We have salespeople who will get a job specced out with an appropriate number of days, then randomly cut that down and/or drop the day rate until it’s down at a level that they think is cheap enough to win them the sale.

Yep.

Company A bought a subsidary of Company B and it was agreed that A would take no more than 6 months to get the subsidary off B’s systems. Internally they budgetted £250k to do it. I was the IT Manager within A and was asked to do the job, unfortunately (as per usual) because it was mega-secret no one had asked me beforehand. So when it was raised in a Mgt meeting I estimated the job at 12 months and £500k…

Eventually we took 12 months and £450k – serious success in IT forecasting. Luckily the M&A guys accepted that it was their cock-up and from then on I was included in the DD process…

Eventually we took 12 months and £450k – serious success in IT forecasting.

You should have been a sales person then!! 😀
That’s awesome.

Luckily the M&A guys accepted that it was their cock-up and from then on I was included in the DD process..

Not sure M&A is sales in this context – there may be an internal sell, but largely what you’ve described is just a planning failure at the DD stage.

I’m in sales and have been since 19 (37 now) and here is the reality of being in sales…..

Everyone internally thinks we start at 11 and finish at 3.
Everyone internally moans about not being paid enough but never show any willingness to change
Everyone internally gets a fixed lunch break, smoke breaks, turn up at 9 and leaves at 5
Everyone internally gets a warm work environment, free eye tests, free water etc etc….

The reality is that the salesman is always the sacrificial lamb. I’ve had loads of job, NO pension at all, work remotely from home but even though i’m off sick today (unpaid) I’m still working because the do or die targets sales people have to hit don’t get discounted for days like today. I’m often working late at night to do reports and that’s after doing 10-12 hours out in about in my company car that the government wants to take about £3K a year extra tax for as it’s a perk of the job.

If a salesman is shit at their job they’re sacked, never made redundant and ushered out the building quietly and often under the threat of some sort of legal action not to contact anyone or customers again. We have to put up with the constant abuse off customers who’ve been let down by lacklustre, work shy and unimaginative internal people who just want to apportion blame to someone else. I’ve never had a job where I can sell something and then forget about it, the sale is the start of a process of holding hands of people who obviously come to work for a rest. I’ve been crashed into three times in four months whilst out and about in the car, a couple of grand whiplash money doesn’t take away the pains and aches when I get up in the morning.

The great parts are you meet some great people, become very commercially aware, increase your knowledge base on all sorts of things and you can get in your car and whilst sitting in 10 mile tailbacks on the motorway be thankful you don’t have to spend time with negative, envious jobsworths.

The tag at the top of this page is ironically jealous? and it’s so true, envy is an awful trait.