Debating whether or not to take an offer there and doubt the Glassdoor reviews are real
Does Salesforce have unreasonable quotas?
21
Wait. The same company that just laid down two rounds of layoffs? You want to join an already engulfed ship and we what great voyages it will take you on?
Lay off expensive underperforming reps, hire new ones at a lower OTE.
Sure, but their employer brand is in the toilet and, from what I hear from a few, current employees are stressed out that they’re next.
Oh, no doubt. I'm not saying it's a good thing. And morale is crap.
Maybe they just want some of that sevvy money in the next layoff round???
Hahahah—hitch your wagons!
That made me laugh out loud.
Me too:)
Did you already have an interview? I would ask your interviewer details about your territory, customers, past quotas . Worst they say is ‘no’ to your request. You can phrase it “before making my decision can you send me some information on the territory in terms of performance , customers, etc. I’d like to do some further research. Or do you have a contact I can reach out to with questions ?”
I doubt they are fully real. Their HR is going to be planting some fake reviews for sure, but for how large they are I'm not sure you could determine how 'reasonable' a quota would be. Territory will highly influence how attainable quota is no matter where you go.
I wouldn't trust anything marketing or hiring managers say about quota and attainability. Best sources will be current and former employees.
My gut feeling would be to pass on an SF offer right now. As others have said, the layoff terrain is rocky. Plus, I feel like the opportunities for sales are pretty much exhausted except among new sales orgs at startups. What company doesn't use Salesforce at this point?
I think that’s probably pretty much a guaranteed yes.
They are “right sizing the ship” but still hiring. I had an interview with SF last week. Mostly, for me, it was just for kicks and giggles. I’m curious to see where it goes.
Sounds like a good use of time
What's your definition of realistic?
Any company I've worked for has quotas that seem unrealistic if you justify it that way.
I'm not trying to say that some companies gouge their sales reps, but I feel like most companies are reasonable.
Tap into that inner Saleskiller - don't let the quota define your success. You got this, homie!
Any company I've worked for has quotas that seem unrealistic if you justify it that way.
I'm not trying to say that some companies gouge their sales reps, but I feel like most companies are reasonable.
Tap into that inner Saleskiller - don't let the quota define your success. You got this, homie!
Hey former Salesforce guy here. I left in 2022. Unless you are going for a strategic role there (they handle the highest ACV accounts in ENT, GB, MM, GRB) a stacked enterprise role or a role on their banking team (they are doing pretty well) I would stay away. Their territories are super small. When I left my MM territory was 7 buying accounts and 25 prospects. I hear GRB (between SMB and MM) is doing okay. The leadership lottery there is atrocious. There will be another round of layoffs too.
I've heard some ugly tales of territories there....
Back channel to get a better picture, never trust Glassdoor
Basically, use every resource you can find, and don't rely on just one.
I heard they have high quota;s but achievable. However this was before the current situation. second thing is, do you want to join after they just fired a bunch of people.
You heard wrong
I would try and find a few tenured reps (may be borderline impossible now) and ask their thoughts on current quota attainability.
Have you spoken with current employees there? What does your gut tell you?
To my understanding SFDC territories are very tiny and making quota tougher to attain, not impossible but tougher. In addition to that SFDC has such heavy market saturation that the projections for growth are incredibly hard. Not sure if you are selling the CRM or other products but it is more of a grind there now than say 5-6 years ago
Definitely hearing that from reps who work there too. Thank you!
i think you are asking the wrong question.....
i would be asking more about stability, job security, investment in the segment you are selling into ect
i would be asking more about stability, job security, investment in the segment you are selling into ect
I'm digressing. Or maybe not. This is what I got from them some 15 months back. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't make it.
Salesforce is far from the sexy gig it once was.
Former SFDC. No matter where you go to sell, the higher up you climb as an AE/ AD in the org, the less accounts you get and the expectation rises. This means you’re good at your job. The quotas were high but attainable when I was there. You have a big bag of solutions if you are a core rep. A big one. And a big team.
Sfdc will teach you better than most companies true SaaS situations and how to be an AD. I left a better rep. If you find value in this type of growth, I’d def entertain an offer.
When you join, you’ll need to prove yourself, show you’re hungry with a whatever territory and when/ if you do, you’ll get a better one. Ask about your direct manager and if they’ve sold there before / navigated the company. I think This matters. Good luck. Sfdc was good to me. I enjoyed my time there a lot, some of the most fun selling years of my career.
Sfdc will teach you better than most companies true SaaS situations and how to be an AD. I left a better rep. If you find value in this type of growth, I’d def entertain an offer.
When you join, you’ll need to prove yourself, show you’re hungry with a whatever territory and when/ if you do, you’ll get a better one. Ask about your direct manager and if they’ve sold there before / navigated the company. I think This matters. Good luck. Sfdc was good to me. I enjoyed my time there a lot, some of the most fun selling years of my career.
