Not a good place to work. Unequal territories - Account Executive Salesforce Employee Review

1.0
2 Dec 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good benefits, Free snacks

Cons

I was with Salesforce for a year. When I started I was made a lot of promises regarding the territories being fair within the team. However, once I got my territory and saw how it was compared to other territories across the team, I realized that 80% of the territories in any given team are bad. Only 20% of the accounts/territories are good and in which the sales people make money. And Management knows this. So if you are an Account Executive aligned well with Management, you are set. However, if you are like the 80% of the account executives, your fate is NOT in your hands as you will get bad accounts. They know this. The management's objective at least in the Toronto office is to only have 20% of the people make their #. They dont want anyone to be 200% of their #. They expect 80% of the reps to miss their #. The territories are extremely disparate. There's a lot of partiality in who gets what accounts. Be very careful when you join as an AE. For other roles like Marketing, Ops etc I've heard its a good place to work. However, for Sales its just like any other company. Dont fall for their lies when they tell you that the territories are fair. To give you a specific example, in the Toronto office there is one person who has 10 president's clubs. He makes a lot of money and his manager and his manager's manager are as expected totally aligned. He is a good rep. However, so are others on the team. However since he has always had the best territory the makes club every single year. Its ridiculous. If you've been in sales for a while, and comes across an environment where ONE person has made club 10 times and every one else has made club 1-2 times in the last 10 years, what would you conclude. The territories are uneven. The management is inept. For example this is the first company that I've come across where the Sales Manager's quota is not aligned with the team. For example in a team of 10 sales reps which a quota of $1M each, the manager doesnt have a $10M quota. His/her quota is way less than that. So even if the team misses their #, the manager makes his/her #. I had never seen that in my sales career. So to get promoted to a manager's role, you need to be connected to the right people. Be very careful in joining this company. For Sales its not as advertised. For other roles it might be different.

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Cons

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4.0
9 July 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I've spent over 8 years with Salesforce in various management and individual contributor roles, all customer or partner facing. Some of the pros: - vibrant, fast paced culture - smart, fun, aggressive colleagues - management is focused on latest tech trends and staying or becoming a leader for many of them - by and large, customers and partners are very positive about the technology - good benefits and perqs - hip urban culture at HQ - a chart-your-own-course mentality that rewards those who aggressively seek out the job they want and pursue it, or sometimes even create it

Cons

After my long tenure and many Dreamforce conferences, I'm nearly fried. To say the culture is fast paced and the focus is always changing is an understatement. The reason Salesforce always seems on top, and chasing the latest trend, and in the press, is because employees are expected to run harder, carry more, cheer loudly, and pivot constantly. It's the world's biggest startup in behavior. But at the same time, with the recent influx of top career sales leaders from Oracle and what appears to be a board-level mandate for doubling revenue, employees are being asked to do even more with even less, fill higher quotas with smaller territories, less help, and the big company bureaucracy is rearing it's ugly head. Worse still is the politics. When you hire a bunch of smart, aggressive people, and put them in an environment of outsized expectations, throw in a bunch of re-orgs and changing management, and sprinkle with uncertainty and constantly changing priorities, you inevitably get people back stabbing each other and throwing others under the bus to appear smarter and more worthy of promotion. The few at the top will get very, very rich. The rest will lose the sense of personal ownership and start to wonder why they've given up health and family

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Salesforce Response
1y
It's not often that you get the opportunity to respond to a review 10 years in but your comprehensive and thoughtful review has managed to hold on as one of our most popular even a decade in :) It’s exciting to see that the things we love most about the Salesforce of today — super smart colleagues, being at the forefront of tech trends and establishing ourselves as leaders in the space, great benefits and perks to name a few — haven’t changed in the past 10 years. We acknowledge the challenges you faced, such as the pace, shifting priorities, and internal politics. Your advice on maintaining our foundational vision while avoiding big-company bureaucracy is helpful as we continue to grow as the #1 AI CRM. Salesforce is committed to balancing growth with employee well-being and staying true to our core values. We appreciate your insights and dedication over the years. Thanks again for your feedback!
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