Salesforce’s Marc Benioff hints at more potential layoffs

Marc Benioff, Selling forces The co-founder and soon-to-be sole CEO, signaled at a plenary meeting Thursday that more downsizing may be to come, according to people familiar with the matter.

The virtual meeting came a day after Salesforce announced it Cut 10% of jobs, reach more than 7,000 jobs. After hours, Amazon said so The number of employees decreased by 18,000. Technology companies are cutting their workforces for the first time in years as they anticipate slower growth, higher interest rates and a potential recession.

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Benioff has expressed concerns about productivity in parts of the sales organization. About half of Salesforce account executives brought in more than 95% of deals, he told employees, according to two people who attended by video. Another person said the meeting was scheduled for an hour but it lasted more than two hours.

An attendee told CNBC that Benioff said the lack of productivity is largely due to new account executives.

luck I mentioned earlier about the meeting.

During the pandemic and in the years leading up to it, Salesforce expanded rapidly as cloud adoption increased. The company fueled its growth in part through large acquisitions such as Slack and Tableau.

Now Salesforce is ebbing as revenue grows slowing down And as you face Active investor Worried about operating leverage. In November, co-CEO Brett Taylor, who was seen as the heir apparent to Benioff, announced his appointment. precipitate departure After a year of sharing the senior job. He is due to leave at the end of January.

Last month, Benioff posted a Slack message to all employees asking for it Ways to make new employees more productive. Benioff, during Thursday’s meeting, expressed his frustration at the media reports that have surfaced regarding his remarks.

According to one of those present, Benioff said, “One of our core values ​​is trust.”

The person said Benioff took a long time to respond to an answer about what the future holds for Salesforce.

Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Watch: Jim Cramer says more tech layoffs are coming after Salesforce cuts 10% of its headcount