Currently a SFDC Sales Rep and have been here almost 4 years. As some others have mentioned, it depends on segment and also what product you are selling. The quotas are realistic if you are willing to work for it. Happy to chat 1:1
Sales quotas are only realistic if your manager likes you and gives you one attainable. For others in their team they font like, they get the big quotas. Congrats, youre one of the faves
very unrealistic for some people and sort of realistic for others.There is a lot of favouritism at salesforce. Here is my experience;Joined as a senior AE, in a new territory, where annual sales had been under 100,000 the past 5 consecutive years for each year. My yearly quota: 2.4 million. I had to achieve roughly a 5000% yoy growth to achieve my quota. When broken down my quota was so large that my side quota for Mulesoft could only be achieved if the Mulesoft rep achieved 200% of his quota. Which he had never done in the 7 years of his time at Mulesoft before they were acquired.
I was responsible for selling the PaaS, average deal sizes nationally were 52 k. Big deals were 100+ k when looking at the national team of 10 reps. In the 2 years prior, nationally there were only 5 platform as a service deals greater than 100k in any given year and of those 5, 4 came from reps looking after the major banks and largest private enterprise customers.At 52 K a pop i had to sell 48 deals a year, or if you factor in say a 3 month ramp up (a very small ramp up period), thats 9 months of selling. Average sales cycle for platform in fed govt for salesforce globally was 18 months. I was tasked selling to federal govt.I was told when interviewing my quota would be 1-1.2 million. 3 months after i joined i got the quota of 2.4.So i was expected, based on the quota, to sell 48 deals a year or for the 9 months after ramp up;6 deals a month!
I looked at the resources i had: no dedicated sales engineer. I checked in with my fed govt team and they were like Whoa! No way can you hit that number.
What happened was the global PaaS target is rolled down and with each level of sales management the quota is increased by 30% stretch target until eventually when it got to my level, the sales reps quota is so grossly over inflated you cant hit it.
But the current sales manager also knew that my role was being merged with the public sector sales team so he lumped an enormous quota onto my territory, to reduce the quota for the rest of the PaaS team. It happens a lot i have heard. In 5 years one rep of 10 reps had hit their quota for the PaaS team.
I went to management and methodically explained the resources i would need, like a dedicated SDR and Sales Engineer and they effectively laughed at me.I explained hitting 6 deals a month out of the gate(after rAmp up) in fed govt had never been done. I was told to sell bigger deals aim for 100 k. Hitting 24 100 k deals would mean selling nearly 3 a month. I showed the sales manager that in his own team there had only been 5 deals more than 100 k in the entire year of 10 reps. And was he expecting me to achieve 24 of these, just me, in one year? Suffice to say, yes i left. Noone could have achieved those kind of numbers.
I was responsible for selling the PaaS, average deal sizes nationally were 52 k. Big deals were 100+ k when looking at the national team of 10 reps. In the 2 years prior, nationally there were only 5 platform as a service deals greater than 100k in any given year and of those 5, 4 came from reps looking after the major banks and largest private enterprise customers.At 52 K a pop i had to sell 48 deals a year, or if you factor in say a 3 month ramp up (a very small ramp up period), thats 9 months of selling. Average sales cycle for platform in fed govt for salesforce globally was 18 months. I was tasked selling to federal govt.I was told when interviewing my quota would be 1-1.2 million. 3 months after i joined i got the quota of 2.4.So i was expected, based on the quota, to sell 48 deals a year or for the 9 months after ramp up;6 deals a month!
I looked at the resources i had: no dedicated sales engineer. I checked in with my fed govt team and they were like Whoa! No way can you hit that number.
What happened was the global PaaS target is rolled down and with each level of sales management the quota is increased by 30% stretch target until eventually when it got to my level, the sales reps quota is so grossly over inflated you cant hit it.
But the current sales manager also knew that my role was being merged with the public sector sales team so he lumped an enormous quota onto my territory, to reduce the quota for the rest of the PaaS team. It happens a lot i have heard. In 5 years one rep of 10 reps had hit their quota for the PaaS team.
I went to management and methodically explained the resources i would need, like a dedicated SDR and Sales Engineer and they effectively laughed at me.I explained hitting 6 deals a month out of the gate(after rAmp up) in fed govt had never been done. I was told to sell bigger deals aim for 100 k. Hitting 24 100 k deals would mean selling nearly 3 a month. I showed the sales manager that in his own team there had only been 5 deals more than 100 k in the entire year of 10 reps. And was he expecting me to achieve 24 of these, just me, in one year? Suffice to say, yes i left. Noone could have achieved those kind of numbers.
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