Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Batti: Inflated stretch targets damage sales team morale at later stages

Khadim Batti · How To Hire, Train & Retain Talent To Build A Great Company | Vijay Rayapati | Khadim Batti · Apr 28, 2025 · at 1:03:31

Khadim Batti, co-founder of Whatfix, discusses managing board expectations and internal forecasting with Atomicwork co-founder Vijay Rayapati and host Siddharth Ahluwalia.

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“As when you start scaling because that organization is much larger and if you, I set a goal saying, okay, I need to have a ten million dollar quarter. I feel it's very ambitious. Practically it has to be, let's say, for example, six, and we end up at six. I am happy. Probably board is happy because everybody knew that it's going to be harder, but, you know, shoulders are dropped across the whole sales department because they believe we've missed. Something is wrong with the company. So now the equation changes. Now you need to start narrowing down the, what practically it's possible versus the expectations, what you said at the board and as a leadership. So that margin actually has to keep narrowing down over a period of time.”

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Insight
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Disclosure
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Disclosure
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