Where to start... If you are a seasoned sales pro, this is not the place for you. Many have come and many have gone.
Your CV will get you the interview, your performance in the interview will get you the job and then prepare to forget everything that has made you successful and exist in a world of Sandler and scripted sales, asking nothing but a series of questions to the point where you are making the person on the other end of the phone uncomfortable. You hate when it's being done to you and now you're doing it to others, with your manager listening in!
You will be assigned a book of 1500 accounts but expect them to be blasted by hundreds of templated emails by the SDR team and burnt. Aggressive American sales tactics are enforced and celebrated at Glassdoor with awards being handed out by the SDR Team Lead. But incredibly high activities have worked in the past for the US market, but we're not in the US market. You cannot conduct this way in Europe and not expect to be burnt.
You are not allowed to go after new business?! This was always the biggest mystery at Glassdoor, new business AE's can not go after new business. Non-stop expansion stories in the Irish media, with job announcement all across the country. 400 jobs in Dublin etc, and the company isn't a customer of Glassdoor, what will I do next?? Nothing, back to your book of accounts. With every major US tech company having an EMEA operation in Dublin, you would think that in a new market, this would be the lowest hanging fruit for the Dublin and London office. But no, when the topic is raised with management the response is "you have 1500 accounts you should be focussing on." Glassdoor hasn't figured out how to approach MNC's from beyond the US.
The sales strategy is inbound focused - Pump the marketing engine full of cash and measure the outcome - organic traffic to free profiles. SDR receive inbounds and are not expected to qualify the lead. They are expected to uncover a Need before passing it to the AE. Again, another big mystery at Glassdoor, why is the success of the SDR and marketing team being inflated?? It makes no sense, the business is hurting the business. You will be forced to work a worthless pipeline and forced to do the job of an SDR. And then you will be asked in 1:1's "if you asked the correct questions" or "did we get enough pain". AE's are treated like poor behaving volunteers.
Selling the product is a cycle of rinse and repeat, the same series of questions, the same presentations, dressed up to uncover an incredible amount of pain and presenting on what is essentially a coat of paint on a shop front. You will hate yourself after the first quarter.
EMEA management are like fish out of water. Inexperienced, incredibly political and emotional. In place to enforce Sandler and "learnings", through call breakdowns, 1:1's and team meetings. Weekly meetings sometimes hit 7 hours per week! Madness. Glassdoor love to enforce the methodology, over and over again. Friday afternoons meant it was time for the weekly, throw my colleague under a bus session, with 15 AE's and managers listening to one of your bad calls followed by a round the room critique. How embarrassing for those involved. Your manager will contact you through IM, Whatsapp and email at all hours, weekends and when you're on annual leave asking about your pipeline. There are no boundaries. The fall on the sword moment will be that they just want to make you successful and that's why they're reaching out.
No perks to speak of. Typical in the tech industry due to the demands and nature of the business, good companies provide perks to ease stress. Glassdoor in the US provides perks and operate in a world where feedback and concerns are encouraged and acted on - They become better employers by doing this. In Dublin, there is one perk to speak of, a shared Nespresso machine in the shared kitchen of a serviced office. Completely unacceptable for a "Startup" who have been trading in Dublin for 14 months, carrying an EMEA HQ stamp. You will be told that business is creating a true startup environment which is something not everybody gets's to experience, (so count yourselves lucky?!). Obviously a complete cop-out.
Apply for a role if you want to start a sales career in the tech industry. It would seem that previous experience isn't required and that the culture fit is what's most important. So if you can conform to the micromanagement and what I've outlined above, you'll do well.
What a truly disappointing experience.
