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March 1, 2007

Salespeople Hate When This Happens

Long ago I was a salesperson at Digital Equipment Corporation. One of the first things that happened to me on starting in early Q1 was that the end-of-Q4 sales by my predecessor in the territory were unceremoniously debooked, which put me a million dollars in negative quota two weeks into the year. Salespeople hate when that happens.

I was reminded of the preceding in scanning the March Networks press release tonight:

Announced revision to business outlook on January 15, 2007 due to uncertainty of future revenue stream from the Company's largest customer. The revised business outlook resulted in a $0.7 million reduction in third quarter operating expenses associated with the reversal of previously accrued employee incentive compensation.

Ouch. There are few things worse than having some owed incentive compensation for a sale get pulled out. Damn you Wal-mart!

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