The role of an SDR is supposed to be, at most, 1 year until you can advance up. There is almost zero chance of a promotion here. Even the 'promotions' are hollow. Being an Account Executive is better, and I can attest to that, but there is no true bump in pay or earning potential. Technically, there is uncapped commission, but the market is saturated to the point where if you hit goal one month, you should count your blessings. 'Hitting goal' is more of a unicorn-type of event as in individual. If you ask about other opportunities, watch out for your job security.
The lack of transparency in terms of promotions, demotions, inbound lead distribution, and direction of the company is appalling. Depending on who your roommate is, who you are sleeping around with, and 'Yes Man' attitude, will determine your fate. I don't need to go into details, but management will understand this one.
Management continues to dangle a carrot of new opportunities for the sales team, and has been doing so for years. For years, there was hope in the minds of my peers and myself, but I soon realized that a new role would never come. Instead of saying "By this date we'll have X done at Untappd, and the landscape of the sales team will look different" it would look much better if you said "We completely dropped the ball on the implementation of X. We know a lot of you had your sights set on X, but we got too cocky in relying on just our name alone."
I've seen a lot of talented people move across the country for this company, only to find out they are as replaceable as a lug nut on a car tire. Instead of hiring externally, there have been so many good people that you could have looked at who would have been rockstars in the roles you created that were given to others.
Every sales company is going to have issues with inbound lead distribution. They tried to make it as fair as possible over a year ago, and the people who were getting an exorbitant amount of domestic inbound leads saw their numbers drop dramatically. A co-worker of mine even pulled a year's worth of numbers that determined one manager was clearly being sexist, but nothing came of it. Then, even after the distribution became more fair, who you lived with (which by the way, well-run companies don't condone a direct manager living with his subordinate) played a factor as well.
Speaking of roommates, it was clear that the current managers in charge were never to be questioned, or even considered to be inept at their role. One manager (roommate of the VP of Sales) was known around the office as the manager who "Didn't do anything." Case and point, the only items you'd see on his work calendar were "Haircut" and "Brainstorming." Attitude reflects leadership, and when there's blatant ignorance on a "Director's" calendar, it affects the people at the bottom. I want to point out, not all of the managers are looked at in this light, and Trace and Kurt are smart people who work hard to row the boat forward, however, they lack visibility into what is really going on.
They have pillars of culture, which are a great start. But there's an asterisk at the bottom which reads "Manager's Discretion" ie "We can do whatever we want at the end of the day." There have been too many instances like this to count where management had disregarded the pillars they constructed a few years back, all for personal/professional gain.
The majority of the sales team is not happy. They won't tell you that they are not, because that is how a lot of people have lost their jobs over the years. Don't question anything management does, because they are right, and you are wrong.
The only time a manager has done something so horribly wrong they had to lose their job, they were granted the opportunity to slide into an executive role at a sister company in Wilmington. Now I ask management, of the hundreds of people who you've fired over the past 4-5 years, of all of the families you've jeopardized because of your greed, how many of them did you give an opportunity to save face, salary, and not even actually lose their job? That's nepotism at its finest, and it's a shame. You're quick to fire a bar manager who is learning telesales at a fast rate, but because a manager/director is your friend, you erase his 'corporate sins' and give him another cushy job? Classic Untappd.
The lack of foresight is prevalent as well. For example, they implemented SalesForce earlier this year, and instead of hiring experienced SalesForce experts to come in and diagnose/fix issues, they had one of the managers learn the complex system, which ended up crippling their sales numbers for an entire quarter. There is a lack of foresight from month-long sales campaigns to company-wide CRM implementations, all because they have the outlook that they will just figure it out because of the name on the sign on the door.
Wilmington is a small town, and there is a reason that Untappd has a bad reputation. Please look beyond the Inc 500 list. Take a walk on Front street for 30 minutes, and if you ask enough people, EVERYONE knows somebody who has been fired/had a bad experience at Untappd. That doesn't matter to management, since they will cash in on those stock options when they sell the company to a buyer who does not know what they are in for.
