Does anyone know what exactly is the contribution of first line managers who „manage“ for example SMB/Commercial/Virtual AM‘s or PAMs? I see them only asking for forecast, approving PTO, chasing people who not did surveys or mandatory trainings. In 99% there is no need for this admin layer. They just get a high paycheck for having a chill life.
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The first line managers that seem to be any good at all do one thing well: They insulate their people from the horse-squeeze that rains down from “leadership”. The bad ones are the equivalent of brown shirts…mindlessly passing on orders from the wokery establishment.
Who does IC bonuses, merit increases, etc. It sure isn't the field or the IC that over estimates their value. What about the larger % of managers that put their necks out when an IC sc--ws up, doesn't show up, or shows up halfway? There are very good managers at csco. I would say there are at least 15x more ICs and most are good but look at the numbers - more ICs su-k than managers. Simple math (and hiring) problem.
A great first line manager mentors, motivates, sets goals, communicates, and uses thier proven experience to grow the team and organization. If you stick your head in the ground and are so stuck that you don’t want to learn, you’re on a list.
AI will replace first and second line managers
Bro that’s why they are literally about to get laid off. Have you not heard?
@wzy+1u3v4nbT you sound bitter that person is making a ki-ling doing a chill job that Cisco believes has value.
I think they fairly answered the OPs question and it all makes decent sense
@OP+1u3v4nbT
Poor workmen blame their tools
SFDC? MEDDPIC? Automated tasks? You my friend clearly don’t work in sales. The data in pretty much all of these systems is so poor, that the processes the business put in place become an admin chore as opposed to an enabler. Complete waste of everyone’s time, in fact a mini cottage industry for the folks that develop and maintain these pointless systems. More millions of dollars wasted.
They are high paid babysitters!!!!
@rum+1u3v4nbT
Let's review whilst I get the world's smallest violin 🎻
Consolidate and forecast the business
Drive the team to build pipeline and hold them accountable
Clari and SFDC do this are you saying you look at a report once a week
If reps don't do this independently then they shouldn't be here
Review top deals with each rep and coach to help them close:
Again MEDDPICC in sfdc does this, if you are not coaching on deals and supporting your rep with executive presence then at best you are reading notes off SFDC
Omg so hard
Help the team by removing barriers (and they are everywhere) be it politics, useless trainings, booking recognition, support escalations, feature requests etc
Politics and barriers is fair
Escalations in Cisco world is omg no someone CCd a manager, a pointless process.
Good reps know what trainings are useful and that the business and performance is the priority
Long term strategy, territory assignments, etc.
Long term strategy, Cisco doesn't have one
Last year it was power of the platform
This year it's NX
Next year splunknx?
Again a good rep runs an sfdc report and see who the top partners are, what renewals are coming up and were to xsell
So again a task is automated for you
Set the tone of the culture, keeping people happy, helping them develop their careers and so on
The tone of culture
80 percent of people work from home
Are you sharing a play list or having Starbucks delivered to their house
Or maybe the daily Good morning webex message
The only fair point in this list is career progression
90 percent of your day to day is meaningless and sorry my friend you are a busy but not productive
You do not have my sympathy
As a first line sales manager I do quite a bit…
- Consolidate and forecast the business
- Drive the team to build pipeline and hold them accountable
- Review top deals with each rep and coach to help them close
- Help the team by removing barriers (and they are everywhere) be it politics, useless trainings, booking recognition, support escalations, feature requests etc
- Long term strategy, territory assignments, etc.
- Set the tone of the culture, keeping people happy, helping them develop their careers and so on
This is just a high level but it’s definitely a full time job (assuming you care)
Only 'YES' man can survive under current culture, this 1st line mgr maybe useless for engineers. But they are "NUMBERs" for the upper leader to brag and got promote.
This is why they rarely impacted by LR, even impacted its position will be fill up asap.
@vit+1u3v4nbT Indeed. The SAM story needs a separate thread. Another org created by some confused VPs.
Don't forget SAMs
- They rarely show up at customer and partner meetings.