Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff hints at more potential layoffs after this week’s job cuts

Marc Benioff, of Salesforce co-founder and soon-to-be sole chief executive, indicated at a general meeting Thursday that more layoffs could be coming, according to people familiar with the matter.

The virtual meeting came a day after Salesforce announced it was cutting 10% of its jobs, amounting to more than 7,000 positions. Hours later, Amazon said it would cut 18,000 jobs. Technology companies are shrinking their workforces for the first time in years as they brace for slowing growth, rising interest rates and a potential recession.

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Benioff expressed concern about productivity in parts of the sales organization. About half of Salesforce’s account executives brought in more than 95 percent of the deals, he told employees, according to two people present on video. The meeting was scheduled for an hour but went on for more than two hours, another person said.

One attendee told CNBC that Benioff said the lack of productivity was largely from the new account executives.

Fortune previously reported the meeting.

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

Salesforce is now shedding as revenue growth slows and as it faces an activist investor concerned about operating leverage. In November, co-CEO Brett Taylor, who was seen as Benioff’s successor, announced his surprise departure after a year of sharing the top job. He is due to leave at the end of January.

Last month, Benioff posted a Slack message to all employees asking for ways to make new hires more productive. During Thursday’s meeting, Benioff expressed frustration with the media reports that have surfaced regarding his comments.

“One of our core values ​​is trust,” Benioff said, according to one attendee.

The person said it took Benioff a long time to come up with an answer about what the future holds for Salesforce.

Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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