stupid sales team

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by aushus, May 24, 2013.

  1. aushus

    aushus Kilobyte Poster

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    Hello Guys,

    This is a rant and I do not know how to go about dealing with this.

    So basically our company was kind of desperate for some work and our sales manager took on a client and said that we could implement a Checkpoint firewall implementation.

    Since I am the most experienced person in the team my manager handed it to me as my job is to do the big work. I had no checkpoint experience (I am a systems engineer person if it is servers or desktop no issue). My manager knew I had no checkpoint experience so did my sales manager. I tried my best like worked in weekends and more than my 40 hours but I was chucked into the deep end without support or anything and the project didn't go well and the client was not happy and they told my sales manager that I didn't know what i was doing (which is true I never touched a checkpoint fw in my life! only had some experience with 3com network switches).

    After this my sales manager has being making fun of me and stuff and said that the reason why the whole project went south was my fault.

    Is it? My manager said it is ok he knew the situation
     
  2. ade1982

    ade1982 Megabyte Poster

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    Person to go to here is the HR / Personnel Manager. Follow the grievance procedure, and if the sales manager is making fun of you, then that is bullying.
     
  3. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    sounds like my old job, I gotta outta dodge pretty quick as I didn't want any of that baggage in my career, I would suggest you might do well to do the same.
     
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  4. aushus

    aushus Kilobyte Poster

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    what do you mean by that? could this ruine my career?
     
  5. RichyV

    RichyV Megabyte Poster

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    These things happen, and always due to incompetent management.

    I remember once that I was 'blamed' for losing quite a big client... As the most senior engineer, I was sent out to them to try to find out the exact details of all of their grievances, and what it would take to keep them on-board as they had put much time and effort into integrating our system in their business that they didn't really want to leave but it was getting to the point that 'jumping ship' was a distinct possibility.

    I solved all problems on-site that were possible and brought back all the info that was needed for our developers to make the necessary changes.
    These, of course, never appeared. And, when they sent in their 3-month severance notification sometime later, I got the blame for it as I was the last to speak to them!

    Luckily, I had been there for a decade by then and had seen it all before - but it was still quite a shock when it first happened.
     
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  6. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    That is not your fault. You should of been sent at least on training and given time to learn the product, etc. If he is making fun of you, then I would seriously head to HR and have a serious talk. Also, if this kind of attitude towards you can't be fixed, I'd be looking else where. I've also been blamed and threatened with my job in the past for something that had nothing to do with me, in fact I was the one to help fix the situation, yet the blame always has to go somewhere, that time it fell on me. A month later, I left for a better opportunity.

    These kinds of situations should be addressed by management, should not be falling on you, or they should of contracted someone with experience for the implementation.
     
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  7. BigG

    BigG Nibble Poster

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    Hi Aushus
    probably not the best advise I've given on here, but what I'd do is this.

    Ask him how much money he lost in commission by losing the contract. Laugh out loud when you here the answer. Then call him a stupid c**t. Ask him how many other clients he has lied to, ask if they are going to pull the plug on their contract too? Remind him that a salesman at a job interview explaining why the "last company he worked at when bust through lack of sales" is about as likely to get a new job as Sir Jimmy Savile would have at a Junior school :)

    In short what i'm saying is, salesmen are notoriously cocky b'stards and "don't like it up 'em" - fight fire with fire. Call him out in front of his peers, stand your ground - you weren't at fault.

    My experience of HR in these matters is that your complaint will end up in a lot of paperwork and meetings, all for an unsatisfactory result. Calling him a c**t and laughing in his face will be immediate and immensely satisfying.

    G


    Disclaimer: This post is not for the faint hearted, those who don't like using naughty words or squaring up to bullies. I do not endorse anyone ever follow this advise in case it gets me into trouble. Don't blame me it was the beer wot said it
     
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    Modey likes this.
  8. FlashDangerpants

    FlashDangerpants Byte Poster

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    Don't waste your time getting too grumpy about it. Everyone in this game has had a stupid project, with kit they don't understand, no useful support, not enough time and so on.

    Your real question isn't what to do about the teasing from an inept sales guy. It's how you'll deal with the same problem next time. You might invite the sales guy to think about that too. It's one thing selling a project the company can't deliver, but it's another entirely to victimise the engineer, who will naturally become risk averse. Which means his next ill chosen project will have no engineer because nobody wants to take a risk on his behalf.

    In your position, I would tell him flat out that none of his projects can be undertaken in future without technical vetting.
     
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  9. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    It happens mate. I’ve been dumped with a few projects that deep down I knew I wasn’t really qualified to do. I basically put the time in and learned the product and went onsite when needed – I also needed some quick answers when I was asked some technical questions.

    Sales guys are always like that – don’t let it get to you. Stand your ground with him but don’t have a rant!
     
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  10. Beerbaron

    Beerbaron Megabyte Poster

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    sales people are up there with estate agents and bankers.
     
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  11. ade1982

    ade1982 Megabyte Poster

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    And photocopier salesmen!
     

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