Account Executive - Senior Account Executivec Gartner Employee Review

There are a lot of cons. First, in Stamford, the market is completely saturated. You'll be given accounts that are fully-loaded with products and be expected to grow them at a clip of 20% each year. So, you'll be on the defensive doing everything you can to keep people from cancelling or wasting your time trying to sell to people who have no budget or aren't aligned to the service. "Look for different buying centers" you'll hear from management...Outside of IT, you have marketing and supply chain. Once those are exhausted, you can try to look on the business side, but it's a stretch because our research doesn't really align. So, you're SOL. Second, when you start you experience what I call a "garbage dump." The senior successful AEs drop their dead-weight accounts on you and then you're expected to grow them. You're supposed to see some opportunity in an account that's been worked over for years... As a side note, that's the only real way to stay successful at Gartner (in Stamford where it's completely saturated). You basically sell and grow an account and then offload it to a new AE when you realize it's gotten to a point where it's either going to stay flat or retract. So, the new AE is left holding the bag (one reason why so many new AEs leave) The territory you're given is completely at random and mostly at the behest of senior AEs who want to drop dead-weight. Your area manager won't even consider the opportunity or lack of opportunity. There is this ridiculous "no-limit" mindset where management will not acknowledge any issues that prohibit you from growing accounts or the fact that the services no longer align. It's very demoralizing because you're made to always feel like the problem is you. They keep hiring salespeople and territories keep shrinking. So, if you're an ambitious person who wants to go after new opportunities, you can't...you have to stay in your swim lanes. For some reason, they hire senior salespeople when they really should just hire telemarketers. The company is all about process and "talk tracks." So, a salesperson who can read people and situations is completely drowned out by a process and checklist for every sales situation. The company doesn't get your back. If you have a $300K cancellation, you're screwed for the year. Even if you did everything possible, you're SOL. You will quickly start to resent all of the "Pathway to Gold" emails which are essentially propaganda. They inundate you with people who are successful and you're made to feel like people all around you are locking up big deals. In reality, everyone in Stamford is struggling because the market is saturated and the territories are wayy too small.