What if you can't stand your sales manager?

Published: Wed, 03/18/26

Updated: Fri, 03/20/26

March 4, 2026

Welcome back to The Quota. We’re barreling to the end of Q1, with one more week until we’re 25% of the way through the year. We won’t ask how you’re doing—that’s your sales manager’s job. But we will give you another star-studded (this isn’t true) issue, with the numbers, memes, and stories you’re used to. So sit back, take a sip of that coffee, and enjoy!

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

Complex enterprise sales cycles frequently exceed 12 months

Source: Landbase

SALES ROUNDUP

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

The Wall Street Journal recently profiled a former car salesman who’s built a multi-million-dollar business negotiating on behalf of car buyers. Tomi Mikula has 600k subscribers on TikTok, where he shares his negotiation calls with dealerships. His business has grown over the last several years as buyers are choosing to pay him $1,000 rather than deal with car salespeople themselves. Mikula runs his business from home and is becoming so recognized that some dealers are now refusing to take his calls. You can read the full profile here.
Criminal charges are currently under review against a Columbia, Missouri man who allegedly fired a shotgun at a door-to-door salesman Friday evening. No injuries are reported. The suspect, 69-year-old Mark Streeter, was allegedly intoxicated when he allegedly confronted the salesman with a shotgun. Streeter is accused of following the salesman down the driveway and discharging multiple rounds. He was arrested for unlawful use of a weapon and has since been released after posting bond. You can read more about it here.

FEATURE

How the Kirby Company changed the vacuum sales industry

In the early 1900s, vacuum cleaners were still a novelty. They were bulky, expensive machines that most people had never seen in person. Stores didn’t stock many of them, and advertisements alone couldn’t explain why someone should spend serious money on a machine meant to clean carpets.

So companies took a different approach. They sent salesmen directly to people’s homes.

One of the most successful companies to build its business this way was the Kirby Company, founded in Cleveland in 1914 by inventor James B. Kirby. Kirby designed durable vacuum cleaners made largely of metal, built to last for decades. They were powerful, versatile machines—but also expensive. A Kirby vacuum could cost several hundred dollars in an era when that represented a major household purchase.

Retail shelves weren’t the right environment for a product like that. Customers needed to see what the machine could actually do.

Door-to-door demonstrations became the solution. Salespeople would carry the heavy machines from house to house, knocking on doors and asking homeowners if they could show them a new cleaning system. If someone agreed, the demonstration began right there in the living room. The method was simple but incredibly effective.

First, the salesperson would vacuum a patch of carpet using the homeowner’s existing vacuum cleaner or sweep the area to show it was already clean. Then they would run the Kirby over the same section and attach a filter bag designed to catch extremely fine dust. When the bag filled with gray powder, the message was unmistakable: the carpet wasn’t nearly as clean as the homeowner thought.

For many people, this was the first time they had seen what was actually trapped inside their floors. The demonstration turned an abstract product into a visible problem—and a visible solution.

This kind of selling wasn’t unique to Kirby. During the early and mid-20th century, door-to-door sales became one of the most powerful distribution models in the United States. Products like encyclopedias, brushes, cookware, and vacuum cleaners spread across the country through traveling salespeople who built relationships with customers face-to-face.

But vacuums were especially suited to this method. A vacuum cleaner’s value was hard to communicate with words alone. Demonstration made the difference obvious within minutes. Once homeowners saw the amount of dust pulled from their carpets, many felt embarrassed about the condition of their homes. After that, the salesperson didn’t need a complicated pitch.

Another reason the system worked was geography. In the decades after World War II, suburban neighborhoods expanded rapidly across the United States. Rows of houses filled with young families created ideal territory for door-to-door sales. A determined salesperson could walk an entire street in an afternoon and potentially find multiple customers.

Companies like Kirby trained their salespeople to treat each home as a performance. Demonstrations could last an hour or longer. Reps showed attachments that cleaned upholstery, mattresses, drapes, and even polished floors. The goal was to position the machine as a long-term household investment rather than a simple appliance.

