Broke down in tears in call with new manager

[breskingg]

I've had a rough month at a newish job ( 3 and a half months ).

I'm in a business development role where I need to essentially generate revenue.

I have been working very very hard since I started and I started with three others.

We are going into a new market and have found it quite challenging to gain traction so far.

I've had a lot of conversations and have done a lot of work. I was deep into projects for the whole of February. Having lots of calls, demos, stakeholder alignment etc. unfortunately two of my main projects have fallen through.

My old manager has agreed ( as he worked with me on everything very closely as I'm new ) it's been a product fit issue / alignment issue with the companies we were working with- rather than execution. I was quite deeply into these projects with my manager helping as I'm new.

Anyway since the projects have fallen through, manager has changed his tune hugely. As if I don't feel shit enough, he keeps talking about how good others are at the job and have been generating all these new projects on their own.

Then today came the final blow where he said I've not been doing enough to get new stuff on the go.

This is essentially all I've been doing ( along with my colleagues who are new ) and we've all been struggling to gain traction as we are new to the market.

I've actually had a lot of conversations but our offering just wasn't a fit. It's very hard.

I feel so disheartened because I feel like the amount of effort that's gone into everything has not been at all acknowledged. My manager also sent a scathing report detailing everyone's activity and mine seems quite low ( not the lowest ). But a bunch of my stuff isn't even included in the report. I also don't send a lot of mass emails, whereas the ones on top of the table just send thousands of emails to people.

My colleagues and I are literally spending every waking hour trying to get stuff going.

During the period where I was deeply working on existing projects, I had a slight lull in activity. This is entirely normal and expected and the focus should be on the stuff you're trying to move along.

Anyway I guess it just got the better of me and I broke down in tears in front of my new manager on a one to one call. I am quite embarrassed but also just feel so down about everything.

Our manager knew things would take time but he was really quite harsh today and I just don't know if I can do this anymore.

I don't know where to go from here and just feel so shit about myself.

A crap sales manager will always blame their team. You are best to leave, really.

I would get it if I was just coasting but I'm not and neither are the rest of us.

It sounds like an awful company. Short-term sales at all costs, even if it means spamming thousands of potential customers. I'd be looking for another job.

Yeah I don't really like just doing mass emails to look like I'm doing stuff.

Our sales aren't short term though. Once people use our product it really helps them. 99 percent customer retention rate.

Okay, so you can look for another job (I probably would anyway as your manager sounds a bit useless), and/or you can push for clearer targets and more useful feedback.

So: just to be clear, am I being measured on the value of leads generated, impact/relationships built, or the number of all staff emails I've sent?

Yes, you've told me what you're not happy about - what do you want to see? If it's not hours spent working to generate new leads what's your success measure?

Perhaps you, with your vast experience of different market sectors, could suggest some things we could try to help us establish leads in this sector?

So essentially you either nod, apologise, and let it go in one ear and out the other while you find another job, or you push back, make it clear you want some value from your manager and its not all one way (and look for another job in the meantime).

Yeah I don't know if I like his approach at all.

I'm only targeted on revenue.

There's a recommendation which isn't put into writing that we should try to generate one early stage opportunity every month.

Which I didn't do in January. I had a lot of conversations but I not the right time for the companies I was talking to.

He said I'm one behind so I need to generate two now.

But today was the first I heard of being scathed for not sending enough emails. I do a lot on LinkedIn which isn't logged anyway.

I'm sick of this shit.

He was an interim manager

No

Sorry where did you read that ? They're not bringing in anything.

Interim manager is actually my new managers manager. So he very much cares. He just managed me while we were looking for a direct manager for us.

You said the others are generating new projects on their own while you’re getting a lot of managers help and generating nothing?

Honestly I think the majority of these business generation jobs are complete dead ends. Why are there so many of you on the team if there is no business to generate after team members sending out several thousand emails? Do you think your manager is prepping to let you go?

Not my direct colleagues who started at the same time as me. These are people who've been there for a couple of years and are not entering new markets like the three of us.

It seems that way. We've all actually done loads but it's a new market and it's tough.

Pound got pound I've actually brought in the most revenue so far and worked on a lot of projects.

It's also normal for a manager to assist when you're new. He's done the same for everyone.

@Averageper100 yeah I did and yeah if you look at it in black and white, I've brought in more.