Company: Oracle
Date: 2014-03-24
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Great products and smart people but horrible place for sales professionals
Pros: Strong product development
Most of the talent is strong, especially the newer hires in sales, SCs, Transformation and Insight teams 
Competitive sales salary base
Cons: The full end to end sales process is tedious and excruciatingly painful.  I counted 35 different systems and 'resources' you will use throughout the process (and each system works on different browsers):  

1. There is no CRM in use and we have to work off spreadsheets that we develop ourselves.  When you start, you get a spreadsheet with a company name and city - that's it. Don't let them tell you there is a CRM - there is something there but it has to be 10 years old and extremely clunky.  No one uses it because they can't get the correct reps on the account.

2. You will be told to work accounts and once you sell them, you may or may not get paid - chances are slim and you have to get numerous approvals. You will only get paid if you are listed on the account and I can't seem to get on any of mine.

3. If you do get paid on a deal, it will take up to 3 months after it bills to get paid.  They are in no rush whatsoever.

4. Training is a joke.  You will get out of training and will have to rely on your manager or you will drown.  If you have a bad manager (extremely common), you will not survive.  Oh, and it is completely self service and you will have to save about 100 links in your favorites.  But, the links will change constantly.

5. You will have to type the same information on numerous spreadsheets, over and over and over.  And, you are responsible for manually submitting territory changes (with info you have to dig up in multiple places) as many as 8-9 times in a 9 month period.  Each process takes almost a full week for most people.  You will spend 6 months figuring out which accounts are really yours because they will be listed to multiple people. And, you will need to spend $100 a month on upgraded Linked In so you can start making a contact list in an excel spreadsheet.  Good luck finding email addresses.

6. All travel has to be approved before you book it - even a hotel room.  They will not let you stay at the hotel you want to - cheapest, period. 

7. New hires get the worst accounts possible until someone leaves.  

8.  There are 40 people calling into the same account and no one is sharing any of this info.  and, they have no interest in helping you - makes sense, there is no incentive to work together.

9.  Your 'customers' hate dealing with Oracle and will not meet with you.  They will constantly complain that they are getting 5-10 calls a day from Oracle reps.  They will ask to be put on a do not call list and this is an agonizing process.

10. Reps will tell the customer that they are the one point of contact, so only they can sell their product.  

11. There is no marketing info you can use except white papers.  There is a marketing team and their only job is to put on events.  You might get a list for some of the events and you might have an account on there, but you won't get the contact info to follow up with them.

12. When you do get into an account and are ready to propose pricing, all deals require and executive summary that you have to write to get anything approved - this will take you 8-40+ hours.  Let's not even get into negotiating contracts with the customer's lawyers.  Oracle's will not call them - you have to negotiate this, with zero training or help.

13.  You will be told that you have an inside sales rep assigned to you to sell small deals and set appointments.  There is an inside sales rep, but I have no idea what they do.  I have not seen a sale or appointment yet.  But, I have to spend an hour with them each week discussing the territory.

14. Oh, the expense system - hope you saved your fax machine.  It is right out of the 80s.  You have to send in receipts for everything over $25 - don't lose a receipt for something on your card or all hell breaks loose.

15.  Your computer will lock up constantly and Oracle's internal sites will only work on occasion.  You will typically have to try a site 2-3 times and catch it when it happens to be up.

16. You will do these Quarterly business reviews - Everyone talks about the same deals and just blow smoke.  Very few people are selling anything or are over plan.  The older folks are making their number off of add ons or renewals.  They think it is strange to prospect and you do not have the tools to do so.  Most people are living off of their install base calling in or sending an RFI.  With all the processes and systems you have to deal with, there is very little time to prospect anyway - 90% administrative and 10% selling for sure.

This is only the beginning...