with a multiplicity of customer feedback and became so over-engineered, it is too complex for most users needs. The market consists of a limited number of very specialized users who tend to use multiple software products to address daily operational challenges. In terms of marketing, they have limited user forums, attend a couple technical tradeshows, do no advertising, thought-leadership, or branding. They believe that word-of-mouth will promote sales alone. A competitor to this company who has local presence, a clean layperson communication style, and simple software owns 2/3 of the marketshare.

So, they fired the Sales Director and his buddy. One month later, they bring in a VP of Sales who is industry knowledgeable. This guy was the ONLY candidate they interviewed. Guy joins the company in December, proceeds to take a few days off here/there to do shopping, clean up things, etc. He proceeds to trash the prior Director and his buddy blaming everything that is wrong on them. He then puts in some sales processes. Around January 15, we are notified that said VP is changing his status to 1099 and will be working with another company as an employee assisting us with oversight and processes. He proceeds to conduct phone calls, meetings, and spend some time with us at our company while on the payroll of the other company - an unethical practice known as "double-dipping". Said VP goes 1099 and is in and out. He also begins to horribly micromanage me - even telling me (the only person in the company's history to get callbacks from net-new suspects) how to make a phone call! After he nitpicks on a quote and rudely hauls off on me for leaving the ".com" off an email address (which was simply covered by another column in Excel) and more micromanagement, I decided it was time to leave.

I proceed to tell the CEO that this is not an ideal situation for anyone. A 1099 VP is crazy! Not only is there a lack of commitment to the organization, the practices were unethical, plus the micromanagement would drive away the best employees. I suggested that he bring a Sales Director over from another office to help build the team while he searched for a new Director/VP. And, find someone more experienced who had run a division and built a team. The VP hired a salesguy who later quit in disgust because of abusive behavior, account misappropriation, and micromanagement. It is unlikely that any type of high performing team will result from this situation. In April, the VP of Sales rejoined the company full-time (again), clearly his other employment situation didn't work out.

Net of it is:
1. No VP of Sales or VP conducts himself in that manner. Any manager is supposed to work with the team to reach goals and empower them. This guy clearly is NOT a VP or, for that fact, a manager. Lesson: Don't confer titles or go by titles, make sure a candidate really is a VP (strategic, capable of managing a team, and driving).
2. The CEO needs to be more strategic in hiring practices. Lessons: 1) Take your time hiring, especially for critical positions, 2) A bad manager can ruin the entire team or suppress performance, 3) listen to employees feedback. The micromanagement and abusive language isn't going to stop. Two good people left and will not associate with that firm ever again.
3. The CEO is also advocating some odd things. The unethical behavior, the lack of commitment, trash-talking, and unprofessional behavior is inexcusable. Does this give insight into the advocated practices of the company? They will deal with clients unethically or trash-talk clients? That is the message being sent.

The CEO told me he had no choice, that he had to rely on this guy. That is a cop-out. Hiring for a quick fill or to keep the numbers up, is a short term solution that will only bring long term destruction. Lesson: Don't settle!