Friday, October 1, 2010

Glass Door: What are your employees saying about you?

www.GlassDoor.com is an unmoderated web site where employees can post comments and feed back about their employer.

I have to admit, I had a good laugh. I looked up my old employer, NetSuite, and there were, in my opinion, a few truths as well as just a lot of disenchanted people looking to vent.

For Example:

“Roll the Dice” written be a former NetSuite Toronto Sales Rep.

Pros
interesting product
SaaS is hot
not a lot of competitors in space

Cons

management steers good leads to its favorites
churn and burn approach to reps
selling to micro companies, less than $10 million in revenue
former uk based vp of sales was a jerk
oracle wannabe
immature attitude
being successful seems to be more a matter of luck than skill and hard work (and having manager feed you the good leads)
Advice to Senior Management

grow up; treat sales people well

To avoid going line by line, I will keep it short. Clearly an unsuccessful rep looking to deflect lack of achievement. Managers can't feed leads. The lead queue is automated by the NetSuite software. In my opinion, they held on to too many bad reps out of affection or sheer hope they could turn it around.

The VP from the UK, Dean, was a jerk. BUT, he was a jerk with a purpose. Skillfully delivered Simon Cowels (American Idol) type communication style which he executed on flawlessly. His tirades were legendary! Like Good Cop Bad Cop. He was the bad cop and I will tell you, he scared people straight and kept the soldiers in line. He was/is a GENIUS. If you take the fact that he has a photographic memory into account, he was the hired gun slinger that made sure reports were accurate, Managers managed their reps and the company objectives were moved forward. You could never pull a fast one on him. He could recall every detail of previous meetings and nail your coffin shut with your own words. Silly rabbit, look beyond the "jerk" and think about what people do and why they do it! He is probably one of the smartest, most effective people I have ever worked with. Now don't confuse respect for fondness, because I didn't bond with him either. If you take the personality out of the job and ask, did he do his job? The answer is - better than anyone.

If you are looking for a few moments of entertainment, look up some old employers, but remember, this is for entertainment only. Truth here is warped like a good movie script.

All the best,

Susan

No comments: