Company: IBM
Date: 2016-12-22
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Great Start, but not a long term loyal company
Pros: IBM has great benefits and higher paying salaries.  The support structure is great, when you need help there is always someone that is there. It is a true team approach and you can work with amazing and very talented people.  The solutions sets are excellent.  Some of my managers were great to work for and great people.
Cons: I was first hired without any IT experience, but they took a chance on my sales skills.  I went through 2 "Sales" training courses, but never any IT training. When it came time for me to learn the software that I would sell, I was given some links and basically told to teach myself.  Not very productive way to learn IT.   

Some of the managers you wouldn't ask for them for water if you were blazing on fire. 

I represented solutions that had a long sales cycle, up to a year in some cases, but in the 2 years that I was there my territory was changed 4 times with 3 different managers.  Hardly a way to help you be successful.  Then management decided to change to vertical market segmentation, which is a wise long term concept, but without any consideration of geography or existing customer relationships.  So while I was in South Florida, it was better to fly someone in to take over a strong client that was down the street from me and then make me fly to California for 60% of my new territory.  It's funny that one of the close clients I had, was taken over by a colleague from Chicago and then 3 months later that person was laid off.   So short story made long, not very positive approach to client relationships.  

Commission schedules changed so often and never to the benefit of the sales person, who is motivated by that same very compensation.  You could be working on a million dollar deal, but since they decided to change territories...(again) they felt you should still feel honored to close that deal for the now lowered 1% commission as opposed to what you would have made before. 

This major change was only followed up by massive layoffs of the sales force.  Granted I was only there 2.6 years, but there was some amazing performers and great people that were all let go.  The layoffs were for budgetary reasons, but it wasn't long before the job listings were posted to refill our positions.  I actually got a call from someone asking how I like working for my manager, not knowing that I was about to be laid off.