Our sales team went from 23 people 6 by the time I was shown the door, and management insisted it was because we weren't trying very hard. The product we were selling (maintenance of PBXs) was essentially being hogged by Avaya (you literally can't compete with the manufacturer), we couldn't sell Cisco anymore, and the other manufacturers out there don't have much market share. Customers don't see the value in pricey PBX maintenance contracts any more anyway, many were moving to hosted products to get away from them, there's little reason to switch to another provider as they're all basically the same in the end, and the selling opportunity is poor--but that's because we sales guys have bad attitudes? Please.
You could try selling equipment itself instead of the maintenance contracts, but the reality is that's a "boys club" where most of the big accounts are already owned and there's little ability to sell into them, and Avaya is frankly getting its clocked cleaned by Cisco on the open market despite having a better product. Proof? Avaya itself is moving to the cloud and looking to sell its product through the carriers--they recognize that the phone system is soon to be a feature located on a server in a data center, not something you buy and host at your premise.
If you have an established book of business, sure, it's a good place to be--but if you think you can cold call your way into the million or so a year in revenue you need to make a living there from scratch, you're deluding yourself. The business just isn't out there.