Why you should never assume in sales

Published: Wed, 02/05/25

Updated: Sun, 02/09/25

February 5, 2025

TOGETHER WITH

Happy Wednesday, sales world, and welcome back to The Quota. February is in full swing, and the deals, excuses, and poorly-managed stress are flying back and forth the way they should. In this week’s issue, we’ll interview a VP of sales in the GovTech sector, share a Sales Fail about assuming too much, and give some advice to a rep who feels like they’re being fake. Let’s do this.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

2,080

The average sales rep has 2,080 hours per year to sell.

Source: Spekit

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

A scheming saleswoman from the UK blackmailed her wealthy married former boss by threatening to tell his wife about their affair. Faye Main, 28, demanded thousands from her ex-lover, warning she would disclose their five-month relationship unless he met her pay-out deadline. She kept hold of private messages and explicit photos of the businessman three years after their affair, saying she would 'have a chat' with his wife if he did not hand over £7,000. You can read more about it here.
Automakers are announcing a flurry of more affordable cars as sub-$30k sales surge. Ford, Mini, Mitsubishi, and Ram all told dealers that they aim to launch more affordable vehicles soon, as reported by Automotive News. Ford said it would increase production of the F-150 STX—the second least expensive trim—and Mitsubishi is planning a more affordable version of the Outlander Sport. The move follows a successful 2024 for low-priced cars, such as the Nissan Sentra, which saw a 40 percent rise to 152,659 units. You can read more about it here.

FEATURE

Rachel Alexander

An Interview with Rachel Alexander, VP of Sales at Polimorphic

Rachel Alexander is a seasoned sales leader with a career spanning the entire client-facing side of organizations. She excels at driving revenue growth, building high-performing teams, establishing systems to scale high growth organizations, and cultivating lasting and trusting client relationships. Her success in the GovTech sector is a testament to her passion for serving public servants and those who work for her.

Rachel splits most of her time between Boston and San Francisco with her daughter and son. She longs to spend more of her time hiking, running, exploring different cities, and reading. Read the full interview here.

You’ve been a sales leader for over 5 years now. How did you know leadership was right for you? Do you ever miss being an individual contributor?

I didn’t know if leadership was right for me. I was offered the opportunity to try it and I’ve never looked back. It’s not for everyone, but it suits me well.

Yes, I miss being an individual contributor. I enjoy the connections made with customers and the simplicity of what I believe is the ultimate job of a salesperson: to swiftly usher a prospect to the yes or a no decision that is best for them.

But as an individual contributor, I missed having a more strategic role - one in which I could help set company direction and put the pieces in place to drive the company’s success.

I find the sales leader role very fulfilling. I still get to be involved in some sales cycles and I get some (limited) direct exposure to our customers. I also get to work with sales reps to problem solve how to pitch our product and structure a deal most effectively. While I miss the personal satisfaction that comes with closing my own deals, I have the opportunity to build a team with a shared goal, the fulfillment of helping to build a company, and the challenge of converting company goals into executed initiatives.

You now run a team that sells tech to governments. What is the industry like? What are the biggest challenges? What are the upsides?

I love selling to governments. Public servants and governments often have an unearned reputation for being slow, bureaucratic, and indifferent. Of course that is sometimes true but I find it rare. I find public servants to be creative at solving challenges, deeply caring about their communities, and willing to put in a ton of sweat with very little appreciation.

When selling in the B2B world, ROI and profit are typically high on the list of reasons that customers buy. In government, that is less often the case. There are a myriad of reasons and ways that governments buy, so I think you have to be a better salesperson to be effective in the B2G world.

This is such a great time to be in B2G. Residents’ interest in their communities is on the rise, as are their expectations that the government will provide the kind of communication and service they’re used to getting in the private sector. As such, tax payers are willing for their governments to spend some money to have modern tools. This seems to have picked up especially in the post-COVID-pandemic world and as such, vendors are showing up building solutions for governments. It’s a very exciting time in this industry.

How do you motivate your reps to perform on a daily basis?

It’s about (1) understanding what drives each rep, (2) creating a job for them in which they can achieve their (and your) goals, and then (3) playing a support role on their team.

Sales is a tough job. Reps are the front men and women out there all by themselves representing their company in the market. Even the best reps get hit by rejection constantly. The job is near impossible when a rep doesn’t feel like their manager and company has their back. So I try hard to align on that. Most of us have had sales jobs without that alignment and it feels awful. I’ve been fortunate to have and learn from a couple exceptional managers that empowered me to meet the company’s goals, our customers’ goals, and my own goals as well.

I certainly have a responsibility to my CEO, the Board, and the stakeholders of my company, but my most important job is to support my reps. If I focus on that, and I have the right comp plan in place for my team, the rest will naturally fall into line.

Read the full interview

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Check it out

MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

Which automaker sells the most cars in the world?

A. Ford
B. Honda
C. Volkswagen
D. Toyota

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

I work at a high end jewelry store. One day, this guy came in by himself on a pretty slow day. He said he was looking for diamond earrings, but he was dodging questions when I tried to build rapport or ask who he was buying them for. I helped him find a really nice pair, and he looked at them for a few minutes and decided he would buy them. He made the decision so quickly and didn't flinch at the price, so I decided to try to upsell him on a necklace that was a matching set with the earrings. He wouldn't bite and said he just wanted the earrings.

I didn't think much of it until he came in about a month later with a beautiful woman. Neither of them were wearing wedding rings, but I assumed this was the girlfriend he had bought the earrings for. I greeted them both and asked the guy if he had changed his mind and wanted to buy the necklace to go with the earrings. The woman he was with wasn't really paying attention, but the guy looked at me right in the eyes with a look of fear and I immediately knew I made a mistake — this was a different woman than whoever he had bought the earrings for last time. I changed the subject quickly and started complimenting the woman on some of the pieces she was wearing. The guy ended up buying a pair of earrings for the woman and they both left happy. Luckily, I didn't cause any problems for the guy or lose my commission. Remember: never assume.

Anonymous Location withheld

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- February 2025

WORTH A PEEK

Are reps at Salesforce, the KING of sales tech, phoning it in? Jason Lemkin, founder of SaaStr, recently shared an email from a rep on Salesforce’s Slack team that was… well, not great. You can read the message and his suggested changes here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team,

I'm just finishing up my first year in sales after college. There was definitely a bit of a learning curve, but I'm feeling like I'm in a good groove now. I finished the year strong and hit my quota again in January. The way that I've found success is by putting on this fake character of myself when I'm on calls with prospects and even with my colleagues in the office. It's kind of been bothering me that I can't act like my true self, the way I act around friends and family, at work. It just feels really weird having to act like a completely different person (5 days a week) just to succeed in my job. It also feels a bit like I'm lying to people. Is this normal? Should I talk to my manager about how I feel?

Disingenuous in New Jersey

Dear Disingenuous,

This "bringing your whole self to work" idea is a relatively new concept and doesn't work in all professions, especially customer-facing roles like sales. A few decades ago, it was commonly expected that most working professionals would put on a more professional/formal personality at work.

You shouldn't be acting the same way with prospects as you do with family and friends. It's not lying, it's putting on your big boy pants to get the job done. If it works, keep doing it. If you can’t, then find another profession. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: D. Toyota sells the most cars of any automotive brand (you can read the source article here)

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Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

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