Hi everyone, I work for a startup, was in sales, but when I started I was doing a lot more than sales: pm, product, AR, lacked support across departments, didn't have a lot processes laid out. I had a customer request to not work with me, as I got terrible at follow-ups along with all the other work. I have been turned into a support PM having never done either before. I also will be making at least $20k+ less for the year. While I know this isn't illegal, is it poor organization on my part, poor management and (or) something else? Prior I was at a large company (over 7k employees, this company-I was #12) and while I never expected the same amount of defined processes. I was really surprised at how management sort of threw their hands in the air, "we're a startup". Would love to hear people's thoughts. I'm a big boy, so, even outright criticism of me is welcomed (within reason :)).
It sounds like you may think about bigger picture things more than your role at hand. I've been there. It's hard for me to focus on my day job when everything else is broken and what I'm selling won't be successful without x, y, and z. That can make you great in a cross-functional role since you can identify what is needed from where. Is sales a passion, or just a job that was okay? Maybe some time to reframe it and know what you would do if you were working in your dream world, then work backwards to ask for that. They'd probably be responsive since it sounds like they want to keep you but aren't sure where to put you right now.
That's pretty insightful, thank you. I agree with your points and came to the same conclusion, they didn't know where to put me. Even more specific, focusing on my day job with many broken pieces was difficult. Are you reading my mind?! Thanks for the response.
Yeah. So maybe a manager/director role would suit you better, or program management or similar. A mentor had me read through job descriptions for some of those roles once and it was a very helpful exercise in figuring out what to ask for. Once you can articulate what you want your role to be, they can give it to you and let the other pieces fall in place to support you.
It sounds like you made everything besides sales a priority and are now surprised they moved you out of sales. That being said, it is also a failure on your org's part for not recognizing the deficiencies in other depts and not providing feedback when your performance started dipping.
Surprised, not so much, blindsided more. Thanks for the response, much appreciated