Colleague pestering boss for a promotion

wirelessdude01

Sounds to me like you aren't playing the game properly. In a previous life I used to work in a huge multinational. Always passed over for promotions internally so left for the same sort of role in a company aligned with a direct competitor. Got the job I wanted in the original multinational 7 months after leaving. Between the two moves I gained €48k on my basic salary. Sometimes you just have to leave to be valued both by yourself and the company.

beauf

Seems like you are being taken for granted.

The only way to know your value, is to see can you get the same or better salary elsewhere.

ginandtonicsky

Hi guys,

I received some really useful advice on this thread so am back to hear more thoughts on the current situation.

The update: she's not been promoted...yet. Our annual review is later this month and honestly, there's no way she won't be getting promoted.

Our sales team will be re-structuring under a bunch of different roles and I'm hoping I land on a soon-to-be-created strategic team, that will be responsible for closing business enterprise deals of a much higher contract value than the company's average. I'm not sure where else I could land as the entire picture of change isn't exactly clear yet.

About a month ago, I scheduled a meeting with my boss where I shared a presentation on essentially, how much I've grown the EMEA business since I started. Revenue growth percentage, high close rate, new logo additions, industry experience and unique skillset, other values I bring to the position such as public speaking on behalf of the company at conferences, etc. I laid it all out. At the end I asked for a title escalation by September and a 30% pay rise. He sat there in amusement and threw a load of vague platitudes my way about how with the upcoming changes, I should be in a good position at the company.

I've also starting upskilling with a very relevant training course in my own personal time.

Meanwhile, my colleague has been including him on trips to existing clients, where she's trying to up the contract size significantly (there's been at least 2 of these) and spending about 50% of her time in the office fraternising with him. What she has massively in her favour here: he seems to have taken on a "mentor" role to her of sorts, where I can barely get a look in. Seriously. I'll be running meetings and his eye contact is entirely in her direction. He swings by her desk "for a chat" almost every single day. She's "in", and I don't feel like I have a hope in hell of ever building the same relationship or getting in his line of sight in the same way.

Honestly, it feels like favouritism. It's my four year anniversary at the company next week and literally every person I've worked in Sales with that's still here has had a title escalation. It's so demotivating and concerning.

Thoughts on some actions or approaches I can take? Has anyone been in a similar scenario?

beauf

In my current office all the key players practically live in the bosses pocket in the months before a promotion. Have a personality change to all chatty. Power dress. Very responsive to any work items.

Once the promotions are over they turn back to silent statues. Black holes of information.

You either want to play the game or give up and concentrate on something else. Be that lateral move away from this person or to another company.

AmberGold

Seen it all before, especially in sales, ambition trumps ability!

ginandtonicsky

All very true. I've learned a lot from watching my colleague these past few months.

Well things took a weird turn yesterday. Ended up going for drinks with my boss and my colleague to talk about a deal that we're both working on. It was his last day in the office ahead of a holiday and he'll miss an important company All Hands call next week. So what he really wanted to talk about was the Sales reorg that will be discussed on that call.

Apparently I'll be getting the exact role I had asked for at the Strategic selling team and my colleague will essentially replace my vertical-specific role that I'm in now. Which is...good news. A big change and a lot to take on but exactly what I asked for so I can't exactly complain!

The details of job title and salary raise are still being ironed out - if I take him at his word, he's requested title and salary escalations for the both of us but hasn't gotten a response from our NY HQ yet. I may need to do some negotiating here, as always, as it's a bigger role with a higher target and will also require an overall more strategic approach to selling which is pretty new to our company as a whole.

But...good news...I think :pac:

ginandtonicsky

So...got a call from boss today. I did in fact get that title escalation and a 15% payrise with that. So after all that...good news!

As with everything in this company it's all a bit in the air as to how this next role will pan out, still waiting to hear about my new target and commission plan. Given the new title there'll be a fair bit of pressure, but nothing I can't handle.

Colleague is away so I haven't heard from her yet, I'd imagine she also got a bump in salary and perhaps a title change, we'll no longer be working together though as we're now in separate sales teams, hers in a specific vertical and mine focused on the bigger enterprise deals. So in a sense, it really couldn't have worked out any better.

Thanks for all the advice on this thread, it's been a learning curve. This sales person has learned...never under-sell yourself!