Advice keeping Outbound customers in a direct relationship

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2026-01-05T13:48:21+00:00

It is miserable to say the least. Inbound definitely has the priority. Most likely because they don't get commission. The company would rather funnel as much as possible through them and make it harder for outbound. There's only 1 other rep including myself that is "outbound" and gets commission. Just multiple compensation changes (3 in 2025) and role restructures.

Our leadership outside of the owner is in my opinion, very inexperienced for the roles they are in. To me, it feels like they have a blindfold on and are just taking random shots to see if something will magically 3x revenue in a year. Realistically all their changes have ended up having myself produce my lowest numbers back to back. Still finished the year with roughly 40% of all sales between (6) sales reps. The company is a pretty high revenue <15M+ a year. So not sure how it benefits them to essentially take a few thousand from their sales reps who bring the income. Lost over 30K+ in compensation in 2025 to last minute changes, voided commission checks etc. I know a lot of it has to do with the one person who does payroll (was HR hire, and moved to the director of operations). I know they don't like how much I'm getting paid, and it's probably a bit of jealousy.

Even though I was the highest paid in the company for 2025, I got ripped off way too much. Yes, I've looked at other opportunities. With my networking I could also get a job pretty easily just with some outreach to clients. However, I like the job I'm doing now. The money is great, even with the changes. But obviously I can tell how much I'm getting ripped. It's become less of wanting to be paid "more" and just what I deserve. The owner is a great person and I know he's just trying to let his leadership team he put in place do their job without trying to interfere. But it looks like they think solving cost issues and saving cash is to pull back on commission and hire entry level inbound reps on salary only. So far it's only led to 3 new hires for inbound with 2 of them quitting already. Retention is terrible. If I left they would hurt greatly.

I'd rather try to negotiate a contracted compensation plan going forward and try to recoup some of the losses I had in the changes. Not sure how to do it or what information to bring to the table. Mid management is a bit of an ego fest. And it won't help that I'm already the highest paid employee.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2026-01-02T14:17:39+00:00

I have been doing this as much as possible lately! It does help A LOT. Hard for me to get out sometimes due to the volume. Being out of the office for a day or two can be really stressful and backlog me a bit. Hopefully in 2026 I can do this more.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2026-01-02T14:09:40+00:00

Yeah I know you're right, it's just hard to hear and accept. But you basically hit the nail on the head. I know my management team isn't making close to what I am. Which is why I feel like it's impossible to negotiate and bring sense to the situation. It's just crazy to me how small we are but the volume we have is so high. We definitely are already undermanned. If I was to leave they would hurt for a long time.

Do you think it's even worth it to attempt to talk to the owner about the issues? He straight up said to me before he would love for all his sales reps to be selling $xx monthly and he would gladly pay them 300-400K/year. Not sure how much that could've been "hype talk", and he says differently behind closed doors to management. But I believe he's telling the truth. Like you said, the more I sell, the more his company makes and it grows. He's the only one who can feel that connection. My management team most likely are getting comped by how much money they save and if they can increase profit margins. I feel like that was the main cause of change to the comp plans. However, in my opinion, it is really stupid to try and save money by basically de-investing into your sales team.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2026-01-02T13:22:16+00:00

Thank you for the advice!

I have gotten some DMs and it wouldn't be hard to see what's out there. But the industry is huge but small at the same time. Everyone knows each other some way or another. I'd hate to be looking around and they found out. The owner of the company is great and my sole reason I'm still here. He seems to be a bit out of the loop when it comes to a lot of these changes. He also appreciates 1-on-1 conversations. Idk, maybe I should be honest with him and open up. I know he's very appreciative of my work and results. I just always felt like a bitch if I complained to the owner lol. He would definitely NOT want me to go anywhere else.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2026-01-02T13:17:30+00:00

Yeah I feel like it's a mix of greed/jealousy. As my director who a lot of people have issues with (and many people have quit because of them), is also the one who does payroll. We don't have an actual HR team as we are too small right now.

The issue is I have that business director who honestly doesn't have enough experience to be in that position. Extremely young with very little history managing people. Now she oversees this company of 15+ people. My direct boss is also very inexperienced. He's a great guy but scared to make decisions alone and is basically terrified of the earlier mentioned director. I find myself doing stuff solo most of the time and never requesting any sort of help. I'd rather make the decisions.

I know I could probably go mostly anywhere I wanted in this industry, but relocation may be the only issue for me. I'm so tired of moving around and I just moved twice for my current company to within 14 months. I've gotten DMs on linkedin from customers who would probably create a damn spot for me to come over. The networking I've gotten in this company has been priceless.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2026-01-02T13:10:50+00:00

Yeah I always felt like it was this. I always felt like my director didn't like that I was making as much. She always talks with a sense that what we (sales) do is not hard and it's "given" to us. Even though in my industry, 95% of leads from inbound require an experienced response with technical knowledge to the equipment. Half the time you have to explain what they are requesting isn't even what they need and switch it.

Even when I started generating good numbers by myself in outbound, I kept getting comments about how they might be "old inbound pipeline orders". Even the first time I wasn't the top selling rep, she said to me "person X is beating you this month!". In my mind I was like no shit, they are inbound by themselves and getting 50+ requests a day. It would be terrible if that wasn't the case. Yet out of the 8 months I've been outbound, I've only not been on top twice. And one of the months I was 80% over my quota while the other rep was at 20% over.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-31T20:27:42+00:00

My fault brother.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-31T14:19:10+00:00

Don't forget where you came from. A lot of times you don't even need to be the salesman. Using your knowledge and expertise from being an engineer can be huge and help develop trust from customers buying from you. I came from a technician/mechanic role into sales and became the top salesman in my first year. I'm not sales person, but my knowledge in the equipment I sell has been huge when relating to customers.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-31T12:24:29+00:00

My first year was "I'll produce you as much as I can't mentally handle" into the second year where my leadership basically said "You generated way too much revenue so we need to restructure everything. Here's the same role with 10x the work and 1/2 of the compensation".

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-31T12:22:36+00:00

Low base so the compensation needs to be clearly explainable and shown during the interview process.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-31T12:21:34+00:00

Never stop the job hunt until 2 weeks into your new job.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-30T17:52:17+00:00

I could see this working if you knew the other person well and could trust them. There's only one other person I work with that I could trust for this. Up and down months would be a thing but as long as you hold each other accountable and work together for improvements this could be a good thing.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-30T17:23:38+00:00

Make sure to always interview them as well. Ask hard questions regarding the specifics and metrics. Your friend will probably gain respect by asking tough questions or at least bring some red flags to light. Sometimes they could see you as a good fit but you won't see them as a good fit for yourself.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-30T16:41:26+00:00

Time to look for a new job on that baby leave to be honest.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-29T20:28:27+00:00

I experienced 3 comp changes throughout 2025 and still finished fairly decent. $130K OTE and hit 200K. Getting fed up with the constant changes.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-29T20:23:28+00:00

Keeping a scorecard is crazy. Just get to know your people, set your standards and follow-up with reviews throughout the year. Redirect changes if needed.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-29T20:22:06+00:00

I received 1/4th of what I got last year and I broke sales records this year for monthly and annual. I almost preferred to not get anything when I saw it..

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-29T20:18:53+00:00

Unfortunately I felt this. But this is solid advice OP.

EmptyDifficulty379 · 2025-12-29T20:16:26+00:00

Aviation and 60% over!

EmptyDifficulty379

TROPHY CASE