Many young salespeople were drawn to the job because a single successful sale could produce more income than several days of hourly work. That promise created a culture of persistence. Rejection was constant—most doors never opened—but experienced reps learned that success came from knocking on enough doors.

Over time, retail chains and appliance stores began to dominate the vacuum market. Door-to-door selling declined across many industries as shopping habits changed. But the model never fully disappeared.

The Kirby Company still sells vacuums today using in-home demonstrations, more than a century after the company was founded. The machines remain expensive and durable, and the company still believes the best way to sell them is to show them working inside someone’s home.

The strategy reflects a simple lesson that modern sales teams still use: people believe what they can see. For decades, a knock on the door and a strip of freshly vacuumed carpet were enough to prove the point.

MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- crushing_quota

QUIZ

Who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning play Death of a Salesman?

A. Grant Cardone
B. David Mamet
C. Tennessee Williams
D. Arthur Miller

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).

When I was managing an inside (B2B) sales team many years ago, one of my reps told me he’d landed a pretty solid meeting. Local company, decent budget, wanted to come into the office to talk through everything in person. He’d been working the deal for a couple weeks and seemed excited about it. The night before the meeting, we all went out for drinks. It wasn’t unusual. We’d hit a bar down the street pretty regularly. Supposed to be a quick one—I left pretty early.

Next morning, I get in around nine and the prospect shows up right on time. Nice guy, drove about forty minutes to get there. My rep… is nowhere to be found. I shoot him a text. No response. I call him. Straight to voicemail. At that point I realize I’m probably running this meeting alone. The problem was, I didn’t really know the deal. I had a vague idea what they were interested in, but the details — pricing, what had been promised, timeline — that was all stuff my rep had been handling.

So we sit down and start talking, and within about five minutes it’s obvious I’m piecing things together as I go. He’s asking things like, “So when we talked Tuesday your rep said onboarding would take about two weeks?” And I’m sitting there thinking… uhhh, did he say that? So I’m saying stuff like, “Yeah, that sounds about right,” or “We’d have to double check that.” Eventually the guy kind of leans back and goes, “Wait… are you the person I’ve been talking to?” I explained I was the manager and my rep couldn’t make it in that morning. He just nodded, said something like, “Got it,” and the whole energy in the room changed. He wrapped it up ten minutes later. We never closed the deal.

My rep texted me around noon: “Man I am so sorry. I think I’m still drunk.” I wrote him up but, ultimately, he was a closer so he kept his job.

Anonymous

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- March 2026

WORTH A PEEK

Which industries (and companies) are known for having the most soul-sucking sales jobs? A recent post on Reddit recently asked this question and received almost 300 responses, ranging from payroll sales, to a well-known company whose name starts with “S.” Check out the discussion 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’ve been in sales for about seven years and, overall, things are good. I like my company, the product is legit, and the money is the best I’ve ever made. If you looked at my situation from the outside, there’s really nothing to complain about.

The problem is I can’t stand my manager. The more I watch how he operates, the less I respect him. He’ll say one thing to leadership, another thing to the team. He’ll promise prospects things I know we can’t deliver just to get deals moving. He’ll throw people under the bus if it makes him look better. None of this is technically illegal or anything, but it’s the kind of behavior that makes you feel gross being around it all day.

The frustrating part is that I actually like my job otherwise. I don’t want to leave the company. But every week I find myself thinking, “Do I really want to keep working for this guy?” I’m curious how other people deal with this. Do you just ignore it and focus on your own results? Try to move teams? Or is working for someone you don’t respect just part of the job?

Conflicted in Location Withheld

----

Dear Conflicted,

Plenty of people in sales report to someone they wouldn’t choose to spend time with outside the office. The real question is whether his behavior is affecting your ability to do your job well.

If you’re still learning, closing deals, and building relationships without compromising your own standards, then treat him like weather: something you work around, not something you try to change.

If his behavior is forcing you to lie to customers, damaging your reputation, or making you dread the job every day, then start looking for a way out—either another team internally or another company. Careers are long. Your reputation is longer. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: D. Arthur Miller wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning play Death of a Salesman.

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Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik and Steve Rado.

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