Mailbag: My manager keeps moving the finish line
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I get a version of this letter pretty often. Most times it’s someone in an SDR role who’s actually doing fine.
That’s what makes it worth answering. It’s easy to write about job searches or what to do if you got fired, harder to help someone navigate how to perform on the job. Especially when it comes to managing up, because I’ve lived this before.
The letter
RR,
I’ve been an SDR at a Series B SaaS company in NY for over a year.
Last quarter I hit 112% and finished third out of nineteen reps.
Earlier this year we got a new VP of Sales. Since then the definition of a qualified meeting has changed twice. It used to be a booked meeting that held. Then it had to hold and include a confirmed budget conversation and now it also has to be director level or above. Nobody announced that second change, I only found out when three meetings got kicked back in the CRM to me.
My manager was the top AE before they promoted him about eight months ago. He’s actually not a bad guy, but our 1 on 1s used to be about deals and now they’re about dials. I’m supposed to hit 65 a day. I’ve been running around 58 and booking more meetings than half the people clearing 70+ yet it comes up every single week anyway.
He also cancels 1:1s maybe twice a month, then Slacks me at 9pm about urgency and hunger and “who wants it” as if I’m not performing.
I asked about the AE path in March. He said let’s revisit after the quarter. We revisited in July and then pushed it out again.
I don’t want to be the guy who complains and come off as someone with a victim mindset. I don’t want to go over his head either because at the end of the day I’d still end up reporting into him. But I also don’t want to still be doing this at 30.
What do I actually do here.
Marcus
Your manager is drowning
Start here because everything else depends on it.
