How to Stay “At Will” Employed

Last week I received an email from a friend of mine that matches a commonly seen one in these economic times- “please change my contact email to jimmyjoejoe@gmail; Acme Sof

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tware and I have parted ways.” The main difference in this particular case was that my friend is a successful sales guy for a technology company that is doing well. He was not only tracking well above quota for 2009, but had literally just returned from club (top sales guys go to Hawaii with their families) for knocking it out of the park last year. No warning, no official layoff, no performance “plan,” no incident or behavioral complaint- just a 30- minute sit down with a sales manager that couldn’t return eye contact as he described that “the company is moving in a new direction” and “requires different skill set.”

Other than closing revenue from large companies in the middle of a recession, what “skill set” is required?  What a crock of sh^t. My friend just got “old boy networked” right out of a job by the new SVP of sales, who is steadily replacing everyone in his department with his cronies from his last job. It was going like clockwork- first the sales ops guy that gets everything done, then a regional VP here, a director there and finally the bag carriers in the plum territories. All with no little or no regard to objective performance.

Despite what you might hear about sales being “all about the revenue” and “numbers never lie,” office politics are alive and well in the corporate sales department. In fact, sales people are easy to cut- no one is going to notice an unfounded firing when the turnover is so high anyway.  The top management doesn’t care- they’re going to jettison the VP in 18 months anyway- so having the whole revenue generating team in a constant state of flux is the norm. You think this isn’t an environment ripe for political maneuvering?

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I wish I had some advice for my friend as to how to keep his job (which he loved), or at least a way to make the departure hurt for the company (other than to lose a top revenue generator- which can be easily obscured by re-arranging sales credit, revenue recognition, billing, delivery, etc.). But the truth is there isn’t much to be done at this point. My friend was an “at will” employee, which as far as I can tell means that if you are in sales, your employer can bend you over “at” any time, and eventually “will.” Salespeople have to sign their comp. plan in blood every quarter, but when it comes to getting paid on deals after they are sacked (even ones that that closed and were delivered before the termination event)  all they can really do is hope that the CFO isn’t influenced by the VP (good luck with that one). Legally, their commission plan doesn’t hold up in court- just the employment agreement (“at will”). Look at any salesperson’s resume, even the good ones, and there are 5 jobs on there for every decade of experience.

However, there are a few things that a salesperson can do to at least be able to predict their future, if not own their destiny at a company.

1.  Understand the basic relationship between a salesperson and the company.  Despite the military and athletic team dogma, you are on your own. There is no such thing as company loyalty, because “the company” is not a person- it’s an ever evolving set of relationships between certain people in positions of power and how they interact over time. Even if one exec was raised by your parents and presents you his BFF blood oath of fealty that only buys you a year of employment in sales.  Leverage is what you need- not loyalty.

2.  Don’t give into the temptation to get bitter about intercompany politics and conditions. Of course your benefits are shrinking, “corporate doesn’t get it,” the department meetings are too long, marketing support is weak, etc. That’s why you get paid commissions and they get paid on salary- you are a business within a business.   Accept point Number 1, and you will realize that being the chief whiner internally hurts you as much as it would if you complained in front of clients.

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3.  Spend at least a third of your time selling yourself within your own company. As unappealing as it sounds to certain types of people, this applies to all job functions and increases in importance the higher up the food chain you go. Achievements that aren’t properly bulleted in PowerPoint and graphed in Excel are like the sound of one hand clapping against the stadium applause of corporate life.

4.  Keep up with the executive musical chairs that are always going on at the top of any company hierarchy. Think of it as “identifying the economic buyer” for the most important sale you have going- your continued employment.

5.  Watch out for ideological shifts as to what the company does- particularly the products and services that are most “near and dear” to the management. Just because you have grown comfortable (and been loudly rewarded) selling large service deals doesn’t mean that the latest MBA charlatan hasn’t convinced the CEO (or worse yet, the board) that the company should really be focusing on small ticket product deals through the channel and you aren’t about to fall out of favor. All revenue is not created equal.

6.  Spend another third* of your time selling yourself outside the company. Always be on the lookout for your next gig. Then when the other shoe drops you can skip the melodrama and self doubt and really enjoy the period in between jobs for what it is- time off to live your life!

To my friend: Onward and upward, brother. Don’t lose that infectious, super positive attitude that you have over this blip on the radar.

*I realize that this leaves at most a third of your time for actually selling the customer. In my experience, that is more than enough time required for an efficient, disciplined salesperson to rock the number. Now pick up the phone and call a prospect and stop lollygagging on this blog!J