Pros
-Really great product; albeit the call recording piece can get harry -Great company resources -Feel very connected to the founders & original executive leadership -Customers are very fired up about the product -8/10 for marketing strategy --> I think Gong has great brand recognition for those "in the know", however if you're not a power user on LinkedIn then it's very possible (normal) to not have heard of the company. The company is known for somewhat of an "out there" content marketing strategy which is meant to be cheeky, but in 2022 it feels a bit...dated? It's relatively positive and unique but with so much content on LinkedIn, IMO Gong's "voice" feels gimmicky.
Cons
-The company ballooned w/in the last 9-12 months. Constantly new sales IC's and leadership coming in. As you can imagine, it feels like we're in a rat race of new hires, whiles being led by the chickens with their heads cut off of new managements coming in w/ the attitude of "I can do better" aka "let me prove myself" which leads to 1) not a lot of established trust between new management and existing team = mistrust, 2) Gong is not discerning with their hiring process...or they think they are but are misguided in their attempts. The focus lately has been on "let's manage people out that don't perform to our insane standards" vs "lets coach & guide folks in their careers." -For a tool/product that's whole ethos is built on coaching, development, transparency, etc...it feels like we don't give 1) front line managers a chance and 2) reps selling the product a chance. This leads me to my next point,,, -Company prescribes a coaching culture to customers but there is very little bandwith for a coaching culture within i.e frontline managers are stressed & too big of teams, lack of management coaching & development themselves w/ very little training on how to use Gong to enable their reps. -Poor internal communication/product focus: we're constantly being trained on new product launches, new ICPs, new messaging, new processes w/o much follow-up and training after the fact. It's the thought that a 30 min-1 hour of training on a brand new product or focus = reps being able to execute is the gold standard and IMO expectations vs reality are not aligned. -Everyone is busy...everyone is busy: Wanna book extra time with your manager? Busy. Wanna spend time networking in the company: busy. In essence, it's very difficult to build solid relationships with folks whether on your team or your direct manager bc everyone's calendar is stacked which leaves for little networking time or just even 15min to understand someone's process for success. -Gong relegates itself to past successes w/in sales: What got this company to where it's at today will not sustain itself. I have no use for call libraries filled w/ rep calls from a year ago. I'm all about tribal knowledge but there comes a point when I would like processes documented. What would help is documented, repeatable sales processes..that's what the "greats" in SaaS have built themselves on. I will say that my sales enablement person was amazing! She always made herself available to me, whether it was up-leveling my skills, doing 1:1 coaching approaching my interview, and giving me feedback while I was applying internally from SDR to sales, she really was amazing. The enablement team at Gong cares and works hard.
