The sales territories at the SAE level are horribly unbalanced. To put this into perspective, only two reps at the SAE tier hit their quota last year. TWO. Those two reps represented New York City and San Francisco. These are by far the best sales territories at Glassdoor, as they are not only densely populated areas, but there is a high level of competition for talent. There is also strong awareness of Glassdoor and Glassdoor employer solutions. While Glassdoor is rapidly growing, many employers, especially those in the middle of the country, have no idea who Glassdoor is, let alone how Glassdoor works with employers. Many employers simply know Glassdoor as, "that place where people can complain about our company". As a senior account executive representing these territories, that is a huge challenge. You are less of a senior account executive and more of a new market developer. Your meetings resemble more of a free webinar than a sales meeting. And when it comes time to make a proposal, good luck. Employers who just recently learned who you are and what you do are not likely to move-forward with a big dollar partnership. Most don't even have the budget for it. Get very used to hearing, "maybe next year".
Now, to be "fair and balanced" as we say, leadership has FINALLY acknowledged the fact there is unbalance with territories, and at the beginning of this year, they did make a few adjustments. For many reps however, this was too little, too late. We were held to the exact same standards as reps with NYC and San Francisco, and many reps lost their jobs as a result of not hitting their numbers. This is really unfortunate because there are a TON of good sales professionals at Glassdoor.
My advice: If you decide to accept a position as an "SAE Hunter", tell them that you want a fair and balanced territory - anything on the West Coast, or Northeast is good. Minnesota, Chicago, and Denver are also pretty good. If they try to give you exclusively accounts in the South or Mid-West, run far away. You will beat your head against the wall for as long as you can until they fire you for not hitting your numbers. I don't care how good of a sales rep you think you are, you will try hard and you will fail.
A few other things to note:
- The sales floor is incredibly loud and chaotic, especially with so many dogs in the office. Be prepared for this. Buy good headphone and use the conference rooms and phone booths. You don't want to jeopardize a good meeting because of this.
- Take your vitamins. The sales floor is like working at a hospital. Someone is always sick which means that everyone is always sick.
- The office is awesome, but it's super isolated. There isn't many places to get lunch or go to happy hour. Plus, running a quick errand is pretty much impossible.
- Make sure you go outside. Too many days I would come-in in the mornings, and not go outside until after it was dark. This is bad for your mental and physical health. Sausalito is a beautiful area, so be sure and take a walk with a co-worker so you can complain about your territory or sales manager :)
